(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, practitioners in my area have been reminding each other to search inward, but the real challenge remains searching inward in the face of crisis.
Not long ago, practitioner A was arrested. A fellow practitioner told us that the root cause was A had issues involving inappropriate sexual relations. Another practitioner, B, had similar issues, and this caused him to be followed to a local Fa study and arrested. Before both were arrested, local practitioners had tried to help them, but nothing worked.
In 2007, the police arrested practitioner C and told him that he would definitely serve a few years in jail. His family, also practitioners, realized from studying the Fa that he must not acknowledge the arrangement of the old forces. Rescue efforts on his behalf were joined by other practitioners in the area.
During the rescue efforts, a practitioner reminded everyone that we must not keep talking about C's attachments or acknowledge the idea that those practitioners doing more truth-clarification work will be more likely to be subjected to persecution. We were reminded that we ought to rescue C with righteous thoughts and that we should never acknowledge the persecution.
At the time, we were very cohesive and truly turned the tide. What appeared to be a severe crisis was dissolved because of our powerful righteous thoughts as a group. In addition, we broke through the notion that those practitioners doing more important truth-clarification were more likely to be subjected to persecution and that the only way to be released from jail was with a bribe.
I will return to the main subject that the attachment to lust and inappropriate sexual relations appears to be rampant in our area.
I had a few discussions with fellow practitioners and realized that we had been behaving like the old forces in the way that we focused our attention on practitioners' attachments to lust. We felt frustrated and disappointed and gave up on them. We started to isolate them and shut them out of our circle.
But that was when these practitioners, manipulated by the old forces, needed us the most. We must never elbow them out. Teacher expects us to elevate as a group. Teacher does not want to leave any disciple behind, but Teacher will not open the back door for those disciples who fail to meet the standard. If we notice fellow practitioners with an attachment to lust, aren't we obligated to help them out? Isn't Teacher sending them to us so that we can identify attachments of our own?
While I was writing this article, I heard a rumor that two practitioners were engaged in inappropriate relations with each other. I was shocked to hear this. It was high time to fix the problem altogether before it spread further into our cultivation community. If a fellow practitioner suffers from sickness karma, we know it is interference from the old forces to prevent the practitioner from saving sentient beings, and we can eliminate it with righteous thoughts. But when the old forces change their strategy by reinforcing a practitioner's attachment to lust, we fail to recognize that this too is interference from the old forces. Because we fail to recognize the old forces as the culprit, we focus our attention on the practitioner's faults. The old forces will exploit our loophole by reinforcing the practitioner's attachment to lust, even making it known to other practitioners. But that's not the practitioner's true self! It is the old forces showing what they want us to see. As a result, a gap appears between the practitioner committing the sin of lust and other practitioners. The practitioner thus becomes isolated. Once they succeed, the old forces will have more excuses to reinforce the attachment to lust in more practitioners. One after another, practitioners will fall prey to the old forces. It is the old forces' goal to destroy our one body by making us point fingers at each other and isolate each other.
The old forces resort to lowly tactics because they will stop at nothing to destroy the future of sentient beings. We should understand that mistakes are bound to happen during a practitioner's cultivation process. A genuine practitioner will surely rectify his or her speech and behavior during his cultivation process. If he is not a genuine practitioner, the Fa will determine his future. We must never think of those practitioners that have erred as lost forever. We must never allow the old forces to stir up conflicts amongst us or divide us. We must cultivate diligently in order to return to our true home with Teacher.
I would like to make a humble suggestion: Keep practitioners' identities confidential. We can share cultivation experiences without referencing the practitioners that have made contributions. If we repeatedly praise specific practitioners, other practitioners might start idolizing them, which will jeopardize their cultivation practice.
Please feel free to point out if you find anything inappropriate with these humble insights.
