(Clearwisdom.net)
For a long time after Master Li's article "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance" was first published, I used human thinking when eliminating the evil. After talking with fellow practitioners, I came to realize that what we need to eliminate are the evil factors hiding behind the humans and controlling them. However, I was only able to stop acting irrationally and eliminate the mentality of seeking revenge on the surface. In the deeper layers of my being, the targets of my elimination of the evil were still actual human beings who had committed evil deeds.
When Master Li's article "What is Supernormal Abilities" and the notice "Send Forth Righteous Thoughts for the Third Time, and Eradicate the Evil" came out, I became excited. I told myself that I would use the weapons of Fa that Master Li bestowed upon the practitioners to completely eliminate the evil, including those people who are being controlled by the evil. When reading Master Li's article "Fa-rectification and Cultivation," I only paid attention to Master Li's words of "those people who are used are usually either people whose thoughts are just bad or people who have bad thoughts arising." I ignored the sentence that led up to those words, "when we deal with the specific problem we should try our best to be calm and kind to these people who are at the surface, because when the evil uses people, these people themselves usually aren't aware of it." Therefore while sending forth righteous thoughts, I thought to eliminate the evil as well as the people who were being controlled by it. I thought to let those people receive immediate retribution for their bad deeds. I also sent many strongly worded letters to them. After reading all the reports of practitioners being arrested, tortured, and even persecuted to death, my hatred of the evil grew stronger and stronger. I especially hated those former practitioners who betrayed fellow practitioners, spreading their evil "enlightenment" or even assisting the evil to persecute Dafa. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate them all the time. However, several months went by, and all of them seemed to be well (only one of them was beaten by the police). The evil was still madly conducting a manhunt looking for me. I felt a little disappointed. When I looked back and tried to figure out what I was doing wrong, I realized that I was not benevolent enough, and the evil side of myself was getting stronger and stronger. I silently told Master Li, "Teacher, this disciple of yours has not cultivated well enough. His power is not strong enough and cannot suffocate the evil. But I will always oppose the evil. I ask the Teacher to help me."
A new wave of evil persecution started before the Chinese National Day (October 1st). My former employer and the police sent people to my hometown, looking to arrest me. The local police and security guards from my former employer worked together. They hid near places that they thought I might appear, hoping to arrest me. I could see many police cars driving by and felt the intense pressure of the evil field. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts, but I still could not shake off this intense pressure. I started to tear up and saw vague images of evil appearing in the darkened sky in the distance. From the depths of my being, the firmest righteous thought emerged. I thought that I would not accept any of its arrangement even if it means that I would die along with it. Even though I still had attachments and omissions, the evil was not worthy of persecuting me. My life was created because of Dafa, and I was willing to lose it for Dafa. At that moment, I could feel a strong beam of gong emitting from the place between my eyebrows. The beam went straight toward a giant demon in the sky, and it quickly exploded. A group of small demons that were standing near the feet of the giant demon disappeared as well.
I then sat down and continued to send forth righteous thoughts while holding my right hand in front of my chest. Tears rolled down my cheek. I realized how pitiful human beings really are. It is the evil forces manipulating human beings that are responsible for persecuting Dafa. "Master wants to save all beings. But the evil forces are truly committing sins against Dafa by using all beings, with the ultimate purpose of destroying the beings" ("Dafa is Indestructible"). "And just like poison, if you want it not to poison people it can't do that--that's just how it is. So in the process of eliminating it don't be lenient at all--just eliminate it! Here I'm not referring to humans, but to those evil beings that manipulate humans" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference"). "Removing the evil beings that manipulate people to damage humankind is also protecting humankind and sentient beings.... Eliminating evil is thus doing Fa-rectification, and is also saving the world's people and sentient beings" ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful").
After I truly understood this layer of the principles of Fa, benevolence kept on emerging from the depths of my being. Later when I sent forth righteous thoughts, benevolence and tranquility arose from my heart. The demons dissolved one by one from my righteous thoughts. Whenever this happened, I would not be able to hold back the tears in my eyes. I was moved by the immense benevolence of Teacher and the gradual purification of the new cosmos. I was happy for all the sentient beings escaping from their calamities and saddened for the beings who sought their own destruction. The power of benevolence is immense.
The above is just a bit of my personal understanding. If there is anything incorrect, I ask my fellow practitioners to kindly point it out to me.
