(Clearwisdom.net) We found this situation in the forced labor camp, that after shouting "Falun Dafa is good," some practitioners were released soon after, but some were persecuted even more severely. A similar situation occurred when practitioners went on hunger strikes against the persecution. Some practitioners were able to leave prison while others were forced to endure even more forced feedings or even death. And while suffering sickness karma, as far as not going to the hospital is concerned, some practitioners recovered swiftly, while some got worse and worse. In other words, while taking the same action in dealing with similar problems, the result could turn out entirely differently.
Some fellow practitioners were confused by this. As it happened, a local fellow practitioner was not so diligent in cultivation after being released from a forced labor camp. He complained to other practitioners, "In the detention center, when I was brutally tortured, I asked Teacher for help, but help never came." When some fellow practitioners had sickness tribulations, they complained, "I suffered quite a bit, why didn't Teacher come and resolve my sickness problem?"
Dafa is indestructible and not changeable, treating every living being just the same. This complicated surface level is nothing but a layer of dust that covers the truth and deceives people. When clearing away this layer of dust, we will then see where the real problem lies: xinxing. Our outer actions are only for people to see--changing our hearts is the real concern. It would be very easy and simple to change our actions, whereas it is so difficult to alter our minds, which is the most important. Cultivation is not child's play and the point is not simply to look like a practitioner. Teacher emphasized again and again,
"You must truly cultivate your heart to make it work." (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Three)
"Therefore, the real purpose of cultivation is to cultivate your heart." (Zhuan Falun, Lecture Six)
Although we all know to look within, when confronting problems, to what degree do we focus on changing our own behavior? We even think about changing others' behavior, requesting that others do everything, so that they don't interfere with our own cultivation. We keep forgetting the basics of cultivation--elevating our minds.
Especially for those practitioners who are being persecuted, because they anxiously want to disintegrate evil to end the persecution sooner, they tend to "seek a special solution," causing them to focus more easily on changing their behavior. While sharing with fellow practitioners, their questions are "What should I do?" instead of "How should I cultivate?" Teacher said,
"When you see someone not having righteous actions, in fact it's that he doesn't have enough righteous thoughts, since a person's mind guides his actions. When your righteous thoughts are strong enough your actions will definitely be righteous, and when the righteous thoughts aren't strong enough the actions won't be righteous. No matter how we hold discussions and how we talk about the question of righteous thoughts, there are still people whose thoughts can't become righteous. When you can always maintain your righteous thoughts your actions will surely be righteous." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," April 20, 2003)
Of course, it is necessary to change our behavior, but raising our xinxing is the priority. Doing things without raising xinxing, that is human action, not a god's--the result would not be good. To raise xinxing, there is no better way than studying the Fa more with a calm mind, and looking within frequently.
"A cultivator has no role models. The path each person is to take is different, because each person's foundation is different, the sizes of their various attachments are different, the characteristics of their beings are different, their jobs among everyday people are different, their family environments are different, and so on. These factors determine that each person's path of cultivation is different, that how they get rid of their attachments is different, and that the sizes of their tests are different. Therefore, amidst the manifestations of things it's very hard to find a path that others have made, and it's even less possible for a person to get a ride down one. If there really were pre-made paths and effortless rides, that definitely would not be cultivation...
But a person always has to enlighten on his own to what he should do in the face of tribulations. Every time a person improves, the Attainment Status he has validated and enlightened to rises." ("Path," Essentials for Further Advancement II)
A cultivator's righteous path is a natural manifestation of a heightened xinxing level that isn't copied or learned from others. So, when sharing with fellow practitioners who are in tribulation, we shouldn't forget to remind them to focus on studying the Fa more, look within, and strengthen their righteous thoughts, thus allowing them to raise their Fa comprehension level as soon as possible. If we only emphasize how to handle things in an ordinary way, they could possibly feel that their situations aren't compatible, feeling that it's not going to work; should they do what is required, it would be like forcing them and that could produce unwanted results.
Take this fellow practitioner, for instance, who had serious sickness karma, he still insisted on going out to distribute truth-clarification materials, but his xinxing and attachments remained the same. Just like what Teacher said,
"'I've done better today, so it should have improved a little. Tomorrow I'll do even better and it should improve some more.' He can never let go of that thing. On the surface it appears that he's letting it go--'Look, I'm doing well now.' You're doing well now but you are doing well now for its sake. You aren't doing that for the purpose of doing what a true Dafa disciple should do!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference," April 20, 2003)
Do you think such a practitioner could soon recover from his sickness? Doing Dafa things with a human mind is itself a loophole where evil can invade, making things even more complicated.
In the period of Fa-rectification cultivation, having been in an evil environment for a long time, as well as strongly negating the persecution, we, therefore, could easily form wrong thinking by looking outward. In fact, as we all know, we also cultivate our own hearts in the Fa-rectification period, not those of others. What we rectify is ourselves and what we care about are sentient beings. All interference is formed by everyday people with ill thoughts controlled by evil, which enables them to be in our time-space; however, their human side has no idea of what is going on. When confronting interference, if we are too anxious to eliminate barriers to doing what we want, we would probably appear to be too anxious, creating confrontations with everyday people--this itself is a combined manifestation of human feeling, competition, fear, hate, and so on. Doing only what we want is a basic attachment of validating ourselves rather than eliminating evil, saving sentient beings, and validating the Fa.
If we could study the Fa more, cultivate away our attachments, send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate evil, and compassionately clarify the truth to those who are blind to the facts, would we be able to save those people and end the interference and the persecution? How long does it take to accomplish this? It could be only a moment, a day, a week, or a much longer time. The main point is to quickly raise our xinxing and have our righteous thoughts emerge. Teacher said in the poem "Don't Be Sad" in Hong Yin Vol. II:
"Calmly reflect on the attachments you have
Remove your human thoughts
And evil will naturally die out."
Please kindly correct my errors.
