On February 11, veteran practitioners from a few provinces held an experience sharing conference on the peak of Mount Tai (in Shandong province). Everyone sincerely shared their views on the current progress of Fa-rectification and talked about their understandings around the topic of "Using the side that has been cultivated, which is the side of one's original nature, to rectify the Fa so as to eradicate the evil."
A practitioner once asked Master why he talks about so many supernatural capabilities and yet tells us not to be attached to them, and Master said: "What I am saying is the Fa."
In Lecture Five of Zhuan Falun, when that snake in human form began damaging Master's spreading of the Fa, Master cleaned it up. Later on, when that snake again interfered in Master's spreading of the Fa, Master destroyed it.
First what we all must understand is that now is a time of Fa-rectification cultivation and not personal cultivation. What we must do is "eradicating the evil is for the sake of rectifying the Fa." Thus, whether we can treat ourselves as a particle of Dafa, treat ourselves as gods, and not be attached to any issue of our personal Completion is vital. Using a god's realm and state of mind to participate in Fa-rectification comes from our utmost and unconquerable righteous conviction towards Dafa. We realized that Master has already pulled us all up as a whole to another realm. A god has no human concepts. Earthquakes, landslides, and tidal waves can all burn off karma for the sentient beings of this level. Master says: "Zhen-Shan-Ren is the Fa! And It is the manifestation of the Dafa of the cosmos at different levels. It is absolutely not some human ideology or guiding principle for ordinary human living, as humans take it to be." Then what should we do?
We know that the Buddha's Fa divine powers are a manifestation of the mighty Fa. So-called supernatural powers are all the innate powers of human beings. Because in the course of normal cultivation, some practitioners may not be able to handle themselves well, or want to attain certain human goals through these powers and protect their own human things, Master will lock these powers up. But now we are particles of Dafa. It had been prophesied long ago in history that this would be a time of humans and gods co-existing. We are eradicating the evil for the sake of rectifying the Fa and to be merciful to sentient beings. For human beings to test gods is like slandering the gods. The evil simply is not worthy of testing our Dafa disciples, and it has already reached the point "where it is unsavable and unkeepable."
In the section on mind-intent in Zhuan Falun, Master says: "Actually, as for some qigong masters, they do not even know, and neither are they clear about what supernormal abilities they possess. They only know that they can do whatever they want, as long as they think about it. In reality, it is their mind-intent at work: Supernormal abilities are directed by the brain's mind-intent, and they carry out specific tasks under the command of mind-intent. Yet mind-intent cannot do anything itself. When a practitioner does something specific, it is his or her supernormal abilities that do the work." "For a practitioner, one's mind-intent dictates supernormal abilities to do things. For an everyday person, one's mind-intent directs the four limbs and the sensory organs to work."
Most of our practitioners are cultivating with these powers locked and don't know what "divine powers" they have (supernormal powers simply are no indication of our realm), but in the Fa, "borrowing gong" is mentioned, and of the powers that Master has discussed are "Great Soul-Catching Method," the "Dissolving Gong," and so on. Moreover, everything in the universe is created by the Fa. When we assimilate to that level of the Fa, we will have all of the divine powers of that level of the universe. Those locks are locks on people's hearts. Once we understand the Fa on a rational level, once we truly treat ourselves as a god, these locks will naturally open up. They don't require any pursuit.
In our human minds, we always think that only what can be seen is what we have. In our human minds, we are used to using our hands to accomplish things, and only then do we consider it "using." In our human minds, we always think that what we do all has a manifestation among human beings. Our only form of expression is our disciples validating the Fa and explaining the truth to people, and we are unable to see what's going on in other dimensions or see the sacred and holy things in other dimensions.
Practitioners in Australia said that recently a lot of people who had cultivated for a long time came down from the mountains to attain the Fa. When they were studying the Fa with our practitioners, they saw that each of our practitioners were able to fly up, that each of them had many divine powers, and they felt it was inconceivable. But when they told our practitioners, each of the practitioners asked them with curiosity: "Who can fly?" This question shocked them again because they felt that since these people could already fly, how could it be that they still had so many attachments?
One disciple said that once during the normal cultivation period, he went by himself to do hongfa (Fa promotion) and other practitioners said one person wasn't enough. He said: "My being one person is just the form of expression over here. Behind me is Master and Dafa, and I myself also have a lot of living beings, and there are also Fashen. All of these are enough to have "the Buddha light illuminating everything," and all of this is enough to change that dimensional field. As a result, he sat in meditation at the entrance of the park with his heart filled with compassion for sentient beings. When he had finished meditating and opened his eyes, there were practitioners everywhere nearby teaching people the exercises and doing hongfa and there were Dafa materials hanging everywhere.
We absolutely do not recognize any persecution against Dafa. In the course of our validating the Fa, apart from the karma on our on bodies that we should bear, any harm done to us is forced upon us by the evil and is, in reality, aimed at Dafa. In that case, we not only should not bear it in our thinking, we should give back all of this kind of violence that has been forced upon us so that the evil itself should bear it. Of course, it is not done using any bad tactics or human violence because that would only taint the sacred Dafa. Dafa disciples have always been peaceful and rational and always will be.
Another student said: "I feel that we should no longer care so much about our own karma and attachments. The Fa is the top priority. Our Completion is sacred and great because we have participated in Fa-rectification. The evil is using our karma to damage the Fa; in our mind we should not give the evil anything that they can use. We just go validate the Fa, and the process of validating the Fa and clarifying the truth is itself the elimination of the evil. The elimination of one's attachments and the change in one's notions should very naturally be noticed and removed through participating in Fa rectification, and it is not for the sake of removing some attachment or notion that one participates in Fa rectification.
Just as Master said in "Eliminate Your Last Attachment (s)": "Then is being attached to reaching Consummation an attachment? Isn't it also an attachment born of human desire? Would a Buddha be attached to reaching Consummation? As a matter of fact, those cultivators who are truly approaching Consummation don't have this attachment." In "Towards Consummation," Master says: "Whatever you're attached to, they have evil elements concoct lies in that regard." "Additionally, they manipulate wicked human beings to examine Dafa and its disciples in every detail, putting them through a comprehensive and thorough test that targets all human intentions and attachments. Had you truly been able to discard those fundamental human attachments in your cultivation, these last tribulations wouldn't have been so vicious."
In Lectures in Western U.S., Master says: "...the suffering, the tribulations that our Dafa disciples have to bear; I'm telling everyone, it's not just directed at personal cultivation. There is the element of the high level beings using the fact that the students have karma and need to be improved as a reason to use the low level degenerated beings to engage in persecution and thereby testing Dafa. In reality, with respect to Fa rectification, it's all damaging." Then, when validating Dafa, countering all of the evil's persecution is precisely refusing all of this persecution directed against Dafa, which is to immediately eradicate the evil from over there.
Today the evil forces seem to be running rampant in the human world; they're actually on the verge of destruction and are building fortresses to hide themselves. Viewed in other dimensions, the evil forces are making last-ditch efforts by directing human beings to carry out a so-called life-and-death battle. However, our unshakable righteous conviction towards Dafa carries all the power of Dafa and can serve as a sharp sword in any circumstances in helping us destroy the evil's mud fortress. No matter how hard the evil forces claim their steel fortress is strong enough to resist Falun Dafa, that steel is nothing different than mud. As Teacher said in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun, "In the eyes of everyday people, animals are so formidable that they can easily manipulate people. Actually, I say that they are not formidable and are nothing before a true practitioner. Though you may find one that has practiced cultivation for nearly one thousand years, a tiny finger will be more than enough to crush it."
Beijing practitioners talked about their experience of suffocating the evil: the local evil forces asked everyday people to hang banners that slander Dafa and the police waited nearby attempting to arrest Dafa practitioners. Beijing practitioners then asked fellow practitioners outside Beijing to call those leaders in charge of Falun Gong and sternly warn them that they would receive retribution if they kept following the evil. The next day they removed the slanderous banners. However, due to the pressure from higher authorities, they put up the banners again the third day. This time, Beijing practitioners took down the banners without hesitation. It turned out that those policemen and leaders were also happy to get rid of these banners.
Many practitioners have already fully realized the power of righteous thoughts and conviction in restraining the evil, which can be seen from Clearwisdom articles that describe practitioners' encounters in Beijing. This is the manifestation of the Fa after our true nature comes forth. We cannot count on the gods to rectify the Fa for us or wait for the Fa to reveal itself in the human world. Since the introduction of Dafa to the public by the Teacher, Dafa practitioners have been manifesting Dafa in the human world. After Clearwisdom Net published Teacher's article "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance," many of us did not really comprehend it rationally, but rather read it with a human mentality. Clearwisdom Net later pointed this out. However, if we passively wait for the Fa to rectify the world without understanding the Fa rationally, we will be making a bigger mistake. By studying Teacher's article "Cautionary Advice," we realize that Teacher has been asking us to break away from human mentality fundamentally and comprehend the Fa rationally.
Teacher told us in "The Knowing Heart" and "Serious Teachings" to "Follow Teacher closely, steadfastly cultivating Dafa." Fa-rectification has been breaking through towards the surface rapidly and Teacher has been instructing us as to what to do. However, some veteran practitioners fail to catch up with Fa-rectification and miss out on many opportunities. They are gauging what Teacher says now with what Teacher taught before, unknowingly interpreting Teacher's Fa with their shallow understanding in their own realms. But now Teacher sets higher Xinxing standards for us and we should make sure everybody is able to catch up through sharing experience with each other.
We also talked about how to clarify the truth with wisdom. After experience sharing, we enjoyed the beautiful sunrise on the peak of Mount Tai and recited one of Teacher's poems (not official translation) together:
á
Lord Buddha
Who knows the enormity of heaven and earth?
The Milky Way lies under the feet.
How distant is the cosmos?
The revolving wheel is held in hand.
February 12, 2001
