(Clearwisdom.net) My intention in writing this article is to initiate a dialogue among practitioners, so that we can all share and learn from each other and elevate together. I believe that this is a great opportunity to find our own shortcomings so that we can become more sober-minded, more rational and more resolute in walking our path well.
I believe that since Teacher published the article, "Stop the Evil Acts with Righteous Thoughts," the Fa rectification has entered a new phase. I perceive this is as the greatest opportunity for Falun Dafa practitioners to stop those who inhumanly persecute practitioners. At the same time, we are able to clarify the truth much more effectively. Yet, the depraved authorities in Shuangcheng City recently initiated a round of large-scale arrests. They arrested and abducted Falun Dafa practitioners and searched their houses arbitrarily. Within a few days, more than forty Dafa practitioners were arrested and among them, three were tortured to death. Doesn't represent a unique opportunity to look within and think deeply about the cause of such arrests?
Most importantly, we must consider that if we do everything that we should do well, and in accordance with the Falun Dafa principles, how dare the evil be so blatant in its attack?
I tried to associate what happened in Shuangcheng City with my own experience of passing a similar tribulation with righteous thoughts. In July of last year, the "610 Office" authorities (1) at my workplace sent me to a brainwashing center. The brainwashing center is a place where Falun Dafa practitioners are tortured, and the "training and education personnel" were all brutal policemen from the forced labor camps. From the first minute I got there, I resisted the illegal detention. The minute those brutal policemen approached me I looked them in the eyes and sent forth righteous thoughts continuously. I refused to eat lunch and refused to fill out the registration form. The person in charge searched me, took my pager and notepaper. They said that these items were evidence against me, and they sent me to a police station and told me that what I had done was cause for sentencing. Then the police searched my home and confiscated a computer, one hundred blank CDs and some other Falun Dafa materials. The police station asked the Criminal Division of the Police Sub-bureau to question me. I kept quiet and did not say a word. At the time I only had one thought: "You can persecute me to my death but I will not betray Dafa." Whatever tricks they used, I just refused to cooperate. However, this non-cooperation was only at the human level, and I had not enlightened to the understanding that the evil had no right to test me in the first place and that I was there to eliminate the evil. In a sense, I was still indirectly accepting the persecution. At last, the police were at their wits' end. They saw no other way than to send me to the detention center.
Two days had passed from the time of my arrest to the time I was sent to the detention center. During those two days I refused to eat or drink, including water. Once at the detention center I continued my hunger strike. I neither cooperated with the police nor with the common inmates who were provoked by the police to persecute us. Up to the eighth and ninth day of my hunger strike I was force-fed twice. During force-feeding, the doctor alleged that I drank water surreptitiously. The inmates forced me to sit on the ice-cold cement floor for punishment and began to humiliate me. This is when I began to look within, "What am I not doing well? I have continuously refused to cooperate with the evil and resisted their persecution, but why could I still not walk out of the detention center nobly and righteously? Did I form an attachment of wanting to get out? No, I just simply refused to cooperate with the evil and did not think about anything else. Then what went wrong?"
After thinking more deeply about it, I found many areas where I did not do well. For example, the doctor was right -- I did drink water on the sly. Whenever I felt like laying down, I would just lay down,. I even thought about preserving some strength to resist the force-feedings. I also believed that since I was on a hunger strike, these inmates would not dare touch me. Finally, I recognized my attachments. I endorsed myself instead of Dafa. Since my actual intentions were not right, I resisted the evil on the surface and resolutely refused to cooperate with the evil, but in reality, I actually endorsed myself and relied on the strength and virtues I had cultivated through practicing Falun Dafa. I had been detained before in the forced labor camp, thus these favorite tricks of the evil really meant nothing and could not affect me. Furthermore, everyone in my area understood that I had cultivated well and expected that I would without doubt act nobly and righteously. These deep-seated attachments were rooted deep in my heart and thus would have been very hard to enlighten to without such an extreme situation.
I came to understand that my being in detention meant that I needed to validate Dafa. I determined that the inmates and the policemen must see the image of Dafa in my actions. Since I am a particle of Dafa, as long as I could walk one step I would not pretend that I could not move. I must do for myself the things that I could do and would never rely on others. In the final analysis, I should not position myself as one who was on hunger strike. I must be a noble and righteous Dafa practitioner who validates Dafa, so everything I do I must do it well and do it righteously.
After I had enlightened to these attachments, the environment changed. The inmates would no longer make irresponsible remarks and the police guards stopped harassing and torturing me. Within twelve to thirteen days my wife had obtained my release on bail.
I believe that fellow practitioners in Shuangcheng City can draw lessons from my experience. validating Dafa and endorsing oneself are two entirely different things. Endorsing oneself will only lead you down a blind alley, whereas, validating Dafa will broaden one's path. There are brave people among everyday people, who do not fear death and thus nothing will frighten them. Everything they do would be done in a grand and spectacular way and would be announced far and wide. Only then would they feel satisfied. Isn't this a human notion? Doesn't it show that they just have the ability of ordinary people? The mentality of complacency, the completing-a-chore mentality, the mentality of seeking fame and the mentality of wanting to do something big are extremely dangerous if you let them grow and expand.
As a matter of fact, everything we have is from the Fa and all our abilities are from the Fa. There is not a single thing that belongs to us. So, who are you going to impress? After having suffered such severe losses in Shuangcheng City some practitioners wanted to go all out in an effort to do something big, instead of calming themselves down, earnestly studying the Fa and looking inward. We must never forget past lessons. Some major Dafa materials production sites producing large quantities of materials are looking good on the surface level. However, when the mentality of complacency, the mentality of accomplishing a task, the mentality of seeking fame and the mentality of doing something big emerge, the practitioners involved no longer take advice from others or listen to others' opinions. As a result, several truth-clarification materials production sites have been ransacked and many of Dafa's veteran practitioners have been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms. What a great loss!
Once I found those notions within myself, I hurried to tell my fellow practitioners about it so they could draw a lesson from my experience. In this way they can begin to acknowledge their own loopholes, eliminate these loopholes, become one with Dafa and truly form one body that is as solid and unshakable as diamond. Only this will assure that each step we take will be firm and surefooted.
(1) The "610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.
