(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Revered Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I am very happy to be able to attend this sacred experience sharing conference. It is my great pleasure to participate in this conference on the Internet with practitioners around the world. I would like to share with you my experience in saving sentient beings.
1. Clarifying the Truth and Saving Sentient Beings with a Pure Mind
Recently, there were a few cases in our area where practitioners were reported to the police while they were clarifying the truth. This happened because in the process of clarifying the truth, we didn't pay attention to rectifying ourselves with the Fa, and our minds were not pure, thus we were allowing the evil to take advantage of us.
We know from the Fa that the origins of sentient beings in this world are not trivial. They came for the Fa. But in this maze, poisoned by the evil's lies, some are even hostile toward Dafa and participate in the persecution. Only pure compassion can untie the knots in their hearts. Therefore, it is said that Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification shoulder great tasks and have enormous historic responsibilities in fulfilling our prehistoric pledges.
I remember one time when I went to a store, where a man and a woman were sitting. As I was shopping I took out a copy of truth-clarification material and handed it to the woman. I said to her, "I'm giving you something good to read. Please learn the truth about Dafa. Don't believe the lies on TV. If you have joined the CCP and its affiliated organizations, you should quit them!"
The man shouted, "How dare you say this? Do you know who I am? I am Zhang xx." I was very surprised to hear that Zhang was the head of the 610 Office, who persecutes practitioners in our area. He didn't even leave his cousin alone, and sent his cousin to a forced labor camp. His cousin was later tortured to death. I had never seen him before. Was this really him? I immediately had righteous thoughts, thinking... does it make a difference if it's him? He, even more than others, needed to learn the truth so he would not continue doing evil deeds.
I said, "I don't care who you are. What I tell you is true and it's for your good." He said, "Looks like you don't believe me." He pulled out his police ID card and showed it to me. It indeed had three characters, "Zhang xx." I raised my head and looked into his eyes with righteous thoughts in my mind, and without any fear. I said, "Good, it's a predestined relationship for me to meet you today. Now you know the truth, make sure you don't persecute Dafa practitioners any longer. Treat Dafa practitioners well and you will have good fortune."
The woman smiled, "Don't listen to him. He just has the same name as Zhang xx, though he is indeed a police officer." He said, "I know you are all good people. Someone has already helped me to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations." I clarified the truth to him further before I left.
A few days ago, two of my high school classmates (I'll refer to them as classmates A and B), whom I had not seen for twenty years, came to visit me. We met at a restaurant along with several other classmates from the local area. My classmates came one after another, and classmate A was the first one to arrive. So I clarified the truth to her first and helped her to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Classmate B was the last to arrive. I only clarified the truth to her but didn't have time to help her quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations (I had already clarified the truth to all of the other classmates). Upon leaving, classmate B told me, "Among our classmates, I miss you the most. I'll find some time to visit you and we'll have a good chat." I knew in my heart that she would come to visit me, as she hadn't been saved, so how could she not come? After a few days, she came to my home. I clarified the truth to her and helped her to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
After she left, I recalled that through all these years, Master had meticulously arranged to send people to me in order to save those with predestined relationships. What excuse do I have not to walk well on the path arranged by Master in this final period of the Fa-rectification? Master said,
"What does it mean for Dafa disciples to have this extraordinary form of cultivation and accompanying responsibility, and to have a Fa so gigantic and for it to be Fa-rectification on a cosmic scale? It means that the responsibility is astoundingly great, for this is also the sacred destiny that you formed before history began, and it is forging the holy virtue that one day awaits a great being. So would it work if you couldn't manage to do well?" ("Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan" March 2006)
One day, a man arrived and I started chatting with him while tending to my business. Seeing he was not in a rush, I started clarifying the truth to him. I asked him whether he had joined the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He said none of those, but I didn't stop and continued to talk to him. I told him that the CCP had started many movements during all these years. During the "Cultural Revolution," they divided people into several classes and incited the masses to fight against each other. In June 1989, college students promoting democracy were slaughtered by the CCP, with machine guns and tanks. Now the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong. They throw good people, who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, into prisons. The CCP has committed numerous crimes and will suffer retribution! Whoever joined the CCP and its affiliated organizations will go down with it. Only by officially quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations can one be safe when the great disaster strikes.
I looked at him after clarifying the truth. He didn't say a word but didn't leave either. He sat there and started smoking cigarettes one after another. I could see him struggling in his mind. After a while, he raised his head and told me, "To tell you the truth, I am a village party secretary and have been a party member for more than thirty years. What you told me is all true. I have decided to quit the CCP, but I don't know how." I helped him to write a statement to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. When I asked him to sign, he hesitated. I said, "Don't worry I'll keep it secret for you." He then signed his name on the statement.
2. Don't Forget to Cultivate Solidly While Saving Sentient Beings
Master said,
"Walk the last steps of your path well and with determination, study the Fa well, and, with a foundation laid by your having cultivated well, your righteous thoughts will naturally grow stronger and you will surely do well with what Dafa disciples are supposed to do." ("Greetings", 2009)
After studying this Fa, I reflected on myself and realized that although I knew to search inward when I encountered things, sometimes I was stuck in doing things and neglected steadily searching inward to eliminate various attachments.
Once the attachments are exposed, we should never let them pass, because those are the degenerated and deteriorated materials of the old cosmic system. Those hard-to-sever attachments and postnatally acquired notions form barriers among practitioners, and are the biggest obstacles that interfere with our pure hearts of saving people. Thus we must get rid of them.
Master told us that "...true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")
Only when we unconditionally search inward can our corresponding cosmic bodies assimilate to the Fa and attain the harmonizing, all-encompassing, and non-destructive status. When we encounter problems and shirk the responsibility, it's not validating Dafa but validating ourselves instead. When this becomes serious, the old forces will take advantage of the loophole and find excuses for persecution. It's a good thing when conflicts arise and our hearts are provoked, as we should then grasp that attachment and get rid of it.
Master said,
"It is true that in the past I've said that the time left for Fa-rectification was not that long, quite short in fact. I had really hoped that you would quickly mature and grow rational, thus allowing this affair to be concluded in a short time. If Dafa disciples cannot all be rational and mature, and instead often act with a human frame of mind--and one that manifests so strongly, at that--how could this affair be concluded? How could one say that Dafa disciples have completed their cultivation?" ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference")
I understand that Master still gives sentient beings the opportunity to be saved, and meanwhile gives us the opportunity to cultivate well as quickly as possible.
I deeply feel the importance of cultivating my xinxing. Our words and deeds represent Dafa disciples' images. While amidst a test, we must search inward and let go of human attachments so that we can make breakthroughs in our family environments, and our family members can be saved.
Last summer my in-laws, who had been living with their daughter for five or six years, called us and said they'd come back to live with my husband and me. After coming back, my father-in-law told me that my mother-in-law had suffered from a severe heart disease. I told him that I would take care of all the housework, and let her rest and recuperate. I later realized that it's easier said than done. I was very busy in my store every day, and I also needed to do all the housework, laundry and cooking. As a result I had less time for studying the Fa and felt exhausted both physically and mentally. My human thoughts then started to emerge.
One day I was still working in my store after 7:00 p.m. while all my family members were waiting for me to cook dinner. I felt angry--seeing that I was so busy, why didn't anyone give me a hand? The more I thought about it, the more grievance came into my mind. I realized that this was not the right mindset, yet it was difficult at that point to truly keep a peaceful mind and let go of my human thoughts. I cooked dinner and pretended that I was not unhappy.
No matter how busy I was, I was determined to join the group Fa study and nothing could hold me back. One day a fellow practitioner visited my home and I complained about my difficulties. The practitioner said, "You should let go of your human thoughts. Everyday people should not interfere with Dafa disciples' doing the three things." Hearing the practitioner's words I gradually calmed down. I believed that my family members would surely change.
On my way to the group Fa study that evening, I recalled Master's Fa,
"...we are cultivators, people whose bodies are in the secular world but whose minds are beyond it." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference")
I recited this Fa again and again and my heart suddenly opened up and I saw the light. How can Dafa disciples get trapped in the secular world and mind these trivial issues?
After that, I continued making efforts to do things well. I closed my store at 6:00 p.m. every day so that I could have more time to study the Fa. My mind became peaceful and I did not feel very tired, physically. My mother-in-law started to help me with the housework, which enabled me to study the Fa even more. Better yet, my mother-in-law later obtained the Fa and she even started to spread the Fa to others! Indeed, as long as we act righteously and let go of human attachments, we will find "...there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" (Zhuan Falun)
September 22, 2009