PureInsight | July 1, 2002
Greetings Master Li! Greetings fellow practitioners!
My name is Z., from Chicago. I am a computer engineer. Writing an article is always difficult for me. Encouraged by fellow practitioners, I realized that what I have done is not necessary spectacular, but it is beneficial to write down my understanding of the Fa during the Fa rectification period and share it with others.
1. Genuinely engaged in Fa rectification
Teacher stated in his lecture on "Validation" that "as a cultivator, you should make use of all feasible conditions to spread Dafa and validate Dafa as a correct and true science, rather than preaching or idealism—this is every cultivator's obligation. Without this enormous Buddha Fa there would be nothing—and this includes everything in the universe, from the most macroscopic to the most microscopic, as well as all of human society's knowledge."
At the beginning of the persecution, I was quite anxious because I didn't know how to use the knowledge I had learned from human society to validate Dafa. I even thought that this should be the task of those whose major was something else. A person like me who studies computers couldn't do anything about it. As the Fa rectification process rapidly develops and my understanding of Fa gradually deepens, I am aware that technical support is also a way validating Dafa. There are many things arranged to be done by a particular person, and nobody else can replace you. Because the cultivation path arranged for you, foundation established for you, and your characteristics make you the most suitable one to finish certain tasks. Thus, during the Fa rectification, this job is assigned to you. Teacher stated in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" that "It was arranged for you to obtain the Fa here, and it was arranged for you to cultivate here. Many disciples are highly educated, and the vast majority of the disciples outside China have advanced degrees. Why is this the case? It's precisely to have you put to full use at this crucial time what you've learned among everyday people and are good at, to have you validate the Fa using the everyday people's skills Dafa created for people in this world." Now I look back to my past, I can see clearly that what I have learned before is all used now for Dafa. Before I moved to Chicago, I was a student. I had some opportunities to work for some companies as an intern. Two companies accepted me at that time. I wanted to go to the bigger one, because I know that their technology was quite advanced, and working experience in that company will be useful for me to find a permanent job later. The technology used in the smaller company was not popular, and I think it will not be helpful for me to find a job. However, my academic advisor insisted on assigning me to that smaller company while leaving the opportunity to work for the bigger one to someone else. I felt bad at that time. During the one year working for the small company, I found out that I gained nothing but some out-of-date skills, which made me felt quite uncomfortable. This was so until recently, when I was asked to be in charge of the technical part of a Dafa project. I smiled when I took a look at the requirements. It is exactly the same as what I was working on at that small company. If they asked someone else to do this job, that person would have to take a long time to learn the technology. But I mastered this during the year working for that small company. Even every program I coded at that time can be used, nothing was wasted. Just like Teacher said, "You are beings who are being established for Dafa". So, what we are facing and dealing with are all related to Dafa. In order to deserve to be called "Dafa Disciple" during Fa rectification period, we must be fully engaged in the Fa rectification process, and make use of all feasible conditions to validate Dafa.
2. Get rid of attachments of selfishness
Along with truth-clarification getting deeper, the need for people with computer knowledge becomes greater and greater. As I mentioned before, this is something that I should do. But whenever one project was completed the attachment of complacency often showed up and one would be unconsciously swayed by it. I remembered that once a fellow practitioner called me and said his computer had problems again and he had no idea what's going on. I knew that it was not something serious after he described symptoms of his computer. It's a piece of cake for me to fix it. When I told the practitioner how to fix his computer step by step, my sense of superiority came forth without my even noticing it. The result was obvious: although that practitioner followed my instructions, tainted with the attachment of complacency, step by step, his computer still refused to work. Why? Suddenly I felt that I myself must have problems. Although I have a Ph.D. degree in computer science, it is more important that I am a Dafa practitioner. Master takes all opportunities to expose all of my attachments, gives me some hints and lets me give them up. Now during the course of Fa-rectification I should make good use of the knowledge and techniques that I learned from everyday people to help my fellow practitioners and do Dafa things well together in order to deserve to be called "Dafa practitioner during Fa-rectification period". How could I think I was something? On the contrary, the practitioner who called me was always very kind and modest. He was not good at computers, but he still tried to work out a solution with me just because in his mind he only thought about solving the problem in order to do Dafa work better, and he didn't had the attachment of comparing whose computer technique was better. After realizing this I felt that my manner of speaking changed right away. I told the practitioner the same words I told him before, but with a different tone. I told the practitioner to repeat my instructions step by step. His computer came up. Later on, when I went over Master's article "How to Provide Assistance," I felt every sentence was directed against my attachment of complacency. Master said, "If you sincerely want to have all practitioners collaborate to get things done, what results will you get?" Also he said, "Once you have the intention of building yourself up, the students will think that you have a xinxing problem. Therefore, only by being modest can you do things well."
I also realized that attachment of complacency was a warped variant of selfishness that penetrates from the very high level to low levels and impedes the Fa-rectification process greatly. Actually all capabilities and techniques we have are supposed to do Fa-rectification. Or, computer science doesn't make any sense since it itself was a product of aliens and they brought it to human beings. Master said in his poem, "the stage was being set for the Fa". What we should do is to take advantage of it in turn and to better clarify the truth. We only did things that we are supposed to do.
I realized that our minds must be upright when we do anything. Dafa practitioners are one entity. Being a Dafa particle, if I am not pure enough, efficiency of Fa promotion and Fa-rectification as a whole will be affected. I thought that what I need to do is to develop some techniques and spread them, and thus allow more practitioners, especially those who are not familiar with computer techniques, use them conveniently. I failed to pay attention to adjusting my state of mind during the process of developing it, which was equally important to the techniques themselves. I even found a lot of excuses to defend myself. I thought it's OK if my state of mind was not good as long as other disciples had good states of mind when they used the techniques I developed to clarify the truth, and what I need to do is only to develop techniques. Then I found there were some problems with such kinds of thoughts. Master said in his article of "Dafa is Indestructible", "rectify everything that is not righteous". If there is something that is not righteous and a reflection of my loopholes, the entire body will be affected. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "The students of that time paid attention to sitting properly with legs crossed, and they also attached weight to the way they sat. They gave attention to breathing and the exercise of qi while writing with a pencil or brush. People from all walks of life believed in emptying the mind, breathing properly with the whole society in such a state of mind." I guess that Confucian scholars did it that way just because during the process of breathing they can get rid of bad thoughts so that things they did would have very pure and righteous field. Master also mentioned in his lecture, "Whatever you have touched will retain your energy, which is shining bright, as you are really possessed of cultivation energy." Therefore everything we made and produced possesses images of living beings from ourselves. An article, a piece of code and a small flier all have them. If our state of mind was not good when we made them, would everyday people be affected by our impure thoughts when they read them? If we only emphasized doing things, but don't have a pure, compassionate heart, the things we did would not be sacred any more. Instead, it would be just like an everyday person doing Dafa work. How do we keep a good state of mind then? That's not something that's very easy. We have to study Fa more and more. Master said in his article of "Melt into Fa", "To put it more simply, as long as you read Dafa, you are changing; as long as you read Dafa, you are elevating." My understanding is this elevating is eliminating the field of all my bad thoughts, and get rid of all attachments just like peeling an onion layer by layer. In other words, one can elevate only through reading more Fa.
3. Cultivate benevolence and treat the tribulations during Fa-rectification correctly.
In May this year, my application to extend my passport was refused. This is obviously the evil extending its influence overseas, so we must resolutely eradicate it. Master also said whenever something happens we should always check ourselves first. Through inspecting myself, I found I had many problems. First, I did not have enough compassion. While I was applying for the passport, I was thinking if they do not refuse to extend my passport, it will be fine, if they refuse to extend my passport, I must go inside the consulate to read my statement, send forth righteous thoughts from close by to eradicate the evil, and, if possible, also bring a western journalist to let more people know about their evil ways. These thoughts contained the very strong attachment of competitiveness and other impure elements. Why should I think about so many ifs? Why should I think my application to extend my passport would be refused? Isn't it accepting the evil persecution in my mind, isn't it a kind of hidden acknowledgement? I think because I am a Falun Gong practitioner, so they must do this or that. How can a god be moved like this by a human or even an evil being? Isn't this already impure? Of course the evil will make use of this opportunity. Also, reading the statement inside the consulate, holding the press conference, clarifying the truth to the Chinese people in the consulate as well as sending forth righteous thoughts are all correct, but we should examine the state of mind with which we do these things. If we have impure elements of the very strong attachment of competitiveness or attachment to reading statements, or holding press conferences, etc, evil will find an excuse to persecute us. If I had been like a real god in the universe at that time, not attached to my ego, but was, instead, benevolent to living beings, then evil would not be able to find any excuse to persecute me.
On the other hand, I also realized that even if my mind were very pure and evil could not find any opportunity to persecute me, because evil still exists, they would certainly find opportunities to persecute other Falun Dafa practitioners. Just like Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference," "It is bad, it is venomous, and it is evil. And just like poison, if you want it not to poison people it can't do that; that's just how it is. So in the process of eliminating it don't be lenient at all, just clean it out!' Master also said, 'Since the old evil forces insist on giving us a chance to eliminate them, make good use of it. History has never seen this before; it's hard to come by' in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference." Then my tribulation is not only aimed for me, it is the persecution of Dafa, therefore as Fa-rectification Falun Dafa disciples, we must eradicate this evil, the place where we have interference is the place that needs us to clarify the truth the most. Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference," 'I can tell you that the suffering and tribulations endured by our Dafa disciples are not only aimed at their personal cultivation there are also factors related to high-level beings' testing Dafa using the fact that the students have karma, using 'improving them' as an excuse, and using degenerate beings at low levels to carry out the persecution. In fact, all of these have harmed the Fa-rectification.' As we think further, the existence of anything needs an environment and the existence of the evil is also the same. It must have an energy field suitable for evil to live, so that evil can become rampant. Our sending forth righteous thoughts is to eradicate evil itself, but evil can find replenishment between the intervals of our sending forth righteous thoughts. If we get rid of the energy field that evil relies on for its existence, it will lose its living environment, so it will not get the reinforcement. I think this energy field is also a substance and is sustained by the evil through the lies. After the fabrications and slander for the past several years, the evil used the people's selfishness and all kinds of bad desires to form a very stubborn element in people's minds that is harmful to Dafa. So, on one hand practitioners clarify the truth to weed out the bad elements in people's minds that are against Dafa and save them from the danger of being eliminated; on the other hand, it is also to eliminate the environment, the bad energy field that evil relies on for its existence. We must fully make use of this opportunity to clarify the truth to more people: police, media, Chinese people at the Consulate, passersby, government officials, and so on. We can clarify the truth to all of them. After understanding it from the Fa's point of view, everything developed quite smoothly. Three major newspapers in Chicago, WBBM radio station, a Chinese newspaper, and a Chinese TV station carried positive coverage of our cases. Chinese and Americans alike thought that what the Chinese consulate had done was irrational. Many people including my managers, colleagues, Chinese classmates in school, and academic advisor condemned the Chinese consulate. They all tried to help me out. My passport case also became a good topic for chatting with my friends. We also took this opportunity to contact Illinois state congressmen, United States congressmen, and the Chicago city council and asked them to help us. After the secretary of the representative in my district learned of my case and the brutal persecution of Falun Gong occurring in China, she became very serious and said, "The is the most urgent thing, I will put it as high priority and contact the representative, and arrange an appointment for you to meet him in person." So far, I have received dozens of letters from these officials and many phone calls from them. They expressed their deep concern for my case, and tried to help me within the extent of their abilities. Just as Teacher stated, "The persecution of Dafa is actually the promotion of Dafa in turn."
These are my experiences. Today, the evil force is still alive and struggling. I hope every Dafa practitioner can follow the path of the Fa rectification process, and become the purest Dafa particle. I would like to conclude with Teacher's poem:
Cleaning Out
The dark clouds have passed
yet the winds remain fierce
And though the Red Dragon is slain
humans are still in delusion
For where there is Evil
there is dark, dense haze
Dafa disciples
hold the palm erect
eliminate the remaining Evil
summon righteous thoughts
clarify the truth
rescue the sentient beings
thoroughly annihilate the Evil
and sweep the entire cosmos clean
