(Clearwisdom.net) During Falun Dafa cultivation over the past decade I have improved my xinxing. The mighty power of Dafa has manifested again and again--through supernatural phenomena and the improvement of fellow practitioners. I just want to share a few things.
Making a break-through with human notions and looking at things from a Dafa practitioner's perspective
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. After the persecution started on July 1999, my father-in-law watched TV programs filled with vicious lies, and my husband and I were illegally arrested many times. Party officials ransacked our home and extorted money from us because we went to Beijing to safeguard Dafa, making my father-in-law become even more negative toward Dafa.
To help him recognize that Falun Dafa is good, we went out of our way to be kind to him. We were not wealthy, but if he desired a specific food, we would even borrow money to buy anything for him. We took care of him from head to toe. We catered to him in every aspect of life and thought we were cultivating compassion. Strangely, the more we did for him, the more difficult he became. He claimed we were condescending and abused him.
We kept explaining to him what Falun Dafa is and what the Communist Party did and does to innocent, good people, but he refused to listen to us. During the day, he watched us closely to make sure we did not study the Fa or do the exercises; in the evening he forbade us from turning on the light. He did everything possible to stop us from practicing.
As he became more and more belligerent, we started to resent him. We thought the old forces arranged for him to sabotage Dafa, so we stayed away from him. In the end, we divided the home. We lived separately in the house. Master said,
"If a person were allowed to have no illness and live comfortably, he would not even be interested in becoming an immortal--even if he were asked. How wonderful it would be if one could suffer no illness or hardship and have whatever one wants! It would really be a world of immortals. But you dropped to this level because you became corrupt, so you will not be comfortable."
"In the Buddha School, 'salvation of all beings' implies bringing you out of everyday people's most agonizing state to higher levels. You will no longer suffer, and will be set free--that is what it implies." (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)
Master's words awakened me. I was attempting to help my father-in-law by using human methods and was attached to emotions; living a comfortable lifestyle prevented him from paying back his karma. That made it even harder for him to be rescued, because his karma accumulated. A cultivator's true compassion is helping someone to obtain the Fa and providing a fundamental solution for a human being.
After we realized the problem and purged our emotions, we again looked at the issue, this time with a cultivator's mind and knew we had not done well and still harbored emotions. The old forces were manipulating ordinary people to do bad things, so they will be eliminated in the end. It's really tragic for people who are used this way! They are victims, and we must rescue them, so how could we hate him? We sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the bad elements behind him. Then we talked to him again about Falun Gong and truly did not bear resentment or bitterness but regarded him as someone whose mind has been poisoned. We spoke to him compassionately and with a calm mind and voice.
My father-in-law gradually changed and accepted the facts we told him and eventually even learned Falun Gong. Now he often explains Falun Gong to people around him. When we overcome human notions and look at things with a cultivator's mind, the issue at hand is easily resolved.
Working together as a whole body to rescue fellow practitioners
A while ago two practitioners from our area were arrested while talking to people about Falun Gong at a marketplace. A practitioner who learned about the arrests immediately notified other practitioners. All practitioners who were informed left what they were doing and began rescue efforts. No arrangement for cooperation or coordination was needed. Some practitioners went to talk to the police; others visited the arrested practitioners and strengthened their righteous thoughts; and some sent righteous thoughts inside and around the police department. Dafa practitioners filled the police department.
When one practitioner encouraged one of the arrested practitioners to demand to be released, this practitioner did not negate the old forces' arrangements but instead cooperated with the authorities, saying she was there to improve herself and did whatever they told her to do. Some practitioners were discouraged and complained that the practitioner did not have righteous thoughts, but another practitioner said, "We cannot focus on her shortcomings but must look at her strengths. She is a great person for making the truth known to the public, because that is what Master tells us to do. Even if she has gaps, we should help her fix them through Fa study, and we must never allow anyone to persecute her." We adjusted our mindset and formed a powerful righteous field. However, we relaxed our righteous thoughts while eating lunch at around 2:00 p.m., and the two practitioners were taken to the county detention center.
Following their departure, we did not lessen our desire to rescue them. We called the county and town police department, the police chief, and his family; wrote letters and posted public statements; and sent text messages to village officials on their mobile phones, which both exposed and suppressed the evil. Of course, neither did we relax our righteous thoughts. We empowered the practitioners with righteous thoughts because we thought, "They are not there to be persecuted! They are there to eliminate the evil. Dafa practitioners will completely eliminate the evil wherever they are."
Soon both practitioners returned home and again fully devoted themselves to Fa rectification.
