(Minghui.org) I have recently spoken with a fellow practitioner from out of town about the arrests of several local practitioners in Qinhuangdao City in the last couple of years. The situation has turned more severe in the last six months. Now, once a practitioner is arrested, the authorities immediately proceed to prosecution. I wondered what the underlying causes might be.
The fellow practitioner mentioned that her region used to have a similar situation a few years ago. The local practitioners' common mindset was that those who arrested practitioners must have come across some form of our truth clarification previously, and therefore they were beyond salvation and must be dealt with through sending righteous thoughts.
This fellow practitioner then started to have candid discussions with others in her local group on this topic. She reasoned that we should not harbor grudges and resentment toward the authorities making the arrests. As long as the Fa-rectification has not ended, there are still opportunities for people to be saved.
Dafa practitioners' future is surely filled with light and glory, while those people controlled and manipulated by the evil have a very dire end awaiting them. If we hold resentment or fear in our hearts, we won't develop compassion and therefore our righteous thoughts won't be strong enough. Compassion is a result and manifestation of righteousness and the power of Dafa. A Dafa practitioner is someone who is completely devoted to others.
The fellow practitioner talked about an elderly practitioner in her region who was ordered to report to the Procuratorate for investigation and interrogation. Upon arrival, the elderly practitioner started to reason with the involved officials that they must not participate in the persecution of practitioners; otherwise, their future would be beyond their worst imagination.
The officials laughed at the practitioner and replied in contempt, “Stop worrying about us. Just think about what is in store for yourself and how to deal with it.” The elderly practitioner did not give up and, whenever there was such an opportunity, kept telling them about Dafa. The practitioner always spoke with compassion and genuine concern for the officials, without worrying about personal safety at all. In the end, the officials' attitudes gradually changed and they became concerned themselves, “My goodness! What is waiting for us down the road! We must not participate in the persecution any more.”
The practitioners in that region continued to rectify their mindset little by little and the environment was filled with their compassion. When so many were suing Jiang Zemin in 2015, there was not a single practitioner arrested or harassed in the region. When practitioners called government officials on the phone to dissuade them from persecuting practitioners, the officials would respond, “We know better than to do such bad things.”
There was a multitude of causes for the persecution and arrests. The aforementioned resentment was one of them. Another very common issue was that, whenever there was an arrest or persecution incident, some practitioners would first accuse the fellow practitioners who were arrested of shortcomings in their cultivation. We will not be able to send righteous thoughts with such a mentality. We should not blame the arrested practitioners or criticize their problems and deficiencies in their personal cultivation, because such behavior would indicate that we sympathize with the evil in their persecuting fellow practitioners and agree with those evil deeds. Master has taught us,
“I'm saying that I don't acknowledge the old forces' interfering with Dafa disciples, because the Dafa disciples are my disciples, and nobody else is worthy of handling them.” (Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. VI)
When it came to rescuing fellow practitioners, some wanted one method while others favored another. Many practitioners would speak ill of others' plans and belittle those with different ideas. Such a situation could potentially push our fellow practitioners to the wrong side and cause unnecessary conflicts among ourselves, thereby interfering with what we want to achieve together. Master told us,
“You are all fellow practitioners. Do you think you’re enemies? You are here on this earth working toward the same goal of saving people, so you should be the closest of kin and be helping one another. Do you find someone annoying?” (“Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading”)
Our local fellow practitioners ought to truly let go of our selves, cooperate closely with others, and work as a whole to save people and destroy the evil.