(Clearwisdom.net) I have been cultivating Dafa for twelve years. I went through a very long process: one starting from not understanding the issue of using righteous thoughts, to dealing with each and every thought, to getting a better understanding of this issue. With special regard to the thoughts that appear in our heads, which ones are righteous thoughts and which ones are just perceptions? Which ones are imposed on us by the old evil forces? I could not differentiate between these. I recalled the two occasions when I was sent to a forced labor camp, and I realized that it was because I was not clear about this. My thinking was dominated by the perceptions imposed by the old, evil forces. I took these perceptions to be my own thoughts.

The first incident happened after July 20, 1999. After I was persecuted I read an article written by Master, and I was so touched that I cried. I thought, "If the fellow practitioners in the forced labor camp could read this article, how wonderful it will be! They would be able to break through the tribulation with righteous thoughts. But how could I get the articles to them at the labor camp? If I could bring the new article into the labor camp, even if I am imprisoned for one year for doing so, it would be worth it." With this thinking, I was setting myself up to be imprisoned. A few days later I was really arrested and sentenced to one year of imprisonment.

In the past I could not differentiate between righteous thoughts and other types of thoughts that appeared in my head. I was frequently affected by bad thoughts and thought karma, and I would follow them in my actions. From the Fa I also knew that Master has arranged a path for us that leads straight to the heavens. The old evil forces has arranged tribulations after tribulations to drag us towards hell. But which ones are arranged by Master and which ones are arranged by the old evil forces? I could not differentiate between them.

One day when I was studying the Fa, I read this paragraph in Master's lecture,

"So in other words, this has been systematically arranged even since a time that remote. Then think about it: could the human society, and everything that we can see, exist by chance? Even each Dafa disciple's every move, every action, every word, and even the questions you ponder, none of it is that simple. In the future you'll see that everything was very carefully arranged. But it's not me who arranged this, it's the old forces who did." ("Fa Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")

I suddenly awakened and realized that the two times I was imprisoned in the forced labor camp was due to the evil thoughts imposed by the old evil forces. I did not differentiate them, and I followed those perceptions in my thinking and actions. I thought that these were my own thoughts. I unknowingly followed the path arranged by the old evil forces without realizing it.

However, through continually studying the Fa, I gradually managed to differentiate what is righteous thought and which is thought karma and evil thought, which is the path arranged by Master, and which is the persecution imposed by the old evil forces. I finally understood: Thoughts that interfere with my validation of Dafa, saving of sentient beings, and doing the three things required by Master are all evil thoughts. I must reject them. When those evil thoughts surface, I will immediately identify them and deny them and get rid of them. I must fundamentally deny all the arrangements of the old, evil forces and start with each and every thought.

June 22, 2009