(Clearwisdom.net) I am in my sixties. More than 50 years of my life was under Communist Party rule. Since I was born in a poor family, I was considered by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as "having the right root and a good sapling." I joined the Young Pioneers, the Youth League in the 1950's and the evil CCP in the 1960's. I have been indoctrinated in its poison for half a century. What I saw, heard, spoke, and thought every day was the evil culture of the CCP. Through the years, the bad substances and thought karma were accumulating. Every particle of my body has been marinated in the poisonous brine of the CCP culture for a long time. The way I look at things, my perspectives, and my viewpoints have all fallen into the traps of this evil culture. It is inconceivable to the ordinary people, especially the young people, how seriously I was damaged and how hard it is for me to cultivate. The following is my experience in eliminating the CCP evil poison with the laws of the universe.
Replacing Atheism with Faith
Under long-term indoctrination, atheism has been deeply rooted in my mind. The hard shell it formed was a big barrier to me attaining the Fa. At that time, I was haunted by chronic ailments and my wife was diagnosed with terminal disease. The two of us were looking for ways to save our lives. One of our friends introduced us to Falun Dafa. When I first read the book Zhuan Falun to my bedridden wife, the first sentence in Lunyu, "The Buddha law is the most profound," caused a stir in my mind. I said to myself, "I am an atheist." When I read on, I had a strong thought against it. Although veteran practitioners told me again and again not to read with any notions and to finish the book from cover to cover in a week or two, I could not follow their advice. I was hindered by my many deep-rooted human notions and only read Zhuan Falun from time to time. When my wife asked me to read it to her, I would read it. Otherwise, I would not read it on my own. Therefore, it took me a month to finish Master's book. Now I see that both atheism and "the Internationale" (the Communist anthem) are the evil CCP's culture. The latter is a promotion of the view of the CCP specter in the form of a song, so that it echoes in people's minds.
Benevolent Master did not give up on me, even though I had very strong attachments. Master used different ways to enlighten me. Soon after I started to practice, during my meditation I saw clearly a Maitreya Buddha wearing a golden cassock lying on a golden slope, smiling at me. Though the Buddha did not say a word, he was obviously very happy and very kind. By his side, there was a huge platinum plate, reaching into the sky. I could not read the words engraved on it. It was such a spectacular scene right in front of my eyes, something I had never seen in my life. I was shocked and overwhelmed by it.
I opened my eyes, and everything was gone. When I closed my eyes again, the scene did not reappear. I did not believe in God or Buddha. Why did I see such a spectacle? Later, some veteran practitioners told me that Master opened my Tianmu (third eye) and encouraged me to study the Fa and practice Falun Gong. Then I read the section in Zhuan Falun "The Issue of Tianmu." I realized that Master was strengthening my confidence in cultivation. It was also one of the changes brought about by the practice. I was greatly moved. Later, when I practiced the fifth exercise, Strengthening Divine Powers, I saw many miraculous scenes and I felt that my body was lifted up many times. I felt the Falun spinning fast in my lower abdomen to cleanse my body. I had to use the bathroom afterwards. I went to the bathroom many times, but I didn't feel exhausted. Sometimes, I felt the Falun spinning in my head, my head hurt and swelled, and I sweated a lot. Afterwards, I felt more clear-headed, light, and energetic. Then I read in Zhuan Falun, "The Issue of Pursuit," in which Master says,
"Because we are leading you to the righteous way, during In-Triple-World-Fa cultivation practice, your body will be purified constantly until it is completely transformed by high-energy matter."
When I read that before, I did not quite understand it, nor did I pay much attention to it. Now I gradually feel the supernormal power of purifying the body.
In "Heavenly Circuit (Chapter Eight of Zhuan Falun)," Master says,
"The great heavenly circuit directly involves practicing gong. Thus, it brings about different conditions and forms of gong. It will also bring us a very special state. .... In fact, let me tell you that a person can levitate once the great heavenly circuit is opened--it is just that simple."
Gradually I came to understand the Fa principles. I learned that I should not have an attachment of zealotry. What amazed me most was the miraculous improvement of my health. Over the past 30 years, I have been afflicted with almost a dozen diseases. The most serious ones are Crohn's disease, heart disease, brain shrinkage, and prostate enlargement which doctors warned me many times of the possibility that it might develop into cancer.
I was hospitalized in many well-equipped hospitals and was never cured. Several months after I began to practice Falun Gong, I said farewell to the hospitals and the medicine. My wife experienced an even more miraculous improvement in her health. We were two veteran patients. The state-of-the-art medical technology simply failed to help us. However, with practicing Falun Gong, we regained our health quickly and none of the human sciences could explain it. Was that the evidence of divine power on us practitioners that surpassed any human efforts? It was a turning point of my life and made me cultivate Falun Dafa firmly.
There was another amazing incident. In 2000, my wife went out to clarify the truth with another practitioner. As soon as they boarded a train and put down the bags with truth clarifying materials, several policemen came to search for suspicious bags, obviously targeting Falun Gong practitioners. My wife and her friend started to recite Master's "Hongyin" [a collection of poems] silently while looking at the police. It seemed that the police did not see them. They searched everyone's bags except the ones with truth clarification materials.
After we left China, we realized that in many countries, from the President to the common people, most believe in the existence of God and revere God. Their behaviors, therefore, are guided by rules of heaven. Countries where people believe in God enjoy real democracy, freedom, human rights, prosperity, and a stable society. In China, on the contrary, the Chinese Communist Party does not believe in God, nor do they revere heaven and earth. The officials are so corrupt, and they dare to embezzle. They dare to commit crimes, spread lies, and abuse the law. As a result, the citizens suffer a great deal. People who believe in God are noble, while the atheists are base.
Why is atheism so hard for me to break free of? It is because I have been brainwashed and poisoned for a long time under the evil CCP. The concept has become so natural and rational, and it is deeply ingrained in my mind and even my subconscious. That is the deep-rooted CCP culture. It is the detailed arrangement of the old forces, preventing me from cultivating Dafa. Only after I eliminate it from the microscopic level to the utmost surface, and in other dimensions, can I return to my true nature of revering heaven and God.
2. Eliminating the Evil Party Culture of "Getting Political" With "Non -Political"
On April 25, 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to peacefully appeal for justice for Falun Gong at the State Council Appeal Office, close to the Zhongnanhai government compound. Yet the CCP said they were besieging the Zhongnanhai compound (the location of China's central government) and getting "political." Because I did not study the Fa well, I could not see from the Fa-perspective the reason for the appeal. I thought that Beijing was the heart of the country and we could not afford to have any social turbulence. After the evil started the persecution of Falun Gong, I knew it was wrong for a government to do that, yet I did not agree with the practitioners who went to Beijing and to their local governments to appeal. When I received a copy of "Serious Teachings" by the editors of the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, I thought that it was fake (at that time, we were in China and did not have access to Internet). It was not until my relative called from overseas to verify that it was an article on Minghui/Clearwisdom and he vowed its authenticity with his life that we started to read it seriously. In the article, Master says,
"I'm happy for those disciples who have stepped forward--future great enlightened beings--to validate Dafa during this time that's been over a year. Whether they are imprisoned or lose their human lives for persevering in Dafa cultivation, they achieve Consummation."
Master also says,
"I feel sorry for those people who aren't able to step forward when facing the serious tests amidst the tribulations, and who use various excuses to disguise their fears. Moreover, with the craftiest human ways of thinking, they claim that to step forward is to get involved in politics, to fight with people, and so on. In addition to deceiving themselves with these excuses, they also try to make those who want to step forward waver."
Master's serious words pointed directly to my heart. I felt ashamed. I was just afraid that people would say that I "got political" and "fought with the government." Deep down in my heart, I was afraid of losing my job and bringing trouble to my family members who did not practice Falun Gong. In other words, I had a strong human mindset. After studying the Fa and sharing with practitioners, I understood that the April 25, 1999, appeal was not against the Party or intended to bring down the government. We were only there to let them know the truth of Falun Gong with a kind intention. We did not violate any of the state laws. We only hoped that the government would correct its mistakes. I soon reached an agreement with my wife. We dropped our plan of traveling to another province to clarify the truth and gave up the fee of several thousand yuan that we prepaid for the trip. We took a flight to Beijing next day (it was National Day) to distribute truth-clarifying materials. We wrote letters to the leaders of various state departments. When we returned to our hometown, we continued to clarify the truth to people. Later, my wife went to Beijing again with other practitioners to validate the Fa. They were detained, but I handled the pressure with ease. I clarified the truth to the director of the board of my company openly and helped him get rid of the notion that Falun Gong was getting political.
Because I did not completely realize and rid of the evil communist element of "getting political," I was confused again after reading the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. I wondered whether that was getting political. I thought that the Nine Commentaries not only discussed the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP, but also addressed a lot of political events in history. It completely revealed the true nature of CCP and I thought it might provoke misunderstanding in some people. Fortunately, at that time, we were clarifying the truth in Manhattan, New York, so we were able to hear Master's lectures, to read Master's new articles and to share with other practitioners. I soon purged the confusion.
Master says clearly in "We Are Not 'Getting Political',"
"Falun Gong is not involved in politics. That's something lived experience has shown, and it is something the world has recognized. If our efforts to stop and expose the persecution by evildoers and the CCP are now being labeled as getting political, then we might as well spell things out completely--like what Falun Gong is, what the CCP is, and why the CCP wants to persecute Falun Gong. As for what Falun Gong is, Dafa disciples have explained that to the world's people in their all-out efforts to clarify the facts, and people the world over have come to understand. Then what's left is to help the world's people see what the Communist Party is about and why it persecutes Falun Gong. And that is done, in fact, to stop the persecution, not to get political. We have no political motives....We expose the evildoers and that vile party in order to stop the wicked persecution, and it is done to awaken and save the sentient beings who have been deceived by the evil...The "Nine Commentaries" aim to save all beings whose minds have been poisoned by the evil, which includes Communist Party members, those in the CCP's most powerful organs, and the common people. The goal is to help beings from all walks of life see clearly the factors behind the Communist Party."
What impressed me most is that "We have no political motives" and "it is done to awaken and save the sentient beings who have been deceived by the evil." It is the Fa-principle that Master has always been teaching us, to save sentient beings. We know very clearly that we are not any kind of organization, or political entity. We have no political agenda, not do we seek political power. Then why did the evil CCP fabricate lies to say that we are getting political? Master says clearly,
"...The fact is, whoever has something to say about the Party will be called 'getting political,' and that is in turn used to deceive the Chinese people. Actually, the Chinese people are fearful of and attach a negative sense to 'getting involved with politics' because of the very Party-culture that the Party has instilled in them."
Reflecting on my previous experience, I was really frightened by the thought of "getting political," especially in the Cultural Revolution. I was first a "Red Guard" to criticize and beat other people, then a "Member of the Anti-revolutionary Group" to be beaten. I was one step away from being dragged to the stage and criticized in public. In the "Grand Unity of the Revolutionaries" period, I was almost beaten to death. After graduation, a statement was put in my file saying that I had close ties with the "5.16 Anti-revolutionary Bloc." Because of all this, I tried to stay away from politics.
The political campaigns initiated by the evil CCP have made people panic and become sick. Everyone is afraid of being labeled as "getting political" and wants to stay away from politics. The CCP takes this label as their patent to instill fear in people's minds so that they will not "get political." The label is deceptive as well as provocative. As long as people hear that someone is getting political they think that he is against the government, intends to bring chaos to the society and seek power, and he should be suppressed. The label incites both terror and hatred in people's mind and they have developed negative thoughts about it. Actually it is just a part of the evil CCP culture. Why did I initially think that practitioners' appeal to the government, after the "4.25 Incident" and the persecution started, as getting political and "making trouble for the government?" When the Nine Commentaries was published, again I had some confusion about whether it was "getting political" or not. The reason is that I was poisoned by various forms of CCP culture (including the concept of "getting political"). It is a thorough arrangement of the old forces. The poisonous elements of the CCP culture invaded into my most microscopic being to prevent me from assimilating to Dafa. I have to completely eliminate the evil poison of "getting political" and keep my mind clean and clear. I should speak to people about the Nine Commentaries and withdraw from the CCP in a bold and open manner and work to save more sentient beings. When we called to clarify the truth to the people in Mainland China, some of whom are veteran party members and cadres, none of them said that we were getting political. It seems that my worries were pointless. Sometimes, upon my first call, they would say that they wanted to withdraw from the evil organization of the CCP. While other times, I would call people first, and my family members, who are also practitioners, would call them for the second and third time. Most of them asked us to post their statements of withdrawal from the CCP and the Youth League.
3. Eliminating the Poisonous Concept that the "CCP Used to Be Good"
Before the Nine Commentaries was published, I thought that the CCP was originally good. I thought that it only became bad after it repeatedly used the various political campaigns to hurt the innocent, especially through the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Massacre, and the suppression of Falun Gong, and later on it became completely corrupt. After reading the Nine Commentaries, I realized that everything discussed in them was all factual, and that the Commentaries were well grounded and well documented. Reading them several times, I realized that the evil party was actually a poisonous embryo at birth. It took Marx's so called "Communism" as its goal, seizing power and keeping its totalitarian rule by means of violence. It broke the law of not killing from the beginning, killing enemies with guns as well as landlords and well-to-do working people without guns. Then it eliminated the thugs and bandits who had fought for it. It also killed many dissidents within its own group.
During the CCP's "land reform," our family was assigned some land and a house that had been taken from the landlords. It seemed to be a gain, possessing the land and house. Now viewing it from the cultivation perspective, we actually lost a lot of virtue for getting that and created a lot of karma. Since we accumulated the black substance (karma), we have to pay for it. The retribution our family encountered afterwards proved that principle well. I frequently had the same recurring nightmare whether I was in my hometown or somewhere else. It went like this: I was having a sound sleep in the landlord's house. All of a sudden, a ghost jumped down from the upper floor and climbed up on me. It grabbed my neck and squeezed hard. The nightmare had haunted me for two decades. What's more, one of my younger brothers got married and lived in the house for many years. He had several children. Yet he was stricken by a strange disease. Although my family and relatives were all helping their family, he passed away after suffering for more than ten years. His wife and children left the house and did not want to return. Our family was in deep sorrow. No one dared to live in the house any more and left it empty for nearly twenty years. This was the house taken from the landlord during the land reform and assigned to us.
The retribution was heart wrenching and beyond the control of human power, and it certainly could not be changed by the evil specter of the CCP. The CCP members created a great deal of karma for themselves when killing the landlords. They also dragged the farmers into the same boat. They gave the land to the farmers, but soon took it away to establish communes. They forced the farmers to believe that the land could produce ten times above the normal yield. In the end, numerous farmers starved to death. How can the CCP claim to be the "Great Savior of People?" They are in fact the evil specter that harms people.
Only when completely revealing the true nature of the evil CCP and eliminating all its poisonous elements, as well as the thought karma it provokes in us, can we really purify ourselves and fundamentally save sentient beings.