(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher said,
"The three things that Master has taught you in the Fa to do well seem simple, but [things such as] whether you are diligent and the Attainment Status you will achieve are linked to it." ("Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006")
Teacher also said,
"Everything of the Dafa disciples' futures is born of your doing the three things, especially clarifying the truth." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")
These two passages of Fa clearly say that clarifying the truth is directly related to Dafa practitioners' Attainment Status and reaching Consummation.
In the following, I will describe the relationship between clarifying the truth, Attainment Status, and reaching Consummation from three different perspectives according to my own understanding.
1. Virtue is Used to Build up Gong--Building up Gong Requires Virtue
I have enlightened to the truth that Dafa practitioners are all kings or masters at very high levels. After we descended to the human world to be humans, we didn't have our original gong. We behave the same as humans. But we brought with us a lot of virtue. Humans are selfish, and to survive in the maze, humans are capable of doing bad things and creating karma.
Before practitioners obtained the Fa, we were no exception. Many practitioners created karma as big as mountains during our many cycles of samsara in the human world. When we did bad things, we not only created karma, but also lost virtue. Now, as we cultivate to return, the amount of virtue we brought with us is no longer enough, because we lost some of that virtue as a result of creating karma.
As all practitioners know, when we do good things, virtue can be created. Clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings is now the most noble act in the universe. As long as practitioners continually clarify the truth, persuade people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and distribute truth-clarification materials to save sentient beings, virtue will continually grow in our cultivation. Our gong, which improves our levels, will grow as well (there are of course, other aspects).
During Fa-rectification, the immense firmament will be re-organized, and divine statuses of the sentient beings will have changed. Those who do well with the three things will attain a higher divine status than their original one, but a practitioner who does nothing or does little to save sentient beings may face some problems.
2. Not Clarifying the Truth in Society or Persuading People to Quit the CCP Keeps Us from Eliminating Attachments
In history, disciples of the Buddha or Dao schools wandered about in ordinary society after cultivating to a certain level. The purpose was to interact with society to eliminate all kinds of attachments. Our Dafa practitioners' cultivation takes place in the environment of ordinary people. We do this to cultivate our xinxing in our daily lives. We do this to eliminate our attachments in order to do the three things well. Among these, of course, there are Teacher's arrangements for us to eliminate our attachments during the process of saving sentient beings.
Those practitioners who have already clarified the truth to society have had various experiences. When we need to face a stranger to clarify the truth or persuade him or her to quit the CCP, we have all sorts of attachments, such as fear, selfishness to protect ourselves or others, and shyness--all of which get in our way to prevent us from doing what we need to do. When we have strong righteous thoughts to save sentient beings and break all kinds of attachments to speak to ordinary people, we have a chance to cultivate our xinxing. As we clarify the truth more, the attachments keeping us from clarifying the truth become less, until they are finally eliminated.
The attachments of those practitioners who do not speak out to help persuade people to quit the CCP will still remain, even though Teacher has arranged to have all of their attachments eliminated in the process of saving sentient beings. A cultivator cannot reach Consummation with attachments.
3. Eliminating Karma in the Process of Saving Sentient Beings
On how karma is eliminated, Teacher said in Zhuan Falun,
"When you attain the Dao later on, maybe a lot of people will benefit from it, and so a lot of people will bear a share for you. Of course, it's no big deal for them."
Teacher also said,
"So, it was arranged that when you reach the standard for ordinary Consummation, you still have, in the human world, all kinds of ordinary human thoughts and karma. The purpose is so that while doing Fa-rectification things, you bring in, through your clarifying the truth and for the consummation of your paradises, beings that can be saved. As you consummate your own paradises you are, at the same time, eliminating your last karma, gradually getting rid of your human thoughts, and truly stepping forward from humanness." ("Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples")
After reading the above two passages, I have enlightened that Teacher arranged for Dafa practitioners to save sentient beings and to eliminate our last remaining karma. Now, who will benefit when practitioners attain the Dao? It is the sentient beings practitioners saved through truth clarification. They are saved because of Dafa practitioners. The universe has the rule of "no loss, no gain," so they need to pay and take some karma from practitioners. As a practitioner clarifies the truth, and as more and more sentient beings are saved, more and more lives will take his or her karma. As such, a practitioner's karma will become less and less, until the karma is completely eliminated. The karma of a practitioner who does nothing or does little to save sentient beings will not be eliminated. A cultivator cannot reach Consummation with karma.
Teacher said,
"In the ordinary world you can live your life for whatever it is ordinary people pursue, or out of fear you can drag out an ignoble existence in the shadows. But since you have come close to Dafa, I hope there is a chance to save you, and that is why I keep giving you chances. I will always give you chances, but as for whether you can become a Dafa disciple, whether you want those chances, and whether you can sober up and live in a way that's accountable to yourself... at this point in time things can't continue to be dragged out. Even if you begin to make up for all of that and try to catch up now, very few chances are left. I think that after a short while even these few chances will be gone." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western US International Fa Conference")
Even in ordinary society, a person will be looked down upon if he or she doesn't give a thought to justice out of fear of losing his or her own life. For a person who benefited from cultivation in Dafa but does nothing or little to save sentient beings and safeguard Dafa, what is he or she in the eyes of gods?
Little time remains to save the sentient beings. But there are a significant number of sentient beings practitioners need to save. I hope fellow practitioners are not held back by fear or selfishness. Make good use of this time to save sentient beings and finish our mission. Otherwise, we will have bitter regrets!
Through my understanding of Fa, I have sought to encourage fellow practitioners to save sentient beings by discussing the relationship between saving sentient beings and reaching Consummation. But we cannot purposely accumulate virtue, increase gong, eliminate attachments and reach Consummation when we clarify the truth, distribute truth-clarification materials, or persuade people to quit CCP. That is because doing all that purposely is selfish and doesn't meet the new cosmos' standard of "selflessness and altruism" ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
The above is my personal limited understanding. I would like to hear fellow practitioners' comments on anything inappropriate.
