(Clearwisdom.net) In the name of "securing stability for the upcoming Olympic Games," Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents in Shenze County, Heibei Province, along with the Shenze County Government and police have been monitoring and harassing all Falun Gong practitioners in the area.

On the evening of July 7, 2008, eight Falun Gong practitioners were illegally arrested. We've learned that the CCP is going to exert great pressure on Party officials at every level, from the top to the bottom, ordering them to secretly monitor every Falun Gong practitioner living inside their communities.

In the face of this inhumane persecution, I would like to share with my fellow practitioners a few of my understandings about how to cultivate ourselves well as one body, to break through the persecution and to save more sentient beings.

The CCP has often persecuted the Chinese people. It uses the form of so-called political movements. The Great Cultural Revolution is just one such example of this. Along with the coming of the Olympic Games, in the name of "securing the stability of society," the CCP has been persecuting Chinese dissidents all over the country, especially Falun Gong practitioners. From my own perspective of cultivation, I realize that the reason behind the persecution is that we have omissions in our cultivation as one body, thus evil forces have taken advantage of our loopholes to persecute us. Master teaches us,

"This is particularly important during these several years in which they are persecuting Dafa disciples, where it appears on the surface that an evil Party is persecuting Chinese people, persecuting cultivators, when in fact nothing in this world is tenable or can exist without there being cosmic factors behind the scenes, without there being microcosmic factors. The factors behind the evil Party are evil beings that take on the superficial appearance of an evil red dragon, but they contain many molecules, particles, and some low-level, rotten demonic beings--a filthy hodgepodge. These are what the old forces use to interfere with Dafa disciples." (Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference)

We should be very clear about this point. I believe that our specific loopholes manifest mainly in the following aspects:

Some practitioners haven't focused on studying the Fa well. Instead, they are entangled in ordinary people's family lives and making money. Therefore, they don't ensure the quantity and quality of their Fa-study. Even though some other practitioners have done a lot of Fa-study, they still haven't gained the enlightenment of the Fa from the Fa or they have even been unable to understand the Fa. After problems emerged, they always used human methods to protect themselves in order to pass various tests. They behaved similarly when they were persecuted. Fundamentally they didn't cultivate the good habits of being strict with themselves in their daily lives, so that they did not pay close attention to finding their shortcomings by comparing their thoughts and actions with the requirements of the Fa. At the very least we should realize clearly at all times that we are Dafa disciples during the Fa-Rectification period. First of all, there are factors for us to improve ourselves when we encounter any conflicts. We should learn how to find any attachment that the conflict points to. With this in mind, the conflict will not intensify further and more losses will be avoided.

There are some other fellow practitioners who have done a lot to validate Dafa and clarify the truth, however they haven't been good at looking inward themselves. They even thought, "No matter how the evil has persecuted me, afterwards I do whatever I should do." Well, it's true that our efforts in saving sentient beings shouldn't be affected directly by our being interfered with by the persecution. However, we shouldn't pay less attention to looking inward and thus have loopholes for the evil to take advantage of and to harass us repeatedly. If we don't want to improve ourselves, our efforts in saving sentient beings will certainly be affected. On the other hand, there are others who have more or less the attachment of being competitive to fight with the CCP, and when they are validating Dafa and clarifying the truth, they act competitively. Certainly we should not be intimated by our persecutors, but on the other hand, we should not have the attachment of being competitive. If we act that way, isn't that "There is no constraint between this qi and that qi."? (Zhuan Falun) It is the human mindset and the lack of righteous thoughts and righteous understandings of Dafa, as well as attachments, that are the fundamental excuses the evil uses to persecute Dafa and practitioners.

Some practitioners haven't yet attached importance to sending forth righteous thoughts, using the excuses of being busy with their own business or validating Dafa. Sending forth righteous thoughts is one of the three things that all Dafa disciples should do during the Fa-Rectification Period. Therefore, we shouldn't find excuses for not doing it. Furthermore, the evil beings that need to be eliminated are the root cause of our Dafa disciples' being severely persecuted and the direct interfering factors that prevent sentient beings from being saved. As for sending forth righteous thoughts, even some veteran fellow practitioners wonder, "Does it work?" They do not firmly believe in Master and Dafa, which is a major excuse for the evil beings to persecute us.

Master Li says in "Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.,"

"Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth the righteous thoughts seriously: the evil in the dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause. So you must take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. No matter whether you think you have the ability or not, you should do it. What you eliminate from your own mind are ones, which have an effect within the expanse of your own body; at the same time, you need to eliminate the external ones, which are directly related to the dimensions you're in. If you don't eliminate them, then they not only persecute you and restrain you, but also persecute other students, other Dafa disciples."Therefore, we must taking sending forth righteous thoughts seriously, since the persecution is absolutely not a persecution of Dafa disciples carried out by the ordinary people. Our human notions of the nature of persecution should be eliminated. Only in this way can we really eliminate all the evil beings and thus reduce the persecution.

During several years of facing the evil persecution, we have done a great deal of truth-clarification and saved more and more sentient beings. Our hard work and great efforts have had positive effects. Many people have learned the truths of Dafa clearly, and many have quit the CCP and its related organizations. However, in the case of those who are the CCP's reliable agents and deeply deceived by the CCP's evil propaganda, they are still actively assisting the CCP in its suppression of Falun Gong. Many of them have even read our truth-clarification materials. The point here is that it's not because the truth-clarification materials are not vivid and the logic behind the examples isn't clear and rational. It's that some of our behaviors and the way we clarified the truth to them have left them confused. They didn't feel the magnificent benevolence of Dafa from our speech and behavior. Since we didn't manifest ourselves peacefully, harmoniously and compassionately enough, we may have even stimulated the dark side or the evilness of their human nature. Under this circumstance, the evil beings and the evil factors can utilize them to commit crimes against Falun Dafa and to persecute Dafa disciples. From this perspective, we should relate closely the process of truth-clarification with cultivating ourselves well and looking inward in order to achieve more positive results in saving sentient beings.

Through experience sharing, we realize that after the evil persecutions and harassments, some of our fellow practitioners felt discouraged from doing further truth-clarification, especially to the lawless people who participated in the suppression of Dafa disciples. Indeed, its true that some of them definitely have no hope to be saved, and thus their lives have become tools for the evil forces to test Dafa disciples until the final stage. From a different perspective, maybe some of them are still worthy of being saved. We can view their existence as opportunities for us to break through the tribulations and upgrade our levels and thus give them more chances to hear the truth. With our human notions and our attachment of being competitive, we haven't acted further to save them by remembering that the only thing Falun Dafa disciples should do is to save people. Taking a step back, if those people cannot be saved, and at the same time, we have already cultivated ourselves well, then logically as a result, they will lose the reason for their existence. Is this the reason that a lot of karmic retribution for persecuting Falun Gong has occurred in our local area, as well as all over the country?

Actually, as a cultivator, we should look inward immediately and search for our shortcomings as soon as conflicts pop up. We should stress holistic improvement and holistic upgrade as one body. We should not handle everything from our previous standpoint any longer. Our reasoning, our tone of voice, our state of mind, the perspectives and focal points of our speech should also change according to our righteous thoughts. As long as Fa-Rectification hasn't ended, we should take chances to cultivate ourselves and save more sentient beings who may deserve to be saved, because cultivating ourselves well and saving more sentient beings is our responsibility as Dafa disciples in the period of Fa-Rectification.

We, as true Dafa disciples, should always remember with clear minds that we already have the abilities and mighty power to stop the evil persecution. It is only because our hearts are not peaceful enough, that we cannot use our supernormal abilities as we want when the persecution is happening. In other words, the extent to which we believe in Teacher and the Fa hasn't been great enough, so we don't have one hundred percent confidence in ourselves. Therefore, when our human notions are overwhelming, the evil forces will take advantages of our loopholes to persecute us again and again. Actually, the evil forces should be nothing in the face of our firm righteous thoughts.

July 23, 2008