(Clearwisdom.net) A fellow practitioner's article "Golden Buddha" with Teacher's comment on November 1, 2003 contained a story in which two people cultivating Buddhahood took a butcher's heart upon his request to the Buddha. After they came into the Buddha's presence, the Buddha pointed to a giant pot of boiling water, and asked them to jump in. The two people hesitated to follow the Buddha's direction, and both thought: "Maybe we should test with the butcher's heart first to see if we should follow the Buddha's words?" So they threw the butcher's heart into the pot, and it turned into a golden Buddha. It was only after they witnessed the wonderful result of following the Buddha's words that the two people finally jumped in the boiling water.
These two cultivators did not have complete faith in the Buddha's words, and tried to test the Buddha's words at another person's expense. It was only when they witnessed the phenomenon of the Buddha Fa (Law and principles in the Buddha School) and, thus, were certain of the benefit that they decided to jump into the boiling water. However, they turned into a couple of donuts (of the Chinese style, usually served for breakfast) instead, the symbol of their faith in the Buddha. What a pity. Because of their selfishness and their lack of faith, they lost a precious opportunity to reach Buddhahood.
On November 15, 2003, Teacher made a comment on another fellow practitioner's article entitled "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People." Teacher said in the comment, "I hope all Falun Dafa disciples and new students in Mainland China will do this well." Teacher is giving new and veteran Falun Dafa practitioners an opportunity to establish their mighty virtue, as well as a critical test. However, some individual practitioners in China have some reservations or doubts about following Teacher's words [like the two people cultivating Buddhahood in the story]. They evaluate the possible outcome of following Teacher's comment in "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People" with conventional notions. They haven't understood the importance of exposing the local persecution to the local residents.
Similar to the two cultivators in the story, some local practitioners and practitioners in other areas are driven by their acquired notions. They analyze and estimate the possible outcome of following Teacher's words and exposing the persecution in their areas to the local residents. Some of them say, "We should leave these wicked people alone if they will leave us alone." Some of them say, "If we expose their involvement in the persecution, they will surely become furious and escalate the persecution. It is only going to make our life more difficult." It is as though these practitioners have forgotten that the persecution against Falun Gong is unconstitutional from the very beginning.
Why don't we expose facts of the persecution so that the wicked people have no choice but to end the unlawful persecution of Falun Gong? These practitioners are still captivated in a passive state. They believe that it is the "government" [instead of the old forces] that has been directing the persecution of Falun Gong. Because they haven't understood the nature of the persecution from the Fa, they have a wavering faith in Teacher and fail to follow Teacher's words without hesitation. [Similar to the two cultivators who tested the Buddha's words with the butcher's heart first]
Some practitioners are still stuck in the mentality of "seeing is believing" and have been watching the actions of those practitioners who have no reservations or doubts about Teacher's comment in "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People." Before taking actions according to Teacher's words, these practitioners want to see first to what extent practitioners with unwavering faith reveal the persecution, and see how the depraved cohorts of the persecution respond to the righteous actions. Aren't they "testing" Teacher's Fa with the hearts of those practitioners who first started to expose the local persecution? Some individual practitioners are even too frightened of the consequences to expose their own stories as persecution victims. I sure hope that they know that this persecution will not go on forever and that we have only very limited time left to save the countless sentient beings.
I will share with fellow practitioners the results of following Teacher's words and exposing the local persecution to the local residents in our area. On New Year's Eve of 2004, we heard that the local cohorts of the persecution were about to open new forced brainwashing sessions. We held a local Fa conference right away, and unanimously decided to reveal the dark plot to the local residents. After exchanging our ideas, we finalized the content of the flyers to reveal the "610 Office's" scheme of opening forced brainwashing sessions. We also included the following information in the flyers: the names of the evil cohorts, evidence of Falun Dafa flourishing in more than 60 countries worldwide, and the news of Jiang Zemin being sued for genocide by Falun Gong practitioners in multiple foreign countries. In just one night, we posted the flyers all over our area. The high exposure of their dark plot all over the area shocked the persecutors and forced them to drop their plot. On the night we posted the flyers, a practitioner posted the flyer right on the door of a depraved policeman who has been participating in the persecution. (We have written letters to him before, hoping to spark his good conscience.) The policeman discovered that practitioner's action and started to follow him. When he finally caught up with the practitioner, he begged, "I beg you to give me a break. Please do not put my name on the flyers anymore."
The participants of the unlawful persecution against Falun Gong fear the exposure of their crimes more than anything else. The police and other persecutors fear that their friends and family will learn of their crimes. In fact, many of them know very well what they have been doing is illegal and that, while participating in the persecution, they have wronged countless law-abiding citizens of high morality. However, practitioners in China who have not completely devoted their hearts to the Fa-rectification still cannot perceive the improvement and transformation of the environment in the human realm brought by their fellow practitioners who have been eliminating the evil elements with their righteous thoughts, as well as by Teacher, who has been pushing forward the force of Fa-rectification quickly.
Teacher is on top of everything. Falun Dafa practitioners now have the upper hand in the battle with the evil. The power of the evil is diminishing. When we are not doing Fa-rectification with human attachments, how can any ordinary person harm us Fa-rectification period practitioners? We must not disappoint Teacher who has sacrificed everything in order to give us salvation. We must make Teacher proud and be worthy of his salvation. Teacher is not willing to leave any Falun Dafa practitioner behind, so he is giving us extra time to catch up. We have read many articles on Clearwisdom in which practitioners see Teacher enduring our karma for us through their third eyes, giving us the chance to purge the elements of the old universe from ourselves and to become magnificent divine beings in the new universe. How can there be any reason for us not to put down our attachments? We must not hesitate or doubt Teacher any more. If we waste the extra time that Teacher has given us to help with Fa-rectification, we will forever lose the opportunity for salvation like those two cultivators in the story.
This concludes my personal understanding on this issue. Please kindly correct or complement my understanding.