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Observations on Sending Righteous Thoughts to Rescue Fellow Practitioners

Aug. 14, 2005 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) In May 2005, fellow practitioners A and B were reported for distributing Falun Gong truth-clarification materials and were illegally detained by the
610 Office. I was shocked upon hearing this news because these two practitioners were generally recognized as doing the three things best and accomplishing the most, especially practitioner A. Thereupon, besides looking inward myself, I shared with other practitioners and found our common attachment - idolizing practitioners A and B, especially practitioner A. After we discovered our loophole as one body, we quickly notified other practitioners to collectively and intensively send forth righteous thoughts around the clock. Many practitioners focused on this and wholeheartedly sent forth righteous thoughts for practitioners A and B, to eliminate the evil and help them escape from captivity. As a result, practitioner A escaped in 50 days.

However, practitioner B is still being held to this day. I thought: practitioner B's personal factors must be the cause. Could it have anything to do with our sending forth righteous thoughts? But we sent forth righteous thoughts for both them! I calmly looked inward and shared with fellow practitioners, and found that we had a big problem: the attachment of categorizing practitioners!

When I had sent forth righteous thoughts to rescue practitioners, on the surface I did it with my whole heart for practitioners A and B. However, in my heart, because I was very familiar with practitioner A and felt practitioner A had always done really well, I actually very fervently tried to rescue practitioner A, and focused more on practitioner A. When I sent forth righteous thoughts for seven, eight, and even more than ten times a day, I often had practitioner A on my mind. Once practitioner A was free, I felt in my heart: Ah! Finally practitioner A is free! I felt relieved. It was apparent that the quantity and quality (intensity) of sending forth righteous thoughts for practitioner B was not the same as with practitioner A. I was dominated by sentimentality, but I did not realize it at all. I discovered that many practitioners had this problem to varying degrees.

In July 2005, practitioner C was detained by the National Security Brigade. Besides feeling sadness and concern, I simply complained about this practitioner for not having a good cultivation state and for being taken advantage by the evil. I did not call practitioners together very quickly to send forth righteous thoughts. I also did not pay much attention, and just sent forth righteous thoughts for him occasionally, but the state of sending forth righteous thoughts was not very good. Ten days later, we heard that he would be sentenced to forced labor. It has never happened before that a practitioner would be sentenced in such a short time after being arrested, so this surprised me. On the second day, we received the urgent notification to collectively and intensively send forth righteous thoughts. I did not start straight away, but dillydallied the whole morning on some small matter that could have been done at another time. Then I saw the article, "My Experiences of the Effects of Righteous Thoughts on Rescuing Fellow Practitioners" on the Clearwisdom [Minghui] web site. I suddenly realized: a fellow practitioner is suffering from huge pain in the detention center, but I am actually so callous, not only paying no attention to sending righteous thoughts, but also complaining about the practitioner having attachments. Aren't I acknowledging the evil forces' excuse for the persecution, unconsciously enriching the old forces with energy, and adding difficulties to this fellow practitioner? What am I doing?!

I felt so much regret that I nearly burst into tears. It was nearly 2 p.m. I quickly settled my thoughts, adjusted my state and entered into the state of sending righteous thoughts. I sent a powerful thought: "Teacher, please strengthen me, disintegrate all dark minions and rotten ghosts and the Communist evil spirit for their persecution and interference to detained practitioner C and other fellow practitioners. Let them righteously escape from the den of evil. No matter how many attachments they may have, it is not a justification for the old forces to persecute them. We completely negate the evil; this is the Fa-rectification of the universe. Teacher and Dafa disciples decide all, and do not allow the old forces to persecute practitioners at will!"

After I said the formula for sending righteous thoughts, I shouted the word, mie [eliminate] from my heart. I suddenly felt something bright in my forehead. With that, everything seemed to become tranquil. My body was strengthened by the strong energy and I became very light and comfortable. That feeling of strong righteous thoughts is indescribable by human language. I realized another meaning of "true thoughts" in Teacher's statement, "When a person's True Thoughts come forth they are very powerful." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful") For the whole afternoon, I maintained the same state when I sent forth righteous thoughts every hour. I had never experienced this state before.

Through the above-mentioned two times of sending forth righteous thoughts, I realized the following: paying attention makes a difference; it also makes a difference on whom you focus when sending righteous thoughts, as does whether we send forth righteous thoughts or not. Whether we cooperate with fellow practitioners or not makes even more of a difference.

Teacher often says that we are "one body," "The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference, 2002") We have all read and know about this teaching, but we cannot simply read and know about it. We cannot regard the Fa as a subject of theoretical study, but rather, we should achieve it in genuine cultivation.

In order to advance our understanding on the importance of cooperation as a group in the Fa-rectification process, and correctly understand how the individual should consider and cooperate with the whole body, we should overcome the limitations of individual cultivation. We should correctly deal with the individual with respect to the whole body. Finally, let's review together Teacher's comment on the article: "Do Not Differentiate Between Fa-Rectification Projects; 'A Great Way Has No Form' But Exists As a Whole," by Qingfeng from North America. Teacher wrote,

"Well said. Dafa disciples are one body, and I affirm everything they've been doing during Fa-rectification --they're all doing what Dafa disciples should do. Different approaches are in fact the all-encompassing way in which roles are dynamically distributed in the operations of the Fa, and the Fa-power is a reflection of the one body."