PureInsight | March 10, 2003
[PureInsight.org] The timing of the arrests of American practitioner Charles Li and Australian practitioner Nancy Chen was very unusual. It was exactly the last day of the forty-two month period of calamity the old forces had arranged. But as everyone knows, the old forces have broken their promises openly [the persecution is still continuing]. Why is it still happening at this stage? Haven't we already totally opposed the old forces' arrangements? Haven't we already come to understand that our attachments should not be used by the old forces as an excuse to persecute us? Yet these events still happened.
In my personal opinion, the problem is that we are not able to truly see the arrangements of the old forces clearly. Otherwise, we will be able to repudiate them with our strong righteous thoughts. Why is it that we are not able to see the arrangements of the old forces? If they have taken advantage of our own attachments and perceptions that we have concealed deeply inside ourselves and that we have only faced reluctantly or never at all, then we won't be able to see their arrangements. The situation is made even worse when what they have taken advantage of are things that we still consider to be completely natural and acceptable. Then we won't be able to recognize the arrangements of the old forces that we should oppose.
We cultivate to develop compassion (shan), but many of our attachments and perceptions are incompatible with compassion. We know that, as cultivators, we need to let go of human sentimentality. We also know that in place of human sentimentality, we should develop grand mercy. But after some of our human sentimentalities are removed, we sometimes replace them with cold indifference and detachment. Why does a cultivator become coldly indifferent and detached? It is because some human attachments remain deeply concealed inside their mind. For instance, when some practitioners discover fellow cultivators' attachments, they act harshly towards these fellow cultivators. They say something cold like, "We all search inward to find our attachments except you." They do nothing except cast blame even when our fellow cultivators are encountering tribulations caused by the evil forces. They say things like, "Well, he has an attachment that makes him suffer from such hardship." or "It is all because he does not search inward. This is a good lesson for him so he can remove his attachments."
How many of us think like this? Sometimes we even treat ourselves this way, and hate ourselves for being unable to get rid of our attachments. But if we think of this issue carefully, we will realize that this type of thinking is exactly the same as the excuse used by the old forces to persecute us. How is this different from the old forces "testing" us using the excuse of practitioners having attachments and then try to destroy us during the "test?" As far as I understand, cold indifference and detachment are also a kind of selfishness and attachment.
"Who else can he blame but himself as he has this attachment?" "This is just a lesson to you so you can remove your attachment." Have we all realized that both of these thoughts are wrong? Why is that we are unable to form one body? With this type of unbalanced and coldly indifferent state of mind, we can't form one body successfully. It will prevent us from being able to see the whole picture and having a great breadth of mind. Coldly indifferent and detached, we suffer all kinds of hardship passively and helplessly. We develop misunderstandings such as: We think that in order to improve ourselves we must endure these tribulations and tests; we think that suffering tribulations is the only way for us to give of ourselves; and we think that we won't be able to obtain mighty virtue if we do not endure and live through tribulations. Actually, this is the knot that the old forces have placed in our minds. It is like a bug in a computer program that makes the program cycle endlessly and do nothing.
Behind the coldness and detachment, there are all kinds of show off ways of thinking, such as showing off the contributions one has made, the sufferings undergone, the hardships encountered and so on. Some cultivators are very busy with their work, families, and Fa-rectification and truth clarification activities. They are bitterly and painfully suffering from this busy time. But is it because they enjoy the bitterness and pain, which they subconsciously think is the way to cultivate? This occurs among everyday people too. Some of my former coworkers used to complain about how hard they worked while still willingly keeping up crazy work hours. Some cultivators are fond of boasting about their experiencing hardships and showing off how they suffered from the cruelty of the evil. From a certain point of view, I feel that such hardships and cruelty are acknowledged and sought by oneself.
During the course of Fa-rectification, we must develop more immense breadth of mind and more ability to see the whole picture. If we are unable to remove our cold indifference, detachment, and other human attachments, we won't be able to break out of the constraints of the self and get rid of the old forces and their endless disruptions. We won't be able to see the fundamental nature of many things, and won't be able to do Fa-rectification well, and thus won't be able to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification.
It is true that while cultivating during Fa-rectification we will encounter some hardships. Hardships can purify and upgrade cultivators. Then, a sense of great value is felt when one finally succeeds in cultivation. However, in the end we will still move up from human sufferings. That is the final aim of our cultivation.
Now it is the time for us to stop the old forces' arrangements. If we were asked to make arrangements for everything in the human world, would we arrange it in such a way that the evil runs rampant, the people of the world feel indifferent, and we ourselves work endlessly day and night? Of course not! We must form a whole body to thoroughly repudiate the old forces' arrangements with our strong righteous thoughts.
All Gods, at this final stage, let us conduct ourselves in such a way that we won't have any regret or shame in the future!
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/2/14/20452.html
