(Minghui.org) After I was persecuted by the communist regime for practicing Falun Dafa in 2001, I noticed that I developed fear and held many negative thoughts.

I kept worrying whether the old forces would seize upon my loopholes and persecute me again. I was concerned when the police would come to harass me. How should I respond to them if they show up? With that mentality, I looked at things negatively, and always worried about a possible bad outcome of incidents.

I recently realized that this was another form of persecution. I was trapped in the position of being persecuted, leaving me to feel vulnerable and unable to do anything about it.

I didn't have a clear understanding of my role during this special period of history. I was stuck in the phase of personal cultivation and passively acknowledged the old forces' arrangement, so that they could use it as an excuse to interfere with my cultivation, and create tribulations to test me.

I recently had a deeper understanding of Master's Fa teachings:

“By July 20th of 1999 I had already pushed all of the pre-July 20 students to their positions--I pushed you to your highest positions.” (Touring North America to Teach the Fa)

Cultivation Transitioned from Personal to Fa-rectification Cultivation

I understand that our cultivation has transitioned from personal to Fa-rectification cultivation. Master already pushed us to the original positions, the place where we belong, the Lords and Kings of the New Cosmos. Our mission is to assist Master to rectify the Fa and save sentient beings.

The relationship between Dafa practitioners and sentient beings is to provide salvation and gain salvation. They should not be persecuted and suffer under the persecution. Those old forces, however, chose to resist the Fa-rectification. They did evil deeds and ruined countless beings. How could they qualify to test Dafa practitioners? Shouldn't we who are the Lords and Kings of the New Cosmos eliminate them? When we understand the Fa teachings and position ourselves in the right place, the persecution will end.

When I thought about how to reach the standard of the New Cosmos? Master' Fa revealed itself to me:

“I believe that the world will be a better place if we can each work on ourselves and look at our character, or thoughts, to identify the source of any problems we experience, and then make a point of doing better next time and try to always be thoughtful towards others. Morality will improve, people will become more civil, and the world will be safer for it. Perhaps a police force wouldn’t even be needed; people would be policing themselves, so to speak, by becoming self-reflective. What a world that would be. Yet today, even with a legal system that’s become quite comprehensive, people still do wrong in the face of the law. That’s because laws cannot change the heart, and so people still commit wrongful acts when nobody is there to stop them. I believe the world would be a different place if everyone were to work on themselves, like we do, and nobody would need to think about intervening and righting wrongs.” (The Ninth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

From this Fa teaching, I felt that the old forces were just like the police who punished offenders for breaking the law. When Dafa disciples exhibited attachments, it was like breaking the law in the eyes of the old forces, who would then punish us by creating obstacles. The old forces thought that by making us suffer tribulations, we may let go of our attachments. They have failed to realize that such “punishment” could not change the heart or enable practitioners to meet the standard of the New Cosmos.

We are cultivating in Falun Dafa, the “Great Way” (On Dafa, Zhuan Falun) of the cosmos. We proactively cultivate ourselves and search within. Without the old forces policing us, we'd still desire to meet the standard from deep down and we are doing better each time without any external force. With this mechanism of looking within, everything is automatic and it ensures that the future cosmos will never degenerate or disintegrate, and that it will forever rectify and perfect itself.

The Fa-rectification energy is like what Master mentioned in one of his teachings, “a steel furnace.” The Fa is so powerful and immense that any negative thoughts, distractions, or wicked substances will be destroyed immediately. What I need to do is to immerse myself into the Fa, and the mighty power of the Fa will do its job to change me.

After I gained a clear understanding of the Fa, my role in Fa-rectification and my relationship with the old forces, I no longer felt vulnerable when facing interference by the evil. I am now full of confidence with my righteous thoughts when it comes to saving sentient beings.