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Some Thoughts about Completely Denying Old Force Arrangements
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) A while ago, some practitioners in our region
encountered severe persecution. One time, over 60 fellow practitioners were
illegally arrested. Over 40 were sentenced to forced labor. Everyone
was in danger at the time, it seemed, and fellow practitioners did not trust
each other. In addition, no truth-clarification materials were distributed
for over a year. The situation was closely related to a mindset shared by many
veteran practitioners. I believe this mindset was not limited to just a small
region. It existed in many regions throughout China. If this kind of mindset is
not done away with, it becomes very difficult to find ways to break through it
and for practitioners to improve and save sentient beings. Back in 2000, many of us who stepped forward first possessed an incorrect
understanding: to use the evil environment imposed by the old forces to
cultivate ourselves. We thought that only by going to jail, forced labor camp,
or other evil places, could we establish our mighty virtue. Many fellow
practitioners who did not step forward also agreed, thinking that was the only
way would people think they were great. In fact, that kind of notion
acknowledged the persecution. It accepted and condoned old force arrangements.
Those of us who came out of jails and forced labor camps did not realize that
our intention to use the evil environments to cultivate ourselves was the real
reason that we were persecuted. Teacher said: "Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those thoughts
they can't do anything. 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.") These notions made practitioners unable to recognize persecution. It also led
to some telling others that they should not miss these kinds of
"opportunities." Hearing that fellow practitioners were arrested and
sentenced to forced labor camps, they felt he or she was fortunate. They also
did not try to stop the persecution. Moreover, in our region there was a very serious issue. When coordinators who
had been persecuted met practitioners from other regions, they would first ask
them whether they had ever been sentenced to a forced labor camp. If not, the
coordinator's first response was that, since they had not experienced such
tests, they would not be provided with truth-clarification materials. There
seemed to be nothing wrong with this kind of response. In fact, we did not
realize that deep in our hearts we were admitting the arrangements of the old
forces. When we heard about practitioners' homes being ransacked, many people
would ask whether the police had found any truth-clarification materials. If the
answer was yes, and the police found a lot of materials, their first response
might be, "That's it. He will be sentenced to at least x years." Thus,
their thoughts had a negative effect on the situation. Where did that thought come from? Was it because of the constant pressure of
the persecution? Many practitioners thought "as long as they clarify the
truth and validate Dafa, they will for sure encounter some problems sooner or
later." Why did some of us have such ingrained notions? Weren't these long
ago instilled by the old forces? Aren't such notions among the factors
encouraging the old forces, allowing them to persecute practitioners? If practitioners did not acknowledge this notion and if we firmly denied the
persecution in both our thoughts and actions, the old forces would not dare to
commit such atrocities. On the contrary, if our first thought when hearing about
practitioners being arrested is that our fellow practitioner is doing a very
great and divine job and that nobody should persecute him or her for any reason;
that whoever persecutes that practitioner is committing a crime; that they
should release that practitioner unconditionally; and in the meantime, we send
righteous thoughts to eliminate all evil factors behind that fellow
practitioner, then we would see different results. In the process of clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, the way
some practitioners spoke, how they behaved and how they looked was intimidating.
They formed a kind of restraining field, hindering us from validating Dafa. We
thought we might have to escape at a moment's notice and were without any
righteous thoughts. So, when other people saw that, would they still believe us?
They might think we did not have any good intentions. Teacher asked
practitioners to do such a great and divine job. However, it turned out to be a
totally different situation. It is not others that should be validating Dafa. It
is practitioners. We should do this from deep in our hearts, but we cannot do so
without proper righteous thoughts. When we realized all the above issues, we spent quite some time exchanging
our thoughts with other practitioners. We exchanged ideas with one another.
Fellow practitioners were very surprised and changed those erroneous thoughts.
In the meantime, we set up specific local times to send forth righteous thoughts
to disintegrate evil interference in our local area. In our district, we now
send forth righteous thoughts at nine o'clock in the evening, for as long as we
think necessary. We told every practitioner to do this. Not long after, all
local fellow practitioners knew of this and got rid of the erroneous thoughts
formed under the horrifying and intense pressure of the persecution. The
environment in our local district has changed a lot. We now all pay more attention to sending forth righteous thoughts towards
local evil factors. It has now been two years without any large scale local
persecution. However, we will not slack off and will continue to do what
practitioners should do. The above is my personal experience sharing. Please point out anything
inappropriate. January 29, 2008
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