(Clearwisdom.net) Master said in "Be More Diligent,"
"I can see that everything is heading into the final stage. It's just that many people are afraid to acknowledge this reality and its progressive unfolding; that the number of lives to be saved before the final moment arrives has not reached the amount it should; and that there is still a portion of Dafa disciples that hasn't kept up. That is the key reason why the end of this undertaking still hasn't been enacted."
I felt awful after studying Master's teaching. No words can express what great lengths our revered Master has gone to provide salvation to each Dafa disciple. The Fa principles tell us that when a being can obtain the Fa, he is the most fortunate; but as soon as he loses the Fa, what he faces is truly horrific. We cannot leave anyone behind. Master still wants to give them a chance and is still waiting for them to keep up. Master, I feel ashamed! We haven't got all the practitioners back who have stepped off the path of cultivation yet. Master is worrying about us!
Take my local area as an example. Before July 20, 1999, there were nearly one thousand practitioners here. At just one Fa-study group, there were over one hundred practitioners. At that time, we set up a stage and used several amplifiers to play the exercise music. It was very moving to see everyone getting together to study the Fa and do the exercises. After July 20, 1999, many of them stopped practicing cultivation because of fear and momentary confusion due to the evil's harsh persecution. Some just kept practicing at home but didn't dare to come out to validate the Fa. Why did this situation happen? After sharing with fellow practitioners in my local area, I enlightenmented to the following:
1. Not Studying the Fa is the Root Cause
Most of the local practitioners obtained the Fa between 1997 and 1998. During that period the Fa was actively being spread here. Whenever there was an ordinary event or activity, there were practitioners there spreading the Fa. Within just two years, over one thousand people in our area obtained the Fa. Why was the atmosphere so good at that time? Let me talk about an older practitioner. When this practitioner obtained the Fa, he deeply felt that Dafa was what he had been looking for, was very righteous, and wished that everyone could obtain the Fa as well. Therefore, he attended every activity he could that spread the Fa. Before that, the practitioner successively held the director's post in several towns. He was respected and did many good things during his tenure, so people in the township and the village all knew him. Therefore, after hearing him say that Falun Dafa was good, many people came to study the Fa, and many coordinated with him to spread the Fa. More and more people came to practice Falun Dafa.
After July 20, 1999, the evil in our area persecuted Dafa practitioners very severely. The Communist regime used all the media and every means to slander Master and Dafa. In this atmosphere of terror, practitioners couldn't study the Fa calmly or get together to do the exercises publicly as before. Many practitioners watched and waited to see what this older practitioner would do. During the persecution, although the evil often came to trouble him, he still firmly believed in Master and Dafa, kept on truly practicing cultivation, and completely denied the persecution. However, fellow practitioners didn't see this. They just saw the superficial ways in which the practitioner was persecuted, and therefore wrongly thought that they couldn't cultivate anymore since the older practitioner had been subjected to the persecution. Some even stopped practicing. This was the result of following someone else instead of the Fa.
Master said,
"Since cultivation is something that you must do proactively, out of your own will, when you are tempted by profit and gain, or when you suffer the wrenching pain in connection to your reputation and emotions, you must really be able to readily let go of those things, and only then will things work out for you. So, when you all do well after seeing someone else do well, or don't do well after seeing him not do well, and all of you are like this, then you are as good as thrusting that person into peril. In that case, your human attachments hasten his departure. The old forces thus seize upon this, and don't let him live, for their stance is that he affected a great many people who looked to him and didn't really cultivate. Were those people really making the grade? Could they really cultivate? Was their cultivation real or not? Only when a person does his own cultivation does it count. So, they really seize upon this handle, and it's hard for Master to do anything about it. That's because they have seized upon a principle, and say, "Look at all those people--who among them is really cultivating? We have to get this person out of the way." This is why it's imperative that you walk your own path in cultivation. You absolutely must cultivate yourself." ("Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference")
2. Being Lost in Tribulations
Most of the local practitioners are farmers who are very busy with farm work. Compared with practitioners working in town, we have a hard time studying the Fa and doing the exercises. Before the persecution, when the environment was comfortable and open, most would bear suffering and walked a long way to attend Fa-study groups because everyone freely practiced Falun Dafa. After July 20, 1999, the environment became very different. Practitioners had to temper themselves both physically and mentally, and came across great tribulations. Some couldn't bear such stressful pressure and were lost in tribulations, which caused them to stop practicing.
Master said,
"When a being can obtain the Fa today in history, it's no ordinary thing--he's so fortunate! But as soon as he loses the Fa, do you know what he faces? It's really horrific, because when he fails to fulfill the major responsibilities and the huge missions that were bestowed upon him, then, accordingly, that's like the inverse of a being's Consummation, and he will truly have to enter the gate of no-life. You folks can't just go and abandon a person without trying hard enough. No matter what kind of mistakes someone has made, or what kind of a person he is, I still want to give him a chance." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
We came down to the Three Realms with Master to assist in Fa-rectification. We have waited for millions of years to obtain the Fa. This is not an ordinary thing at all; this is a matter of life and death! Someone said that if he didn't cultivate well this time, he would wait for the period after Fa-rectification, and become a great cultivator then. My fellow practitioners, there is not another chance for Fa-rectification Period Dafa disciples who didn't cultivate well this time!
Actually, practicing cultivation involves suffering; it requires us to knowingly lose our vested interests. This is what cultivation is. By suffering, we can eliminate karma and get rid of attachments. For all the hardships Master has endured for us, and knowing that He has arranged all the very best things for us, we should be able to cultivate ourselves well while passing tests. Regarding the persecution by the evil, we should deny all the persecution and cultivate ourselves at the same time. It is impossible to become a Buddha through practicing comfortably and restfully.
3. Taking Away Bad Things from Experiences Blocks Our Cultivation Path
Another reason that the practitioners here stopped practicing is that when coming across some troubles or tribulations, they didn't look inward and enlighten. Instead, they often learned lessons from the negative aspect. For instance, once a practitioner was illegally arrested. The first thought fellow practitioners had was to blame the practitioner, saying that he had loopholes which were taken advantage of by the evil. After learning that this practitioner distributed truth-clarifying materials with several practitioners and that the police found materials in his home, others then concluded they couldn't go out and clarify the truth with fellow practitioners together, that they couldn't bring materials with them when going out, and that they should put materials in a place where nobody else could find them before going out to clarify the truth. In this way, the more conclusions they came to, the more crafty they became; the more they concluded, the heavier their human attachments were. They neither measured the situation with the Fa nor did they see it as an opportunity to look within as a cultivator. As another example, the older practitioner's son was promoted to be a village head. From an ordinary person's perspective, the son was worried about local practitioners' safety and told some practitioners, "You guys should be careful. If my father is picked up and illegally detained, I can vouch for him. But if any persecution happens to you, who would come to help you? You would be on your own!" Because he was not a practitioner, he could not know that Master is looking after us every minute. The son meant it as a kind reminder. However, some practitioners understood it differently, thinking that this was a warning to them. As it so happened, the older practitioner was released on the same day he was arrested, just as his son warned the other practitioners. Some practitioners then totally agreed with him, worrying that they did not have someone to protect them as the older practitioner did. They forgot that practitioners have Master's protection and they thought they would have to protect themselves, and therefore they stopped practicing cultivation.
Master said,
"Once a Dafa disciple is here among men for this affair, he must rely on Dafa if he is to tell right from wrong. One enters into illusion upon joining the world of mortals, and so no one can see the reality of things very clearly. Only from this Fa can you gain guidance on how to conduct yourselves. Thus, real experience over these years has born out that with good Fa-study a Dafa disciple can avoid losing his bearing, and no matter how complicated this society may be, or how much things may be in flux, he can, if he manages to truly align his cultivation with the Fa, not be led astray by the false appearances here--even as a range of human attachments, thoughts, temptations, and things that may stir up attachments as well as all sorts of superficial things, conspire to interfere with his cultivation." ("Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference")
If we use human notions and attachments instead of the principles of the Fa to tell right from wrong, we will be lost in superficial things. We came to help Master with Fa-rectification. What we are facing are the old forces and the meddling deities that have a hand in interfering with Fa-rectification. If we are absent from the Fa, the old forces and meddling deities can easily interfere with our thinking. How can we not be persecuted by the meddling deities, then? During these years, the older practitioner let go of the attachment to life and death and clarified the truth about Falun Gong with confidence and dignity. He truly cultivated himself and put himself in the Fa and saving sentient beings. As a result, he passed through various tribulations and tests even though the evil harassed him.
Dear fellow practitioners, come back! Don't be lost in tribulations. Master is waiting for you!