How would I do if I were arrested? This was the question in my mind every time I read the reports on Minghui regarding the persecution.
Ever since the end of last year, many reported persecution cases have shocked me. Early this year when I read the report about how fellow practitioner Chen Zixiu was tortured to death, I felt startled by the gruesome scenes. On such occasions, I couldn't help thinking how I handle it if it happened to me. On second thought, the answer was actually very simple: there was no other choice but to stand up with the truth firmly even if I would be beaten to death. Then, I began to ask why I paid so much attention to those reports. On reflection, I found a heart of fear. Although I knew that I should not be afraid of demons, my heart was still shaken by the brutalities simply because myattachment had not been eliminated completely.
Later on, after reading more and more such reports, I became more tranquil in my heart. Except that I felt happy for our fellow practitioners' firmness and sorrowful about their misfortune, I rarely associated myself with their cases. I also became enlightened to many Fa-principles through the stories of how many fellow practitioners successfully passed their tests. The reason that they were able to pass the tests and some even with miracles occurring was mostly because they handled things with the divine side in their purest heart. I realized that the tribulation we are facing was not initiated by humans but by those degenerated forces throughout the very high levels of the cosmos. Yet, when many of our practitioners face the tribulation, they don't follow their divine side. Instead, they use their human side---human logic and human tactics. As a result, they don't handle the test well enough or even don't pass it at all, and then become very regretful. On the contrary, if we could get rid of the human mentality and cope with the tribulation using our divine side, the part that has been successfully cultivated, then the demons would face a divine power conducting Fa-rectification, and the tribulation would naturally look very insignificant. This is similar to how we feel about a tribulation after we have passed it. The demon does not become smaller, but we ourselves have upgraded our Xinxing and enlarged the capacity of our hearts by viewing things from the stand point of Fa and using our divine side. We therefore become very calm, confident, happy and auspicious, which is the manifestation of the divine side. In other words, to upgrade Xinxing is the key element for passing a tribulation. If we handle the tribulation with human firmness and patience, that's only Karma elimination which may continue for one's whole lifetime. Of course, it is indispensable to have firmness and patience when passing a tribulation; but I don't think they are the key elements.
Then how can we use our divine side? In my opinion, every person (except children whose minds don't have any existing concepts) would unintentionally deal with things using their human logic and experience - their human side. Our hearts are the purest, and our minds most easily have righteous thoughts only when thinking about what we will be most willing to say or do if we will not be affected by the consequences. For instance, I kept thinking about whether I should go to Beijing or not. Going to Beijing or Spreading Dafa in the neighborhood, which would be more effective? I could not figure out a clear answer. I realized that my heart must have been impure and I must have had human mentality when I was thinking. Thus, if I assumed that there had not been any oppression, or even the state encouraged going to appeal in Beijing, should I go? With no doubt, I would definitely go to Beijing first and then come back to spread Dafa in the neighborhood. Why didn't I go when the general climate was reversed? It seemed that it was the environment that frightened me, or actually frightened my human mentality while my pure being was willing to go. I eventually found out the reason and acted on it.
When exchanging cultivation experience, some fellow practitioners I knew of said they would not tell police anything if arrested and even if they would be beaten to death. Yet, after they were arrested, they still said something because they made a slip of the tongue. They meant to answer the police satisfactorily, but let the cat out of the bag. When they couldn't explain what they had said, they would rather have died in the end. Then I wondered why they tried to answer the questions in the first place. If there would be no consequence whether they answered or not, would they be willing to speak at the illegal trial? The divine side wouldn't. It was the uncultivated human mentality, which was frightened by the possible consequences, and wanted to find an easy way out. But how could they escape from the demons behind the police using a human way? That's why they didn't do well in the test.
Therefore, I thought, if I were arrested, all treatment I would receive would be unfair. Why then should I conform? I would answer no question, accept no body search, recite no jail regulations, and pay no money (because money would only increase the incentive of their persecution). I would refuse any illegal requirements. To do so, there's only one thing to overcome: the fear of pain (not of being executed by shooting). If I could get rid of the attachment to fear of physical pain, the police could no longer move my heart. If every practitioner could do so, the police couldn't go on with their transformation and persecution any more. Even if we couldn't do this all in one step, we should at least know the goal to reach.
Then why should we be afraid of physical pain? It is actually our own debt we have to pay off. If we have already eliminated the attachment to fear on this aspect, would it happen only for the sake of getting rid of karma? I remember once I was sad for practitioners who were tortured to death. My wife said, it was sad from the human standpoint, yet from the divine standpoint, they were finishing the last stage towards consummation, and were establishing their own enormous virtue. Probably, it was also the greatest moment in their life. Therefore, I thought of Teacher's words, [translator: not the original words] that even Buddha would also fear karma, whoever has it, he has to get rid of it. Being unwilling to get rid of karma is only human. And shouldn't we view this with a divine standard? Doesn't the attachment to fear of pain prevent you from consummation?
If we have already got rid of the attachment to fear of pain, the disaster of jail would become insignificant. In turn, we would become more calm and confident with no fear when we step forward to clarify the truth. .
From another point of view, Teacher once said that all gods were watching this event, everything had been arranged long before, and no deviation was allowed. That is to say, if I'm arrested when spreading Dafa, it is not because of a wrong time or not being careful enough, or other superficial reasons like lacking enough consideration, etc. It is because we have such a step on our way of cultivation, we have some attachments that need to be eliminated under that condition. It is actually that your cultivation has stepped into a new phase, isn't that a good thing? I am more convinced that the cultivation way that Teacher arranged for us is a reversed process: first the individual's cultivation result, then the process, then the time you start your cultivation. What one needs to do is just go forward firmly. What will be will be no matter whether you fear or not because all the hidden attachments will be exposed. In other words, no matter what means you employ to spread Dafa, to clarify the truth of Dafa, you will surely have the same predestined tribulation, and vise versa. The best result comes only when you're doing things with your purest heart after getting rid of any worries.
So if I were arrested, what would I do? I would face tribulations calmly and confidently with my purest heart. I wouldn't fear, and I wouldn't escape. I would cherish every step on my cultivation way, rectifying the Fa using my divine side I would not wait for consummation, but step towards consummation.
Dafa practitioner in Mainland China
November 29, 2000
