(Clearwisdom.net) As the Fa rectification process moves along, the environment for our practice is getting much better. The police have not come to our homes to harass us any more in the past few years, and the practice sites have been restarted. As a whole body, practitioners have improved rapidly and are saving sentient beings by doing the three things well according to Master's requirements. However, I have noticed a common phenomenon among practitioners, which is that practitioners have developed the heart of zealotry and a show-off mentality because of the better environment for practice.
About two or three years ago, the practitioners in two areas of a nearby county did the Dafa work of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings so well that the Minghui.org/Clearwisdom.net website reported on their work many times. Fellow practitioners were often talking about their work, too, such as practitioner so-and-so was doing so well and walking the path so righteously, or such-and-such area had their practice sites in every village half-open to the public, every household had received the truth clarification materials, and the practitioners even went to the police stations to clarify the truth. Fellow practitioners were talking about these with one kind of human heart or another.
In 2005 and 2006, the evil seized some opportunities to persecute Dafa practitioners. For example, a Dafa experience sharing conference in one area was reported by someone to the police and many practitioners were arrested; in the other area, many practitioners were arrested for hanging banners and distributing truth clarification materials.
There are many practitioners in one town of our county, and they have been persecuted severely since July 20, 1999. Many of them were arrested between 1999 and 2005. During this period, practitioners were unable to lead a normal life due to the frequent harassment of the police. Practitioners would get arrested almost whenever they ran into a policeman, so that they had to leave their homes and were forced into a homeless situation. Not long after that, the Party Secretary of that town was "rewarded" for his persecution against Dafa practitioners with a serious illness. After practitioners clarified the truth to him, the Party Secretary realized that he should not have persecuted Dafa practitioners, and he asked his wife to visit practitioners. In the meantime, the new director of the county police station died of illness in a few months after he was actively involved in the persecution. This event had a strong effect on the sentient beings in our county because they knew that the police station director received retribution for his persecution against Dafa practitioners. People understood the truth and did not want to participate in the persecution. Some even tried to protect Dafa practitioners. As the environment in our areas are getting better, the work of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings has not been very difficult. There was one time that practitioners really did well in clarifying the truth so that local people gave lots of compliments, and many withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Some even called the provincial media to report the good deeds that Dafa practitioners had done. Although we reminded each other not to develop the heart of zealotry, fellow practitioners still had some human emotions such as zealotry or the show-off mentality, and were passing the compliments around such as the following:
"Look, the environment for practice in such-and-such town has been rectified by the practitioners there, and they have done so well. Party Secretary so-and-so has learned the truth, and official so-and-so withdrew from the party ...."
It is not that we cannot discuss the Fa rectification process or the work of saving sentient beings done by practitioners, but focusing on these topics by talking about them all the time can easily create loopholes and human attachment without being noticed. Actually, all the progress is arranged by Master, and it is the time that these things should happen according to the Fa rectification process.
In twenty days in April, authorities seized an opportunity to arrest two practitioners in our area. One of them escaped with Master's protection and his righteous thoughts.
I am enlightened to the following: the old forces have been watching closely and saw it clearly that fellow practitioners were overjoyed and showing off about the good environment for practice because of our human hearts, so they are making the environment tough. Lately, a few practitioners were harassed at home by local police, which has not happened in the past several years. We should all look inward to identify what human hearts we still have, and in turn, rectify them with the Fa and improve ourselves quickly. We all particles of the Fa: if one area has problems it means we all need to improve ourselves by getting rid of attachments.
I also learned from this lesson that I had strong attachments, too, and talked with fellow practitioners about the topics such as how the evil is getting less, the environment is better, wicked people will be eliminated, the cultivation will end soon, and Dafa practitioners are approaching the completion of cultivation ... How can I cultivate with all these attachments? Master has said many times in His teachings that we should not think too much but focus on cultivation, and that the show-off mentality and the heart of zealotry are easily taken advantage of by the evil. In order not to leave any practitioner behind, Master has written lectures to correct us again and again. With His care and protection have we arrived at the present day. We should not fail Master, but walk the rest of our paths well by letting go of our attachments.
April 27, 2007