(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in 1999, before the persecution began on July 20 of that same year. The illnesses I had suffered from disappeared without my knowing it. The persecution started soon after I began the practice. I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong after Teacher published the poem, "The Knowing Heart." I was "illegally detained" by the police for going to Beijing and I was "transformed" against my will. During that period I was not diligent in cultivation practice at all. But my benevolent Teacher did not abandon me; he gave me a hint in my dream and let me see the terrible consequences of being "transformed." I saw that it was like falling into sewage. But I also saw a turning Law Wheel in my dream and my confidence greatly increased.
Later, Teacher arranged for some practitioners to help me; one helped me by quoting Teacher's Fa, "... it is difficult to obtain the Fa" from Zhuan Falun and that shook me significantly. I thought carefully: Every phrase in Zhuan Falun is truth and teaches people to cultivate; Dafa is so magnificent that it is difficult to describe with words. Teacher said,
"... there's nothing wrong with the Zhen, Shan, Ren that we're cultivating." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
I believe in Teacher and believe in Dafa. Yes, isn't it clear what Teacher is doing and what we are doing?
After Teacher published, "Touring North America to Teach the Fa," I further understood the significance of my responsibility and started to emphasize clarifying the truth. In different situations, I used different methods.
I often made use of the opportunities of going out to clarify the truth on public transportation to save people. I took some informational materials with me to distribute on the bus. At first I was nervous, but gradually it became natural. Actually, this was also an elevation process of my xinxing based on the Fa. When my mind was focused on saving lives, I had no fear and did things at will and succeeded.
One foggy day, I got on a bus with a dozen people in it. On the bus was a newly married bride on her way with some others to visit her mother. Because the mother's home was far away, they asked me to help with directions. I knew that it was arranged by Teacher for me to meet with these people. I quickly brought the topic of discussion around to the truth about Falun Gong.
At first they were resistant, but they eventually started to understand. I then gave each of them some literature and they all accepted it. I came to understand that Teacher will arrange everything for us if our hearts are right.
I am a middle school teacher and I have frequent contact with students. Students are deeply poisoned by the lies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The school, under the arrangement of the higher authorities of the political and legal education system, has poisoned many teachers and students using slanderous booklets, examination papers, theses, speech contests, and so on. But I was determined to share the truth with them.
The first time I clarified the truth in the classroom, I was a little anxious; I quoted Teacher's poem "Washing Away" (Hong Yin II) to start with and did not talk in a way that the students could understand. I did not achieve a good result and someone even reported me to the school. When the school authorities investigated, the kind-hearted students protected me. I knew in my mind that it was Teacher who had actually protected me. I thought about this a lot afterward: We must save lives by telling them the truth but we must do it with reason and wisdom. We should talk in ways that they can understand. Moreover, it is critical that we cultivate ourselves well. Teacher told us repeatedly that we must be good people in any situation. Therefore, I strictly required myself to do all my work well and to cherish each student. This way, my teaching was highly commended and this laid a good foundation for me to explain the truth later on.
I did my work well and the students trusted me. Then I chose an opportunity to clarify the truth in a different class. I let go of my fear, and I had only one thought: to save these students. I told them about the Tiananmen Square "self-immolation" and about the torture that practitioners experience in prison. I explained the truth by combining it with the knowledge the students had already learned. They listened intently and it seemed that they understood. Through this experience, I came to understand more about Teacher's Fa:
"If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)")
"What I'm telling you is that when you're truly able to let go of the thought of life or death you can do anything!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
My subsequent truth clarification in several other classes also achieved good results. Later, in consideration of safety, I made some changes. I started to talk about the truth to students in smaller groups. I took the opportunity when the students came to my room or I went to students' dorms before they went to bed to tell them about the truth of Falun Gong. Before going to sleep, the students like chatting. I used this time and went to their dorms to talk to them. They all enjoyed listening to me. Some students, after they had listened, said, "Please tell us more." I talked with a calm and compassionate mind. While listening, the students sometimes got angry about the persecution and sometimes were happy knowing about Dafa. One student said, "It is very relaxing to listen to you talk about the truth. I have never slept better."
After the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published, the requirements for clarifying the truth were also higher. It was not too difficult to advise students to withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers. Our ancestors said, "If one is close to his teacher, he will believe his teacher's words." I first told the students the truth about Falun Gong and then I encouraged the students to withdraw from the Youth League and the Young Pioneers. The results were not bad. But for my relatives and colleagues, these efforts were not enough and there are still many obstacles.
Probably, I formed a kind of notion during the truth-clarification to my students and I tended to clarify the truth to the people I felt I knew well. I felt more comfortable that way. For those I felt unsure of, I would postpone talking to them. I was also that way with my colleagues. As a result, the evil made use of my attachments and persecuted me. I was forced to leave home and become destitute in order to avoid illegal arrest. At the root of this problem was the fact that I had formed the attachments of showing off and pursuing comfort and I had also formed the attachment of fear. I took ordinary people (including the school administration personnel) as my protective umbrella. And since I was not doing the complete sets of Falun Gong exercises and not reading the Fa enough, my attachments increased. The rotten ghosts took advantage of my attachments.
"Yet for cultivators, fear or lack thereof proves [one's] humanity or divinity, and it is what differentiates cultivators from ordinary people. It is something that a cultivator must face, and the biggest human attachment that a cultivator must remove." (Teacher's Comment "Study the Fa Well, and Getting Rid of Attachments is Not Hard")
Through sharing experiences with fellow practitioners, I came to understand many principles of Falun Gong. Cultivating the righteous Fa is extremely serious. To be a true practitioner sounds easy but it is not.
The first thing one must do is to firmly believe in Teacher and Dafa. To cultivate, the word "believe" is critical.
"Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos's Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples' rock-solid, diamond-like bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings' thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is." ("Also in a Few Words," from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
The second important point concerns where one stands. The basic point of cultivation during the Fa-rectification period is to help Teacher to rectify the Fa and to save lives. Teacher is rectifying the Fa and we are Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification period. As long as we learn the Fa well, cultivate our xinxing well and send forth righteous thoughts well, and as long as we are saving lives with a benevolent mind, what we do is the most sacred, and our situations are safest -- because Teacher is protecting the true Falun Gong practitioners.
The third issue is to pay attention to cultivating oneself, to learn the Fa well, to look inside when encountering difficulties, to find the attachments hidden deeply inside us, remove them and send forth righteous thoughts to clean up the space around us.
We are the true practitioners and we came for all living beings.
The above is my personal understanding. If there are any mistakes, please benevolently point them out and correct them.
