(Clearwisdom.net) I started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. I attribute my perseverance to my diligent Fa study and my steadfast faith in Teacher. Regardless of my busy schedule, I study the Fa daily. As I study the Fa daily, I have been able to search within and improve myself when I encounter problems. On my path of following Teacher home, I am a most determined cultivator. Consequently, I have had a relative quiet journey, despite the challenging cultivation environment in China.
1. Following the Fa Is the Only Righteous Path
In July 1999 when the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its ruthless suppression of Falun Gong, I, like many fellow practitioners, stepped out to safeguard Falun Gong. We exercised our constitutional rights as Chinese citizens and appealed for Falun Gong at the State Appeals Office in Beijing. After returning home, the police in my area unlawfully arrested and imprisoned me and I suffered a multitude of trials and tribulations. Family, friends and relatives took turns talking to me for many hours to have me "renounce" Falun Gong. I always told them, "Falun Gong is wonderful! There is nothing wrong with following Falun Gong's principles Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance in order to become a better person." I was threatened with a prison term. I had but one thought at the time, remembering what Teacher had said,
"If you can let go of life and death, you're a God; if you can't let go of life and death, you're a human--this is the difference." ("Teaching the Fa in New York City" in Falun Buddha Fa Lectures in the United States)
In this adverse environment, I had to let go all kinds of attachments and the thought of life or death. The most difficult attachment to let go of was sentiment. Yet, when I finally let go of sentiment, I felt my entire being basking in freedom and comfort. A picture came to my mind of reuniting with Teacher. It was the most precious sacred and magnificent scene. Shortly after I let go of sentiment, someone from my workplace picked me up at the prison.
Once at work, I was detained there. I was locked in a room at work and forced to watch blasphemous video programs slandering and insulting Teacher and Falun Gong. The video programs were full of lies about Falun Gong and were designed to deceive and instigate hatred against Falun Gong. I said, "The more I watch the video programs, the more I find the TV producers despicable. My Teacher has never told us to do anything that is claimed in these videos." From that moment on, each time they tried to play the video, the electricity went out. It struck them as most peculiar, but they gave up showing the programs in the end.
However, bad thoughts began to invade my mind the longer I was detained. I gave in under this pressure. I told them that I would stop practicing Falun Gong exercises, but there was nothing wrong with following the principles Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance. I guaranteed in writing that I would stop practicing Falun Gong. After I was released, I gradually became clear-minded as I resumed studying the Fa. Teacher must have arranged it for me to attend a local cultivation experience sharing conference. That is when I realized that I was wrong to write the guarantee. After I returned home from the conference, I wrote a statement and sent it to my supervisors. I declared that I would continue to practice Falun Gong. That day, I was laid off and put under house arrest. Two days later, I was taken to a brainwashing center.
I held one thought, "I shall have everyone that meets me understand and accept the truth about Falun Gong. It's those who have been deceived by the CCP's hate propaganda against Falun Gong that should be "transformed." It is they that are saved after accepting the truth about Falun Gong. I shall eliminate the CCP's wicked lies from their minds.
A few days later, I wrote an article to validate Falun Gong. The guards read and discussed it in a room adjacent to where I was. I overheard their conversation. They agreed that the article brought out some good points, that practitioners are good people and that practitioners behave well at work. Finally, they agreed that practitioners held a steadfast faith in Falun Gong and that there was nothing they could do about it. After moments of silence, one of them suggested that they come up with different methods to torture me. They made me sit still facing the wall and stand in the sun for long hours. I was deprived of sleep and threatened. But nothing could change my righteous thoughts. I dealt with the torturers calmly and kindly no matter how they treated me, so their attitude towards me improved over time. Once, about a dozen practitioners were forced to attend a meeting during which they illegally sentenced fellow practitioners to a detention center. Words cannot describe my feelings at what I observed. I stood there seeing my handcuffed fellow practitioners taken to the platform looking peaceful, detached and dignified. When we exchanged looks, we saw the steadfast faith in Teacher and the Fa in each other's eyes.
When I was about to be released, a CCP cadre in my city commented, "You practitioners have proven with your actions that Falun Gong is good. We have failed to "transform" you. Instead, we have been touched and transformed by you. Keep in touch." In the torturers' eyes, I saw that they were beginning to understand Falun Gong and that they were touched from knowing the truth about Falun Gong. I am glad for these people.
2. Clarify the Truth about Falun Gong, Help People Withdraw from the CCP and Save Predestined People
After I was released, I rarely contacted fellow practitioners to exchange cultivation experiences. I spent most of my time studying the Fa and practicing the exercises alone at home. It was not until the beginning of 2002 that I stepped out of self-isolation and began to do the three things well according to Teacher's requirement.
With the progression of the Fa-rectification, the Fa's requirements for us have become increasingly high. Doing the "three things" is a continuous process of improving our "xinxing." It is also a process to purge selfishness, a characteristic of the old universe, and attain selflessness and altruism, characteristics of the new universe.
During a meeting, the head of my department looked somewhat embarrassed when he had to introduce me. He must have felt awkward because he replaced me when I refused to renounce Falun Gong. I took over and introduced myself instead. I told everyone that I practice Falun Gong and there is nothing wrong with Falun Gong. I said that it teaches its practitioners the principles Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance. All practitioners want is to become better people. A man asked me, "I heard that you are very stubborn." I corrected him and said, "I am not stubborn. I am determined." Everyone had a friendly laugh when they saw my peaceful and determined manner.
I grasp every opportunity to clarify the truth to people. Once, when a leader at my place of work, two co-workers and I were walking past an apartment building we noticed a flyer posted on the wall that read, "Falun Gong is good." The leader was the first one to notice. He stopped and read the message. Everyone turned their heads and looked at me. I told them, "It is true. You must keep in mind that Falun Gong is good."
I ran into a lot of obstacles when I began to clarify the truth about the CCP and tried to persuade people to withdraw from the CCP, the Communist Youth League and Young Pioneers. Those who were severely poisoned by the CCP's lies accused Falun Gong of getting political. I got a lot of inspirations from studying the Fa and reading articles on the Clearwisdom website and the difficulties became less! When people refuse to withdraw from the CCP, I don't feel upset or defeated. I won't let it stop me from saving people. First, I talked to friends, family and relatives about the CCP. Now, I talk to everyone I meet. I talk about this subject when I go grocery shopping, take public transportation or on my way to work. I take every opportunity to clarify the truth. Most people are very receptive and agree to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliates. I attribute the success to my strong righteous thoughts and my strong wish to save sentient beings.
Once, my family planned to celebrate my nephew's birthday in my hometown. It would be a long trip and I would have to hurry back home to go to work the next day, so I didn't really want to undertake the trip. But, then I thought that this would be a good opportunity to save sentient beings. Therefore, I rode my bicycle and took with me a lot of truth-clarification materials. I clarified the truth to people I met along the way and tried to persuade them to withdraw from the CCP. Thanks to Teacher's arrangement, I distributed all the materials to predestined people and successfully persuaded 27 people to withdraw from the CCP. I met a public security officer and clarified the truth about Falun Gong to him. He promised to stop his subordinates from committing crimes against Falun Gong practitioners.
3. Denying the Old Forces' Arrangements and Eliminating Partitions between Practitioners
Because the evil lives from other dimensions keep exploiting loopholes, practitioners in our area were unlawfully arrested and tortured. Due to long-term persecution and a lack of Fa study and righteous thoughts, some practitioners who used to be outstanding practitioners renounced Falun Gong and assisted in the persecution of practitioners. They targeted those practitioners who didn't have steadfast faith in Falun Gong and tried to drag them down as well. After I heard this, I understood that it was a very serious issue. I decided that it was high time to get rid of the regulation forbidding a meeting of more than three people. I suggested that we begin another Fa study group immediately. A fellow practitioner agreed and brought together a local Fa study group. Since then, we have been studying the Fa, exchanging our understandings on the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts as a group once a week. Problems that impede our cultivation practice are solved quickly with fellow practitioners' help. Thus, we established a cultivation environment where we can evaluate individual Fa study and personal cultivation. In addition, many mini truth-clarification material sites were established at fellow practitioners' homes. Many fellow practitioners learned to use the Internet, download and print truth-clarification materials and burn VCDs. Some fellow practitioners volunteered to distribute the materials to practitioners who couldn't pick them up at the materials site. Now, fellow practitioners in farming villages are able to receive Teacher's new articles and "Minghui Weekly." Once we formed a whole body we cooperated well with each other. By working together, we learned to produce and distribute the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and other truth-clarification materials.
In the past when a fellow practitioner was unlawfully arrested and imprisoned, we would send forth righteous thoughts at home and ask each other for news about the practitioner. Most of us felt there was nothing more we could do to help. Gradually, we came to understand the responsibilities of practitioners in the Fa-rectification period. Not long ago, six practitioners in our area were unlawfully arrested. But we were not intimated. Instead, we are now clearheaded. We cooperated with each other in our group rescue action. Some of us helped the incarcerated practitioners' families to demand their release. Some went near the detention center to send forth righteous thoughts. Some published on the Internet the information about the bad guys responsible for the persecution of the six practitioners. Due to the joint rescue efforts of local and overseas practitioners, the six practitioners were released, though at different times. One other practitioner has been illegally sentenced to prison. When I heard that her child needed to be taken care of, I remembered Teacher's words. Teacher said,
"The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference")
Several practitioners and I went to get the child from the rural area and brought him to our city. We are now raising and looking after the child.
4. Finding Former Falun Gong Practitioners
We shoulder significant responsibilities as Falun Gong practitioners in the Fa-rectification period. In the past, former practitioners that had turned against Falun Gong approached practitioners and tried to confuse them and drag them away from Falun Gong. Therefore, some practitioners avoided them when they happened to meet up with them, or refused to open the door when they stopped by.
One day I met one such former practitioner on my way to work. I stepped off the bus to greet her. This time I asked her to get together some time and she accepted my invitation. The following day, two practitioners and I sent forth righteous thoughts and studied the Fa together at the location where we were going to meet. When we shared our understandings about the former practitioner, I learned that she was regretting her slander and actions in violation of Teacher's requirements. The only problem was that she couldn't understand why we insisted on revealing the CCP's crimes and persuading people to withdraw from the CCP. Since then, I have been sending her Teacher's articles and fellow practitioners' articles about revealing the CCP crimes to the Chinese people in order to save people. She became clearheaded quickly and withdrew from the CCP and its two affiliates. She also sent us the names of about a dozen people who she had talked into withdrawing.
There were interferences and concerns before and during the process of saving this practitioner, but all interferences have been overcome and eliminated during the process. I know our compassionate Teacher guided use because he did not want to leave her behind. Teacher also arranged this opportunity for me to improve in my cultivation. There are several other former practitioners who have renounced and maligned Falun Gong. We are cooperating with each other, hoping that they will return to Falun Gong and the Fa-rectification.
