(Clearwisdom.net) Over the past few days, there have been several articles published on Clearwisdom.net talking about the issue of hunger strikes. (For example, see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/11/12/42181.html) Here I would like to discuss a bit more about this subject from another viewpoint.
The police, who are trained as tools by Jiang's criminal gang, actually enjoy persecuting Dafa practitioners. Therefore, when confronting them, we should never place any hope on them. A lot of fellow practitioners have done exceptionally well in resisting the evil and have proven themselves to be Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period. At the same time, we have also seen many practitioners resort to hunger strikes as a means of resisting the evil when they were under brutal persecution. I have the following thoughts concerning the issue, to share with fellow practitioners:
What is the purpose of our hunger strike? Of course, it is not for starving ourselves to death at all. It is just a form of protest against brutal persecution, using our bodies, under certain extreme circumstances. We thus apply humanitarian pressure to those who persecute us, so that they might stop their persecution. However, it always fails to achieve the goal, because they (Jiang's criminal gang and its accomplices) have completely lost any human nature and the sense of doing things according to the law. They wouldn't become afraid or stop the persecution just because we hold a hunger strike. Instead, they often intensify the persecution by torturing practitioners with more brutal means such as force-feeding, etc. If the hunger strikers are in a really bad state of health, they will be sent to the hospital for further persecution. When practitioners' lives are in grave danger the authorities simply let their relatives carry them home, thus not taking any responsibility.
What state of mind is it, if we don't really want to die and are not willing to die, while we are holding a hunger strike? It is indeed a mixture of fear and pursuit that is tormenting us. When we hope that the evil will stop the persecution and let us go, we have, as a matter of fact, recognized their acts.
If we really lose our physical bodies because of going on a hunger strike, those who participated in the persecution and their corresponding sentient beings at different levels will have to perish completely. As a consequence, our hunger strike will be no good at all.
"Now that you've arrested me, I haven't thought at all about going back. Now that I've come here, I've come to validate the Fa." (Master Li in Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference). However, some fellow practitioners haven't thought like this. When they were sent to jail, they thought: "This is not the place I should stay, so I must get out." When they had too many of these kinds of thoughts, attachments developed. Sometimes they thought that Teacher would help them to do this thing or that. Their real situation is, however, very complicated, and maybe was not like what they imagined at that time. Then, how could they ask Teacher to help, according to their imagined difficulty?
Only with righteous thoughts and righteous actions, will we be able to deter the evil. If we have really gotten rid of all attachments and any fear, how could we be frightened by the evil since we have even been able to disregard the threat of death? No matter how harsh the persecution is, if we are thoroughly clear and calm to the fact that everything was produced by the old, evil rotten spirits and we should never recognize them at all, and if we truly understand that we have nothing to be afraid of because we are Master Li Hongzhi's disciples, and if our righteous thoughts are sufficiently powerful and pure, Teacher will definitely come to help us, and will hint to us as to what we should do in any particular situation. At that critical moment, any hesitation or impure thought would destroy us. The worse thing is that we are holding onto Buddhahood on one hand while we are still attached to human nature on the other. Then Teacher will not be able to help us, nor will the righteous enlightened beings who are willing to help be able to do so.
One of my fellow practitioners went through all manner of tribulations during her detention for 15 days in April 2001. She did well and left no loopholes for the evil. After she came out, I asked her what her biggest attachment was during that period. "The attachment of fear," she answered. I understand her deeply because I had a similar experience also. Of course, different people have different situations, and the present situation is different from what it was earlier. It is extremely hard to go through a long period of torment. It is impossible for everyone to make it. Teacher tells us,
"If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him. If every student is able to do this, evil will of itself no longer exist" (Essentials for Further Advancement II).
"So for Dafa disciples, no matter how harsh this period of history that we're going through is, there's nothing to grieve over. What we're thinking about is saving sentient beings, and you should fulfill [the aspirations of] a being who came for the Fa and the significance of your coming here. So we have nothing to regret, and what awaits Dafa disciples are all wonderful things" (Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference).
All the above is my personal understanding. Please point out anything improper, with compassion.