(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
It has been fourteen years since I obtained Dafa. Throughout these years I have experienced much and have much to share. I would like to thank practitioners who run the Minghui website for holding the Sixth Internet Experience Sharing Conference. I would like to report to Master and fellow practitioners about my cultivation experiences. I wish to focus on how we have cooperated with each other and interacted as a whole body in saving sentient beings in the evil environment that prevailed in mainland China after July 20, 1999.
Cultivating Myself Well and Encouraging Other Practitioners to Act as a Whole
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the irrational persecution of Dafa practitioners on July 20, 1999, many practitioners from our area went to Beijing to appeal. The persecution in our area was severe. My wife and I were illegally detained and sentenced to forced labor camps. Almost all the practitioners from our village who step forward to validate the Fa were illegally sentenced to forced labor while many of those who were reluctant to step forward due to fear or human attachments were forced to write the guarantee statements. The threats and pressure by officials from the local 610 Office and the police station were intense. The effect was that our whole environment for cultivation was seriously damaged. Police and CCP staff detained practitioners, ransacking and looting their homes. Nobody dared to talk about Falun Gong and many practitioners momentarily lost their righteous thoughts, not daring to admit that they were Falun Gong practitioners. Due to the campaign of intense slander and lies broadcast by the CCP's media, few people dared to contact or speak up for Falun Dafa practitioners.
While I was detained in the labor camp, my child came to visit me and told me about the situation outside. I encouraged my son to not be disheartened or lose courage. Even if there is only one person cultivating and validating the Fa, the evil would be frightened and thus you actually carry the Fa forward. It is wrong to denounce Falun Dafa when It is persecuted. We could never repay what Master has done for us. Even if we lose everything, including your relatives or even life in the validation of Fa. My child was enlightened and encouraged. After he returned home, the young Dafa disciple undertook the task of producing truth clarification materials. It was really hard for him to cultivate firmly in the {{Fa} during this period because he had just graduated from school and was alone. Nevertheless, without having his parents with him as support or help or understanding from others, he still managed to steadfastly remain on his path of cultivation.
In 2001, I was released from the labor camp two months ahead of time and I returned home. This surprised those who had persecuted me. They thought that it was impossible for me to be released because I had not written any guarantee statement. This greatly encouraged fellow practitioners who had not come out to validate the Fa due to hanging on to a human mindset or the attachment to fear. They saw how Master had protected me. From then on practitioners began to go out to validate the Fa.
After going back home, first and foremost I took every possible opportunity I had to study the Fa. I systematically read all Master's lectures and Minghui articles published after July 20, 1999. After studying the Fa, I enlightened and gained a clearer understanding of the responsibilities of Fa-rectification period disciples and Fa-rectification cultivation. I realized the surrounding environment was still very bad with the evil interfering continuously. Few practitioners were going out to validate the Fa, and almost no Dafa materials were to be found posted. If this situation were to continue, how can we help sentient beings awaken and be saved? I deeply felt the great honor and responsibility that Master had bestowed upon us. I decided to look for fellow practitioners and help create a new and good cultivation environment.
One of ways that the CCP persecutes practitioners is to make it difficult for us maintain an environment to study the Fa and do the exercises together. At the beginning of the persecution, they issued a "notice" not allowing practitioners to get together. The evil policy made those practitioners who were afraid of being arrested not dare to come out or even meet with each other. Because some went along with the CCP's demands was one of the key reasons why it was difficult for us to become a whole body. As Dafa disciples who are cultivating in society, we behave compassionately and treat others well under all circumstances and thus benefit the whole society. I went everywhere to look for those practitioners who had not stepped forward to do the three things. After sharing with them, they understood and realized that it was their attachments blocking them from going out and validating the Fa.
Through sharing experiences, fellow practitioners and I deepened our understanding of the Fa's requirements, and the Dafa disciples in our area improved as a whole body. During the almost ten years of coordinating, I have helped coordinate more than one hundred meetings (sometimes there were as many as several dozen practitioners attending), we encountered no interference. Every time we had a meeting, afterwards we raised our levels and improved ourselves and some practitioners who had slid backwards would catch up, we were able to move forward.
The process of looking for practitioners who may have fallen behind and encouraging them to catch up is actually a process of cultivation. Sometimes I would meet with some practitioners' relatives who didn't know Falun Gong and influenced by the CCP's slander they would say something very negative or make a face at me. That would make me feel very uncomfortable. Sometimes I would have unrighteous thoughts and think, "I am being treated like ten-year-old! I am doing this to help save you!" Sometimes I even cried. But sometimes I would ask myself: Why am I feeling uncomfortable or sad? Isn't it because I still have human attachments? Also, when I help fellow practitioners, I should just want them to improve instead of thinking that they should reciprocate me. That would be doing things for benefits or fame and it is actually a human attachment I should get rid of. I must eliminate these attachments and cultivate well.
II. Creating a Normal Environment as a Whole Body
In 2003, there were almost 60-70 practitioners from our area going out to validate the Fa after continuously coordinating and sharing experiences. We kept on producing truth clarification materials and distributing them to surrounding communities. As more and more people learned the truth, the interference around them was eliminated and gradually their negative thoughts about Dafa changed into positive ones.
On November 15, 2003, after "Master's Comment on a Student's Article" was published about exposing the local evil deeds to local people, I realized that I should have been exposing the evil deeds done by local officials and the police during these years. I recorded my suffering due to the persecution throughout these years and signed my real name. We thus produced the first flyers to expose the local evil deeds. With the help of other practitioners, we distributed the flyers to surrounding communities. This righteous action made the local police and bad people feel astonished as they were afraid of having their crimes exposed to their friends, relatives, and other people. One of the leading police came to my home with a completely changed attitude. He tried his best to shift his responsibilities away from himself and I took advantage of his visiting. I told him that Jiang Zemin's decision to suppress Falun Gong was wrong and one day the truth will be exposed in full. Then Jiang would shift all the blame and his responsibilities to those who directly took part in the persecution. It would be too late to correct mistakes or for regrets! When he left, he said that he appreciated my reminding and would remember what I said. From then on, he really changed and the situation of the persecution was not as severe as before. This thus created a good opportunity to clear out interference and help save people.
III. Improving Ourselves in Fa Study as a Whole
After "July 20", the environment for our studying the Fa was damaged and those who stepped forward to validate the Fa were almost all detained or illegally sent to forced labor camps. Those who could not come out to validate the Fa were so pulled down by human thinking or interference that they were even afraid to study the Fa at home, not to mention studying the Fa and doing the exercises together.
Working diligently, by 2005, we made great efforts and were at last able to set up a group practice site for studying the Fa.
Through group Fa-study, we improved very quickly and it was just during this period that the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was publishedand we began in earnest to persuade people to quit the Party. Every day, we studied the Fa together and then discussed with each other about how to persuade people to withdraw from the Party. Some people had been deeply poisoned by the lies and thus it was very difficult to get them to listen, so we would take turns going to them to clarify the truth. One practitioner would speak to the person while others would send righteous thoughts. That winter, we cooperated with each other and managed to persuade eighty percent of the people in our village to quit the CCP.
Besides doing these things in our village, we also rented a car to travel to other remote places where there were few fellow practitioners to distribute the Nine Commentaries. During that time, we felt that we had returned to the cultivation environment we had before the persecution began. Guided by the Fa and our strong righteous thoughts we could feel everything was changing to a better aspect. The local people praised us with admiration and our cultivation environment really improved greatly.
Because I was coordinating in our village, practitioners from nearby asked me to go to their areas to exchange ideas with them as they saw how much our cultivation environment really improved after we formed our Fa-study group. They also asked me to help them set up their own Fa-study groups. No matter how busy I was, I would put aside other things and first help them. Thus Fa-study groups were gradually being set up in our surrounding area.
On March 4, 2007, I made an appointment with a practitioner to go to their place to share ideas about how to set up a Fa-study group there. It was a gray day and snowing when I arrived at the practitioner's home. Later on I learned that it was actually the worst storm that area had in one hundred years. Many practitioners came that day and we shared with each other. It was the first time for some practitioners to attend an experience sharing meeting since the "July 20 crackdown." They were so excited that their eyes were brimming with tears. They said that fellow practitioners coming together made them feel quite different, sincere and surefooted. The experience was moving and solemn and they deeply felt the power of the Fa again. When the meeting was over, everyone was reluctant to go.
When I was on my way home, it became impossible for me to cycle. The bitter north wind with snow made it almost impossible for me to even keep my eyes open. I had to leave my bicycle in a small factory on the roadside and walked with difficultly through the deep snow to my home. Suddenly the heavy storm blowing at me switched direction to blow at my back and pushed me forward, aiding me to walk on. I was able to easily pull my leg out from one meter (about 3 ft) thick snow as if somebody was helping me and I didn't feel tired at all. I walked for quite a while and the strong wind kept pushing me forward towards home along a narrow opening between the snow drifts where only one person could pass. My family was very surprised when they saw me return in such a heavy storm. They asked me how could I possibly make it back? When I told them my story, they all said that Master had protected me; otherwise I would have lost my way in the storm that was impossible to travel through.
IV. Setting up Home-based Materials Production Sites by Cooperating with Each Other as a Whole
Before 2005, we obtained truth-clarification materials from other places. Practitioners from other areas would deliver materials that weighed as much as ten pounds to us every week at great risk and lots of hardship to themselves. The worst thing was that the practitioners who made the materials were so busy with the extremely heavy work load that they felt they had no time to study the Fa and thus some ended up in a undesirable cultivation state. At that time few practitioners realized the importance of setting up home-based materials production sites.
In the winter of 2004, one of the local practitioners told me that he had bought a laptop and wanted to set up a materials site in his home, but he needed help from those who knew the technology. I talked with a relative who was a computer technician in the city and asked him to teach the local practitioner. We produced materials like this for two years. During the process, some problems occurred. At one point, the practitioner became very busy producing materials and neglected Fa-study. Thus something kept going wrong with either the printer or the computer. I pointed out that the lack of Fa-study was the main reason for such interference. If he stopped temporarily and studied the Fa more, everything would be smooth. Sometimes when he felt agitated or wanted to complain, he would get angry with me. I would feel very sad at that time and sometimes even cried secretly when it seemed so much to go through. I would ask myself: When you feel wronged or upset, have you evaluated everything with the Fa? If you only want to hear others praise you or say good things to you, how will you get rid of your attachments? Master told us that we cultivate in society,
"Someone asks, "Why do we always have tribulations in cultivation practice? Those problems aren't much different from those of everyday people." It is because you are practicing cultivation among everyday people. You will not be suddenly turned upside down with your head facing the ground, flying up there and suffering in the air--it won't be like that. Everything will assume the form of everyday situations, such as someone may have irritated you today, someone has upset you, someone has mistreated you, or someone suddenly speaks to you with no respect. It is to see how you will react to these issues." (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)
I am a practitioner from the countryside. Besides coordination, on my path during Fa-rectification, I have tried to diligently cultivate and do the three things no matter how busy I am with my work in the fields. When we do the three things well and follow Master's arrangement, we are able to help save many beings.
I wrote down my experiences in order to report to Master and fellow practitioners. Even though my experiences are not extraordinary, throughout these years I have felt Master's compassion as sentient beings are saved. No matter how great the interference I have encountered, I tried my best to write my experiences and to validate the Fa.