(Clearwisdom.net) A few days ago, the Chinese police arrested two fellow practitioners. Everyone suspects that a female "practitioner" is a special agent and that she was responsible for the arrest. All at once we were on high alert. Some fellow practitioners quickly moved the location of their truth-clarification material sites. Some blamed those practitioners who had kept in contact with an alleged special agent. Some watched everyone's behavior to see if they could discover the agent. Everyone's human thoughts surfaced and rumors were spreading like wildfire. As a result, the situation became all the more complicated and chaotic. In addition, the harmony and coordination in our area was severely hampered.

The old universe is selfish. That is the reason why its characteristics are formation, stasis, degeneration, and destruction. But now we are required "to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." (From "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature," Essentials for Further Advancement) When something happens to a fellow practitioner, it is not just caused by his loopholes, but by loopholes within all practitioners. If our entire group carries a powerful and righteous field, our energy field will be able to rectify all abnormalities and affect fellow practitioners with loopholes to discover and eliminate such loopholes. When we cultivate well as a group, the evil will not be able to find any excuse to exploit us. But when something happens to a fellow practitioner, we failed to understand the Fa from the Fa or get along harmoniously. Isn't it a sign that all Falun Gong practitioners in that city still have a loophole? This is a manifestation of the selfish elements from the old universe.

When a loophole surfaces, I feel we all should look inward. What I'm saying is that each of us should look within for our loopholes and reinforce our righteous thoughts to make up for our inadequacies. We should completely deny the old forces arrangements and eliminate the loophole. We should not rely on our notions and thrust our responsibilities onto others, nor should we complain to anyone else about the loophole, because it would keep us from getting involved.

Instead of negating the persecution or validating Falun Gong, we have accepted and even reinforced the old force arrangements. If we trace the problem to its root, we would realize that it was all because we selfishly tried to protect ourselves --- when we encounter danger, our first response is to protect ourselves. No matter how much we tried to make excuses, so we could protect our safety, the fact is that we tried to protect our attachment to selfishness and fear.

Teacher guarantees our safety when we are melted into the Fa. How can our safety be guaranteed, if we hold the human thoughts of protecting ourselves? It is o.k. to take safety measures, but we should be able to detect when we are driven by our fear and thus deviate from the Fa!

In comparison to us, practitioners in other areas have done a better job. They sent forth righteous thoughts as one body frequently. They tried to convince the arrested practitioners' family members that they should step forward and help rescue the two practitioners. Some of them exposed the crimes committed by the police who arrested practitioners. We should learn from practitioners who study the Fa and cultivate well. We should compare ourselves with these practitioners and find our shortcomings.

Concerning special agents and undercover policemen, I think that fellow practitioners have yet to learn to handle such situations with a different mindset.

I would like to share my experience with a special agent:

In 2000, the police arrested me and sentenced me to Dabei Prison in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. To have me renounce Falun Gong, they assigned two special agents to me. They both were prison inmates. One, named Dazhang, the head of prison inmates, was known as a cruel person throughout the prison. She served time for many years and has become good friends with the prison leaders. Even the captain of the discipline team was afraid of her. Dazhang was able to make people's life hell. Other prison inmates called her "wolf" behind her back. The prison assigned her to me, believing that she could make me renounce Falun Gong.

I did not notice that there were two special agents watching me, because I thought of Teacher and the Fa. Regardless of the plots or the extreme adverse environment, I was determined to walk only the path Teacher had arranged for me. I would maintain righteous thoughts and righteous actions. By remaining unmoved, I would be able to handle any situation. Alas, I slowly discovered the darkness, degeneration, cruelty and loss of humanity in those who were in the prison. Outside the prison, the world is described as "man eating man." In prison, it is described as "wolf eating wolf." In fact, this is an actual prison slogan. They would physically fight each other to death for a drink of water or for a piece of food. They would stop at nothing to satisfy their desire or to help reduce their prison terms.

I talked to Teacher in my heart, "Teacher! Isn't this a living hell! The sentient beings here are in misery! They are struggling hopelessly and degenerate further in this living hell! It is not an easy task to restore their kind nature in a demon's den! Although it may appear to be hopeless, I, your disciple, will try my best to bring the beauty of Falun Gong to them and have them experience your enormous compassion. I will try to give them the last hope in their life!"

Gradually, the prison inmates began to feel Falun Gong practitioners' generosity, forgiveness and kindness. Their fierceness and wildness disappeared or lessened. They said secretly, "I didn't know Falun Gong practitioners were so good!"

One day I finally told Dazhang, "Do you know how sad I felt each time you got angry and bullied people! I don't believe this is your true self. It is the society and this demon's den that have changed you and made you think this is the only way to survive. You may appear to be tough and strong, but in your heart you will feel emptier, lonelier and more hopeless than you have ever felt before. You will not find anyone you can trust, including yourself. Even you are insincere to yourself. This is the reason why you will feel weak and vulnerable when you face your true self. On the other hand, you are afraid that anyone might see your weakness because they might attack or exploit your weakness. Therefore, you put on a mask every day and pretend to be strong and cruel. But I can feel you feel very bitter at heart."

I saw that her eyes become wet. The tough, fierce and cruel surface disappeared instantly. She collapsed on my shoulder and cried for a long time. She told me, "You are absolutely right. Did you know I was once a virtuous wife and affectionate mother? I was once gentle and kind. It has been such a long time since someone said something like this to me, something I did not dare to tell myself. No one cared that I was once a kindhearted person. Only the fit will survive here, so I had to be meaner and tougher than everyone else in order to survive. After many years, I no longer know myself. I feel so tired." A knot in her heart gradually loosened.

I told her, "Did you know that Teacher has taught us that there is a Fa in the universe. Therefore, the Fa will reward good deeds and punish bad deeds. When a life was first born, it was assimilated to the characteristics of the universe --- Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Gradually it became selfish and impure. Today mankind does all kinds of evil deeds and is in a most dangerous situation. If human law does not punish wicked deeds, heaven will. Heaven will weed out those people that do not deserve to be human beings. Those who do not lose their true selves in such a complicated environment are the most precious ones. Do not get lost in the degenerated world. It is our predestined relationship that brought us together. I believe it is also Teacher's arrangement. You must grasp the opportunity and make the right choice."

Dazhang asked, "Did you know the reason why I was assigned to your cell? You have the boldness to promote Falun Gong?" I replied with a smile, "I know why you are here. I know all about it. But I believe in Teacher and Falun Gong. I also believe in your kind nature. You will use your head to tell who is righteous and who is wicked. Your conscience will guide you." "Oh! For years I have been telling lies. Almost everything I say is a lie. But I cannot tell any lie in front of you. I feel that a person that lies to such kind people as Falun Gong practitioners must have lost all humanity. Trust me. I will protect you."

Thus a special agent disappeared in the field of pure righteousness and compassion that the Fa has bestowed upon us. From then on, she saw me as her most trusted friend. Several times, when the prison guards attempted to escalate their persecution, she protected me. The prison leaders were very confused about her actions, but couldn't do anything about it. Later they transferred her elsewhere and arranged other prison inmates to monitor me. Alas, they too changed for the better. Finally, the division head told the captain, "Leave her alone. No matter how many agents we assign to her, they will have no impact on her. Instead, they will be transformed [into good people.] Her prison term is about to end anyway. Leave her alone!"

The captain told me the truth before I was released. In the end, the captain treated me as a close friend. It is not a piece of cake for them to leave me alone. It is because of Teacher's compassionate protection and because of my righteous thoughts and righteous actions under Teacher's guidance that the evil failed and disintegrated. The poisonous arrows from the evil have turned into sacred and pure lotus flowers.

Who is a special agent? Who is an undercover policeman?

Teacher said,

"You can't say that it's because we have special agents there causing interference or blame it on this or on that. Actually, I talked about this long ago: When your minds are very righteous, a special agent wouldn't dare to stay where you are. He only has two options. One is to be assimilated by the righteous field, since the pure and righteous field that Dafa disciples give off purges everything that's bad in a person's mind. The pure, righteous field would disintegrate it, disintegrate everything that's unrighteous in the person's consciousness, and that's another manifestation of salvation and a reflection of compassion. When everything bad in a person's consciousness has been disintegrated and he's only left with a simple, pure mind, then that person will recognize and appreciate what's upright and good. So hasn't he been assimilated? Then the other option is to run away as quickly as he can, because the bad person's thought karma and bad concepts are afraid of being disintegrated." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference")

As disciples in the Fa-rectification period, we will rectify all abnormalities when we are diligent. If we are diligent, we will be able to make our fields all the more pure and righteous. Even if we are suspicious that a practitioner might a special agent, we must not be too attached to finding the truth. Evil factors in other dimensions manipulate a person to act as a special agent, those who are being manipulated long for Teacher's salvation. When our mentality is pure and righteous, the evil will have no power over us genuine cultivators. When we truly attain the compassion in our cultivation practice, which is capable of melting even steel, how can we not restore a person's kind nature?

Of course, for the sake for cultivating our speech and for the safety of fellow Falun Gong practitioners at the truth-clarification sites and all other practitioners, I think we should not tell anyone things we are not supposed to reveal. Even if a specific practitioner is our bosom friend or interacts with us more often, we should not tell him/her anything that will compromise our security. Otherwise, we would have fallen prey to the attachment of maintaining good interpersonal relationships. We should not avoid any fellow practitioner or take excessive precaution because we feel he looks like a special agent. Then we wouldn't be able to share cultivation experiences in a positive setting and, thus, undermine our cooperation. If we do so, we would be selfish. Of course there are exceptions to everything. Generally, practitioners should do what they are supposed to do in an upright manner. We should melt into the Fa and make rational decisions. When we have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, everything will be resolved.

No matter where a person came from or no matter what a person came for, we should let him/her bask in the beauty and purity of Falun Gong and have him/her assimilate to the Fa because he/she has the predestined relationship to enter our field.