(Clearwisdom.net) During the past several years of their cultivation, Fa-Rectification period Falun Dafa practitioners have gone through the bloody persecution perpetrated by Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan's evil group and the Chinese Communist Party. Through the righteous thoughts and righteous actions of validating the Fa, exposing the evil, and clarifying the truth, I've come to truly understand the magnificent responsibility that Falun Dafa practitioners have shouldered. Assisting Teacher in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings is our great and sacred historical mission.
In Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People Teacher said,
"For a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, personal liberation is not the goal of cultivation: when you came, saving sentient beings was your great aspiration, and that is the responsibility and mission history has bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification. Thus great numbers of beings are to be saved by you. Dafa disciples, don't forsake the magnificent responsibility that has been bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification, and even less should you disappoint those beings, as you are now their only hope for entering the future. For this reason, all Dafa disciples, students both new and veteran, should get to work and begin comprehensively clarifying the truth."
I realized that in the past several years we hadn't spend much time in the countryside validating the Fa and clarifying the truth to save sentient beings, so I felt it was very important to go to the countryside.
Going to Countryside to Save Sentient Beings by Clarifying the Truth
In August 2004 two practitioners and I went to the countryside to distribute truth-clarification materials about Falun Dafa. We had several relatives there. We prepared and packed CDs and booklets of truth-clarification materials and planned to cover four adjacent counties.
First we rented a tricycle from one of my relatives. We sent forth a strong righteous thought: "Completely disintegrate the dark minions, rotten evil spirits. and all evils that interfere with distributing truth-clarification materials."
"Confident and magnanimous, I rectify the colossal firmament.
Huge is the adversity that accompanies me, as I journey Heaven and Earth.
Credit and honor are not what is on my mind.
As I rectify heaven, rectify earth, and rectify all lives.
True thoughts, a grand wish, and diamond-like will.
Recreate with one thought the enormity." ("In One Thought" from "Hong Yin" II)
Being new there, we had some fear initially. We recalled Teacher's words in "Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)," "If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist." So we got rid of our fear and decided to go to a certain county first. I asked my relative there to gather his other relatives to his home so we could clarify the truth to them face to face.
We arrived there at 7 p.m. More than 20 people, all farmers, were already gathered. We sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind them and cleaned up the field in the house. Then we started telling them about Falun Gong, the Zhongnanhai event, the staged "Tiananmen Self-Immolation Incident," and so on. They asked us, "Since Falun Gong is so good, why doesn't Jiang Zemin let people practice it? What kind of person is Jiang Zemin?" We answered them in detail. Our discussion lasted for more than two hours. They all understood the truth. Then we passed out CDs and other truth-clarification materials. They took them gratefully.
They said, "If you hadn't come here we'd never have known the truth, all we'd know is what the television says. How can the CCP lie to us? The CCP is destroying itself as it cheats the public." We left at 9:40 p.m. for the other villages. We sent forth righteous thoughts to disintegrate the evil factors that interfere with distributing truth-clarification materials. We also recited Teacher's poem "Eliminating Evil" from Hong Yin II together.
"A hundred thousand miles, this vehicle travels.
Racing to slay evil, brandishing swords.
The hand, erect, props up the falling sky.
Fa-rectification averts the brewing tragedy."
We also sent a thought to keep the dogs from barking and people from coming out while we distributed truth-clarification materials. Our tricycle was a bit noisy, but no dog barked and nobody came out when we left the truth-clarification materials at each door in several villages. That's the mighty power of Dafa.
Throughout the night we were thinking that we were the human manifestation of the divine, and that our mission was very sacred and magnificent, and we kept sending forth pure and holy righteous thoughts. We did it this way four times, distributing more than two thousand pieces of truth-clarification materials to more than 30 villages in four counties. With our esteemed Teacher's immense benevolent protection and help we were able to give the farmers the truth-clarification materials so that they could understand the truth and be saved.
Clarifying the Truth and Persuading People to Quit the CCP
After the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published, we read it carefully several times. The Nine Commentaries objectively exposes the CCP's evil nature--wicked, deceitful, provocative, unleashing the scum of society and guilty of espionage, robbery, violence, murder and control. During its past criminal movements such as the "Three Anti Campaign," the "Five Anti Campaign," the "Four Clean-ups," the "Great Leap Forward," the "Cultural Revolution" and throughout its current campaign of persecution against Falun Gong, the CCP has killed or caused the deaths of more than 80 million people, committing grievous crimes against the Chinese people.
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005,"
"The wicked Party has done evil for so many years. The key thing is for Dafa disciples to use righteous thoughts to purge the evil specters that control people, and then clarify the truth to them again. Go forth with wisdom. You are saving people, after all."
"So for our Dafa disciples, clarifying the facts in actuality far transcends your personal cultivation. Your personal cultivation only makes for the fulfillment of one being, yet the role that you serve in saving sentient beings makes for the fulfillment of a great multitude of Main-Body beings, boundless numbers of beings, and even greater cosmic bodies--that's how big what you are shouldering is!" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
We don't think that it is difficult to clarify the truth and persuade people to quit the CCP as long as we study the Fa more and well to have immense tolerance and benevolence toward people. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.," "Your righteous thoughts and everything you accomplish come from the Fa, so no matter how busy you are, don't neglect Fa-study."
a. Starting with Relatives and Friends
When Fa Rectification progressed to saving sentient beings by persuading them to quit the CCP, my wife and I devoted ourselves to it right away. The first thing we did was to invite our close relatives and former colleagues to our home. But when we started talking about quitting the CCP, one person got very angry, "Aren't you against the CCP? If others hear this, won't they think you are anti-CCP? I won't quit." We argued with him, and the discussion ended in vain. We were very hasty and thought he couldn't be saved because he was too poisoned by the CCP.
Teacher said,
"In true cultivation you have to cultivate your mind, you have to cultivate inward, to look inward--you can't look outward." (Zhuan Falun)
Teacher also said,
"If each person can examine himself, then that is cultivation. If you didn't examine yourself then you have not cultivated." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")
I realized that we must look inward, and then we could elevate our hearts and our levels. Because we have the human attachments to caring for relatives, competition, and selfishness, and because we lacked benevolence, we'd become impetuous, which negatively impacted our efforts in persuading people to quit the CCP.
As more and more publications of Teacher's lectures at Fa conferences and other articles were released, we gradually came to understand what Fa Rectification period Dafa practitioners need to do and how to do it. Teacher said,
"Do this compassionately no matter who it is, and with a compassion that can melt steel you'll be able to do it well." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
"Pause for a moment of self-reflection, and increase your righteous thoughts.
Thoroughly analyze your shortcomings, and progress with renewed diligence."
("Rational and Awake," Hong Yin II)
I realized that the process of clarifying the truth and persuading people to quit the CCP is the way we advance in the Fa. During this process we are likely to run into many kinds of people. I shouldn't easily give up on anyone. Instead, I should try my best to save someone, even if there is a slim chance.
My approach for those that lived in the city was that we could either invite them over or go visit them, so we tried to find all our relatives, friends and colleagues, even though we might have not been in touch with them for years, to invite them to our home. We invited only one family at a time. Having large groups didn't seem to yield good results.
This approach has proved to be very effective. Over 90 percent of the people we met with were saved. Then my wife and I went to our hometown to find our relatives and friends there. For any relationship or any occasion, including marriages or funerals, as long as we're invited, we're sure to attend, because we can't miss the chance to save sentient beings.
For example, one of my cousins, who lives far away in the countryside and whom we hadn't seen for more than 40 years, suddenly called us on May 1, 2005, and invited us to attend her son's wedding on May 5, 2005. That was a perfect opportunity for us to clarify the truth and talk about quitting the CCP, so my wife and I attended the wedding. When the wedding ended, her relatives, some from far away, stayed at her home.
At around 5 p.m. they gathered together. We sent forth the righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind them. Then we clarified the truth to them and told them the importance of quitting the CCP. They all believed what we said and eagerly wrote down their names so that we could help them quit the CCP. When I mentioned the Nine Commentaries to them, they asked for it. I played the DVD for them. More than 20 people watched the video. We watched the first two commentaries and they all said it was great. Then they took the DVD to finish later.
The Nine Commentaries has exposed the evil CCP. For the elders, once they heard that "the evil CCP had done so many bad things and is about to be eliminated by Heaven," they kept asking for DVDs, especially those from far away. I promised to bring them more DVDs later.
Another time my wife's cousin, who hadn't seen her for more than 20 years, called to invite us to attend her youngest son's wedding. I thought this was another good opportunity for us to save people. We went and met many friends and relatives. After the wedding we gathered them together. First we sent forth the righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind them. They were very warm to us, talking about the past and their daily lives. We took group pictures for them. Then I said that I had something great to tell them, and I told them about quitting the CCP. They all agreed to quit and thanked us for telling them. I gave them truth-clarification materials and CDs. We attended a total of five occasions like this, two in far-away cities, and we helped 200 people quit the CCP. I realized that Teacher had arranged everything, and we were just doing what we were supposed to do following Teacher's arrangement.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital" Teacher said,
"People with predestined relationships and those who can be saved can be made to - made to by Master's Law Bodies, righteous gods, or the immense field that Dafa has formed in the world - appear right before you in any of a range of settings, providing them with a chance to learn the truth. But you have to carry it out, and it doesn't work if you're not out there doing things."
b. Clarify the Truth Everyday So As Not to Miss a Single Person with a Predestined Relationship
Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,"
"Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections."
I realized that regardless of how well we speak, as long as we keep clarifying the truth everyday and don't miss a single opportunity or a single person with a predestined relationship, we can reach our goal of saving sentient beings. As long as we have this wish, Teacher will arrange for those with predestined relationships to come to us to learn the truth. In the process of clarifying the truth and persuading people to quit the CCP, we should act righteously. The more difficult a situation appears to be, the harder we should try, so that the our own bad things will be disintegrated and the postnatally acquired notions and attachments will be reduced and the power of our righteous thoughts and benevolence will become stronger and stronger, ultimately saving more sentient beings.
My wife and I consider clarifying the truth and persuading people to quit the CCP part of our daily lives. It's something that we cannot miss for a single day. Whatever we do, such as going shopping, going to a park or taking a taxi, we always put this thing first. When we talk to people we know, most of them agree to quit the CCP. We speak with many people we don't know. Some of them agree to quit and some don't. Those who don't want to quit are either deeply poisoned by the CCP or so disappointed with society that they don't trust anybody, including us. I don't give up on them. I keep clarifying the truth to them.
Looking back over the cultivation process in the Fa Rectification period, we've gone through the most evil and most brutal persecution. The CCP uses the most ruthless, most evil-spirited and most villainous methods to torture Dafa practitioners. Over the past seven years, many human attachments such as fear, competitiveness, pursuit, and the inability to forbear may have mixed in with our righteous thoughts and righteous actions in validating the Fa, exposing the evil, clarifying the truth, and saving sentient beings. Teacher said,
"But we target and truly point out the attachments so that we can eliminate them, and this way we make really fast progress in cultivation." (Zhuan Falun)
Teacher also said,
"As a human being cultivates into a god, during this heart-wrenching, agonizing process of removing attachments - think about it everyone - what kinds of things might he be capable of exhibiting? It might be that he is capable of anything. But once he realizes it, he can correct it. And why can he do that? It's not done for the sake of being a good ordinary person, but rather, to cultivate to Consummation. That is sacred, and that is walking the path toward godhood." ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")
Over the past seven years we've faced many hurdles and made mistakes. Under our esteemed Teacher's merciful and arduous protection and salvation, we have gotten through them, become more mature, and gradually raised ourselves up to a true cultivator's standards. We did it by validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, but most importantly, it's all due to our great and benevolent Teacher's unlimited compassion while bearing adversities for us.
Our cultivation path over the past seven years of Fa Rectification is the process of Teacher's arduously saving us. With boundless benevolence and immense tolerance, Teacher has given us one chance after another, using every approach to help us advance, purify ourselves, upgrade our xinxing, and raise our levels while we validate the Fa and save sentient beings.
We must disintegrate every evil thing that undermines the righteous Fa and completely reject the old forces' arrangements. We should renew our lives in Dafa to enter the most wonderful new universe created by Teacher when he rectifies the Fa.
Let us re-read Teacher's words from "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference:"
"Actually, when we look back after we've gone through this period of history, the feeling you get really is pretty special."
I hope my fellow practitioners will kindly point out any gaps in my understanding.
