(Clearwisdom.net) From various prophecies and legendary stories, some people felt that the Olympic Games held in 2004 was the last one, and that the 2008 Olympic Games were merely window dressing for the Communist ruling regime. In my understanding, the old forces let the regime hold the Olympic Games as a means to continue its persecution of Dafa practitioners. However, if we had done better in our truth-clarification, we would have been able to make the relevant people understand the truth, so they would correctly position themselves.
We do not acknowledge anything the old forces have arranged. If we all can have righteous thoughts and do well what we are supposed to do, the old forces' arrangements would not have gone forward.
Just like Master said,
"It is absolutely impossible for other people to read my mind, and other people's supernormal abilities cannot reach me at all. Nobody is able to understand me or know what is on my mind. They wished to know what I was thinking. With my consent, therefore, they linked my mind with theirs for a period of time." (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
If Master had not allowed the several high-level enlightened beings to connect their minds to Master's, they would not have been able to know Master's thoughts with their divine powers. If we did not have loopholes, the old forces would not have any chances to persecute us. What the old forces have utilized and taken advantage of are our agitated human hearts. Why are so many persecution incidents currently taking place? Many of these incidents are reported daily on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net). Shouldn't we search within ourselves?
Here I would like to analyze some human notions that other practitioners and I hold:
1. The attachment to the end of our cultivation after so many years of persecution
In 1999, when the CCP had just begun the persecution, many practitioners, including myself, wished the persecution to end quickly. Many practitioners from other regions went to Beijing, and they rented homes in Beijing's suburbs because they all believed that Fa-rectification would come to an end very soon. However, one veteran practitioner who started practicing in 1992 said to me, "This may last four or five years, or even seven to eight years." I did not agree with her. Later, while I was in prison, other practitioners who were sent there later said that the Fa-rectification was about to end. When I heard this, I suddenly had hope. Many practitioners in prison, while enduring the inhuman persecution, were even more so longing for the end.
When talking about the end happening now, many practitioners seem to be very much willing to listen. Isn't this "longing for" an attachment that Master has pointed out? Although we have cultivated for so many years, we are currently still holding on to the frantic desire of "longing for the end of the persecution." Because of this, we wished that the evil regime would not be able to hold the Olympic Games and that it would disintegrate, thus the attachment to the end and to time.
2. The hatred of the evil CCP after so many years of persecution
This cruel persecution has inflicted unspeakable pain on Dafa cultivators and has resulted in many irreversible losses. Our human notions make us hate the evil Party. This hatred is not the same as vengeance; it is ones' wanting to see the evildoers be embarrassed and come to its "despicable end."
The Party's fate will certainly be despicable; this is a heavenly principle. However, what mentality we hold when we see its end is most important.
While I was imprisoned, I remember that a guard forced one practitioner to stand for a long time and deprived her of sleep. That practitioner's legs and feet became frighteningly swollen. She was forced to stand on the cold concrete floor, barefooted. Whoever saw this would feel pained. I sent righteous thoughts to have that guard receive karmic retribution, and have her endure the pain that she had inflicted on the practitioner by suffering from pain in her legs. I sent the "righteous" thoughts, adding my "hatred" in at the end, and I did not see the results after sending these thoughts for many days. Later I stopped sending these thoughts and I no longer had hatred. Several days later that guard sprained her ankles. It was said that her ankles had been twisted around one hundred and eighty degrees, and her legs were badly swollen.
This took place during the time of the SARS epidemic. The prison was locked down and she couldn't go home to rest. She had to go to work. While she was on duty, one inmate (not a practitioner) fell into the kitchen cauldron and was burned, so the injured guard had to take this person to a hospital. She even needed to carry that person up and down stairs. While her feet were in pain, she still needed to carry the person up and down stairs. Was it possible for her to feel good with her feet and legs in such pain? When I heard of this incident, I felt very bad. She was perhaps not originally that bad, but the old forces and the CCP had made her a victim also. I then did not have hatred, I only had compassion in my heart.
After we complete our cultivation one day, we will certainly not take pleasure in watching the miserable situation that the people who persecuted us fall into. The CCP regime is the evil specter behind the persecution. Even for those ignorant people, they also came to the human world for the Fa. Without the persecution of Dafa, which was initiated by the evil specter, they might not have fallen into their current situation.
3. The frantic desire to have the regime fail in holding the Olympic Games
The regime has used the pretext of the Olympic Games to further persecute Dafa practitioners, but the Games don't have any special relationship with Dafa. The old forces have used this event to let the Party commit evil, persecute Dafa practitioners, and hurt sentient beings. We exist for the salvation of sentient beings. We should not exist for success or failure of the Olympic Games. Preventing the CCP from holding the Olympic Games is not the goal of our cultivation or of Fa-rectification. We need to eliminate our human notions amid the process of saving sentient beings. If we resort to our human mindsets and regard the Olympic Games as something important, we will once again fall into the traps of the old forces.
4. Fear and Pursuit
I had fear in the past when those sensitive dates came around. However, when we let go of our fear surrounding those dates and do what we are supposed to do, those dates will no longer be sensitive ones for us. The regime has prepared for the Olympic Games for many years. The games are the means for them to show themselves off. They are afraid that their crimes will be exposed, so they suppress dissidents; the regime suppresses the Tibetans and arrests individuals who are involved in the democracy movement. However, as we are the ones on the path toward divinity, we can use our righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil Party and disintegrate its various arrangements. So how it can still arrest whomever it wants to arrest and still be able to do whatever it wants to do?
Once we have fear, the evil will use the loophole our fear has created to enter this human space field, and implant its persecution plan. There are others who have fear but who had a thought that the evil would try to use the Olympic Games for the persecution. It is that thought that gives the evil an excuse, as we were pursuing it. Just as Master has mentioned about one's being afraid of getting sick--the concept of illness in this person's mind has become increasingly stronger, which is the same as one's seeking it.
I sometimes felt that as soon as that attachment came to my mind, the evil factors immediately came, as the evil felt that it finally found an opportunity. The persecution is still taking place in different regions simply because the practitioners there have acknowledged the evil's existence and accept that the evil will persecute Dafa practitioners. The evil has thus pulled us along. That is why our each and every thought should be righteous. We should not give the evil any excuses to exploit our omissions.
5. Tying the evil Party's disintegration to the Olympic Games with our human notions
Many practitioners thought that the evil Party's disintegration and the coming of the Fa-rectification to the human world would happen before or during the Olympic Games. They failed to understand things according to the Fa. In their minds, they are longing for something, that is, pursuing the coming of that day. Isn't it true that the more one pursues something, the less likely one is to get it? We are no longer ordinary people. If too many of us become attached to something, we will affect the outcome, because the evil is on the alert for our loopholes.
6. After the opening ceremony took place, some practitioners felt that they said something incorrect in their truth-clarification and thus were disappointed
Whenever we say something incorrect in our truth-clarification, we have to clarify the facts well again. We should learn the lesson that cultivators can't say anything at will. The prophecies and predictions are all based on the principles of the old cosmos, and some of them were arranged by the old forces for the destruction of those sentient beings that they don't want to keep. What Master wants is the benevolent salvation of all sentient beings. Many arrangements have been changed by Master, because Master wants to save more sentient beings. Isn't this a good thing? So why do we always follow the arrangements of the old forces and the principles of the old cosmos?
We shouldn't use our human thoughts to wait to see the CCP being absurd in public and disintegrate. When we don't see the CCP making a fool of itself, we become very disappointed, and we have gone from one extreme to another, with our minds wavering. These are all human mentalities. Seeing the CCP making a fool of itself, receiving karmic retribution, and disintegrating are not things that Dafa cultivators pursue. We just came to save sentient beings, and nothing can interfere with our saving sentient beings. We don't think about or seek anything else. We just save sentient beings!