Compassion is
expressed in this world through love and kindness, and these are qualities that
those who practice Dafa should always radiate from within. There is something I
have recently been thinking about. I’ve called upon you to help rescue lives,
but the state of mind that you have when doing things to achieve this, such as when
you raise awareness among people on your own or perform with Shen Yun,
shouldn’t be limited to just those moments. Rather, you should maintain a state
of mind of uplifting people’s souls and hold on to this sense of purpose as you
go about things at your workplace, wherever it may be. This is especially true
for those of you who are involved in various media platforms. There have been
cases where others can’t even sense in you the compassion that someone leading
a spiritual life should have. Or your commentaries on situations or events are based
on your personal inclinations, which shouldn’t be. You are here to help rescue lives
on a spiritual level, and you should be gauging things in light of Zhen,
Shan, Ren—being true, kind, and forbearing. What you write and say should,
at a minimum, help steer people in a direction that will ultimately elevate
their souls.
A rather serious
issue is that some of you are often making personal attacks on important figures
in government. But we are here to help people elevate spiritually and deliver them
from danger, not make enemies. Truth be told, you shouldn’t be launching
personal attacks on anyone, no matter how bad the person may be (with the
exception being the Chinese Communist Party’s sinister, now-deceased despot,
Jiang)—and particularly not on important figures in the United States’ two
major political parties. Everyone is here for the Way, and all, on some level,
are awaiting deliverance from this world. Yet personal attacks tend to breed
strong resentment. And once that kind of intense feeling has formed, it is hard
to undo. So how are you going to get through to people, in that case? And
what’s more, doing that is likely to cause retaliation. Haven’t there been
plenty of lessons along these lines? Most of us are outsiders here, and we
aren’t deeply rooted in this society. We came here to escape persecution by the
CCP, moreover. So we should be grateful, for the United States has opened its
arms to us.
When you write or
speak, you should do so with the intent to help others elevate spiritually, and
do so with love for your fellow man. Every Dafa practitioner—and not just those
in the media—should ask themselves whether they are doing what someone who does
spiritual practice in Dafa ought to. I can’t help but feel worried, looking
back at how you’ve done. Many people have been lax in their spiritual practice
for quite some time, and have been going about things just like anyone else in the
world. Which is hardly the spiritual state of someone who practices Dafa, right?
You really need to take this problem seriously. Many of you who are involved in
various media platforms need to start connecting your work with raising
awareness and helping to free
people from danger to their souls. If your only aim is to increase your click
rate, that’s hardly the spiritual state of a Dafa practitioner. You are wasting
large amounts of the limited time that is meant for rescuing people in these
final days! You are going to regret that one day! A Dafa practitioner’s responsibility
is to bring people out of peril, but if you carry on like this your compassion
is going to completely wither away! How is that anything like someone who leads
a spiritual life? Think about the things that have happened: how could they not
be related? There are higher beings protecting Dafa practitioners. When things
go wrong, isn’t it a divine warning? Why haven’t you snapped out of it? And if
something goes terribly wrong, isn’t it a matter of divine punishment? If you
no longer have compassion in you, if you’ve lost sight of your responsibilities
and mission, and have even forgotten about your spiritual goals, then you are
bound to be just like everyone else in this world. And if the lines between Dafa
practitioners and others are blurred, what will become of you as a group? Is
that not frightening? And yet we are beings shouldering the greatest
responsibility in the universe!
I have always
taught that you should not be involving yourselves in politics in the role of a
Dafa practitioner, nor get involved in rivalries between political parties. The
Democratic Party and the Republican Party are both just worldly entities. Every
individual is someone whom the divine wants to save from this world. You have
no business thinking that you will only try to help individuals who belong to one
political party, and not the other. They are all my people! I as well as
multitudes of divine beings wish to save them! It’s a different story of course
if on some level a person doesn’t want to be saved. But as Dafa practitioners
you cannot pick and choose. Each and every person is divine by nature, and
everyone came to this earth to learn about Dafa and gain deliverance.
Also, when you are
commenting on things [with your media platforms], you should focus your
discussion on the matter at hand, not on the individuals involved. Perhaps some
individual handled something wrong in some regard, but is great with things in
other regards. Some people’s thinking and beliefs are rather different, but it
doesn’t mean they are bad people. To be able to regard anyone and everyone with
compassion, to have love for all people, really isn’t something the
average person can achieve. Harder still is to have a sense of compassion
toward all living things in everything you do. But that is something practitioners
of Dafa have to be able to do! Spiritual development is a process, and so what
I described might not be doable at the moment for those who are newer to the
practice; but with time, as you develop further in your spiritual practice, you
must manage to do that. Veterans of the practice need to do this now.
This is something dictated by your historic mission, and it is something that
every Dafa practitioner who aspires to spiritual greatness must achieve in
their practice!
Your Teacher,
Hongzhi Li
June 6, 2024
