July 2002
I learned a lot about what it means to completely oppose everything arranged by the evil old forces and having unshakable faith in the Fa during this past trip to Russia and Iceland. When I arrived at the Reykjavik Airport in Iceland, I was pulled aside by the police. They said I would not be able to pass through if I did not sign an agreement with them. I immediately stated that I would not sign anything. But I didn't have a solid understanding at that time of the significance of not signing from the perspective of Fa. On the surface the contract was simple enough; it just stated that I would not do anything illegal while in Iceland and obey the rules and regulations of the police.
But when I began to evaluate the situation from the Fa's point of view, things started to become clear. At first I wondered if I was being stubborn, making too big a deal about signing, and thinking too much about myself. So I began to truly look inside myself and see what attachments were really driving me to behave like that. I asked myself whether I was only thinking about myself, treating this as a test for myself. I realized I didn't. I saw myself as a particle of Dafa, and that the evil was using it to test me as an excuse to persecute the Fa. I realized that though I was not in Beijing, what was driving those Iceland police was the same evil (Note: this refers to the evil elements controlling the police). It was not simply a matter of myself signing something to the Iceland police, I remembered Teacher's words in "Dafa is Indestructible", "As a Dafa disciple, everything of yours is formed by Dafa and is the most righteous, and it can only be that you rectify everything that is not righteous. How could you bow to the evil? How could you promise something to the evil. This is bad conduct for humans, too, and Gods absolutely would not do such a thing." If I signed my name on that paper, I would in actuality be signing something to the evil. I would be promising something to the evil and I would be giving in to the evil. In essence I would be accepting the persecution.
When I continued to refuse, the police started to pull at my attachments. I have an attachment to doubting my own understanding or enlightenment if the majority has a different understanding.
In Beijing, when I was first taken away by police, I was actively resisting being persecuted because I had done nothing wrong and I remembered Master's words that we should not passively let the evil take us away. But no one else around me was resisting the way I was. It would have been a different story if different people were doing different things but no one else was resisting, so I started to doubt my own understanding and wavered. This time, again the evil (Note: here refers to the evil elements that are manipulating the police to mistreat Dafa practitioners) tried to use this attachment against me to make my righteous thoughts falter and make me doubt my decision and own understandings. The Iceland police officer said to me that everyone before me had signed the agreement and why would it be so difficult for me. He said, what was so wrong with signing since all the other practitioners had signed. So I searched deep inside again and realized that it didn't matter how many people had signed, I knew that this was giving in to the evil and if it were only a handful of people who resisted or only myself, it would still be powerful, as it would be a blow to the evil because it was not accepting the persecution.
When thinking about this, the effort of evil's trying to use more people was shaken.
They also tried to use my attachment of thinking that veteran or well-known practitioners always had a better understanding than myself.
The officer began to ask me if I knew such and such well-known practitioner and that this practitioner had signed. For a moment I thought to myself, why had this practitioner signed? I had always respected this practitioner's understanding of the Fa and forgotten Master's words, "And under this circumstance where our students aren't able to see me, they can't come find Master whenever there's an issue, so they can only take the Fa as the Master." "A person with a position of responsibility is actually an ordinary disciple as well... Dafa has only one Master, me, and Dafa itself doesn't have any 'persons in charge.'" You're just people in charge amidst this Fa-rectification form and counter-persecution form. Dafa doesn't have any people in charge. Everyone is a cultivating disciple." (Master Li's "Fa Lecture at the Conference in Florida," 2001) I had heard from several practitioners that we should think of the group when we do things and not do things to jeopardize the activities of the group because we had different understandings. I had been struggling with how to balance this with my own understandings.
Because I was weak on this point, the evil was able to capitalize on it. The officer told me that if I did not sign then I would be jeopardizing the whole group, and also said that our "leaders" had sat down with the Iceland officials and worked out these agreements so everyone could enter the country. If I didn't sign, all bets were off and maybe no more practitioners could enter the country.
So again I looked inside myself, evaluated everything with Fa and suddenly I came to realize that if something like that were to happen, it would not be because of my actions in opposing the old forces, it would be the evil itself who would be causing damage. I also realized that although the old forces have their arrangement. Master is watching all this, and all the disciples have their own path and that I could not really affect all of this. The disciples will still do what they are supposed to do in Iceland. With this thought I became more determined.
The officer also told me I should not let the formality of the form stop me from entering the country and doing what I came here to do. But I realized that what I came here to do was to clarify the truth and safeguard Dafa and by not giving into the evil at that moment I was safeguarding the Fa. I understood that safeguarding the Fa and validating the Fa happen when each of us disciples is true to the Fa in all our actions, instead of following the arrangements of the old forces by using human notions or human logic and reasoning.
I decided to completely deny the arrangement of the old forces and not acknowledge that I was under a state of duress. I began to think from the point of view of compassion. I did my best to clarify the truth to the police, feeling that if they could really understand the truth, those practitioners who came after me would have a much easier time here.
I could tell the police really did not understand why I saw signing the agreement as such a big deal. I used all the wisdom I had and tried to help them understand on a human level. I told the officers that I traveled to Iceland to defend my principles and that signing the paper would be compromising my principles. I said I would not sign because we were singled out to sign this because we are Falun Gong practitioners and this was wrong. I had done nothing wrong. I said I would follow any other procedures that all other travelers had to follow but I would not accept being singled out because I practice Falun Gong. I also tried not to let emotion and his seemingly kind words affect my righteous thoughts because I realized true kindness towards this being was not to superficially make his job easier, but it was to truly let him see that we were being persecuted unfairly.
Then the officer told me if I did not sign I would be sent home and I would have wasted all this time and money traveling to Iceland only to be sent home. At that moment I realized not only should I not accept being asked to sign something before I could get into a country because I was a Falun Gong practitioner, but I should also not fall into the other trap. So I completely made up my mind to not accept any arrangement by the old forces, that what I wanted to do was to go to Iceland and clarify the truth and validate Dafa was not wrong and I was not going to accept having to compromise with the evil or go home. As Teacher says, "As a Dafa disciple, your determined, righteous thoughts are absolutely unshakeable, because your newer being is formed precisely amidst the Fa-rectification. But in order to achieve everything they've wanted to, the old, evil forces in the cosmos have directly taken part in persecuting Dafa, and Dafa disciples, and all beings by continuously using the evil arrangements that they contrived and that don't conform to the true Fa-principles of the cosmos, and they have taken advantage of the unremoved notions that are at Dafa disciples' human surface, and Dafa disciples' karma, to make their righteous thoughts falter." ("Dafa is Indestructible"). I started to wholeheartedly eliminate the fear of being sent home, and put all my faith in the Fa and Master.
I was taken to a small room, where I was waiting for the police to process the paperwork so I could be deported. I immediately and calmly started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate this arrangement of the old forces and I studied the Fa to strengthen my righteous thoughts. As I did this, my mind became clearer and clearer and my faith in what I was doing became more and more firm. I felt unshakable and I knew this was sending shockwaves through the evil, because I was leaving them no room to persecute the Fa. A while later the officer came in and said that he discussed it with all the top officials and they believed me, and that they would sign the form saying they believed me and that I was free to go with out signing anything.
The officer offered to walk me out of the airport, shook my hand and told me to take care of myself. I could see that he had gradually come to understand more what we practitioners were doing and come to respect us more. This was a genuine change in this being and not something of superficial kindness. If the police are polite to us on the surface, yet don't really see the wrongness of their actions and continue to be used to persecute the Fa, we really haven't been compassionate to them.
I realized that as practitioners we should clearly recognize and deny all the arrangements of the old forces, no matter how trivial they might seem. We should always view things from the Fa's requirements and not with human thinking. As Master has said we should not view this persecution as humans persecuting humans, it is the evil persecuting the Fa, and if you look at it from that point of view there is no such thing as "compromising" with the evil. We should not have to rely on "working out an agreement" with police to be able to enter a country; instead, when we are faced with a tribulation we should treat ourselves as cultivators, look at things with righteous thoughts, look inside to rid ourselves of the gaps in our understanding the evil is using against us, and carry out our Fa-rectification tasks openly and nobly. Giving into the evil in any way and with any excuse is accepting its persecution of the Fa. Fear of damaging Dafa's reputation, fear of getting other practitioners in trouble, fear of being held responsible for causing damage is also an attachment of "fear," and it is rooted in selfishness and a human mindset. "It means that your fundamental attachments haven't been discarded and that you're unable to understand the Fa from the Fa. Those who've been sifted out during the evil-wrought tests that Dafa has encountered in China are all people who have not relinquished those attachments." ("Towards Consummation")
Also, we shouldn't let the outside environment dictate our actions as Dafa disciples. On one occasion as other practitioners and I were sitting not far from the front gate of Jiang's hotel, police approached us. At first they didn't bother me or the other practitioner who were doing the sitting meditation, but as soon as I opened my eyes to greet them, they told us to leave. So a fellow practitioner and I walked a few feet and started to exchange experiences. We realized we shouldn't have fear in our hearts of the police since we were doing nothing wrong. After sharing for a while longer, with our hearts peaceful again, we sat back down and did the sitting meditation. Even though there was a police officer right in front of us, he did not bother us. We sat for a while, sending forth the righteous thoughts and left on our own terms.
In Russia certain attachments of mine were magnified and seemed to be so strong that I could hardly keep a clear mind. It was getting to the point where I did not think I could keep my calm any longer. At this moment when the attachment seemed too strong to bear, I began to change the way I looked at the situation. I put what was best for the Fa first and thought from the perspective of the other person. As soon as I had this small righteous thought, I felt a huge internal change. I felt a huge weight being lifted from my heart and my heart felt light. My mind was suddenly clear. The attachment that a moment ago felt so insurmountable was now nothing. At that moment I truly felt Master's benevolence. I realized that Master does not ask much of us, but what he bears for us is tremendous. We just need the heart to put the Fa first and not allow our attachments to interfere. I realized that Master wants to help us but cannot if we do not have the righteous thoughts ourselves. A slight improvement in our thoughts can change the whole situation.
Dafa disciples are making history. We give impetus to things around us when we change ourselves at a fundamental level. Always use righteous thoughts to deal with issues that arise, and dig out the attachments and human notions that are being used by the old forces to cause damage, and completely deny the old forces' arrangements. If a few people clearly recognize this, it will be powerful. If the disciples as a whole truly deny the arrangements of the old forces, this persecution will end.
There is a sentence of the Fa that I always repeat to myself in daily life to stay clear headed: "Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos's Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, and Diamond-Like bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings' thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is. Dafa disciples are truly stepping forward out of ordinary humanness." ("Also in a Few Words," Master Li's comments)
Righteous thoughts come from an unshakeable faith in the Fa. I hope we can all improve together as one body.
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