(Minghui.org) From Master’s article “Wake Up,” we learned that “The Fa’s rectification of the Cosmos has finished, and now a transition to the Fa’s rectification of the human world is taking place.”
Supposedly, when Fa-rectification is reaching the end, the evil factors should be less and the persecution should ease up. But from the cases reported by Minghui, it’s still comparable to the early stage of the persecution.
My understanding is that the severity of the persecution is related to the cultivation states of a significant number of practitioners. I would like to share some issues I’ve observed in our local practitioners.
In the first few years of the persecution, most of the practitioners in our area showed strong motivation in printing and distributing Falun Dafa information materials. Of course, we couldn’t guarantee that everyone was doing things with a pure heart, but no matter how high or how low our xinxing levels, we were all very confident that Fa-rectification would succeed. We could forgo many things and always put Dafa as our top priority.
When we encountered someone, we usually didn’t consider whether it would be dangerous for us to talk to them; what we cared about was that once we missed the chance to talk to this person, he may forever lose the opportunity of being saved. That’s why we distributed materials anytime and anywhere, even when the situation wasn’t that appropriate to do so.
But now, as Fa-rectification is reaching the end, I developed the thought that I need to be careful in doing things and protect myself from being arrested. When I was distributing materials or talking to people face to face, I was very careful and selective. I no longer have the feeling of treating everyone as my family members.
Especially during the pandemic lockdown in the past few years, we encountered much inconvenience in clarifying the truth. Many practitioners, myself included, have developed a strong attachment to comfort and became lax in cultivation. We couldn’t always get up in the morning to do the exercises or guarantee daily Fa study.
For many practitioners who had spent years in prison or lived away from home to avoid the police, they focused on how to live a better life to make up for their losses.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with finding a good job and living a stable life, which also provides us with better opportunities to validate the Fa. But what comes with it is our attachments to comfort and our becoming less diligent in clarifying the truth. I have now realized that such comfort is another kind of persecution, which is more covert than the brutal persecution on the surface. I know that many elderly practitioners have passed away or struggled with physical tribulations in recent years. I wonder whether that’s related to our becoming lax in cultivation and our attachment to a comfortable life.
I think this probably isn’t an isolated situation in our region, but a common problem among practitioners across the country. My own understanding is that our attachment to comfort rendered us unable to follow the progress of Fa-rectification, which gave the old forces excuses to persecute us. This is why the persecution intensified in the past few years and even some police officers who understood the facts no longer supported us. I hope we can all look within and see if we have such a problem. We can intensify Fa study with fellow practitioners and send righteous thoughts together.
We all know that group Fa study is the cultivation format Master left us. But practitioners in my region didn’t value it very much. While some indeed have difficulties being able to attend a group Fa study, some are able to do so, but still prefer to study on their own for the flexibility and convenience. They argued that in order to maintain group Fa study, we have to spend a lot of time coordinating and commuting.
Meanwhile, many practitioners have now entered their senior years and some moved away with their children to other cities to help care for their grandchildren. With no new practitioners joining us, the number of practitioners has decreased over the years, making it even more difficult to organize group Fa study. If some practitioners encountered some tribulation and asked for our help to send righteous thoughts for them, only those close to them took it seriously and others didn’t bother to do it.
After over 20 years, many practitioners, including myself, still understand the persecution on the human level and we resent the police officers who arrest us. Without enough compassion, we haven’t been able to save many police officers over the years and most of them still don’t understand the facts about Dafa.
Another thing I wanted to point out is that some practitioners began to study the Fa online in 2021, and since then quite a number of practitioners have joined them. Those who liked it said that by studying online, they could share with practitioners from around the country and ask those who’ve cultivated well questions they didn’t understand in their cultivation. I want to remind fellow practitioners that although online Fa study does provide tremendous convenience to us, it shouldn’t be used in China when the persecution is still going on.
Some of us tried to persuade those practitioners to stop. We also shared our understanding about the potential danger of doing so, but they wouldn’t listen. After a while, upon seeing that things had been going smoothly, they became more attached to this format. I would like to recommend to those practitioners that they read the Minghui sharing article “Practitioners in Mainland China, Please Stop Online Fa Study,” which had a comment from Master that said, “These software programs cannot be used among practitioners. Whoever alters the exercise music is causing damage.”
Obviously studying the Fa online isn’t something that Master approves. If practitioners insist on doing it this way, then it amounts to disrupting the Fa to some extent.
Master has clearly explained in the Fa the importance of group Fa study. I wonder why so many practitioners don’t listen to Master and instead do things the opposite way. I feel that most of them have certain attachments. Maybe they couldn’t stand the loneliness in cultivation or they haven’t truly cultivated themselves over the years. It seems to me that they are opting for online Fa study as if joining a club where they enjoy the companionship of many others who share the same interests or attachments.
Cultivation is to work on our own hearts. It’s nothing similar to joining a club and we have no role models to follow. Whatever others enlighten to is their own cultivation experience at their respective levels. We can only take it as a reference, but shouldn’t copy it directly into our own cultivation. We follow the Fa in cultivation, not any single practitioner.
I’m very worried about the things I talked about here. We have followed Master in Fa-rectification cultivation for over 20 years. It has not always been an easy path for us to walk. I don’t want to see fellow practitioners get lost in the final moments as a result of cultivating with their human hearts. We should look within, overcome our attachment to comfort, walk the final leg of our cultivation journey well, and fulfill our vows.
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 with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)