(Clearwisdom.net) The end of the Fa-rectification is near. However, the evil is still rampant in some areas, and many practitioners are still being arrested. These incidents are not only causing losses to our efforts to save sentient beings; they are evidence that even though we have gained the Fa, we have not cultivated to the level we ought to be.
I started to practice Falun Dafa in November 1996. On the path of cultivation, I experienced happiness after making breakthroughs and regrets when I did not overcome obstacles well. I will now share a few of my experiences along the way.
In June 2002, my wife and another practitioner were arrested while posting informational fliers about Falun Dafa. Policemen brutally tortured and questioned them about the source of the fliers. My wife gave them my name. I was working out of town at the time. The three policemen drove to the town where I was working, and went to look for me with a local policeman. The local policeman told me they wanted to talk to me and told me to go to the police station with them. They told me what they were there for, after we got in the car. I then started to tell them the facts about Falun Gong. The local policeman was very willing to listen. Among the three policemen from my hometown, one said nothing, while the other two reacted very badly. I was thinking, “I am 300 miles from home, and I have plenty of time. I can surely make them understand the truth.” I was not scared, and I said what was on my mind. During that time, the persecution was very severe. I did not think that I could get away based on what was happening at the time. My mind had just one thought, to clarify the truth to them so that they would not harm Dafa practitioners any more. I did not think about myself. When we got to the local police station, the Public Security Section chief of the police department was there. I knew the chief and had told him the facts about Falun Gong before. The public security section chief asked what had brought me there, and I told him. It was about lunch time, so the chief told the officers to hold off on my file and invited everyone to lunch. I was locked in a cell. After they came back from lunch, I overheard the chief telling the policemen not to take me back to my hometown. He told them to just do a write-up and take that back. Therefore, they took me to the office, asked me some simple questions and left. Under Master's protection, I safely went back to work.
The second incident happened in September 2004, when I was giving out informational materials in a town where I used to work. Someone knew it was my doing and reported me to the police station in my hometown. I was not home that day, but my wife was home. The policemen found Falun Gong materials and arrested my wife. My neighbor told me what had happened after I returned home. I shared this incident right away with my fellow practitioners and tried to decide what to do next. There were two suggestions. One was that the evil was after me, and I should hide for a while. The other was that since the policemen did not find me, this obstacle was not intended for me, but we should use this opportunity to clarify the truth to all the individuals involved and save them while rescuing my wife, a fellow practitioner. As a matter of fact, were it not for this incident, we would not have had the chance to have direct contact with them. After some deliberation, we decided that I would request the release of my wife in person while the other practitioners helped me by sending righteous thoughts. With my fellow practitioners' cooperation, my righteous thoughts were strong. I would explain the facts about Falun Dafa to everyone I came into contact with there.
I went to the police station right after dinner. There were four people in the office. I told them the reason for my visit and started to tell them the facts about Falun Gong. One of them said in a vicious tone, “We went to your house to arrest you this afternoon, but you weren't home. We arrested your wife. It is good that you came, don't leave.” I said, “I would not have come if I was afraid of you. Since I have come, I am not afraid of you.” He saw that I really was not afraid of them and said nothing more. I kept explaining the facts about Falun Dafa. After they understood what I had to say, one of the policemen who knew me said, “It was the town Political Affairs Commission that planned the arrest this afternoon. It is out of our hands. We went because the Political Affairs Commission took us there. Why don't you go talk to someone from the commission.” I left and went to the town office. However, the person in charge of arresting Falun Gong practitioners, the Political Affairs Commission General Secretary, had already gone home for the day.
I went to look for the same person again the next morning. He was not there, but I still told the others the facts about Falun Gong. He came to the office in the afternoon. I told him why I was there. He said, “Your wife was taken by the city 610 Office yesterday afternoon. You will have to go to the city to look for her, since it is out of our control now.” I knew he was trying to shirk responsibility, but I was very calm. I kept telling him the facts for almost an hour. Perhaps he finally understood the truth, as his attitude had changed from when we first met. He said, “I will remember what you have said. I will try my best to persuade them to release your wife. Give me your phone number. I will call you.” I saw that he had understood the truth, so I left my phone number and left. It was after three o'clock in the afternoon. Right after I sent righteous thoughts at six o'clock, he called and told me to pick up my wife at the city brainwashing center. I went to see him at the town office first. He let an employee from the Political Affairs Commission accompany me to the city brainwashing center to take my wife back. It was less than thirty hours from my wife's arrest to her release from the brainwashing center. After this incident, this general secretary never did anything harmful to Falun Dafa practitioners again.
Another incident happened in August 2006, when two fellow practitioners from our area were reported because they gave out Falun Dafa materials to the public. The Domestic Security Group from the police department arrested them and took them to the brainwashing center. The policemen at the brainwashing center threatened the fellow practitioners and asked them about the source of the Falun Gong materials. The fellow practitioners gave the policemen my name. Upon hearing this, I did not face it with righteous thoughts, and I did not study the Fa to reinforce my righteous thoughts and disintegrate the evil to save my fellow practitioners. Instead, I feared for my own safety and fled to another truth-clarification materials production site. However, within ten days of arriving there, this materials production site was destroyed. The practitioner at the site and I were arrested and sent to the local detention center. I later heard this site had been monitored for over six months. The practitioner at this site was sentenced to five years in prison.
I calmed my mind at the detention center and looked for my shortcomings. I had many attachments. My desire for showing off, jealousy, hatred, lust, hearing what I wanted to hear and not hearing what I didn't like to hear, not being considerate, and so on. After I had found my attachments, I adjusted my mentality, spent more time reciting the Fa and sent righteous thoughts. I explained the facts about Falun Dafa to the criminal inmates. After learning the truth, four of them withdrew from all Chinese Communist Party-affiliated organizations. After a month, the Domestic Security Group of the city police department took me to the city brainwashing center. I made a mistake after I arrived at the brainwashing center. I could have clarified the truth to those involved in persecuting Dafa practitioners at the brainwashing center to save them, and allow them to send me home after they learned the truth. However, because of fear, I only thought about my own freedom, and did not consider others. Within the first hour after I arrived at the brainwashing center, I left via the front door when no one was looking. As a result, I became homeless.
In the first two incidents, the situations seemed severe and unavoidable. However, there were no real danger in the end, and everything was resolved peacefully. Thinking back on it now, it was because my mentality at the time was where it should have been as a cultivator, and I had met the expectation of Fa-rectification. Therefore, Master protected me. During those incidents, my only thought was to clarify the truth to those sentient beings. Once they knew the truth, they stopped harming practitioners. I did not think about myself, so the evil was afraid of me. Master's Fashen would not allow them to harm me during those times.
Of course, many elements contributed to the second incident. First, I exchanged experiences and insights with several fellow practitioners. We had a clear understanding of the Fa, and our righteous thoughts were strong. Second, we cooperated and acted as one body. Since the above two aspects met the expectation of Fa-rectification, Master gave me wisdom and strengthened my righteous thoughts. I clarified the truth, and the result was good. The result was also related to my wife's righteous thoughts after she was arrested. After she was arrested, she was sending righteous thoughts constantly. She discussed the facts and refused to cooperate with any orders from the policemen. These incidents show that as long as we listen to Master and cooperate as a whole, our power is limitless and there is nothing we cannot do.
The third incident did not seem severe initially. However, since I had strong fear and selfishness, I only thought of myself at critical times and did not think of others. The result was that sentient beings did not get saved, and it left me with regret. Now I understand that as a practitioner, I will be safe only by constantly thinking of others. These are personal understandings at my current level; please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
