(Clearwisdom.net) I am a young practitioner who began cultivation in 1997. To better save sentient beings and validate Dafa, I will describe my 12 years of cultivation experiences. Please point out my deficiencies when you see them.
Promoting Dafa
I have participated in many Dafa promoting activities. We went to markets in villages, towns, and cities near my hometown as well as remote areas in the mountains. We did not feel tired, reciting in our minds Teacher's poem "Assisting the Fa" in Hong Yin:
"You resolved to save sentient beings,
And assist Master as he
journeys this human world;
Come now, and help me turn the Falun,
When the Fa is fulfilled,
Heaven and Earth will be yours to travel."
We often walked dozens of miles carrying DVD players and Dafa materials in our backpacks. We had only one thought in our minds, which was to introduce this great law of the cosmos to more people who had predestined relationships with us. We wanted everyone immersed in the glory of Buddha's aura.
At that time, I truly felt rapid improvement in my cultivation. I felt that I advanced through countless levels every day, and enlightened to many profound principles that I could understand but could not describe. For example, Teacher said that behind every character in Zhuan Falun are layers and layers of Buddhas and Daoist Masters. I realized then the reason why Teacher called it Falun Dafa (the Great Law of Falun). We can never fully appreciate the profoundness and enormity of its great principles.
On April 25, 1999, when I was an intern at my company, I was lucky enough to attend a Fa conference that I think was the last large-scale conference held in China. It was in a beautiful seaside city, and was originally planned to be held in a gym, but was switched to the beach because of too many attendees. There were over 10,000 people there. It was a very nice day with a calm sea. Many practitioners shared their cultivation experiences.
After the conference, all the garbage bags and trash were cleared away. Even with so many people, no one stepped on the lawn, and the roadsides were also cleaned very well. The police who were watching praised us. The calm, peaceful, magnificent, and glorious scene of the conference let the power of Dafa be felt by all in attendance. Indeed, "Buddha's light shines everywhere, propriety and righteousness harmonize everything."
Safeguarding the Fa
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong, and the whole country was overwhelmed by it. Those who did not know the facts were deceived by vicious lies. The evil even put our benevolent Teacher on their wanted list. As a practitioner who had benefited from Dafa, I could no longer just stay at home and cultivate by myself. Going out and validating Dafa became each and every practitioner's undeniable duty. On July 27, three fellow practitioners and I took the train to Beijing. Although we were not very clear about the Fa-rectification, we knew that Teacher was falsely blamed and Dafa was being persecuted. As a practitioner and a particle of Dafa, we had to go out and tell the government and people that Dafa was not what was being described by the state-run media with their lies. Falun Dafa is good.
We safely returned home afterwards, but the propaganda worsened. I felt restless at home. One night, I had a dream in which I was walking on a street. Suddenly I felt a shock, and a warm current went down from my head. I felt that it was the time of consummation. When I raised my head I saw a giant Buddha standing in the air in the East. I then thought that I needed to inform my parents. With this thought, I heard a voice telling me that I needed to go right away. I made up my mind: "Okay, I am going now." Then I floated up toward the giant Buddha.
When I woke up, I immediately realized that I needed to go out to validate Dafa again. The time before I had left for Beijing directly from a fellow practitioner's home without telling my mother. This time I had to tell her first. My mom, a non-practitioner, was firmly against my going. She was afraid that it would affect my job. Because I was the only hope of the family for the future, she just would not let me go despite my continuous explanations. As I was explaining to her, she was extremely mad and upset. Resisting great pain and with tears in my eyes, I said in my mind, "Mom, I have to put aside concerns for my own life, because I am a disciple of Master Li's and a member of the cosmos' Dafa. I have to validate it. At this moment of great tribulation, my only concern is to validate Dafa."
At the time, many neighbors were gathered in our house. One uncle asked me, "Do you want Dafa or your mother?" I said resolutely, "I want Dafa." When Mom was extremely upset, my dad was controlled by the evil and picked up a broomstick. He hit me as hard as he could and wanted me to get out. As I made up my mind and began to walk out, Mom pulled me back and threw me onto a bench. Feeling the unsettling of my mind, I crossed my legs and began to mediate. Seeing this, Mom hit me with the broomstick as hard as she could. Strangely, at first it hurt a lot. But then I felt nothing as soon as my mind was settled down, and I only heard the "whack, whack" sound of the broomstick hitting me. I made up my mind, "No matter what, I need to go out again to validate Dafa." I walked straight out the door without turning my head, hearing my mom's cries and screams behind me. When I could not bear it and turned my head, I saw that, because she could not catch me, she had picked up a rock and began to hit her own head. I almost collapsed. But immediately I firmed up and begged Teacher for support so that I could go.
Later I was pulled off the train by my uncle and brother. At the time I heard a voice, "You have already come out. To come out means to come out of being a human being." I began to cry, thanking great and benevolent Teacher. I immediately felt that I was immersed in great benevolence and my whole body felt a warm current flowing through it. I went home and held my mom, consoling her, and took her home. During this incident, I completely got rid of my sentimental attachment to my family and replaced it with benevolence that was much more noble. In the ensuing ups and downs, especially during the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Dafa in the past few years, I had no fear whatsoever, and I was never actually harassed or persecuted.
As a matter of fact, I had sensed that this persecution was coming long before it happened. Before "July 20th," Teacher said:
"Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations."("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.")
I described my understanding of this sentence when a few of us practitioners studied the Fa together: "What Teacher said means that something big is about to happen. What shall we keep unaffected when something happens? It is our heart of steadfastly cultivating in Dafa. With that we can overcome anything." Later, right before the persecution began, I had a dream. I saw black clouds hanging over the sky in the south (the city I lived in was to the north of Beijing), as though a storm was coming. As I looked closer, I noticed that above the clouds were lots of ghosts and demons with their swords and weapons. When I woke up, I believed that something big was going to happen. Then I thought of the sentence that Teacher said: "Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations." So I was prepared before the great tribulation came. That is, whatever happened, I would steadfastly believe in Teacher and in Dafa and follow Teacher to cultivate to the very end.
Truth clarification
In telling people the facts about Dafa, I encountered many tense situations. But as long as we study the Fa well, our wisdom is boundless, because the power of Dafa is boundless. At work, I never gave up clarifying the truth. I told them what Falun Dafa is, why I cultivated in Dafa, why Teacher went abroad, what the true story about the 1,400 death cases was, the facts about the "Tiananmen Square self-immolation," how the evil party persecuted Falun Gong, the cases of organ extraction, lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, the way Dafa has spread in foreign countries, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and why one needed to quit the CCP. I gave people informational materials, the booklet and DVD of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and played for them the DVD of the New Year gala by New Tang Dynasty TV. By now, I have helped countless people know about the truth and have helped countless people to quit the CCP. I knew that only when I did the three things well would I be qualified for the title of "Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple."
Of course, there are times that I have relaxed and was not as diligent. But at those times I would often hear Teacher's lecture in my ear: "...what's a Dafa disciple? He's a being created by the most magnificent Fa, and he's rock-solid and as indestructible as diamond." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference") Indeed, our determination do the three things at any moment should be rock-solid and as indestructible as diamond. Our lives among ordinary human beings are to fulfill our pre-historic promises and wishes. It is to accomplish the three things that Teacher assigned to us. We work so that we can do the three things, and we need to keep the three things in mind when we are having fun also.
In the past few years, I have visited many famous tourist spots, such as Taishan, which is one of the five highest mountains in China; Confucius's house in Qufu; Huang Mountain; Lingyin Temple; Lijiang; Dali; Gadansongzanlin Temple in Shangri-La; and Changbai Mountain and Tianchi in Jilin Province. At each spot, while everyone else was busy enjoying the beautiful scenery and paying homage to Buddha, I went there to send righteous thoughts and ask Teacher to get rid of all Dafa-harming factors from the evil and old forces in the temple. Then I distributed Dafa materials to help save the people who were fortunate enough to be there. I wanted to bring the message of Dafa wherever I went and save sentient beings.
The way I understand the three things that Teacher said is like this: Studying the Fa and doing the exercises well forms the foundation. Only if one can study the Fa well can one be immersed in the Fa. It is not important how much one studies each day. Even if one only studies a little bit, one needs to quiet down and have no impure thoughts on his or her mind. Only then will the Buddha, Daos, and other immortals display the principles of Dafa to the person. If one does not do this, it will be like an ordinary person studying Dafa, and he or she will not be able to see any Fa principles at deeper levels. As far as sending righteous thoughts goes, only if one studies the Fa well will one be able to quiet down and concentrate. Just as Teacher said, your power of concentration is a reflection of your level. When one can truly quiet down, one's ability to send righteous thoughts can have power and will be able to destroy evil.
Right before the persecution began in 1999, I suddenly went into an "empty" or "nothingness" state for three days. There were no thoughts in my mind. I did not feel cold, warm, hungry, or full. It appeared that everything in my home was strange to me. I felt that I should not stay there anymore. Since then, my mind has entered such a state quite often. Although I am talking or doing things, my mind is empty. But at work or when I am telling people facts about Dafa, I am never short of wisdom.
Only when one does well in sending righteous thoughts and clearing the environment of all factors of evil and the spirit of the CCP will one's telling people the facts about Dafa be effective. One will then be able to save more sentient beings. Practitioners in the Fa-rectification period need to put saving sentient beings as their first priority. Only when one gets rid of all human attachments and does the three things well can one truly elevate oneself and advance and be able to live up to the title of "Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciple."
I want to make my promise to Teacher: "I will not stop my diligent steps as long as the persecution continues or there are sentient beings who do not know the truth or the Fa-rectification has not ended. I will not be attached to the time or to fame or to interest in human society. I will finish the great task of helping Teacher rectify the Fa, fulfilling my promise to Teacher to earn my title of 'Fa-rectification Period Dafa Disciple.'"
