Editorial: One Should Search Within Oneself When Swayed

(Minghui.org) Recently one website run by overseas Falun Dafa practitioners has carried a mythological novel, which has caused a quite stir among some practitioners, especially among quite a number of practitioners in China. After reading the novel some practitioners got quite excited. They told many other practitioners, "It should not be viewed as a novel." They have put their minds and time on something that they should not put their minds and time on. Practitioners in some truth materials sites have even prepared many copies of the novel and distributed it among practitioners to replace the practitioners' normal cultivation-experience exchanges. Concurrently, certain practitioners have repetitively reminded each other that one should rationally and calmly view literature and works of art and treat one's cultivation practice seriously. However, the implicated group of Dafa practitioners has not accepted this advice amongst the excitement. There are also practitioners who have assumed since this novel has been carried on the website for such a long time it must be Master who had it published, and so on. Clearwisdom editors have received many letters daily since the publication of the first part of this writing, debating and discussing the novel. Some practitioners wrote of their opinion regarding the novel, some seriously criticized it, some enthusiastically promoted it, and some expressed their concerns and worries about it. Clearwisdom editors have intentionally not responded to any of these letters.

Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples should be keenly aware that, to validate the Fa, it is feasible to use the form of a novel or other literature and works of art. However, a novel is just a novel; it contains fictitious content. It is not history, nor is it the Fa. There is no way for an individual human being who is still cultivating to simply use a novel or what he or she has seen with one's celestial eye to encompass the development and truths of the Fa-rectification process. Only by Dafa disciples cultivating ourselves according to Dafa can we walk our own paths of cultivation well.

We Dafa disciples should focus on explaining the truth to people according to their state of confusion. We should not waste much time satisfying our own curiosity or give in to other human attachments. We must understand that we need to use time wisely to offer sentient beings salvation. We need to spend more time figuring out how to open people's knots in their hearts, help people understand the goodness of Dafa and the evilness of this persecution. We need to do this so as to let even more of them correctly position themselves in this very short period of time, and thus be saved.

Actually, a Dafa disciple, when he has generated a strong notion of smugness, must not aggravate it or any other strong notion at will, much less let them control his words and actions. When one's heart has been moved one should immediately be on alert and search within oneself to see what attachments have caused such an unsteady mind, so as to grab the opportunity to eliminate these attachments. This is a basic skill used in cultivation practice.

Additionally, during this time when the hearts of some practitioners were stirred up, some practitioners became excited because they felt that this novel played the role of enlightening them in their cultivation. Some practitioners always admire those who can see other dimensions, some have taken the scenes that others have seen in other dimensions during cultivation as the absolute truth and history, some get attached to what they want to do, and some have done things by following others and their own feelings. These practitioners cannot help but pour their enthusiasm and thoughts into this novel. Since July 20, 1999, Dafa disciples have incurred many losses because their minds fluctuated. Some practitioners have kept encountering this or that interference; however, they are still unable to calm themselves and measure themselves with the Fa, so as to find the root causes of their problems and remove these attachments. For a Dafa disciple who has truly put one's mind in cultivation, when seeing one's own shortcomings in cultivation one should immediately ask himself these questions: Why is my comprehension of cultivation still stuck at the initial, superficial and a perceptual stage after having attained and studied the Fa for so many years? Why do I still behave like an ordinary person? Why can I not break through this stage for such a long period of time? Is it right that I should always wait for others to publish some novels? If one's Fa study cannot make one cultivate oneself diligently, this means that one has not achieved the level of rationally understanding the Fa from the Fa, that one should study the Fa in an even more solid and surefooted way, and that one should cultivate oneself according to the requirements of the Fa. Only this way can one improve.

To make breakthroughs in one's cultivation and get enlightened to the principles in higher realms, one should take one's good Fa study as fundamental assurance of one's cultivation. We suggest that all the practitioners who have read but failed to correctly position the relationship search within themselves and see whether they, after so many years since their attaining the Fa, have realized the importance of Fa study, whether they have truly learned to study the Fa with calm minds, and whether they have genuinely understood what cultivation is all about, and how to cultivate.

In conclusion, let us review what Master has warned us,

"Dafa disciples are to do the three things well and steadily, and not be swayed in any human way. I hope that the Dafa disciples will, by way of godly righteous thoughts, walk the last leg of their journey well." ("Disintegrate Completely All the Meddling Deities in the Three Realms that Have a Hand in Interfering with Fa-Rectification" on February 28, 2007)

May 10, 2007