By a practitioner from China
(Clearwisdom.net) Since the beginning of my cultivation, I have seen or heard about some Dafa practitioners who, understanding Dafa from the perspective of an everyday person, made a wrong decision in a moment of weakness and made mistakes during the persecution of Dafa by the evil forces. Among them there are my fellow practitioners and some practitioners who were quite well known in the past. Although most of them have returned to the group of true practitioners after issuing solemn statements, some of them have forever deviated from Dafa, continuously covering their attachments with their understanding of Dafa from an evil perspective.
Besides making me feel sorry for those lives that have slipped down, it made me able to understand more about the solemn nature of Dafa from the perspective of the Fa principles.
Ordinary human sentiments must not be mixed into Dafa cultivation
In his Fa lectures, Teacher has talked many times about how to understand Dafa: "If you do not want to change your human state and rationally rise to a true understanding of Dafa, you will miss the opportunity. If you do not change the human logic that you, as an ordinary human, have formed deep in your bones over thousands of years, you will be unable to break away from this superficial human shell and reach Consummation......á Your ways of thinking, your understanding, and your appreciation towards me and Dafa are the product of ordinary human thinking. But what I'm teaching you is in fact moving beyond ordinary humans to a rational, true understanding of Dafa! ...... If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" ("Cautionary Advice") "...... I have told you the solemnity and sacredness of the Fa in order to eliminate your confusion about and misunderstanding of the Fa." ("Expounding on the Fa")
For a long period of time, I had been somewhat puzzled by the expression "understand the Fa from the depths of your mind." Having practiced Dafa for many years, I thought that I might be counted as one who has understood the Fa from the depths of his mind. However, I often still had an unsteady feeling, wondering if I had met the requirements Teacher set for practitioners. It came to me one day when I was studying the Fa; I suddenly realized from the depths of my mind that what Teacher gave us is the law of the universe and "offers insight into all mysteries" ("Lunyu"). It is the principles of existence that everything and every single being in the universe must observe. Living beings in various spaces, if they want to exist in the universe, must strictly abide by this Law of Heaven. Having realized this, I felt at once the most unique and splendid feeling of "understanding the Fa from the depths of my mind." Also, I instantly realized why Teacher said, "It is extremely dangerous to add anything human to cultivation practice"("Digging Out the Roots"): because the principles of the universal law are also the guarantee for the safety of the living beings in the universe and the universe itself.
As practitioners cultivating ourselves in Dafa, we must practice our cultivation solidly in the light of Dafa that Teacher has taught us so that we can return to our origins. It is showing the greatest compassion to sentient beings that Teacher has for the first time spread this law of the universe to them. In order to cherish Dafa and live up to Teacher's compassionate efforts to save us, we should solemnly practice our cultivation in the Fa-rectification in accordance with the principles of the universe.
Walking a righteous path
Teacher has emphasized many times that Dafa practitioners should try their best to walk a righteous path, which, as I understand, is a requirement based on the solemn nature of Dafa. "Try your best to walk a righteous path, and try your best, in all environments and with everything that happens, to conduct yourself in an open and dignified manner, to be tolerant and broad-minded, ..." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston"). "To do well is to not walk down the path arranged by the old forces; the goal is to not allow the old forces to take advantage of your gaps" ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference").
For a period of time, I had been somewhat confused about using righteous thoughts to break the arrangement of the old forces and looking inside as a Dafa practitioner. As disciples of Master Li, we possess the Fa-rectification verses that He has given to us. Watched over and protected by Master Li, we Dafa practitioners, by using our righteous thoughts, can instantly clear up any interference from the evil forces. But Teacher said, "That's why I'm telling you that it's awfully hard for Master to take care of certain things. It's not that Master doesn't have the ability; it's to allow all sentient beings to be saved. When you conduct yourselves righteously Master can do anything for you" ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa"). In reading this part of the Fa principles, I think I realized the reason that Teacher is still making use of the old universe's principles before they are done away with, which concerns the safety of the universe and the salvation of sentient beings. Therefore, to purify and rectify one's own words and deeds and to try one's best to walk a righteous path are not only a necessity for a practitioner to uplift his own spiritual level, but it is also a requirement by the Fa principles for a practitioner to eradicate the interference and persecution from the old forces.
In talking about purifying people's bodies, Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, "Here I would like to point out emphatically that I have no way to help you if you cannot rid yourself of your attachments, and I can do nothing for you if you cannot let go of your diseases." Indeed, Teacher had a long time ago in Zhuan Falun told practitioners to think about any problems they encounter with righteous thoughts. In the process of Fa-rectification, I have gradually realized that all the principles of the Fa that Teacher taught in the course of Fa-rectification had been taught in Zhuan Falun. As the Fa-rectification comes to the current stage, what is left among the evil forces are only a few who are putting up a last-ditch, desperate struggle. At present, to realize the solemn nature of Dafa is extremely important for a practitioner in order to complete the last step of the Fa-rectification successfully. This is because the evil is aggressively searching for any of our attachments as an excuse to do damage to Dafa. In particular, to understand Dafa under the influence of ordinary human sentiments or to carry out a task in the Fa-rectification with attachments will be easily used by the evil. This will then exert a bad influence on the whole arrangement of the Fa-rectification.
In a past article from the Clearwisdom editors, "Principles of the Fa and Human Sentiment (Qing)," it was discussed that "the principles of the Fa are serious and so is cultivation practice. They are definitely not to be mixed up with the human sentiments and work of the worldly realm. In the face of critical issues of right or wrong that relate to Dafa principles, whether or not we can at all times use the principles of the Fa to keep our divine side in command of our own human side is crucially important to both Fa rectification and cultivation practice." We always strive to "Take the Fa as Teacher." Then, the first goal for us to achieve is to understand Dafa truly and rationally, which is the primary guarantee for us to truly "take the Fa as Teacher."
