Treat Technical Issues with Righteous Thoughts

At the time when I initially learnt to how to use a computer, once a technical problem occurred, I would immediately call a fellow practitioner to help me solve it. Through study of the Falun Gong teachings, I realised that this was a reflection of my incorrect thinking. When we encounter problems during our activities to help stop the persecution, we should first look within ourselves to find our own shortcomings and dissolve all interferences through sending forth righteous thoughts, and then consider using technical means to compensate for the inadequacies that manifest on the surface. This is an area we Falun Dafa practitioners need to promptly remind each other of. We should not just solve the problems on the surface. Even more important, we should help fellow practitioners to deal with their fundamental attachments during their cultivation.

Master said,

"It is permitted when, during the course of his cultivation, a real qigong master who finds all living beings suffering helps someone out of his compassion and sympathy. He cannot cure diseases, however, and he can only temporarily repress or postpone them. You do not have them now, but you will get them later, as he delays your illness to sometime later. He will transfer them elsewhere or to the bodies of your relatives. He is unable to truly eliminate the karma for you completely. He is not allowed to casually do that for an everyday person, but only for practitioners. This is the principle." ("The Supernormal Ability of Precognition and Retrocognition" in "Lecture Two" of Zhuan Falun)

If we cannot solve the fundamental attachment problem, new problems would emerge and a bad cycle would thus result. We would then fall into a state of just considering how to solve the surface problems, taking something unimportant as something important, and thus be unable to fundamentally solve the problem. In fact, no matter how good the technical skills, the security measures, or software that you have taught to the others are, can you guarantee that they will not run into problems? Isn't it a fact that many practitioners who know the technical aspects quite well are still persecuted? When fellow practitioners run into problems, we should first help them through sending forth righteous thoughts. We also need look within ourselves to see why we are meant to hear or see these problems. Do these problems still exist in us? With such mastery of technical aspects, why do they still encounter problems?

I know such a practitioner. Because the practitioners who know the technical aspects of computers in his region had all been illegally detained, this local practitioner did not have access to any Dafa (Great Law, same 'Dafa' as in ' Falun Dafa') materials. He decided to go to a Falun Dafa materials production site in another region to learn the techniques. The practitioner who taught him also did not know technical aspects well. In the end, he just learnt some insignificant things and then returned. With his righteous faith in Master and Dafa and with his compassionate heart to rescue sentient beings, he shouldered this important task. He did not know anything about setting up the security features and upgrading the firewall, but he has already done it this way for two years without encountering any problems.

This story made me find the shortcomings in my own cultivation. Master has repeatedly told us in the Fa that we do not acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, but why do we still encounter this persecution? It is because our minds are not pure. When we cannot promptly relinquish our surface human notions, and when we cannot correct our conduct, evil takes advantage of these loopholes. The loopholes are not in the technical issues, but in our hearts. That is to say, it is more of a character issue than a technical one. The technical issues are just manifestations of our problems in this dimension. Over the years of persecution, we should have learnt our lesson in this regard.

Before any practitioner encountered persecution, Master must have given him some hints. However, when we are bogged down in the problems we can barely see our own shortcomings. Then, if the practitioners surrounding him have seen his problems, they should compassionately remind him instead of just helping him solve the apparent issues. Otherwise, it would be like the case of curing illnesses in hospitals - the symptoms rather than the root cause are eliminated. We should likewise realise that the evil factors are watching us with their vicious intentions. So, we should pay attention to our own words and actions, promptly correct our shortcomings and maintain our righteous thoughts and do not give the evils any chances to take advantage of us.

Oftentimes, the practitioners who need to solve technical issues can easily become attached to the techniques per se. Some practitioners have mentioned this issue in the past. As a matter of fact, this attachment does not only manifest in the area of computer technicalities, but could also happen with any issue. Namely, once they have developed some skills in an area, they can easily form some human notions and develop attachments in that area.

Master said,

"Everyone has a knot when it comes to studying the Fa. Knots that aren't unravelled are obstacles." (English Translation Version A of Falun Buddha Fa: Teaching the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun, July 26th, 1998)

I feel that for practitioners in charge of solving technical problems, the "technology" itself would become an obstacle to their Fa study if they do not view this issue with righteous thoughts. In fact, technology is just something that we use in the human world for the purpose of breaking through the hindrances that the evil has created for us.

Master told us in his Fa,

"In addition, I am telling everyone that all supernormal abilities one develops in one's In-Triple-World-Fa cultivation practice are original, inborn capabilities of this physical body. Nowadays we call them supernatural capabilities. They can only work in this dimension of ours and subdue everyday people. What do you go after these petty tricks for? You pursue this or that, but after going beyond In-Triple-World-Fa they do not work in other dimensions. By the time of Beyond-Triple-World-Fa cultivation, all of these supernormal abilities must be discarded and compressed into a very deep dimension for preservation. In the future, they will serve as a record of your cultivation practice, and they can only assume this little use. " ("The Issue of Pursuit" in "Lecture Two" of Zhuan Falun)

In fact, at some critical times we can indeed use techniques to solve some problems. However, when we have gained some experience, by relying on doing it this way we would develop a mentality of relying on the techniques. Just as Master said in his article, "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be,"

"To this end, as they gain experience people come to form notions about life; and those experiences, in turn, come to fortify these notions as people live out their lives."

This is, in fact, the same as treating illnesses in hospitals. The hospitals can indeed cure some illnesses. When the tumour is removed, one can see the concrete manifestations of the illnesses in this dimension. So it is just an issue of how to view it

I know a practitioner who is not knowledgeable on technical computer issues but has kept doing Dafa work with computers. Whenever she encounters interference she sends forth righteous thoughts. As a result, she soon knows the cause of the problem and then solves the technical issue. She has done very well in this aspect over two years. The machines work very well in her hands. By contrast, I also know such practitioners who are very good at computers. But they became too attached to techniques and could not free themselves. They became sleepy whenever they studied the Fa; their hands went into incorrect positions whenever they sent forth righteous thoughts, but they became quite energetic whenever they started to work on the computers. In the end, they encountered persecution.

Of course, I do not mean that we do not need to learn any of the techniques at all. We should not go to extremes. It would be really difficult for us to validate the Fa if we didn't know any technical skills. However, we cannot use a human mentality to deal with these things.

During Fa validation we should try to make full use of our strong points. There must be areas during this process where we need to raise our levels and get rid of the attachments that we need to relinquish. If we can turn these techniques into an aspect of wisdom for the Fa validation, and if we can treat the skills with a righteous mind, we definitely can do even better and will have an extraordinary experience in the process.

This is just my personal understanding. Please kindly point any inadequate understandings.