(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said:
"Because of disciples' differences in understanding, some disciples always go from one extreme to the other. Whenever they read the Fa I have written they take extreme actions, thereby causing new problems. When I tell you to change your human understandings, I am not asking you to maintain a human way of understanding Dafa. Yet neither should you be irrational or eccentric. I want you to be clearheaded in understanding Dafa." ("Take the Middle Way" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
As I understand it, Teacher asked us not to go to extremes in our cultivation. Confucianism has similar requirements. Confucius said, "Going to an extreme is no better than not doing enough." Falun Dafa practitioners cultivate compassion. However, we should not go to extremes in being compassionate either. Otherwise, it will deviate from the essence of true compassion.
Teacher said in Zhuan Falun:
"Not only shouldn't you be angry at him, you should thank him from the bottom of your heart--really thank him." ("The Fourth Talk")
Some practitioners went to an extreme with this sentence. When they were bullied, they would thank those bullies. They seemed to be compassionate. However, their thanks made the bullies angrier. At brainwashing centers, vicious people from the 610 Office and those who became enlightened along an evil path took advantage of the practitioners' omissions. They came up with confusing logic to criticize practitioners for not being compassionate. Some practitioners didn't have correct understandings of the Fa and therefore thought what those people said made sense. Consequently, they tried to be "compassionate" all the time. When malicious police officers beat them, they reminded the officers not to get too tired from beating them. Those officers had lost their conscience. They either thought the practitioners were trying to butter them up in order to avoid the beating or that practitioners didn't have much courage for saying that. They then beat the practitioners even harder. Was it eliminating the evil? Was it validating the Fa? Of course not!
Falun Dafa doesn't encourage practitioners to return virtue for unfairness. Even Confucianism suggested that people should return virtue for virtue and stay righteous when being humiliated. I think Confucianism is the manifestation of Teacher's principle of "Take the Middle Way" (from Essentials for Further Advancement) in this everyday people's society. When the police beat you and yet you wash their clothes for them and give them money for staying late, aren't you encouraging them to be malicious? Some practitioners might not agree with this and would say that the policemen gave them virtue when they beat them. However, I think this statement shows their attachment to receiving virtue, which shows they were lacking compassion. True compassion has certain boundaries. Excess "compassion" is not true compassion but becomes fake. Of course, I'm not saying it's totally wrong to try to return virtue for unfairness. In some cases, returning virtue for unfairness might awaken those people who haven't totally lost their conscience.
We should also not go to extremes in our daily lives. When we get too close with our boss, the boss might humiliate us. When we get too close to our friends, they might want to keep a distance from us. We cannot go to an extreme with love either. Uncontrolled love would spoil kids and eventually do them harm. This is the principle of "When something reaches the extreme it reverses!" ("The Third Talk" from Zhuan Falun) Teacher has explained to us the principle of "Take the Middle Way." We are Falun Dafa disciples. We cultivate in this everyday people's society. Our living our lives is part of cultivation. Therefore, we cannot go to extremes with anything.
