(Minghui.org) As Dafa disciples, we all know that the fundamental purpose of clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa is to save sentient beings, as Master pointed out a decade ago. Every practitioner should already know this. So why does Master need to address this again in his new article? The main reason is that many of our practitioners do not clarify the truth about Falun Dafa in depth to achieve the goal of saving people.
Before discussing this, let us first review some of Master's articles regarding this issue:
"Master has been watching over you as you have walked this path during these years. I used to often write short essays, which you refer to as jingwen. I was continually correcting you in your cultivation, telling you what to do."(What is a Dafa Disciple)
"That's why you often saw me publishing a variety of short articles meant to consistently correct your steps. "
"I continually corrected our Dafa disciples, directing them on how to walk well, and properly, their path of cultivation and saving sentient beings while resisting the persecution, as well as on how to better clarify the facts amidst the persecution." (Fa Teaching at the U.S. Capital)
"That is why I often tell you to study the Fa a lot as you cultivate and why I periodically publish articles meant to point out common problems, continuously correcting the direction of things. Even then, new problems do arise from time to time on your path of cultivation." (The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be)
"Only when problems arise in the body at large or that have to do with Dafa's overall situation, or when there's a problem with the situation of your validating Dafa, only then do I talk about it." (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003)
Reading Master's above articles, we understand that problems with our Dafa practitioners' truth clarification to save sentient beings need to be corrected. What are these problems?
I would like to talk about some of the problems I noticed for fellow practitioners' reference. For example, many Dafa practitioners’ children, parents, siblings, family, friends and neighbors have learned the truth, and know that Falun Dafa is good and the evil CCP is bad. They have also withdrawn from the CCP or its affiliated organizations. They belong to the saved sentient beings. But everyday people still have illness and death. When they have illness or face a difficult time, Dafa practitioners tell them to chant “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” to avoid those issues. Is this saving people? No. Those people have already been saved. This is using Dafa to cure everyday people’s illness and to protect everyday people to live a good life.
Do Dafa practitioners have this mission? Of course not. Being kind to others (in the form of family care) and using Dafa to treat illness are things of different nature, which cannot be confused. Illness, death and disasters are caused by their own karma accumulated during their lifetimes. If an everyday person is cured by chanting “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” haven't you pushed that karma which caused the illness and problems to Master? The everyday person’s illness is cured, their hardship is avoided, but Master has to suffer for them. In another case, a lot of fellow practitioners tell everyday people repeatedly to chant “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” to get blessings and protection after they finish clarifying the truth and helping them to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Dafa practitioners are to save people fundamentally to help then live through the great catastrophe and enter into the future. We do not have the duty of giving everyday people blessings or protection. Karma and predestined relationships of everyday people are very complicated. Shouldn't we get rid of our attachment to changing others' karma or predestined relationships? Of course, it is another issue if an everyday person wants to chant “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” from the bottom of his heart. That would show his attitude toward Dafa.
I see a trend of Dafa practitioners promoting chanting “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” to let everyday people get blessings and protection. Although this will have a positive effect on saving sentient beings, gradually many practitioners begin to think this is the meaning of Dafa saving sentient beings, and the key point of clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa. Is this clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa in depth? It cannot achieve the goal of helping people rationally choose between good and evil, and enter into the future. Remember the lesson of deviation from the Buddha’s Fa in Buddhism. Nowadays people who go to temples worship Buddha-- not to cultivate to be gods, but to ward off evil, get good fortune, blessings etc.
Some practitioners chant “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” to cure their sick oxen and horses. Some teach their children to chant to improve their grades. This is very common. It’s far from the purpose of clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa. Master did not arrange such a task for us.
Some fellow practitioners do not put effort into clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa and helping people to recognize the CCP’s true nature. Instead, they put a lot effort and money into making or distributing fine and expensive amulets, pendants, necklaces and other decorations printed with the words “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." This cannot make people understand the truth of Falun Dafa. These things are not necessary for saving sentient beings. We cannot take this as an important project. But some practitioners with human attachments spend a lot of effort on this, without putting much effort on clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa and exposing the CCP's lies. Some are even more confused. They organize drum teams, and set up Minghui Schools in China. Some only make Shen Yun DVDs, and do not make any truth clarification DVDs anymore.
In Mainland China, the Shen Yun DVDs are helpful in saving sentient beings to a certain degree. But the Chinese people's minds are poisoned by the CCP more severely than foreigners. It won’t work to replace truth clarification DVDs with Shen Yun DVDs to save sentient beings. It’s important to expose the CCP's lies to the Chinese people in Mainland China. I believe we should focus on making truth clarification DVDs in Mainland China. Making Shen Yun DVDs can be a separate project. How can we do basic truth clarification of Falun Dafa when we treat the Shen Yun show as so important. Isn’t this going to extremes?
There is another issue related to the quality of saving sentient beings. There was an article on Minghui published on January 14, in 2012 with title “We Must Be Thorough When We Clarify the Truth."(http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2012/3/20/132284.html) The article said a fellow practitioner with open celestial eye saw that Master would give a year-end summary for practitioners in different areas before the beginning of the New Year. Master was particularly serious and very anxious. It is mainly about truth clarification. Many Dafa practitioners do not emphasize clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa. They just focus on helping people quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, without paying attention to clarifying the truth. This results in low level salvation of all beings. Although some people withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, the lies that fill their minds have not been cleared. This year Master published "The Ultimate Objective of Clarifying the Truth." There are no coincidences for practitioners. We should seriously look inward, correct our own thoughts and actions as soon as possible, and clarify the truth of Falun Dafa in-depth. We should not go our own way following our own standard. Master has set the standard of the new universe! We cannot change that!
Some everyday people agree to quit the CCP and its affiliated organization because they are afraid of losing their lives in the upcoming disaster, without recognizing the CCP’s lies of slandering Dafa and Master and the evil nature of the CCP, especially students in school.
The fundamental purpose of clarifying the truth is to save sentient beings. So how do we clarify the truth of Falun Dafa to save sentient beings? Master’s new article "The Ultimate Objective of Clarifying the Truth" once again points out the direction for all Dafa practitioners. Master said:
"The CCP’s wicked propaganda has instilled the world’s people with lies that slander and defame Falun Gong, and this is meant to incite hatred against the Buddha Fa and Dafa disciples, who are on the path to divinity.” “If that is the case, then aren’t the world’s people in danger?”
This is the reason Dafa practitioners need to clarify the truth. The goal is to get rid of the evil’s lies and to enable people to see the CCP’s true nature, to clear away the sins committed by people against Gods and Buddhas, and to thereby save the world’s people.
We can see “to enable people to see the CCP’s true face, to clear away the sins committed by people against Gods and Buddhas” is the direction for Dafa practitioners in clarifying the truth. Only when Dafa practitioners clarify that the CCP’s slandering of Falun Dafa is fake and staged by the CCP will people not have hatred against Dafa, Master and practitioners. Exposing lies is the most important aspect for Falun Dafa practitioners' truth clarification.
The “family refused cult commitment card " which appeared in mainland China in November 2011 is the evil’s propaganda strategy. But everyday people do not understand that this relates directly to "Falun Dafa is not a cult." Imagine if everyone understood that the CCP is an evil cult, who would listen to it and sign the commitment card? Conversely, if a person's mind is still poisoned by the CCP to believe that "Falun Dafa is a cult," how could he (she) not have hatred and resist Falun Dafa?
In the current situation of Fa rectification, it is extremely important to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa, let people recognize the CCP's evil nature, and let the world see the ugly face of the CCP. Only when people understand the CCP's nature and withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, can we improve the quality of saving sentient beings. In order to persuade everyday people to quit the CCP, we must also get rid of the atheism installed in their minds by the CCP. This is also another key point of clarifying the truth. Otherwise everyday people will not believe that heaven will eliminate the CCP and it won't be easy for them to quit the CCP. (I hope Minghui will also publish articles on getting rid of atheism.)
For over ten years, Master has alway talked about the fundamental purpose of clarifying the truth and what truth we should clarify. If we search Master’s lectures from the past thirteen years, you will find many occurrences of the words “lies”and “clarify the truth and save sentient beings” in them. If you search "obtaining Good Fortune” or "ensuring their safety" in Master’s lectures, you will not find them. While clarifying the truth and persuading people to quit the CCP, many fellow practitioners have attachments. They are attached to bringing benefits to people. This is good from the viewpoint of the human level. They cannot completely follow the guidance of Fa principles. But it results in the deviation of truth clarification: the emphasis instead falls on letting people get blessings by chanting “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and fine decorations. Not paying enough attention to exposing the lies and letting people recognize the CCP's evil nature, neglecting to get rid of atheism imparted by the CCP, and not directly clarifying that "Falun Dafa is not a cult" does not clarify the most important truth.
