(Clearwisdom.net) During the first four years after the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began, when I wasn't illegally detained in detention centers and forced labor camps, I had to move from place to place to avoid persecution. Shortly after I finally returned home, Teacher commented on the article "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People." Local practitioners then suggested that I send an article to the Clearwisdom website about the brutal and severe persecution my family has been and is still experiencing (my wife is still imprisoned).
While imprisoned or homeless, I was not able to study the Fa very well, and I could not keep up with the Fa-rectification's progress. I had a lot of fear, and my attachment to qing was also very strong. During the past several years, my family has been shattered, and my parents, children and relatives subjected to enormous pressure and difficulties. We feared more persecution, and thus we had to suffer more persecution.
To write the article, I fought an internal battle for over a month. I finally finished writing my persecution experience, and the editors published it quickly after I submitted it. When fellow practitioners told me the news, my heart was still pounding. Many practitioners have had similar experiences; in the process of writing experience-sharing articles and submitting them to Clearwisdom, they had to overcome their fears. After I wrote the article, I took on the responsibility of reorganizing and revising fellow practitioners' experience papers. I also wrote some additional experience sharing articles.
The process of reading and revising fellow practitioners' papers gave me many opportunities to quickly improve and elevate myself. Each persecution article is a powerful means of truth-clarification that exposes the cruelty of the persecution and restrains and helps eliminate it. When I read the articles, I was often in tears, and my heart ached. More and more, I clearly saw through the evil nature of the persecution. I also gained a comprehensive view of the persecution of our local practitioners, which helped me to further clarify the truth and save sentient beings.
During that period, our area was one of the areas with the most number of persecution cases revealed on Clearwisdom. We made truth-clarification materials for all these persecution cases and distributed the materials throughout local communities so residents could learn the truth and realize how vicious the persecution is. This greatly frightened the persecutors. Afterwards, they were afraid to carry out the persecution on a large scale. In the process of exposing the persecution of local practitioners, the local coordinators played a very important role. I was not a coordinator at the time. I was deeply touched by their actions, and I realized that the success of each project and each stage of Fa-validation couldn't be achieved without practitioners' cooperation and coordination.
Six months after I returned home, practitioners asked me to help with coordination work. As I experienced this role, three factors helped me to better understand how to work well as a coordinator:
The first factor is to work with fellow practitioners to clarify the truth to people living in the countryside. Our county is located in a mountainous area, and people are spread out over a large region. Many villages formed naturally over time, and getting around is not easy. This made truth clarification and materials distribution very difficult. Although many practitioners made great efforts, we were still not able to reach people in many areas. Teacher asked us:
"This is especially so for the Dafa disciples in Mainland China: each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are people." ("Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People")
We realized that "not omitting a single area where there are people" is Teacher's requirement for us. To meet the requirement, we needed to get all local practitioners involved and work with one another. At the end of 2004, we held an experience sharing conference for all coordinators who live within our county. One coordinator shared how practitioners in his area worked with one another and clarified the truth to people, home by home, village by village. After the conference, all practitioners in our county participated in truth clarification efforts. They explained the truth about Falun Gong and distributed truth-clarification materials to thousands of families. Through this coordinated effort, I had a better understanding of Teacher's teaching, "A great way has no form but exists as a whole." In Fa-validation, many aspects are completed only if practitioners work as one body. Cooperation and coordination are key elements for practitioners to work as one body.
The second factor is related to rescuing fellow practitioners. In March of this year, two practitioners were arrested for clarifying the truth to students. One practitioner managed to escape with righteous thoughts. The other practitioner was held at a detention center. I discussed this incident with several coordinators and suggested that all local practitioners work together to rescue the detained practitioner. First of all, we needed to have the right mindset: we needed to use this opportunity to clarify the truth to people more comprehensively and in depth, expose the evil and save more people. We were not just simply rescuing a fellow practitioner.
In addition, we formulated a comprehensive rescue plan. The following were some of the methods we used: timely disclosing the case on Clearwisdom; uncovering more information about this case to make truth-clarification materials; exposing the case to local people; hanging posters in streets and alleys that stated 'Stop the Persecution and Rescue Practitioners'; clarifying the truth to pertinent departments and individuals via letters, phone calls and face-to-face meetings; and encouraging students and their parents to participate in the rescue effort. One practitioner wrote "An Open Letter to Parents" and distributed it to many people.
I also realized that cultivation is supernormal. For practitioners, one's mind-intent dictates supernormal abilities that help during the Fa rectification. From the moment we first formed the thought of rescuing our fellow practitioner to the time when we discussed a detailed rescue plan, a strong field of righteous thoughts was formed. During discussions, our supernormal abilities were already working, the situation was changing, and the evil factors were dissolving. I shared my thoughts with other practitioners. They all agreed with me, and they shared additional ideas. We formed a harmonious and unbreakable body during the rescue process. Fifteen days later, the detention center released the practitioner. All practitioners who participated in the rescue effort improved and elevated themselves. For me, I gained a deeper appreciation of the importance of the cooperation and coordination during Fa-rectification.
The third factor I wish to share is about forming a larger body with practitioners from neighboring area and other regions. I realized that Fa-rectification cultivation is different from individual cultivation. Fa-rectification cultivation is for practitioners to cultivate as one body. Cultivation does not consider local and national boundaries. A small body of practitioners at one practice site and the one body of practitioners all over the world have the same characteristics. The one body should not have any gaps and should be harmonious and unbreakable. If the cultivation environment is very good in one area, but not very good in the neighboring areas, it will be difficult to maintain a good environment. If we can rectify the environment as a whole, forming a more powerful field of righteous thoughts will be easy.
In our province, our area is one of the areas where the persecution was most brutal. Through the trials and tribulations of the Fa-rectification cultivation during the past several years, practitioners corrected the environment through Fa study and coordination. We made a big effort to maintain our cultivation environment since the larger environment was not very good. After our local practitioners discussed this together, we realized that we should not confine ourselves to a small one-body, we needed to make "all energy channels operate in sync," and "thousands of energy channels will join together" ("The Eighth Talk," subchapter - "The Cosmic Orbit," Zhuan Falun, 2003 translation) to form a larger body.
So, we contacted practitioners from neighboring areas, Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Chengde and Shandong and shared our Fa-rectification cultivation experiences with them. We especially exchanged ideas on how to improve coordination and cooperation, create an environment for group Fa study, the operation of truth-clarification material sites and how to supplement different kinds of truth-clarification materials.
Through my coordination work, I have obtained the following:
I have a deeper understanding of "a great way has no form but exists as a whole." In this most evil and destructive test arranged by the old forces, to completely negate the old forces' arrangements and negate the persecution, practitioners need to form a field of righteous thoughts that can suppress, suffocate and eliminate evil factors. Practitioners need to work as one body to form this field. The size of the field hinges on the size of the one body. The stronger our ability to coordinate and cooperate with each other, the more powerful our capability will become to disintegrate all evil factors. This one body needs every practitioner's support, and the field of righteous thoughts needs every practitioner's harmonization. If all practitioners can discard their egotism and melt into the one body, we can form a strong field of righteous thoughts, eradicate all evil factors, straighten all elements that go astray and correct the environment.
In order to have good coordination and cooperation, every practitioner should study the Fa well and remain clear-headed and mature from the perspective of the Fa. A coordinator's role is also very important. Coordinators need to understand clearly their missions and responsibilities. The two issues of saving people and maintaining a good Fa-rectification cultivation environment should always be on their mind. Teacher said in "Clearheadedness" (Essentials For Further Advancement),
"Any work in Dafa is intended for people to obtain the Fa and for disciples to improve themselves. Anything other than these two points is meaningless."
After July 20, 1999, practitioners entered the stage of Fa-validation and salvation of sentient beings. Fa rectification work has two elements: saving sentient beings and practitioners' improvement. Chinese and overseas practitioners are both clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, and the depth and effect of their work depend largely on the cultivation environment. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun"
"Your most important task is to create for our students a stable cultivation environment that's free of disturbances. This is your greatest responsibility."
Looking at the current stage of Fa-rectification, whether it is for the salvation of sentient beings or for practitioners' improvement, we need to have "a stable cultivation environment that's free of disturbances." This environment needs every practitioner's participation.
When coordinators carry out their work, they need to put themselves in it. They need to perform the role of coordinator well, and they can only do so if they cultivate well. Teacher said in "A Person in Charge is Also a Cultivator" (Essentials for Further Advancement):
"If you are doing well in your cultivation, you will do well in spreading the Fa in your local area and students will do better in their cultivation. If this isn't the case, you will harm the Fa."
When coordinators do not pay attention to their own cultivation while doing Dafa work, when they face persecution, disturbances, or practitioners' disputes and arguments, they may not search inward for their own human mentality and attachments. They may only look outward to search for solutions and answers. This will create loopholes, and the evil could take advantage of these omissions. Some may become disturbed and drop levels. Others may bring tribulations to themselves or fellow practitioners. They may even bring damage to Falun Dafa.
When the evil persecution started, why did so many practitioners who were in charge of practice sites and who were assistants drop in levels or even turn against Falun Dafa? It was not because they did not do Dafa work well. It was because when they did Dafa work, they did not also consider their own improvement. They did not study the Fa well and did not really cultivate. Instead, they had attachment to doing work and treated Dafa work as ordinary work. What a grave lesson we have learned!
I myself also have many areas in which I am not doing very well. Sometimes I am in low spirits. I also have a strong attachment to comfort. Sometimes, I do Dafa work out of an attachment to doing work and with an attachment to selfishness and validating myself. I was not always diligent in studying the Fa and cultivating myself. However, I learned from my mistakes. Coordinators' grand mission is very special, and their responsibilities are significant. The other day I wrote couplets to warn and encourage myself. The first scroll states: With the grand mission bestowed on me, I heard Dafa's drum roll. The second scroll is: Surpass myself, let go of attachments to fame, interests, and sentimentality. The horizontal scroll states: Strive forward diligently!
The above are some understandings that I have gained as a coordinator during the past two years. Please kindly point out anything improper. I would like to use this most precious opportunity to send greetings to our benevolent Teacher, my fellow practitioners in China and overseas practitioners!
(The Second Mainland China Falun Dafa Practitioners Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference on the Internet)
