(Clearwisdom.net) Because of the overall persecution and my insufficient understandings on the Fa, officials in my workplace started to financially persecute me after I went to Beijing to appeal again. Every month, they only paid me a small portion of my salary, which made my life very difficult.
1. Fundamentally opposing the old forces' arrangementDuring the first several years, I did not realize this was a form of persecution by the old forces, so I just passively endured everything. One time, however, when I asked a relative to quit the CCP for a safe future, she looked down upon me and said, "Your life is already miserable, what kind of safe future are you talking about? Compare it to the kind of life I have now..." I was shocked and looked at myself. My clothes were given to me by people that didn't need them anymore. Every day, I was thinking about how to save money on food. Because of my meager income, I could not afford to exchange gifts with other people. Plus, I had to rely on support from my parents. In contrast, I had been financially stable before the persecution. This situation clearly affected me and interfered with my truth-clarification to other people. Master said,
"If you, as a student [of Dafa], do not follow Master's requirements, it is definitely no simple thing. The old forces have arranged for all Dafa disciples a set of their things, so if a Dafa disciple doesn't follow Master's requirements, he must be following the old forces' arrangements. The old forces are in essence gigantic trials and tribulations that accompany you at all times, focused on whether in Fa-rectification Dafa disciples are able to step forward." ("Be Clearheaded")
Wasn't I walking a path arranged by the old forces? This is not a trivial matter. Because I passively endured, this type of persecution could continue indefinitely. In order to validate the Fa, all aspects should be up to the standard so that Dafa practitioners could have a stable life to validate the Fa and clarify the facts to people.
With this understanding, I began to fundamentally oppose the old forces' arrangements. I only took the path arranged by Master and nothing else. Whether it was at work or at home, I spent a long time sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all interfering elements.
2. Clarifying the facts
Master said, "Wherever a problem arises, that's where you need to clarify the facts." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference") Within two or three years after July 20, 1999, officials at my workplace took turns talking to me. Using threats or financial inducement, they told me to stop practicing Dafa. I was not disturbed and instead found opportunities to clarify the facts to them. Later, they did not speak to me about Dafa anymore. That should have been an opportunity for me to clarify the facts to them and ask them to restore my salary.
At the beginning, they pushed the responsibility to other people when the topic of my salary came up. One time, when I spoke to the party secretary at my workplace, his attitude was very bad, saying my salary would not be restored as long as I continued to practice. He also asked me not to bother him any more. I knew it was the evil elements behind him that were interfering. I also looked within for any attachments regarding personal interest and a competitive mentality.
I continued to talk with the department director and told him about the illegal treatment I had received because of my practicing Dafa. I also told him about the popularity of Dafa all over the world and exposed the facts on the self-immolation incident. I also told him that I would continue to talk to higher-level officials. He listened quietly and nodded from time to time. In the end, he said that I did not need to talk with higher-level officials and that he would take care of it for me.
Probably because Master saw that I had met the requirements at this level, Master arranged a very good opportunity for me. My relatives did not think that it would succeed and they even worried if I could keep that minimal income by persistently talking to the leaders. I decided to only walk the path arranged by Master. Officials at my workplace held a meeting to discuss my case and said that they would make a decision soon. However, there was still no progress after a long time. I went to talk to them again several times, and it seemed hard to work things out. I knew that the old forces were interfering, and I also needed to let go of my attachments through this process. The purpose of this was to save sentient beings, including the officials at my workplace. Later, fellow practitioners helped me to send forth righteous thoughts and everything quickly turned around.
From the time when I realized that I needed to oppose the old forces to truly achieving this, the entire process took about two years. As I look back, every step of this was an opportunity for me to let go of attachments and to improve. As long as we meet the requirements, Master can do everything for us. Throughout our cultivation journey, Master has been compassionately looking after us along the way.
3. Studying the Fa and looking within to oppose the persecutionAfter my living conditions improved, I found that I needed to let go of attachments to personal gain. For a period of time, I was attached to having an everyday life like an ordinary person. I often thought about spending time shopping after work and could not calm down when sending forth righteous thoughts. I often thought about what to eat or wear and what furniture to buy. There was also interference with "qing". I slacked off with doing the three things. At that time, word reached me that the police were planning to persecute me and it seemed intense. On the one hand, I sent forth righteous thoughts to disintegrate the interfering elements in other dimensions. On the other hand, I began to look within. In my heart, I once promised Master that after breaking through the economic persecution, other than ordinary life, I would spend all efforts and money on validating the Fa. After all, everything I have belongs to Dafa. However, now I was attached to comfort, showing-off, jealousy and qing. When looking within further, instead of focusing on doing things to validate the Fa, I put lots of attention on keeping my current comfortable life. Isn't this going off the path arranged by Master? I strengthened my Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate interference from all sorts of human notions. The authorities' plans to persecute me eventually amounted to nothing.
Compared to diligent practitioners, there are many things that I have not done well. But one thought that I have is clear: I have given everything I have to Dafa. I listen to the words from Master, study the Fa, look within and work with other practitioners so that I can do well what I am supposed to do. In this way, things changed and I was able to break through the economic persecution.
Right now, many practitioners are still enduring various forms of persecution arranged by the old forces, be it in the form of physical or financial hardship, huge work commitments, pressure from family, or something else. All of these things are happening because the old forces are taking advantage of our loopholes. Some practitioners have not realized this. Some have realized it, but just passively endure it. With human notions, some practitioners hoped to resolve it with human means, but failed. This is because it came from evil elements in other dimension aiming towards Dafa practitioners' cultivation and saving sentient beings. We need to study the Fa more, strengthen righteous thoughts, oppose all interference from the old forces, and look within to let go of attachments. Master said, "Remove your human thoughts and evil will naturally die out" ("Don't be Sad", Hong Yin Vol. II) Just do the three things Master told us to do and let Master arrange everything, we will then be able to eradicate the evil in other dimensions and oppose the old forces' arrangement. In this way, things in this dimension will also change accordingly. We need to walk our paths well, and should not feel disappointed when not seeing progress within a short term. Manifestations in this dimension do not represent reality. Upon encountering difficulty, we need to follow Master's arrangement, and do well what we are supposed to do without attachment or pursuit. Then, there might be a solution. By then, we will be calm in our hearts, since we are not attached to it any longer.
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