By a Dafa Practitioner from Mainland China

(Clearwisdom.net)

The evil elements have gradually diminished as Fa-rectification has progressed and as Dafa disciples eliminate the evil with righteous thoughts. However, the manifestation of the evil has become more and more rampant. Here in our local area, because Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth through the broadcasting of TV programs has so shocked the evil, more evil beings have gathered to persecute Dafa disciples. Several students were arrested, kidnapped, or are under close surveillance. Students who used to coordinate Dafa projects or make Dafa materials have also been arrested. This has severely hindered our effort to clarify the truth. Some channels of material distribution were interrupted. Facing the evil's mad persecution, some practitioners were deluded by the superficial phenomenon, and terminated their contact with fellow practitioners and stopped their truth-clarification efforts. To a great extent, this has manifested as a self-imposed difficulty in doing Dafa work. This has also given the evil the opportunity to take advantage of us to the extent that some practitioners were even taken away from their homes.

As Dafa disciples and as great divine beings, we should look at problems with righteous thoughts and we should view everything with Buddha nature. "Looking at the overall situation right now, on the surface the persecution is still quite vicious, but in reality few of those wicked, rotten demons that can restrain and control people are left. ... Wherever there's a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people. Don't take a detour when you run into difficulties. When you see something that does us harm, or when you see something blocking our validating the Fa, don't take a detour -- you should face it, and clarify the truth and save those beings" (from Teaching the Fa at the Washington D.C. Fa Conference, 2002). Therefore, at times like this, Dafa disciples should all the more firmly seize the opportunities to save sentient beings. We should completely reject and eliminate all arrangements made by the evil forces instead of just focusing on the evil and spreading among each other information regarding who has been arrested, how much he or she has suffered or how the police are going to persecute them, and so on. Spreading this kind of information with human attachments is indeed itself not in the Fa. It carries an element of exaggeration that enhances the evil's dimensional field, which in turn is controlled by the evil. When you have strong righteous thoughts, the evil is nothing before a righteous God. "I have asked disciples to send forth righteous thoughts, because those so-called evil beings are in fact nothing. ... Yet these evil beings are extremely base and filthy, and are not worthy of playing any role in the Fa-rectification" (from the Effect of Righteous Thoughts).

I have some understandings that I have enlightened to while participating in the Fa-rectification. I would like to speak out and share with everyone. Please correct me if there's anything improper.

During the period of time that the persecution was most severe, practitioners around me were arrested one after another. I had a premonition about almost every practitioner before each one of them was arrested. I would suddenly feel that something would go wrong with a certain practitioner, that there was something unsafe. Meanwhile, I also saw fellow practitioners' xinxing problems. Although I reminded them about it or pointed out to them the issues they should pay attention to, in the end they were still persecuted or arrested. I was very sad. I kept searching for the cause and kept looking within myself. I had a premonition a few days before another practitioner was arrested. I found her and talked to her three times about improving xinxing, about how to implement ways externally in order to not be taken advantage by the evil, and so on. She was able to step forward [to take part in the Fa-rectification], but within a few days she was arrested from a relative's home. This time it really struck me greatly. I didn't care if the fellow practitioner herself still had any problems. I didn't care if every day I myself had been very busy helping this person or looking for that person, and so on. I felt that I had not helped the fellow practitioner enough to reject the evil's persecution from the root.

I calmed down to study the Fa and looked within myself. I checked to see how my mind was moved when I handled everything. How I handled things externally was not important. What was important is why I had done it and what my motive was, and if it was from within the Fa. I discovered some factors that were restrained by the evil when I handled certain problems. For example, upon seeing the bad cultivation states of some practitioners, I would be worried or anxious to find the practitioner to point out the problem. Subconsciously I was afraid that he or she would run into troubles. Once he or she was persecuted, the first thing I could think of, and all I could think of was: I knew that his or her state had not been good recently, I knew there was something wrong with his or her xinxing -- this seems to have become the reason for the persecution. Isn't this recognizing the evil's persecution?

There also existed some passive elements when I handled certain specific issues. For example, the issue of relocating. After some practitioners were arrested, because they knew sensitive information about the location of some truth-clarification materials producing sites or other practitioners' residences, some practitioners had to move. This had become a pattern or a habit that one didn't even have to think about it -- it was especially common for homeless practitioners [practitioners who had been forced to leave their homes in order to avoid persecution]. I had been thinking: how could it be that we carry out Fa-rectification in this way? Our thinking and behavior has not escaped the evil's trap. We were still playing along in the film that they had directed. While analyzing safety issues for practitioners, we mostly analyzed the external factors, such as the use of cell phones, one-way contact, and so on. These indeed are things that need our attention, yet I still felt that we had not analyzed and solved the problems fundamentally and thoroughly. Through studying the Fa and through actual practice, I came to understand that in order to solve the problems fundamentally, we have to completely reject them, from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

Take this issue of relocating for example. The point is not whether moving itself is right or wrong. The point is, you have to know why you are moving. Some practitioners would immediately consider moving upon hearing of other practitioners being arrested and would not stay for another minute. Some practitioners would rather stay on the street than go back to where they used to live, if they couldn't find a place to live temporarily, for fear that the detained practitioners would not be able to endure the persecution and would reveal where they lived. What kind of consequence will this bring to the practitioners who were arrested if everybody around them thinks this way, or if many practitioners use this kind of logic that conforms to the persecution? What will this bring to Dafa? "Today, those who study the human body have discovered that our human mind activities or human thoughts can generate a substance" (from Lecture Five, Zhuan Falun). "If one person thinks this way, or two people think this way, or maybe three people think this way, it's not a big deal. But if Dafa disciples as a whole or if more people are thinking this way, then isn't that a strong attachment, a strong obstacle?" (from Touring North America to Teach the Fa). I think the point is not that a practitioner should not relocate; instead it is that one's thoughts should be from the basis of rejecting this persecution by the old forces. Through the persecution of one practitioner, the evil may succeed in persecuting other practitioners or practitioners as a whole. We should first completely eliminate all of the evil arrangements with righteous thoughts, and we should send forth righteous thoughts to help fellow practitioners escape from danger. Meanwhile, we change those locations that were known to the practitioners who were arrested and in this way we do not leave any gap in this human dimension, so that it would be futile even if the old forces wanted to harm practitioners. This way we alleviate the persecution toward practitioners in an objective manner and we also harmonize the principle in this human dimension.

I realized that treating anything in Fa-rectification with an attachment is a very serious matter. We have to break the evil forces' arrangements from each and every single thought of ours and not give them any audience. In order to fundamentally reject them, we ourselves must first conduct ourselves righteously. For each and every thought and for everything that happens, we must examine how our hearts are affected and what problems exist. For every thought that emerges, we need to distinguish whether it is coming from our true nature, whether it is a post-natal notion or whether it comes from the evil's interference. We also need to find out what is behind it. As we search down layer after layer, we are also breaking through level after level. We are thus evaluating everything with the Fa and eliminating all evil, with the Fa.

For example, a fellow practitioner was out of town on a business trip. As soon as he left, I had the same premonition I used to have, feeling that something bad was going to happen to him. That kind of unsafe sense was very strong, and came on suddenly. I didn't think about anything at all. I was not able to distinguish if this was caused by my own attachments and imagination or the evil's interference, or whether this was caused by my own instinctive reaction toward what was about to happen. Yet I thought the former was the old forces' product and the latter had also been arranged by the old forces. I no longer should be passively worried like I used to be, and no longer should think along the same lines. I should completely reject and eliminate the situation. Therefore I immediately erected my palm to eliminate the old forces' interference with my righteous belief and righteous thoughts, and to eliminate all arrangements made by the old forces for my fellow practitioner's Fa-rectification work. I talked to the evil directly: "No matter how you made the arrangements in history or what excuse you use, they are not excuses to be used to persecute Dafa practitioners. We are being taken care of by our Teacher. We have the Fa in our minds, constantly rectifying us. All your evil tests are of a destructive nature and are obstructing the Fa-rectification." I then sent powerful righteous thoughts to eradicate all evil elements which damage Dafa in my fellow practitioner's environment and in his dimensional field. In Touring North America to Teach the Fa, Teacher says: "When Dafa disciples send forth righteous thoughts, pure and righteous thoughts, to clean out the evil's persecution of them, that's allowed -- the old Fa-principles include principles like that as well. This is the same idea as approaching cultivation with righteous thoughts, or as saving sentient beings with righteous thoughts. That's why you can do this." Teacher has given us the capability. Therefore I definitely will be able to do well. Persecution of fellow practitioners is persecution toward ourselves. This is how I eliminated the evil every time when I sent forth righteous thoughts. I continued doing this for three days, finally stopping after I felt that nothing would go wrong. This practitioner returned safely after a few days. He said he indeed ran into trouble on his way. He was being followed by the evil. He got away by sending forth righteous thoughts. Immediately following that, his body showed symptoms of having high fever, and so on. Through this experience I have made a new breakthrough on how to break away from the evil's arrangements. I came to realize the following: Only by rejecting the old forces' arrangements completely can we break through their arrangements

fundamentally. Whenever we encounter anything or any problem, "as for the interference by evil in other dimensions, we must seriously eradicate it with righteous thoughts" (from Fa-rectification and Cultivation).

In another example, a fellow practitioner suddenly told me: "I heard that your place has been under surveillance." I didn't know specifically what was going on. I didn't know whether he heard this from other practitioners, nor did I know the source of this story. I returned to the place where I lived. Immediately following that I was without electricity for two days. The water pipes made unusual, roaring noises. Practitioners all reminded me to ponder hard on this, to not go home and to figure out what was going on first. I knew the reason why these unusual things happened was because my own dimensional field was not very pure and clean. It was the evil who had targeted me and was trying to do something to me. First I examined the problems existing within myself. Because lately I had been handling so many more projects, I was studying the Fa less. When I was with fellow practitioners I didn't cherish the time, and I talked a lot and studied very little. My humanness kept surfacing. I cleaned out the problem existing in myself in a timely manner. I firmly seized the opportunity to study the Fa. Meanwhile I eliminated the evil forces' persecution with righteous thoughts. From the bottom of my heart I rejected all arrangements made by the old forces for me during Fa-rectification. I didn't need to relocate because I could no longer be restrained by the evil. As a Dafa disciple, I have the ability to change all the evil's arrangements by walking my path righteously. When we rectify and purify ourselves, when we conduct ourselves with righteous thoughts and righteous actions, when we completely and totally reject the evil's persecution and when we regard ourselves as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples and regard ourselves as great divine beings, how can the old forces be worthy of testing us? When I sent forth pure and clean righteous thoughts to eradicate the evil, I felt that the strong gong had disintegrated layer after layer of arrangements made by the old forces. I felt that the gong had rearranged and rectified everything in my surrounding environment. It was capable of changing everything, directed by our free will. It was capable of regenerating everything and destroying the degenerated things completely.

I have come to realize the following in the Fa-rectification: Only when we completely reject the old forces' arrangements can we eliminate them fundamentally. How much we have rejected is how much we have broken through. However, this kind of rejecting also includes rejecting the deviated notions which we ourselves formed after we were born, and includes rejecting human thoughts and reasoning. The rejecting process itself is also a process of rectifying one's own self and a process of assimilating into the Fa. When all Dafa disciples assimilate into the Fa and melt into the Fa, the evil will be eliminated completely.