(Clearwisdom.net)
Study the Fa Well, and Getting Rid of Attachments is Not Hard
This article is very well done. Those students who are still not clearheaded about the methods Dafa disciples are using to validate the Fa and save all beings should read this article. Even though the article is not as comprehensive as it could be and is limited in its depth, it is clear about everything that Dafa disciples should do to validate the Fa and save beings.
The fact is, those who can't step forward, regardless of the excuse, are concealing fear. Yet for cultivators, fear or lack thereof proves [one's] humanity or divinity, and it is what differentiates cultivators from ordinary people. It is something that a cultivator must face, and the biggest human attachment that a cultivator must remove.
Li Hongzhi
July 20, 2005
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Master said in Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago, "The only thing you have a role in is saving people." I have come to many understandings after reading Master's words, and would like to share my thoughts with those fellow practitioners who still have human attachments and look at validating the Fa with human attachments.
First, we should clearly understand that Master's Fa-rectification is saving all beings. No matter what kind of beings they are, as long as they do not commit crimes against the Fa-rectification, even the CCP, such an evil spirit that has committed so many crimes in history, as long as it did not commit crimes against the Fa-rectification, their situation can be benevolently resolved and they can be saved. How immense Master's benevolence is! How inconceivably magnificent the Fa-rectification is! So during this special period in history, as Falun Dafa disciples who are helping Master in Fa-rectification, everything that we are doing should revolve around the needs of the Fa-rectification and for what is needed for saving all beings. The basis for everything that we do is saving all beings, and that is why Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa disciples are truly magnificent. When we study the Fa and cultivate ourselves well, it is done so that we can better save the sentient beings in our own realms. Our sending forth righteous thoughts is to eliminate those unsalvageable beings who have sinned against the Fa-rectification, so that more lives that can be saved will be saved. The reason we clarify the truth is to save more sentient beings of gigantic celestial systems. However, every step of the way during Fa-rectification, there are some fellow practitioners who look at the Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings with human mentalities. They always wonder if we are competing with people and if we are getting involved with politics. Let's look back and analyze things step by step.
From 1999, when the persecution started, to 2000, many fellow practitioners had doubts about whether we should step forward to validate the Fa, wondering if doing so and going to Beijing was fighting with people and opposing the government. There were really quite a lot of people like this at the time. In fact, if we look at these things based on the Fa, why would we step forward--was it for fame, personal gain or to go against something? Falun Dafa practitioners don't retaliate when physically or verbally attacked. We are not attached to anything in this world. So then why are we stepping forward? On one hand it's a matter of looking at ourselves, seeing if as beings cultivating in Falun Dafa, whether we can step forward to validate Falun Dafa when the Fa is being persecuted. On the other hand, it was to save sentient beings; as wave after wave of practitioners stepped forward, it helped more and more sentient beings see through those slanderous lies and clearly see the Falun Dafa disciples' steadfast faith and great compassion and forbearance. This led those sentient beings to no longer commit crimes against Falun Dafa and Dafa disciples. Therefore, if we could understand things based on the Fa, then we can step forward with a clear understanding of why we did so. History has proven that the Falun Dafa disciples' stepping forward has played a very important role in saving all beings. However, practitioners who looked at this with human attachments were only cultivating themselves and looking after themselves, ignoring the welfare of the Fa and the sentient beings. From a certain perspective, those practitioners' behavior seemed to be very similar to that of the old forces--focusing on their own selfishness.
By 2001, most disciples had stepped forward to save sentient beings. Master published new articles, requiring disciples to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate those rotten demons that persecute the Fa, thereby reducing the evil's interfering with and damaging Fa-rectification. At that time, many disciples recognized the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts, but some with a lot of human attachments could not look at this based on the Fa. Their main notion was about whether sending forth righteous thoughts was compassionate, and they wondered if this could be done. Actually, looking at things from a different perspective, practitioners with those kinds of thoughts should look at themselves--oftentimes these thoughts came about because their attachment of being competitive was not removed during personal cultivation, and they were validating the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts while carrying this attachment. If one sends forth righteous thoughts without those attachments, one would be doing so with pure compassion. The Fa has its standards, and allowing those beings that are damaging the Fa free rein is being irresponsible to sentient beings.
In fact, when we look at things based on the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts is also saving sentient beings. Setting aside saving the sentient beings in our own realms, let's look at saving sentient beings in other celestial systems. We can see that when the evil factors pressed down, if we do not eliminate them, they would manipulate sentient beings to sin against Falun Dafa and Dafa disciples. What would be the result, then? Those factors would be destroyed, and because the people who were controlled by them participated in persecuting Dafa disciples, they also face the danger of being eliminated. In addition, those higher beings that controlled the evil factors are also facing elimination. It's easy to see how many beings are being eliminated, right? But if we eliminate such evil factors through sending forth righteous thoughts, then those people being controlled and the higher beings would be prevented from committing crimes against Falun Dafa, so wouldn't they then have hope for not being weeded out? Then aren't we saving sentient beings when we send forth righteous thoughts? Then for practitioners who send forth righteous thoughts with human attachments, if they cannot clear away the evil factors well, how many beings will be weeded out as a result? Then did they fulfill their mission of saving sentient beings?
Master has taught us many ways to stop the evil, including,
"If the wicked policemen and the bad people can't be dissuaded and persist in doing evil, you can stop them with righteous thoughts. When Dafa disciples have strong righteous thoughts and no fear, they can use righteous thoughts to turn the tables on the evildoers. Whether it's when the wicked policemen are using electric batons or when bad people are injecting drugs to persecute you, you can use your righteous thoughts to redirect the electric current or the drugs back to the person doing violence to you. You can do it with or without your palm erected--it works as soon as your righteous thoughts emerge." (Stop the Evil Acts with Righteous Thoughts)
"For this reason, all Dafa disciples, new and veteran students alike: when you send righteous thoughts, besides the targets that you specifically lock in to, aim directly at those dark minions and completely eliminate them. Along with this, when you send righteous thoughts you need to have your mind be more focused, purer, and steadier, so as to mobilize your greater abilities, disintegrate all of the dark minions and rotten demons, and eliminate the final disruptions that are in other dimensions (Eliminate the Dark Minions With Righteous Thoughts)."
What exactly is the purpose? Master explained clearly,
"The basis of what Dafa disciples do is saving people and doing good. These righteous thoughts are to stop wicked people from doing evil, to warn other bad people, and to prevent the world's people from committing sins, and their purpose is still to save all beings." (Stop the Evil Acts with Righteous Thoughts)
We restrain the evil in order to stop it from sinning against Falun Dafa, and this is fundamentally for their own good and is to save them from committing unforgivable crimes.
As Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa disciples, at this point we should clearly know what we are doing. The only thing we have a role in is saving people, right? What do we have to do with ordinary people's competitiveness, conflicts, and political campaigns? We have nothing to do with any of that. We are cultivating to become beings of the upright Fa and True Enlightenment, beings of selflessness and altruism. Everything that we are doing is helping Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings.
The Fa-rectification has reached a new stage after the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published. Like before, some fellow practitioners are looking at this new situation with their human attachments unconsciously formed under the Party culture's muddling influence, and their minds became tangled. What exactly are we doing? We are saving all beings! Looking at it from another angle, if we don't help people to see the true nature of the CCP and withdraw in time, where will they be heading? They would be weeded out because gods will not allow these beings to exist in the new cosmos. If we do not save them, they will be weeded out. If we want to save them, then we must help them become free from this evil spirit. Isn't this the case? Over the course of a long period of time, Mainland Chinese have been inundated with the concept that the Party is "great, glorious, and correct." After many years of being infused with this, many ways of thinking have been immersed and trapped by it. So some fellow practitioners can't make the change in mindset quickly because of their human attachments and inability to look at things based on the Fa. Even if we look at this from a human perspective, people should distinguish good from evil. If something is evil, shouldn't people resist it? But when someone does resist the evil, it labels him as getting political--isn't that such a low act? Of course, we are not doing this for some purpose in this world; fundamentally, the only thing we have a role in is saving people, isn't that right?
To those fellow practitioners in China who still look at the Fa-rectification with human attachments, it is time to seriously look inside. What is our basis for looking at things? What exactly are we doing? Why do we still have such heavy human attachments? The remaining time for us is so limited and getting shorter by the minute. Let us treasure this final moment and finish our journey well in a pure manner. Let us save all beings, those beings that have put their boundless hope in us.
The above are personal understandings. Please correct anything that is incorrect.