(Clearwisdom.net) Many thanks to our great Teacher and fellow practitioners on the Minghui editorial team for creating an environment for a written experience sharing conference on the Internet for practitioners in Mainland China.

I have so much to say, and it's impossible to say everything I want to. Here, I would like to talk about my own personal cultivation experience from the perspective of "using the wisdom endowed by Falun Dafa to harmonize my Fa-rectification cultivation environment."

I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. My family and my husband's family are of Communist cadres. I come from a family of three, and each of us has a job that others are envious of. On April 25, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners began, I had been practicing Falun Dafa for a year, and my father had been practicing for six months. This was before other colleagues and relatives who were interested in the practice even had the opportunity to start learning Falun Dafa.

During the first year after I started practicing Falun Dafa, I was actively and enthusiastically involved in spreading the Fa to people. As a result, my supervisors, colleagues, relatives, and friends all knew that I practiced Falun Dafa. Nevertheless, the sudden persecution, along with the deceitful propaganda, cast a shadow over my life. In particular, my supervisors knew about my trip to Beijing on April 15, and suddenly there was pressure coming from above in the form "confidential documents." I was exposed to all sorts of pressure to give up the practice. Different levels of supervisors talked to me, and my family members were put under surveillance and followed by government agents. All of a sudden, my living environment changed.

I had practiced Falun Dafa for merely a year; however, during that year, I never skipped a night of joining fellow practitioners for Fa-study. The truth of the cosmos was deep in my mind. "Falun Dafa is the source of my life. I will steadfastly cultivate Falun Dafa and my determination will never falter." That one short year laid a solid foundation that enabled me to remain steadfast with righteous faith amidst tribulations.

I . V alidat ing Falun Dafa with rationality, and melt ing the hearts of the people around me with a benevolent mind , along with us ing a cultivator's mentality of great compassion and great forbearance to harmonize the cultivation environment at my workplace.

On July 19, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Dafa began, the chief of the City Bureau called me in for a talk. On my way there I looked inside, and reflected on my mental state. I was very calm because I firmly believed that I had not done anything wrong. I cautioned myself that I must show a Falun Dafa practitioner's purity and nobility. Although I'd never met with the Bureau Chief, I knew that most people were afraid of him.

The minute the Bureau Chief saw me he said, "Are you still practicing Falun Gong? I heard that you went to Beijing on April 25."

I responded, "I'm still practicing Falun Gong. I'm a Party member, and when I talk to the organization I'm practical and truthful. Moreover, I have done things out in the open and in an upright and dignified manner." The Bureau Chief did not say anything, so I continued to tell him, "After I practiced Falun Gong I benefited a lot, and the reason I am able to take on so much work is because of my good health. In the past I could not live without medicine." I gave him specific examples of the physical and mental benefits I gained from the practice. He still did not say anything, so I added, "I did go to Beijing. But going to Beijing is not getting involved in politics." Before I finished speaking, someone stepped in to discuss job duties with him, so I took the opportunity to leave. I could see that the Bureau Chief was very afraid to make this issue public. From then on, he never asked to see me again.

However, the policy of "level after level of tracing down" and "level after level of implication" from the central to local the government was forcibly imposed on the base level work unit I was assigned to. In the beginning, the Bureau Chief at the base level was not very understanding about my insisting on being steadfast; however, in order to protect my reputation, he only mentioned things related to me in the small team meetings with few Party members, and he tried not to openly talk about me in the big meetings. He thought his job was to fill out the forms assigned by his superiors and express his stance. He thought that by not cooperating with them I was, in turn, not supporting his work, and because of this, I had some hard times.

I was assigned to work on jobs for three different units simultaneously. Specifically, there was a temporary unit created that was staffed with people from other offices. In this unit there was always a lack of coordination in terms of management, coordination, and job assignments. Moreover, some of my colleagues, especially males, were jealous of me, and made my work even harder. They often said to me, out of jealousy, "The capable ones should do more work because our supervisors trust you." Faced with this, I remained unaffected. Nevertheless, I was rewarded with complaints and accusations from different sources even though I worked hard without regrets or complaint.

In my mind I kept reciting Teacher's "A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It"

"For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests." (Essentials for Further Advancement)

And also "What is Forbearance (Ren)"

"Forbearance is the key to improving one's xinxing. To endure with anger, grievance, or tears is the forbearance of an everyday person who is attached to his concerns. To endure completely without anger or grievance is the forbearance of a cultivator." (Essentials for Further Advancement)

I really truly felt that I was very clearheaded. I did my best to do good work in my job, I never complained, and I did not feel pressured. All I thought about was how to pass each test with a pure and upright mentality.

I held myself to strict requirements, and since everyone knew that I practiced Falun Dafa, I felt I should portray the spirit of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," and let those people who did not understand Falun Dafa see "righteousness" by my example, that of a Falun Dafa practitioner. This kind of situation continued until the end of the year. I ran into one test after another, and I always accepted these tests with a smiling face, and sent them away with a calm mind. After having this tribulation for almost a year, eventually the Bureau Chief expressed his apology via a phone call. I could tell that he was moved by my benevolence.

After New Year's Day, a positive change took place in my work environment. In the following two years, as the truth about Falun Dafa was accepted by more and more people, my work environment became easier and more comfortable. The base-level Bureau Chiefs took on the pressure from higher--ups and dealt with the numerous inquiries from higher authorities. To put it in their language, they "put their jobs at stake."

Back then I did not know about truth-clarification efforts. All I wanted was to let people understand that Falun Dafa was an upright practice. Regardless whether it was in my work unit or other related work units, if it was statements in a big meeting or in people's private conversation, I just wanted to set others straight when I heard them expressing prejudice against Falun Dafa. I always approached them with wisdom and told them that Falun Dafa is cultivating Buddhahood, and benevolence, and that they should not listen to the lies. People who came to understand the truth often told me, "I understand your good intentions. But I suggest that you watch out for your safety."

In 2001, I had a god-sent opportunity. Teacher arranged for me an even easier and more comfortable work environment, so I left that job post.

II. Due to cultivation, the way I treated my family members changed from being patient and kind, to being compassionate. I moved from clarifying the truth to them with wisdom, to letting them truly understand the truth. By doing this I have earned their understanding and support. Not only have I given them the opportunity to position themselves well, I also obtained for myself a comfortable cultivation environment.

1. Rectifying myself. Being tolerant of my family members and improving my home cultivation environment.

When the persecution began in 1999, my family and relatives were all afraid that I would lose my secure job. They were also afraid that my child's job assignment, and other matters related to the families' well being would be affected. First, my father, who had practiced Falun Gong for six months, decided to give up cultivation practice, and turned in all his Falun Dafa books. My husband, who was the kind of person that did not talk much, but held in a lot of anger and emotions, watched me every day. He followed me when I went out. He tried to scare me when I distributed flyers. If I defended Falun Dafa when I saw deceitful TV programs, he would get angry with me. When I was at home, except for my usual daily Fa-study and practice, he did not allow me to say anything about Falun Dafa, and restricted my freedom by not allowing me to go places I wanted to go.

I understood that it was also very important to harmonize my own family, and I adopted the method of gradually helping them to understand the truth. I started with a little something they could accept, and based on their acceptance, I gave them more information. For example, my son seemed to care most about being respected and recognized by others. So, I found sentences and phrases in Teacher's lectures that are hard to comprehend or hard to understand on the surface, and asked him to read them to me. I then asked him his understanding of them. If his understanding was in line with Fa-principles, I took the opportunity to praise him for having good comprehension, and thereby inspired his interest [in Falun Gong]. Pretty soon we had a common language through which we could communicate. One day he told me that a wicked demon was trying to harm him in his dream, and in his moment of fear he thought of the Teacher Li Hongzhi, so he quickly asked the Teacher for help. Then I knew that he had really benefited from Falun Dafa.

I asked him, "The persecution against Falun Gong is still escalating. My name is on the City's list. This may affect your job assignment, what do you think about this?" He replied straightforwardly, "Mom, I'm a man. Don't worry." He had positioned himself with this statement. I was truly pleased with his choice, and I happily told him that treating Falun Dafa benevolently will be rewarded with something good. I also encouraged him to ask for nothing and attain it automatically, and he was even more inspired. Very naturally, in the end my son was assigned to work in a very desirable unit.

As for my husband, I also tried to act as a good example. A man likes gentleness in a woman, yet I was born with a woman's kind nature, but without a woman's gentleness. In the past, my husband had never experienced any gentleness from me. I decided to first cultivate through Falun Dafa the "gentleness" of a woman, and let my husband have a warm and cozy family. I held myself to a Falun Dafa practitioner's cultivation standard and checked everything against that standard. In everything I did I considered the interests of others first. I tried my best to change my bad habits of raising my voice and talking too much. I also tried to think of other family members first at home, and not show off or display an attitude of "It's my words that count at home."

Ever since then, there has been more affection, smiling faces, conversation, gentleness, harmony, mutual consideration, and respect at home. There is more coziness, communication, and understanding. The phrase "Thank You! Thank You!" used to be a rarity in our home, yet now we say it all the time. With more conversation and openness my family learned more about my cultivation, and by knowing more about my cultivation they more thoroughly understood me, and were therefore more forgiving, which created more harmony and fewer misunderstandings.

What's more important was that no matter what I did, I never lied to my husband in order to do what I wanted. If there was something that I was not supposed to talk about, I would explain to him that I could not talk about it. But I never lied to him. My whole family respected and trusted me very much, because I myself first respected and trusted them.

I was changing, and I saw my husband's attitude toward Falun Dafa also changing. He no longer interfered with my doing Falun Dafa work, and he was able to be nice to all the practitioners who came to our home to visit me.

In our daily life, I deliberately told my husband miraculous stories of Falun Dafa. I also frequently told him about my cultivation experiences. One time when I was about to go out to a truth-clarification site to fetch some material, suddenly my belt broke. While I was puzzling over this, a fellow practitioner called to inform me that something had gone wrong at the material site and that I should no longer go there. My husband was there when this happened and he was deeply shocked. I took the opportunity to tell him, "Falun Dafa is miraculous. Our Teacher is compassionate and magnificent, and is always by our side protecting his disciples from danger and giving us hints. But sometimes we have poor comprehension and fail to understand Teacher's hints, and therefore incur losses." Seeing what happened with his own eyes, he understood it and said, "Now I know. It's not like what they have said."

I would not miss any opportunity to get together with others and visit others, and I used these opportunities to validate Falun Dafa and clarify the truth to people I came into contact with. Sometimes, I was with my husband when I did this, and in the beginning, he thought that I made him lose face as the man of the house, so he would intuitively dispute me. Because of this, I searched within myself. On the one hand I was anxious to get something done. On the other, I lacked the wisdom to properly handle things. And my husband also needed some further special "care." Therefore, when he was in a good mood, I solemnly asked him to sit down. Sincerely and earnestly, I confided to him the profound meaning of my clarifying the truth to relatives and friends, and why it absolutely was not about politics. I said, "When I validate Falun Dafa and clarify the truth to acquaintances and friends, I do it for their benefit and so that they may have a good future. Yet you stand there and say negative things. Have you ever thought about the consequences of doing that? It will be even harder for people to believe in Falun Dafa. If a person who has been living with me day and night does not believe it, who else will believe it? I suggest that from now on when we have this kind of occasion, at least you should not say something against me. If you want to say something you should talk about the truth you have seen and validate that Falun Dafa is good." My husband did not dispute me on this.

Afterward, I noticed that when I clarified the truth to others, he usually said something like, "That's really true" or he cheerfully and jokingly told others, "The luckiest thing that have ever happened to me is that I have found a good wife."

(to be continued)