(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a 61-year-old Dafa disciple that acquired the Fa in 1996.
In the summer of 2002, I overcame all kinds of obstacles and started to learn how to use a computer, in preparation of establishing a truth clarification material site. In September that year, the Chinese police broke into the newly established material site, and abducted some fellow practitioners. To avoid further persecution, I had no choice but to leave my home. While I was away from home, I continued to study the Fa and exchange experiences with fellow practitioners. I gradually came to realize that being forced to leave my home was also a type of persecution. If one does not think of resisting this type of persecution, one is tacitly acknowledging it. With that in mind, we should not accept leaving home as a means to avoid arrest or imprisonment. If we will strive to study the Fa and upgrade our cultivation level during the period we leave home, it might not be necessary that we have to stay away from home. After all, truth clarification work requires a physical environment and an audience. Besides, there is never a model to follow for counter-persecution, and there is no such cause-and-effect relationship as "one must leave home to avoid the risk of being arrested."
When I came to the aforementioned understanding, I decided to return home, but I thought of fellow practitioners' words, some of which included, "Do not comply with the evil's demands," "Work for Dafa," and "You can validate the Fa anywhere." Then I began to hesitate whether I should go home. Finally I decided to put all these considerations aside and focus on studying the Fa before reaching a decision. Through studying the Fa a clear understanding on this subject slowly came forward.
Teacher said,
"You have to follow the requirements of Dafa and the Fa-rectification. 'I absolutely will not acknowledge any of those things you arranged in the past, old forces. I don't even acknowledge you.'" (From "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
Teacher does not acknowledge the old forces' arrangements and neither should I. I must completely deny the old forces' arrangements. So I went back home.
At first my heart was not stable. I was afraid to open the windows or go out on the streets, fearing that I would be seen. I tried to calm down and study the Fa. After a while, I realized that it was not through my action of returning home that I would become solid and unshakable like diamond. Instead, it was only after going through these tribulations that I discovered my attachments, understood them rationally, and truly upgraded my cultivation level. This is when I could truly become solid and unshakable like diamond.
Teacher said,
"If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary--the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" (From "Cautionary Advice" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
Taking the form of leaving our homes amidst the persecution is not wrong. It is how we should respond to the situation with a righteous spirit and how we should purify our heart in the tribulation that we should be most concerned about. Did we have any attachment that we used as an excuse to flee from our homes? Or was leaving our homes truly a manifestation of our detachments to earthly fame, wealth and sentiment in order to offer more sentient beings salvation? These are some important questions that the Dafa practitioners who have left home should ask themselves.
