(Clearwisdom.net) Some local fellow Falun Gong practitioners and I have been repeatedly imprisoned and subjected to persecution in the process of cultivating ourselves and validating the Fa. In the past six years, we have weathered the storm.
Teacher said,
"Of course, we don't acknowledge any of the things that the old forces arranged - I as your master don't acknowledge them, and Dafa disciples of course don't acknowledge them either. (Applause) But after all, they did do what they wanted to do, so there's all the more reason for Dafa disciples to do even better and cultivate themselves well in the course of saving all beings. When you encounter ordeals during your cultivation, you have got to cultivate yourself and look at yourself - that doesn't mean acknowledging the ordeals arranged by the old forces and trying to do well amidst the ordeals they've arranged, that's not the case. We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue. It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations. (Applause) So looking at it from this angle, what we need to do is completely negate the old forces. Dafa disciples and I don't even acknowledge the manifestations of their last-ditch efforts."
(From "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
Shortly before October 1, 2005, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held urgent meetings in my city and county to plot schemes to persecute local Falun Gong practitioners. They came up with a date and time to arrest fellow practitioners and to throw them into brainwashing classes or forced labor camps. It looked as though they were on a rampage. Upon hearing the news, we delivered the news to all our fellow practitioners promptly and asked all to disintegrate the evil factors by reinforcing our righteous thoughts. We must not allow these wretched men to persecute any fellow practitioner.
As soon as we delivered the news, we obtained a copy of Minghui Weekly, which contained an article entitled, "Understandings on Completely Opposing the Old Force Arrangements" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/10/11/65775.html). That article affected me very deeply. I quickly identified my loophole when I exchanged notes with fellow practitioners. Although I was not passively accepting the looming persecution when I delivered the news about the evil plot, I was still trapped in the old force arrangements. I thought of protecting myself and failed to release myself from the old force plot. I failed to deny the persecution and thereby validate the Fa and help save the world's people. Then a fellow practitioner and I visited other practitioners again. We organized Fa study groups where we studied all the relevant Fa lectures and exchanged understandings of the aforementioned article.
We agreed that we should think from the stance of validating the Fa and saving the world's people for everything we encounter in our cultivation path. We should be unaffected by the environment regardless of whether it becomes better or worse. We should not allow human thoughts to get the better of us. We should not discuss things for the sake of solving them. In terms of our way of thinking, we should not dance to the old force's tunes. We should also reinforce our righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. When trash is thrown at us, we should eliminate it right away. We should do the three things steadily and calmly. We should persevere in our mission and we should be vigilant at all times. By doing so, the evil will self-destruct.
It is just as Teacher said,
"As soon as the thought is righteous, the evil will collapse instantly" (From "What Are You Afraid of" in Hong Yin II, provisional translation subject to further improvement.)
Because of more in-depth experience sharing, most of the fellow practitioners that normally hid their Falun Gong books and themselves away upon hearing similar news have rectified their thoughts and actions. The police visited only a few practitioners' households, and thereafter quickly aborted their plan. Of course, the evil factors from other dimensions are still capable of manipulating certain people to commit crimes against us practitioners because we remain unaware of some of our attachments and are thus trapped in the old force arrangements. We need to further identify our attachments and release ourselves from the trap and from our humanness.
This experience reminded me of something that occurred back in April 2004. Because of an attachment, I was hit by a motorcycle and fell into a large sewage culvert. At the time I was all right, except for a few scratches on my legs. Because I failed to search inward to identify my loophole, I developed a high fever two weeks later. After three days of high fever, my legs became red and swollen. They turned dark in two areas. All of sudden the dark areas suddenly ruptured. Pus gushed out of the openings. I repeatedly wiped away the pus, but after consuming several bundles of Kleenex, they didn't improve. Instead, they began to spread.
I was terrified by the sudden plight. I was somewhat depressed and didn't know what to do. Then I calmed down and talked to Teacher at heart, "Teacher, I refuse to acknowledge the old forces' arrangements. I will accept only the path Teacher has arranged for me."
After that thought came forward, Teacher came to my aide. On the following day an older fellow practitioner from afar came to visit me. Then local practitioners brought me to a fellow practitioner so that she could take care of me. The entire county of Falun Gong practitioners helped send forth righteous thoughts and everyone searched inward for his own loopholes.
The older fellow practitioner told me a story. On the day of the illegal trial against Falun Gong practitioner X, X read an appeal statement, which was actually a letter to promote Falun Gong. While she was reading the statement, the police officer slammed the desk and attempted to stop her, but X thought, "Even if you bring the roof down, you will have no power to shatter my steadfast faith. I am completely impervious. You have nothing to do with me." They indeed had no power over her. After having heard the story, I told her, "I understand it now. I am perfectly fine."
It is indeed like Teacher has said,
"Cultivation practice itself is not difficult, and neither is upgrading one's level itself difficult. It is because they cannot give up the human mind that they call it difficult." (From Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun.)
This is but my humble insight. I wish to remind fellow practitioners to see through the nature of everything we encounter, to release ourselves from the old force law, to understand the Fa from the Fa and to follow the law of the new universe. I hope that we will be able to promptly meet Teacher's expectations by attaining "the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism" (From "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" in Essentials for Further Advancement) and by becoming thoroughly considerate of others. In other words, we should do the three things well to validate the Fa and save the world's people. Then all evil is bound to self destruct! Then we will be able to collect and save more sentient beings anticipating Teacher's salvation.
This concludes my humble insights. Please correct anything inappropriate.
(A paper from the Second Online Cultivation Experience-Sharing Conference for Falun Gong Practitioners in China)