(Clearwisdom.net)

Teacher said,

"If a problem isn't caused by our own attachments or mistakes, then it must be that the evil is interfering or doing bad things." ("Fa Rectification and Cultivation" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

Teacher also said in this article,

"Yet we are still cultivating and still have some last ordinary human attachments. When a problem arises, we have to examine ourselves first to see whether things are right or wrong on our part."

I have noticed many fellow practitioners tend to believe that "...it must be that the evil is interfering or doing bad things" but don't pay enough attention to "we have to examine ourselves first..." Therefore, as soon as they encountered troubles, they would immediately look elsewhere instead of "examining ourselves first to see whether things are right or wrong on our part." Some fellow practitioners even said looking inside is equal to acknowledging the old forces' arrangements. When they were faced with great difficulties, they would behave like this; when they had conflicts with everyday people or fellow practitioners, they held the above notion as well.

I believe that many of the fellow practitioners that I know were influenced by the above understandings. Why? Personally, I think it was because those fellow practitioners had an attachment of fearing interference and trouble. They were afraid that they could get hurt and they had an attachment of protecting themselves. Therefore, whenever there were problems, they would search outward. However, not all the interference and troubles are persecution. They might be a warning for us to improve ourselves in our cultivation.

The following are a few examples that I knew in our local area.

1. A fellow practitioner came up with a way to send forth righteous thoughts. He wrote it down and distributed it among practitioners. When a practitioner pointed it out that it wasn't right to do so, this fellow practitioner refused to correct his action and resorted to various kinds of excuses. Other practitioners had to publish what he did on the Clearwisdom net in order to stop him. Eventually, that fellow practitioner suffered many troubles and difficulties. However, some practitioners thought his sufferings were caused by evil interference.
2. A practitioner at a truth-clarification material center spent money at will. He planned to make a cloth gilt when printing Zhuan Falun. When other practitioners didn't agree with him, he said he got interfered with by the evil.
3. Some practitioners held experience sharing conferences and other activities very often with the excuse of "the need of forming one body." However, they didn't follow Teacher's requirements on holding experience sharing conferences. They didn't pay attention to their own safety nor that of others'. When other practitioners refused to attend their activities, they claim the other practitioners weren't cooperating because the evil had created separations among practitioners.
4. A fellow practitioner went to visit another practitioner in a village. He went in by climbing over the wall. That practitioner's neighbor reported on him and therefore some people came to question him. This practitioner said he got interfered by the evil.
5. Some practitioners set up a truth-clarification material center in a building. They sent forth righteous thoughts so no people would come to collect money for electricity and water.

The old forces arranged systematic tests against the Fa and Falun Dafa practitioners with the excuse of "helping" practitioners to improve. We definitely need to deny these kind of troubles and interference since they are actually persecuting and damaging sentient beings, which is not acceptable.

We are in the last stage of the cosmos's formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction. Fa rectification exists since sentient beings have gone bad. Falun Dafa practitioners came from the old cosmos as well. Therefore, it is not us that rectifies the Fa. Instead, we are assimilating to the Fa and validating the Fa. We are cultivators and therefore we are bound to have shortcomings and everyday people's notions. When we have attachments, those attachments will surface. What we should deny is the old forces' systematic arrangements. However, we live in this everyday people's society and our attachments and shortcomings make it impossible to avoid all troubles and difficulties. Therefore it is impossible to avoid conflicts. During Fa-rectification cultivation, in order to cultivate ourselves well, we have to first look inside and see if the problems were caused by our attachments or mistakes. Then we can try to solve the problems. Only by doing things this way, can we convince people and remove our own attachments to save sentient beings. This is the basis of the Fa rectification and this is essentially denying the old forces.