(Clearwisdom.net) As a Dafa practitioner, we often talk about human thoughts versus divine thoughts. A practitioner should use divine thoughts to view and to face the human world in all circumstances. The ability to do this is a reflection of how well and peacefully we have studied the Fa and the degree to which we have assimilated to the Fa.
In May of this year, I was planning to give out truth-clarification materials with several fellow practitioners. Suddenly I received a phone call from my hometown. My brother had been involved in a serious car accident. The car was totaled, one person died, and several others were injured. My brother was in critical condition. My heart rose to my throat. Was my brother's life in danger? Was he responsible for the accident? How well could he handle it financially, etc? The more I thought about it, the more worried I became, until I could no longer sleep and I felt compelled to go to my hometown immediately. I was completely driven by sentimentality and forgot that I was a Dafa practitioner.
The next day, after other practitioners consoled me for a while, I began to settle down. I studied Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts, and gradually found myself clearheaded and awakened. I knew I couldn't stop giving out materials explaining the facts about Falun Gong. As a practitioner in the Fa rectification period, we should never forget the vows we made in the remote past. Why did my brother have an accident at this critical time? It was the old forces using my attachment to sentimentality to interfere with and torment me in order to stop me from distributing Dafa materials. I often think that I am doing fine in my cultivation, but then, in times of crisis, I find my shortcomings. I didn't study the Fa well, and my human thoughts took over. But no matter how tough it was, I had to pass this test, negate it, and refuse to acknowledge the old forces and their existence. I had to completely eliminate them.
When you are in the middle of a tribulation, it isn't as easy as you may think to negate the old forces. Because we are human beings who are cultivating, sentimentality will interfere with us at every moment, plus the old forces glare at us like a tiger relentlessly eying its prey and use all sorts of excuses to persecute us. I felt the struggle, as if there were two of me fighting, one wanting to go to my hometown to see my brother, the other wanting to go to the remote villages to give out truth-clarifying materials. Which one was the real me? I was clear one moment and confused the next. It was truly a struggle.
The most difficult part was letting go of the attachment to sentimentality, letting go of the human heart. Through Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts, the divine thoughts took over and we went to a distant village. I was happy that I was able to put down the human heart and give the predestined people their long-awaited truth-clarifying materials.
After we returned, I went on to my hometown, but by this time my heart was calm and I understood the laws of the human world, that what will happen will happen to everyday people. If I didn't let go of sentimentality, the old forces would take advantage of my loophole and make things much worse. The old forces never care about human lives, and they would persecute me because of my loophole. I chose divine thoughts, listened to Master, let go of human attachments, and the results were very good. My brother recovered quickly, and the accident situation was resolved satisfactorily.
After visiting my brother, I invited a suburban practitioner to visit practitioners in the city. When we met a fellow practitioner at her booth, she told us that many fellow practitioners had been arrested. So, after discussing it for a while, we planned to leave. She kindly asked us to call for a taxi since we were carrying bags of truth-clarification materials. My first thought was that there was very little contact between fellow practitioners, so it would be easy for persecutors to discover this type of contact. That meant we had better leave soon. Because of this thought, the first taxi driver complained that our destination was too far, and a second one took us to the bus station. The other practitioner left first, and I was waiting for the bus alone. A couple of men approached me, stared at my bags, and asked all sorts of strange questions. My heart began to palpitate, and before I could think further, a police car pulled up beside me and three policemen jumped out and surrounded me. They were staring at me, and my first thought was, "Run!" But how? Then I thought about Master and asked for protection and started sending forth righteous thoughts. Master helped me to eliminate the tribulation. This manifested in the human world with the distraction of an overloaded truck. The police went to take care of that and forgot I was there.
I went to my sister's home that night. I arranged the truth-clarifying materials and planned to distribute them to the surrounding villages. My sister, who is not a practitioner, wanted to go with me, so we walked to the first village. It was a large village, and things went smoothly, causing us to develop attachments of elation and the heart of pursuit for doing things. We were regretting that we didn't bring enough materials, but we saved some for the next village. As soon as we arrived at the entrance of the village, we were stopped by two guys on a motorcycle who persistently asked what we were doing. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts and looking inward. With Master's protection, the interference went away, and we finished giving out truth materials and safely returned home.
Cultivation is the process of human and divine thoughts rising up in turn. When the divine thoughts are strong, things go smoothly, and when human thoughts take over, there is interference. The divine thoughts come from our Fa study and cultivation. When we cultivate away human thoughts and strengthen our divine thoughts, that is thinking righteously.
