(Clearwisdom.net)

Master taught us in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference", "The different tribulations and tests our students have gone through in this world are exactly the arrangement of these old forces." Master said again in his Fa Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A, "Even each Dafa disciple's every move, every action, every word, and even the questions you ponder, none of it is that simple. In the future you'll see that everything was very carefully arranged. But it's not me who arranged this, it's the old forces who did." As a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, how do we break away completely from all of the old evil force's arrangements before the arrival of the grand force of Fa-rectification; how do we follow up Master's Fa-rectification process? In this article I would like to talk about how to negate the old force's arrangements based upon my personal experience in a brainwashing class.

Before the 16^th Party Congress, the evil was running wild. Brainwashing classes were resumed in many areas, and many Falun Dafa practitioners were abducted and forced to attend. I was abducted once again to a brainwashing class. This time their methods of deceit were more vicious than ever. The evil police tried to be nice to me at first, then used the cruelest tortures after their "nice" approaches failed. In order to reach their goal of a 100% transformation rate, they used the most evil, the lowest, and the cruelest means in their efforts to force Dafa disciples to sign the Letter of Transformation, Letter of Repentance, and Letter of Dissociation. They said that all Falun Dafa practitioners who entered the brainwashing class had to be transformed, or else they wouldn't be released from the class -- unless they suffered a mental collapse or died. Each of us has to pay several thousand Yuan to cover our living expenses while in the brainwashing class (an average urban worker's monthly salary is 500 Yuan).

When I was first abducted into the brainwashing class, those "helpers" appeared very nice to me, they seemed to care about me, and they ate and slept together with me. But I knew in my heart that the only reason that they abducted me was to "transform" me. They absolutely would not treat Dafa disciples in this way without evil intentions. All their performances were aimed to try to confuse Dafa disciples by their false behaviors, so that Dafa disciples might lose their righteous thoughts. Hence, in order to take the initiative to resist the ridiculous, evil detainment, I went on a hunger strike and requested my immediate and unconditional release. In response, the evil gang formed a special "aid group" with a specially designed "transformation plan." While force-feeding me every day, they had more than ten people taking turns to alternatively threaten and tempt me, curse me, and even deprive me of sleep for several days on end. They beat me and punished me by forcing me to stand for long periods of time, sometimes in the blazing sun until I was badly sunburned.

In the brainwashing class, some fellow practitioners knew that we should negate the old force's arrangements, put down the thought of life or death and solidify our righteous thoughts, but they could not bear any longer the double torture of mind and body, and finally signed their names to the three statements against their will. During that time, no matter whether they spoke softly or cursed loudly, I remained calm and clear headed, and treated things with rationality. I maintained the state of not being interfered with by the evil, and used my powerful righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil factors manipulating the evil gang. As a result, they could not reach their goal of transforming me. On the contrary, they were speechless in front of my righteous words. They even feared that those practitioners who had enlightened along the evil path would be transformed by me.

As soon as one method failed, they changed their tactics and tried another. They locked me in a room by myself and posted many banners slandering Falun Dafa and our Master. They forced me watch a video slandering Dafa continuously for many nights in a row, and turned up the speakers to the highest volume. I felt that the whole room was shaking, filled with evil. Anyone without great psychological forbearance would be intimidated by this horrible environment. They continued to brutally force-feed me during that period of time, and beat me up if they could not get the food in me. Every single area of my body was beaten. When those "helpers" saw me struggling in pain, they laughed at me and insulted me. Even so, I never gave up.

The evil went mad after seeing that all their methods could not work on me. I had not been eating for three weeks, and I had wounds all over my body. The evil tortured me by tying up my hands behind my back, and then hung me up by my hands until I could just barely kneel. Normally people can only take this torture for 3 or 4 hours, but they hung me for almost 40 hours. I almost passed out during these 40 hours. The evil gang stuffed my mouth with rags, and they blew mosquito repellant smoke and cigarette smoke into my nose, and poured cold water over my head. They even used sharp toothpicks to forcefully jab my wounds and other sensitive parts of my body.

I thought about giving in to the evil when I could no longer stand the physical tortures. But then I remembered Master's words in "Dafa is Indestructible", "As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that [you] rectify everything that is not righteous. How could you bow to the evil? How could you promise something to the evil? Even if it doesn't truly come from your heart, it's still giving in to the evil. This is bad conduct for humans, too, and Gods absolutely would not do such a thing. Even if a Dafa cultivator truly casts off his human skin during the persecution, what awaits him is still Consummation. At the same time, no attachment or fear could possibly enable you to reach Consummation. And any attachment of fear is itself a barrier that prevents you from reaching Consummation, and is also a factor in your being "reformed" toward the evil side and in your betrayal."

I thought about how, in order to assist Master in Fa-rectification and save sentient beings, I had endured numerous hardships and even died many times in history -- how could I betray Dafa and Master at this critical moment? This little bit of pain is nothing in comparison with the heavy karmic debt that our great benevolent Master has endured! If Master did not teach Dafa, or endure everything for us, we would have ceased to exist long ago. Master said in "Touring North America to Teach the Fa", "They don't dare touch him, because they know at that time that if this disciple has taken a righteous path and conducted himself well and someone still dares to persecute him, it doesn't matter that they're the old forces or what the old principles are -- I absolutely won't spare them. There are countless righteous Gods by my side, too! And I also have countless Law Bodies who do Fa-rectification. My only concern is that Dafa disciples themselves won't be firm inside; when there's some kind of attachment, some kind of fear, or what not, then the old forces see it and take advantage of the omissions and persecute them. And if a person's righteous thoughts aren't sufficient while he's being persecuted, he will be persecuted even worse. This is always the case."

I thought that since I had been abducted again by the evil old forces, and was being tortured brutally, I must have some omissions that provided a gap for them. It is not that Master cannot protect me or that he would not protect me. If I failed to pass the evil test, it would equate to accepting the old force's arrangement. And if I failed to eliminate my last bit of karma and attachments while breaking through the persecution, and thus establishing my mighty virtue, I would be unable to return to my highest position; my cultivation would end up in vain. "Since the old evil forces insist on giving us a chance to eliminate them, make good use of it. History has never seen this before, it's hard to come by" (Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference). Therefore, I took this evil persecution as a good opportunity to eliminate the evil with my righteous thoughts. I asked Master to strengthen and help me. At the same time, I warned the old forces, "You are not worthy of testing Dafa disciples. If you insist on persecuting me, it will only accelerate your doom!"

Although I sent forth righteous thoughts constantly, and the pain was reduced, it was still beyond my limit of endurance. I felt that I had to give in to evil. So they put me down. When they asked me to break away with Dafa and Master, I absolutely refused. Then the evil hung me up again. From an ordinary people's point of view, my temporary giving in was due to a long time of not eating, being extremely weak, and being hung up for too long. But from the point of view of Dafa, I knew that I still had fear, and that my righteous thoughts were not pure enough and therefore could not act powerfully enough. I did not truly let go of life and death. The old evil forces tried to ruin my spirit by torturing me more cruelly, in order to remove my righteous thoughts and force me to follow their arrangements. I thought that cultivation is a serious matter, that I am a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, that the historical mission and great task of safeguarding Dafa and saving sentient beings was resting squarely on my shoulders. Even if my flesh body died because of the evil persecution, I will not create a stain against Dafa, and I will not disappoint Master's expectations. I cannot let my millions and millions of years of waiting be ruined. At this time I truly understood the profound meaning of, "Grand talk counts for naught when it comes to life and death" (Essentials for Further Advancement II, The Knowing Heart), and, "Through hardships the body of gold is tempered" (The Difficult Path to Godhood).

Hence, I became even more determined, with the righteous thought, "To live with no pursuits, To die with no regrets" (Hongyin, Non-existence). While sending forth righteous thoughts, I repeatedly recited the scriptures of Mighty Virtue, Assisting the Fa, Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions, and The Difficult Path to Godhood. I eliminated all of the old evil forces in other dimensions that manipulated the evil gang. When my mind changed fundamentally, I found that the pain became less and less, until the evil loosened the ties for me themselves, and gave up after 40 hours of torture.

The following month, the evil tried all sorts of methods to force me to give up cultivation. But I solidified my righteous thoughts, gave up all fear of death, and my will was unshakeable, with diamond-like strength, all the while maintaining my hunger strike without water. Every day I sent forth righteous thoughts on the hour, and also sent forth righteous thought towards the head evil that directly persecuted me. The rest of the time, I continuously recited all the scriptures that I could remember, including Hongyin. I sought inwards for any omissions, for places where I could see that I wasn't up to Dafa's standard, and to learn any lessons I might need to break the old force's persecution. When I improved from the basis of the Fa, I felt my righteous thoughts carrying much less irrelevant thoughts, and my mind was very calm. I felt that Master was strengthening me, and all the Buddhas, Daos, and Gods were helping me eliminate the evil. In a dream I found that the head evil that manipulated the brainwashing class in other dimensions had been eliminated.

Another two weeks later, I walked out of the brainwashing class in a dignified manner.

After coming back home, through studying the Fa repeatedly, I have further upgraded my enlightenment on how to negate the old force's arrangements. Below are the three main points that I would like to share:

1. No matter where and when, we have to take the Fa as our teacher. Because Master has told us all the possible situations in his teaching, if we study the Fa well enough, we can use Dafa to measure our every conduct, and follow up the Fa-rectification. Otherwise, the old forces will grasp our omission to persecute us according to their arrangements. During the brutal tortures, if we study the Fa well enough, we can break through the persecution with firm righteous thoughts.
2. No matter how massive the tribulation, we should solidify our righteous thoughts. Every one of us Dafa disciples still has to give up ordinary people's mentalities before reaching consummation. The old forces will use our surface notions and karma to persecute us before the Fa-rectification ends. Especially when we cannot take the pain any more, it is very easy to have ordinary people's thoughts. If we cannot face it correctly, we give the evil an excuse to further the persecution. So no matter what means the evil forces use, no matter how huge the pain, as long as we put down the thought of life and death and utilize righteous thoughts and righteous actions, and firmly believe in Dafa and Master, we can be solid as diamond, indestructible.
3. In any kind of Fa-rectification situation, we must never stop being diligent. As long as the evil is not eliminated totally, as long as any time remains before the moment when the Fa rectifies the human world, we have to keep doing what we should do, carefully and all the time according to the requirements of Dafa. We should not wait passively, nor should we act irrationally. We should not lose hope and be sad, or waver in our faith. Because, as Master tells us, "Cultivation and Fa-rectification are serious. Whether you are able to treasure this period of time is, in fact, a matter of whether you can be responsible to yourselves. This period of time will not last long, but it can forge the mighty virtue of magnificent Enlightened Beings, Buddha, Daos, and Gods of different levels, and even Lords of different levels. It can also destroy overnight a cultivator who has reached a really high level but who has become less strict with himself." (Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples)

The discussion above is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything that is incorrect.