(Minghui.org) Although I have maintained righteous thoughts and conduct, the fear of being persecuted again has always made me tremble because of the torture I went through for holding to my faith. This attachment has shown up occasionally when I do the three things.
A former colleague, also a practitioner, was arrested a while ago. I studied the Fa, sent forth righteous thoughts, and examined my own deficiencies for three days after I heard the news.
On the fourth day, I received a message from a practitioner to go into hiding immediately, indicating I might be implicated if the fellow practitioner succumbed under torture.
But I could not leave. I had a job and also needed to take care of my family, who were not practitioners. I had to consider their feelings and be responsible to those around me.
I knew I needed to have righteous thoughts and refuse any arrangement by the old forces. Nonetheless, I was affected. Waves of fear kept hitting me. I felt the police would come at any moment. In extreme terror, I knelt in front of Master’s picture and said, “Master, I don’t have sufficient righteous thoughts. Please help me.” Then, I sent forth righteous thoughts for half an hour. I was much calmer and knew Master had eliminated many bad substances in me.
I began to study Master's teachings, and the following sentence appeared as soon as I started reading:
“At times when your human attachments are severe and there is interference from evil and bad factors, however, it will instead be the case that when you get stronger it becomes weaker, and when you get weaker it becomes stronger.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference”, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
Master’s words shocked me. Wasn’t he giving me a hint? It was I who lowered myself while exaggerating the importance of the project I had worked on, thinking that it provoked many evil factors.
Master said:
“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.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
Why was I always worried about being persecuted? Wasn’t it just because I was not compassionate? I looked at it as persecution merely because a police officer knocked on my door. I did not put saving sentient beings as a priority.
How selfish was I!? Compared to practitioners who faced the police and told them about Dafa with poise and confidence, I had a long way to go.
I regained my calm. When thoughts like “what if the arrested practitioner implicated me” appeared occasionally, I was able to repel them.
I shared my situation with another practitioner. He said I should not have worried about being implicated. I should just trust the practitioner and not worry about anything else.
Master said:
“A Dafa disciple... what's a Dafa disciple? He's a being created by the most magnificent Fa, (enthusiastic applause) and he's rock-solid and as indestructible as diamond.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IV)
After reading Master's words, I felt the notion of “in case the fellow practitioner implicated me” was a great insult to that practitioner, a notion that should not be acknowledged.
Master said:
“Thus, once the cultivation path of a Dafa disciple has been arranged, basically nobody can just rashly change it, and no one--good or bad--can do anything to you. Even when someone wants to give you something special and good, he isn't able to add it in. And if someone wants to give you something special that was not part of what you originally had in your cultivation, or if someone wants to go overboard persecuting you, they won't be able to. Exceptions only come about when you, yourself, do poorly.” (Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles)
“We negate even the very emergence of the old forces and everything that they've arranged; we don't even acknowledge their existence. We're fundamentally negating all of their things, and all of, and only, the things you do while negating and getting rid of them is mighty-virtue. It's not that you're cultivating amidst the ordeals they created. Rather, you are to walk your own path well while not acknowledging them, not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations. (Applause) So looking at it from this angle, what we need to do is completely negate the old forces. Dafa disciples and I don't even acknowledge the manifestations of their last-ditch efforts.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IV)
I repeatedly read Master’s Fa lectures. Indeed, who can go overboard to persecute me?
I let go of my attachments and continued to follow the path that Master arranged for me. I moved the material production equipment back to my home and resumed the work of helping people with a purer heart.
Category: Improving Oneself
