Flattery and Demonic Interference from One’s Own Mind

(Minghui.org) In 24 years of Fa-rectification cultivation, while the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has mainly taken place in mainland China, some issues have also accumulated in the cultivation environment outside of China. They not only hinder our efforts to save people but also affect the cultivation of veteran practitioners and lead newer practitioners astray. Among these issues, flattery and showing off have become commonplace in many regions and projects. Many practitioners have already grown used to it or even added fuel to the fire.

The Phenomena

Some people are glib talkers; they flatter others and use all kinds of opportunities to promote themselves in pursuit of fame and gain among the community of cultivators. Some flatter others to gain their trust. Some admire and follow those who have developed supernormal abilities. There are also secret agents of the CCP who pretend to be practitioners and drag real practitioners down into the abyss by flattering them or inciting conflicts among them. Some practitioners, after doing some Dafa work they should have done, became full of themselves; they feel superior to others and demand that others follow their own standards in everything they do. Some have developed demonic interference from their own minds after they were flattered for developing some petty supernormal abilities.

In some projects and regions, not only have there been such people and events, but they have also persisted. Moreover, many practitioners no longer use the Fa to evaluate situations or take such events as opportunities to cultivate themselves. Some have even supported those people and actions not in line with the Fa and allowed them to dominate.

Examples

A recent example involves a new practitioner in Taiwan. This person began to practice Falun Dafa after watching Shen Yun about ten years ago. Because this person could see with their celestial eye and often told others about it, those practitioners with poor enlightenment quality often offered compliments in response. Gradually, this person began to talk about things in a grandiose tone and their ego became inflated. Taking visions from the celestial eye and what was shown to them (which were limited and not always true) as the standard to follow, this person began to “instruct” others in their cultivation without having a correct understanding of what they had seen.

It’s said that this person had many objections to Gan Jing World’s promotion strategy. In addition to hearing some irresponsible gossip spread by certain members of the Gan Jing World company, some “veteran practitioners on the mountain” and some from the performing arts company, this person was finally manipulated by demons to publicly denounce and smear Master with sensational nonsense. If we evaluate it with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, when someone who has studied the Fa smears Master and sabotages the effort to save people, are they still a good person? Haven’t they already fallen and become the worst person?

When someone says, “See how capable I am,” “none of the other practitioners are good enough,” or “you should all listen to me,” veteran practitioners who are truly cultivating should be able to identify the issue. If not, it precisely shows that they haven’t cultivated well enough and should be more diligent.

There is another example some practitioners outside of China already know. This person moved out of China more than ten years ago. On social media platforms facing society, he touted himself as a “hero” to satisfy his personal desire for fame and sentimentality. At the same time, he denounced other Dafa practitioners and the Minghui website. Among his followers are CCP agents and some practitioners who encountered roadblocks in their cultivation. Another practitioner, who also moved out of China and hosted a social media channel, appeared to have accepted a coordinator’s advice but in fact always approached the issue with ordinary people’s notions. Yet other practitioners kept praising her. Truth-clarification is one of the three things required of practitioners by Master. We should only do it well so that Master doesn’t have to worry about us. The process of doing it well is the process of improving ourselves in cultivation. But do some practitioners treat themselves as onlookers and enjoy the drama that comes out of it?

In ancient times, cultivators who betrayed their masters were expelled from their schools of cultivation. But Dafa has great compassion for people. Even if someone writes a “guarantee statement” or renunciation statements against their will, they are still given the opportunity to start again in cultivation and make up for their mistake. But when those people start to cultivate again, they start from a very low point. Not only are they new practitioners, but they also carry the sin of publicly smearing Dafa and Master. True cultivators certainly would not flatter or compliment such people; they would only rationally persuade them to do better without being attached to them.

Correction

Facing the final judgment, everyone will be held accountable for their words and actions. Dafa has the power to smelt a person. A wood chip can easily be dissolved in a furnace of molten steel. But it’s a personal choice whether one is willing to or dares to throw into the furnace the filthy attachments and notions attached to their dimensional fields that do not conform to the standard of the new universe. It’s one’s own matter how they cultivate. But if their words and actions interfere with other practitioners’ cultivation, the nature of it would be different and it would generate a great amount of karma.

Ancient people said, “The friendship between gentlemen is as light as water.” The Chinese word for “boast” (誇) consists of three components: “speech” (言), “big” (大), and “loss” (亏).

Master taught us:

“For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests.” (“A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Many veteran practitioners who took up cultivation before 1999 have memorized this article. But why do we give up personal cultivation and the righteous thoughts and actions we should be cultivating when we don’t even face torture by the CCP? Surely that was not our original intention when we took up cultivation, nor is it what Dafa has taught us all along. The communist specter has ruled the world for nearly a century, and the contamination it has forced upon human beings is exactly what we cultivators have to cleanse from ourselves.

In a normal society, people who follow divinely-inspired culture and traditional values would not be easily manipulated by others’ rhetoric. They would observe not only what someone says and how they say it but also how they act; then they would make a rational judgment for themselves. We all talk about how we “clarify the facts” and save people, but we shouldn’t forget that our true moral realms are under the spotlight on the big stage of the human world. That is an important part of the truth we are trying to deliver. Our own actions validate whether we are studying the Fa and obtaining the Fa and whether we are true cultivators. We as Dafa disciples should all strive to be true cultivators.

We hope everyone will study Master’s articles again, learn from these lessons, and do better by cultivating our own hearts. Especially for the volunteer coordinators of Falun Dafa Associations and Assistance Centers, please take up your responsibility and lead practitioners to cultivate our environment into one that helps fellow practitioners purify their hearts, be honest and kind, and constantly improve their xinxing and spiritual realms. Please live up to the expectations of that sacred position.

Minghui Editorial BoardJuly 3, 2023