(Clearwisdom.net)
It is just one month until the Beijing Olympic Games. The news of Dafa practitioners' arrests in different areas keeps coming in. I felt so frustrated reading the long list of persecution news on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. The Olympic Torch is going to arrive in my province soon. The 610 Office branches and the police departments in cities throughout my province are planning the persecution of Dafa practitioners. They arrest and harass practitioners at will. Practitioners' hearts are moved, and the atmosphere is very tense. Some practitioners have already left home to avoid persecution and arrest. When they see each other, practitioners urge one another to be careful and to send righteous thoughts more before the Olympics.
Seeing the present cultivation state of practitioners, I feel very sad at heart. We are too passive. We are currently being led by the nose by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Wherever the Olympic Torch goes, there is persecution. We regard ourselves as the weak ones, and we are at a loss of how to behave. In feeling this way, we are acknowledging the persecution. We are passively waiting for the Olympic Torch relay to be finished, and then we think we will feel safe. This really shouldn't be the state of a future enlightened being. Where are practitioners' divine thoughts, righteous thoughts and righteous actions? Even though we urge each other to send righteous thoughts more, if we dig further, we will see that it is still from a selfish perspective. We want to protect ourselves using righteous thoughts, and we want to avoid persecution. We should really reflect; why is the persecution taking place on such a large scale when the Fa-rectification has progressed this far with so little evil left? Is it that we have omissions in our xinxing? Why do we still remain at this level when the Fa requires us to elevate? After repeatedly studying Master's lectures, I feel that it is our human heart and human notions that have nourished the persecution.
1. The Hidden Heart of Seeking Comfort and the Attachment to Time
This year in Mainland China, natural disasters and man-made calamities keep happening. The timing of these incidents hints at something. There are lots of reports about this on overseas websites, from the perspective of celestial phenomena. Practitioners also spread these web reports with great excitement. Some practitioners have even said, "Who knows what will happen before the Olympics?" The hidden meaning from there is obvious. In addition, Master said in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco 2005,"
"Well, the Olympics are a few years away, so it's questionable whether the wicked Party will make it that long. And whether or not it will be given a chance to shine is not up to humans."
So practitioners are guessing the time of the CCP's collapse and the end of Fa-rectification with strong human attachments, and everyone is hoping this day will come soon.
From an ordinary person's perspective it is reasonable to hope that the day of peace comes earlier after experiencing these nine long years of mad persecution. But we are cultivators and practitioners molded by the Cosmos' Great Law in the Fa-rectification period. We are to accomplish the righteous enlightenment of selflessness, and we are to consider others first. Isn't it a heart of selfishness if we are attached to time? From the Fa principles we know that in our heart we should only have the intention of saving sentient beings as soon as possible, and no thought of earlier self salvation. Actually, from the day we obtained the Fa, we were already in the process of salvation. The way we differ from any cultivators in history is that we have the mission of saving sentient beings. To put it more clearly, when we save sentient beings, we are saving ourselves. If we hadn't made the great vow of saving sentient beings in the first place, we would have been in the process of being eliminated along with the old cosmos. We owe our lives to the fact that it is Master who treasures our prehistoric selfless thought and gives us the opportunity of renewing our lives and going into the future. No matter how much longer the Fa-rectification period will last, it is not something we should consider. A single thought of this is an attachment. We should only have in our heart the thought of saving more sentient beings. Thoughts other than those are selfish thoughts and shouldn't exist. If at the moment all of us are calculating the time in our hearts, and we are waiting for the cosmic change, the result, I think, will be the opposite. We would even be giving the old forces another excuse to test us. Can we say that the mad persecution before the Olympic isn't related to our hearts? The lessons in this regard are too many. This human heart that we cannot let go of will only increase the difficulty for Master in rectifying the Fa, and it will bring tribulations to sentient beings. When can we really become mature?
2. Don't Focus on Superficial Phenomena of the Persecution and Passively Accept It
On a superficial level, the persecution does actually happen. From time to time we can hear that the 610 Office has taken action again and given orders. Dafa practitioners often learn of this kind of news in advance. Then we get nervous in our hearts and think that there will be safety issues and that we should be extremely careful. What we should do is send forth righteous thoughts to clear out the evil locally. Doing otherwise shows that we have silently accepted the persecution and considered ourselves victims. Previously, I had the same thought as this. However, after I studied Master's lecture "Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference," my view has changed. I think my previous understanding was wrong. I need to change my view.
Master said:
"The evil beings are being decimated in large quantities, and right now, as long as Dafa disciples keep strong righteous thoughts, the evil beings can no longer mount any resistance. Each time they do evil, they have to gather up lots of rotten demons, turning out in almost full force. It is Fa-rectification and purification of the universe that is taking place, so they are being eliminated, and that is how the evil's strength is being decimated. Then after the elimination is complete, they settle down for a while. That's how it happens every time. So in this light, there is all the more reason for Dafa disciples to keep a calm, sober mind." (Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference.)
From this Fa teaching I have enlightened that though superficially the evil party will take action again, and it appears to be persecuting madly, and our practitioners are being passive from the human point of view, actually it is time for us to take the initiative to eliminate them. If the evil elements didn't act, how could we get rid of them on a large scale? Every time they turn out in full strength, it is a good opportunity to clear the cosmos. This is how the evil has been eliminated in the Fa-rectification. Then what are we afraid of? Even though our hearts are moved and we have fear for some time, we must be very clear on the Fa principles. We are not to bear the persecution again. We will eliminate the evil. This is our mission and responsibility. Why do we always put ourselves in the position of victims? If we cannot reverse our human notions, how could persecution not happen? Looking back on the evil taking place repeatedly, isn't it that our human notions recognize the persecution and create the false appearance of madness?
If we Dafa practitioners hear something, and go hide and tremble in our hearts, we are humiliating the title of Dafa Disciples. We are letting Master down.
Fellow practitioners, let us be very determined, with no fear and no worry. We cannot hide to the very end. The sooner we have righteous thoughts, the sooner the persecution will end and the sooner we will welcome the Fa-rectification of the human world.
