(Clearwisdom) I began to practice Falun Gong in 1997. Under the compassionate care of Teacher and with the help of fellow practitioners I have been able to reach this point in my cultivation, although having stumbled and fallen many times.
1. Supernormal Abilities Almost Became the Bane on my Cultivation Path
From 1997 to 1999, because I had supernormal abilities, I had attachments to showing off and fearing hardship. My cultivation was almost in vain
Teacher said,
"Supernormal capabilities are basically small tricks,
Dafa is essential."
("Pursuing a Righteous Fa Course" from Hong Yin)
I can talk about supernormal abilities from personal experience. My third eye is half open. Before practicing Falun Gong I had many supernormal abilities. I was immensely proud and felt that I was so great . After I began to practice Falun Gong in 1999 I experienced the types of hardship that are part of practicing cultivation. Sitting cross-legged was a big problem. I even had difficulties in sitting in a single lotus position.
I managed to do the double lotus within a month and everything appeared to go very smoothly. When I studied the Fa and practiced the exercises I constantly saw things with my third eye. Sometimes the characters in the Dafa books became alive. Their size changed and they moved. When studying the Fa I could see Teacher's law body sitting beside me. When doing the sitting meditation, I could see the beautiful scenes in other dimensions, including divine beings and objects. Sometimes I froze and I felt that I could not move. At other times I was clairvoyant. I was able to tell people about their past, and about their previous lives.
2. Human Thoughts Made Me Stumble
From 1999 to 2005, I judged the Fa-rectification with only human thinking. I stumbled because of my attachment to supernormal powers. But, finally I walked straight on my Fa-rectification path.
Some practitioners thought I had cultivated very well and I felt very happy about that. I thought as long as I continued to practice I would reach consummation. However, a few months later the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) banned Falun Gong. The persecution began earnestly, which put me at a complete loss as what to do. I could not understand why the CCP would persecute a practice whose practitioners lived by the principles "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." Therefore, I went to the the provincial government to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Alas, I was arrested before I could appeal and taken back to my hometown. The local police interrogated me until midnight before I could go home.
On October 22, I went to Beijing to appeal, however, the appeal office was closed. I was wondering about for two days and could not find a place to appeal, therefore I went to Zhongnanhai (CCP headquarters) trying to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. It took just a few minutes before I was arrested and detained at a local police station. The policemen treated me harshly. A few hours later I was taken to the Xicheng Detention Center in Beijing.
At the detention center I was treated inhumanly. I was afraid. Since I had not studied the Fa diligently I felt powerless, but refused to show it. When I was interrogated I said, "I want to redress the wrong done to Teacher and Falun Gong."
At the detention center my supernormal powers emerged. My primordial spirit floated in the sky and I could see the inmates. In the evening, Teacher held my primordial spirit in his gigantic palm. The wonderful feeling was beyond any description.
After seven days I was taken back to my local police station. Since I clarified the facts to the inmates every day, they were touched by my compassion. When I was taken back to my local area, they could not bear to part with me. On my arrival in my hometown I was detained in the local police station.
Because of having experienced supernatural powers in Beijing I tried to use my supernormal power again, but I couldn't see the truth, even though everything looked so real. I was interfered with and later on realized that this came from my own thoughts, so I stopped thinking about supernormal abilities. I was released after 22 days due to rescue efforts by my family. On returning home I studied the Fa diligently and realized that I almost lost my chance of practicing Falun Gong. Teacher said,
"Unless danger threatens your life and you are told how to eliminate it, all those who tell you that you will have a tribulation today and how to avoid something about to occur, those who tell you the first-prize lottery ticket number and tell you to try it, and those who want to have you obtain good things in ordinary human society, are demons." (Zhuan Falun)
"that good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences. " (Zhuan Falun)
Although I understood the Fa principles I did not follow them because of my show off mentality and feeling smug about being praised by fellow practitioners. I began to believe that I was not ordinary and better than others. Teacher said,
"The desire to show off plus the attachment of zealotry are most easily exploited by the demonic part of your mind. " ("Definitive Conclusion," Essentials for Further Advancement)
My "supernormal abilities" came out more and more and my human thoughts got increasingly stronger. I felt that such "cultivation" was very good and very "comfortable." Then, fabricated articles supposedly written by Teacher fell into my hands. Much said in these articles were in line with my human thoughts, such as "You have reached consummation so don't need to rectify the Fa" or "You only need to give Alms to Teacher" and "What can you get from practicing the exercises?" I thought that everything I saw was real and passed the fake articles to fellow practitioners.
I rented a small house with another practitioner and began to do things to rectify the Fa. During the day we passed out Teacher's new articles and articles downloaded from Minghui, the Chinese version of the Clearwisdom website. In the evening we distributed fliers and truth-clarification materials. We installed loudspeakers and hung banners. Then, two practitioners joined us in this effort. Everything went smoothly. We studied the Fa, practiced the exercises and saved sentient beings. We continued like this for six months.
One evening I had a dream. I walked with Teacher on a broad road. There were ponds beside the road, in which there were practitioners stuck in the water. Teacher, who held several children in his arms, said, "Would you help me carry a few of them?" I replied "I have felt great difficulty in my cultivation." Teacher pointed at the sun and said, "I look after you every day, right?" The sun then turned into Teacher's image and I felt very warm. After waking up I felt very ashamed about my selfishness for I only cared about my consummation and refused to help Teacher to save sentient beings.
I went with fellow practitioners to Tiananmen Square to hold up banners at the end of November, four days after thirty six overseas Western practitioners from nineteen countries unfolded banners there. We unfolded the banner and shouted "Restore Teacher's good name! Restore Dafa's name! Falun Dafa is good! and "Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa." The sound was like an atom bomb and the people who heard us were stunned. Then, I saw the sentient beings in my world being happy, passing on the message far and wide, "We have hope. Our Lord is back!"
After returning home we encountered problems at a materials processing site and I was asked to help. I agreed. The work at the materials processing site was hard and dangerous. We shared together and concluded that no matter how busy we were, we needed to do the three things well. We were diligent in what we had to do and the situation at the materials site became stable. We only slept for four or five hours, and worked for over ten hours. We sent forth righteous thoughts, studied the Fa and practiced the exercises.
Teacher opened my third eye and I could see scenes in other dimensions. My primordial spirit could walk out of my body and sometimes I could be in that state for five to six hours. The splendid and magnificent scenes in these dimensions further strengthened my righteous belief in validating the Fa and my courage to eliminate the evil. This went on for one a year and a half.
The processing site moved a few times. Since I was attached to my supernormal powers, I used them to check if it would be safe for me to go out to deliver materials. Gradually I deviated from the Fa once again. Several times my visions were not true. This was the result of demonic interference from my own mind, or "transformation follows mind-intent." Therefore, some practitioners began to be suspicious about my supernormal powers. Besides, the competitive mentality, human thoughts, attachment of lust and mentality of accomplishing a task emerged at the same time.
Practitioners began to pay less attention to our security. Not long after our processing site was destroyed. All seven of us were arrested and imprisoned after a closed door trial. Several of my ribs were broken because of severe beatings and I almost lost my life. It was a very bitter lesson!
3. One Thought Can Be the Only Difference Between a Human Being And a Divine Being
From 2005 to 2007, I began to enlighten to the Fa truth that between a human being and a divine being, there is only a difference of one thought. I believed in Teacher and the Fa.
Teacher said,
"What is human? Sentiments and desires fill the body. What is immortal? Human mentalities do not exist." ("Distinction Between Human and Enlightened Beings" in Hong Yin)
Not until 2007 did I truly enlighten to the meaning of the poem. My enlightenment was poor. I felt deeply ashamed when reading what Teacher had said about practitioners with supernormal abilities.
Teacher said,
"There must be a reason for letting a certain Dafa disciple have supernormal abilities while he cultivates; it must be for the purpose of laying the foundation of something for the beings of the future. That's how enormous Dafa disciples' responsibilities are, that is, you have such important tasks on your shoulders!"
"Such a path has been arranged for you because there are such factors in the cosmos, which have been given to you, and you are entrusted to walk that path. Do you understand what I mean? (Applause) However, a small number of students who have supernormal abilities have failed to live up to their great missions and have not done well. They're smug about the little tiny abilities they have, and their problem even goes beyond showing off, they've even gone on a long detour, some of them have even developed crooked understandings, and still they haven't realized it! You have failed to live up to the great trust placed in you by the cosmos, and that's no minor thing." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
It dawned on me that the Fa had stricter requirements for practitioners with supernormal abilities because they could see the truth. Over the past few years, before the onset of every major persecution, I could see large numbers of toads and colonies of spiders charging toward me.
I enlightened that our surroundings were a dark den in which there were a lot of evil forces, meddling ghosts and dark minions. Therefore we should all pay attention in sending forth righteous thoughts. Whenever we slackened we would be faced with a problem. However, no matter what the evil forces tried to do, the environment would change for the better as soon as we sent forth righteous thoughts. This is just like what Teacher said,
"Every time evil uses bad people to damage us, they are actually promoting us!" ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S. ")
It's true that the days of the evil forces are numbered. Because of Teacher's arrangement and the help from fellow practitioners I persuaded more than 400 inmates to withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers. Most of the prison guards learned the truth about the persecution in the process. Even the warden said, "I know you are all good people." However, we still haven't totally eradicated the arrangements of the evil forces made for us so that we could walk out of the prison nobly and righteously. The evildoers are continuing their persecution. We are confident that the day of our release will come sooner or later. It would be useless for us to attach to time since it would be all in vain if we could not reach consummation.
Two trivial matters happened recently that really shocked me. A guard ordered us to get up and call the roll, a routine procedure. We refused to get up. At the time I had one thought, I am a practitioner and a divine being of Fa-rectification so you can't touch me. We sent forth righteous thoughts and clarified the facts with the help of the inmates, so the guard left.
In closing, I wish to share with you the following Fa truth:
"Supernormal abilities are only by-products of one's cultivation process; they represent neither the level and the height of one's level, nor the power of one's gong potency. Some people develop more of them while others develop fewer. Furthermore, supernormal abilities are not something that can be pursued as the main objective of cultivation. Only when one is determined to truly practice cultivation can one develop them; however, they cannot be treated as the main objective of cultivation. What do you cultivate them for? Do you want to use them among everyday people? You are absolutely prohibited from using them at will among everyday people. Thus, the more you pursue them, the less you get. It is because you are pursuing something. Pursuit itself is an attachment. In cultivation practice, attachments are what need to be eliminated. " (Zhuan Falun)
