(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, while sharing experiences with a fellow practitioner from another area, I heard him mention several stories of Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts and righteous actions when they clarified the truth in their region. These stories greatly inspired me, and I would like to share them with everyone.
When a local Falun Dafa practitioner in his area explained the true facts of the persecution while teaching in a school, a student reported him to the school authorities. The supervisor of the school announced that he would fire him from his teaching job and then send him to a brainwashing class. The local Dafa practitioners immediately took action. First they notified every Dafa practitioner about this incident. Every practitioner immediately helped by sending righteous thoughts. Meanwhile, they exposed this situation over the Internet. They made truth-clarification materials, which they distributed and posted near the school. All the while, many phone calls and letters from practitioners poured in. The situation started to change right away. In fact, the school supervisor not only took the initiative to protect this practitioner when the police tried to take him to a brainwashing class, but also let this practitioner keep his teaching job. Through this experience, the local practitioners elevated in their cultivation together as a whole. They also realized profoundly the great power of working together cooperatively. Now the local "610 Office" no longer wants to bother handling Falun Gong issues any more [the "610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems].
Through this incident I realized deeply the importance of Dafa practitioners' working together in concert when we clarify the truth to the people in our local area. As Teacher said,
"For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles." ["Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference"]
In order to achieve this harmony, when considering any problem, each and every Dafa practitioner needs to consider the problem from the perspective of the whole body. Dafa has endowed us with different capabilities, and every Dafa practitioner plays a different role in Fa-rectification. We don't necessarily do the same things, but we should try our best to do them equally well, making full use of the wisdom and capabilities Dafa has bestowed upon us. Only in this way can we participate as one whole body and truly harmonize what Teacher needs us to, to save as many sentient beings as possible. Some practitioners still have not caught up with the progress of Fa-rectification. This fact should inspire practitioners who have done a good job, while continuing with their good works, to take time to share their experiences with others in order for us to elevate and improve as a whole body.
Nevertheless, when making efforts to rescue practitioners who were illegally arrested in our local area, some practitioners still sought different connections to ask for favors, or gave money and gifts. Although they did clarify the truth to those people they approached for favors, this kind of action in itself is not righteous. We certainly want to rescue practitioners who are being persecuted, but we shouldn't resort to the methods that everday people use and inadvertently support corrupt practices. Instead, we should be sending righteous thoughts, clarifying the truth, and exposing the evil, because everything we do now will be left for the future as a reference. Our impure and unrighteous actions will not find a place in the new cosmos. Only when we act in the manner that Teacher requires of us can we walk our path righteously and leave a pure and righteous path for the future.
Through his job, another practitioner in that area got the phone number of a person who had persecuted a Dafa practitioner. Initially he had concerns about exposing the individual's phone number for fear of implicating himself. After the number was released, however, phone calls to clarify the truth poured in, frightening the perpetrator so much that he immediately changed his phone number. The practitioner continued to expose this person's new phone numbers so that the person had to keep changing it until he no longer had time to trace or investigate the situation at all. This practitioner also realized that when we really do as Teacher requires of us, the power is enormous. What hinders us are human concepts.
The process of exposing the evil to people in our local area is a process for us to further let go of ourselves, melting into the Fa and assimilating with the Fa. When collecting stories of evil acts by the people around us and when exposing the true facts of the persecution, some practitioners still have concerns that doing so will further anger the authorities and escalate the persecution. Actually, when we truly look at this issue from the standpoint of Fa-rectification's exposing the evil to save sentient beings, we can easily and clearly see that this concern is not in line with the Fa's requirements. It is exactly because of this kind of selfish thought that the evil forces are still able to linger and survive. Because of this, some sentient beings remain deceived. This is also an obstacle that keeps some of us from completely assimilating into the Fa, and this is one barrier that we must break through. If we are able to achieve this, we'll see "the shade of willows, the blooms of flowers, a place to rest our heads" (Zhuan Falun, 2003 North American translation).
Of course, it is also necessary to use rationality and wisdom to achieve non-omission in our actions at this human level and to protect the safety of our practitioners and everyday people who provide us with information.
Here is another story of righteous thoughts and actions: A landlord accidentally spotted several local Dafa practitioners making truth-clarification materials in a rental house. The practitioners clarified the truth to the landlord but to no avail, so they quickly left and went to another practitioner's home. When they mentioned this to other practitioners, most thought that safety was of the utmost importance. Although they were heartbroken at losing the truth-clarification materials, there was nothing else they could have done. Nevertheless, one Dafa practitioner thought that, since truth-clarification materials are made to save sentient beings, under no circumstances should they fall into evil hands. He told the other practitioners, "You guys send righteous thoughts for me. I'm going over there, but I'll be back soon." When he arrived at the rental house, he saw the area surrounded with parked police cars. But with his strong righteous thoughts, he calmly entered the rental house, turned on the light, packed everything up, and left the house safely.
Were the police cars parked outside an illusion? They were and they were not. As Teacher told us, "A good or bad outcome comes from one thought" (Zhuan Falun). The key lies in how a practitioner approaches this issue. From the perspective of a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, do you send out a pure and righteous thought that is powerful enough to shake and scare the evil, or do you judge and evaluate it with everyday people's notions? The modern scientific concept of "Seeing is believing" has made a deep impression on our minds. This pair of human eyes has made it so easy to get lost in the false reality of this dimension. Accordingly, we have formed all sorts of notions that interfere with our righteous thoughts. However, Teacher taught us, "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts" (From "Drive Out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II).
Various notions hinder us. Through studying the Fa constantly we'll be able to realize and break through all sorts of postnatal notions, constantly rectify ourselves, not be deluded by the ordinary world's illusions, and truly meet the standards of the Fa at different levels.
Through these incidents I became powerfully aware of the enormous power of righteous faith in Teacher and Dafa. Righteous actions originate from righteous thoughts, while righteous thoughts originate from righteous faith. Actually, Teacher has already told us the Fa-principles of how and why we do things in this way. But does every practitioner, from the bottom of his or her heart, firmly believe in everything Teacher has told us? Do we really believe that we not only play the leading roles in this big play but also dictate the action? Do we really believe in the power of Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts? Do we really believe that by exposing the evil we are effectively restricting and eliminating it? When everyone understands the evilness of this persecution, won't it just collapse by itself?
The Fa-rectification is bound to succeed. Whether we are able to accomplish our missions through actual practice is a matter to be fulfilled, which indicates how well we have done as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. As Teacher wrote in Hong Yin [Grand Poem] "Compliance is cultivation." Only when we do as Teacher and Dafa require of us in our actual practice, do we truly have "faith." And only with true faith can we truly assimilate into Dafa, harmonize Dafa well, create the unprecedented glory of Dafa practitioners validating the Fa in the human world, and leave a pure and righteous path as a reference for sentient beings in the future.