Western Practitioner: Are We Keeping the Persecution Alive?

By a Western Practitioner

After reading some articles from mainland China on Clearwisdom and discussing the persecution with other practitioners, I had the following thoughts:

Are we practitioners keeping the persecution alive due to our thoughts and actions? It was a frightening thought for me, thinking that I may be contributing to the continuation of the persecution in China as well as in the rest of the world.

In the past, I overheard practitioners saying they were glad that the persecution was not over yet because they were not ready to consummate. They said they still had too many things to do before the end, relating their consummation to the persecution's end. I never even thought about this until recently. How can we think like this? Is this the way future gods and Buddhas should think?

Master taught in one of His articles that if all practitioners had correct and strong righteous thoughts simultaneously, this persecution would have never happened, let alone continued for eight years. Thinking that we, myself included, may have allowed this horrific crime against humanity in China to take place makes me wonder how strong our righteous thoughts truly are. Or worse yet, because our thoughts are strong, have we deeply considered the significance of our thoughts.

While some practitioners in China have righteous thoughts and actions and are doing very well, others are still being persecuted and imprisoned. Have they forgotten what Teacher has told them - to ask for help?

"But at that moment, some students' righteous thoughts weren't adequate, and so the persecution that they suffered became even more severe. When the evil was beating them they forgot that they were Dafa disciples, and they didn't think, 'I'll ask Master to help me.' Or, when some people did ask Master for help, they had a strong attachment of fear." ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa")

"And if a person's righteous thoughts aren't sufficient while he's being persecuted, he will be persecuted even worse. This is always the case." ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa")

I can't bear the thought that I may have exacerbated these horrific events in China and/or in the Western world, because my thoughts have not always been good or in accordance with Dafa.

While it is easy for us practitioners outside of China to say that practitioners in China who are maltreated do not have righteous thoughts, I am not sure I could do better were I in their situation. On the other hand, we have read many articles from practitioners who acted with righteous thoughts when facing the persecution. These practitioners cannot be detained, or they use their supernormal abilities to escape.

I have noticed that when reading or polishing articles about the persecution, the articles do not move me that much anymore, and I wonder why? Have I become used to the atrocities or is it because I am so far away from where the real evil takes place that it now seems unreal.

We all have attachments we still need to get rid of. I noticed that some of us are still not thinking of others when doing certain activities and it looks like we have forgotten the true purpose of our actions. None of us would be doing these many, sometimes overwhelming projects in hopes of getting fame and gain, we are doing things for the purpose of offering salvation to more beings. We need to become more selfless and get rid of our human notions, especially the party culture instilled notions.

Since our thoughts are very powerful, we truly need to be careful what we think at this stage in the Fa-rectification process.

"When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do a thing."

("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

The above is only my limited understanding, which may not be correct. Still, I hope it might help other practitioners to reflect, as much as it helped me while I wrote it down.

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with all of you. Should you have suggestions or concerns, please share them with all of us as well.

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