(Clearwisdom.net) The Minghui website features a collection of articles about paying attention to sending righteous thoughts. I was deeply touched after reading the whole collection.
I first began to send righteous thoughts after reading Master's lecture "Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference." At that time I was forced to leave home and had no place to stay. Besides sending righteous thoughts at the global times, I also joined my local group to send righteous thoughts. In those years, regardless of the circumstances and even though I was being detained by the police, I kept on sending righteous thoughts every day.
Soon after I was arrested and taken to a forced labor camp in 2001. I protested and refused to do forced labor, and continuously sent righteous thoughts. The head guard ran to me after hearing that someone dared to defy their orders. But after finding out that it was me, he immediately ran away. Then the political head arrived and shouted, "Do you know how serious the consequences are for not obeying orders?" I sent righteous thoughts in his direction and said, "Don't shout at me. You cannot solve the problem. You may just report it to your boss; then you will be fine." He then went to see his boss. I kept on sending righteous thoughts after he left. He returned within half an hour and told me with a smile, "My attitude toward you was not good. If you don't want to do the labor, you may just rest." After that, no one came to trouble me about my protest.
In 2005 I was arrested again and taken to a prison. Practitioners and I in the same ward decided that once there was a group activity, we would send righteous thoughts together to eliminate the evil.
The prison required Falun Gong practitioners to wear red identity badges, and authorities said that those who didn't follow would be punished. None of us followed their requirements. At the same time we sent righteous thoughts more diligently, eliminating the evil factors. As a result, none of the officials punished any of us and no longer came to bother us. Because each of us paid close attention to sending righteous thoughts, we actually created a good environment in the ward. We shared cultivation experiences in writing, and clarified the truth about Falun Gong to other prisoners.
After I was released, the environment became more relaxed. Without the interference, I eased up a bit. Although I still sent righteous thoughts on time every day, I often lost my concentration and couldn't produce the powerful effect of righteous thoughts, because I lacked the sense of urgency. I also found that practitioners, especially those who were never directly persecuted, didn't pay attention to sending righteous thoughts and considered it to be non-essential. We Dafa disciples must follow Master's words. On the surface, you were not persecuted in a detention center, but in reality, you are already amidst the severe persecution. By not following Master's requirements, you have unwittingly acknowledged the old force arrangements and are in fact being persecuted by them.
Master said,
"What you eliminate from your own mind are ones which have an effect within the expanse of your own body; at the same time, you need to eliminate the external ones, which are directly related to the dimensions you're in. If you don't eliminate them, then they not only persecute you and restrain you, but also persecute other students, other Dafa disciples. As you know, the persecution that Dafa disciples in Mainland China suffer is quite severe, so each student has to truly, clearly realize what his responsibility is, and when he sends forth righteous thoughts he has to be able to truly calm his mind and truly produce the effect of righteous thoughts. So this is something extremely critical, extremely important." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A." 2001)
Master requires us to do the three things well. Sending righteous thoughts is one of the three things, so we should do it well. This is both a basic requirement of believing in Master and the Fa, and a basic guarantee for offering sentient beings salvation and succeeding at consummation as a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period. Dafa disciples must follow Master's requirements. Let's pay attention to sending righteous thoughts, and put our hearts into it to do it well.
What I wrote above are insights I recently had. I hope practitioners will kindly point out whatever is improper.