Teacher says, "What is the target of Fa-rectification? Doesn't everything that is not righteous need to be rectified?" Then, doesn't it include all aspects of human society? If so, then stepping forward is not an act that is political in nature, but represents one aspect of Fa-rectification.
Indeed, it is beyond our capacity to fulfil the whole mission of Fa-rectification, but we are able to accomplish our little bit as cultivators in this human world. If we truly regard ourselves as particles in Dafa we can do this little bit. For instance, past experiences tell us that a cultivator's fight against his own thought-karma can break out on a variety of fronts. Therefore, when people argue that stepping forward is playing politics, they are most likely restricted by their mentality that shuts down their righteous thinking, rendering them trapped in ordinary people type of thinking.
Teacher also mentions that we all cultivate in a reverse order, starting from the microcosm and progressing towards the surface. This progress slows down the moment it enters the In-Triple-World, as if somebody put a brake on it. It grinds to a halt, and every step forward becomes very hard to make. It is due to our reluctance to let go of those few human attachments. The closer to the surface the more so it is, as the ingrained human mentalities formed through the ages hamper our advance. What on earth are "politics?" What is it that still holds on to our human side? What is truly in the interest of safeguarding Dafa, in the interest of entire sentient beings? The answers to these questions come to light easily only when looked at from the standpoint of the macroscopic needs of Dafa.
I can sense that right now a lot of stuff has been cleaned up. Some practitioners also understand this, but their fear is pulling them back and propels them to find excuses for themselves. Then this fear or the notion that stepping forward is a political act is probably the shell at the outermost surface. How long it will take until they crack this shell on their own? If they do not do it in this lifetime, what they can get is then some ease and comfort in their next lifetime and that is all.
Actually, the evil forces are no longer that frightful. The days of Jiang Zemin, the chief of the evil band are numbered. Close to his demise, he is in utter terror and is in a weakened position, while we are in the position to take the initiative.
Fellow practitioners let us step forward together. The sooner the cloud cast by the evil is dispelled, the sooner our fellow practitioners will be relieved from their agony. In fact, no matter how well people think they can do in the so-called "genuine cultivation at home", it will still be in vain if ultimately they cannot take the step to break away from their human attachments. If a majestic higher being were always constrained by a superficial shell, it might not be an exaggeration to surmise that he actually chose to give up the status of becoming a higher being.
Of course, stepping forward imposes many obligations on us. We shall never go to extremes and should always treat everything rationally. In the comment Teacher added to "Eliminate Demonic Nature", he advised us (to the effect) that stepping forward to tell the truth to the people is actually elimination of the evil. My personal understanding of this is it also has a profound meaning that we should not go to extremes. This really is a timely comment to point out our mistakes. Now that telling the truth to the people is eliminating the evil, what else should we do? First of all, we should keep up our Dafa studies, and our cultivation state. Then, we should "promote the Fa and offer people salvation with benevolence." Both of them should be carried out in a benevolent instead of malevolent manner. Even for Jiang, we shall harbor no ill will against him. The cosmic law will take care of him anyway. His future is determined by his real position in the universe based on his Xinxing and the fruits of his karma. We cultivators shall treat everything with a benevolent heart, because only this can guarantee that we are a pure particle in Dafa.
It also seems to me that we can never afford to measure anything in Dafa with our human mind, because we ourselves are created by Dafa. Now, everything has become debased, including our thoughts that assess every matter. All that is not pure enough in the human world is the target of Fa-rectification. Does it not include what is on your mind?
For me, what it comes down to is something like this: no matter how steadfast you are in your cultivation, you have to step forward to become assimilated into Dafa. This applies to those who went into the mountains in the past for their cultivation. Without assimilating into Dafa you will have no place to breathe in the future when everything including every particle of the air becomes rectified. Do you still want to continue your quiet cultivation at home? That is almost a self-deception. But Dafa never follows your own planning; every substance and living being failing to assimilate into Dafa will be eliminated. Teacher says, "I'm really worried for them. They have no idea how dangerous the situation is for their true beings!" Let's step forward and break away from our human side; only this is genuine cultivation.
Teacher once said this Fa is so large that it is beyond our imagination. Then, many issues that surface during the process of Fa-rectification are bound to go beyond the scope of our cognition. If some people doubt this theory, then their mentality is actually no different than that of the current degenerated and irrational science.
Let's follow the will of our true self and assimilate into Dafa in accordance with Teacher's arrangements.
An American Practitioner
October 19, 2000