(Clearwisdom.net) As I write this article, I am very saddened due to the fact that some of the coordinators in our district were illegally arrested by the evil authorities. Some of them were immediately sent to a forced labor camp and others were tortured. Fellow practitioners have diligently sent forth righteous thoughts in an effort to rescue them. This was one of the greatest losses experienced over the past ten years of persecution in our local area. We asked ourselves why we had such loss during a time when the evil forces were less and the end of Fa-Rectification was approaching. The main coordinators in our town were all arrested and this was difficult for our town to overcome. After discussion, practitioners in our area have come to an understanding of this situation. We would like to share our understanding in an effort to eliminate any further interference.
The coordinators who were persecuted shared one thing in common - they were all very busy and did not study the Fa very often. Therefore, they had strong human thoughts. However, they did make an effort to clarify the truth to sentient beings. Some of them spent their savings on Dafa projects and were super busy doing all kinds of Dafa work. When someone needed them, they immediately helped out. Some of these practitioners did not even sleep much for several days at a time. In this way, they all became the backbone of the Dafa projects and thought of as very important to the success of truth clarifying activities.
One coordinator led many Dafa activities in the town. He won the recognition and devotion of many fellow practitioners. Actually, this in itself was already very dangerous for both this coordinator and fellow practitioners. He organized many Fa study sites in our town. He also delivered numerous truth clarifying materials to cities and villages throughout our area. This coordinator also created an information collection team to document the evil behaviors of persecutors. He hosted most of our meetings. Some practitioners said, “Our main coordinator is just like a team leader. He takes care of all kinds of things.” He did so much Dafa work that he did not have his own time to study Fa. His phone was always busy. And he was involved in everything that was going on with all practitioners and was a decision maker for every activity.
It was obvious that this coordinator did not have enough time to study Fa.
How would he be able to focus on Fa study? Some fellow practitioners realized this shortcoming and pointed out that he could not cultivate firmly without Fa study. Some practitioners told him, “You should stop. You should not keep busy like this.” He thought about this, too. He tried to stop everything for awhile and study Fa. He would settle down to study, but before long he was interrupted by someone in need.
When he was driving, he would ask someone to read Dafa. However, this was of course not respectful of Dafa. Since he did not study Fa well, his xinxing did not improve fast. He had narrow-minded understandings and was opinionated. That resulted in conflicts within his family. It seems he used his human thoughts to do Dafa work as a cultivator. He was admired for his Dafa work for several years and everything went well. The practitioner was reminded that Teacher said,
“The old forces haven't gone after you yet, but when you approach Consummation and reach the final stage, they will definitely stop you on account of this. At that time it will be too late for regrets." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005")
Teacher had reminded him that he needed to cultivate firmly. He tried to do better and decided he would study more after taking care of one more activity. The old forces knew he had very strong human thoughts and felt pride about the success of his Dafa projects. The old forces arranged so many things for him to do to keep him busy. This resulted in pride and never having enough time to study Fa.
When he was arrested, all the practitioners were shocked. They were depressed and did not know what to do next. Some practitioners were afraid for their own safety after his arrest and hid Dafa books and materials. Dafa is serious and everyone should treat the Fa as Teacher. The old forces took advantage of our attachments. Many practitioners finally realized the attachment of relying on coordinators even though coordinators did not study Fa. Teacher said,
“For instance, many people have done their cultivation by watching others and simply following suit instead of walking their own paths. The old forces thus make the person depart early, and use the occasion to see how people react and see if they keep cultivating. ” (Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference)
There was another coordinator who often set up conference meetings where practitioners sent out righteous truth material and saved sentient beings. They did very well. Under her influence, some practitioners who seldom participated in activities finally joined with others for Dafa work. She coordinated many things, as she said she was good at organizing activities. However, she did not study Fa either. She felt that her family negatively influenced her Dafa work and thus, she did not treat them very well. Fellow practitioners pointed out her shortcomings, but she did not want to listen. She was followed by the police even though she had paid attention to her safety and had not told anyone her cell number. Everyone sent righteous thoughts for her after she was arrested. However, we all knew that if she had studied Fa often and cultivated firmly, she would not be persecuted. We should look inward. Lots of coordinators did not truly cultivate themselves and had big gaps. We were all worried about it.
There was another coordinator who appeared to be quite bright and knowledgeable. He had no permanent home for several years and moved around quite a lot. Unfortunately he had some rather irrational understandings about Teacher and the Fa. He shared these understandings wherever he went. Some practitioners with a beginning level of understanding of the Fa were quite influenced by him. Some of these practitioners brought tens of thousands of Yuan to him to produce truth clarification materials or to purchase equipment for Dafa projects. Later, they learned that he did not treat practitioners' money as precious and spent what he wanted. He used practitioners' money to pay his rent or automobile expenses. The most concerning thing he did was to ignore practitioners who had little money. He looked for practitioners who had some financial wherewithal and persuaded them to make donations to him. He participated in lots of Dafa activities, but he did not cultivate himself. His attachments were very strong. He moved several times in a year. When he discovered he was being followed, he just moved away and left all his belongings and then rented another apartment. Every day, he seemed busy doing all kinds of things rather than cultivating. When he was arrested, I remembered Teacher's Fa:
“Indeed, there are many students who are incapable of earning money, but who have no problem at all spending it. (Audience laughs) However much it may be, they won’t hesitate to spend it, and they burn through it quickly with no thought about the results this will have, about where it came from, or what our situation will be later on [after the money has been spent]. They have no sense of responsibility. The gods are all watching angrily those who act this way. Wasting Dafa disciples’ resources is equivalent to interfering with and damaging Dafa. (Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference)
The illegal arrests and persecution of these practitioners is a huge loss for the local area and the universe. They were all arrested for different reasons, but what they had in common was that they did not do well enough at studying the Fa and cultivating themselves. If they had studied the Fa diligently and cultivated themselves, what amazing things they could have done! Then, Teacher and our fellow practitioners would all be very happy. One of the coordinators became destitute and homeless, but he still wanted to earn money to raise his child. One day, the authorities arrested his child and then arrested him.
Why was the greatest percentage of practitioners who were persecuted coordinators? I want to offer the following conclusions about this matter.
Coordinators should study the Fa diligently and study the Fa well. They should get rid of the attachment to “doing things” and cultivate firmly.
“Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it.” (Zhuan Falun)
No gaps will occur if one studies the Fa more and maintains strong righteous thoughts. The key is xinxing rather than doing things. Our fellow practitioners realized that the coordinators all studied the Fa very little every day and just wanted to “do things”. They liked to arrange conferences, but they did not share their Fa understandings. The Fa-rectification's end date is approaching. The coordinators should be more rational.
“All of our volunteer workers must first be genuine cultivators with high-level xinxing, as they are role models for xinxing cultivation. We do not need the types of leaders like those among everyday people.” (ESSENTIALS FOR FURTHER ADVANCEMENT - “It is not a Job, but Cultivation Practice”)
They should be open to allowing other practitioners to clarify the Fa in their own ways. They should especially be open about places used for making truth material and the way to save sentient beings. As I understand it, Teacher encourages us to do this. One of our coordinators felt our environment was very good and even did not care if the policemen knew we held a Fa conference. All the materials we produced were stored in the same place as they were produced. He was arrested and the material production sites were destroyed. As a result, the whole town's truth material production capabilities were paralyzed. Hong Yin III and Minghui Weekly had to be provided by practitioners from another town. This was a big lesson.
Our fellow practitioners should not rely exclusively and persistently on coordinators and admire them. They should cultivate themselves. Some practitioners cannot think for themselves and decide how to save sentient beings, but just ask coordinators to do everything instead. Some coordinators are good at resolving others' situations. If some practitioners did not agree with the coordinator, he would use the Fa to argue his point. As time went on, some fellow practitioners admired and relied on the coordinators more and more. When coordinators were persecuted, some practitioners responded, “ Can we succeed even though the coordinators were arrested? What's the next step?” Some Fa study teams were dissolved and some practitioners hid their books. The old forces took advantage of our gaps. Our attachments negatively influenced the coordinators.
News of the persecution has spread widely over the Internet. Everyone has different understandings, but from the losses experienced in our local area, we found that the true reason persecution occurred was because we did not follow our cultivation paths. The persecuted practitioners did not cultivate firmly and kept attachments such as lust, the competitive mentality or fear. Some wrote the “three guarantees” or just did the three things as a job without cultivating. Others did not have a clear understanding of the Fa. The evil's persecution is still aggressive, but the reason does not come from an outside force. The old forces power is quite weak now. We still harbor human thought and huge gaps exist which we may not even realize. That results in persecution. My understanding is that the Fa-rectification has already arrived at the surface level. The persecution, apparently, is actually delusion. The evil factors have used the evil authorities to force us to cultivate more quickly and firmly. If coordinators and fellow practitioners all cultivated diligently, we could not be persecuted. We can achieve consummation only if we truly cultivate ourselves.
Please kindly point out anything improper.