(Clearwisdom.net) Today I read the article "Treating Fellow Practitioners and Ourselves with Righteous Thoughts" on our website. I agree with the practitioner's understanding because similar things have happened around me. I'd like to share my understandings.
Dafa practitioners' words are powerful. The evil old forces have been obstructing people from obtaining the Fa and persecuting Dafa practitioners in the name of testing us. Therefore, we must cultivate our speech and not jump to conclusions about ourselves or others.
My Father Missed Dafa Due to a "Joke"
Before the persecution started, my mother was practicing Dafa but was not diligent. I wanted my father to practice, too, but my mother always joked about it in front of him, "He won't practice unless he gets an incurable disease." I didn't like the joke, but I also didn't realize what was wrong with it.
Actually, I think my father wanted to practice with us, because when we were listening to the Fa or reading the Fa, he listened very carefully. One day he was hit by a car but was not hurt at all because he later told us that at the moment he had nothing in his mind except the three words, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." He also did what a practitioner would have done. He didn't go to a hospital for a check up or ask the driver for money. We were all very surprised when he came home and told us about it, because normally he would never let the driver walk away like that. He said, "See? I'm doing quite well as a non-practitioner."
I tried to persuade him to practice along with us, but my mother made the joke again.
The following spring of 1999, my father was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. One day, after a hospital check up, he picked up Zhuan Falun and read for two hours. He finally obtained the Fa, but about 10 days later the persecution started and he gave up.
This is how my father missed his opportunity to practice cultivation in Dafa. Several years later, it suddenly occurred to me the reason my father obtained the Fa after he had an incurable disease was perhaps just because of my mother's joke! I wished that I had negated it at that time. It also occurred to me that my father's tumor did not advance to its peak as it was supposed to during those days because he was practicing cultivation and the tumor was being suppressed.
With My Firm Belief in Master, My Sister Returned to Cultivation Practice
My younger sister made a mistake and fell in love with a married man. Because of Master's protection, the man rejected her affections. Other relatives and fellow practitioners gave up on her, in addition to accusing her of wrongdoings. She gradually cut off connections with us. I was deeply reminded of what happened to my father, and I believed that she had obtained the Fa so she would never go on a horrible path. I believed that she would return to cultivation because Master will not leave out a single disciple. I started to analyze her circumstances and found out she had not done anything bad, which strengthened my belief. I did not ask too much about her, but showed concern for her and constantly strengthened her in my mind. Two years later, she came back to cultivation practice. She said she did not understand why that happened for those two years--she felt she had been bewitched. When she wanted to resume practicing cultivation, she felt as if she had suddenly woken up.
This was another manifestation of Dafa's mighty power.
Saving Relatives with Righteous Thoughts
Due to the persecution, I graduated from college without a job and nobody wanted to marry me because I practiced Falun Gong. Many of my non-practitioner relatives thought it was Dafa's fault and didn't allow me to talk to others about Falun Gong and the persecution. As soon as I started talking, they stopped me by talking about what nice jobs other people that graduated from much less prestigious schools got. Some of my practitioner relatives started to develop passive thoughts of giving up on them. But I thought, "They don't have to learn the truth from me. They can learn the facts from other sources--and they will!" In my mind I kept strong thoughts that they would understand the true situation some day.
One day during Chinese New Year, I tried to clarify the facts to one of my relatives, but he scolded me. I had to be quiet. A few days later, a non-practitioner talked with him about the truth-clarification DVD titled Traveling Heaven and Earth Through Wind and Rain that he had recently seen, and my relative listened. The non-practitioner did not know that I practice Falun Gong, so I asked him questions from a third-person's angle. He then told the relative everything I would have said.
In the end, I asked the non-practitioner a question which I believed my relative would ask, "Why do you believe everything on the DVD?" He answered, "During the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the authorities claimed the civilians and students burned up army vehicles in the street. But the truth is, the army had painted scrap vehicles and shipped them to the location and burned the vehicles themselves. The civilians or students didn't do it. I know this so well because one of my friends participated in the deception. Therefore, I believe what the Chinese Communist Party says are all lies, so I believe what the DVD says is true." I was shocked. Looking at my relative, he was shocked too, and all his questions were answered. Moreover, he later became a practitioner.
Later on, many of my relatives obtained the Fa, but none of them did so through me. Sometimes I thought I wasn't compassionate enough to have clarified the facts to them face-to-face, but I have always been holding a righteous thought for them: They will understand the truth!
I know I am doing very poorly in clarifying the facts. I am sharing this not to find excuses for myself but to remind my fellow practitioners not to let up on their righteous thoughts under any circumstances or make conclusive statements about other practitioners or non-practitioners. Master has not given up on any particular practitioner, what right do we have to say someone is not good or hopeless?
