(Minghui.org) Greetings to Master! Greetings to fellow practitioners!
In 1996, when I was 9 years old, I obtained the Fa with my family members in China. I only remember that we would leave the house early in the morning when it was still dark to do the Dafa exercises. Then we returned home to study the Fa. I graduated in 2010 and helped my aunt manage her shop.
My aunt was the first person in my family to practice Falun Dafa. When she saw me slack off in my cultivation during my school years, she took me to the Fa study group. Slowly, I returned to solid cultivation. By studying Master’s lectures, I learned that clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings are the responsibility and mission of every Dafa disciple of the Fa-rectification period. Therefore, I started to make truth-clarifying materials with my aunt and distributed them in different residential districts every day after the shop closed for the day. During that time, Master’s empowerment and protection helped my righteous thoughts grow stronger, and I distributed more and more Dafa materials.
My father was afraid that I would be persecuted in China, so he found someone to get a visa for me to study overseas in 2012. A week before I left China, my teacher was helping me to improve my English. This teacher was very kind and patient, so I decided to tell her the truth about Dafa. However, just a day before my visa arrived, I found out from our conversation that her husband was a policeman. I was shocked and wondered if I should still tell her the facts. If her husband decided to persecute me, I wouldn’t be able to leave China.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. I thought about why I was going overseas, which was to join projects to save sentient beings. But I couldn’t even save the people around me, so what was the purpose of my going overseas? That made me decide to clarify the truth to my teacher. Before leaving China, I told her that my whole family practiced Falun Dafa, about how they’d been persecuted, and how good Dafa is.
Master said,
“I’ve often said this: if you sincerely do it for the other person’s sake, and there is nothing self-serving on your part, your words will be able to move the other party to tears.” (Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day)
My teacher broke down in tears as she listened to me. She said, “Thank you for telling me all this. My husband will not persecute you.”
After that, I got my visa and went to New York. At that time, I thought that, as long as I had something to eat and could participate in projects to save sentient beings with fellow practitioners, I would be satisfied. Maybe because of this simple thought, after I’d been clarifying the truth at the truth-clarification site for almost three months, a practitioner recommended that I accept a printing job.
When I got to the printing facility, I saw that everyone was black from the ink and sweat. The machines were noisy, and there was paper dust and the smell of chemicals. They were busy printing the Epoch Times newspaper throughout the night. I thought in my heart that I would not be able to do this job and maybe they would assign me to be a custodian. However, the manager told me the next day that they were in need of young male practitioners, especially for the night shift. Although I felt that I was not suited for the job, I still wanted to give it a try.
The printing facility was old and the practitioners lacked technical knowledge. When we were printing the newspapers, we only knew when to start work but did not know how long it would take. This was what it was like at the night shift at the newspaper when we were getting ready to print. This put quite a lot of pressure on us. Besides, the old machines were not in good shape. We did not know if we could resolve problems and continue printing, which added to the stress.
The night shift started at 7 p.m., but the work was seldom completed by midnight. Even if the work was finished, I had to remain after work to practice the techniques so that the lead practitioner of that work session could train me. This made me tired and sleepy. Very often, I fell asleep. Every week when it was my day off, I felt like quitting. However, I felt that a practitioner should not behave like that, so this thought just dragged on. Master’s “Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” strengthened my righteous thoughts, and the wish to persevere in this project.
Master said,
“There is a lot of hidden meaning contained in [China’s] semi-divine culture, and that also holds true for the old expression “the appearance stems from the mind.” Because each person covers a certain expanse of his own in the world around him, his emotional state will have a bearing on his affairs. That’s even more the case for Dafa disciples, for they shoulder the mission of saving sentient beings, and their expanse is even greater. The Dafa disciples of the world together encompass the whole earth, with each person having a certain reach. All of what you encounter and meet with owes to factors that are present within your expanse. If you can have sufficient righteous thoughts, you can then be towering and massive within your expanse and suppress any bad things that might exist there. Were every Dafa disciple able to achieve this, the entire world would change, since each of you assumes responsibility for a large expanse in this world and represents a certain segment of sentient beings. I often tell you to cultivate inward and to search within yourselves when problems arise.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)
Given Master’s empowerment, I learned all the techniques that it had taken the night shift’s lead practitioner a year and a half to learn. I lost weight and went from 105kg to 80kg. Practitioners at the truth-clarifying site no longer recognized me.
One year, many practitioners at the printing facility started to cough. At that time, I wondered why cultivators would cough? I thought that they did not have enough righteous thoughts, and I did not take the matter to heart. I only concentrated on whether the newspapers could be printed on time.
A few days later, however, when most of them had recovered from their cough, I started to cough. This cough caused me sleepless nights for half a month. Every day, I just kept coughing. There was no way I could lie down. I had to sit or lean next to the bed. I could only fall asleep between coughs. Because the printing facility could not find a replacement, I had to go to work. But, it was amazing that, whenever I was working, I did not cough that much. One night, I coughed and coughed until I found it hard to bear, so I said to Master, “Master, kindly let me sleep for half an hour.” In the end, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I did not cough that much.
After I ended my shift the next night, I thought that everything would be fine since I could now fall asleep. Thus, I lay down and fell asleep. I don’t know how long I slept before a cough woke me up again. This cough did not give me any time to catch my breath. Unable to catch my breath, I ran to the toilet, thinking to splash water on my face while in my heart, I shouted, “Master, save me!”
I did not feel anything, and scenes of past happenings flashed through my mind. I wondered if this was a reaction just before one dies? I was unable to think of sending righteous thoughts, and my only thought was that if I died, who would print tonight’s newspaper? After having this thought, I was able to catch my breath. Master had saved me. I no longer coughed. Tears covered my face as I thought about the hardship Master had to bear for me.
Master said,
“That was when I had just started teaching the Fa. I thought then that to save human beings was indeed very hard. He didn’t know that when I endured the tribulation for him I was made to drink a bowl of poison.” (Teachings at the Conference in Canada
After this tribulation I looked within. I found that I had used my participation in the project to replace cultivating myself. Because the job is tough, I slacked off in doing the exercise practice and studying the Fa.
When the CCP virus (Covid-19) broke out in the U.S. in 2020, I continued to work at the printing facility, traveling between New Jersey and New York every day. I felt that I was filled with righteous thoughts and I behaved in a righteous manner, so the virus had nothing to do with me.
During this time, the English Epoch Times circulation rate grew greatly. So that people could have the chance to understand the truth at this critical time, we printed many English special editions that covered the truth about the virus and distributed them throughout the U.S. We hoped that that the rate of virus infections in these areas would not be so high. It was mentioned during a meeting that one area did not receive the special edition due to lack of postage, and the epidemic was very serious there.
During this critical period, the practitioners at the printing facility showed signs of headache and fever. Manpower was reduced from four people per shift to three, but the printing volume increased to millions of copies every week.
When I returned home after work one day, my body started to ache and I had a fever and symptoms as if I had contracted the disease. When my mother and wife saw this, they asked me to take a day off work to recover. However, I knew that the printing facility was shorthanded, so I told my mother that I could not. She suggested that I do the second exercise for two hours. The abnormal state of my body showed that I did not practice the exercises enough during normal times. At that time, my wife was already eight months pregnant. To support me, she also did the exercise with me.
Given my family’s righteous thoughts, I started to do the exercise. The pain and heat made me feel like giving up every second. When I persevered, my body started to convulse and shiver. Just as I was about to take my hands down, my wife pushed them back into position. She stood in front of me and supported my hands, telling me that I must persevere. I knew that this was Master, empowering me through my wife’s words.
After doing the exercise, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was much more awake, but my body still ached and I lacked strength. I changed my clothes and was preparing to go to work when my wife touched my forehead and said, “You cannot go today, You still have a fever. If the police stop you along the way, that will be troublesome.” Master sent a thought into my head and I said, “I am going there to save sentient beings so the police will not stop me.” I offered incense to Master and kowtowed to ask Master to empower me. After that, I left the house.
After reaching the printing facility, I started to work. The body aches and lack of strength were still bothering me, but my brain was alert. What is magical is that, after working for 20 minutes, my body aches started to let up. At the same time, the printing of the papers went smoothly. This tribulation was like a wake-up call for me. As I did not put much emphasis on practicing the exercises, I could not meet the requirement of Dafa for a long period of time,
This year is my ninth year at the printing facility. The Fa rectification has not ended, and Master has suffered enormously for the sentient beings so that Dafa practitioners can have more time to save them. I can only assist Master in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings.
Lastly, I would like to share with and encourage everyone a segment from “Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference.”
Master said,
“Sometimes when you folks think about an issue you form a type of habit--"I want to do such and such thing... here's how I'm going to do this thing... here's how I'm going to do that thing." You ponder over it a lot and, well, to the point that you feel you've covered everything in a satisfactory way. But when you get down to doing that thing, the real, actual situations can vary in a lot of ways and your plan won't actually work (laughs). And when it doesn't work, you start to ponder it again. That's not how you should do things. Have righteous thoughts! However you think something should be handled, just go ahead and do it, and when you run into problems you will naturally know how to solve them. If your righteous thoughts are strong, everything will work out smoothly and it's guaranteed you'll do well. ” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. III)
“Why do I tell you to do things this way? It seems passive, right? But that's not true, because the side of you that's been successfully cultivated knows everything, and no matter how you do it, it will work, and no matter how you do those things you'll be able to do them well. So you just need to have the thought. When you know what to do, just go ahead and do it, and while you do it your wisdom will continually come forth, because at that time the side of you that's been successfully cultivated will fuse together with the side of you here. That's a God, who's omnipotent! So of course a small issue will be resolved in no time, and your wisdom will come forth--it's different then! And if you get stuck Master will give you wisdom (laughs). (Applause) ” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. III)
Thank you, Master and fellow practitioners!
(2021 International Online Fa Conference)