(Minghui.org) A recent happening really angered me. A woman in our area who used to practice Falun Dafa was "transformed" in jail and became an assistant to help "transform" other practitioners. After she was released, she continued to go to the jail to assist the authorities. She even ordered other inmates to beat up practitioners who refused to give up their belief.
I wrote an article about how she had betrayed Dafa in jail and her recent wrongdoings. I sent the article to a fellow practitioner using an overseas email account and suggested more practitioners send forth righteous thoughts to make her receive immediate retribution.
I was expecting to see some feedback from the fellow practitioner, but I couldn’t log into my account the next day. The account was not accessible for the next two days.
This forced me to calm down and look inward. I found many human notions that I hadn’t noticed before and also realized what I had been wrong in the way I had dealt with people who had been "transformed" and agreed to give up practicing Dafa in jail.
After I found these issues in myself, I could log into my email account again. Here are some insights I gained from this affair.
Looking Inward
The first thought was about why I had become so angry when I heard the story. I had been abducted to a similar brainwashing center where a group of people was focused on "transforming" practitioners. I was released without being forced to give up my belief. From that point on, I looked down on those who yielded and given up their faith.
After this woman was "transformed," I had not said a word to her because I thought she was worthless.
I saw my human notions of looking down on others, anger, and competitiveness.
Based on these realizations, I also found I had treated “transformed” practitioners coldly and pushed them away. This is typical of communist party culture.
All of these behaviors and notions were rooted in a lack of compassion.
Lack of Compassion
Why was the root a lack of compassion? First, I didn’t talk to her to find out the key issue that had made her "transform." I didn’t think of helping her. Exclusion and isolation only pushed her toward the evil.
Master Li Hongzhi said,
“So, as Dafa disciples go about validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, their attitude, state of mind, and manner of doing things are all critical, for such things can determine what changes take place in this world. A single person can determine the outcome of things within a certain expanse, and when we are talking about even more Dafa disciples--since there are so many Dafa disciples, even tens of millions--once they put their minds to something, it's something to reckon with.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
I later heard more about this woman. Her family has little income and a school-aged child. She had to work long hours and had less time to study the Fa. As a result, she did not have strong enough righteous thoughts to resist the pressure and endure the tribulation.
She was released about half a year ago, but no practitioners visited her or cared about helping her. She had to make a living after her release. If we pushed her away, it gave the evil a chance to entice her with monetary interests. When she ordered inmates to beat fellow practitioners, did that show she resented practitioners?
Immediate help and care from fellow practitioners are very important to a newly-released practitioner. Many practitioners cared about me and helped me after I was released. They helped me strengthen my righteous thoughts and catch up with the Fa-rectification process.
We should show more warmth and care to those who have done wrong while incarcerated.
Master said,
“When this compassionate goodness emerges, its strength is without equal, and it will disintegrate any bad factors. The greater the compassion, the greater the power. Human society never had true principles to guide it before, so man has not resolved his problems via shan. Instead, man has always resolved things through fighting and conquest, and that has thus become man's norm. If man wants to become divine and transcend the human state, then he must forsake that frame of mind and use compassion to resolve things.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
Those who gave up in jail were victims of the persecution. It was not their own will. Master doesn’t agree with the arrangements of the old forces. We certainly should not either.
We should help these people eliminate the evil lives and factors that control them. After breaking away from the control of the evil lives, they are really free.
“Compassion is an enormous energy, the energy of righteous gods. The more compassion that is present, the greater this energy becomes, and it can disintegrate anything that is bad. This is something that has never been taught, be it by Shakyamuni or cultivators of the past. The greatest manifestation of shan is compassion, and it is an expression of tremendous energy. It can disintegrate all that is not right.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
I learned a lesson from this affair. We should help the fallen ones with compassion, give them a chance, and pull them back from the old forces.
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Category: Improving Oneself
