(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings to fellow practitioners. Recently several of our local fellow practitioners were arrested one after another. I would like to share my understanding of the situation.

For the past two years, practitioners were continuously persecuted in our local area. The Fa-rectification has progressed to the final stage, so why has our environment still not improved? I looked within for the reason. I knelt down before Master's picture and asked Master for enlightenment.

Then I opened one of Master's Fa lectures and this paragraph appeared before my eyes:

“True shan is what a cultivator attains in the process of cultivation and cultivating goodness, and this is a genuine shan that is achieved by cultivation. When you interact with sentient beings, it's not possible for you to display your successfully-cultivated divine side in full, since you still have a human side that has yet to complete cultivation. When required, you must be rational and clearheaded like a cultivator, allowing your responsibilities and righteous thoughts to direct you, and only then will your true shan be displayed. That is what's different about a cultivator and a divine being. And that is what compassion means--not some intentional display, show of human preference for this or that, or an instantiation of, 'If you're good to me, then I will be shan toward you.' It is offered unconditionally and has no thought of reward--it is fully for the sake of sentient beings. 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.”

“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”)

Benevolent Master untied a knot that had been in my mind for many years, and I finally found the root of my attachment. I felt ashamed. I have cultivated for many years, yet I did not know that I was not benevolent.

Looking back on my cultivation path, I had understood that sending forth righteous thoughts is a supernormal power that Master gives practitioners to eliminate the evil and save sentient beings. Now I also understand that sending righteous thoughts is benevolent. However, I realize that I have been sending righteous thoughts for so many years with a mentality of resentment. Perhaps this is the most significant reason why our local environment had not yet improved. Many times I have heard fellow practitioners say, “We have been sending righteous thoughts for a long time, why hasn't so and so gotten retribution?” and “Let's intensify our sending righteous thoughts to that so and so will receive retribution immediately.” When they said these things, they sounded merciless. They viewed the persecution with a human mindset—as people against people—and their sending righteous thoughts were all aimed at “so and so.” Now I understand that the effect of sending righteous thoughts is determined by the practitioner's state of mind. Regardless of who the target is, he is also a life that should be saved. Our sending righteous thoughts is to eliminate those evil factors behind his doing those bad deeds, and it is to save him. Our sending righteous thoughts should not be done with resentment and hatred for the purpose of having that person receive retribution. Without evil factors behind him, what can that person do? When “sending righteous thoughts” with an ordinary mentality, it not only has no effect, it instead adds something not good to that that person's spatial field and energizes him, and makes him more desperate.

For example, one fellow practitioner was enduring illness karma. A practitioner asked over 20 practitioners to send righteous thoughts to help him. One of these practitioners has his celestial eye opened, and he saw that only two of the practitioners' righteous thoughts had positive effects because they were sending righteous thoughts with a benevolent mind. Of the rest of the practitioners, some included personal emotions, and some included their own notions; their “righteous thoughts” not only had no positive effect, they instead gave some matter that was not good to the practitioner who was enduring the illness karma. The practitioner with his celestial eye opened saw that the practitioner suffering illness karma not only had to endure what he should endure, he also had to endure the negative matter that the other practitioners sent to him. Through this experience, I came to understand that the effect of righteous thoughts is decided by the mentality of the practitioner sending them. Only when one sends righteous thoughts with a benevolent mind, does the power of the Fa manifest.

The above are some of my experiences from looking within. Please point out anything inappropriate.