(Clearwisdom.net) I have known this practitioner and her family for a little over a year. She has a daughter with a cheerful personality, a quiet son-in-law, as well as a very capable mother that has just moved in with her for a few months. According to my perception, they are sometimes less diligent in their cultivation, just like me.
It was not until I visited them and prompted them to write down their cultivation experiences that I learned she was almost completely illiterate and cannot write. Yet she can read Zhuan Falun. She told me about her cultivation experiences and asked me to write them down for her. This was the very first time that she told anyone about the many miracles she had witnessed in her truth-clarification work for the past few years. In the process of truth-clarification work, her daughter met and married a Falun Gong practitioner.
While recording her story, I cried repeatedly to imagine the toils of having to leave her hometown and her comfort behind; I admired her selflessness and altruism, as well as her steadfast faith in Teacher. This article describes only a few small stories about her. It does not do any justice in describing her journey of cultivation. Nevertheless, Teacher and sentient beings are witness to what she has done.
1. Predestined for Falun Gong
In 1998, an acquaintance of mine wanted to rent an apartment from me, for I have many conveniently located apartments. When I asked him what he wished to use the apartment for, he told me he wanted to play Buddha Fa lecture videos for free for the public. I was a lay Buddhist at the time, so I told him that he may use the apartment for free. He praised me for my kindness and gave me a Falun Gong book and Falun Gong exercise-instruction videotape, but I didn't read the book or watch the tape.
In August 1998, I heard that someone was coming to teach Falun Gong in our county. I wasn't sure if I should learn Falun Gong, so I spoke to the monk that introduced traditional Buddhism to me in my heart and asked him to give me a hint in my dream. However, I didn't have any dream. I decided that it meant I may learn Falun Gong. I played the Falun Gong exercise instruction videotape and followed it. Since that day, I have never stopped practicing Falun Gong. Because I am almost completely illiterate and I cannot write, I asked my husband to read out Zhuan Falun to me. Consequently, my husband started to practice Falun Gong as well.
Next, I opened up my large courtyard for fellow practitioners to practice Falun Gong exercises together. In the winter, I welcomed fellow practitioners to practice the exercises inside my large home to keep them warm. I tried to use all available opportunities to spread the Fa with fellow practitioners and to help predestined people to start practicing Falun Gong.
2. Validating the Fa in Beijing
In September 1999, fellow practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I provided them with money for the trip. They left together for Beijing. After I saved enough money for the trip, I set out for Beijing alone. On the train to Beijing, I met two fellow practitioners from different areas. Together we tried to tell other passengers important facts about Falun Gong, but we were surprised to find that almost everyone in our train was a Falun Gong practitioner leaving for Beijing. It was wonderful.
After I arrived in Beijing, I was unable to locate those practitioners that came there before me. I decided to team up with those practitioners that I met there and went looking for practitioners from their areas. Some fellow practitioners in Beijing had no way of contacting fellow practitioners from other areas. In order to pick up practitioners from other areas, some Beijing practitioners took the risk of practicing Falun Gong exercises in public so that fellow practitioners from other areas could identify them. Only Teacher's disciples could be so selfless and admirable! We thought there was no way that Beijing practitioners' homes could accommodate fellow practitioners from outside of Beijing, so we decided to go stay in the mountains. At the foot of a mountain, we met a fellow practitioner who told us that there was an empty house on the mountain that could accommodate us. Once there, we saw a large house with a full set of cookware in the kitchen. About 50 practitioners stayed in that house. We studied the Fa and exchanged our understandings of the Fa. We felt deeply that Teacher was watching over us with compassion.
At the time I didn't realize that I should validate the Fa actively. Since there were no activities arranged to validate the Fa in Beijing, I returned home after October 1.
After I returned to my hometown, I started to distribute to people materials I brought back from Beijing that contained important facts about Falun Gong. Once I took a pedicab. When the pedicab driver had climbed up to a hill, I got off quickly and told the driver, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I don't have the heart to have you take me uphill." I took the opportunity to tell him important facts about Falun Gong and tipped him well. Once, when I bought clothes, the store owner gave me 15 extra yuan back. I returned the money to her and explained to her the truth about Falun Gong. Once I got on a bus without a bus ticket because I was going to be late. The bus broke down, so the passengers had to get off and take another bus. The new bus assumed everyone's ticket had already been collected, so I could have gotten away without buying a bus ticket. When I bought the bus ticket on the bus, the driver told me, "You could have left and nobody would have known. Why bother paying for the bus ride?" I explained to her that I practice Falun Gong and I must not take advantage of anyone. Next I started to explain to her important facts about Falun Gong. She told me that her aunt also practices Falun Gong, but her family misunderstood her because of China's hate propaganda against Falun Gong. She said that now she knows her aunt is a good person.
Once in Beijing, a fellow practitioner found me a job as a warehouse keeper. I cleaned up the entire warehouse. I collected all the leftover materials and organized them so that they would be fully utilized. My boss said, "I have had this warehouse for over ten years, but no one has ever cleaned and organized the warehouse as well as you have." I introduced and explained facts about Falun Gong to my boss and all of my colleagues. Before I resigned, I told my boss, "I am sorry I have to leave. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I have come to Beijing to help people understand the truth about Falun Gong. I didn't come here to find a job. I am not short of money anyway. In fact, my family is running several businesses." I left him with a copy of Teacher's Fa lectures in audiotapes. Shortly after I arrived at home, my boss called me, "You have done a fantastic job. If you ever wish to come to Beijing again, my door will always be open for you."
3. Helping a Fellow Practitioner Return to Cultivation
When I heard that a fellow practitioner in a nearby county gave in to the pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and, thus, gave up practicing Falun Gong, I was anxiously worried for her. One day I visited a relative to introduce Falun Gong and explain facts about Falun Gong. During our conversation, a neighbor came and told me that her sister-in-law also practices Falun Gong. Her sister-in-law invited about 30 fellow practitioners over. All of them wrote a statement to solemnly declare their words and deeds under forced brainwashing to be "null and void." All of them started to practice Falun Gong again. I was getting ready to leave, but I suddenly felt discomfort in my abdomen, so my relative forbade me from leaving. Then about six fellow practitioners came. They wished to make the same solemn statement and to return to Falun Gong as well.
4. Saving Sentient Beings amidst Storms
Between 2002 and 2004, my family (fellow practitioners), two fellow practitioners from southern China and I established a mobile truth-clarification materials site. (Later one of the practitioners from southern China left us.) We carried notebook computers, printers and CD-ROM burners on our backs and left Beijing. Each time we went to a new place, we rented an apartment for a season. While they were making materials containing important facts about Falun Gong, I went out to distribute the materials to people. We ran the mobile truth-clarification materials site from Daqing, Heilongjiang Province all the way down to Hunan Province. We left many footsteps in our journey of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings.
Once we rented an apartment in Beijing. At the time, the evil CCP made a new regulation that those who rent an apartment to Falun Gong practitioners will be fined 5,000 yuan. In the same apartment complex, there were about a dozen households that shared common bathrooms. Once I moved in, I cleaned up the common bathrooms every night. In the past, it was the landlord that cleaned up the common bathrooms. One day I invited a neighbor's kid over and explained to her that the so-called "Self Immolation at Tiananmen Square" was a staged act to instigate people's hatred against Falun Gong. Later the kid relayed what I said to a tailor living in the same apartment complex. One day the tailor told the landlord in an exaggerated high volume about the fine related to renting apartments to Falun Gong practitioners. I stepped out and told the landlord, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner. If that's the case, I will move out because I don't want to get you into trouble." The landlady said, "If only everyone would practice Falun Gong, everyone would be a good person. If a policeman comes, I am sure he will want to learn Falun Gong as well." Nevertheless, we moved out a few days later to avoid giving the landlady any trouble.
In 2004, a person reported me to the police when I was telling people important facts about Falun Gong. As a result, I was arrested and imprisoned for nearly two years. This had a negative impact on my cultivation. In the past, when I saw a person walking in front of me, I would walk up to him and tell him facts about Falun Gong, but now I have become less eager to save sentient beings.
Through studying the Fa and reading the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, I have learned that persuading people to withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers League is saving people. Hence, I try to help people to withdraw from the CCP and its two affiliated organizations wherever I go. I even went to the justice department and the police station that arrested me and put me in jail in order to persuade them to withdraw from the CCP. I have even persuaded people in the elevator to withdraw from the CCP and its two affiliated organizations. Some of my colleagues from my part-time job have also withdrawn from the CCP, but I must continue my efforts.
After I moved out of the apartment complex, a neighbor that had never conversed with me came up to me. I took the opportunity to clarify the truth about the CCP to her and she agreed to withdraw from the CCP and its two affiliated organizations. Many predestined people are waiting for us. I must study the Fa more and do well the three things. Before I send forth righteous thoughts each time, I think of myself as a divine being of the righteous Fa and that no life may interfere with me. Afterwards, I am able to enter tranquility as soon as I sit down in the Lotus Position and feel my gong shooting up to the sky.
Thunder and storms are nothing to Teacher's disciples, cultivators watched over by divine beings. Fellow practitioners, let's cherish each and every second. Let's cherish every life and everything. Let's walk our paths to godhood righteously when we validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Let's follow Teacher back to our respective homes with our sentient beings!