(Clearwisdom.net) There have been many recent cases of persecution of local practitioners in our area. When sharing with fellow practitioners, we mostly pointed out that our negating the old forces has not been thorough enough. Moreover, a common understanding was that, even if we do have omissions, the evil is not allowed to persecute us. Of course this understanding is correct. However, we usually unconsciously take this as an excuse for not looking within ourselves, as if our objective will be achieved simply by negating the old forces with righteous thoughts.

Through Fa study, I have realized that our consummation is achieved by cultivating ourselves, and not by our being against the persecution. This is the cultivation path that was arranged by Master. However, we sometimes walk along another path; that is the path arranged by the old forces to test Dafa and Dafa practitioners, and we should deny these arrangements with righteous thoughts at all times.

In fact, some cases of persecution were indeed negated by our righteous thoughts, and some have possibly been resolved by Master. However, this does not mean that we have improved or cultivated well. Why was the evil able to persecute us? The persecution has occurred, and so we must have attachments as well as aspects that we have not improved on according to Fa requirements. Therefore, while negating the persecution, we must still look within for our own gaps. In whatever we encounter, there is always an element for us to work on to improve our xinxing. Otherwise, we won't be able to reach Consummation, and the things we do don't equate to Fa-rectification cultivation. Think about those Law-guardian Gods; they are also eliminating the evil, but they cannot be called Dafa practitioners.

Some practitioners have encountered danger several times. Each time the danger was resolved, they did not look within, but they emphasized that they had negated the old forces with righteous thoughts. So let's think about this. Why is it that we negated it, but then it comes back again? The reason is that the attachment was not eliminated, and the attachment attracts the evil all the time. Master has taught us using the example that when the practitioner was terribly persecuted, he shouted, "Mother, Mother." This indicates that when we hold onto the human attachment and do not let it go, it is hard for Master to do anything. Now, even though when we are persecuted we wouldn't shout "Mother" like that practitioner in the very beginning, haven't we also been taken advantage of by the evil because of our human attachments to differing degrees? When we do not cherish the opportunities that Master has resolved for us one after another, and we instead hold onto the attachment and don't let it go until we are persecuted even more severely by the old forces, what can Master do? Can we ask Master to eliminate all the deities in the old cosmos?

Master said,

"So when you encounter those difficulties, do more checking on your own part, do things in a more upright way, and don't let the old forces take advantage of any gaps." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

This made me wonder why we were sometimes unsuccessful against the persecution and why our rescuing fellow practitioners did not go smoothly at times. It was because we usually forgot to check ourselves. Instead, we only focused on summarizing the experience when the rescue was a success. We have replaced cultivating ourselves with negating the persecution. Moreover, we sometimes did not even check on our own part when we failed. We knew that we had negated the path arranged by the old forces, but we had not made any progress on the path of cultivating our xinxing that was arranged by Master. As our attachments were covered up by the success, the evil tried its best many times to block our way and not allow us to succeed with the excuse of helping us to let go of our attachments. From another angle, if we just stop at the success against the persecution and forget to check ourselves, then isn't our negating the old forces still not thorough enough? If we forget Master's requirement to cultivate xinxing at all times, aren't we still influenced?

Whenever we do Dafa work, whether successful not, if we can first calm down to check for gaps in ourselves instead of immediately going to share successful experiences, I think only then will fellow practitioners indeed be respectful, and no evil can stop them. This will fundamentally negate the old forces' persecution.

The only way for us to cultivate well is to study the Fa more. When reviewing the recent persecution cases in Dalian City, our fellow practitioners have been persecuted one after another. While we were busy rescuing one practitioner and had not yet been successful, another practitioner was arrested, and the practitioner that was coordinating the rescue efforts had to be rescued. Are we doing things according to Fa principles? Every day we say that we should catch up on Fa study and practicing the exercises, but we usually don't do it until we complete all other things. But actually other things can never be completed, so the commitment to study the Fa and practice the exercises has become something easy to say and hard to do. This method is already deviated from the Fa. Though we have not been lax in doing things, few things were fruitful. When the first persecution case arose, we said that we'd like to look within and that we had an attachment to doing things. When the second persecution case arose, we said that we did not pay attention to safety. When the third case arose, we said that we had problems with our one-body. None of these was wrong, but none of these was the fundamental reason. The fundamental reason was that we did not study the Fa or cultivate well according to Master's requirements.

We should eliminate our attachments as soon as possible. While negating the old forces, let's not forget to look within to find our own gaps and strengthen our righteous thoughts. With pure righteous thoughts, let's wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the massive truth-clarification endeavor.

October 13, 2006