1. Falun Dafa Changed the Path of My Life
As a child, I remember my Grandmother believing in Buddha. She often told me, "Your generation will be the luckiest one. The Lord Buddha will come down to the human world himself to save human beings. Please remember, the Lord Buddha will come down during the turn of the millennium. You must under no circumstances miss such an opportunity to attain the Buddha Law." Grandmother planted the seed of cultivation in my young heart.
After I grew up, I liked to read Buddhist scriptures and other kinds of cultivation books. I kept several big boxes of these kinds of books. I went to Catholic Church and read the Bible; I became a lay Buddhist and studied many Buddhist scriptures. Yet, I still felt I did not find the Master I had been looking for, nor did I find the way of true cultivation.
One day, from an ancient book, I read a prediction about the Future Buddha. I felt and experienced the same excitement, as Columbus must have when he discovered the new continent. Today I still remember these lines from the poems: "Does not look like a monk; does not look like a Taoist; wears a black hair cap which weights 4 Liang [Liang is a traditional Chinese weight unit. One Liang is equal to 50 grams]; does not live on a mountain, does not stay in a temple; only cultivates at home; becomes the Buddha in this life time; his teachings will be spread in the form of Qigong". Since then, I gave up all I had learned before and started to study Qigong. I have learned from over ten schools of Qigong and searched for over ten years. Still, I had not found the true Master.
On October 1, 1996, I finally found my good fortune. I went to visit my sister in another city during a business trip. Walking into my sister's room, I saw the picture of Master Li Hongzhi before me. I immediately recognized that HE was the Master I had been looking for. I was so excited that my eyes were full of tears. Holding this book of the Law of Heaven [Zhuan Falun], I read days and nights without any sleep at all. At the time, I realized Falun Dafa was changing the path of my life. Since then, I started to cultivate on the righteous cultivation way.
2. Improving in the Tests; Ascending and Magnifying in the Tribulations
Since April 25, 1999, the tests came, one after another, and the tribulations became harder, one after another. The situation is just like what Master Li pointed out in his article entitled "Big Exposure" [Essentials for Further Advancement]: "We have changed the situation in human society and reversed the general climate: Let's see who still says that Dafa is good and who changes his mind. This way, hasn't everything suddenly become crystal clear?"
I have been arrested several times due to appealing for Falun Dafa. The last time I was arrested was for organizing an experience-sharing meeting. The local government had already decided to sentence me between five to seven years in prison. On the day of the trial, a righteous thought arose in my mind: "Master, as a disciple, I'm not afraid of being held in prison. I would rather sacrifice my life to protect Dafa. Nothing can change my firm belief in Dafa. However, there are some disciples who are shocked by the current persecution. Under pressure and with their own attachments, they don't know what to do. Master, I want to go out to and 'assist the Master in the human world' to help more disciples to break away from their human limitations." The power of righteous thoughts is extraordinary. After detaining me for a few months, the local government released me, due to insufficient evidence. At that time I was enlightened to the meaning of Master's words: "Human beings can never realize what they aspire to be."
Several practitioners came to visit me on the day I was released. We exchanged our thoughts regarding validating the Fa [the Law and Principles], protecting the Fa and perfecting harmony with the Fa in the current situation.
The Law of the Universe has suffered such an unprecedented persecution in the human world. As disciples, we can't hide out of concern for our own safety. The Master already told us in his teaching about the tests we just encountered, but we didn't realize it because our own attachments had blocked us. The Master has said, "The cultivation is like tidal waves washing sand. What is left is the real gold." After attending the experience-sharing meetings, more and more practitioners stepped forward and converged into the powerful current of Fa-Rectification.
3. Break Away From Human Limitations and Reach Consummation
Since the Master published the poem "The Knowing Heart" on May 21, 2000, the whole cosmic climate had been changed dramatically. The process of Fa-rectification has become faster. The Master has clearly told us how to validate Dafa in his article entitled "Towards Consummation." After the experience-sharing meetings, more and more practitioners broke away from their human limitations and dissolved into the mighty current of rectifying the Heaven and Earth with the Fa.
One night I had a dream. In the dream, I was pouring water into a big jar. The water filled up the jar but I kept pouring water into it. Suddenly the jar broke. I woke up and realized the Master pointed out to me that I should change to a bigger container. Getting up in the morning, I called my sister, who lived in another city, to find out about the situation there. My sister told me that some practitioners went to Beijing to protect the Fa, but most of the practitioners did not. I felt anxious for those who couldn't step forward. I realized that it must relate to me since I happened to know the circumstances. I should break the restrictions of only participating in Dafa work in the local area. Since Dafa belongs to all the sentient beings of the universe, there should not be any regional boundaries. So, after I had made the phone call, I went to my sister's city on the same day.
During our experience-sharing, I found when I talked with a pure mind without any attachments and shared my experiences on the basis of the Fa, the words from the Master's teaching would come out continuously from my brain. By studying the Fa and sharing the experiences, it has brought very good results at every place I went. As a disciple, one will become a particle of the Fa once he/she dissolves into the Fa in the first place. Frankly, I improved most quickly when I was "assisting Master in the human world." In a single day, from the same words of Master's teachings, I could comprehend its different levels of connotations. The speed of progress and change seemed inconceivable to me. It was a miracle. The Fa manifests differently at different levels and it has different requirements for us. When our Xinxing [mind and heart nature] reaches a certain level, the Fa of that level will unfold for us.
During the process of 'assisting the Master in the human world,' I have the deeper understanding of "breaking away from human limitations." "Breaking away from human limitations" is not to merely step out of our homes to tell the truth, clarify the truth or validate the Fa at Tiananmen Square. It is not so simple that you will reach Consummation once you "break away from human limitations." It is just the first step to be able to "break away from human limitations". We should break away from all kinds of human mentalities and attachments. During the process of telling the truth to the people at large, promoting Dafa to human beings and validating Dafa, we will eliminate all the human mentalities and attachments and meet the criterion of the genuine disciple. Only then will we truly "break away from human limitations" and truly "reach Consummation."
4. Play the Role As a Dafa Particle in the Process of the Fa-Rectification
With the progress of the Fa-rectification, the evil forces have no place to escape to and are making their final struggle. Therefore, the cruel persecution is escalating and the tests become more and more severe. It is the time for genuine practitioners to eliminate their last attachment(s).
In early July of 2000, soon after I left home to "assist the Master in the human world," my wife was sentenced to three years in a labor camp because of distributing Dafa materials that clarified the truth. My twelve-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son were left home alone. At that moment, the sentimentality I had for my wife and children came out. Since I was on the "wanted" list, going home meant being arrested. Although I have a home, I cannot go back to it.
"The Fa can eliminate all attachments; the Fa can strengthen all righteous thoughts." Through studying the Fa, I had a deeper understanding of Master's words [in Lecture Four Zhuan Falun]: "You are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control others' fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or brothers." Although my two children are very young, they have already attained the Fa. Children have their own states of cultivation and it is also their tests that they need to face. There is the Master and there is the Fa. The Lord Buddha is watching them and arranging everything. What should I worry about? When I put down the sentiment and give up the home in the human world, I'm closer to the real home by returning to my original, true self. After I gave up my own sentiments, I found that I have many more family members. Every genuine practitioner and every pre-destined person are all my family members. Only now have I understood the meaning of ascending and magnifying. I feel my body is so light and floating. I have experienced the wonderfulness, greatness and the miraculous when I dissolved into the Fa. I feel like I am a drop of water that melted into the ocean and I have this unlimited strength. I have as much power as the ocean does. No matter how difficult it is, nothing can stop the powerful current of Fa-rectification.
Since Master's article of "Beyond the Limits of Forbearance" was published, the cosmic climate had changed much more. On the surface, the evil forces became much more irrational. During the Spring Festival of 2001, the persecution against Falun Dafa by Jiang Zemin and his circle has completely deteriorated into lunacy. Everyone who has learned Dafa and practiced the exercises was forced to write the "guarantee letter." [Note: promising to give up their belief in Dafa] Those who refused to write the letter were all detained. It has brought more damage to the process of Fa-rectification.
The purpose of our cultivation is to return to our original, true selves and to go home. As a genuine practitioner, how can we go back to our real homes if we cannot let go of our homes in the human world? Why can the evil people damage Dafa so easily? It is because many practitioners regarded their homes in the human world as their "safe harbors". In fact, "safe harbors" cannot shield the wind from the sea. These human attachments are the cables that tie us so tightly to the seashore. Staying at home is to be seized with helplessness. Even though we are not arrested, we are still stranded at home. It is like an object, which is easy to control when it stays still. If the object is moving, the faster it moves, the more energy it has, and it is more difficult to control it. Because we, the practitioners, hold on to our attachments, the evil people can exploit an advantage. If every practitioner breaks away from human limitations and acts as a true Dafa particle, one particle will become one point; points line up into a line; lines form a surface; surfaces become an object. We can improve ourselves collectively and it will have mighty and powerful results. Every practitioner is like a drop of water. Drops of water converge into a mighty tide of Fa-rectification. The evil people that try to block the flow will be drowned and eliminated instantly. Only if we improve collectively and everyone plays the role of a particle, can the Fa manifest itself and be magnified in the human world.
The Master has said [in Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun]: "Without human action happening under cosmic changes, such conditions would not have been brought to ordinary human society, and neither would they be called cosmic changes." We the genuine practitioners should not stay at home to wait for the cosmic changes and wait for the Consummation. We should converge our particles into the powerful river of Fa-rectification. We should cultivate and eliminate all the human attachments in the process of Fa-rectification. Only after we eliminate all the attachments without omission, can we reach the Consummation and follow the Master back home.
Practitioner in China Feb. 17, 2001