(Clearwisdom.net) Several days ago a fellow practitioner was arrested and taken to the local detention center. After hearing about this, I immediately informed the local coordinator, started sending righteous thoughts, and intended to post details about the arrest on the Internet.
However, I first had to collect and confirm information before publishing it on the Internet. In the process of collecting evidence I encountered some opposition from the practitioner's family. Some of them are not practitioners and wanted to secure the release of the practitioner by bribing the officials involved. In light of the situation, the local coordinator contacted me several times and wanted me to talk to the practitioner's father, sister-in-law, and elder sister, who are all practitioners, and share my cultivation experiences to persuade them to step up their demands to have the police release their relative.
Initially I thought it was a difficult task. Some of the non-practitioner relatives were doing everything they could to obstruct practitioners from going to the authorities to request the woman's release. They argued that such actions would be equivalent to surrounding and attacking the government, and participating in politics. They did not agree to demand a release no matter what I said. Also, during the discussions, their words were rude and hurtful, and I felt humiliated. I did not say much to them before I left. When I got back home I sat down and thought about the situation calmly, "What attachment of mine is this interference targeting?" From studying the Fa, all practitioners know that whenever we encounter interference or conflicts we should look inward for attachments and loopholes. I then thought, "But my hardship is caused by their not understanding that I want to rescue their family member. How can I look inward, and what should I look for?"
Ever since I started cultivating, I thought that I always conducted myself righteously and did things correctly. Fellow practitioners had praised me too. Little by little I developed attachments to fame and to showing off. I could not listen to fellow practitioners' criticisms or different opinions. While facing either practitioners or others, I always considered myself superior. My words tended to point fingers or give orders. Benevolence was lacking in my cultivation. As for rescuing the detained practitioner, my attachments had caused me to feel hurt. Still I couldn't look inward for improvement, nor clarify the truth to them. Instead, I just wanted to avoid any difficulties. Was I still a practitioner? I felt really unworthy of Teacher's painstaking efforts to save us and Teacher's suffering and devotion that enabled me to be a Dafa disciple and cultivate. I felt ashamed when I thought about these things. The local coordinator had asked me to work with the family not because I have some special ability but because I had a lot of shortcomings for a long time in the aspect of rescuing fellow practitioners, and my compassion to others was not enough to treat fellow practitioners' suffering as my own. My shortcomings were the reason for the interference. After identifying my shortcomings, I felt that I should visit the detained practitioner's family again and clarify the truth to them. Isn't that the way to clear the obstacles? The problem was in myself not others.
After my xinxing improved, I called the family and the person I spoke with acted as if nothing had happened before ,and told me to contact his father to discuss how to rescue his sister, the detained practitioner. The turnaround was surprising and miraculous, and testified to the extraordinary nature of Dafa. As long as we can look inward when facing a certain difficulty, we are walking the right path of cultivation and Teacher will help us overcome the difficulty.
The preceding is my personal cultivation experience. Fellow practitioners please kindly point out anything incorrect.
July 21, 2008