(Clearwisdom.net) I obtained the Fa in 1997. I do not remember how many tribulations I came across on my cultivation path. But after I have gone through all this with unsteady steps, my deepest feeling is that as long as one has strong righteous thoughts, can remember that one is a cultivator and a Dafa disciple, and can overcome human attachments, one will be able to overcome the tribulations and have Master's protection.

Numerous Dafa disciples from the entire nation went to Beijing in order to validate Dafa on October 1, 2000. It was truly a battle between good and evil. Dafa practitioners went to Tiananmen Square early in the morning. Heavy, low, and dark clouds covered the entire square at the time. Facing the evil, Dafa disciples' righteous outcry of "Falun Dafa is good!" resounded across the sky. That day, a huge number of evil beings in other dimensions were destroyed.

All of us Dafa practitioners linked our arms tightly together and resisted the crazed arrests. A policeman was more than twenty meters away from me. He ran toward me and kicked me in the stomach, but I did not feel any pain at all.

They arrested about four to five thousand Dafa practitioners that morning. When a large bus filled practitioners passed the crowded Qianmen Street of Beijing, I took out a golden banner that read, "Buddha's light illuminates everywhere, propriety and justice are perfected and illuminated." ("Harmonizing with Fa" from Hong Yin) Crowded in the back of the bus at the big back window, I held the banner for a long time toward the numerous spectators who were watching us from outside, while hundreds of Dafa practitioners loudly cried out, "Falun Dafa is good!" At that point, my human thoughts disappeared and tears started to stream down the faces of many Dafa practitioners.

On the fifteenth day of my illegal arrest at a detention center, police officers asked me to write a statement of my understanding about Falun Gong. Someone by my side said, "Write something to admit your 'mistake.' Otherwise, you will be detained as a criminal or even sentenced to prison." I overcame my fear and wrote a statement saying that practicing Dafa is not a crime. The police officer did not even take a serious look at it before he released me.

One night, ten of us practitioners studied the Fa together. Suddenly police officers from a local police station arrived and searched our apartment. The police officers began to walk upstairs after they entered the door. At that point, all of us had strong righteous thoughts and were very calm. An idea occurred to us right away. We walked up to the top of the building and then went downstairs from the other side when the police officers came upstairs. We all escaped the danger smoothly. At that time, we knew that it was Master who had helped us.

Because we were attached to the time of the Fa-rectification, we did not take safety issues seriously, and the state of mind of some practitioners did not conform to Fa-rectification's strict requirements. Therefore, during an experience-sharing meeting we discussed how more practitioners should step forward in order to validate the Fa. Secret agents pretending to be practitioners turned us in. A large group of police officers surrounded us. In the process of resisting the arrest, police officers punched and kicked me. They beat me severely and I became muddle-headed, but right then a righteous thought suddenly appeared in my mind. I said, "I am a divine being, not to be beaten by people!" Immediately all the beating and kicking stopped. I said in my mind, "Thank you, Master."

The police officers assumed that I was a leader. In reality, I had never been a local coordinator or assistant. I was only a regular Dafa practitioner. The police attempted to get some clues from me. However, I refused to betray my fellow practitioners. The police then threatened me with a five- to eight-year prison term. Nevertheless, I told them that they did not determine my future. Then an officer tried softer means, and said that he would like to discuss the teachings of Falun Gong with me. I replied, "You are not worthy of that discussion!" At this point, the metal handcuffs, which were clamped tightly around my wrists, suddenly clicked open. The police officer turned pale with fear.

My understanding of the Fa is no longer as simple as before, after years of cultivation and with continuous Fa study. I repeatedly read the lectures of Master after [the persecution began on] July 20, 1999. I truly feel that for a long time, I had been stuck in self-cultivation. I treated many tribulations and barriers only as opportunities for me to improve. This kind of thinking about self-salvation is based on "egotism and selfishness," which is exactly a characteristic of the lives in the old cosmos. However, for a cultivator who wants to become a life in the new cosmos, he has to get out of the notion of self-cultivation. Otherwise, he will not become a Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciple. He will not understand the significance of Master's Fa-rectification, and will not clearly see the difference between the arrangements of the old forces and those of Master. As a result, he may take a detour and "enlighten" along an evil path. I have gone through all of this and deeply understand this now.

One day, when I was reading Zhuan Falun, a sentence in the third paragraph of the first chapter caught my attention:

"Offering salvation to humankind means that you will be truly practicing cultivation, and not just healing illness and keeping fit." (Lecture One of Zhuan Falun)

This sentence went into the innermost part of my heart at once, and my years of understanding Dafa focused on this one point. I felt as though I had enlightened to a lot in one second. In this second, I truly understood my purpose of coming to this earth. I truly remembered my prehistoric vow, truly understood the difference between self-cultivation and cultivation in the Fa-rectification period. I truly understood the great significance of Master's Fa-rectification for sentient beings in the immense cosmos. I better understood the importance of negating the arrangements of the old forces toward the Fa-rectification in the cosmos.

It is my understanding that the old forces showed up and imposed serious interference on Master's Fa-rectification and the salvation of sentient beings. The slander and lies of the old forces have deceived countless people in the world, and the latter are facing the danger of being weeded out. Our mission as Dafa practitioners is to step forward at this critical moment. First, we have to resist the persecution imposed upon us by the old forces and clear away the evil beings that control evil people from other dimensions. Second, we have to clarify the truth to the people in the world who have been deceived. To achieve these two things, we must make ourselves worthy by establishing a good foundation of self-cultivation through Fa study and doing the Dafa exercises.

It is my understanding that the fundamental purpose for this Fa-rectification is to save all sentient beings in the cosmos, and to enable these beings to enter the new cosmos and have eternal lives. Master will save all those who can be saved, including those who have made mistakes but then corrected them and are worthy of being saved. How many people can truly understand Master's immense compassion!

My understanding is that only saving sentient beings can be considered as true cultivation. Only through saving sentient beings can we emerge from the old cosmos, which is based on "egotism and selfishness." We should become lives in the new cosmos that "attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism" (from "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" in Essentials for Further Advancement) Master then recognizes us as Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, and we are true, cultivating disciples. In addition, only through rescuing sentient beings can we truly upgrade ourselves, have strong righteous thoughts, have opportunities to disintegrate the rotten demons and dark minions in other dimensions with righteous thoughts, and truly deny the arrangements of the old forces. By contrast, those who cannot step forward in order to speak for justice or to save sentient beings, who hide in their homes, read the books and study the Fa during this persecution against Master, Dafa and Dafa disciples, they are actually getting something from Dafa and are existing only for their own benefit regardless of how good their physical condition or health is. The new cosmos will not recognize such egotistical and selfish beings.

We are extremely fortunate to be able to follow Master and assist him with the Fa-rectification at this great historical moment, when the cosmos is undergoing a transition from the old to the new! This is the Fa-rectification of the entire cosmos, and our validating the Fa during this period is something unprecedented. It is truly a great glory within the entire cosmos, to be able to come through such a long history and become unprecedented great lives. We came across this opportunity, and we should treasure it greatly! We should be worthy of becoming such great lives!

Such great lives can only increase their virtue by assisting Master in the Fa-rectification and by rescuing sentient beings. Only after we have truly saved sentient beings, will we deserve such an immense glory. Therefore, the fundamental purpose for our studying the Fa, clarifying the truth and sending forth righteous thoughts can be summed up in one thing, which is saving sentient beings.

Saving sentient beings involves great danger, because the evil beings are holding numerous deceived sentient beings in China as hostage and are forcing them to resist Master and the Fa-rectification. These hostages are the straws the evil beings are temporarily holding onto in order to sustain their lives, and they would rather let the hostages be destroyed along with them.

Every person that awakens to the truth reduces the number of hostages; therefore, how can the evil not be fearful? That is the reason why they persecute any Dafa practitioner who is clarifying the truth.

Actually, no matter what kind of action we take in order to save sentient beings, we will have Master's protection if we can overcome our fear and have strong righteous thoughts. Master is always by our side. If we send forth righteous thoughts in order to clear up all obstacles before we distribute truth clarification materials, we will successfully finish the work. Once, we had only one building with about a dozen mailboxes left. A security guard was chatting close by the building. We waited for a while, but he did not leave. Therefore, we sent forth righteous thoughts to have him leave. Subsequently, a small rain shower started, and the security guard was driven away. How amazing! We thought that calling for wind and rain was a fairy tale; but actually, any miracle can happen when we are saving sentient beings. We sent forth righteous thoughts numerous times in order to let it rain before we started to distribute materials. Every time it was very successful. Another time, we were posting truth clarification stickers on phone booths. We saw someone making a phone call at a booth, which was over ten meters away from us. I sent forth righteous thoughts for him to end his call immediately. Subsequently, that person left when I was one or two meters away from him. We always send forth righteous thoughts upon entering a residential area, in order to let security guards at the entrance not look at us. As a result, we always successfully entered and no one has ever questioned us. The security guards acted as if they were not able to see us. We have distributed materials to all the surrounding areas we could reach, and we have now made more new materials to distribute to these areas.

As Fa-rectification disciples, Master protects us at all times. Once, a police officer suddenly rushed to my home in order to arrest me. I was not at home at that time. He waited for a while, and then made a strange call to me, asking me to return home. I had actually intended to go home at that time, and the police officer could have waited for me at home. Phoning me was equivalent to notifying me about an arrest beforehand. When I received the call, I immediately realized that it was Master helping me, so I was able to avoid the arrest.

In the process of cultivating during the Fa-rectification, we can use some forms of everyday people, but we should use them righteously and well. Once, I was not handling this well, and nearly ran into danger. At that time, the evil truly feared the massive truth clarification activities of Dafa disciples in our area, and was plotting to do a large-scale arrest. After I had escaped with righteous thoughts, I could not go back home, and decided to go to other areas. I obtained a temporary ID due to concerns about my safety during travel and hotel stays. However, during a security check, I had a problem with my ID. The police held me for further interrogation. I immediately enlightened that getting a temporary ID was not right because a Dafa disciple should be upright and dignified in all aspects. Just at this moment in the hallway where the security checks took place, there suddenly appeared turmoil between a few people who seemed to have a fight and quarrel. An unexpected situation like this made me realize that Master was helping me. Therefore, I escaped during the chaos.

In the process of truth clarification, one thing that is relatively difficult to handle is overtly emphasizing righteous thoughts and Master's protection without placing importance on conforming to the state of everyday people or conforming to the principles of ordinary society while cultivating. The level of ordinary people is a level within the great Fa of the cosmos. It is also obstructing Dafa if we do not follow the principles at this level, and of course, we would not be able to have righteous thoughts. Many practitioners were arrested due to this problem

Recently, some practitioners in our area have been arrested mainly because they became less alert to the evil, since they have lived in a relatively tolerant environment for a long time. They did not pay attention to safety issues when using telephones, computers and the Internet, and took few effective preventative measures. Therefore, the evil took advantage of their loopholes, and these lessons reached deep. However, we are gradually maturing in our truth clarification. We cannot wait until our human attachments have all been removed before we start clarifying the truth. This is impossible, as all of our human attachments are supposed to be revealed and removed during the process of truth clarification. During this process, Dafa practitioners will become more and more mature, and will walk steadily on the path of Fa-rectification cultivation.