Returning to Cultivation, Being Diligent to Catch Up

(Minghui.org) I followed my mother when she went to the Falun Dafa practice site when I was nine years old. For the very first time, I heard Master’s Fa lectures and came to understand the meaning of life. Thus, I began to cultivate in Dafa. Now, I am a mother in her 30s. 

I did not treasure my cultivation opportunity when I stepped on my cultivation path. When growing up, given the declining moral standards in schools and society, I got lost among regular people a few times. Especially after I went to college, I turned into a regular person.

But, Master didn’t give up on me. He kept giving me reminders. In the very end, he used my child to hint that it was time to return to cultivation. This experience helped me to feel the preciousness of Dafa. If I were to miss this opportunity, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. I will do the three things well, cultivate until the very end, and not let Master down.

Being Diligent: Studying and Reciting the Fa 

Preparing a Daily Fa-Study Plan 

I didn’t have to go to work at a fixed time. My work could be done by cell phone at home. It seemed very flexible, however, sometimes when I was very busy, a few hours went by very quickly. Then, I realized that this state wasn’t right. Most of the time I spent on my cell phone, leaving only little time for studying the Fa. Thus, I made a timetable to keep me on track. 

I got up at 3:45 a.m. to do the five sets of the exercises, sending forth righteous thoughts, and then spend some time reading the Minghui website or listening to the Minghui Podcast. Next, I had to take my little one to daycare – it was 7:30 a.m. I was ready for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Then, I studied the Fa – Zhuan Falun – for 1 hour, after which I would do household chores. I began to work at 10 a.m. In the afternoon, I worked for an hour, studied the Fa for two hours, or worked on Dafa projects. By the time I picked up my child from daycare, it was a bit past 5 p.m. Then at night, I studied the Fa for another hour, and did the exercises with my 6-year-old daughter. 

I strictly followed this schedule and did the three things every day. I felt my life was very fulfilled, and my thoughts were always on the Fa. I truly felt that I was constantly improving. 

Master said, 

“You can’t lessen your diligence in cultivation. Remember that! Make sure to cultivate to the end! With such an immense Fa to empower people to cultivate, it absolutely won’t drag on too long. So you must progress with diligence.” (Teachings at the Conference in New Zealand)

Importance of Reciting the Fa

Through studying more Fa I eliminated my thought karma. Sometimes when I was very busy with my job, or with other things, I lagged behind in Fa-study. Then, I would lack righteous thoughts, my mind got a bit confused, and thought karma would interfere with me. The idea of not wanting to study the Fa or doing the exercises would gain the upper hand. However, the stronger it was, the more I forced myself to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts. I aimed to make a breakthrough within a day or two. 

Especially when it came to reciting the Fa, my plan was to memorize and recite one paragraph of Zhuan Falun every day. It was truly amazing. Every time when my state of mind was off, or all kinds of attachments were bothering me. My mind became very clear after reciting the Fa, and righteous thoughts filled my mind. Through reciting the Fa, I also could eliminate all kinds of bad substances in my mind. 

Master said,

“Some people are not very in control of their minds and so they go along with it and do bad things, which is ruinous for them and causes them to fall. Most people can, however, repel it and deny it by having strong, self-aware thoughts. This indicates that they are savable and can discern right and wrong; it means that their faith is strong. My spiritual bodies will then help them by eliminating a large proportion of their thought karma. What I’ve described is quite common. If it does occur, it is a test to see whether you can conquer the wicked thoughts. Hold your ground and the karma will be dissolved for you.” (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Sometimes when I received a lot of orders on my cell phone, my attachment to self-interest would flare up. As a result, I always wanted to check for any new orders, or if someone left me a message. I didn’t want to put down my phone, which affected my studying the Fa and doing the exercises. Then, I came to realize that I should eliminate this attachment. I remembered what Master said, “Your Main Consciousness must be strong...” (“Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa). I then sent righteous thoughts to eliminate it. I also asked Master to help empower my righteous thoughts. 

Sometimes there was interference caused by lust. As soon as I realized that I immediately send righteous thoughts to eliminate it. Cultivation is very serious, any unrighteous thought would bring trouble to ourselves. Thus, we have to strictly watch our every thought against the Fa-principles, so as not to be taken advantage of by the old forces. 

Righteous Thoughts and Actions: Having Faith in Master and Dafa

Recovering from Illnesses

Before I entered college, since I studied the Fa diligently, I had been in good health, and did everything well. After I entered college, I began to slack off and gradually turned into a regular person. After I got married, I was more obsessed with material life. Thus, many health issues surfaced, such as a frozen shoulder, and cervical spondylosis. For many years, I had trouble putting heavy items on my shoulders, nor could I hold my children in my arms. Cervical spondylosis caused frequent dizziness. Because I felt sore from my neck all the way to my lower back, I tried many therapies, such as massage and so on, but nothing worked. 

Master is so compassionate and didn’t want to leave any of his disciples behind. He used my child to wake me up and had me return to studying Zhuan Falun again. Master’s words penetrated deep into my heart, I even felt every punctuation mark had meanings behind them. 

I clearly recall the first day after I began to read Zhuan Falun, my entire back became much more relaxed. It was astonishing how fast this happened. A few days later I realized I could pick up heavy items, and hold my child in my arms. In addition, the soreness in my shoulders was gone, and I recovered from my frozen shoulder. My back pain was also gone. Because of my faith in Master and Dafa, Master cleansed my body, and I was illness-free. 

Master Purified My Daughter’s Body 

My six-year-old daughter believed in Dafa, and sometimes she copied me to do the exercises. One day, she told me she had a painful sore throat. I didn’t take it to heart. The next evening, she experienced shortness of breath. Then she felt as if being suffocated. My husband was very worried, couldn’t figure out why she was like this all of a sudden. I didn’t feel scared, as I understood that it was Master purifying her body – I looked at it being a good thing. When I told her to recite “Falun Dafa is wonderful! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful,” she quietly nodded her head to show her agreement. Meanwhile, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the bad substances in her throat. Within one minute she was fine. She was fully recovered by the next morning. 

Clarifying the Truth 

Husband Changes Attitude

When I first returned to Dafa cultivation, I began to clarify the facts to my family and relatives. Given their fear of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), my brother and in-laws asked my husband to talk me into not clarifying the truth to people. Thus, my husband also was against my practicing Dafa, and didn’t allow me to bring up Dafa in front of my children. 

One time, when my son came down with some kind of illness, I told him to quietly recite the Dafa phrase “Falun Dafa is good, and Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance is good. My husband wasn’t happy about that. I didn’t maintain my xinxing and argued with him, which made him even more upset. He asked me, “Do you want our family or Dafa?” I told him both. Then he asked me to choose only one. Then I said Dafa. 

Later on, I realized that the way he behaved wasn’t the real him. Then, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil CCP specters behind him. At the same time, I reminded him that he witnessed the changes I experienced after practicing Dafa. 

In the past, I was very bossy, and he did most of the household chores. When we had a conflict, I was always venting my anger at him, and he had to keep quiet. Since I practiced Dafa, I got up early in the mornings to make breakfast, and took care of most of the household chores. I no longer lost my temper with him. When we went to visit my in-laws, I brought them a lot of gifts. In our six years of marriage, every time when we slept at my in-laws’ house, I slept in, and my in-laws prepared breakfast for us. Now, I got up early in the morning to prepare breakfast for them, plus lunch and dinner. After he had seen all these changes in me, I told him that it was Dafa that changed me. I no longer was selfish, and was considerate of others. We should really thank my Master. He kept nodding his head and said “Yes” with a smile on his face. As for quitting the CCP, due to the indoctrination of the Party, my husband always sided with the Party. Given my clarifying the facts to him he changed his attitude and agreed with what I said. 

Seeing I held righteous thoughts, Master made the best arrangement for me. Before that, most of my time and effort was spent on making money. When I began to work from home, other than doing promotional activities in the malls, I often went to deliver goods to stores, and ended up coming home and going to bed after midnight. After I returned to cultivation, I came to understand that only Fa-study and saving sentient beings is the most important. 

But my husband’s salary was too low to support the family. I decided that I should let go of my attachment to self-interest and leave everything to Master. Within a few days, his company made him district manager. 

Since then, he has become very supportive of my cultivation. I remembered one time, after he came home from work, it was close to 6 p.m., seeing I was cooking, he quickly took it over from me and said, “You do what you should do, let me take care of it.” I felt so touched. 

Father and Brother Respect Dafa

My mother was persecuted for appealing for justice for Falun Dafa to the government. She suffered tremendously, mentally and physically. After she returned home, because my father was afraid of the CCP, he didn’t allow her to practice any more. He watched her closely and often beat her if he caught her exercising or reading. My younger brother was still young then, so this traumatized him. As he grew older, he began to resent Dafa. Every time my mother clarified the facts to him, he didn’t want to listen and always sided with my father. 

My father asked our relatives and friends to force her give up cultivation, otherwise he would divorce her. But my mother was of strong will. No matter who tried to convince her to give up Dafa, she told them that she would never give up cultivation. 

As this family trial was hard to pass, she asked for Master’s help. That day, in a dream, she saw my father’s back was covered by a big cloud, which gradually disappeared. After she woke up, she realized it referred to those dark minions and rotten ghosts manipulating him. She was truly thankful for Master having eliminated these evil entities, and helped her pass this test. Then, my father changed and stopped arguing with her, and was no longer against her practicing Dafa. Moreover, he got to see through the true nature of the evil CCP, knowing it was evil. Given that, I knew he had changed completely. 

I asked my brother over to my house for dinner. I took this opportunity to awaken his conscience. Unfortunately, he was manipulated by all kinds of notions. No matter what I said, he refused to listen. I could feel that he resented Dafa. Instead of arguing with him, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors manipulating him in his dimensional field, and also his bad notions. 

I wrote a letter to him the next day saying, “Dafa came to save people. Amid calamities, as long as you believe Dafa is good, then you’ll be able to keep safe.” Perhaps he felt I was truly thinking of his well-being. This time, he didn’t say anything. 

Before that, I was very selfish, and was not kind. Therefore, I had never taken care of him like a sister should during his childhood, which he was never happy about. After I returned to cultivation, I changed, and began to care for him. I let him know that Dafa changed me. Gradually he began to acknowledge Dafa. I gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun. He accepted it and said that he’d read it later. 

The transformation of my father and brother made me realize that every conflict happens for a reason. One must have righteous thoughts and actions and act well, which is the most effective way to validate the Fa. Everyone has a kind nature. When they can truly feel that we treat them kindly, their evil side will subside. 

Meanwhile, we need to study the Fa and send righteous thoughts. An ordinary person’s thoughts are very weak, they can change at any moment. We should send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil, and negate the old forces’ manipulation and arrangement completely. 

The Pandemic Helped Me Realize the Importance of Saving Sentient Beings 

During the pandemic, since we were ordered to stay at home, I began to hand out Dafa informational materials in my community. In addition, I had to clarify the truth to some relatives and friends. As to those living in other cities, I mailed packages to them, which included clothes, children’s products and so on. Thus, couriers wouldn’t open them to look inside. I also put in an amulet and a USB flash drive, put in truth-clarification movies, miraculous stories about celebrities, prophesies, the “staged self-immolation incident,” and videos on how Dafa has spread throughout the world. Also, there was a Word document that I put together, which talked about the beauty of Dafa, the changes I had gone through physically, and the importance of quitting the CCP. 

I mailed many such packages. Before I sent them, I sent a text message, “I have mailed you a special gift. I hope you can check it out. This year has been plagued by disaster. After you look at it and understand what it is, you’ll have a beautiful future.” They all showed their appreciation. 

What impressed me the most were the changes in one of my former college roommates. After I told her that I'd mailed a package to her, she just said coldly, “Okay.” A few days later, I asked her if she had checked on my package yet, and she admitted she hadn't looked at it. I told her, “It was some animations and videos. You’ll understand a lot after watching them.” She still said coldly, “Okay.” A few days later, I received a long e-mail, telling me that after she finished watching the USB content, she was shocked. She especially thanked me for taking the time to keep her informed.

One weekend, I went with my daughter to her piano class. Somehow I'd missed the chance to talk to her piano teacher. But that gave me another opportunity. I asked Master to strengthen my righteous thoughts. I was able to clarify the facts, and she quit the CCP.

Our cultivation path is very narrow. We may stumble if we are not careful. We must not fall behind. We must remind ourselves at every moment to study the Fa diligently, save more sentient beings, and follow Master’s Fa-rectification closely. 

This is my personal understanding. Please point out anything that is not in line with the Fa teachings.