Written on December 3, 2002
(Clearwisdom.net)
When my cultivation encountered a large number of hardships, I asked myself, "How can I insist on firmly practicing Dafa?"
I remember it was on September 29, 1999 that I openly expressed that I still practice Falun Dafa, and for doing so, I was sent to a detention center. The iron door and window told me that I had lost my personal freedom. Was this a place for someone like me to be? How can this be where a good person has to stay? I didn't do anything wrong. After practicing Falun Gong, I have become healthy, resolved many conflicts in my life and made many contributions to society. It is indeed unimaginably wrong for so many good people to be imprisoned and persecuted.
The feeling of being detained in jail was not good, and it was hard for me to fall asleep at night. I started to think if there was anything wrong with me openly saying that I practice Falun Dafa. Yet, at the same time, if I were to remain detained here, I would not only lose my freedom, but might also lose my career, my social status, and even my family--everything that had been obtained through many years of effort and was envied by other people. Is Falun Dafa really worth my pursuit and investigation at all costs and without hesitation? In a state of calm consideration, I remembered one scene after another from my life before and after I began practicing Dafa. On one hand, after practicing Dafa, I have come to deeply understand the principle that good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil and my mind has been purified. I have become more and more broad-minded and no longer deceive and fight with other people for fame, self-interests, and sentimentality, and so no longer waste time feeling disturbed or day dreaming over those things. Instead, I have dissolved countless conflicts and malignant incidents. My life has become simple, broad, and harmonious, and I have come to live a clear and meaningful life. I understand that I should conform my words and actions to the principle of "Zhen-Shan-Ren" (Truth-Compassion-Tolerance) and thus become more and more noble until becoming a Great Enlightened Being, Buddha, Tao or God.
On the other hand, before I practiced Dafa, as I got older, I unwittingly incurred serious diseases and my body strength obviously decreased. Health and happiness became beautiful memories of the past. Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, all kinds of sports and exercises, various Qigong and religions, including the study and investigation of Yijing (Book of Changes) could not help my body make fundamental changes. Only the cultivation of Falun Dafa let me find to my surprise that my health is in my own hands! My body has become healthy and light like never before! Moreover, my friends and family and myself have all more or less witnessed the true, beautiful and magnificent scenes of Dafa in other dimensions. These have all fully shown that Falun Dafa is righteous and good. The more I thought about it, the more assured I felt in my mind that I was not wrong. Falun Dafa benefits the country and the people, and it is right for me to openly practice it!
After repeated thought and proof, I once again showed my unshakable belief in Dafa. It was during the second morning that policemen interrogated every one of us. I remembered that when the policeman of about my age interrogated me, he stared at me blankly and didn't record anything after he learned my position and especially when he heard my answer that "I will still practice Falun Dafa." He stopped writing and asked me, "Will you feel regret?" I then told him how I validated Dafa and how I had benefited from practicing Dafa. Not until he saw that I indeed would not feel regret, did he start to write down "keep practicing." On the same day, I regained my freedom.
Later, I experienced the difficult times of detention and other hardships such as disease karma and physical pains, etc. Twice more, I again looked at the position of Dafa in my mind. I asked myself, "How can I insist on practicing Dafa with my mind unmoved?" Looking back at my cultivation over the past few years, I was in a dangerous situation many times and became safe later because I persisted in practicing Dafa and answered my own questions in cultivation relatively well. When I encountered extreme physical and mental pains and also faced the threat of losing everything in ordinary people's society as well as the choice to "be released if I could say against my will that I would stop practicing Falun Gong," my mind was as peaceful as still water and stayed unmoved. Not surprisingly, Dafa showed me the miracle of "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead." After passing the tests with righteous thoughts and some looking inward on several occasions, I have established an unshakable determination in cultivation of Dafa. At the same time, my personal experience has proven that Falun Dafa is truly good.
I think I no longer need to ask myself again, "Because what you are cultivating is the ultimate Great Fa of the cosmos, because you have validated Dafa with righteous thoughts, and because you have not fallen during the massive tribulation." ("The Disciples' Magnificence")
