(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1994. Since then, I have been immersed in the blessings of the Fa. During the five years of my personal cultivation, with the compassion I had cultivated from Dafa, I established a very good reputation in my school, workplace and society. Since the persecution started on July 20, 1999, under Master's merciful protection, like Dafa practitioners the world over, I have persevered through the five years of persecution imposed on us by the old forces.
During these five years, my most profound feeling is that to follow Master and to strive forward in the Fa-rectification is the happiest of all things!
I. Keeping firm righteous thoughts, the raging wind and waves come and go, "like smoke and clouds"
Since July 20, 1999, the police and the 610 Office personnel started to take turns harassing me at my workplace and at my home. Pressures began to come from the society, my workplace and my home. Later on, the lawless officials even illegally issued documents to expel me from an important position.
Faced with such unfair treatment from every aspect, I went to the local government to clarify the truth. I told them that Falun Dafa was a righteous practice; the government should not and could not distort my Master and Dafa like this, and they should not treat Dafa practitioners like this.
The next day I was expelled. I went to the higher authorities of my workplace and protested the illegal persecution they had subjected me to. I told them that I would keep appealing to their higher authorities. In the meantime, I started picking up odd jobs to make a living.
Seeing that I had more freedom, these lawless persons felt uneasy. They told me they would give me back my job and threatened that if I didn't take it they would expel my parents from their jobs and stop their salaries. I replied, "You shouldn't have deprived me of my right to work. Everyone has his or her own fate, and you were not the ones who gave me this job. Falun Dafa allows me to do better and better work! Why do you keep doing bad things to me?"
As to the sort of "statements" or guarantee statement, to give up Falun Gong practice, they knew it was impossible that I would do this, so they didn't bother to ask. The policemen from the 610 Office said, "It wouldn't work. This guy would keep practicing Falun Gong, even if you tried to kill him." But they wouldn't leave me alone. They ransacked my home and put me into a detention center, in violation of the Chinese constitution.
My cellmates in the detention center were mafia members, gang members, corrupt officials, thieves and so on. Many people's minds were full of lies. Oftentimes a group of them attacked me regarding the Falun Gong issue. After I clarified the truth to them, soon many of them established a good relationship with me. Some learned the exercises, and others said they would find me and learn the exercises after they were freed. Because of the effect of global righteous thoughts from practitioners, I noticed many inmates throughout the detention center had a good attitude toward Dafa, because they all knew a little, directly or indirectly, about the situations of Falun Dafa practitioners' illegal detention in different parts of the country. A thief who used to be ferocious and had been detained in other places could even recite some of Master's poems. The inmates were relatively respectful toward me.
After detaining me for three months, the lawless personnel decided to send me to forced labor for a year. Later, seeing my firm attitude, they suddenly released me. I understand that on the surface I was rescued, but fundamentally, the old forces had perpetrated the persecution; but regaining freedom comes from Master's merciful protection. In fact, everything is in our esteemed Master's hands!
Soon after I got out I read Master's new articles and merged into the current of Fa-rectification even more. Passing through all this came from relying on my righteous faith in Master that gradually strengthens and transcends all conventional thinking. From the very beginning, my righteous faith in Master and Dafa has never wavered.
II. Let go of attachments and forge ahead diligently
We did not come to this world to suffer ordinary people's tribulations; assisting Master in saving people is our lives' true purpose. Since studying Master's new articles I started to do the three things well. With Master's Fa-rectification process moving fast, my environment changed dramatically as well. I was previously afraid to clarify the truth about Dafa, but now I am very active in doing so. I was too lazy to clarify the truth before, but now I look for any opportunity to do so. I used to limit my audience to my friends and family, but later I extended my efforts to any acquaintances and now to everyone I meet on the street.
Dafa gave me more wisdom in clarifying the truth. At first I relied on others to provide truth-clarifying materials, but later I started to edit my own materials and download information directly from the Internet. Now I am providing materials to fellow practitioners. The materials were in black and white at first, but now they are in color and I can also make DVDs. My truth clarification became more flexible also. I can communicate with anyone I meet. Many people in different fields are waiting for us to offer them salvation.
Every attachment is a wall blocking our cultivation path; it limits our ability to clarify the truth. Each time I felt confused I would look for my own attachment with righteous thoughts. After letting go of the attachment, I became more firm in the Fa, advanced to a higher level, and I could do the three things even better. Every bit of progress I made was a process of letting go of my human attachments.
"This is especially so for the Dafa disciples in Mainland China: each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are people." (Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People)
Master's words tell us how difficult our task is, and also show us the higher standards Fa rectification requires us to achieve. The area where I live has only several hundred thousand people, so at first I worried there were too few people here. Soon I looked inward for my attachments. Afraid of too few people? Our righteous thoughts do not depend on the number of people, as the path Master arranged for us must be the best. Do I truly believe in Master? Could I, a Dafa disciple, have such an attachment? Why, instead of fulfilling my task, am I worrying about it? As soon as I let go of the attachment, the world opened before me.
When our righteous thoughts and righteous actions are strong enough, Dafa will give us unlimited wisdom and power since there is nothing Master is incapable of doing.
"One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing level, and this is an absolute truth." (Zhuan Falun)
"However strong the righteous thoughts are, that's how great the power is." (Also in a Few Words)
I fully utilized the area map and also recommended that fellow practitioners use the map. We divided the whole area of several hundred thousand people in more than one thousand villages into several parts and made a flexible truth-clarifying plan, according to practitioners, time and proximity. This way we were able to get to know the area better. Our experience is that a systematic, yet flexible plan could help us to clarify the truth much better, and our righteous thoughts are much more powerful, too.
For example, when most of the teachers in the city's No. 1 and No. 2 High Schools were deceived by lies and their misunderstanding of Dafa would put the students in danger, I adopted many different methods to clarify the truth to the teachers. I wrote letters to the principals and mailed them from another city. I distributed truth clarification DVDs to my acquaintances and took every opportunity I could find to clarify the truth to all of the teachers.
We need to clarify the truth from different angles. Some people understood the first time I explained the facts, but for some people would take more than once. I encountered all kinds of people in this process: Some did not understand, some tried to avoid me, and some argued with me. However, with the Fa-rectification process moving forward, most people have awakened by now. Within several months, the situation in these schools changed dramatically. Not too long ago when there were exam questions that slandered Dafa, some teachers suggested their students skip these questions. Many teachers also asked for Dafa books and started to practice the exercises at home.
Writing this article also provided me with a good opportunity to better check my progress. I hope through my experience sharing with fellow practitioners I might find more shortcomings and improve faster, thus doing the three things Master told us to do, better and on a broader, deeper and more solid basis.
February 14, 2005
