Letting Go of Self and Being Responsible to Sentient Beings

(Minghui.org) During the many years that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persecuted Falun Gong, we have seen that each time a practitioner is arrested, it negatively affects our local practitioners' efforts in validating the Fa and saving lives. For example, some friends and relatives of the practitioner being persecuted may adopt a negative attitude towards Dafa.

Some of the people directly involved in persecuting practitioners have received retribution for their actions. Sometimes, the weather has dramatically changed, such as no snow in winter, or continuous heavy rain, wind, haze, and so on. The tangible and invisible losses are truly immeasurable.

Master said,

“Dafa disciples are suffering,But who is ruined are sentient beings.”(“Every Lifetime Was For This Life” from Hong Yin III)

How can we really understand the extent to which sentient beings have been damaged during the persecution of Dafa disciples? In the ancient play “The Injustice to Dou E,” an innocent woman was executed for a crime she didn’t commit, which resulted in the people in her town suffering through three years of drought. Will there be similar consequences for imprisoning innocent Dafa disciples?

As Dafa disciples, our duty and mission is to validate that Dafa offers salvation to all living beings.

From Master's teachings, I have realized that in this life, Dafa disciples cultivate in order to enhance righteous thoughts and to save people. Dafa disciples should let go of self unconditionally and assist Master with saving lives.

The arrangements of the old forces are for promoting only personal cultivation and protecting oneself. However, this would cause the destruction of all beings. Therefore, it is our responsibility to negate and stop the persecution of Falun Dafa and be responsible for sentient beings.

I believe that eliminating the focus on self in personal cultivation includes surface emotions, deeper personal knowledge and insights, and then the attachment to one's own enlightenment to Fa principles, as well as other factors too numerous to list.

I think a large number of our attachments occur because we are unable to let go of self. We should unconditionally look inward and disintegrate layers of self to achieve a selfless state and meet Dafa's requirements at different levels. But how many practitioners can do this?

For example, the negative energy resulting from complaints among practitioners is equivalent to the energy of an atomic bomb. That is because we cultivate microscopic substances such as atoms, nuclei, electrons, neutrons, and even smaller particles. Atomic bombs are devastating to humankind. Can you imagine how the resentment between practitioners can cause damage to sentient beings at microscopic levels? If so, would you dare to complain? I do not think that this is an exaggeration.

Some practitioners have attachments to self and slack off in cultivation. Once you know that each attachment you have will bring disaster to sentient beings, would you dare to keep any attachment?

Some practitioners give speeches in order to coordinate efforts or to promote a state of one body for overall improvement. How many of those people have really played a positive role? What was achieved in the end? Is your standpoint really for the sake of others, or for the satisfaction of self-desire?

I am not criticizing. In fact, I used to behave in that way. After continuously looking within, I only put forward my personal understanding of certain phenomena. I don't comment on everything that is occurring.

We should let go of self and be responsible to sentient beings. We should cooperate and harmonize with one another to form a selfless, genuine cultivation group.

All beings and our families in the heavenly paradises are hoping for us to assist Master in Fa-rectification. I once dreamed, when I was in a detention center, that everyone in my heavenly family came to visit me. I cried because I felt that I had not done well enough and had let them down.