PureInsight | November 12, 2001
With regard to those vicious attacks and potentially evil intentions from the outside, we usually have very keen discernment and mount active responses to eliminate those evil elements with righteous thoughts. Thus, frontal attacks by the evil can often be efficiently stopped and eliminated. However, we are not yet sharp enough to identify and stop the evil that hides inside ourselves and therefore often causes damage. We often overlook evil components behind our own actions that deter and interfere with Fa rectification, frequently with an excuse of “for Dafa,” and actions performed by our own practitioners, particularly active practitioners.
Because fellow practitioners are Dafa particles, we trust each other and are especially kind to each other. (For everyday people, this would be sentimentality.) Because everyone has worked so hard, and, on the other hand, we are still cultivating, we usually try to resolve all negative words and actions from other practitioners with compassion. We usually attribute those negative elements to “leakage” in cultivation and lack of understanding of the Fa. But this has created a chance for the evil force to make inroads. Those practitioners who hold on to some attachments, and those who suffer demonic interference from their own minds, have not only been utilized by the evil, but they have even committed many unanticipated malfeasances. This has caused a great loss to Dafa, and its damage is even bigger than that from the evil’s frontal attacks.
One thing happened recently among us that enlightened me further. There was a practitioner who had been enthusiastic in Dafa work, always very active in every piece of work, and who had become part of the backbone in promoting and clarifying Dafa. But later, this practitioner developed attachments. The practitioner positioned himself inappropriately and became uncompromising and impatient with other practitioners.
Facing such a situation, almost all practitioners started to question themselves: Is this because I did not do well? Or are there hidden attachments that need to be eliminated? Everyone considered the attachments shown by that practitioner as a mirror to look inside themselves and improve their xinxing, and at the same time to help that practitioner to improve and eliminate those attachments. All we thought about was limited to the range of individual cultivation and xinxing improvement. We wanted to use sustained patience and compassion to dissolve his stubbornness due to temporary attachments and help him improve and catch up quickly.
In this way, problems can usually be solved successfully. But this time it was different. The situation was alleviated only on the surface. When suitable elements were around, those fundamental attachments would emerge once again, sometimes even worse than before. Finally this led to a situation that lasted for a while, during which many practitioners developed various attachments because of the interference that should not have existed at all. A pleasant and compassionate environment was ruined. Coordination efforts encountered difficulties, and ideas on Fa-rectification activity could not be resolved. Finally, it affected our Fa-rectification activities, and its negative effect was even stronger than forces from the outside. The severity of the situation was not quickly recognized because the way that evil had imposed its effect was so clever, with Dafa as an excuse and deviated understandings as credible explanations of its own deeds.
The situation even interfered with what we saw and heard, leading practitioners to false notions. It interfered with our normal work. Its negative effect was seen only after it brought with it certain consequences, thus affecting our cultivation and Fa-rectification activities.
It is clear that the ways the evil attacks are varied, difficult to comprehend, and can penetrate anywhere. This is not to say that we did not try to prevent it from the beginning. But we were confused when facing real problems, and the situation was very complicated. Because we Dafa practitioners are ourselves positive elements, Dafa particles, plus we have the protection of Teacher and the weapon of righteous thought to eliminate evil, the evil usually doesn't dare to get close. But those blind areas and the confusion in our minds were utilized to the utmost by the evil. The evil is actually weak, and not difficult to destroy. It is our own leakage that leaves room for the evil to be active and to seem so strong and destructive. Evil used the trust between practitioners and a blind spot in our vision to penetrate.
How outrageous it is. Practitioners utilized by it are usually those with strong attachments and a low xinxing level, and those who lack the ability to actively look inside. Then the evil can take advantage of those conditions and finds the opportunity and time to cause harm. Once it gets hold of practitioners, it will strengthen their attachments, create illusions to confuse their minds, control them, and finally make them cause harm without their knowing the truth. The situation can be as serious as causing the practitioner to go in the direction opposite Dafa. It is very difficult for the practitioner to get out of the clutches of evil once evil's hold has reached this extent. At this point, practitioners can sink down to the bottom and destroy the future of their own cultivation. So the situation is rather serious.
The evil demons' use of practitioners' inner environment to damage Dafa is now the most serious form of damage happening to Dafa. It is also a form that demons feel is effective. In mainland China, people with evil enlightenment were used by the evil force to transform Dafa practitioners. Evil people spread faked Jingwen (Teacher’s articles) and pretended to be sincere practitioners in order to infiltrate the minds of real practitioners and confuse them . All these penetrations took advantage of the blind spot that we had overlooked to cause damage. Now I understand why some practitioners claim that no matter what we do, we should do it as if we were standing on Tiananmen Square. We should keep alert and retain our keen intuition; otherwise, the evil will attack us and cause damage.
After this, we realize that we cannot hold onto any human notions. The relationships among practitioners are based on the Fa. At all times, we must hold onto the Fa to purify ourselves and our cultivation group. During this period of time, the confrontation between good and evil is so intense; we must always consider the potential effects of the evil elements and keep using righteous thoughts to eliminate evil. In most cases, it is not the strength of the evil per se, but our failure to recognize it clearly and the forms it can take that causes the damage. Only by clearly recognizing the forms that the evil can assume can we eliminate it efficiently. Sometimes, once we recognize it, the demons disappear.
There should be no compassion for evil. We must eradicate it, no matter what form it takes and from whom it originates. This is true compassion; anything else is to allow ourselves to be manipulated and used by the evil. As for those practitioners the evil utilizes, if they have not gone to the opposite direction due to demonic interference, we need to help them back to cultivation. We should correctly understand the relationship between eliminating the evil behind them and treating this individual life with compassion. We need to help them to completely get out of the control of the evil and remove their attachments.
In conclusion, we should always watch out for the evil force hiding inside practitioners and the harm it may do. We need to use powerful weapons -- righteous thoughts -- to eliminate the interference within us decisively and resolutely. At the same time, we need to watch out for other forms of manifestation by the evil, and never give them an opportunity to make incursions.
In order to help practitioners who do not cultivate solidly, who have low xinxing, and who suffer demonic interference, to improve quickly and become genuine cultivators, we should treat them in a different manner. Eliminating the evil elements behind them, leaving them alone for a while, fostering a serious attitude, restraining the activities they can be involved in, and using utter righteousness to stop their evil deeds are all possible choices. So long as we can properly control the criteria and opportunities, we can truly and compassionately help practitioners to improve their cultivation. To consummate a practitioner’s cultivation by using the evil’s final insanity is a very wonderful event of this time, but also very difficult. Evil not only attacks us openly from outside, but also covertly from within ourselves.
Evil will even use our forbearance and compassion to increase our tribulations. There are various forms of attacks. Some we can take on, and some we cannot; some we have experience in dealing with, with others we do not. We must pay sufficient attention to the inroads of evil. We should not forget about destroying evil when reaching our own enlightenment. We must melt into the Fa as quickly as possible and become particles without any leakage; this, in turn, will further our great mission as cultivating beings by bringing us closer to enlightenment.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/10/31/12229.html
