(Minghui.org) Several practitioners in our area were illegally arrested a few years ago. There were two opposing thoughts about this issue among local practitioners. The positive view was about denying the old forces' arrangement. Falun Dafa practitioners are rectifying themselves in assimilating to Dafa, but not cultivating in the old forces' persecution. Master Li did not make such an arrangement. The negative view was focused solely on the arrested practitioners' shortcomings, saying that after failing to correct themselves, they not only brought trouble to themselves, but also to the rest of us.

These two opposing views obstructed our rescue efforts and made for a very tense environment. This directly affected our truth clarificationefforts and our ability to save sentient beings.

Purifying the Field in Our Area

After our local coordinators talked about the situation from the basis of the Fa, they got rid of their warped thinking and stopped focusing on fellow practitioners' shortcomings. They then shared their understandings with the rest of the group, noting that there were evil factors throughout the field in our district. They talked about how everyone was partially responsible for anything that happens in the group, stressing that we all needed to look inward.

One practitioner commented on how he had recently been affected by attachments to fame and profit, as a result of not cultivating diligently. Another mentioned how she had always looked at others' shortcoming instead of looking inward and upgrading her character. After a brief sharing, we all enlightened to the fact that the old forces had interfered with our group, due to our selfish attachments. Within days, the field in our district became noticeably more pure and everything started changing for the better.

Practitioners began explaining the facts about Falun Gong to the public, instead of focusing solely on law enforcement personnel and members of the judicial system. Shortly after, the detained practitioners were released and everyone's character had improved.

From then on, we began to look inward when dealing with problems and stopped focusing on others' shortcoming. Thus, the tribulations that our group faced became less and less. Since then, no practitioner in our area has been detained and the police rarely give us any trouble.

Having the Right Attitude about Our Signature Campaign

In order to gather public support against the persecution, one practitioner started a signature campaign in our area. However, he only did that to arouse people's conscience, as validating Dafa and saving sentient beings is the mission of every practitioner, not ordinary people.

Several thousand people signed and left their inked fingerprints on the petition form, which was later sent to Minghui and various government officials.

Changing Warped Notions with Positive Thinking

Nearly 10,000 people in one nearby county signed our petition. When several police officers visited a practitioner's home to investigate the incident, the practitioner's husband told her, “Don't go outside; let me deal with them.”

A policeman asked, “Is your wife home? We need to confirm something with her.” The husband answered, “No, I don't want you to see her. Tell me what you want to know.” The policeman said, “We heard that your wife organized a signature campaign calling for the unconditional release of Dafa practitioners.” The husband replied, “So what? What's wrong with people speaking out if their relatives are being persecuted and imprisoned? It just means that many people know that Falun Dafa is good. Please leave. I don't want you coming here again.”

An officer muttered, “We did not come to bother you, rather, we were ordered here by upper-level officials who thought that the signatures were fake. Now, we can report back that the signatures are indeed real.” The police left and never returned.

Everyone in our group realized that this interference was not due to our signature campaign, our clarifying the facts, or the informational materials that we had distributed. Rather, it was due to our attachments. Regardless, the old forces cannot use this as an excuse or pretext to persecute practitioners who are assimilating to Dafa. It is therefore crucial that we look within instead of paying attention to others' shortcomings. Only in this way, will we be able to negate the old forces' interference and persecution.

Although practitioners are not attached to time, we should still use our time wisely to cultivate ourselves. The time for validating Dafa is coming to a close. Practitioners should make a point of looking within instead of wasting their time looking for the shortcomings of others. If every practitioner had the same righteous thoughts, evil would cease to exist!