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An Eighty-Five Year Old Practitioner in China Strives to Do the Three Things Well

August 05, 2005 |  

(Clearwisdom.net)

A Long Cherished Wish

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I went to a Buddhist convent with my family to burn incense out of respect for Buddha. As I entered the periphery of the convent I could see a dense grove. There were green pine and cypress trees on both sides of the passageway. Ascending the stairs of the passageway, I entered the convent and found it very clean and spacious. The statue of Buddha was filled with a solemn silence. After kowtowing to the Buddha together with my family we toured the convent, which was clean and quiet. The nuns were kind and amiable. I felt as if my real life and the convent were two different worlds and this thought was deep in my heart for many years. Entering middle age, I was struggling in a sea of bitterness toward human society. I still had thoughts of becoming a nun. I envied the nuns who sounded bells in the morning and beat drums in the evening, reading scriptures under a green lamp and living a life without worldly desires.

Having Learned Falun Gong

In 1999, when my daughter came for a visit, she brought with her a complete set of Teacher Li Hongzhi's works. By chance I picked up Zhuan Falun and browsed a few pages. The more I read, the more I liked it. I felt that it was the teaching that I had been searching for all my life. I was so fond of the book that I would not even put it down. I was so fortunate to learn this Fa and my dream, after dozens of years, had come true. This Fa is very good, very profound and very righteous. The Fa passed on to us by Teacher is the Fa of the universe, the principle of the universe "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" is the highest Buddha Fa. One may come across such good fortune in tens of millions of years. How lucky I am to have the opportunity to obtain the Fa. That year, I was 79 years old.

After obtaining the Fa in March or April, 1999 I began to get up about 4 o'clock in the morning to go to the practice site to join the group practice. On the first day I practiced the exercises, I had a stomachache, vomited and kept going to the bathroom. I vomited continuously the whole afternoon. I enlightened to the fact that it was Teacher cleaning my body. On the following day I again went to the practice site to join the group exercises. This continued until July 20, when the persecution of Dafa and Dafa practitioners began.

Catching Up with Fellow Practitioners

In mid-March 2000, my husband suffered a sudden stroke. After emergency treatment he was out of danger but he was not in his right mind. He could not look after himself, and he stayed in the hospital for more than three years. I was looking after him in the hospital all that time. This greatly affected my cultivation and I had no time to meet with fellow practitioners. However, one of the practitioners showed great concern for me, often sending me Falun Dafa material and Teacher's new articles. How precious it was to obtain Teacher's new articles! I knew Teacher would not leave me behind and I was very grateful to the practitioner who sent in Teacher's new articles. The truth is like a beacon illuminating the path of my cultivation, making me even more steadfast in my Fa study.

In June 2003 my husband passed away at the age of 86. We had been together for 68 years.

Rereading Zhuan Falun is like listening to Teacher. I gradually calmed down, did away with the interference of human sentiments, concentrated on studying the Fa and practicing the exercises as I strived to catch up with other practitioners.

Clarifying the Truth to People from All Walks of Life

I began to have contact with several fellow practitioners. In our sharing I found that I lagged far behind other practitioners. How could I catch up with them? The answer was to study the Fa more earnestly and study it well. Only by assimilating to the Fa could I catch up with the process of Fa-rectification.

The first thing for me was to step forward to clarify the truth since there were so many sentient beings that needed to be saved. When I began to talk to other people, I often stuttered. At that time there were not such beautiful truth-clarification cards and materials like we have today, so we would cut red paper into strips and use a brush pen to write "Falun Dafa is good", "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance", and "Treat Dafa kindly and you will have good returns."

Later on, when we had printed materials, truth-clarification got a lot easier. We delivered those materials to residences in an effort to tell people the facts of the persecution of Falun Gong. Our purpose is to help all beings see the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When they truly understand the truth about Falun Dafa and get rid of their misunderstandings, they will have a beautiful future.

The next thing was to mail the truth-clarification material. Because the CCP compiled slanderous things about Falun Dafa and put them into primary and secondary school textbooks to poison children and young adults, I wrote letters to the principals and teachers of the primary and secondary schools (and enclosed truth-clarification material), asking them not to use the slanderous lies about Falun Dafa to poison the innocent hearts of the pupils, and not to be unworthy of the trust of their parents.

I sent letters like this to the schools in the county, the city and province. I also sent letters of kind advice to the heads of the police departments at the county, city and provincial levels, advising them not to aid and abet the evildoers who persecute Dafa practitioners. I mailed letters of kind advice to people at all levels. I also mailed letters to prisons and forced labor camps, as well as to the heads of the prisons and forced labor camps.

Truth-Clarification Material

With the increased demand for truth-clarification material, production sites have been set up all over the country. Those with the ability set up home material production sites. Not long afterwards, fellow practitioners suggested that we set up a production site in my home. My house was spacious and there was only a helper who had worked there for more than ten years and me, so it was relatively safe. I agreed.

Typing, printing materials, and using a mouse were easy for my grandchildren, but I was 85 years old and had never touched a computer. With the help of fellow practitioners, I very quickly learned to print all kinds of material including the Clearwisdom Weekly newspaper, truth-clarification pamphlets, and to burn CDs. My life became more meaningful.

The pamphlets and the Clearwisdom Weekly we printed were very colorful with excellent text and photos. They were praised by other practitioners. The demand for our pamphlets was always greater than the supply. This was a source of encouragement to our production site. I was encouraged to work harder to print more pamphlets.

The printer was not always problem-free. Sometimes it would stop printing half way through a job. Sometimes it would get a paper jam, and still other times the printing would be blurred. All these things needed technical support. However, I had not learned all these skills. I could only solve some minor problems. Sometimes I would send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference. I named one printer Mingming and the other Huihui. I would say silently, "Mingming and Huihui, you are intelligent beings. Now is the Fa-rectification period. All Dafa practitioners are seizing this time to save sentient beings in accordance with Teacher's requirements. You must work diligently and produce more material to contribute your share to saving sentient beings."

Producing the material has never affected my practicing the exercises. I get up at half past four in the morning to do the sitting meditation first and after that the other four sets of exercises. I start printing truth-clarification material after breakfast. Sometimes when the two printers refused to work, I would take the opportunity to go out to clarify the truth in person. This is also very important since so many sentient beings are waiting to be saved.

Under Teacher's Compassionate Care There May Be Danger, but No Harm

One afternoon I came across two high school students and gave each of them a pamphlet containing "Huisheng," which are suitable for high school students. They were very happy to accept it. After that, I came across several others, and I also clarified the truth to them. I talked about the staged self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, the arrest of Falun Gong practitioners at will, the facts about the inhuman torture, and the death and injuries to practitioners as a result of the torture. I told them that we were the victims of persecution. They said, "We know about all that. We have learned from the Internet that many countries are supporting Falun Gong, your Teacher has received more than 1,000 awards and people in dozens of countries practice Falun Gong."

After handing out all the truth-clarification material, I walked home with light steps. On my way, I rested on a stone chair by a lake, where I met a colleague of mine. Two policemen came toward us and asked if we had seen a white-haired old lady handing out pamphlets. My former colleague, who was sitting beside me, answered, "We didn't see anyone." She said that we were colleagues for many years and we lived in the area. I did not say anything but sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind the policemen. Not long after, they left.

Another time when I left copies of pamphlets on each of the shelves in a supermarket, a security guard stopped me. He said, "We noticed that you are handing out pamphlets. If it were not for your old age, we would send you to the police. Hurry up and go!" I guessed that maybe they had seen me on their security cameras. Although it was dangerous, there was no harm.

The leaders from my former work unit harassed me constantly. Sometimes they sent people to my home and sometimes made phone calls. One day my daughter sent me a big bag of Falun Dafa material. When I opened it and spread the materials on the table, the doorbell rang. I was the only one at home, so I had to go and open the door. It turned out to be two people from my work unit. They had come to check up on me. One person guarded me and the other looked around the house. When she went straight toward the door of the room where I put the Dafa materials, I was a bit worried. However, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. She entered the room, then turned around and came out of the room, so she did not see anything in the room. Before she left she said, "Don't go out to hand out pamphlets!" Once again I came across danger, but there was no harm.

Two months later they came again. When they saw me open the door, they left without even coming in. Originally I thought there might be trouble. I realized that Teacher's Law Bodies are protecting us all the time.

Denying Interference from the CCP

At around midnight one winter evening, I had cramps in both legs that would not abate. Normally when I had cramps it would only last for a few minutes, and they seldom occurred since I started practicing Falun Gong. This time they attacked my thighs and the pain was unbearable. I thought I was going to die. However, I realized that as long as I am alive I should still try my best to save sentient beings, besides I had not reached Consummation yet. I could not leave this world like that, so I begged Teacher for help. In about 7 or 8 minutes there was some relief. Around 4 o'clock in the morning the acute pain was gone.

I enlightened that it was the persecution by the CCP. At that time I was printing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Under CCP totalitarian rule, during the endless political movements, tens of millions of Chinese people were persecuted to death. As a result, kind-hearted people live in terror of the CCP and keep quiet out of fear.

I realized that I had loopholes. Last winter I was reluctant to step out and clarify the truth. Because of this attachment to seeking comfort, I slacked off in my Fa study and thought that printing materials at home was also doing Dafa work. Some practitioners praised me for the material I had printed. They said the colors were bright and both the pictures and text were excellent. They also said they wanted to use my printouts as master copies. Upon hearing the comments my attachment to complacency appeared. Other practitioners said that it was excellent that people my age could still learn to use a computer. Then my showing off mentality popped up and I really thought I was great.

I did not take the initiative to eliminate these bad thoughts. I knew that I was 85 years old and maybe my life should have ended a long time ago. The time I have today was given to me by Teacher, to practice. If I am not diligent in my cultivation and do not cherish the time I was given, my life could be in danger at any time.

The process of Fa-rectification has come to the surface. However, there are still a lot of people waiting to be saved. Elderly practitioners face the issue of shorter time and a narrower path, so they have to walk their path well. They also need to cherish the precious time, because if there is any slacking off, they will face life-threatening danger. Therefore, we must walk the path of cultivation well, and strictly abide by Teacher's requirements of doing the three things and doing them well. We must be worthy of the title of "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples" bestowed by Teacher. After tens of thousands of years, isn't today the day we have been waiting for?