(Minghui.org) Practitioners lost their Fa-study and practice environment after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999, and some practitioners slacked off. I was one of them. One day, I watched a video in a fellow practitioner's home about a Dafa practitioner's righteous thoughts and righteous actions after the persecution began. The practitioner created truth-clarification materials, made CDs and DVDs, exposed the persecution, and saved people. I was greatly touched. At the time I had not even seen a printer, computer, or DVD maker. I thought, Alas! These high-tech things are so remote to me. Not knowing what righteous thoughts were at the time, I didn't think any more about it.
But from this I saw my shortcomings and realized I should seriously start studying the Fa and doing something. I didn't know what validating the Fa meant. One day, a coordinator whom I had only met a few times bought a printer and brought it to my home, without giving me a heads-up. I didn't think too much about it, but since it was brought to me, perhaps it was my mission. A small materials production site started to form.
The fellow practitioner set up the computer and connected the printer to it. Looking at those cables and cords, I was completely lost. I wondered if I could take on the task. Master said, "When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it." ( Zhuan Falun )
I began feeling confident. The practitioner started making truth-clarification materials and I helped. He was new at it too. With Master's strengthening, we finally succeeded in making the materials and delivering them to other practitioners. We were delighted to see the truth-clarification materials we made, because otherwise we would have had to travel 35 kilometers (about 20 miles) to fetch materials from the nearest site. This way we could lighten their burdens and let them have more time for Fa-study.
But this didn't last long. My attachment to relying on the fellow practitioner was taken advantage by the old forces, and he was persecuted and forced to leave home. I regretted my lack of diligence and felt that it caused the problem. I was alone now. How would I be able to supply 200 people with materials? Besides the issue of capability, I also faced the issue of buying supplies, including paper. I didn't give it too much thought, and only thought about my responsibility and my mission to keep the materials site working.
To purchase the paper, I had to ride the bus to the nearest town, two and a half miles away, and I could only carry a limited amount each time. My husband volunteered to help. I was moved. He had a work injury and was on crutches (his life was saved because he knew Dafa was good). He said, “Give me a big bag and I can carry it across my shoulders. That way I can carry at least three or four stacks.”
We came out of the store and wanted to call a three-wheeler taxi, which is very difficult to come by nowadays. Just as we were going to change our mind to ride the mini-bus, a three-wheeler came by and we got on. While we passed the mini-bus, my husband saw several police officers on it. That was a close call! Our merciful Master had sent the vehicle to us at the critical moment. My gratitude could not be described with words.
While I was making the materials, I had to figure out how to do every step, and barely managed to get it done. If there were any mistakes, I didn't know how to fix the error and printed just that one page. One day, I fixed an error and printed that one page, when it occurred to me, “When did I learn how to do that?” I knew Master was helping me.
Something more wonderful happened. My printer was very cooperative. At the time I only printed black and white, and had to fill the toner powder and dump the old left-over powder during maintenance. But I didn't know I needed to dump the old powder. One day, a fellow practitioner came from the city, saw me filling the toner and asked, “Why don't you dump the old powder?” I said I had never done it before and didn't know how to do it. He asked, “Wouldn't everything you printed be black?” I said, “No. It looks pretty good.” I knew Master saw my heart and was encouraging me, so I could save more people. I realized that no matter what I ran into, as long as believed in Master and the Fa, any problem could be solved, because Master was right next to me.
In 2008, the evil CCP relentlessly arrested Dafa practitioners during the Olympics. I was also targeted. With Master's strengthening, I was able to escape with righteous thoughts, but I had to live in exile. I didn't know anyone and had no materials. I sometimes used a piece of chalk to write truth-clarification words on the corridor walls. Six months passed, and I hadn't done the three things well. I quit my job and went to live with my in-laws.
In 2007, I got a banner from a practitioner and I liked the font a lot. I copied the characters on a piece of cardboard, made a stencil out of it, and saved it for future use. Now it was time to use it. I made yellow banners with red words using the stencil. It was very easy to do. I sometimes took the stencil to another practitioner's home and we sprayed paint on it, and made many banners.
I got in contact with practitioners in my in-law's area, and learned that they needed someone who could make truth-clarification materials. So I resumed making materials. Six months later, I left to work in the city, and continued making materials for them. The practitioner who made amulets with self-adhesive backing also left and no one could take over, because it required a lot of skills. I learned how to do it and took over doing it. Then I taught other practitioners how to do it.
Life in exile was very harsh, especially in winter when ice formed in my room. One practitioner visited me and said, “I couldn't make it for even one day in these living conditions.” Another practitioner came to get the materials, saw my living conditions and tearfully told fellow practitioners. They chipped in and bought me coal. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who helped me. It was Dafa and your help that helped me make it through to today.
One day, a practitioner read an article from the Minghui website which told a story of a fellow practitioner who was living in exile, but hadn't fallen behind in validating Dafa. He stayed somewhere for one night and didn't know where he was going the next day. Sometimes he wandered the streets carrying his computer and printer. It seemed his situation was similar to mine. The practitioner paused and said, “This article sounds like it was written by you.” I said it wasn't written by me, but it sounded similar to my situation.
I ended my exile in 2010 and went home with my Fa instruments – computer, color printer, and black-and-white printer. I found my hometown practitioners lagging behind in technology, and needing resources. I was very anxious. For example, the practitioner in charge of making Shen Yun discs was new to it. She used to make VCDs and had made more than 10,000 discs. She found it overwhelming to bag each VCD afterward. This year, her VCD maker was broken, so everything depended on my VCD maker, which could only produce four disks at a time.
The local coordinator heard some bad things about me and tended to reject me and keep me from doing Dafa work. I thought, “Master has the say, you don't.” Even though I had the skills, the coordinator found others to do things instead of me, and eventually had to come to me when every other option had failed. My human thoughts, competitive mentality, and attachments to not letting others criticize me were all exposed. This time I didn't want to let her know, as I was afraid she would stop me and waste time.
I told the practitioner in charge of making discs, “The coordinator of another area has mobilized all practitioners who have computers. They can make as many as they can. We should do the same thing. We have a computer at the materials site. If we can attach two disc makers to it, it can spray the cover right after making the discs. This will save much time and effort! Please discuss this idea with the coordinator and don't mention it was mine.”
The practitioner found an opportunity to tell the coordinator the idea, and she agreed. We have been producing Shen Yun discs this way for two years without any problem. The separation between myself and the coordinator lasted a long time. Even though we never confronted each other, she tended to spread what she heard about me, and I felt resentful upon hearing it. My competitive mentality and attachment to not being wronged were exposed. Fellow practitioners were anxious about this. Master said,
“As long as you upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them.” (Zhuan Falun)
I told myself that I had failed such tests in the past. I told Master in my heart, “Master, I want to pass the test this time. Please strengthen this lousy disciple.” In a few days, the coordinator contacted me for something, so I took the opportunity to share my understandings with her. We both realized our shortcomings and became grateful to each other. Our years of separation was removed.
I then had a dream. While I was looking for something, a U-shaped rope reached down from the sky. I sat in the bottom of the U and was dragged up at a very fast speed. I was scared and shut my eyes. I didn't know how long had passed. I then opened my eyes and found myself on a big platform with many people. Everyone had a dish in front of them and I was the last one that made it, and my dish was tofu. I woke up and realized that Master had helped me pass this test. Tofu rhymes with Dou Fu (Blessed Anyway). I understand it means I am blessed as long as I have made it to the platform. I normally sat in meditation for one hour. One day, I sat in lotus position to study the Fa for two hours, and afterward my legs felt very light. As soon as I let go of my attachments, my heart was light too. Master said,
“Once you upgrade your xinxing, your body will undergo a great change. Upon xinxing improvement, the matter in your body is guaranteed to transform.” (Zhuan Falun)
I have indeed experienced the wonderfulness of having upgraded xinxing. If only I had upgraded earlier!
We were extremely short of people who could repair printers. I decided to repair the color ink jet. If I learned how to do it I wouldn't have to bother other practitioners. All the practitioners who owned a printer were new to this. They were able to print the current week's materials and that was it. For any tiny problems the printers had, they had to call a practitioner living miles away to come fix it. Sometimes the practitioner made a trip only to spend a few minutes to solve a small problem. He spent almost all his salary on bus fares. Our fellow practitioners all felt too ashamed to ask for his help.
I wanted to learn how to repair printers. Was I able to learn something so challenging? A fellow practitioner saw my wish and encouraged me, “You are smart. You can do it.” At the beginning, I kept forgetting how to put the parts back and was very frustrated. One day, a practitioner came from out of town. He said he hadn't worked on the model 4680 printer before. I took him to the printer and handed him the screwdriver. He said, “You do it.” I had no choice but to take it on.
A miracle happened. It was as if the screwdriver had eyes, knew the order of screws to remove, and I was able to remember the order. Even the practitioner thought I knew how to do it; how would anyone believe what had just happened? I know our Great Benevolent Master was teaching me how to do it and encouraging me. I continued to learn the technique, and finally took on the project of printer repair in my area.
Knowledge needs to be put into practice. I was OK working with the fellow practitioner to repair printers, but when I had to do it by myself, I started panicking and feeling overwhelmed. I sent forth righteous thoughts and told myself that nothing could stop me because I was a Dafa disciple. I calmed down and started removing the screws. After I was done and put everything back, it didn't work, so I had to repeat the process. Each repetition took more than half an hour. It took me more than ten repetitions to finally find the problem and fix it. It was a problem new to the more experienced practitioner also. Because I had no experience and I was able to fix it the first time, I knew that Master was helping me again and encouraging me. My confidence with printer repair became even stronger.
One day, the model 4760 printer broke down and nobody could fix it. We sent it to the city very far away hoping to have it fixed, but it was returned still broken. So the decision was to just use it for spare parts. Knowing the printer was pretty new, I was unwilling to put it into spare parts use. The more experienced practitioner and I followed the instructions and changed some parts, but it still didn't work after a half day's work. While sending forth righteous thoughts at noon time, I asked Master to help me.
After sending forth righteous thoughts, I studied the printer, wondering what could be the problem. At this time, a voice told me to unplug the wires. I knew it was Master helping me after seeing my perseverance, so I started unplugging the wires one by one. Aha! I finally found it. A wire connecting the motherboard was broken. After we replaced the wire, the printer worked normally. I smiled and told the printer, “You slacked off and went touring the city before coming back. If Master didn't help me fix you this time, you would have been gotten rid of already. How dangerous was that! You can't do that anymore.” It was as if it understood me and has been working normally to this day.
Master said,
“But although you can’t see me in person, as long as you practice cultivation, I’m actually right by your side.” (“Teaching the Fa in New York City” from Lectures in the United States)
Having gone through these personal experiences, I have further understood Master's words while writing this article. Miracles have happened so many times that I could write a book about them. I cannot find human language to express my gratitude for our Esteemed Master's merciful salvation.
My journey has been bumpy for over ten years, filled with the joy of success and tears of remorse. I would not have made it to today without Master's merciful salvation and fellow practitioners' help. My wisdom was given by Master and my skills were given by Dafa. I must use them for the Fa, advance diligently in the limited time to come, do the three things well, and return home with Master.
Please kindly point out anything improper due to my limited understandings.