(Clearwisdom.net) I think that first, the evil is afraid of righteous thoughts. As a Dafa practitioner, one's mind should embrace the entire universe; one's mind should not just be aiming at the evil.
Master has already taught us the Fa very explicitly: Humans have Main Spirit and Assistant Spirits; there are countless Buddhas, Daos, and Gods in different levels in the universe; the great size and complexity of the universe cannot be clearly explained with human language; humans are the weakest and any spirit in other dimensions of the universe can control their minds and bodies.
Thus the evil that Dafa disciples are facing today are not really the bad people in this world. As cultivators we know this. However, it is easy to get confused at critical times, and this confusion is not a trivial matter. It can lead to the attachment of hatred and a competitive mentality. It can also cause ordinary people, especially those bad people, to oppose us in their minds. In the end it will help the evil to hold the bad people's minds even tighter.
Master said: "... because when the evil uses people, they usually aren't aware of it themselves (although the people who are used are usually either people whose thoughts are bad or people who have bad thoughts arising)." (Essentials for Further Advancement II, "Fa-Rectification and Cultivation") Thus the evil we talk about here are mainly the spirits behind the people with bad mentalities, whose minds are controlled by these spirits. These people with bad mentalities are precisely the people that the old forces arranged to be against Dafa in this period.
When the old forces arranged everything that was to disrupt Fa-rectification, they not only arranged everything for each Dafa disciple, but also for these people who are standing against Dafa. Moreover, these arrangements are not only in this lifetime, but over many lives during reincarnations in the past thousands of years. Today as Dafa disciples, we know the Fa and have the Master; thus we are able to knowingly negate the old forces' arrangements. Even so, we frequently have failings that are found and taken advantage of by the old forces. Now for those people with bad minds, that is combined with the resistance due to karma from many lives in reincarnation. How will they be able to see through and break away from the old forces' arrangements and not persecute Dafa practitioners? It would be hard for them to awaken by just relying on their own little abilities. But with Master's hints, they do have hopes. The resolution is behind Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth, sending forth righteous thoughts, and persuading them to quit the Chinese Communist Party and the associated groups. In this way they will be able to successfully break away from the evils' manipulation. But still it is not easy, because these people's levels are already lower than that of ordinary people. Under the attraction of money and materialistic benefits, there is great difficulty for us to awaken them. This has set a great amount of tribulations on the cultivation path for each of the Dafa disciples. The pretty name given by the old forces was to "test" Dafa disciples.
Master has told us: "...and humans have been controlled by the old forces at different levels. This is why they've become so forceful, why they dare to do things to cultivators, and why they dare to be disrespectful to Dafa." (Guiding the Voyage, "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference") Therefore Master has told us over and over again to put down all human attachments and become like gods. If we can be like gods, our righteous fields will occupy the fields in surrounding dimensions and thus the evil spirits will be restrained. In this way, the bad people within your field will not be able to think about doing bad things. Thus in our minds as well as when we are clearing out the evils, we must first recognize the difference between bad humans and evil spirits. No matter whether a bad human can be saved, we have to first eradicate the evil spirit behind that human.
Many fellow practitioners have talked about this experience, that the severely bad environment at home or outside immediately turns well when our xinxing improves. Therefore I think that the most crucial thing is to follow the Fa, recognize problems and measure ourselves using the state of mind of gods, improve as a whole, and accelerate the pace of improving our levels together.
For example, I think that from now on we should not use the word "fear." It is the time for us to improve on the words we choose to use. We should just talk about "righteous thoughts." When a practitioner does Dafa work and saves sentient beings, his strong righteous thoughts will be indicated by everything going very smoothly. Or oppositely, if one's righteous thoughts are not strong enough, it will show in his actions and in hesitation in progressing forward.
Secondly, the evil is very afraid of being exposed. The places that the evil uses to persecute Dafa practitioners, such as forced labor camps, detention centers, jails, and brainwashing centers--all of these places are darker than hell. But even so, these places are still in the human world and thus we cannot allow the evil spirits and rotten demons to do whatever they want in there. Therefore Dafa disciples who are put in these places will need outside disciples to help rescue them and reinforce their righteous thoughts. At the same time, fellow practitioners that have been rescued successfully should expose the evil there, using their first-hand evidence and experiences. In the end we can eradicate all the evil spirits and rotten demons in there and be able to save the human beings there that have karma. We eliminate the dark stuff and evil spirits there because after all, they are performing extremely destructive persecution. They are against the heaven, earth, and human beings, and it is just the same as opposing the entire universe. Actually they are basically alienating and separating themselves from the universe. By exposing these things to the world, people, especially those bad people, will be able to see what kind of things they are actually following.
Due to the truth-clarification by Dafa disciples, there are many police who have turned away from committing wicked deeds and got back on the path of returning home; many criminal prisoners were able to understand the true meaning of life and began cultivation. This merit and virtue will be indelible. Why did these people hear the words of Buddha inside these places, and not outside? Are these also arranged by the old forces? Perhaps your original true relatives and people from your system in the cosmos are in the forced labor camp. It is the guards who are waiting to be saved by you. Maybe after you have saved everyone you are supposed to save, after you have clarified the truth with people you are supposed to talk with, and after you finished all these things, you will naturally be able to come out. In short, we should only have one thought in our mind: In order to save sentient beings and wash ourselves clean, we must eliminate all evil spirits, factors and the dark minions. We need to establish a smooth path for returning to heaven for later generations of humans.
Master said: "Whether [something is due to] Master's wishes or the old forces' control, isn't the goal behind it the successful cultivation of Dafa disciples and the disintegration of the evil? Could all of this have happened arbitrarily? It's merely that the bad people are not allowed to see the order behind it." (Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005) From this perspective, those bad people are merely used by the evils and the evils have never viewed them with any importance. Aren't they then very pitiful? If we can put off all human notions, fully unveil and clarify these things, and let them know that our Master is the one that really values them, won't they give up the evil and turn to good? From these people's current situation and their endings due to retribution, one can also learn something - for people who live in this world, despite whether one is having a good life or not, he should not do those evil deeds that are against the Fa principles. This is because gods do exist and the Fa principles do exist. Although in reincarnation one cannot see what will happen in the next life, between a good person and a bad person, their first half and second half of their life can been seen to be very different. Why don't people carefully observe and compare these?
Master has also said in this lecture: "Then are these ordinary things that we're dealing with? Are they things ordinary people could bring about? Only people who cultivate, only those who are looked after by gods, could make it through. Isn't that true? So there is nothing for Dafa disciples to fear." (Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005)
Thus I suggest that we completely get rid of this word "fear" from our mind. When we do not fear, the factors that make us fear will not exist anymore.
Then to the root question: What is the evil afraid of? It's Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts. Whether our righteous thoughts can take effect and how much effect there is will depend on our mind, whether god's thoughts take up the most part or human thoughts occupy the most part. Therefore I think the most important thing is to try our best to put down human attachments and make ourselves think like gods. At the same time, we should do our best in spreading Dafa and saving sentient beings.
These are just my personal understandings. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.