(Clearwisdom.net) Since the beginning of our cultivation till today, we as practitioners have all become more mature, realizing the importance of completely negating the arrangements of the old forces. As I see it, the following are some reasons fellow practitioners have not been able to negate the old forces and suffered persecution as a result:

Teacher said in the first lecture of Zhuan Falun,

"Different levels have different Fa, and Fa assumes different guiding roles at different levels. Thus, low-level principles cannot guide your cultivation practice toward high levels."

In addition to sending forth righteous thoughts to clean out interference, they may also discover some attachments and then eliminate them.

Although they may have righteous thoughts, they are not righteous enough. So when they come across a problem, they might be uncertain. For instance, when a practitioner heard that the evil would come to persecute him, he kept thinking, "They're not good enough to test me." But he was a little uncertain in his mind, so consequently he was persecuted.

The basic problem, I think, is not having solid faith in Teacher and the Fa. There is also some kind of acceptance of the old forces. What Teacher said is Fa--unshakable, unchangeable. As long as we have the heart to uphold our solid faith without any human thoughts, the evil will perish.

One fellow practitioner was in a forced labor camp when a guard threatened to harm him. He said in his mind to the evil elements that controlled the guard, "You can't interfere with me. I have Teacher protecting me." Since his mind was rock-solid and fully trusting Teacher, nothing the guard said to the practitioner affected him at all. Consequently, the guard didn't dare to touch him.

For instance, one fellow practitioner was arrested. While he was being tortured, he said, "I am not afraid of anything, I am not even afraid of death. I won't compromise." But later, when his physical body wasn't able to bear the torture, he eventually he signed a guarantee statement against his will. He couldn't understand why. He said that he was so firm, so solid, yet it turned out this way. On the surface, this fellow practitioner was quite firm, but when judged with the Fa, that was human firmness. That wasn't a conviction based on firm righteous thoughts. For a practitioner, not being afraid of anything is an attachment; dealing with this matter with righteous thoughts is unchangeable--there's no such concept as being afraid or not being afraid.

Maybe we should step back and consider, "Aren't we taking human thoughts as righteous thoughts?" We must be diligent in examining whether our every thought is righteous.

There was another practitioner who was somewhat famous prior to July 20, 1999. After the persecution started, in order to avoid being arrested, sometimes he faked being drunk or pretended to be fighting for things, so he wasn't arrested for many years. Some practitioners tried to copy him, thinking that he was smart. They erroneously regarded his actions as being based on righteous thoughts.

A fellow practitioner said I had righteous thoughts whenever I came across problems. But even so, sometimes my thoughts resulted in things that shouldn't have happened. In that case, we practitioners should look within ourselves to see if there are any loopholes or selfish notions.

As I recall, prior to 1999 when a practitioner experienced bodily discomfort and said, "I won't take medicine. As long as I keep solid faith in Dafa, Teacher will help me to get rid of sickness," didn't these thoughts arise from his attachment to be healed through cultivating Dafa?

There was another practitioner for whom the harder he resisted persecution, the more severely he was persecuted. In the process of resisting the persecution, his attachments of selfishness and competition prolonged the elimination of the evil and resulted in more persecution.

Teacher said:

"Then, while doing anything that has to do with validating the Fa, including doing things as a group and doing things on your own, you'll think for yourselves and try to come up with ways to solve tough problems. And when you are thinking things over, whether you use human notions or the righteous thoughts of a cultivator is going to determine the different results you get. The same holds true for when you work together to do things. And when you put your heads together to figure something out, this is the case, too." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")

Some practitioners basically lack righteous thoughts, let days go by without plans, believe what the police tell them, and don't really handle themselves as Dafa disciples. They do not value themselves as Dafa disciples--these are the kind of people most likely arranged by the old forces for final elimination.

These are the problems I have seen. My analysis may be incomplete and not well thought out, so please point out anything incorrect.