Don't Lose Hope and Think That There Is Nothing You Can Do

By Zhang Dong

(Clearwisdom.net) Many of our fellow practitioners are being viciously persecuted and illegally detained in prison. When Dafa practitioners are persecuted in this way, it is usually because they have gaps that can be taken advantage of by the evil. The gaps come from practitioners having attachments that they can't get rid of, such as the attachment of fear or being unable to harmonize this layer of the Fa in the human world. In addition, before their gaps are taken advantage of by the evil, the practitioners usually haven't been able to study the Fa well. A vast majority of these practitioners developed attachments to doing Fa-rectification work and neglected studying the Fa, sending righteous thoughts and practicing the exercises. Sending righteous thoughts (cleansing oneself and cleansing the outside are both very important and can't be overlooked) is something that many fellow practitioners who have been illegally detained for a long time should pay particular attention to, but many have failed to do that.

The reason why the evil is able to detain Dafa practitioners is that Dafa practitioners themselves have accepted its evil arrangements. They have accepted the evil arrangements in their minds and condoned them. While they are being persecuted, they don't have strong enough righteous thoughts and instead deal with it with human thoughts. They meekly bear their suffering and simply wait for the day when the Fa rectifies the human world. Therefore, while being detained, they allow the evil to bully and persecute them. Actually the reason why this happens is that they still have an attachment, namely the attachment to life or death. They are unable to look at the police with righteous thoughts. It is just like another practitioner said, "Letting go of life or death is absolutely not the same thing as choosing to die. No one should carry the thought of choosing to die."

As long as we don't acknowledge the evil arrangements and oppose them from the bottom of our hearts, as long as we have steadfast belief in Teacher and in Dafa, and face tribulations with righteous thoughts, things are bound to change and improve dramatically when it looks as if we have reached the end of the road. We must know that being detained is absolutely not a part of Teacher's arrangements. Teacher has arranged the following things for Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples to do: studying the Fa well, clarify the truth and send righteous thoughts. While doing these three things well, we are saving sentient beings, establishing our mighty virtue and walking toward consummation.

Teacher has expounded the principles on this matter on many different occasions. I would like to share a few excerpts from Teacher's teachings with fellow practitioners. Let us use the Fa as the Teacher.

"Everything that the evil has done has actually targeted the attachments and fears that you have not let go of." (From "Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)")

"The more fearful they are inside, the more the evil specifically goes after such students. And the overall situation that has appeared, in which Dafa is persecuted in the human world, is caused by the large-scale, severe occurrence of these students being persecuted because they have attachments. Because they couldn't let go of their attachments they have been so-called 'reformed,' and this has led them to do things that help the evil, making the situation severe. Why should you, a Dafa disciple, fear the evil ones when enduring persecution? The crux of the matter is that you have attachments. If not, do not endure passively, and face the evil people with righteous thoughts at all times. No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone does this the environment won't be this way." (From "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful")

"In fact, some disciples and beings in different realms who are able to use their supernormal abilities in different dimensions have been using their supernormal abilities and gong potency (gongli) to take part in eliminating the evil beings that damage Dafa. When some Dafa disciples see evil beings, they send out Falun and Dafa's divine powers to eliminate the evil. There are also students who have set certain times when the world's murderers and assailants who beat people will receive retribution. They have effectively eliminated evil factors and restrained the bad people. Actually, every Dafa disciple has abilities. It's just that the abilities do not manifest in the surface dimension, so they think that they don't have supernormal abilities. But regardless of whether they can manifest in the surface dimension or not, when a person's True Thoughts come forth they are very powerful. Since we cultivate in a righteous Fa, we should care for and save beings and the people of the world who are good. So we should act with goodness in everything we do. Yet removing the evil beings that manipulate people into damaging humankind is also protecting humankind and sentient beings. Dafa is spreading widely, saving all sentient beings. Although those evil beings who are completely unsalvageable cannot be saved, they still can't be allowed to do evil without end and thus persecute Dafa and its students, and the people of the world. Eliminating evil is thus doing Fa-rectification, and is also saving the world's people and sentient beings." (From "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful")

"Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos's Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings' thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is. Dafa disciples are truly stepping forward out of ordinary humanness." (From "Also in a Few Words")

"If our righteous thoughts are very strong, then we're in line with a law in the cosmos, and this law holds in both the old cosmos and the new one: a being's choice is up to him, even if he made some kind of vow in history. At critical moments it's still up to him what he wants to do." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

"Fa-rectification disciples, the persecution has already come to this stage, and Dafa has already come to this stage in the Fa-rectification: what's there for us to still be afraid of? Haven't you already seen your future very well? So when it comes to those evil beings and their arrangements, as long as your righteous thoughts are strong enough you can reject them, repel them, and make them helpless." (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

"If the attachments at your human-surface side aren't removed, then Teacher and the Law-guardian Gods are put in a tough position. But if your righteous thoughts are strong, then Teacher and the Law-guardian Gods can do anything for you." (From "Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

"Do things well in an upright and dignified way, negate them, and strengthen your righteous thoughts some. 'I'm Li Hongzhi's disciple, I don't want other arrangements or acknowledge them'--then they won't dare to do that. So it can all be resolved. When you can really do that, not just saying it but putting it into action, Teacher will definitely stand up for you. What's more, there are lots of Fa guardians around Teacher, there are lots of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and there are even greater beings, and they will all participate, because forced persecution that's not acknowledged is a crime, and the cosmos's old laws don't allow it either--irrational persecution absolutely is not allowed, and the old forces don't dare to do it if that is the situation. So you should do things as righteously as you can." (From "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

Finally, I'd like to remind those fellow practitioners who are able to face tribulations with righteous thoughts of the following things: when we oppose the evil, we must never meekly bear things, and we must never hold our heads down and not say anything. We should face them directly, look them in the eyes and maintain strong righteous thoughts. Righteous thoughts have the power to eliminate the evil. When we look at them with strong righteous thoughts and use the compassion of enlightened beings to melt away the evil, the evil is bound to be scared and be completely eliminated! What remain are just human surface things, which are very fragile. When that happens, they will listen to your commands and fall under your control.

Of course, facing tribulations with righteous thoughts is the result of obtaining righteous beliefs and righteous enlightenment from the principles of the Fa. It is absolutely not the same thing as using one's human side and human mind to force oneself into behaving this way. In addition, practitioners who are being illegally detained may hope that other practitioners outside can help them by sending righteous thoughts. But the person who plays the deciding role is that imprisoned practitioner. When he acquiesces to the evil arrangements, the evil is able to exist in his own dimensional field and the outside help might not be able to do much. Actually when a practitioner opposes and tries to eliminate the evil, he can use his divine side to ask Law-Guardian Gods for help and ask Teacher for help. Countless practitioners can attest to the powerful effect of this approach.

The last thing that we need to keep in mind while facing tribulations with righteous thoughts is that we must eliminate our own human notions and boundaries delimited by our own minds. We should put aside thoughts such as "I've been sentenced to this many years in prison" or "what I did is considered especially serious and I am being singled out." All these thoughts are arranged by the evil using surface human principles and are not at all rational. They are not acknowledged by Dafa and not acknowledged by Teacher. You should ask yourselves the following questions, "Is it wrong to cultivate Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance? Is it wrong to exercise my legal rights to appeal for Dafa?" Actually regarding this point, the evil was able to take advantage of gaps caused by notions and karma that still existed at the practitioner's human surface, and could potentially force him to acquiesce to and acknowledge the persecution. If a cultivator always uses human principles to look at and deal with issues, can he ever succeed in cultivation? Therefore, a cultivator must use higher-level principles to look at everything. As long as our actions conform to the Fa and we are truly able to let go of everything, we can accomplish anything. We should keep in mind that in the end all our thoughts and actions have to meet the standard of gods and reach the state of gods. While we cultivate among ordinary people, we should conform to the ordinary human society to the maximum extent possible, try not to disturb the state of the ordinary human society and therefore bring negative consequences to Dafa. But on a fundamental level we need to transcend the realm of ordinary people. We must be clear on this point.

Facing tribulations with righteous thoughts and eliminating the evil arrangements are validating Dafa and establishing the mighty virtue of enlightened beings while causing no disturbance to the state of ordinary human society.

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