(Clearwisdom.net) Interference was frequently a problem when Master was teaching the Fa. Master was always able to calmly resolve it and considered its occurrence as an additional opportunity for practitioners' improvement.
I helped out at Master's lecture series in Changchun in 1994. Just after the second session of the seventh day began, we experienced a power failure. We were quite worried about how to keep the class going. There were more than 1,600 people in the audience. Master was not anxious at all. He said calmly and peacefully, "Don't you have cassette players? Simply buy a few batteries and we can still make it with the two cassette player speakers. Let's change today's schedule, teaching the exercises first and then the lecture."
The auditorium administrators said there had never before been a power failure at that time of day. We knew this must be interference. The students learned the exercises while we went to buy batteries. The staff were astonished that the cassette player speakers could enable more than 1,000 people to hear the lecture. They witnessed the supernormal power of Falun Dafa.
On another occasion, we experienced a blackout when holding a class to watch Master's lecture video. It was in total darkness at night. We remembered how Master dealt with the power outage described above, so we did not panic. A fellow practitioner went to contact the administrative staff. I took the time to describe some cultivation stories that local practitioners had experienced. All were very quiet, and no one left. The electrician soon fixed the problem and the class went on smoothly.
Tests of whether or not one believes in Master and Dafa occur at the very beginning of one's cultivation. The interference is not frightening and does not affect those who truly cultivate. However, it might make those who are attached to pursuit miss the opportunity to obtain the Fa.
In 1993, a small newspaper was attacking Master, and questioning if Master's "Senior Qigong Master" certificate was valid. After exchanging opinions, practitioners took the view that Master was The Great Enlightened Being, having come to save people, regardless of the title bestowed on him by ordinary people. A practitioner from another practice site told me that a person who seemed to have practiced quite well had given up the practice after reading that newspaper article. Master's attitude to this matter was to ignore it! Master said that newspaper was published by a couple who had asked for sponsorship [paid advertising] from all qigong masters who went to their city to teach qigong. As Master did not oblige, they then attacked Master. Master ignored them, and they soon stopped.
Master taught in the article "For Whom do You Practice Cultivation" (Essentials for Further Advancement)
"To put it another way, cultivation practice is supernormal. No matter who a person is, isn't his criticism of qigong from an ordinary human perspective? Does he have any right to deny the Buddha Fa and cultivation? Can any of mankind's organizations rise above Gods and Buddhas? Do those who criticize qigong have the capacity to command Buddhas? Will Buddhas be bad simply because he says so? Will Buddhas cease to exist simply because he claims that there are no Buddhas?"
After July 20th, 1999, the fabrications and defamation of Falun Gong and Master by the Chinese Communist regime almost blotted out the sky, and their lies blanketed the earth. Nevertheless, practitioners who truly cultivated have walked through it all with their firm belief in Master and the Fa.
Practitioners themselves cause some interference internally. In 1993, a magazine published a special booklet, which described Master's life, cultivation and the process of spreading the Fa in the form of literature. Seeing that it was not in accord with Dafa, nor with Master's situation, some practitioners asked the Falun Dafa Association to organize a large "critique activity." This reflected their way of thinking along the lines of the Chinese Communist Party culture. Master persuaded them several times not to do so. Master said that the author's intent was good, but because he only listened to the lecture twice and had come to the lecture with the purpose of writing the story, he did not truly understand the Fa. Besides, literature was based on life experiences but can become larger than life; room for imagination was allowed. Master told practitioners simply to not treat it as the Fa, and asked that they not organize any "critique activity." Master talked about this several times, both during and after the meetings, and only then did the practitioners stop. Master's way of dealing with this matter has helped me see Master's benevolence and broad mindedness.
Master often said we cultivate amid ordinary people and life, and said,
"you should cultivate while maximally conforming to the ordinary human society" ("Dafa Is All-Encompassing" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I feel the connotation in this teaching is all encompassing! I studied this sentence again and again, and then I slowly understand some of what Master has done.
Later I saw that some practitioners assuming that the Fa-rectification period was about to end. They stopped doing the things in ordinary society that they should do. They were just waiting for Consummation and as result, made their lives extremely difficult.
The Fa will forever be disseminated in the future. Master's words and actions both affect the future humanity. Because of this, Master pays great attention to words and conduct. For example, I was fortunate to eat at the same table with Master several times. I noticed that Master did not eat a lot of meat, only a little bit. My understanding is that Master eats meat to let us know that human beings need to eat meat. He eats only a little because we cultivators should not have the attachment to meat.