(Clearwisdom.net) I took part in eliminating the evil in Germany and gave it a lot of thought, both during and after the event. I have written down some of my thoughts to share with everyone, and I hope my fellow practitioners will point out anything inappropriate.
Like me, many practitioners thought that the trip to Germany was an excellent chance to eliminate the evil in the other dimensions, but we didn't achieve our goal. So we should give this some serious thought. Where did we not do well enough and what kind of attachments were exposed? These things will be highly relevant in the upcoming activities and in the whole Fa-rectification process.
I would like to share my understandings regarding where we can make improvements.
1. Effects of being one body
Jiang's visit to a country in Europe is not a local event, instead it should be an activity of all practitioners as one body. More practitioners need to understand the meaning of this event, and we need to improve our understandings based on the Fa. It is better to get the preparation work done as early and completely as possible. Not enough practitioners heard of the event or understood the importance of it; therefore, not enough practitioners came. Even among those who did come, some didn't truly realize the significance of eliminating the evil. Those practitioners who didn't come seemed to ask those who did to take the full responsibility for the activities, instead of making it a global event to eliminate the evil in other dimensions. After the event, through reading relevant articles published on Clearwisdom, most practitioners joined the efforts. Only then did we understand this event from the Fa and that we should have reached this level earlier.
I think that these kinds of important activities set very high requirements for the Falun Dafa Associations and for the practitioners who are in charge of organizing the activities. There is a direct relationship between the results of an event and whether they paid special attention to it, how deep their understandings was, and how well they organized the event. Some of us might have a lot of ordinary people's notions, such as if more practitioners knew about and joined this event, there would be more interference, or it would be more difficult to organize the activity, or the head of the evil might change its schedule or cancel its visit. The evil takes advantage of us when we are stopped by a lot of worries or are fearful. Our human side can restrain our divine side, so it is very important for us to have a righteous starting point, in order to understand the Fa from the Fa and to consider the situation as one body.
2. Effects of righteous thoughts
We all know that we need to enter into a state of tranquility when sending forth righteous thoughts. We will achieve good results when we send forth true thoughts without any attachments. Yet during those days in Germany, we didn't really calm down. Especially before and after Jiang's car started to move, few practitioners truly calmed down to send forth righteous thoughts. Many practitioners were thinking, "I need to get closer. I need to hold the banner higher. I need to shout statements of principle in a louder voice." It was very difficult to maintain a peaceful heart when almost everybody was thinking this way. The police sensed this also, and thus they became defensive and started to intervene. When practitioners quietly stood along the road, held palms erect, and concentrated their attention on sending forth righteous thoughts, the police didn't try to drive them away. On the contrary, they were very relaxed. I think this is because of the righteous thoughts. Actually, even when Jiang's car was far away, the righteous thoughts could transcend any time and space to exert the effect. I am not saying it's not good to hold banners or shout statements of principle, since these acts can hold the evil in awe. However, if we see them as a format or if we have an attachment to pursue this format, we will not be able to remain calm. Instead, we will miss the precious chance to send forth righteous thoughts in close proximity as one body.
3. Pure and calm mind
We also know that the more pure and calm the mind is, the better results we will achieve. During those days, we had a lot of things to do. Thus it was even more important for us to calm down to study the Fa with a peaceful mind. However, few practitioners truly did this. Many practitioners, including myself, felt we didn't have time to study the Fa during those days. We couldn't remain calm. Some practitioners liked to share their personal understandings and drew a lot of practitioners around to listen to them. Some practitioners got chances to unfurl banners right in front of Jiang, thus some other practitioners envied them very much. Some practitioners constantly tried to find opportunities to get close to the head of the evil. Few practitioners really sat down to practice the exercises or send forth righteous thoughts. It might be appropriate for some practitioners to do that based on their own situation and understanding; however, if other practitioners simply imitated the acts and generated some more attachments, it would have a negative effect on the end result as a whole. Also some practitioners were attached to their own understandings and believed their individual understandings were right, so they liked to act independently. Yet if every practitioner took actions by himself or herself, the strength of the practitioners as one body would be weakened. Our goal was to eliminate the evil factors that control the head of the evil. The reason that we wanted to get close to it was to send forth powerful righteous thoughts in close proximity. It would be wrong if we were satisfied with simply shouting statements of principle or holding banners. If we could send forth powerful righteous thoughts together as one body, it would be much stronger than if we did it individually.
4. Functions of a Fa particle
Generally speaking, we are used to situations where local practitioners make the arrangements for us and we just go there to follow the plan. Actually this is a manifestation of the everyday people's pursuit of comfort. As Falun Dafa disciples, each one of us is a Fa particle. We need to try our best to make contributions and not depend on the local practitioners to do everything for us. If some practitioners from other areas are more experienced and have the ability to help out, they should actively get involved, since the goal is to do good for the whole group. In fact, there were a lot of things waiting to be done. For example, those practitioners who are from English-speaking countries can actively help to do English translations for western practitioners, as it would be easier for them than for the local German practitioners. We should not just wait for the local practitioners to arrange the transportation. Some practitioners wasted two or three precious hours just waiting. They would have been better off if they actively asked about transportation in advance and helped make the arrangements. All these matters seem to be trivial; however, they reveal whether or not we are conducting ourselves as particles of the whole body, without concern as to where someone is from, and whether or not we can fully use our abilities as Falun Dafa particles.
While doing better and better and rectifying ourselves well, we can be ready for the next, bigger challenge.