(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, compassionate and great Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
For a long time, I didn't study the Fa in depth, so I had many human attachments and didn't do much to validate the Fa. I live in a remote village and make a living selling grain at the market. I ran into a fellow practitioner by chance in the winter of 2004, and he gave me Teacher's new article at that time, "My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up.'" I read it several times when I got home. It was as though Teacher was referring to me in the article, and I felt that I really got a "stick wake-up."
Teacher said:
"Or, to put it plainly, [think about]what kind of a being is worthy of salvation by the Great Law of the cosmos? For a being who is saved, could it just be about personal Consummation? So what kind of being deserves to be a Disciple of Dafa? Would you say those people who hide in their homes and 'study the Fa' do? Or those who only want to gain from Dafa but don't want to give for Dafa? Furthermore, what about those who, while Dafa disciples are being persecuted, don't want to speak up for Dafa and yet still 'read the book' at home and try to get things from Dafa--what kind of people are they? You be the judge." ("My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up'")
After I studied Teacher's article, I looked within and realized I had lost a lot of precious time. I didn't take the opportunity to clarify the truth or validate the Fa when selling at the market. I was only concerned about my self-interest and didn't live up to Teacher's compassion. I wasn't different from an everyday person. After giving it much thought, I realized that, since I practiced Falun Dafa, I should truly live up to the image of a genuine practitioner. I shouldn't cause Teacher to worry about me and I needed to change my current cultivation state.
After I harvested all the grain in 2005, I made sure there was enough for my family and sold the rest. I was then able to devote myself wholeheartedly to validating the Fa and did what a practitioner should do.
My Chinese was very poor at the time, and I couldn't just speak Korean to clarify the truth to people in China. What should I do? Learn it! When I realized this, I joined a Chinese Fa-study group. When I read the Fa in Chinese for the first time, I could only read one or two sentences with great difficulty. I was so nervous that I sweated a lot. The atmosphere of our group study, however, was serene and peaceful, and no one looked down on me. On the contrary, practitioners helped me correct my pronunciation. It was very moving. I also took the opportunity to share my cultivation experience with the group. When I didn't know how to express myself in Chinese, I used Korean. Fellow practitioners nodded their heads to express their understanding and encouraged me to do better. When I was at home, I tried to speak Chinese as much as possible. My son once said, "Mom, your pronunciation isn't correct. You should use pinyin." His words reminded me that I knew how to use pinyin.
From then on, I always carried a notebook and pen with me. Whenever I came across a Chinese character I didn't know, I would ask a fellow practitioner to tell me what it meant so I could write it down in pinyin. I did the same when studying the Fa. If I didn't pronounce a word correctly, I wrote the Chinese character down in the notebook along with the pinyin. After I got back home, I would read it over and over. I don't know how many notebooks I've used in the last several years, but I can now express myself in and read Chinese fluently. Of course, this all happened because of Teacher's help.
In the countryside, work in the fields seems to never end. Teacher reminded us again and again to study the Fa and study it well. I knew I couldn't slack off in studying the Fa even though I had a lot of work to do, so I tried to find time to study the Fa. I went to the Fa-study group three times each week, two times with the Chinese group and once with the Korean group. On the days I went to group study, I sent righteous thoughts at about 6:00 a.m. before walking several miles on the mountain road to catch an early bus. It was fine in the summer, but it was a bit more challenging in the winter, because it's very cold at that time. I told myself, "I am a Dafa disciple. I'm not afraid of the cold." I also had to change buses and wait more than an hour for the next one. I used that time to memorize poems from Hong Yin I, Hong Yin II, and Teacher's new articles. I had also written them down on paper in case I needed to look at them. When I couldn't remember a word or line, I'd take the paper out and continue memorizing. By doing this, I memorized the Fa over and over, and as time went by, I developed a good habit. Even when I have only a few minutes, I take the opportunity to commit the Fa to memory. I have now memorized Zhuan Falun.
I got my passport and was prepared to go abroad, but I felt that I should put the Fa first. I thought, "Since I am needed here in China, I am determined not to go abroad."
Towards the end of October 2009, I was sitting on a tractor full of husked sorghum. The tractor turned over as it turned a corner. I fell off, hit my head on the ground, and was bleeding a lot. I lost consciousness. As I gradually came to, I started repeating, "Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." When I was able to walk, my son held my hands and said, "Mom, if you didn't practice Falun Dafa, you would have already died." We walked back home and listened to two of Teacher's Fa lectures. That same night, I did the Falun Dafa exercises with my son. When I laid down in bed, it felt as if I had fractured my back. When this thought arose, I couldn't even get up. I was aware of my wrong thought and changed it. I told myself, "I am not a human being. I am a god." Immediately I could get up. Just as Teacher says,
"We have said that good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences."(Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
Now I keep Teacher's Fa firmly in mind.
"There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your mind goes wrong a little bit, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over." (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun) (official translation)
The above is my brief experience about learning the Fa. I know I am still far from Teacher's requirements, so I will work harder to study the Fa well, save more people, and accomplish my prehistoric mission.
