(Minghui.org)

1. Send Righteous Thoughts More Frequently to Oppose the Evil Persecution

In late July 2002, I was arrested and forced to attend a brainwashing session. Because I had not been following Master’s requirements on a regular basis, and because my human attachments were too many and too strong, I gave in to the pressure. I clearly knew I was wrong, but I took an unnecessary detour in my cultivation. I really let Master and Dafa down.

When I returned home, I felt like there wasn’t much hope for my life and sometimes even felt like giving up. For a long time, I was in this muddle-headed state. Practitioners visited me several times to encourage me. Some even traveled a long distance to see me, which moves me to tears even today. This was all Master’s arrangement, as well as the selfless acts of fellow practitioners. I managed to wake up from that state and reenter cultivation in Dafa.

The fundamental reason why I had been persecuted was because I didn’t truly cultivate and follow Master’s requirements. Moreover, I realize that my greatest problem was that, when I first began sending righteous thoughts, I would often doze off or feel very tired. Gradually, I became more lax and less willing to send righteous thoughts. Before long I gave up sending righteous thoughts. I was then persecuted and took a long detour, causing great harm to Dafa.

With Master compassionately watching over me, as well as fellow practitioners’ help, I managed to reenter cultivation. I gradually came to understand what it meant to look within and cultivate oneself. I also came to understand the true meaning of clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings, and also understood the importance of sending righteous thoughts to clear the evil elements.

I spent some time distributing the truth-clarification materials with a fearful heart. But from constantly reading the Minghui Weekly and learning from other practitioners’ experiences, I realized that I should send righteous thoughts more often. Beyond the four regular times every day, I should send righteous thoughts whenever I had time or wherever I was, be it walking, riding the bus, or riding my bike. I also resolved to send righteous thoughts at least eight times per day on the days that I wasn’t working. After I had this thought, my heart became much lighter. From then on I felt like I had a clear purpose in life and since then have experienced a profound sense of joy in my heart.

When I first started putting more emphasis on sending righteous thoughts, I didn’t have much confidence in myself. But I had the singular, unshakeable faith that, no matter how tired I was or whether I felt anything or not, and no matter how much difference it would make, I would still send righteous thoughts more often, and I would continue to do so. It wasn’t long before I realized that, even when I sent righteous thoughts while walking or riding my bicycle, I would immediately feel very tall and immense. Sometimes, I would feel like my bicycle had also become very big, and I would feel like I was riding on air. I understood that this was Master’s encouragement to me, and this filled me with confidence in sending righteous thoughts. Whenever I had a spare moment, I would immediately think of sending righteous thoughts and would act upon it at once. Now, I am no longer passive when it comes to sending righteous thoughts.

One gradually elevates in cultivation without being aware of it, not by intentionally pursuing it. Within a year of being more diligent in sending righteous thoughts, I experienced something miraculous. The global time for sending righteous thoughts at 12 p.m. is also the start of lunch break at my office. In the past, I was rarely able to hold my palm erect while sending righteous thoughts, as there would always be colleagues in the office. Later, however, whenever it was almost time to send righteous thoughts, my colleagues would all leave for lunch early, so I would be able to quietly sit and send righteous thoughts in my office without any interference. Even if I had to move to a new office, this phenomenon would recur within a few days.

The evil forces are afraid of Dafa practitioners’ sending righteous thoughts. Otherwise, they would not cause trouble or interference for us. I recall a few times when I was distributing truth-clarification materials, I would notice someone glaring at me. Whenever this happened, I would first recalibrate my state of mind and then walk toward the person while sending righteous thoughts. The person would inevitably get scared and run away before I could reach him. This also proves that Dafa disciples’ righteous thoughts have immense power. No matter what the evil forces do, they are actually very afraid, as we are eliminating them when we send righteous thoughts.

The reason why evildoing agents in this dimension dare to persecute Dafa practitioners is because the evil in other dimensions are supporting them. When we send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions, the agents can no longer bring themselves to do evil, and the persecution then dissipates. From this, I came to understand that, since Beijing is the evil’s home nest, we Beijing practitioners should send righteous thoughts more often to directly destroy the evil.

We have one elderly practitioner, Shangwen (not his real name), who had been cultivating for many years, but was not serious about sending righteous thoughts. I had reminded him several times that, since he wasn’t working, he should send righteous thoughts at least eight times daily and to do so as often as possible. He ignored me, perhaps because I hadn’t done something well and had hurt him before. But cultivation is a very solemn and serious thing. If Master tells us to do something but we don’t take it seriously, then the evil will most likely exploit our loopholes and persecute us. This will bring us a lot of trouble, and even cause us to take an unnecessary detour, leading to huge losses in our cultivation.

Before the start of the Olympics in 2008, Shangwen was forced to leave home and stay with a relative outside of Beijing. After the Olympics, I heard that Shangwen’s relationship with this relative had become very tense, so he had moved out and was looking for a place to stay. I went to visit him, and from my conversation with him I was shocked to learn that his cultivation state had been very poor for the past year. He wasn’t consistent in Fa study, and sent righteous thoughts no more than twice daily. His relatives would often gang up and verbally attack him, yet he was unable to escape from his current situation. I thought to myself that there are probably more than a few reasons for his current situation, but the most obvious cause was the lack of sending righteous thoughts. He wasn’t even consistent in sending righteous thoughts during the global four times a day. No wonder he had such difficulty opposing the evil interference!

During my conversation with Shangwen, he said a few things that really startled me. He asked, “During the Olympics, did anyone in the office management approach you to speak about Falun Gong?” I replied, “No one approached me.” He said, “Do you mean that no one in the management even came to speak to you? Seems like sending righteous thoughts more often is really effective. From now on, I’m going to do the same.” I said, “That’s great, it would be best if you send righteous thoughts at least eight times a day.”

After hearing what Shangwen said, I felt very happy and thought that he would be more serious about sending righteous thoughts. But, regrettably, he hadn’t changed very much when I visited him again a year later. According to him, his relatives would call him whenever he was sending righteous thoughts, so he would miss that time. Yet, he didn’t realize that this was a form of interference and didn’t try to oppose the interference based on his understanding of the Fa. From there, he gradually became more lax in sending righteous thoughts and returned to his previous state. One year of precious time was thus wasted. Cultivation is very solemn, and not long after the old forces took away his human body in the form of sickness. He thus passed away, causing a huge loss to Dafa, and causing him to leave with the greatest regret.

But Shangwen’s words triggered a huge revelation in my understanding. Before, I only knew that I should send righteous thoughts more often, but didn’t really understand why I should or what sort of effect that would have. Shangwen’s response immediately enlightened me, and I was so moved by that realization that, at that moment, my body felt charged with energy. I felt very profoundly all the encouragement and support that Master had been giving to me. I also had a deeper understanding of Master’s Fa:

“So each student has to truly, clearly realize what his responsibility is, and when he sends forth righteous thoughts he has to be able to truly calm his mind and truly produce the effect of righteous thoughts. So this is something extremely critical, extremely important. Then if every student is able to do that, I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again--that's how important this is.” (“Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.” 2002)

With this deeper understanding of the Fa, my heart felt even lighter. In actuality, sending righteous thoughts will directly oppose the evil persecution, as well as eliminate the evil forces before they can act, thereby preventing them from persecuting us. I resolved to work harder and do a better job in sending forth righteous.

2. Sending Righteous Thoughts Together to Oppose the Persecution of My Mother

My mother is 84 years old this year, and has been practicing Dafa for the past 13 years. She hasn’t taken a single pill and has been very healthy for all that time, attesting to the greatness and extraordinariness of Dafa. Can an ordinary person do this? Moreover, something else happened a few years ago that really showed me how powerful sending righteous thoughts together is.

That winter, my mother started to hurt all over. Even her bones hurt, to the point that she didn’t want to live anymore. Talking to her over the phone, I could feel the severity of her pain. Her voice, which had weakened considerably, carried a sense of hopelessness. Coincidentally, the Minghui website had just published an experience-sharing article in which a practitioner related that she had dreamed that her younger brother had developed bone cancer. When she spoke then to him, her brother was quite shocked and admitted that he had been having bone pain for over a month, and the pain was sometimes extremely bad. He recovered after practicing Dafa. The article reminded me of my mother. Because of my attachment to family, I wavered and didn’t have righteous thoughts. So when I heard that she wanted to try using the particular tiger-bone medicated plaster for her pain, I immediately bought some and sent it to her. But the pain actually got worse after she put on the plaster. I then realized that we are Dafa disciples; how can we use such methods to solve problems in cultivation? By doing so, what level am I placing myself at?

So I called my mother and told her that she must have strong, unshakeable righteous thoughts and have faith in Master and the Fa. I also told my father and elder sister (both of whom have been practicing Dafa for over 10 years) to send righteous thoughts with me to eliminate the evil and oppose the old forces who were persecuting her. Whether or not we were related, my mother was ultimately a Dafa practitioner and our fellow disciple, so I could not allow the evil to persecute her. After one week of sending righteous thoughts together as a family, I learned from a call to my family that my mother was now able to walk normally and cook for the family. Although she still had some pain, it was much better and caused very little interference to her life. I felt much more relieved after hearing this (I still have some elements of attachment to family).

Through this incident, I experienced Master’s compassionate protection and support. I also experienced the immense power of cooperating and sending righteous thoughts together. From this I realized that we Dafa practitioners are one body; if we cooperate well with each other, we will do an even better job in validating the Fa and saving people and will really be able to save many people. The power of one body shouldn’t be underestimated.

3. Sending Strong Righteous Thoughts to Eliminate Financial Persecution

The evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has embarked on a genocidal policy against Dafa and its practitioners to destroy their reputations, bankrupt them, and destroy them physically. This inhumane persecution has been extremely brutal. By our clarifying the facts to people, many have understood the truth about Dafa and re- positioned themselves. This has also had the effect of restraining the persecution.

However, for the past years, many practitioners have been living in very bad circumstances due to the persecution. Some have not eaten a good meal or had new clothes and have been living in very impoverished conditions. Even so, we continue to scrimp and save every penny to make truth-clarification materials and save people, and continue to do the things that Dafa disciples should do. While this validates the greatness and all-encompassing nature of Dafa, as well as the high cultivation-level of practitioners, it also makes one sad.

Poverty is definitely not a state that Dafa disciples should be in. Dafa is the absolute law of the universe; it is the fundamental reason for the formation and existence of this universe. The Fa doesn’t require its practitioners to be poor; instead, we are required to let go of our attachment to money. The cultivation form for monks, which involves bare-bones poverty, is a minor cultivation way. Dafa disciples do not need to live that way, and yet they can cultivate to even higher levels.

Cultivating Dafa brings one good fortune. Dafa disciples should not be poor in the first place; it is because of the persecution that we are poor. The evil persecutes Dafa disciples financially to impede us in saving sentient beings and to create more trouble for us. Their ultimate aim is to destroy all sentient beings. Think about it, if we are poor and desolate, how can we display the beauty of Dafa to the world? How will the world believe us when we clarify the truth? How will the world view us?

Moreover, in His Fa lectures about New Tang Dynasty Television, the Epoch Times, and other media, Master repeatedly emphasized that our media must have a firm footing in ordinary society. Our media must be run with standard management practices, business operations should be optimized, and the media must be profitable. This will enable our media to get into a positive cycle, be more stable, and have a greater effect in validating the Fa and saving people.

Master said:

“Just imagine if all those who are involved didn’t need to go and work at ordinary companies to make ends meet, since your own paper would be providing for them, and they could put all their energy here. If this paper can manage to become a normal workplace in ordinary society, with people getting normal salaries, then wouldn’t you be both doing what Dafa disciples are supposed to do as well as assuring financial security in your life? Wouldn’t that be great?”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about this since the day you first began. If you can really achieve that, it would make me the happiest. I don’t have any misgivings about Dafa disciples making big money. I’ll be happy when your businesses grow even bigger and you have ever greater wealth. My only concern is that you won’t achieve this. If you all had great financial means, wouldn’t you have greater strength to draw upon for these things that Dafa disciples do to validate the Fa? Wouldn’t that be outstanding?” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”)

Indeed, we are cultivators and should let go of our attachment to wealth. But that doesn’t mean we should be poor. We are cultivating Dafa in the human realm, so we need money to live and to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Therefore, we should have strong righteous thoughts in opposing the evil persecution that targets our finances. When sending righteous thoughts we should add: "Eliminate all the evil spirits and meddling deities that are persecuting and interfering with Dafa disciples financially. We definitely will not allow the evil forces to plunder, rob, or extort funds from Dafa disciples in any way.

After a few years of doing this, I feel like my financial situation isn’t bad. I am able both to make ends meet and to validate the Fa without a problem. Moreover, in the past few years, my financial situation has gotten better and better, and my annual salary has increased from 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and now to 400,000 yuan this year. This also proves that as long as our righteous thoughts are strong, we can overcome the financial persecution!

Of course, we must handle things well and shouldn’t waste money. We cannot make mistakes when it comes to the issue of wealth. Our wealth is a resource for Dafa and is currently very limited. We should spend this limited resource on activities that need it the most. We must use it wisely and properly and treat it like a precious resource. We must handle this issue of wealth well in order to do even better.

4. Opposing the Evil Interference of the Internet with Steadfast Righteous Thoughts

One of the ways the CCP has carried out the persecution is through restricting and controlling media access. In the past 13 years, it has generated endless lies and slander about Dafa and Master, even as it has relentlessly persecuted Dafa disciples, including carrying out the live harvesting of Dafa disciples’ organs for profit and other crimes against humanity. The CCP has also made serious attempts to block access to information to hide the truth, and thereby mislead the world. But Dafa is boundless, and the CCP’s evil plots will not succeed.

To validate the Fa, clarify the facts, and save sentient beings, Dafa disciples have cooperated to establish the Minghui website as well as other websites and media outlets. These have had a great impact in helping Master validate the Fa.

Master said:

“It can be said that among the websites that Dafa disciples run, this is a crucial one. From the day it was set up it was firmly established as a vehicle for Dafa disciples’ cultivation and their sharing of experiences, and meant to report on the persecution of Dafa disciples in a timely manner. So the role that the Minghui website has assumed has been particularly decisive, becoming a thorn in the evil’s side. This has meant that the site has had to emphasize security more than other websites…” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website’s Founding”)

As can be seen, because the Minghui website has a special position and plays a very key role, the evil is petrified of it. Consequently, the CCP uses every method possible to disrupt and persecute it, which is why they often make frequent attempts to upgrade the Internet firewall.

But the Minghui website can never be blockaded. The challenges overcome over the past 13 years have proven this point. As Dafa disciples, we must understand that, when the evil puts up Internet firewalls, it actually wants to block the Minghui website and other websites created by Dafa disciples to prevent the Chinese people from learning the truth. This is a form of interference and persecution; it is committing sins against Master’s validation of the Fa, as well as committing sins against sentient beings. We must oppose this persecution and cannot let such plans succeed. Since the evil wants to block the Minghui website, it shows that the website doesn’t sit well with the evil and the evil is afraid of the website. This also clearly means that we should do an even better job in running the Minghui website and other Dafa websites.

We all know that the Minghui website connects to thousands of different material production sites, and thus determines whether countless sentient beings can be saved. So we should have righteous thoughts and righteous actions and consciously ensure the integrity and regular operation of the Minghui website. First, we Dafa disciples in mainland China should confidently and forthrightly access the Minghui website and produce truth-clarification materials, so that there are many local material production sites across the country. Secondly, we should also send righteous thoughts to disintegrate the evil persecuting or interfering with the website, as well as to disintegrate the evil CCP’s blockade and surveillance of the website. This will enable the truth about Dafa, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and the truth about the movement to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations to become known throughout the country, thereby saving sentient beings over a widespread area.

For the past several years, under Master’s compassionate protection, I have been accessing the Minghui website every day and using the Internet to clarify the truth and persuade people to do the "three withdrawals." Because I am doing so with the right premise and have been sending righteous thoughts more often, I feel like the truth-clarification process has always gone more smoothly. I am hardly affected whenever the Internet blockade is upgraded and am still able to access the Minghui website. I am able to do whatever I need to do. I understand that, as long as we have righteous thoughts and righteous actions and have a pure and righteous state of mind, the communist regime's plots will never succeed, and the show that they put up in persecuting us is all an illusion!

The above are my experiences from having steadfast righteous thoughts and placing emphasis on sending righteous thoughts. When I compare myself to the righteous thoughts and actions that my fellow practitioners have, I feel very ashamed of myself. Compared to them, I am still very far away from the Fa’s requirement. I feel like I still have many attachments to let go of and many undesirable states that I have to overcome. But, with Master and the Fa, I will work harder from now on. I firmly believe in Master and Dafa and will do well the three things that Master has arranged for us, and diligently and consistently correct my shortcomings.

I firmly believe that, with Master compassionately watching over us, we can get rid of even the most stubborn attachments; we can overcome even the greatest obstacles; and we can walk a righteous path no matter how many more dangers there are ahead for us.

Thank you, respected Master!

Thank you, fellow practitioners!