(Clearwisdom.net)
Recently I realized that I had the attachment to protecting myself and the fear of being hurt. These attachments led me to stop doing the project that I had thought was in accordance with the Fa. Some practitioners did not agree with it and others had even opposed the project. The disagreement seriously affected our Fa rectification work.
After studying Master's new articles, I understood that oftentimes when fellow practitioners have different opinions about Fa rectification projects, the disagreement was not to stop us from doing the projects, but to help us get rid of the fear of criticism, to cultivate our compassion and forbearance, and to purify our minds to do Fa rectification work well. If fellow practitioners expressed different opinions, we should look inward. If we find we made mistakes, we should correct them. If we find we were right, we should maintain the good work. When I shared my understanding with other practitioners, they encouraged me to write my understanding and summarize the experiences and lessons I learned, so that we can improve ourselves as a whole. I am not criticizing any individual practitioner; I just wanted to explain things. In order to save sentient beings and cooperate more effectively with one another, let us all look inward and form a harmonious and invincible one body.
During the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, two practitioners in our area were arrested and illegally tried. Our coordinators mobilized a group to rescue these practitioners. We tracked and exposed the persecution and widely distributed truth-clarifying materials, which greatly frightened the authorities. At the same time, we encouraged practitioners to strengthen their efforts in sending righteous thoughts and to send forth righteous in close proximity to the authorities. Our coordinators disagreed over whether to hire an attorney for the two arrested practitioners. The practitioners' families, also practitioners, hired an attorney and had good results in clarifying the truth. In the end, however, both practitioners were still sentenced to six months and five months in prison respectively. When we heard this news, some coordinators criticized the hiring of the attorney. This criticism had a huge negative impact on the practitioners who coordinated the rescue.
In March 2009, when another practitioner was arrested, some of us suggested that the practitioner's family demand the release of that practitioner, but some coordinators opposed the suggestion, saying that "not even practitioners could secure the release of the arrested practitioners, so how could the family?" Other coordinators did not express their opinion. At that time, I thought, "Is that because we had impure thoughts of relying on everyday people when we asked the practitioner's family to rescue him?" I was also afraid that it would cause conflicts if I insisted on doing it without a consensus among the practitioners. For the sake of maintaining peace on the surface and protecting ourselves, the rescue effort was delayed again and again, until finally we missed the best, first two-month window of opportunity to rescue that practitioner. The ensuing rescue attempt was a passive effort. Afterward, I understood that Master asked us to take the form of cultivation that conforms to ordinary human society to the maximum extent. If the practitioners were illegally arrested, their family members should demand their release. That is the requirement of the Fa for ordinary people. If their family members were not successful, we should clarify the truth to them and help them get the strength to do it and help them in the tribulation. So there is nothing wrong in asking the family to rescue arrested practitioners, as long as we maintain a pure mind. If we cannot coordinate all practitioners in the rescue effort, we should still begin on a small scale, instead of delaying the rescue.
On whether or not to hire an attorney, some coordinators saw hiring an attorney as complying with the old forces' arrangement and thus we should not do it. The arrested practitioners' families (also practitioners) were also confused about the Fa's requirement on this issue. I thought we should begin rescue efforts regardless of which format we chose, as long as our efforts contributed to saving sentient beings. The last time we hired an attorney, we achieved a very good result in clarifying the truth. I thought there was nothing wrong with that, because we had a pure mind and did not solely rely on everyday people. Although I had this thought, I was afraid to speak up, because I did not want to be criticized. Because of my fear of being hurt and my attachment to protecting myself, I did not stick to the right decision and delayed the rescue.
The practitioner who was arrested in March 2009 was tried twice. We did not know the details and lost a chance to expose the evil in the area. We did not know the status of the arrested practitioner, and our rescue efforts were very passive. The practitioner's family also lacked confidence. After studying Master's "Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website's Founding," we realized that we had made a big mistake.
I have been working on exposing the evil in our area and compiling truth-clarification fliers and brochures. In this work, I face a great deal of pressure from fellow practitioners. Once I stopped the compilation work for a while because of a practitioner's criticism. I thought, "This practitioner also can write well. It ultimately doesn't matter who gets the work done. If you can do it, you just do it. I will cooperate when you need me." This practitioner compiled a few issues and sent them to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, which rejected them. So the local truth-clarifying fliers were delayed in production for two months. Later a practitioner told me that the authorities were looking for the person who compiled our local informational materials and asked the public to turn in any fliers they found. I thought about the fact that, when I worked on the fliers, the authorities did not look for me. But when I stopped for a while, they started to look for me. Was that telling me to continue to work on it? I shared my understanding with a practitioner, and she also thought that I should continue the compilation work. So I started again and have not quit since.
After studying Master's "Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website's Founding," I felt gratified and thought that what I had insisted was right. Over my truth-clarification material compilation, my biggest encouragements came from the Minghui websites, and of course Master. The Minghui website published my compilation on time every time. That was an enormous encouragement to me.
I also think that some practitioners in our area still have a wrong understanding on exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. They cannot treat exposing the persecution with righteous thoughts and think that widely exposing the persecution would scare the public and cause people to be afraid to learn about Falun Gong. These practitioners also do not want to expose CCP's organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. They only want to work on projects that display the goodness of Falun Dafa. I think this is a wrong understanding.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York:"
"Disciple: Dafa disciples' efforts in New York City have changed the situation a lot, and many ordinary people have been moved by what they've seen at our anti-torture exhibits. But more and more Westerners have told us that they are seeing too many of those horrifying images, causing them to lose sympathy for us. Would Master please enlighten us on that?
"Teacher: Maybe they say that the anti-torture exhibits you hold to clarify the truth are too shocking, but what I can tell you is that your actions are positive, and the energy is righteous and compassionate, so it absolutely will not shock people in any kind of negative way. Instead, the discomfort that some people feel must have been caused by bad thoughts in those people's minds. Don't people hang everywhere that graphic image of Jesus being crucified, with his hands and feet pierced by nails and bleeding? Haven't people been viewing that image for hundreds or thousands of years? So the problem doesn't lie in what is presented. Haven't Dafa disciples been subjected to similar ordeals in the persecution? You are not trying to use art to portray evil acts, you are saving people."
"The key is actually that we ourselves be clearheaded. We should act with the power of conviction, not timidly or hesitantly. You can't see the fact that you are beings walking the road to godhood. (Applause) So you are different from ordinary people and you cannot be affected by them."
Overseas practitioners have done enormous and very hard work on exposing the persecution, from anti-torture exhibitions to re-enactments of actual tortures. In contrast, some practitioners in China who have suffered greatly from this persecution would rather not widely expose this vicious persecution. Do they want to hide the CCP's crimes for them? Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa practitioners are all good people. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has brutally persecuted Falun Dafa and practitioners. Exposing this persecution is exposing the evil nature of the CCP. Only by exposing the persecution can we help people see what the CCP is. This is normal and logical thinking. I think practitioners' every thought influences the sentient beings around us. If we have strong righteous thoughts, they will change everyday people. People will change with us. We should expose the evil and display the greatness of Falun Dafa at the same time. Only then can we help people clearly see that Falun Dafa is good and the CCP is evil.
