Reflection on Our Inadequacy in Cultivation After Massive Propaganda Campaign Takes Place in Our Local Area

(Minghui.org) Our county’s Public Security Bureau and Political and Legal Affairs Committee recently posted statements in public places to slander Falun Dafa. They alerted everyone to monitor and report Falun Dafa practitioners. In addition, they have handed out pamphlets and even playing cards that defame Falun Dafa. The extent of the propaganda campaign is deep and wide.

The situation has never been this serious in our area since the onset of the persecution of Falun Dafa by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1999. Fellow practitioners are concerned about it and the increased difficulty for us to clarify the facts in the future.

By looking within, we think we may have loopholes that were taken advantage of and that our attachments have contributed to this tribulation. Below are a few things I’ve observed and I hope we will all take it seriously.

Following a Practitioner Instead of the Fa to Guide Our Cultivation

A local practitioner has been working hard to raise awareness about the persecution for many years. He took on numerous tasks and never complained. Fellow practitioners often asked him for help. They also liked to ask for his advice when they encountered a problem in cultivation, such as family conflicts or sickness karma. He always made sure to make time for practitioners, and would even drive long distances to help. He won our local practitioners’ respect and trust.

Many fellow practitioners, including our local coordinators, relied on him and admired him. Gradually, he developed a theory of his own. He told practitioners that as long as one lets go of their thought of being sick, it was fine for them to take medicine—just like after one lets go of the desire for meat, he can eat meat—because taking medicine would heal one’s illness karma quickly.

He also said that it was appropriate for practitioners to give bribes and gifts in return for the prosperity of our own businesses or for our children to gain better jobs. His excuse was that Falun Dafa practitioners should show the beauty of Dafa to people.

He told everyone that if a child was bullied, it was fine for him to hit back, because Master wrote the article “Beyond What Can Be Forborne” in The Essentials of Diligent Progress II. He argued that it was important to let go of attachments, including “the attachment of being afraid of attachments!”

He even tried to force his warped understanding of the Fa onto us. He said that the highest characteristic of the universe now is Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, but it was virtue in the past. When we reached Consummation, the principles we had enlightened to over the years could be all wrong.

While the problems with what he was saying are obvious to other practitioners, some in our area readily accepted what he had to say due to their attachments and human sentiments.

Even for those who didn’t agree with everything this practitioner said, they also worshiped him and took him as their teacher, thinking that that practitioner had cultivated better than they did. There are still other practitioners who don’t want to offend others, and they are afraid of being targeted if they voice any opposition. Consequently, the problem continues.

I hope all fellow practitioners will review Master’s teaching in “Sifting of the Sand” in The Essentials of Diligent Progress II,

“Fa-rectification is in its final stage, and the disruptive factors in the cosmos are dragging those who have failed to be diligent out from among the ranks of practitioners, such as those who 1) lack rationality; 2) act and talk senselessly; and 3) have not removed their attachments, which have increasingly expanded, leading these practitioners to have a strong tendency to look outward and seek outwardly, losing their sense of reason. The [factors’] means of interference is to cause people’s minds to become overwhelmed and confused amidst irrational attachments, leading them to do bad things that harm practitioners and harm Fa-rectification, thus making it very hard for them to turn around and do well again even if they wish to.”

and

“For the cosmos’s law is this: whatever a being does, he must be held accountable for it. Master is compassionate and Dafa disciples are saving people, but Fa-rectification is solemn. I hope that those who momentarily lost their senses and acted as an accomplice to evil will handle themselves well from here on out.”

Practitioners with Different Perspectives Are Being Excluded

Our local practitioners have always been divided, and each of us stubbornly holds on our own opinions. Although we do not have as many confrontations now, practitioners with different perspectives are still excluded in some discussions or activities.

I think it’s completely normal for us to have different opinions and understandings on things. After all, everyone’s cultivation path is different. There is no absolute right and wrong. Master taught us, “...He’s right, And I’m wrong...” (“Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong,” Hong Yin III)

At one of the coordinator’s meetings, the practitioner mentioned above proposed that we implement a democratic centralized system where the majority ruled—as long as the majority reached a consensus, it must be implemented, and everyone ought to comply with no exception. The coordination team would hold the highest authority. He then personally appointed coordinators for each region in our county. Nobody shared any concerns or expressed different opinions at the meeting.

When the local authorities issued a statement defaming Dafa and slandering Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, and published their statement in public bulletins throughout the county, this practitioner and the coordination team shared their understandings for a long time. But instead of coordinating a plan to destroy all the postings in public places, they used his “harmonious tolerance” fallacy to analyze the situation and agreed that they had gained a lot after their discussion, although no concrete plans were made.

Shortly after, the local education bureau also issued a notice requiring all teachers and students in the county to study anti-Falun Dafa propaganda displayed in classrooms, blackboards, and newspapers. Our coordinators knew about this all along, but didn’t take any action.

Irresponsibly Distributing Master’s New Article

After Master published the new article “How Humankind Came To Be,” we distributed it to almost every household in the county. However, we later found out that many people did not see it, and as a matter of fact, most of the materials were trashed, causing the sentient beings to commit a crime against Dafa.

The large-scale distribution of Master’s new article alerted the CCP officials at the provincial level. They concluded that Falun Dafa practitioners in our county were too “rampant,” and thus exerted pressure on the local government to crack down on us.

Because practitioners failed to respect Master and the Fa but distributed the materials to satisfy our enthusiasm, the old forces seized upon our loopholes to interfere with us.

Attachment to Time

When fellow practitioners proposed distributing Master’s new article widely, I agreed with them. I thought that time was so tight, and it took us over a dozen years to have persuaded only 400 million people to withdraw from the CCP. I was too eager to see quick results! However, I realized now that it is an attachment to time, not compassion!

Many of our fellow practitioners have endured tremendously and are exhausted. We hope everything will end soon so that we do not need to endure any more hardships or suffer more persecution. We desire a peaceful life where we can feel at ease—what a strong human sentiment!

Now that the old forces are manipulating our loopholes to interfere with us and poison sentient beings, we should unconditionally look inward, and dig deep to trace the root cause of what we could have done inadequately as a group. We should also come up with a plan to remove all the slanderous postings and to prevent more people from being deceived by it.

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s understanding in their current cultivation state meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare in studying, compare in cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)