(Minghui.org) Master said, “No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates.” (“Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts are Powerful” from Essentials for Further Advancement II). I have recently gained new understandings of Master's words. Not only should we not cooperate with the evil when we are being arrested, we should not cooperate with evil elements of any kind on our cultivation path. This way, we can become upright Dafa disciples, embody the Fa principles, and reflect the fact that

“When disciples have ample righteous thoughts Master has the power to turn back the tide” (“The Master-Disciple Bond” from Hong Yin, Volume II)

My 85-year-old mother is a practitioner. She lives about 100 kilometers from me and has been very diligent in doing the exercises and studying and validating the Fa.

Once in a while she suffers from sickness karma. We talk on the phone quite often. Whenever she does not feel well, I say to her, “Bad things are forced upon you, and they are not part of you. You must get rid of them, disintegrate and eliminate them, and you'll be fine. Nobody is allowed to persecute you. If they do, they will be disintegrated and destroyed.” My mother repeats these sentences aloud. After she does, she has more righteous thoughts and passes the tests. Her relatives nearby have witnessed many miraculous effects of Dafa.

A month ago, my mother had several red, swollen, and itchy lumps on her arms and legs. She didn't say anything and didn't have enough righteous thoughts. She thought they were caused by the hot weather. That thought was an acknowledgment of the old forces' arrangements. She cooperated with them and failed to look inward.

Few days later, she got worse. She had more bumps, and her skin turned purple and was very itchy. She told me about it over the phone, and I sensed she had no confidence in Dafa nor righteous thoughts. She kept blaming the hot weather for her condition.

I immediately went to see her to help her strengthen her righteous thoughts. I wanted to share with her: “As long as Master and the Fa is here, no evil elements can do anything to you. You must have the thought of wanting to go home with Master when the Fa-rectification arrives.”

We studied the Fa, did the exercises, and sent forth righteous thoughts over the weekend. Although her condition didn't improve, it didn't get worse either.

I visited her again the following weekend that noticed she kept scratching and slapping her skin. I knew she was suffering from the itch, but the more she scratched, the more she was cooperating with the old forces, and the happier the old forces were. She had fallen into their trap. Had she not cooperated, the old forces couldn't have persecuted her. Then I remembered Master's words and shared them with my mother. I told her, “Restrain yourself and don't scratch. When you stop cooperating with the old forces, you stop acknowledging them and begin to disintegrate them. Master, please help.”

I continued to send forth righteous thoughts for my mother after I returned home. I called her and reminded her to refrain from scratching. She said, “I have been controlling myself. I must walk my own path. I can do it!”

Under Master's protection, her sickness karma disappeared two days later, and my mother's relatives once again witnessed the power of Dafa.

When I saw my mother the following weekend, she was very happy and had strong righteous thoughts. We shared our thoughts about not cooperating with the evil elements.

Our understanding is that when the bad elements attack us, we might not know that we are being persecuted by sickness karma. If the symptoms are not obvious initially, we might not be aware of it. By the time we sense it, we have already acknowledged the persecution.

The evil elements will do their best to test us. They will attack the weak ones and avoid the strong ones. If we do not cooperate under any circumstances, the old forces will not be able to persecute us.

My understanding of Master's latest lecture is as follows, “We should maintain strong righteous thoughts at all times. The more righteous thoughts we have, the better we can walk the final path and return home with Master.”

This is my limited understanding of Fa principles at my current level. Please share your thoughts.