(Clearwisdom.net) I am a veteran practitioner who had the opportunity to attend Teacher's nine lectures in person in 1994. In a few years time after learning Falun Dafa I experienced great changes, physically and mentally.
During the best time of my life, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) headed by Jiang Zemin began an all-out persecution of Falun Dafa. At the time I was confused by the sudden horror, so the fear mentality and the selfishness of self-protection emerged. Poisoned by the CCP's ideology and influenced by the mentality formed through repeated political movements, I regarded the persecution with warped thinking: "A wise man does not fight against impossible odds." Therefore, I stopped Fa study and doing the exercises. I planned to resume the practice when the environment changed for the better. Not long after, I picked up smoking and drinking again and did whatever I liked. In a sense, I was even worse than an everyday person.
Teacher Scooped Me Out of Hell Again
When I was at the bottom of the abyss and saw no way out, Teacher used a dream to give me hint. In the dream I was trying to climb up a dark pile of mud. No matter how hard I tried, I could not climb up it. On the contrary, the more effort I put forth, the more mud fell down on me until I was buried up to my chest. Wasn't the dream telling me about my status quo and the fate of my future? If I did not turn around instantly and jump out of the mire, I would be buried. At the time, many fellow practitioners came to help me. Some talked to me face to face, some wrote me letters, some phoned me, some sent me MMS messages, and still others sent me Teacher's new articles and lectures. They studied the Fa and shared with me. Eventually, I returned to Dafa.
In recalling my backsliding, there were various reasons. People my age--over 50--had experienced many political movements and forced brainwashing. I was soaked in the CCP's ideology and would obey whatever the CCP said without judging right from wrong. If it were not for the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, which thoroughly exposed the CCP's true nature, even cultivators like us, let alone the ordinary Chinese people, would have difficulties recognizing the CCP's true nature. Any attachment would be like a mountain on the path of our cultivation.
Clarifying the Truth Nobly with My Personal Experiences and Lessons
After coming back to cultivation, my health returned to that of a cultivator's, and my weight increased to 70 kilos. My tuberculosis disappeared without any medication. A colleague asked me if I was practicing Falun Gong again. I answered yes. He said that, just by looking at me, he knew I had resumed cultivation.
His inquiry inspired me. I decided to use my own experiences and lessons to nobly and openly clarify the truth. It was a good opportunity to validate the Fa and let go of my fear mentality. Therefore, I began to tell people, whether or not I was acquainted with them, that I was a Falun Gong practitioner. I had literally written "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion--Forbearance are good" on my body and engraved it on my heart. Because of my job I had opportunities to meet a lot of people. Most of them trusted me, so it was easier for me to clarify the truth to them and the result was very good.
I made two stamps, one with "Falun Dafa is good!" and the other "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are good!" and stamped them on paper money. They looked very neat and nice. When paying for things, people liked to take this money. I carried amulets(1) and other portable truth-clarification materials with me all the time and handed them out whenever I met other people. To send MMS messages was also a good method, and I really felt that people understood what I had said and had been saved.
All my classmates, colleagues, friends, and relatives knew that I practiced Falun Dafa. People at the neighborhood committee, local police station, and 610 Office all knew I was still practicing Falun Dafa. Before the Olympics, the neighborhood committee and the local police station summoned my wife, who is not a practitioner, to the neighborhood committee for questioning. Before she went, she asked me what she should say to them. I said, "Tell them the truth. Say I go to work during the day and practice the exercises in the evening, and that I am in good health. Thank them for their concern." My wife said just that. The head of the neighborhood committee said, "Good, we all know he practices at home. It will be all right as long as he does not go to Beijing." The Party secretary of my work unit also talked to me. Since they all knew about my health condition before and after I practiced Falun Dafa, they said tactically, "If you insist that the exercises are good, we will not make you feel awkward." They all believed what I had said were the true facts and accepted the informational pamphlet, "Journey of Hope," that I gave them.
Through repeated Fa study and enlightenment, as well as reflection on the bitter lessons, I deeply felt every Fa principle Teacher has taught us. Cultivation is, after all, to cultivate our hearts. Whether we can cultivate or not depends on us, ourselves. Any human attachment will result in failing to reach consummation. I realized that we are unable to let go of our human attachments all at once. If we want to get rid of human attachments in the confusion of this human world, we must take the Fa as our Teacher in all matters and use divine thoughts to replace the human ones. We should pay attention to the tone of our speech; the expression in our eyes; the starting point of our thoughts, whether for others or for ourselves; and our attitude in doing the three things. True cultivators are able to find the arcane truth in the matters that are considered very ordinary to everyday people. Day in and day out, gradually the human attachments will disappear and the big or small tribulations as well as the tests in the dreams would be nothing to him/her.
Teacher said,
"Calmly reflect on the attachments you have
Remove your human thoughts
and evil will naturally die out" ("Don't Be Sad," Hong Yin Volume II)
Letting go of our attachments means we have stepped away from confusion, which is the conduct of cultivators on the path of godhood, not that of human beings. Since Gods are all mighty, the result will be very different. I set up a truth-clarification platform with my last bit of money. Through this platform I was able to get in touch with all kinds of people from the grass roots level to high ranking officials. Among them, many of the predestined have been saved. They included provincial and ministerial officials, army generals, editors-in-chief, and the head of a television station, as well as the head of a police department who formerly actively joined the persecution of Falun Dafa. According to a rough calculation, the number of CCP officials who have quit the Party after learning the truth of persecution reached three hundred.
Eliminate the Evil with Righteous Thoughts
In March of this year, slanderous slogans, articles, and telephone numbers were posted in every street and every lane of the four residential areas as well as all the building entrances and the public billboards in the city where I live. It was like a repeat of the evil events that occurred before and after July 20, 1999. The residents of the city were all talking about it, and it caused a panic.
I wrote letters to the heads of the four neighborhood committees right away and clearly told them that it was wrong for them to do what they were doing. Since 1949, the CCP has launched repeated persecutions against different organizations and groups. None of the various political movements were "right," so after each one there would be a "rehabilitation." Every time, those at the lower levels would all be investigated and had to take the blame. Some were dealt with by the CCP's own rules and regulations, some were sentenced to prison terms, and some were executed for murdering others during the political movements. The June 4 massacre and the inhuman persecution of Falun Dafa, which has lasted for ten years, must be wrong, and it is only a matter of time before the rehabilitation takes place. None of the decision makers or their minions will escape punishment in the future. I hope they can draw lessons from history and not become hatchet men today and scapegoats tomorrow.
Since what I wrote in the letter was taken from history, of which the blood still remained fresh in their memory, for their own good the four neighborhood committees reacted on the very next day. They changed all the contents in the eight propaganda display windows in their jurisdictions. However, the display windows in an area within nobody's jurisdiction still was not changed. Since the glass was very thick, I couldn't open it. I sent forth righteous thoughts in an attempt to have the paper inside the glass fall off by itself. I did not know if I had this power since I had never done anything like this before, but with this thought, the paper rolled up from the bottom and covered all the contents.
As for the fliers posted on the entrances of the residential buildings, several practitioners and I cleaned them out building by building. In about one week's time, we had cleared away everything. Ever since then, nothing of this kind has ever happened again. During the Olympics, the police at various places stepped up their persecution and madly searched and arrested practitioners. However, in the area where I live, not a single practitioner was arrested.
In the early days of the persecution I did not yield to the evil forces. At the time the police thought I was a "big fish," so they tried very hard to make a break through and find "criminal evidence." They also used reporters to fabricate lies to change public opinion. They asked me to pretend that I wanted to "break away" from Falun Gong. I not only did not cooperate with them but also used the hard evidence to prove that Falun Gong was beneficial both to the country and the people. Some of the righteous police even held up their thumbs and later on protected me secretly.
Note:
(1) Amulets - In China, practitioners sometimes clarify the truth by giving people something small to wear or cherish, bearing a few words reminding them of the goodness of Dafa.