(Clearwisdom.net)
The persecution of Dafa practitioner Ms. Wang Minli has generated much concern from Dafa practitioners and kind people after it was published on many Dafa websites. Now, Wang Minli has escaped danger with her righteous thoughts, yet the event is cause for profound thinking among Dafa practitioners.
(Reference: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/8/8/38932.html)
In the past, as soon as any practitioner was persecuted we often looked for where he/she had a loophole or did not do well in accordance with the Fa. In this way, we had given tacit consent to the arrangement of the old forces. We had not actively looked inside to see through the evil arrangement of the old forces and to eliminate it, which made us unaware that we were walking on the road arranged by the old forces. When we said looking inside, we always meant to find who we had contacted and what we had not kept secret, only looking for those superficial reasons, not really looking for the real reason: the level of our Xinxing (heart or mind nature, moral character). As a matter of fact, that superficial reason is only the surface, just like the relationship between the symptoms of a disease and one's karma. It is only an outward cause. An everyday person would be puzzled and not realize that the true reason is from our heart.
To a practitioner, those thugs and evil policemen are nothing. They can persecute Dafa practitioners because they were manipulated by the evil factors behind them. When we were persecuted due to the loopholes in our Xinxing, we didn't dig deeply enough into our human mentalities, theories and attachments, but instead we looked at those superficial reasons, which gave the old forces a reason to further persecute us.
When we tried to protect ourselves in an everyday people's way we didn't realize that those old forces, who were the true operating forces persecuting us, were also gods and they could see everything. When they grasped enough reasons to persecute us they could create any outward conditions. We all talk about firm belief in Teacher and in Dafa--why did we not remember Teacher and Dafa in these crucial situations?
I always asked myself a question: whose words count in this universe? Who is the real master of this universe? Then, what do we fear? When we are walking on the righteous path according to the standard for Dafa practitioners in the Fa-rectification period, who can do us any harm? If we are walking on the righteous path yet the evil forces still want to persecute us, would Teacher let them do this? Would the numerous gods that validate the Fa let them do this? The only reason is that we are not righteous, which caused the numerous righteous gods to be hindered by the old universe's rules and unable to do anything.
It is hard for one to elevate when he is still standing on the foundation of a human being, with one foot to keep him in the human being's situation. However, having no attachment of fear does not mean rashness or impulsiveness. Otherwise, we may go to another extreme. Because of some reasons visible at the level of human beings, we may have some loopholes even when we try to do everything according to Teacher's requirement. This is only a phenomenon in one's cultivation. However, as long as we are persecuted, there must exist some matters of principle, and we should look within to see if our thoughts and behavior meet the requirement of the Fa.
This is just theoretically speaking about the reason we suffer persecution. If the purpose is to protect ourselves, isn't our "righteousness" still for our "selfishness"? When we are really thinking of the Fa and the sentient beings, when we are responsible to what we have done for the sentient beings and have no selfish intentions, we will feel that we are indestructible and a single one of our righteous thoughts can make any evil creature disappear, no matter how evil it is.
When passively suffering pain, some fellow practitioners were thinking, "Why does Teacher not take care of me?" Teacher told us, "in the several years of your cultivation, I have not only borne an incredibly great deal for you, but also, along with this, constantly given you hints for your improvement, looked after you for your safety, and settled the debts that you owed at different levels so that you can reach Consummation--these aren't things that just anyone can do, and neither can they be done for everyday people." ("Drive Out Interference" Essentials For Further Advancement II)
Teacher said, "You should also be clear that 'natural' does not exist, and 'the inevitable' has reasons behind it." ("Expounding on the Fa" Essentials For Further Advancement) In suffering persecution, Wang Minli did not tolerate it as though it were inevitable, but refused to cooperate with the evil, actively looked inside, denied the evil arrangement of the old forces, and walked out of the evil's den with dignity. At the same time, it fully demonstrates the power of practitioners as a whole body that our fellow practitioner could get out of danger this time. As practitioners in China, we actively played our good role in the whole body: investigated the persecution, sent the facts to Clearwisdom.net to expose the evil in the shortest time as possible, and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in other dimensions. Besides playing our role as practitioners in China, we also created a situation in which practitioners abroad could cooperate with us and support us. We supplied practitioners abroad with related telephone numbers. Every single call from practitioners abroad shocked the evil.
When our fellow practitioner was suffering persecution, we considered it as a persecution of Dafa, on all the Dafa practitioners, not just one practitioner's private matter. One essential characteristic of the old forces is selfishness. Therefore, what it fears the most is that we Dafa practitioners selflessly unite to form a whole body. As far as this point is concerned, we have not done well enough. There is still disharmony and distrust among our practitioners, which is expected by the old forces and becomes their most desired pretext to persecute us. Why were our practitioners persecuted? Because, whenever any problem appears, we didn't consider it from the perspective of Dafa, and always looked for the reason from the surface or from a human standpoint. We thought of the problem with the idea of protecting ourselves. Therefore, there is some estrangement among practitioners, which made us unable to form a cooperating whole body and gave the old forces the chance to take advantage of our loopholes.
Sometimes it pained us when we saw practitioners around us suffering persecution while we may have felt indifferent when we saw the suffering on Clearwisdom.net of some non-local practitioners' persecution. Where was our compassion then? Teacher said, "compassion comes from a person's cultivation, and it's not something that's acted out; it comes from deep inside, and it's not something done to show others. It's something that exists eternally, and it doesn't change with the passage of time or changes in circumstances." (Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference) All of our practitioners form a whole body. No matter if we are in China or abroad, no matter which province or district we are from, the persecution of any practitioner is of ourselves and Dafa, and it is what we should eliminate together.
Through our cultivation of Dafa, we have become more and more mature. We should really let go of the concern for ourselves and cooperate with each other harmoniously to form an indestructible whole body, so that the old forces cannot take advantage of our loopholes and the evil forces have no places to hide. We are the people who follow Teacher to validate the Fa. Then, the power of taking the initiative should be in our hands, and we should, without exception, avoid the path arranged by the old forces. Fellow practitioners, let us form a whole body to eliminate the last evil factors in the universe and create together a beautiful new universe.