(Minghui.org) Our local environment has not been good since last year. Practitioners have been arrested, one after another, but no one has been released despite our rescue efforts. I think it's time for us to reflect and share our understandings.
Recently some practitioners attributed our bad environment to a new municipal Chinese Communist Party secretary, then produced some posters about his crimes and posted many of them in the city as well as surrounding counties and districts. However, instead of practitioners being released, more practitioners were arrested.
Our local practitioners were still reluctant to look inside, and began to focus on the captain of the local Domestic Security Division and produced posters about him.
When some practitioners went to the local authorities to seek the release of a certain practitioner, they treated local officials as adversaries, putting them at odds with us from the beginning. They held attitudes of fighting, blame, and resentment. Their behavior was not that of practitioners, but more like ordinary people who went there to argue with officials about the law. Their starting point in opposing the persecution was their attachments.
We know that we should tell people the facts about Falun Gong and save them, but when our starting point is not for saving people, but instead for seeking the release of our fellow practitioners, we would get nowhere because our mentality is not right.
Surely in many areas, practitioners successfully deterred local officials by exposing their crimes. Then why were some able to do so effectively, while some invited more serious persecution? We should seriously reflect on this.
If we fail to look inside but instead attribute the bad environment to certain officials, aren't we looking outward? This happens when we give too much weight to this human dimension while ignoring the true, underlying reasons.
We need to ask ourselves, are we viewing the persecution as that of human beings versus human beings? Have we forgotten that it is actually the evil old forces targeting Dafa and Dafa practitioners?
If we hold resentment and try to fight with the authorities, this gives the old forces a loophole that allows them to hinder us.
Master said,
“As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts. Even though the old forces do exist, if you don't have those thoughts they can't do anything. When your righteous thoughts are strong enough the old forces can't do a thing.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.”)
Let's be rational while facing this persecution. It's not those local officials who launched the persecution, but our loopholes that were taken advantage of by the old forces.
I suggest that we all take a step back, study the Fa, look inside to identify our problems, rectify anything not aligned with the Fa, and send forth righteous thoughts more often. Then, let's go to the local authorities to tell them the facts about Falun Gong, using these specific cases of persecution.
If we can do this righteously, Master will help us and the evil in other dimensions will be disintegrated naturally. Consequently, our local environment will improve and fellow practitioners held captive will be released.
The above is my personal understanding. If you find anything inappropriate or not aligned with the Fa, please point it out and correct it.