(Clearwisdom.net) At dinner time, I turned on the television, and the screen showed the following lines, "I tell myself not to take myself as a victim. Once I think of myself in some way, others will treat me that way." These words made a big impression on me and have allowed me to gain some insights into some issues that I have encountered recently.
We Dafa practitioners are not the victims of ordinary people, and neither should we consider ourselves as "victims". Victims are helpless ordinary people who get hurt, while Dafa disciples, even though still amidst this interference and tribulation of the persecution, are on the path toward divinity.
After the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) hideous crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners was exposed, I heard that a small number of practitioners wondered why Master had not prevented this tribulation. They wondered why Master had not told practitioners ahead of time that this tribulation was about to happen so as to let the practitioners take cautionary actions in exposing and stopping this crime. However, my understanding is that this is a serious test to the cultivation maturity of the practitioners around the world.
Dafa practitioners are the future Buddhas, Taos, and Gods, and in the cosmos, except for Master, there is no one who can change Dafa practitioners' cultivation paths, nor is there any life that can directly persecute and harm Dafa disciples.
"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts. Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those thoughts they can't do anything. " ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
Once our thoughts are not righteous enough, or once we do not have enough faith in our own extraordinariness and sacredness, we equate ourselves with the victims of ordinary people. This then leaves a gap for the evil to exploit, and aggravates and extends the "persecution". It also makes it difficult for ordinary people to sense the practitioners' goodness, purity, and compassion. Ordinary people thus see us as a group of ordinary victims who are trying to save ourselves.
So when Dafa practitioners' thoughts are reflected into the ordinary society, the following takes place: People can understand that Dafa is being persecuted, but most of them hold a sympathetic mentality of "Oh, what a pity" or, "Oh, it is really horrible," as if they had heard something peculiar, towards Dafa practitioners and this persecution. They just let it go without really showing, in a stronger way, their sense of righteousness, or support of Dafa practitioners. Therefore, in ordinary human society, it is difficult to forge an even stronger awareness and social environment to end this persecution.
This is not an issue of whether ordinary people have good enlightenment quality or not, because we Dafa disciples should not rely on ordinary people. Fundamentally, it is caused by the very thought of how we Dafa practitioners have viewed ourselves. If practitioners have failed to firmly treat themselves as great, high-level beings, this very thought, which has a loophole, will be enough to dramatically weaken Dafa disciples' mighty divine power. It will make practitioners unable to move ordinary people, and make people unable to acknowledge and respect Dafa. This further diminishes Dafa practitioners' power of saving people. If amidst the tribulations, Dafa practitioners fail to use their righteous thoughts to understand and view their own historic missions and cultivation paths, Master and the guardian gods of the Fa will have great difficulty helping us.
Therefore, I, at my limited level, believe that Dafa practitioners should first seriously realize that we are high-level beings who are walking toward divinity and who have mighty divine powers. It is because we are of that high a level and have that immense power that we are able to shoulder such a huge historic responsibility and mission. We should not so simply and helplessly consider ourselves as victims. We should not even get affected by this persecution, thus allowing fear, pain, sorrow, and other human mentalities to form in ourselves. This persecution is a test and a tribulation that we must pass on our cultivation paths. Amidst this limited period of the tribulation, it will be decided whether or not a Dafa disciple can cultivate out, pass the tribulation, and save sentient beings. He or she will either succeed in cultivation through the tempering, or be washed out. Also, Dafa practitioners, while facing this tribulation, should not just passively react to the new situations that have appeared during the persecution while not taking the appropriate action. Otherwise, isn't it the same as our righteous cultivation being led by the tribulations? How can enlightened beings be controlled by demons? They definitely cannot. We should not only expose the various damages that the persecution has caused, but we should also even more actively use the wisdom and power that Master has given us to come up with all means and try all channels to end this persecution. We should eliminate all the evil beings that damage Dafa, that interfere with the Fa-rectification, and who are not salvageable. Only this is the reflection of an enlightened beings' genuine divine power and compassion.
Sentient beings worship, respect and follow gods not only because gods have boundless power and can perform miraculous acts; it has to do more with gods being noble, sacred, and benevolent high-level beings. In other words, because gods can always manifest their compassion, kindness, and noble morality, sentient beings can feel gods' compassionate and wonderful energy field. Thus, without even using words, ordinary people's Buddha nature or the side that understands "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" will manifest, and guide ordinary people to follow the will of Heaven and get on the path of being saved.
Therefore, whenever we clarify the truth or expose the persecution, whether at public or private occasions, we should always have kindness and compassion in our words and actions. We should be mindful of whether we have the noble morality and positive energy that cultivators of a righteous way should have. It is not wrong that one, while clarifying the truth, emphasizes disclosing all kinds of crimes that the evil party has committed. However, that is not our goal. "The most important goal in clarifying the truth is to save all beings." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference") Isn't it right that saving sentient beings exactly requires us to always show our great benevolence during our clarifying the truth? During the process of truth-clarification, there are many ordinary people saying, "Falun Gong has always kept resisting the persecution and pointing out the evilness of the Chinese Communist Party. Your comments are very thorough and to the point; however, for us who have not practiced Falun Gong, we seem to have not been able to sense the wonderful side of Falun Gong."
Of course, "Ordinary people can't affect cultivators. Cultivators can't be affected by ordinary people." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference," February 26, 2005)However, just because those we want to save are ordinary people, how ordinary people feel about us and whether they can understand us has become an important aspect in our reexamination of ourselves. Take Taiwan as an example: many people know that the Communist Party is bad, but they cannot understand what Falun Gong is. They may have heard that Falun Gong is being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party, but they do not know what Falun Gong really is and why Falun Gong has attracted one hundred million followers, and even triggered the government officials' jealousy and worry. Doesn't this tell us that we, to a certain degree, have not done well for a long time in this regard? Because we often put much of our efforts in clarifying the truth and resisting the persecution in the local areas, and even in the various experience-sharing conferences, Fa studies, and project meetings, big or small, we seem to have forgotten to actively introduce the goodness of Falun Dafa's teachings and practice to people. This situation has caused many ordinary people to pause in their understanding of Dafa, more or less, on the level of "a group of people being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party." They cannot further elevate their understanding to "a group of noble individuals being maliciously attacked." In this way, it will be not easy for us to alarm the ordinary people, and waken up their Buddha nature, sense of righteousness, and sense of justice.
As beings who are walking toward Consummation, the goal of our clarifying the truth is to assist Master in rectifying the Fa and save sentient beings. However, in terms of the formats of our clarifying the truth, besides exposing to people the persecution that Dafa has encountered, we need to, at the same time, introduce the practice of Dafa. For example, promoting the Fa could be accomplished by going to various public places to practice the exercises in groups on the weekends or holidays, or using other means to promote Dafa. This way we can help more people get in touch with Dafa and come to understand the goodness of Dafa. This is the same as guiding people to understand the truth of Dafa in a positive way, and waking up their kind side and their sense of righteousness. Dafa disciples are using their own righteous thoughts to create an enormous field of righteousness and envelope ordinary people in this field. Doing it this way can, on one hand, help to integrate all Dafa practitioners and all sentient beings into a gigantic body, to disintegrate the evil and end the persecution. On the other hand, it can help protect and save sentient beings and fulfill our prehistoric vows.
As my level is limited, please point out anything that is improper.
July 11, 2006