(Clearwisdom.net) A vendor who sells newspapers in the streets records the daily headlines and broadcasts them repeatedly to attract customers. Among the headlines were some attacking Dafa. Upon hearing it, I decided to talk to him. Although I still had the attachment of fear, I collected my courage and told him that Falun Gong is being persecuted and all those stories in the newspaper about Falun Gong are fabricated. I asked him not to play it any longer. Meanwhile, I sent forth righteous thought to eliminate the evil factors in other dimensions. However, he did not listen to me. He simply replied that the recorded headlines were all broadcast on TV the night before. His speaker continued. I walked away and kept sending forth righteous thoughts to make him turn off the speaker.
Later, I again heard the speaker pass by my window. I thought to myself, "It is time to further eliminate evils." I then came out in hope to find him. Sure enough his bike then passed by in front of me. I realized that he may not know the truth, that I should treat him with compassion and tell him the consequences in order to save him. He stopped and left the speaker on. I sent forth powerful righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil factors that control him and eliminate all my attachment of fear. I then walked up to him compassionately.
When I walked to him, he immediately turned off the speaker even before I started talking. I smiled and held his hand and said, "I'm doing this truly for your own benefit! Falun Dafa is the Buddha Fa and Falun Gong is being persecuted. In the future, when you record your messages, please do not include those reports that attack Falun Gong." He nodded his head gratefully.
Later I told this story to another practitioner. He said, "I also heard the headlines, but I was afraid to stop him. Instead I only sent forth righteous thoughts but there was no effect." Through this, I realized the following:
- Sending forth righteous thoughts cannot replace clarifying the truth. If sentient beings do not know the truth and damage Dafa out of ignorance, we should first clarify the truth to them with compassion. Next, we need to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors that control them in other dimensions. The effect will be very good. If we only rely on sending forth righteous thoughts to repress evils and are afraid to clarify truth, it will not be very effective. At least we do not show much compassion towards those people who do not know the truth.
- We should eliminate the evil factors behind these people that control them to do bad deeds. Teacher said, "We should try our best to be calm and kind to these people who are at the surface." ("Fa-Rectification and Cultivation") Although I clarified the truth to the vendor when I first approached him, I was not very kind and added my own emotion as if to say, "I already told you the facts; you take the consequences as to whether or not you listen." In addition, I had the attachment of fear and wanted to protect myself. Therefore, my words were not pure and powerful. The righteous thoughts would not be effective as well. As for the second time, I approached him out of compassion and told him the consequences for his own benefit. Meanwhile I did not have the attachment of fear and the notion that I needed to protect myself. Thus the righteous thoughts were very powerful. The evil factors behind him were eliminated instantly and he immediately became clear-headed.
- Through this, I realized that when we validate Dafa or clarify the truth to the authorities who do not know the truth, we need to be compassionate and kind. It is truly for their own benefit that we ask them to treat Dafa kindly and to abandon their bad deeds. We should not use any extreme words, nor should we use a tone of warning or threatening them. However, as to the evil factors behind them in other dimensions, we need to firmly eliminate them with our righteous thoughts.
