(Minghui.org) Recently, Practitioner A was arrested and detained. Our local practitioners cooperated as one body and made great efforts to rescue him. Finally, Practitioner A was released after 16 days. During this process, many practitioners deeply enlightened to one point: the process of rescuing fellow practitioners is also that of cultivating ourselves. Once we rectify ourselves, let go of our human attachments, and strengthen our righteous thoughts, naturally we can clarify the truth clearly. As a result, sentient beings will make the correct choice, evil elements in other dimensions will be eliminated, and fellow practitioners will be released. However, cultivating ourselves is easy to talk about, but difficult to do. Here, I would like to share my understandings.
Not Emphasizing Results
The process of rescuing fellow practitioners is actually that of saving sentient beings. During this period, many practitioners knew that Practitioner A was protected by Teacher, so she would not be harmed. Therefore, while rescuing her, we didn’t attach importance to the result, including when she would be released and what the police said about her. Though the authorities said they would sentence her to one to three years of forced labor, we held unshakable thoughts: “Teacher is here. The Fa is here. The evil is not worthy of testing her. The evil is nothing. Teacher has the final say in everything. Practitioner A, come back to the great wave of assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification.” During this period, we just did whatever we should do as Dafa practitioners and used Practitioner A’s arrest as material to clarify the truth to people and save sentient beings, especially mainstream people who had been deceived by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
We shared the work and finished it together. Practitioner A was arrested several years ago when her former husband and child reported her to the police. In 2009, she was arrested in a similar incident but later escaped and became homeless. Eighteen months later, she went back to work. Now, she was arrested again. We wrote letters clarifying the truth to government officials. We also sent letters to her former husband and his relatives, friends, co-workers, and supervisors to expose his bad behavior and urge him to choose a bright future. Meanwhile, we rectified the sentient beings around him so that they had a correct attitude towards Dafa and Dafa practitioners, thereby choosing a good future for themselves. Some practitioners put up posters in the neighborhood of Practitioner A’s former husband and his relatives.
At the same time, we sent letters to city government officials and Practitioner A’s supervisors to help them understand why they shouldn’t persecute Dafa practitioners. We directed them to make the correct choice in this matter so that they could lay a foundation for their future. Some practitioners wrote letters using colored paper and sent them to government officials and civil servants. In addition, they clarified the truth in depth to the officials, calling for them to stop the persecution and support Dafa practitioners.
Fellow practitioners in Practitioner A’s workplace talked to her supervisors many times and told them about Practitioner A’s arrest, clarified the truth about Falun Dafa, and urged them to talk to officials from the local 610 Office to ask for the release of Practitioner A. Fellow practitioners also constantly strengthened their righteous thoughts. Some practitioners sent timely news to the Minghui website to expose the persecution and call for support from practitioners overseas and in other areas.
During this process, Dafa practitioners formed one body. Each practitioner was forged into an indispensable particle of Dafa and played his significant role in the whole body.
Letting Go of Human Attachments and Harmonizing into One Body
Practitioner B played a very important role in the process of rescuing fellow practitioners. She gathered many practitioners in her home to send righteous thoughts together. She also worked as a coordinator and asked fellow practitioners to collect phone numbers, make phone calls to clarify the truth, send letters, and make posters exposing the crimes committed against practitioners. She said, “The process of rescuing fellow practitioners is that of cultivating myself. Many human attachments such as sentimentality, jealousy, hatred and unfairness surfaced while I sent righteous thoughts for Practitioner A after her arrest. As a result, my thoughts were not pure and couldn’t play a role in rescuing her. Enlightening from Teacher’s hints and cooperating with fellow practitioners, I let go of my human attachments and clarified the truth to people clearly. Naturally, Practitioner A was released.”
Practitioner C said, “At the very beginning, while I sent righteous thoughts for Practitioner A, I constantly thought of her wrongdoings: the reason for this arrest was the same as last time. She just didn’t cultivate herself well and stumbled twice on the same stone. Why didn't she enlighten to it! She was alright these days, but now she was arrested again. She couldn’t stand the loneliness and always went outside. Why couldn’t she stay at home, study the Fa calmly and send righteous thoughts? Moreover, she never thought of fellow practitioners’ safety. She knew that she had been followed but didn’t attach importance to the safety of the entire body. Isn’t she selfish?”
Practitioner C was distracted by these thoughts of Practitioner A’s shortcomings while she was trying to send righteous thoughts for her. She realized that she was not pure. Moreover, the evil in other dimensions were staring at her the whole time! She couldn’t sit in tranquility. When our fellow practitioner was detained, if we attached importance to her loopholes and took them as the reason for her being persecuted, then we were helping the old forces instead of rescuing her. The old forces probably thought, “Her fellow practitioners even think this way, so it is reasonable to persecute her.” Did it mean that we stood on the old forces' side?
Teacher said,
“Then as you cultivate, how will your human attachments be removed? Master has his ways, while they have theirs. But whatever the case, don't let them exploit your gaps, and make sure to examine yourselves often as you cultivate. No matter what kind of problem arises, first reflect upon yourself and the group you are working with, and quite likely you will find the root of the problem.”
“For a cultivator, looking within is a magical tool.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference”)
Teacher told us that looking within is a magical tool. This is very important and has significant meaning.
Practitioner C looked within to identify her own shortcomings. She was shocked to find that she had the same shortcomings as Practitioner A, including lust, slacking off, attachment to comfort, jealousy, hatred, and lack of responsibility. Her fellow practitioner was like a mirror. Since her attachments were shown in front of us, they must be closely related to our cultivation. Always focusing on others’ shortcomings is looking outwards and finding fault in others. It’s a habitual way of thinking due to the attachment to complacency and the attachment to criticizing and competing with others.
Teacher told us,
“It really is hard to clean out those notions and bad things that you have formed while leading your daily life, and you need to change those habitual things that have formed. You have already formed a way of thinking such as that, and so you have to look into your manner of thinking and correct things there if you want to avoid more problems.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”)
After calmly studying the Fa, Practitioner C cleared up her way of thinking and took up the right attitude, now immune to the evil's lures. She stopped thinking of Practitioner A’s shortcomings and rectified every one of her own thoughts. Meanwhile, she developed compassion for Practitioner A’s former husband while rescuing Practitioner A and came to understand their relationship. She also let go of her heavy sentimentality towards Practitioner A.
If Dafa practitioners as one body could look within at all times, form an environment of looking within, harmonize and cooperate well with one another, and treat everything with compassion, then the evil's so-called test would turn into ashes. Therefore, we should cultivate ourselves well and let go of our human attachments during the process of rescuing fellow practitioners.
Teacher said,
“If Dafa disciples can manage to pool their strength together in one concerted effort, and act with extremely strong righteous thoughts, think about it, that will truly amount to divine beings being present in this world. It would be simply terrifying to the evil!” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
Our process of rescuing Practitioner A was that of pooling our local practitioners’ strength together in one concerted effort and acting with extremely strong righteous thoughts. We showed people the wonder of divine beings being present in this world.
Sending Righteous Thoughts and Encouraging Fellow Practitioners
During the process of rescuing Practitioner A, every practitioner voluntarily sent righteous thoughts for her and eliminated all evil beings that persecuted her in other dimensions. Many practitioners persisted in sending righteous thoughts at the beginning of every hour. We also gathered and sent righteous thoughts for her as a group six times.
One practitioner used her supernormal abilities and saw Practitioner A strangled by layers of black nets in layers of dimensions. Each dimension was full of a thick black substance around her. The practitioner also saw the reason Practitioner A was being persecuted: her attachment to sentimentality. We continued sending righteous thoughts and cut the rope restraining her in other dimensions. We eliminated the black substance around her, and her dimensions immediately turned clear.
Apart from sending righteous thoughts for Practitioner A, we also arranged practitioners familiar with Practitioner A to visit her at the detention center, encourage her in person, strengthen her righteous thoughts, and remind her to believe in Teacher and the Fa. Many practitioners visited her to share cultivation experiences and and strengthen her righteous thoughts. The latter was a big help, especially when she was very depressed after being forced to sign statements promising to stop practicing Dafa. One practitioner told her, “It makes no difference even if you signed the statement! You can still come out of here.” This greatly encouraged Practitioner A, and she was finally released from the detention center.
Dafa practitioners form one indestructible body. Each practitioner shoulders his or her share of responsibility. Sending righteous thoughts for practitioners being persecuted and encouraging them to leave the detention facilities provide strong, righteous spiritual support. Our efforts to rescue Practitioner A is a good reference. Let’s honor our prehistoric vows on our future path and return home with Teacher.
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