Truly Appreciating the Power of Righteous Thoughts

(Minghui.org) I kept seeing or hearing about fellow practitioners who developed serious illness symptoms over the past couple of years. Some even passed away. Most were veteran practitioners who learned Dafa before the persecution started on July 20, 1999.

I felt sorry for those who had cultivated up to this last moment of the Fa-rectification period and then passed away. But this also sounded an alarm for the surrounding practitioners. As a practitioner, one must cultivate diligently, have righteous thoughts, and behave righteously so that the evil cannot take advantage of one’s loopholes. This reminded me of an incident 20 years ago.

I was sentenced to a year in a forced labor camp in 2001, when the persecution was at its worst. The camp was filled with evil factors. The guards either played videos and TV programs that slandered Falun Dafa or they lectured practitioners with the communist Party’s propaganda that defamed Dafa.

At that time, I did not have a deep understanding of Master Li’s Fa about sending forth righteous thoughts, nor did I take it seriously. Even so, Master let me feel its power and effectiveness. We were being monitored and were not allowed to talk with other practitioners in the cell. However, a fellow practitioner quietly suggested one day that we send forth righteous thoughts together when the guards played the video the following morning. I agreed.

The guards gathered 11 practitioners in a large room around 8:00 the next morning. I began sending forth righteous thoughts silently. The guards were busy moving chairs and setting up the equipment for the video. A guard announced, “We are playing a video this morning. Watch it carefully.” To his surprise, no image was displayed. He took out the disk, examined it, and put it in the player again. There was still no image. He called another guard to help. They worked on it for a while but still could not get it to work. He finally announced, “Something is wrong with the machine, so we will watch it tomorrow.”

I truly appreciated the power of righteous thoughts from that incident. Afterwards, I became serious about sending forth righteous thoughts.

The conditions in the cell were very bad. Some people contracted scabies and so did I. It spread over my entire body, except for my face and neck. The extreme itchiness was painfully hard to tolerate. One would scratch it until the skin broke and bled. In the evenings, it was especially intolerable and made it hard to fall asleep. The sheets were filled with bloody spots and shed skin from the scabies.

I did not always maintain my righteous thoughts at the time. I also had many human attachments and did not know how to look inward and cultivate myself. My understanding of the old forces that Master told us about was vague. I did not clean out and eliminate these factors at their roots.

As I lay in bed one evening, unable to sleep, I silently sent forth righteous thoughts. I fell asleep and had a vivid dream. A boy around seven years old came down from the sky. I did the Dafa exercise movement “Vajra Toppling a Mountain” and recited the movement’s name when the boy landed. The boy then became small and vanished. It all happened in a second. I awoke from the dream. I believed it was Master helping, encouraging, and inspiring me. Indescribable happiness arose in my mind and a big load seemed to have been lifted off me.

I recovered from scabies in a few days. Master shouldered this tribulation and eliminated my karma and bad stuff for me. I enlightened that, as long as we have righteous thoughts, Master will help us no matter what the circumstance or tribulation is.

“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (“Lecture One”, Zhuan Falun)

Thank you, great Master!