(Minghui.org) Greetings Revered Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I began practicing Falun Dafa in 2006. Practitioners have seized the time to save people during the limited time remaining. Everyone has tried to validate the Fa while cultivating themselves. I’d like to share how I improved in this process.
I moved to Taichung this June, and wanted to do some Fa-validating work outside of my everyday people's work while I took care of my young child. I saw an email about clarifying the truth to people in China over the phone. It could be done any time and seemed easy to do. I thought it would be perfect for me. I had a private office at work and I wouldn’t bother others while calling. I could also call from home while caring for my child. With the help of other practitioners, I began calling the people in places where practitioners were being tortured.
My three-year-old is the youngest of all my children. In the first two months I worked with the calling project, he was frequently sick. One time he had a fever for two weeks and the doctors had no idea why. I felt pained seeing my child suffer for me, and the rest of the family blamed me for not taking care of him.
I didn’t know what to do and asked other practitioners for suggestions. They advised me to send righteous thoughts and negate the old forces’ arrangement. A practitioner quoted Master’s words from Zhuan Falun,
“When your friends or family suffer, are you moved? How do you weigh them? This is how difficult it is to be a practitioner!”
I was enlightened. I never thought the “friends or family” would be someone I cared so dearly for. It’s a selfish thought derived from emotion. I wasn’t viewing everyone equally as a person to be saved.
Another practitioner told me a story about practitioners in China. Practitioner C just got out of prison while many other local practitioners were still incarcerated. She called home to let her family know she had been released. Her mother cried on the other end, “My child, come home soon. Your son and I are very sick and we need you.” She replied, “Mother, I can’t go home. There are still many practitioners yet to be released. I have to save them so they won’t be tortured. They have a mother like you and a child at home too. They will be in trouble if I don’t save them.” Her mother said, “I understand. Go ahead and don’t worry about us. I’ll be fine because I have a great daughter.” C replied, “I have a great mother too who knows that I am doing the most righteous thing.”
Practitioner C returned to her temporary housing and thought to herself, “Nothing in the old universe can stop me from validating the Fa and saving people.” She then saw a variety of Fa weapons eliminating the evil, one level after another. Later C learned that other practitioners had gone to her mother’s home and helped out with work in the house and on the farm. Her mother and child had also quickly recovered from their illnesses.
From this story I realized that I wasn’t ready to let go of my emotions. I worried about my child and I felt wronged when accused by other family members. I was scared a lot and I argued. I validated the Fa on the surface but not from within.
I understood the importance of sending righteous thoughts from practitioner C’s story. All she could think of was saving people.
"When one’s Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake ‘the world of ten directions.’" (Zhuan Falun)
Master saw her heart and strengthened her to allow her righteous thoughts to do everything for her. So many practitioners in China, like C, only think of saving others even though they suffer tremendously and risk losing their lives. They greatly need our help and support. While I am living a comfortable life with so many human notions, I feel so ashamed.
A senior couple in Australia also worked on the broadcasting project. The husband broadcast the pre-recorded message and the wife called at the same time to further clarify the truth. They make more than 100 calls per day, and most of the time the calls go through. Usually when the calls go through, they hear the other person shouting, “It’s from a Falun Gong practitioner!” and then many people gather to listen together. After they learn the facts, someone often shouts, “Falun Dafa is good!”
Seeing so many practitioners with righteous thoughts and actions, I was so moved.
“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Zhuan Falun)
The environment outside improves as our xinxing improves, as Master taught, “One’s gong level is as high as one’s xinxing level...” (Zhuan Falun) From individual cultivation, I gradually moved on to cultivation during Fa rectification. I wanted to save more people and validate the Fa. My child was rarely sick from then on.
I once called a police department for several days. Every time the same captain picked up the phone and said slanderous and abusive words. I thought maybe I needed to talk to him instead of playing the message. This was something I needed to break through. I had to face my fear when the other person cursed at me. I had to stay calm, keep my thoughts righteous, and maintain my wisdom to clarify the truth. I had to have more compassion.
I adjusted my mindset and called him again. He asked me why I played him the message. I asked him to stop persecuting Falun Gong. He denied he did. I said that it wasn’t possible that a person in his position hadn’t arrested any practitioners in the past 14 years. He said that he was ordered to, and he had to. I told him for his own good that he should stop. He said he would if I gave him money. He started cursing and scolding me, and hung up. He never picked up the phone again.
I felt extremely sorry for him. He sold his life to demons. He committed crimes against Dafa after waiting for it for millions of years. He may have once been a magnificent lord from an enormous universe, and came here because he had faith in Dafa. He may have once been part of Master’s family. Now he cannot be saved. I decided that I should save these poor people and help them to understand the truth while I work on rescuing fellow practitioners.
After that, when I called, I told myself that I must save this person no matter what. I patiently called and called, and maintained my righteous thoughts. There is a precious life behind each phone number. Gradually more people picked up when I called and listened to me for longer periods of time.
"...Saves beings,
Notions change,
The degenerate perish,
Light and brightness show."
("New Life" from Hong Yin)
I rarely go out to study the Fa together with other practitioners because of the young child I have. To stay diligent, each day I study one chapter of Zhuan Falun, one hour of other lectures, and memorize the Fa for one hour. The Fa principles manifest in front of me more and more, and now all I can think of is saving people. The time I spend making phone calls has increased from four hours to eight hours per day. I introduced this project to more practitioners and helped them with the software.
One article I read mentioned that a bit of effort each day can make a big difference in a year. All practitioners have the same Master and follow the Fa principles, but because we have each held ourselves to different levels of requirements, we've progressed differently, and thus the difference between practitioners has expanded. I regret having wasted so much time in the past.
In the last key moments, let’s become true practitioners together, and rectify our thoughts and actions with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance so we can save more people.
Thank you.
(Presented at the 2013 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
