(Clearwisdom.net) Reading a January 10, 2008, article on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom), "An Initial Understanding of Enduring Hardships," [English translation is not available] I would like to share my perspective on the same topic. Please point out anything inappropriate.
I do not think we should endure the "hardship" the old forces forced on us during the Fa-rectification cultivation period. We should eliminate and negate it.
When I first started making "truth-clarification" materials, it was only the two of us--one other practitioner and me. We had to buy supplies from a place very far from us. The most difficult thing to transport was paper. I grew up in a very comfortable environment. I did not think I could carry a box of paper. Once, when I carried a box of paper upstairs, I was surprised to realize that it was very easy for me to lift. At that time I did not have righteous thoughts, and I did not realize it was Master helping me. Then I suddenly thought, "Oh, no. This must be only a half box of paper. I need to check it. If it is really a half box, I will have to go back to the supplier." Then I could no longer lift it!
Later on, when I distributed the materials, I tried to overcome my human notions. Whenever I was so tired that I could no longer carry the materials, I always recited Master's poem:
"A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
Free of attachment to living or dying
He walks the path of Fa-rectification
Confident and poised" ("Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions" in Hong Yin II)
Now I am no longer afraid of carrying heavy loads. I have improved my xinxing and level. I know this is the hardship I have to endure during cultivation.
Some practitioners go to the countryside to clarify the truth. They usually have to ride a bicycle for several hours to go through several villages. It is quite tiring. Overseas practitioners send righteous thoughts and clarify the truth in front of Chinese embassies, no matter how cold or how hot the weather is. They have endured this hardship. This is practitioners' establishing mighty power. They are all great.
However, we must completely negate some of the tribulations the old forces have imposed on practitioners during the Fa-rectification cultivation period.
Not too long ago, a local practitioner became homeless due to the persecution. Fellow practitioners were trying to help her find new lodging, but there were differences of opinion among practitioners. One practitioner said, "My relative has a house. But there is no heat in winter. You would have to set it up yourself." Others said, "It is still better than nothing. For the hardship you are supposed to endure, you should take it on." However, the practitioner in question realized, "I became homeless. To some degree, it might be because of my own loopholes. But this cannot become an excuse for the evil to continue to persecute me and interfere with my cultivation and my efforts to offering sentient beings salvation. We are in the Fa-rectification period. I need to focus my energy on saving sentient beings. I should have a stable environment to do the three things steadfastly. If I live in that house, heating it would be time-consuming. It would affect my Fa study time and my time for sending righteous thoughts. I am not afraid of hardships. But if it is not something I am supposed to endure, I absolutely refuse to take it on! The evil wants to take advantage of me and have me walk on the path the old forces arranged for me. I will not let it happen!"
Results lie merely in the difference of one thought. Master has arranged everything well. This practitioner returned to her temporary lodging and studied the Fa calmly. Two days later she suddenly thought of a suitable place to live and went there. Within an hour she had found a one-bedroom apartment and signed the lease without showing her identification card or going through the local police precinct. She moved in on the third day and continued to do Dafa-validating work.
Master said,
"It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
If Falun Gong practitioners cannot clearly recognize this truth and merely consider every tribulation as a test they need to pass, or an attachment they need to eliminate, they will be unable to escape the trap the old forces have set. Didn't you bring the "hardship" on yourself? The practitioner might have come to a certain agreement with the old forces during a prehistoric period, but she should now completely negate it. Falun Gong practitioners' main responsibility should be to offer sentient beings salvation. We should completely recognize that this tribulation is interference to our cultivation and our efforts of saving sentient beings. We should completely negate anything from the old forces and send righteous thoughts to eliminate evil factors. In the meantime, Fa study will improve our xinxing and automatically eliminate the attachment to emotions.
From studying Master's Fa I came to understand that in the old cosmos, the deviated complex thoughts of different levels of beings are truly garbage. Falun Gong practitioners are establishing the future. Practitioners are beings walking toward the new cosmos. We should not think that the more hardship we endure, the more mighty virtue we establish. Fa-rectification cultivation requires us to maximally conform to the ways of ordinary society while cultivating, perfecting ourselves, and offering sentient beings salvation. We should completely negate any "hardship" forced on us and eliminate it with our righteous thoughts.