(Minghui.org) I have practiced Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) for 17 years. While I have experienced powerful effects from helping to awaken people to the facts of Falun Dafa and the persecution, and also times when I have had depression, I know that I am very lucky to be a Falun Dafa practitioner and I treasure the opportunity.
Master said,
"Dafa disciples should have a sense of urgency, you should prove worthy of your titles, and you should remember that you once signed contracts.""You cannot leave the Fa; if you leave the Fa, you will be an ordinary person. Even if you do things for Dafa, it would be ordinary people doing them, not Dafa disciples doing them, so you must cultivate."(“Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference”)
I am 66 years old, and I started to work as a teacher in 1981. In the spring of 1999, I started to practice Falun Dafa due to my poor health. By studying the teachings of Falun Dafa and doing the exercises, all my illnesses disappeared.
When the persecution began, I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa. I was illegally detained and subjected to brainwashing sessions and forced labor many times. During a period of four months, I was forced to do heavy work in a strict management team and lost nearly 60 pounds.
Although I was forced to write the so called “three statements” (saying that I will give up practicing Falun Dafa) when my mind was not clear, I had a firm thought: “Dafa is an upright cultivation way, and it is not wrong that I believe in it.”
After two years of forced labor, I returned home to find that I had lost my job. I went to the head of the Board of the Education to get my job back and to ask for compensation.
The deputy director said: “If you write a guarantee statement saying that you will stop practicing Falun Dafa and read it in public, you can resume your job.” He gave an example of another person who quit practicing and was paid retroactively. I was not moved by this and kept clarifying the truth to him.
After returning home, I was reprimanded by my wife and relatives. The pressure was so overwhelming that I lay in bed for three days and nights with the door closed.
After calming down, I thought: “If I stop practicing Falun Dafa, I can go back to work and my wages will be paid retroactively. If I keep practicing, I will have nothing. The difference between those two choices was huge!
I wondered, “Is it wrong for me to practice Falun Dafa? Is it wrong to be a good person according to the virtues of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance?”
After tossing and turning all night, I made a decision: “I will keep practicing Dafa, even if I lose everything. I am walking the best path and helping others to understand Falun Dafa.”
When I first went to see the head of the Board of Education, the guard didn’t allow me to enter. I then clarified the facts to him: “What’s wrong with practicing Falun Dafa? Is it wrong to cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance?”
The guard answered: “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is not wrong, but you shouldn’t be against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
He asked me some more questions, and I answered them one by one. Through my diligence, the guard became aware of the facts about Falun Dafa. After that, I was not required to sign in or out when I went to the Board of Education. Every time I went, the guards would ask me for truth-clarification materials, and some of them even withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
I also talked to several leaders at the Board of Education about Falun Dafa. I then re-approached the head of the Board of Education to ask for my job back. He told me: “We don't have permission from the authorities, so we dare not.”
While most people have a sense of justice, they are fearful of offering their support.
In the course of my asking for my job back, all those whom I had contacted are aware of the facts of Falun Dafa. Three deputy directors, and over 30 staff members have quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. I know that it is Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) who has saved them through me.
I helped manage a team of a dozen construction workers doing residential building work. Once a contract was signed with a household, we clarified the facts to the owner, his family members, and their neighbors. We then gave them informational materials about Falun Dafa, and they usually chose to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
We sometimes came across someone who had been deeply poisoned by the CCP’s lies and wanted to report us.
I was distributing Falun Dafa informational materials in front of a shop, when a man walked by. I gave him a copy, and he asked: “You are giving out Falun Dafa flyers, aren’t you? I’ll call the police and have you arrested.”
I told him: “Do you know what Falun Dafa is? Falun Dafa teaches people to be good, is that wrong? The former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin cannot tolerate good people and persecutes Falun Dafa. Many officials who have been arrested by the present government are the ones promoted during the time when Jiang Zemin was in power.”
Having heard what I said, he appeared frightened. I gently told him: “Think about it, people who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are all good people. Please don’t blindly follow Jiang Zemin. You should differentiate what is good from bad and what is righteous from evil.”
I realized: When a dog is barking at you and wants to bite, the more you are afraid of it, the more it will chase you. If you walk towards it, the dog will often stop barking or walk away. Once you give up the attachment to fear, the factor making you feel scared will be eliminated. In fact, the attachment to fear is a threshold; just step beyond it, and a beautiful scene will appear before you.
When Jiang Zemin was persecuting Falun Dafa severely, five of us in the fall of 2003 studied the Falun Dafa teachings together every evening. We realized that we should quickly let people know that Falun Dafa is good. So we bought 150 feet of red silk cloth and made 150 banners.
At night, we hung the banners on wires and posted them along the road while walking to nearby counties. We had no fear or worries and only thought: “Let people see this and know that Falun Dafa is good and an upright way!”
When we realized we were over 20 miles away from where we lived, we decided that we should go back. We kept hanging banners on the way. From 7:00 pm to 2:00 am, we hung more than 50 banners and returned safely home. The next day we pondered how speedy we had been.
We walked more than 40 miles and hung over 50 banners in seven hours. It would normally take us over 10 hours if we walked such a long distance, even without hanging the banners.
We realized that it was because of our strong upright thoughts that Master Li aided us with supernatural powers; we were so speedy, but we didn’t feel it at all. Thank you Master for your protection.