(Clearwisdom.net)

Greetings my fellow practitioner,

I have received your letter and feel very pleased to learn that fellow practitioners are all very diligent in their cultivation. I also feel grateful for your honest and open sharing. I'd like to share my understandings of the Fa principles with you. Please point out whatever you feel is not appropriate.

A few days ago another practitioner and I went to visit your family, including your parents and your aunts. We talked for a long time. As you've already observed, your family still does not understand why practitioners are being persecuted. After all, they are non-practitioners. They said that you are too selfish and fail to consider how your family members may feel. We clarified the facts of the persecution to them and explained that it was the malicious Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that was wrong and if they wanted to have someone to blame then they should only blame the wicked party.

Your husband said, "Does she still consider herself a practitioner if she only comes back home after the persecution has ended? Does she have any righteous thoughts at all?" He said that as long as you still think of this family he would accompany you wherever you go. You told your family that you would return home after the Beijing Olympics, but you went back on your word. Your husband said that now he would not want to travel to other parts of the country to see you. He said the only exception was if you come back home nobly and righteously.

Your father added, "She said she went out to save people, however, she failed to save even her own family members. What does she fear for since she hasn't done anything bad?"

Besides your family and relatives, your husband's friends and his shop assistants have all shown concern about what has been happening at your home. Your husband was detained for several months and during that time he was inhumanly tortured. He was hung up with hands cuffed behind his back for several days and nights. Two weeks later he was still disabled. Under such torture he did not say a word. However, he suffered even greater pressure after being released. He had no money and had to survive with help from his classmates and friends. Yet his first thought was of you and he came to me to get your email address. He asked me to send a few hundred yuan to you and that was the only money he had at the time. He said your wandering about in other parts of the country was an even greater burden than what he was forced to endure. At the time I did not have the heart to accept the money. A Chinese saying goes, "A man would not easily shed his tears," but he cried loudly a few times. He had been working very hard to maintain his composure. He had to keep himself together to care for both his parents and yours. He also provided jobs to those practitioners who had no jobs. He has supported any practitioners he could, even though some did not work to his satisfaction. He said to me many times, "Falun Dafa is good, but some practitioners are really not like practitioners and in many aspects, a non-practitioner like me is doing better than they."

I would like to share my own understanding of your family's situation up to this point:

Practitioners who leave their homes to avoid being arrested are actually walking on the path arranged by the old forces. Think about it, would the persecution continue if each practitioner could be as solid as diamond in facing the persecution and used their divine powers given to us by Dafa to disintegrate the evil lives and factors? Would the evil continue persecuting us if practitioners did not let the evil conspiracy succeed, kept their families intact and let people see the beauty of Dafa in all circumstances? Doesn't this all negate the arrangements by the old forces?

Teacher said in "Cautionary Advice":

"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" (Essentials for Further Advancement)

However, since we still have attachments that we need to let go of, we cannot fail to be as solid as diamond in facing the so-called "tests." When the persecution began, the scale of evil throughout our country was unprecedented. Many practitioners left home to avoid being arrested, and their families were torn apart. Some practitioners were detained for a long period of time and they lost their jobs, and their usual way of life was turned upside down; some have been disabled or even died as a result of severe torture. Practitioners' families have been suffering unbearable pain. It would be very hard for non-practitioners who cherish the immediate benefits of this material world to understand and quite a number of people believe in the CCP's propaganda. As for those practitioners who are doing well, the evil forces dare not interfere with them any more.

Practitioner A is a typical example. When the persecution started, he left home to avoid being arrested. After living a homeless life for a short period of time, the practitioner enlightened to the fact that he could not go on like this and must validate the Fa nobly and righteously. Therefore, he returned home. To keep Teacher's instructions in mind, he clarified the truth and personally handed out truth-clarification materials. He was able to help dozens of people quit the CCP and its subordinate organizations. However, local practitioners saw him as a threat and were afraid that they might be implicated because of his actions. One day, Practitioner A was arrested and taken to the local police station for distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. At the police station he resisted being interrogated or photographed. Instead, he clarified the truth to the police, sent forth righteous thoughts and shouted "Falun Dafa is good...Our Teacher is innocent!" The evildoers dared not keep him there so he was released in about ten hours. Only then did local practitioners truly let go of their fear.

In dealing with the police from the National Security Division or the local police station, Practitioner A looked at the evildoers with righteous thoughts and asked them to remember that Falun Dafa is good, urged them not to do bad deeds and not to persecute good people who follow the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Practitioner A also exposed their evil acts of ransacking practitioners' homes and taking their money and other valuables to keep for themselves. The evildoers were afraid of being exposed so they immediately turned around and left the building. At that time, Practitioner A chased them into the street and exposed their bad deeds to all the people around. The police ran away and dared not come back again.

Many practitioners who became homeless to avoid being arrested plunged themselves into the current of Fa-rectification whole-heartedly. Some worked as technical experts while others worked at the truth-clarification materials processing sites for a long period of time. These practitioners have played a positive role in validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. In other words, they have turned a bad thing into a good thing. However, we should not think that the path of leaving home and becoming homeless to avoid being persecuted is a righteous path. This is because almost all these practitioners not only suffered financial losses but also affected the salvation of their families, friends, relatives and the sentient beings in their work units and local areas. Whenever we enlighten correctly and walk a correct path, Teacher can do anything for us. The boundless power of Dafa unfolds constantly on our path of cultivation.

Our society is made up of many families, and each family has relationships with other families. Our relatives have their relatives and our friends have their friends. A family with a practitioner should demonstrate righteousness, compassion, harmony and stability and should be a model for others. When a practitioner is able to clarify the truth to the many people in his or her social network, it is not only this practitioner who goes out to clarify the truth, but all these other sentient beings who can act as the voice of reason and goodness, impacting an even larger range of people. This is to say, when a practitioner does well, he or she can save a large number of sentient beings.

As for the issue of safety, we cannot simply cut off all contact with our families. I enlightened to the idea that safety depends on our mindset. If our thinking is focused on others, being compassionate to sentient beings, family members and fellow practitioners, we will not have selfish attachments or human sentimentality. Furthermore, when we adopt safety measures at the surface level we will certainly be safe.

When Practitioner B was brought back to our area from another part of the country, his family was very anxious to hear about his situation. Practitioner C talked to his family for a long time. After learning about Practitioner B's situation, his family was very much relieved. At the time, Practitioner C did not think of her own safety but only of comforting the person on the other end of the phone line. With the help of many practitioners, Practitioner B passed the test and walk steadfastly on the path of cultivation. He has since set up a truth-clarification material processing site at home. His family members do not practice Falun Gong but they all support him in various aspects.

Teacher said,

"If Dafa is being cultivated in the ordinary human society, and the number of cultivators is great, they have to maximally conform to the ways of the ordinary human society while cultivating; not doing so would change the ordinary human society. " ("Dafa Is All-encompassing" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

Every practitioner is a member of a society, has a family, a job as well as friends and relatives. Cultivation in this society is challenging: we must not seek material benefit if we want to let go of our human notions and attachments. We must not run from society but must face it openly and honestly. We should look inward when conflicts occur. In this way we can improve and uplift ourselves. Otherwise, it would be no different to cultivate deep in the thickly forested mountains. If practitioners can correctly position themselves, Teacher will arrange everything for us. Maybe your family members will all come to practice Falun Gong when the opportunity is ripe. It is actually this for which they have been waiting all these years.

I write this much for the purpose of sharing with fellow practitioners, not to accuse them or tell them what to do. For anything that I did not correctly understand or express, please feel free to comment and correct. I hope I can share with you again. Heshi!