We Should Be Impervious to External Changes and Continue to Cultivate Ourselves

With the rapid progress of the Fa-rectification and the massive annihilation of the evil elements from other dimensions, as well as the ongoing work of Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside of China in exposing the persecution and the truth about Falun Gong, the external environment of some regions in China has improved lately for Falun Gong practitioners. We Falun Gong practitioners in China are supposed to use every opportunity to help more people understand and accept the truth about Falun Gong and to do the three things well so as to help Teacher save more people in China. Unfortunately, we have seen that many fellow practitioners in some areas of China have become less rational and have even compromised their attention to security because of their attachments. Some practitioners have radically interpreted Teacher's lectures to meet their attachments. Some of them appear to have fallen prey to the exploitation of the dark minions in other dimensions as they kept feeding their attachments until these attachments cause them to be arrested by the police. As a result of the attachments of these practitioners, the police have found and destroyed many material production sites and arrested a large number of Falun Gong practitioners. The effort to reveal the truth in these affected areas has, thus, been significantly hampered.

We must wake up and learn from these painful lessons. We must be impervious to the external changes and continue to cultivate ourselves. We cannot always wait until our attachments have caused substantial damage before calming down and searching inward for our attachments.

Next, I would like to share with fellow practitioners the common problems we have observed, as well as my humble insights into these problems.

We Should Be All the More Clearheaded and Rational When the Situation Improves; We Must Not Regard Fa-Rectification with Any Human Notions

In 2002, the Chinese police conducted a massive raid of many Falun Gong material production sites in XX city in northeast China and arrested many Falun Gong practitioners, who were later illegally sentenced to prisons or forced labour camps. As a result of the massive raids and arrests, the truth-clarification work in that city was paralysed for some time.

Finally, the Falun Gong practitioners in XX city overcame many difficulties and dangers and worked together to build multiple material production sites and locations where local practitioners could safely access the Internet. Despite the difficult situation, they worked cohesively and complemented each other's work. As a result, more and more local practitioners stepped forward again. They started to participate in the truth-clarification¹ work, and thus improved the local environment for Falun Gong practitioners and their truth-clarification work. The environment continued to improve. At the beginning of 2004, a determined Falun Gong practitioner from a particular county of XX city was released from the forced labour camp. Because the persecution in that county was extremely severe, he used every opportunity to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the people around him. His admirable speeches and actions gradually won the hearts and approval of the folks in the county, who then began to support Falun Gong. The practitioner also successfully encouraged fellow practitioners in the county to step forward and help clarify the truth.

When Falun Gong practitioners in that county read "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People (With Master's Comments)" published on a Falun Gong website, they began using every opportunity to reveal the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong to the local residents. The determined Falun Gong practitioner wrote down his personal experiences as a victim of the persecution, signed the article with his real name, and published it on the Falun Gong website, Clearwisdom.net. Next, he made a large number of copies of his story and started to distribute them as one of the truth-clarification materials to local residents. Because of the collective efforts of all the Falun Gong practitioners in that county, the depraved people assisting the CCP in persecuting Falun Gong began to change. They started to call those Falun Gong practitioners that they had severely persecuted in the past and apologise to them. Some of them even gave Falun Gong practitioners a sack of flour as a gift. After witnessing the positive impact on those depraved government officials, many villagers in the county became all the more interested in learning the truth about Falun Gong. Some of them even started to practise Falun Gong.

After they heard about that person's positive influence, Falun Gong practitioners in XX city were very interested in exchanging cultivation experiences with him and organised many cultivation experience-sharing gatherings. The practitioner was in demand at many local experience-sharing gatherings and received a lot of praise from fellow practitioners. As a result, the external environment in the county may have improved. However, the practitioner was unaware that he had begun to acquire many secular attachments and started treating the Fa-rectification with human notions. He became attached to the arrival of the Fa-rectification in the human realm, to the completion of his cultivation practise, to his ego, to zealotry, to vanity, and others. He began to jeopardise his security. He became impatient and tense and had difficulty concentrating when he studied the Fa. On worse days, he could not even practise the sitting meditation in the double-leg crossing position. Despite these obvious symptoms, the practitioner stubbornly tried to hide his attachments and continued to boast to fellow practitioners how well he had cultivated in the past. Some fellow practitioners appeared to be just as irrational and continued to praise him despite his problems.

In July of 2004, the local police started to persecute the practitioner again. When the police ransacked his home and savagely beat his family members, the practitioner lost his composure, and the rational and righteous thoughts that Falun Gong requires of its cultivators, and fought with the men that had beaten his family. Afterwards, he suffered an even more severe beating and other types of persecution. Eventually, the practitioner had no choice but to leave his home to avoid further persecution. Thus, he lost a stable cultivation environment and the local truth-clarification work in his county was significantly impacted.

Cultivation of Speech Is a Part of Cultivation Practise

Some practitioners have problems in keeping the truth-clarification work strictly confidential. They cannot be trusted to observe proper confidentiality. They tell their family members who are not yet Falun Gong practitioners where the truth-clarification material sites are. They have no regard for the safety of fellow practitioners. They often casually mention in their conversations important information that ought to be kept in the strictest confidence, such as the names of the coordinators of truth-clarification projects, what fellow practitioners look like, or the locations of the truth-clarification material sites. Some practitioners even admit openly to fellow practitioners from other areas at cross-region cultivation experience-sharing gatherings that they were responsible for making truth-clarification materials.

Teacher said, "We should all speak according to a practitioner's state of mind rather than create conflicts or say something improper. As practitioners, we must measure ourselves with the standard of the Fa to determine whether we should say certain things." ("Cultivation of Speech" in Lecture Eight of Zhuan Falun)

As Falun Gong practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, we should regard everything from the perspective of the Fa-rectification. Why are so many Falun Gong practitioners having problems keeping the truth-clarification work in the strictest confidence? Is it because we have some remaining attachments - attachments we are not yet aware of? Either way these attachments have surfaced through what we say and have even been exploited to sabotage our truth-clarification work. At this point in the Fa-rectification, we should be rational and clearheaded already. The upgrade of our morality and the reinforcement of our righteous thoughts originate from the Fa (law or principle, the teachings in Falun Gong. To better harmonise our one-body of Falun Gong practitioners and to behave like genuine cultivators, we should study the Fa more and be consciously aware that cultivation of confidentiality is part of cultivation practise.

Denying Impure Elements Any Conditions to Grow Will Purify Our Collective Cultivation Environment

In a city in China, a male practitioner, B, in his twenties from one truth-clarification material site had a sexual relationship with female practitioner C from another truth-clarification material site, but B and C were not married to each other. Only a handful of Falun Gong practitioners in the area knew of B and C's sexual relationship. Some of them kindly pointed out the problem to B and C, but the couple did not heed the advice and continued to have sex with each other although Teacher has specifically pointed out in Zhuan Falun that sex outside of marriage is strictly prohibited for Falun Gong practitioners. Out of human sentiment [to prevent any potential negative influence over other practitioners], other practitioners hid B and C's indecent relationship from their fellow practitioners. In a sense, they supported the impure elements that had exploited B and C with living conditions that also fostered the relationship. The evil elements from other dimensions also found an excuse to persecute B and C. Soon the police abducted B and C and raided both truth-clarification material sites.

I have observed several categories of Falun Gong practitioners whose speech and actions are in direct violation of Falun Gong cultivation principles: Some practitioners are not clearheaded or rational when they commit such sins; some know they are violating Falun Gong's cultivation principles but they cannot help themselves; some are manipulated by their attachments to continue with their foolishness that damages the truth-clarification work and truth-clarification environment. When we hear or see fellow practitioners exhibiting impure and unrighteous behaviour such as the sexual relationship between B and C, we should try to be responsible for the Fa, for the one-body of Falun Gong practitioners, for the practitioners in question and for ourselves, regardless of whether one is a coordinator, a practitioner at a truth-clarification material site, or any other type of practitioner. We should not feel that a fellow practitioner's irrational behaviour has nothing to do with us. We should regard everything from the perspective of the Fa-rectification and the one-body of Falun Gong practitioners. We should not be attached to our personal sentiment on the issue or to our own upgrading in the cultivation practise. If every Falun Gong practitioner can identify wrong or inappropriate behaviour when it occurs, we will be in a better position to kindly point out the inappropriate behaviour and to help the fellow practitioner rectify his or her problem. When we do so, we will also be denying the impure or demonic elements from other dimensions of any living conditions within Falun Gong practitioners. Any impure or demonic element will naturally disintegrate when it tries to enter our powerful field of collective righteous thoughts. Thus our collective cultivation environment will become increasingly pure and our truth-clarification work will suffer less damage.

Silently Complement Each Other's Work and Harmonise with Each Other as a Whole While Fulfilling Our Pledge

Since the persecution started in 1999, Falun Gong practitioners as a whole have surpassed the personal cultivation stage. We are becoming increasingly aware of our mission to safeguard the Fa with determination. We are required to "attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism" to enter the new universe. (From "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" in Essentials for Further Advancement)

When a conflict arises between Falun Gong practitioners while we work on truth-clarification work, it is often due to the differences in our respective understandings or approaches although we may share one common goal. Even when we have seen problems in a fellow practitioner, we should still look inward first.

Teacher said,

"Whenever you encounter problems you should each look inward to search for the cause within, regardless of whether you're to blame or not. Remember my words: Regardless of whether the problem is your fault or not, you should look inside yourself, and you will find a problem." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe")

We may kindly point out the problem or attachment, but we must not force other practitioners to improve according to our expectations. Otherwise, we would cause a conflict and sabotage the important truth-clarification work. Just because we are fellow practitioners does not mean we have the right to force others to improve. During a conflict, we should cultivate our kindness. We should try to put ourselves in others' shoes and tolerate different people and different ideas. We should sincerely include all practitioners and do the truth-clarification work together despite our differences. When we see fellow practitioners in need of help or making mistakes when doing truth-clarification work, we should help them or rectify their mistakes silently instead of reproaching them first. As to those fellow practitioners who have not completely stepped forward, who have fallen behind us or the progression of the Fa-rectification, or who are not diligent in their cultivation practise, we should try to study the Fa with them and exchange cultivation experiences with them more often. We should improve as a whole and elevate as a whole in our cultivation practise, and fulfil our historical pledge of "Coming to the world with the same wish." ("Fulfilling a Wish" in Hongyin)

As Falun Gong cultivators, when we conduct ourselves with what the Fa requires of us, the Fa will inspire our infinite wisdom.

Regardless of the circumstances, we should do truth-clarification work well with a pure and rational heart. During the work process, we should continue to look inward and rectify ourselves.

Teacher said, "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy--this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being." ("Rationality" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

We should make each step in our journey of Fa-rectification a pure and righteous one.

Note:

1. Clarifying the truth -n Because of the persecution in China and the unrelenting hate campaign carried out by China's state-controlled media, Falun Gong practitioners have been actively "clarifying the truth" -- explaining to the public the facts about Falun Gong and exposing the persecution. Truth clarification activities include face-to-face conversations with people, posting notices and posters, handing out flyers, and hanging banners. Outside of China, where Falun Gong is freely practised, practitioners further expose the persecution through anti-torture reenactments, art exhibits, Internet websites, books, magazines, newspapers, movies and letter writing. The goal of clarifying the truth is to help people understand Falun Gong, to dispel the lies of the communist regime in China and to raise public support to end the persecution. (Variations: "clarifying the truth", "truth clarifying", "truth-clarifying", "truth clarification", "truth-clarification", "clarifying the facts", "clarified the truth", and "clarified the facts")