Studying the Fa and doing cultivation are a person’s own affair. Yet often there are quite a number of students who consistently take other people as their role models—they look at how other people do things and then follow suit. This is a kind of poor behavior developed among everyday people. A cultivator has no role models. The path each person is to take is different, because each person’s foundation is different, the sizes of their various attachments are different, the characteristics of their beings are different, their jobs among everyday people are different, their family environments are different, and so on. These factors determine that each person’s path of cultivation is different, that how they get rid of their attachments is different, and that the sizes of their tests are different. Therefore, amidst the manifestations of things it’s very hard to find a path that others have made, and it’s even less possible for a person to get a ride down one. If there really were pre-made paths and effortless rides, that definitely would not be cultivation.

Ever since Dafa’s introduction, there have been people who have watched others—"whatever others do, that’s what I’ll do"—instead of using the Fa to measure whether something is right or wrong. When they see that some people’s illnesses are cured through cultivating Dafa, they too get enthused; when they see that some people no longer practice, they too waver; when they see that there are a hundred million people cultivating Dafa across the country, they think it must be something good, and follow others to learn it; when they see that the evil has begun to attack, oppress, and persecute Dafa, and that television and radio have crafted lies to frame Dafa, they start to waver and get anxious. Cultivation is hard. It’s hard in that even when a terrible calamity strikes, even when evil madly persecutes, and even when your life is at stake, you still have to be able to steadfastly continue on your path of cultivation without letting anything in human society interfere with the steps you take on your path of cultivation.

Dafa disciples are now right in the midst of the Fa-rectification period, and the old forces’ performance has formed the most fundamental and most severe test of Dafa disciples. Whether the test can be passed is an actualization of Dafa and of whether every Dafa disciple can be responsible to himself. And whether a person can, while breaking and eliminating the evil, step forward to validate Dafa becomes a testament about [letting go of] life and death, becomes confirmation of whether a Fa-rectification disciple can achieve Consummation, and also becomes what differentiates a God from a human. For a Dafa disciple, safeguarding and upholding the Fa is only natural. So at this moment in history, when we truly have a situation in which evil persecutes Dafa, a Dafa disciple will certainly step forward to validate the Fa in response to the persecution. In this situation, when some students see others step forward to validate the Fa, they follow along; when they see that others are not stepping forward, they don’t step forward either; when they are beaten or are being "reformed," and see others give in to the evil’s pressure and write some so-called "promise to stop practicing cultivation," they also write one, which is the result of not being able to understand things according to the Fa. Can you imagine what it means for a cultivator if this stain isn’t washed clean? The current evil persecution has been imposed on Dafa and the disciples by the old forces. Isn’t everything that is done to resist the persecution the most magnificent display of Dafa disciples being responsible to Dafa and to themselves? This is not the first time in the course of the degenerating history that evil forces have persecuted cultivators. Isn’t this a recurrence of what Jesus experienced in his day? Didn’t Buddha Sakyamuni experience this, too? If there actually are paths that can serve as a reference, then haven’t what the previous Enlightened Beings experienced in that regard and today’s evil occurred in the same way? Although they differ in their specific manifestations, they all aim to break the will of those who cultivate in a righteous Fa. In the ordinary cultivations in history, those negative beings really did act as a touchstone to determine whether individual cultivators could reach Consummation. If someone turned out to be sand instead of gold, he would definitely be sifted out. But today it is different in that Fa-rectification is taking place in the cosmic bodies and the colossal firmament is being reconstructed. All of the so-called "tests" of Dafa are interfering with the Fa-rectification. Moreover, the aim of all those who participate in the persecution is to damage Dafa. Although everything the old forces did to people’s personal cultivation achieved a certain effect in the past, if that approach is used during the Fa-rectification, not only does it fail to meet Dafa’s standard, but it also seriously interferes with and disrupts the Fa-rectification. At present, the old forces are to be completely eradicated, regardless of whether the beings participating are positive or negative ones. All the evil beings who are participating in this are being eliminated during the Fa-rectification, no matter how high their levels are. With Fa-rectification it is completely different from ordinary cultivation. Today, when Dafa disciples clarify the truth in response to the evil’s persecution, there are some students who are watching what others do. But a person always has to enlighten on his own to what he should do in the face of tribulations. Every time a person improves, the Attainment Status he has validated and enlightened to rises.

The path a Dafa disciple takes is a glorious history, and this history has to be created by his own enlightening.

Li Hongzhi
Written on July 9, 2001

(Published on September 23, 2001)