PureInsight | February 21, 2002
"Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence' (Master's article "Rationality"). Just when I was thinking and searching painstakingly about what and how I should do things as a Dafa practitioner, Master's words in this article opened my mind all of a sudden. Through gradual improvement of understanding, I came to realize both Master's strictness and benevolence. "Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence.' This requires the basis of our understanding of the Fa to elevate from sentimentality to rationality, and requires us to remain sober and rational by "understanding the Fa from within the Fa." It also requires us to do everything well, with wisdom and benevolence that we cultivated from Dafa.
Rationality
How should we do things in order to be rational? I feel we must realize clearly that Dafa and Master are the top priority in everything we do. Everything we have gained is obtained from Dafa. Everything that we enlightened to all comes from the fundamental Dafa of the universe, "Zhen-Shan-Ren." At every single moment of every day, nothing is more important than the fundamental Dafa of the Universe. "Follow Teacher closely, steadfastly cultivating Dafa" (from "The Knowing Heart") is a precondition for us to cultivate during Fa-rectification. It is also the basis guaranteeing we can do everything well. We will be nothing if separated from Master and Dafa. Under such precondition, cultivating and assisting in Fa-rectification with an open and dignified manner is, to my thinking, rationality.
Reading Master's article "For Whom Do You Exist," I understood that the reason humans cannot evaluate problems rationally is that they are controlled by postnatally acquired notions. Because all sentient beings in the three realms are soaked in "sentiment"; postnatally acquired notions thus take advantage of human emotions to manipulate people and make them irrational. When we no longer have human attachments, sentiment and notions will no longer be able to dominate us. We will then possess soberness and wisdom that allow ourselves to maintain our self-control. Those people who turned toward "evil enlightenment" in brainwashing classes mistakenly believed that the only way for them to reach Consummation was by daring to betray Master and betray Dafa. In my opinion, the root cause for their actions is that those brainwashing classes forcibly poured certain evil notions onto practitioners' minds. They happened to conform to some human notions hidden in these practitioners themselves, and finally were able to control the thoughts and emotions of those practitioners.
I think we should also dig out the roots in order to see clearly the motivations behind our actions. This is very important as well. We should understand our purpose when we go to Tiananmen Square, when we distribute flyers on the streets and in residential areas, or when we clarify the truth, repeatedly and tirelessly. This will make us more rational and mature and reduce "blindness" and emotional impulses in our behaviors. In this way, our work will also be more effective.
If we could achieve the following, such as holding no attachment to changes in our bodies, no attachment to images seen from the third eye, no attachments to supernormal phenomena occurring during our cultivation, no attachments to supernormal abilities acquired during cultivation, and no senseless talking, then we will be truly rational. However, during experience sharing with other practitioners, I found another kind of attachment – the "attachment to receiving hints." I think that Master gives us hints through various means in a compassionate way in order to guide us to elevate as fast as we can and to protect us during Fa-rectification cultivation. However, if we pay too much attention to hints, or to the point when we even take some trivial irrelevant things in our daily life as Master's hints, this undoubtedly leads to a new type of attachment – attachment to receiving hints. The biggest damage it will do is giving others an impression of "talking senselessly", which will hinder ordinary people's understanding of the Fa and of us.
Because the scenes in my dreams always seem real and clear, I often try to recollect them after waking up, thinking that I may find guidance or hints from Master in them. I once wrote an article about what I saw in my dreams and submitted it to the Minghui website. That article wasn't published. Master's benevolence helped me realize my attachment. Gradually I started to treat whatever happened in my dreams as tests to see if my cultivation is firm enough so that I could further improve my and get rid of my weakness. I find this indeed is making me more and more rational. Master told a story in Zhuan Falun, "While a monk was sitting in meditation, his primordial spirit went to the paradise of ultimate bliss and saw its scenery."(From "Different Levels Have Different Fa" in Lecture One). This example made me realize that we should not be attached to anything during our cultivation. I deeply admire what Master said about a Western practitioner's attitude toward Dafa during "The Lecture at Eastern US Experience Sharing Conference." "I can see nothing, but I simply believe Dafa firmly." I could feel this practitioner's determination, indestructible like a diamond, and his soberness and rationality that enabled him to take control of himself.
Wisdom
For a long time I thought I would better meet the requirements of Master's words, "Clarify the truth with wisdom" if I could become a little more clever, figure out some better techniques and skills to spread the Fa, choose smoother language that is easier for people to understand, and do a better job at clarifying the truth from different angles to people with different backgrounds. After studying the Fa recently and reading Master's articles, I realized that this understanding is superficial. The methods listed above are merely a natural reflection of the wisdom we obtained from cultivation in Dafa. Master said, "Even if someone were to grasp all of mankind's knowledge, he would still remain an everyday person" (From "What is Wisdom?" in Essentials for Further Advancement). "In dealing with relevant, important matters, if a life can really assess things without any preconceived notions, then this person is truly able to take charge of himself. This clear-headedness is wisdom, and it is different from what average people call 'intelligence'" (Also from "Essentials for Further Advancement"). This made me realize that common knowledge is at the level of ordinary people, whereas true wisdom transcends ordinary people's knowledge and comprehension. This kind of wisdom only emerges after one has discarded human notions and is able to enlighten to the true principles of the Buddha Fa. By "understanding the Fa from within the Fa," wisdom will be created and shine through the knowledge we grasp. We will then truly meet the requirement of "clarifying the truth with wisdom."
At the detention center, when faced with illegal interrogation from five policemen, I could talk about subjects ranging from the self-contradiction of Marxist materialism, to new findings of modern science, new discoveries in anthropology; from ancient Chinese history to the Cultural Revolution, then to the persecution of Falun Gong, backing up my points with references, nonstop. The five policemen were completely convinced by me, nodding their heads frequently, and the interrogation died out. I could not reiterate everything I said afterwards. It was hard to believe that I could be that knowledgeable and my speaking skills could be that good. After two years of Fa-rectification cultivation, I realize deeply that no matter whether we do it for spreading the Fa or clarifying the truth to expose the evil, when I was making my points from the standpoint of the Fa, there is no need to think hard. Endless wisdom will come out, to allow me speak the most appropriate words and citing the strongest examples. Be it spreading Dafa or clarifying the truth or exposing the evil, I would hit the nail on the head. But if I was occupied with human notions, my words would become fluff and carry little strength. I would not achieve a good result, even after talking endlessly. I think that by saying, "Clarify the truth with wisdom," Master requires us to discard human notions and to clarify the truth while in the state of a divine being.
These are only my personal understandings. Fellow practitioners, please point out anything inappropriate in this article. Heshi!
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/1/20/13437.html
