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Dissolving into One Body While Walking One's Own Path: Thoughts Upon the Destruction of Our Local Materials-production Center

Aug. 15, 2004 |   By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) It has been three months since the Falun Dafa truth-clarification material production center (1) and Internet centers (2) in our city were destroyed and practitioners were arrested. Looking back on our cultivation state over this period of time, I have gained a new understanding about the incident. At the same time, I'm very glad to see that fellow practitioners are now facing the persecution, and walking their own Fa-rectification paths more steadily, without waiting for others or relying on others.

When the materials site was first destroyed, we were all worried, and we would send righteous thoughts at the same time without needing to remind each other. After a week, most of us manifested a helpless and numb state, to the extent where we felt that the incident had nothing to do with us.

Those who had no contact with the materials production center felt that the accident had nothing to do with them, and had a very shallow understanding of what had occurred, even though they knew that it was persecution and interference. Some practitioners who were in contact with the material production center summarized the attachments that fellow practitioners at the center had, and pointed out their shortcomings and inadequacies.

Does the materials production center really have no relation to ourselves? Are fellow practitioners' attachments just their own issues? Just like a practitioner frankly said in experience sharing, "I'm proud for all the things they did in the past. However, when they had attachments, I mentioned it to them but they wouldn't listen. Who is to blame, then?" Obviously this practitioner drew a clear line between their own self and the arrested fellow practitioners.

Materials production centers are an indispensable part of the whole body of Dafa practitioners. They must be concealed, of course, due to the persecution. Though they're comparatively independent, the sites should not be outside the whole body of practitioners. Materials production centers belong to all practitioners. If they are destroyed, it's caused by our omissions as one body.

While seriously reflecting on it, I found that I also have attachments. It is just that they manifest in different forms. One example is my attachment to qing (sentimentality). I hadn't completely let go of it. Sometimes I know that it is wrong, that it is an attachment, but I still find excuses for myself. Surprisingly, I found that my problems also exist to an extent in the fellow practitioners who have constant contact with me. Sometimes I feel that my attachment is gone, and before long the practitioners I am in contact with also improve more or less on the issue. It appears that if we have a common attachment, these bad mentalities interact with each other to form a field. Sometimes we unconsciously indulge ourselves, which nourishes our uncultivated side. Sometimes when I was with very diligent practitioners, I felt like I was dissolved into them. I had a feeling of being clear and transparent. This is not because I had cultivated well, but because the field was so righteous and so strong that it melted me.

The practitioners who work at materials production centers are members of the one body. They are closely connected, not only because they access the Internet, download, edit, print, and make Dafa materials for our region, not only because most of them are practitioners who have lived in this region and who have to stay away from home to avoid persecution, but also because they and other practitioners influence each other when they are in contact. When their attachments cannot be let go of for a long period of time, when they do not look inside enough, when they do not focus while studying the Fa (3), are these not our factors as well? Aren't we also facing these problems? It is not right to either consciously or subconsciously separate materials production centers from the whole body of practitioners.

Dafa practitioners are one body. When we have strong attachments, we are separating and disintegrating the one body. Where is the collective strength then? Thus it is crucial to form one body. When we treat fellow practitioners' things as their things only, we are not only pushing them away, but we are also gradually separating from the one body. It's not necessary for everybody to do the same thing. The key is whether we have the heart to treat fellow practitioners' things as our own things. If we have this heart, our energy field will be very strong. Many times, we confine ourselves to our own little spaces, and put ourselves in the center. For instance, where do we see ourselves in this incident? Where do we see the materials production center? Before the materials production center was destroyed, did I send righteous thoughts for its safety and normal operation? When we see the attachment in fellow practitioners, we should look inside to see if we've ever helped them. To every individual practitioner, the one body is formed automatically when we let go of human notions, and our true nature comes out more and more. If there are fewer human notions, there is more purity and wisdom. Practitioners who have cultivated very well are exactly the ones who have few attachments, and whose true nature is often at work. They may not have a lot of opportunities to share with fellow practitioners, but they work wherever Dafa needs him or her most. We all have a share of Dafa things to do; how we do it is a manifestation of one's xinxing [heart or mind nature, moral character], and it's how high a level one has cultivated to.

Not Waiting or Relying on Others -- Walking One's Own Path of Fa-Rectification

Due to the massive destruction of our material production centers, we encountered huge interference. We cannot get Teacher's new lectures and Clearwisdom Weekly on a timely basis and have no resources to make Dafa truth-clarifying materials. Articles exposing the evil that need to be sent to our website have to wait until we can get fellow practitioners in other cities to send them online. A lot of practitioners are taking the initiative to think independently about this. At the beginning, we didn't have many threads. However, very soon, fellow practitioners started exposing the evil and saving sentient beings according to their own situation. A lot of fellow practitioners started to write truth-clarifying articles. Most of the practitioners clarified the truth to people face to face. Some practitioners are setting up new Internet centers and materials production centers.

Looking back, we realized just how heavily our thoughts were based on waiting for and relying on others before the materials production center was destroyed, and those thoughts were pretty well hidden. We should have walked our own path, but we subconsciously gave the task to the fellow practitioners working for the materials production center. Our mentality was such that, if there are materials, we'll distribute them. If not, we'll keep waiting. In addition, we found an excuse to justify ourselves, "I have already distributed truth-clarifying materials. If there are more, I'll continue to distribute. But now haven't all the materials been distributed?" With the progress of time, our thoughts of waiting and relying became more and more prominent. This was avoiding the path we should walk. With regard to materials production centers and web browsing centers, Clearwisdom.net has long suggested spreading them everywhere. However, even in the former materials production center, there were just a few individual practitioners who knew how to connect to the Internet. Were we foregoing this responsibility because it was hard to learn? No, we were avoiding the issue, we were not willing to walk our own path of Fa-rectification.

If all of us can set up materials production centers everywhere, according to our own situation and xinxing, we would at least not put such a heavy workload on a just few practitioners. The practitioners making truth-clarification materials would not become the focal points for the evil. It is after paying such a heavy cost that we dare to face this issue and truly walk our own path of Fa-rectification.

Our local materials production centers were destroyed so badly, it is clear that each and every one of us has a share of responsibility. This lesson is for each and every one of us. It is our selfishness, fear, numbness, reliance on others and avoidance that gave the evil an excuse to destroy our materials production centers. We can't deny that this has something to do with each and every one of us. How to walk our path of Fa-rectification as one body is an important issue for us to pay attention to.

My level is limited. Fellow practitioners, please correct me if you see anything inappropriate or wrong.

Notes

(1) Materials Production Centers: In China, practitioners get together at "materials production centers" in order to share resources to produce truth-clarifying materials about Falun Gong. They do this because they are deprived of a legal environment to clarify the truth. The materials production centers are often run covertly, and run the risk of being destroyed by police if found.

(2) Internet Centers: Because it has been deemed illegal to access material about Falun Gong over the Internet in China, practitioners often download information at a central place to pass around. Since it is often run by practitioners who are technically skilled, police keep a sharp eye for Falun Gong Internet Centers and try to close them as soon as they find them.

(3) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.