(Clearwisdom.net) Over the years some practitioners have attempted to better understand the lecture given by Master in “Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”:
“As a matter of fact, with regard to the veteran students [that started] prior to the persecution, I raised all of you to your positions. As long as you can go about things with righteous thoughts and righteous actions you can protect yourselves perfectly well, and that applies as well for new students that joined later. It’s just that some students simply don’t have righteous thoughts. They have all the things in place, and yet when experiencing persecution they still look at things with a human mindset and still have a big pile of attachments. What is Master to do? ”
Some practitioners did not understand the above message for years. They thought, “If we are at our positions, shouldn't we be gods? Why do we still have so many tribulations and problems?” Furthermore, some practitioners have suffered from sickness karma, while others have been arrested by the Chinese Communist Party, and still others passed away. All these seem to contradict what Teacher said. I think their real problem is that they missed what Teacher said about needing to look inward and carry out Dafa's principles in daily life. They treated Dafa's principles as theories and knowledge, unconnected with their daily life. In life they still followed human ways of thinking and behavior.
In their perplexity some fellow practitioners put in a lot of effort in studying Dafa, sending forth righteous thoughts and doing the three things. It seems that they are very diligent. However, do their actions represent the meaning of someone “[raised to their] position”? Do they really have a totally different attitude towards their life?
One practitioner said, “As an example, by July 20, 1999, Teacher had placed us on top of a tall pyramid with supernormal abilities. At this point the first critical question is, 'Do we really believe we are on top of the pyramid?' Similarly, when Teacher says we are raised to our positions, do we really believe that we are, instead of merely saying that we are? This is the question that shows whether we have faith in Teacher and Dafa.”
What should be the attitude of those practitioners who are at their positions? Teacher told us many times that we are to assist Him in Fa-rectification, save sentient beings, and accomplish our historic mission.
This is our core objective. In “Dafa is Indestructible” from Essentials for Further Advancement II, Master states,
“As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that [you] rectify everything that is not righteous.”
The term, “most righteous”, should mean in total agreement with the Dafa. Conversely, “in total agreement with Dafa” must be righteous. However, we usually carry some human notions, attachments, etc. that occasionally appear. When this happens we know we are not righteous. The problem is that we do not make an attempt to correct ourselves. Instead, we say, “We are still cultivating, and this is why we are not there yet.” It is like we are using a golden bowl to beg for food or asking people to have pity on us, when we have a magic wand in our hand.
Regarding the issue of having faith in Teacher and Dafa, Teacher said recently in “Be More Diligent”:
“Don’t you say that you will do things however Master wants them done? (Disciples laugh) Then how could you have objections to what Master wants done?” “If Master asks you to work on higher-end society, just do it with righteous thoughts, and you will definitely succeed.“
Of course, in the process of carrying out what Teacher said, we may encounter difficulties involved in saving sentient beings and improving our xinxing. It is definitely not as easy as sitting on a sofa and drinking a cup of tea. However, as long as we are willing to look within ourselves and let go of negative thoughts, we will succeed. On the other hand, a lack of faith in what Teacher said, an attempt to validate oneself, or demanding that things should be a certain way, will generate interference with Fa-rectification.
Problems arise when a practitioner places more weight on human notions than what Teacher said, believes in his own knowledge more than Dafa, and ignores what Teacher told us in “Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”:
“That attainment status is unattainable by means of solely personal cultivation, it couldn’t be reached by ordinary cultivation means over eight, ten, or even a hundred lifetimes! (Applause) That’s because 1) you are lives saved by the Great Law; 2) you are Dafa disciples during the period of the Fa-rectification of the cosmos; and 3) you have the gigantic mission of saving sentient beings. And the lives you save are not ordinary either: many sentient beings have, like you, come from high levels. Dafa disciples have such a great mission, and that is why you can cultivate to such heights, validate an attainment status so great, and have such glorious achievements.”
Since this level of attainment status cannot be reached through ordinary cultivation even over a hundred lifetimes, why hold on to it? When we fail to replace our human notions with Dafa, or refuse to believe what we haven't seen or experienced, then we do not have enough righteous thoughts and will not display any power that accompanies righteous thoughts.
Over the years I have noticed that the difficulty some practitioners faced was because their understanding of Dafa remained on a theoretical level and did not exist in practice. If so, such a practitioner cannot be considered to have faith in Dafa. A person with strong righteous thoughts will automatically display them in his actions, because righteous thoughts and actions cannot be separated. People with righteous thoughts will automatically act in accordance with Dafa. It is not a case of planning to do something correctly. True cultivation is putting the principles into practice. Otherwise, at critical moments one will continue to hold on to human notions and attachments, and the old forces will see fit to persecute such a person, leading to interference with Fa-rectification.
This is my current understanding. Please point out anything that is improper.
