(Clearwisdom.net) I started to practice Falun Gong in early 1998. After several years of cultivation during Fa-rectification, I realized that if we have righteous thoughts and actions, in other words if our "thoughts" and "actions" can truly meet the standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, it will be easier to break through difficult situations, dissolve the evil, and help people accept the truth.
Master said,
"Actually, let me tell you this: Safeguarding the Fa doesn't mean resorting to violence. Good and evil coexist within a person. We dispel the evil side and use only the good side to safeguard the Fa. When others say something bad about us, we can let them know how good we are, and we can reason with them entirely using the good side." ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore" August 22, 1998)
I would like to share my thoughts and experience here.
Dissolving the Evil Factors Behind the Violent Police
In the beginning of the persecution, I was sent to a brainwashing center. I wanted to dispel any misunderstandings and present the police with the facts about Falun Dafa, and how good Falun Dafa is, so I wrote an article and handed it to the policeman on duty. He was a very aggressive policeman who often snapped and yelled at fellow practitioners. He called me into another room after reading the article. I was quite calm at that time, and I felt that I did what a Falun Gong practitioner should do. I was thinking that no matter how hard he yelled, my mind would remain unmoved. I entered the room, and he told me to sit, with his eyes staring at me. It looked like he was going to get angry. I said nothing but looked right into his eyes with a pleasant smile. It must have been my sincerity that changed the emotion in his eyes. It lasted about a minute, and then he turned his eyes away, muttered something, and sent me away.
Then I was transferred to a police station from the brainwashing center. That same policeman came to that police station too. This time he greeted me and congratulated me for being freed. At the moment I understood that I was no longer assigned to the brainwashing center, but instead I was kept in the police station just for transition. He looked quite calm and peaceful, and I realized that it was my righteous thoughts and actions that had dissolved the evil factors behind him.
Validating the Fa in Prison
I was once again sent to a prison after I went to Beijing to validate the Fa. While in prison, with the mind of being a good person that fulfills the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and to let the ordinary people know the wonderfulness of Dafa, I treated other prisoners with a pure heart. I told the younger prisoners stories about leading a meaningful life, helped the ailing prisoners to do the laundry, taught a Chinese minority girl to learn Chinese characters, and read Master's poem, "An Upright Person" from Hong Yin to those who showed interest in Falun Gong.
I got along well with the thirty-odd people in the prison cell. Some of them were greatly inspired by Master's "An Upright Person." They acknowledged that they never knew about such a principle of living a meaningful life. When I practiced the five sets of exercises and recited the Fa, some of them followed my lead. Several young girls said that they completely changed their way of thinking about Falun Gong when they witnessed my attitude and demeanor while in prison. When I told them the facts about Falun Gong, they understood that it had been wronged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They treated me as a trusted friend, and poured out their troubles to me.
The prison guard knew that I was doing well in prison and once she told me that it was easy to maintain control if there were some Falun Gong practitioners among the prisoners. However, there were also some prisoners who reported to the guard that I was practicing the exercises. So the guard had to try and stop me. Then I told her about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong and how it cured my neurasthenic and sleeping disorder. The guard said she had the same problem, so I asked her to practice when she got home. She smiled at me and told me that I can practice, but to not make it obvious to the others that I was practicing. From then on, the guard no longer took me aside to reprimand me and nobody else tried to report me.
One night after all the prisoners fell asleep, two guards came and called me out. They were ready to document the conversation. I had always been an introverted person and slow of speech, however, Dafa unlocked my wisdom and I became very articulate. I shared some of my personal experiences with them, how I got to know about Falun Gong, and what would happen to people who persecute Falun Gong from personal experiences and stories. At first, the two guards had intended to write down what I said, but they were so focused on listening that they even forgot to take notes. After nearly two hours, they said that they really did not know anything about Falun Gong after all, and they had learned a lot.
There was a drug trafficker who had been sentenced to death. She was so fiery that nobody dared to get close to her. After she observed me for a while, she started to talk to me, and showed interest in learning about Falun Gong. I told her about Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and karmic relationships. She asked me to write down what I remembered about Falun Gong and some of Master's writings in her notebook, which she read very often later on. She expressed how regretful she was of what she had done, and only wished that she had known about Dafa earlier. Another fellow practitioner and I told her to vow to cultivate in Dafa in her next lifetime. Right before her execution, she put the notebook in a bag and asked me to bring it to her three children. I promised to look after them after I came out of prison. Later I got in touch with her children, supported their education and gave them love and care like they were my own kids. I also taught them to recite "Falun Dafa is good." The kids were very sensible and were quickly able to get over their mother's death. They have done well in school, and many of their relatives and friends know that it is Falun Gong that changed them.
However, as I looked back, I realized that I was actually cultivating within the so-called "test" arranged by the old forces. But I had right thoughts and took righteous actions within the "test." If we follow Master's requirements, we should not be cultivating in any prisons or brainwashing centers. We should assimilate within the Fa and assist Master in rectifying the Fa. But we still have attachments, human notions and karma, which gives the old forces chances to take advantage of us. If we cannot maintain our righteous thoughts and actions in the persecution, the old forces will destroy us. Therefore, in order to walk more steadily on our cultivation journey, we must study the Fa well, look inward, and eliminate any human notions. We should follow the Fa to rectify every single thought and every single action to assimilate to the Fa and follow the path Master arranged for us. We should negate the old forces in order to do better the three things and fulfill our Fa-rectification responsibilities and missions.
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