(Minghui.org) I have been thinking recently about practitioners leaving China to seek asylum and would like to share some of my understandings about the issue. I will not comment on whether it is better to go overseas or stay in China, but I will share some thoughts about this phenomenon.
In the past, I also had a strong desire to go overseas. At that time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) illegally searched and ransacked my home, putting my family under enormous mental pressure. I didn’t feel safe in China.
I thought about the situation and looked for ways to leave the country. I just wanted to go overseas and seek asylum. Later, after sharing with other practitioners, I realized that I needed to look within for my shortcomings. I stayed at another practitioner’s place for a while to rectify my cultivation state.
I spent a lot of time studying the Fa and sending righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil interference and persecution. In the end, I decided to go home and focus on truth-clarification and saving people in my area.
Some practitioners have encountered all kinds of difficulties applying for a visa. To me, the issue of going overseas or staying in China is not important. That is a matter of personal choice. Regardless of where we are, as Dafa practitioners, we need to cultivate ourselves well and try to save more people at the same time.
The difficulties and tests we encounter only vary in form. In the end, we still need to overcome them ourselves and do well. Otherwise, even if we leave China, the evil elements in other dimensions will still persecute us, but in a different way. Even though we do not accept what they do, if we do not let go of our human attachments, the evil will use them as an excuse to persecute us. This is a key issue.
When I was thinking this way, I saw two words: “Cultivate diligently.” When we think of going overseas, generally speaking, it is because we want to be in a place where we can cultivate freely and not be subjected to direct persecution by the CCP. In China today, where the evil elements have become fewer and fewer, if we do not have strong righteous thoughts, authorities will still persecute us directly, using various excuses to do so.
Even if we do not accept the persecution, when we hold onto our human attachments and our cultivation state is not good enough, we will continue to be persecuted. On the other hand, if we maintain strong righteous thoughts, the evil elements will be unable to touch us and will even hide from us.
There is a practitioner in our area who was constantly harassed by the police. He used to hide from them in different places. Eventually, he returned home. One day, he heard that the police had come to see him when he was out, so he went to the police station to talk with them about Falun Dafa.
Initially, the officer he talked to wanted to question him and videotape the interrogation, but he changed his mind after his superior spoke with him. Later, this officer harassed the practitioner on the phone. After the practitioner called him back a few times, the officer didn’t dare to answer his calls.
How did that happen? It happened because the practitioner rectified himself and dealt with the situation using strong righteous thoughts. Another important factor is that, thanks to Master’s Fa-rectification and practitioners’ truth-clarification efforts, the situation in China as a whole has changed a lot, and there are fewer evil elements than before.
When considering whether to seek a free environment where one is not directly persecuted or to cultivate ourselves solidly and let go of the human attachments exposed in the process, we need to work out what is important for us to focus on. The purpose of our lives is to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. If we think clearly with a calm mind, the answer should be clear.