(Clearwisdom.net) (Continued from Part One)
Part One: http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/4/28/60120.html
III. Cooperating with Each Other as a Whole to Remove Teacher's Portrait
We were terribly distressed when we learned in May 2004 that a local forced labor camp had glued a portrait of Teacher on the floor of the visiting room and made people walk over it. Some fellow practitioners incarcerated in the camp have also stepped over the portrait, although they did not directly step on it. A fellow practitioner reminded us, "Teacher has taught us in 'Touring North America to Teach the Fa' about the effect of sending forth righteous thoughts in close proximity to the evil. Why don't we start sending forth righteous thoughts in close proximity to the forced labor camp?" After the discussion, we all agreed that it was a good idea.
For the next few months, we would send forth righteous thoughts together once a week in an area close to the forced labor camp. We asked other practitioners who couldn't come with us to send forth righteous thoughts at home. Five months later, six local practitioners, two practitioners from other areas and I went to the area near the forced labor camp again to send forth righteous thoughts. That evening we studied the Fa for a while after we sent forth righteous thoughts at 11:00 PM, and then had a discussion in which the subject of Teacher's portrait naturally came up.
A practitioner said, "That's not a photograph of Teacher. It was a bad portrait that does not resemble Teacher." Another practitioner said, "It does not resemble Teacher because the forced labor camp purposely wants to ridicule Teacher. There are words insulting Teacher and Falun Gong on both sides of the portrait." A practitioner from another city said, "The local practitioners in this area have the biggest responsibility to remove the portrait. Why haven't you removed the portrait after so many months?" Every local practitioner became silent.
After a moment of silence, a local practitioner said, "I will go remove the portrait. Who is coming with me?" Practitioner A said, "If we are going to remove the portrait, we must think thoroughly over all the steps and details. Otherwise, how would we be able to respond to any contingencies? Do they have any policemen patrolling outside the camp? Are there any surveillance cameras?" Practitioner B said, "I haven't studied the Fa for several days. I must not go [otherwise the evil is likely to exploit this loophole of mine.]" Practitioner C said, "We have to be at least 80% confident of success because what we are planning to do is as dangerous as plucking a tiger's fangs." Some other practitioners looked down and did not say anything. Then practitioner D stood up and headed towards the door. We asked D where he was headed, and he answered, "I will go check out the surroundings first." Everyone became silent after D left. Practitioner E pulled practitioner F's sleeve and asked, "Are you going?" F answered, "Yes!" They both put on their shoes and left right away. Practitioner G immediately followed them. The rest of the practitioners stayed and sent forth righteous thoughts.
E, F and G kept sending forth righteous thoughts as they walked briskly towards the forced labor camp. They felt enveloped in a powerful righteous field. When they were about to arrive at the forced labor camp, they saw D walking towards them. D told them, "There is no guard. What do you think?" F said, "We must not return empty-handed. We must rescue Teacher's portrait!"
F and one of the male practitioners walked directly to the entrance of the visiting room while the other practitioners stood on the roadside sending forth righteous thoughts. There were two locks on the door, which they were unable to remove. The moon was particularly bright that night. We could hear someone knocking on a door from a distance.
Then they walked to a window and found it was behind steel bars. One of them put a hand between bars and pushed the window open. At least the window was not locked! F grabbed two neighboring steel bars and prayed to Teacher with her eyes closed, "Teacher! Please help me successfully remove your portrait!" Next they heard a popping sound and saw a section of the two steel bars snapped. The male practitioner immediately removed the remaining sections of the two bars. Next F grabbed onto the window frame while lowering her body into the visiting room. Then she successfully landed in the visiting room feet first. (In hindsight, they remembered the opening was very narrow and F should not have been able to pass through it.) She ran directly towards the portrait on the floor. It was a very large portrait that measured about 1.5 meters square. She tried hard to pull it up, but it was stuck to the floor.
F tried to calm down and recited from memory a passage of the Fa:
"Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos's Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, 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."
("Also in a Few Words") quote verified
Next she prayed to Teacher, "Teacher! Please help your disciple!" Then when she tried one more time to lift the portrait, the portrait came off! The male practitioner saw that F had successfully removed the portrait. He began to catch the portrait as F passed it between the bars. The other two practitioners saw what was happening, and hurried over to help remove the portrait.
Thus the portrait and F left the visiting room successfully. It took no more than five minutes for them to rescue the portrait. Everyone was very excited at first, but they immediately reminded each other not to fall prey to zealotry and asked each other to continue sending forth righteous thoughts. They kept hearing the noise of people knocking on doors and the noise became increasingly near. They were impervious to the noise and kept sending forth righteous thoughts while they walked briskly towards home. They returned home safely. When they opened the door, the practitioners had just finished sending forth righteous thoughts and put down their legs. When they heard that Teacher's portrait had been successfully extricated from the forced labor camp, they became very excited too. Other local practitioners who did not join this rescue action, put their palms together in front of their chests after hearing the story. With tears in their eyes, they repeatedly said, "Thank you! Thank you all! You are truly admirable!" We all said, "It is not we that are admirable. It is because of Teacher's compassionate help that we succeeded."
Later on we heard the depraved staff at the forced labor camp made another portrait of Teacher and stuck it on the floor again. A practitioner suggested we should remove it from the camp. Another practitioner said, "I think removing the portrait from the camp is just a solution on the surface. After we remove a portrait, they will make another. We should try to solve the root cause of the problem. First of all, each of us must search inward and examine our mentality regarding respecting Teacher and the Fa. Do we think it is an important issue? Although a few practitioners helped by sending forth righteous thoughts, we still did not cooperate with each other well as a whole. If each local practitioner had called or written the head perpetrator of this crime to clarify the truth about Falun Gong, and had tried to dissolve all the evil elements with the power of compassion, I think the evil would have perished on its own. They would never do such a foolish thing again."
In addition, a practitioner incarcerated in the forced labor camp has not eliminated his attachment to sentimentality. In order to meet his family members in the visiting room, he stepped on Teacher' portrait with his eyes closed. When asked how he could have done such a disrespectful thing, he said, "What else could I have done? I tried my best to avoid stepping on the center of the portrait. If I didn't step on Teacher's portrait, I wouldn't have been able to meet with my family. We only get a chance once a month to meet our families."
Fellow practitioners! If we Falun Gong practitioners cannot even respect our Teacher, what do you think Jiang Zemin's henchmen will think of Falun Gong and us?
Conclusion
Although we have been doing what we are supposed to do as Falun Gong practitioners, there are still a lot of areas that need improvement. For example, a large number of local Falun Gong practitioners have not stepped forward to assist Teacher with Fa-rectification. Take another example. We have established many local Fa study groups, but the police have raided a number of them because some fellow practitioners, manipulated by their attachments to zealotry, failed to cultivate their speech and failed to keep the Fa study location and schedule confidential. We are currently in the process of re-establishing Fa study groups in those areas, but we have taken a large detour nonetheless.
The only point I am trying to illustrate is the issue of cooperating with each other as a whole. Whenever we cooperate with each other as a whole, we will make a great impact. It is imperative that we stop emphasizing ourselves. When a fellow practitioner brings up a point or a suggestion from the perspective of the Fa, we should cooperate with him/her unconditionally. It is my sincere wish that we will upgrade in our cultivation practice as a whole. Let's cooperate with each other and coordinate with each other to do the three things well and to complete our historic mission as Falun Gong practitioners in the Fa-rectification period!
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