(Minghui.org) The Dalian Intermediate Court in Liaoning Province initially scheduled an open trial of local practitioners for the morning of April 12, 2013, only to cancel it at the last minute. Unaware of the change, many supporters of the victims, including family members and Falun Gong practitioners, showed up at the courthouse, and met with a mass arrest. Even the defense lawyers were beaten by the police.
This “4.12 Incident” caused great repercussions among our local practitioners and I’d like to share my thoughts here.
While on my way to the courthouse on the morning of April 12, I ran into a practitioner, who told me the trial had been canceled. He was pleased that our righteous thoughts proved effective (we had started sending forth righteous thoughts a few days before the trial date), but cautioned me to continue sending forth righteous thoughts.
However, I let down my guard and felt like taking a break. It just so happened that a supermarket was having a promotional sale and I figured I’d get some items while they were still on sale. I shopped for quite a while, but then began feeling regretful for my behavior. What if the court told everyone that the trial was canceled but held a secret session instead? It was already 10:30 a.m. and I dared not think any further. I immediately began sending forth righteous thoughts to repel the annoying notion.
When I turned on my computer upon returning home, I learned of the mass arrest that day. I also received an urgent email notice from a practitioner informing us of the trial cancellation.
The next few days saw numerous emails exchanged between our local practitioners sharing their thoughts on this incident.
I noticed that the messages were laced with human notions. Some coordinators held grudges against each other and their tone was not very kind. A few even bluntly blamed others for the incident. The ones being blamed insisted that there was nothing wrong with their way of thinking and doing things.
Of course, there were a handful of practitioners who were able to remain calm. They tried to mediate the parties in conflict and reminded everyone to look within and identify our own deficiencies.
I somehow played a commentator. One moment I felt practitioner A was not kind enough, but he was still correct in pointing out practitioner B’s omission. The next moment I had to agree with practitioner B but was turned off by his self centeredness and ego. Then practitioner C caught my attention for his seemingly spot-on opinions.
It then dawned on me that I was trying to figure out who was right and who was wrong. Why did I forget to cultivate myself? Why was I swayed by the conflicts between other people?
I came to see that the side of me that was affected was not my true self, but my human heart. I failed to deal with the matter with my righteous thoughts, and instead nurtured demons in my mind. As for fellow practitioners, it was not that they cultivated poorly, but their yet-to-be-eliminated human attachments were at work.
When I rectified myself and adjusted my cultivation basis, I suddenly became clearheaded and strongly felt that the rotten substances in my heart were weakening and disappearing.
I doubted if the “4.12 Incident” was caused by any individual practitioner. It must be that we as a whole body still needed to improve, otherwise the evil wouldn’t have dared to treat us this way. We should all look inward to see where we didn’t do well.
Of course, it was possible that some coordinators had cultivation problems themselves. To be responsible to them, we could certainly point out their issues, but we must show kindness in doing so.
We read “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland” at a group Fa-study a few days after the “4.12 Incident.” When we came across the passage on alien beings, there was one sentence, “…there is no way to dodge it or to hide from it.” A practitioner kept reading, “…there is way to dodge it or to hide from it.” We kept correcting her but she still omitted the word “no” when we read that part over again.
I had to ask why she made the mistake. She answered that she was reading the word “no” in her mind but her mouth did otherwise. She admitted that she needed to look within to find out why this happened to her. Seeing she was very serious, none of us said anything else.
I realized there must be a reason for her repeated mistake, and there must be elements for me to cultivate. I discovered I was quick tempered and never allowed other people to criticize me. I had an ego and always felt I was correct. I couldn’t tolerate differing opinions and had a strong, combative mentality. I always thought about changing other people and imposing my thoughts on others.
After sending forth righteous thoughts that night, I recalled what happened during the day. If the evil dared to hide or dodge in our dimension, it must be that somewhere we didn’t do well, and as such left loopholes for the evil to exploit. What could our problems be? I then fell asleep and had a dream.
In my dream I saw many people sitting around a round table and having a meal together. A few dishes were placed on the table and one of them was chicken tenders. I was puzzled and asked why there were so many chicken tenders? One person replied, “They’re delicious and everybody loves them!”
When I woke up the next morning and recalled the dream, I enlightened to the fact that Master was telling us that we were fighting with each other and refusing to be criticized by others.
I remembered what Master told us in “Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,”
“Many gods are whispering in my ear, 'Your Dafa disciples won’t stand for anyone being critical of them. Just one word and they explode. Could it work if others aren’t allowed to criticize them? How are they supposed to cultivate if they can’t take criticism? What kind of cultivator does that amount to?'”
...and similar things to that effect.
Seven years have passed since Master gave the above lecture in 2006. Were we still failing to remove the attachment of refusing other people’s criticism? There is not much time left and we cannot afford to be muddleheaded.
The next day I had another dream. I was standing in a very big room with many tall red columns. I gently pushed the column closest to me, but it immediately broke in the middle, and the top part and the bottom part were misaligned. I rushed to re-align the top and bottom parts and keep the column upright. I felt puzzled. The column appeared very sturdy. Why did a gentle push make it fall apart? I tried another column and the same thing happened. I didn’t dare touch any others, and just worried that the whole room may collapse.
When I woke up I realized that my own cultivation was not solid and I had omissions. This was also true for many other practitioners. There were barriers between us and we were unable to form an indestructible whole body. If each of us could fix our own cultivation problems and patch the hole around us, the whole body would become indestructible and there would be no way for the evil to dodge or hide from it.
No matter what we encounter in our cultivation, we must not forget about Fa-study.
Some people like to do things while playing Master’s Fa-teaching audio tapes in the background. I believe that such multi-tasking is not good for Fa-study.
Master warned us in “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference,”
“When some people read Zhuan Falun they are not concentrating, but rather, thinking about other things, and not able to focus their attention on cultivation. It thus amounts to wasting time. And not just wasting time—instead of it being the time when they are to be elevating, they are using their minds to think over issues and things that they shouldn’t concern themselves with, and thus, not only aren’t they elevating, but on the contrary, they are often dropping in level. If you don’t study the Fa well, there are many things you will not be able to do well.”
We should do what Master requires of us. We should not do other things while studying the Fa. As I see it, lack of focus on Fa-study amounts to disrespect of and disbelief in the Fa and Master.
The “4.12 Incident” has now passed. Regardless of what happened, we treat it as a cultivation opportunity and learn a lesson from it so as to prevent future losses. We cannot afford to remain frustrated and develop new attachments.
This is the first time that I've written an experience sharing article. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.