(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings Master!
Greetings fellow practitioners!
I am a 59-year old farmer. It's been 13 years since I obtained the Fa in the fall of 1998. Once I started practicing Dafa, three chronic diseases disappeared, and I have been feeling healthy and energetic ever since. What is more exciting is that Teacher has been guiding me on my cultivation path. The more I walk my path, the more energetic and wonderful I feel. Therefore, I cherish Dafa as much as my own life.
Fellow practitioners told me that my experience sharing paper was published on Minghui.org (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom) as part of the 2009 Internet Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference. Two of my other papers which talked about how to save people through truth clarification were also published in Minghui Weekly. What more can I write about now? This morning after doing the exercises, I thought about writing an experience sharing paper again. I knew that writing a paper is to report my cultivation to Teacher and to share with fellow practitioners. The writing process is also a process to improve my xinxing. Therefore I felt that I should write a paper. Once I thought of this, I saw a Falun rotating in my left peripheral vision, and I knew that Teacher was encouraging me. I would like to talk about my cultivation experience in three aspects.
1. Introducing More People to Dafa, as More Practitioners Can Save More People
In order to prevent people from being saved, the old forces have corrupted people's morality to a terrible level. In my hometown, the government officials are greedy. Ordinary people are used to buying counterfeit products and using counterfeit money, vegetable sellers cheat all the time by tipping the scales and workers steal from their factories every day.
In the spring of 1999, practitioners from a nearby city came to town to promote Dafa. Many new practitioners came to learn, but most of them were middle aged or senior citizens seeking to cure diseases. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong, they discontinued their practice out of fear. My wife and I went to some of their homes to encourage them to come out, and later we sent truth-clarifying DVDs to their homes. Only two of them dared to accept the DVDs, but even those two still did not dare to come out to do truth clarification work. Since that time, I have ridden my bicycle to a few surrounding towns to clarify the truth to the people there, but I have not heard much news about the practitioners in those towns. When I heard from others that about 10% of the residents in Nanjing were practitioners, I felt envious. More practitioners can save more people. So, I want to do everything I can to introduce Dafa to people. In the past 12 years, I have promoted Dafa to over 100 people who have all read Zhuan Falun or watched the video of the Fa Lecture in Guangzhou. More than twenty of them have started practicing Falun Gong and ten of those also come out to clarify the truth. These new practitioners live in the surrounding neighborhoods within five kilometers of my home. I frequently send DVDs and other materials to their homes, share cultivation experiences with them and offer them assistance in cultivation issues. On my way back home, I clarify the truth to people too. As the number of new practitioners grows, our truth clarification has improved and more people have been saved.
Several years ago, a young man came to my home town to sell pig feed. After listening to me explain the truth about Falun Gong, he came to my home the next day to learn the exercises. I also helped him quit the CCP and its associated organizations. He is from Wuhan and works as an intern in his uncle's company. I told him that Hubei Province has a lot of practitioners and that he should get in contact with local practitioners in his area. Before he left, I gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun as a gift. Half a month later, he came back with one of his coworkers. Once they entered my home, he called me “Teacher.” I immediately stopped him and told him, “I am just an assistant. There is only one Teacher and he is Master Li Hongzhi, respected around the world.” I then explained the truth to his coworker and helped his coworker quit the CCP. When I learned that they were about to go to Shijiazhuang City in Hebei Province, I told him that he must study the Fa more and do the exercises more in order to save his family and relatives.
During the Shanghai World Expo, the Provincial Agriculture Committee sent a person in charge of “bringing wealth to farmers” to my hometown to research a planting technique. We happened to be waiting for the same bus. After I learned who he was, I told him to follow me. The plant expert that he was going to learn the technique from was my nephew. Then I told him about Falun Gong. He said, “I have heard of Falun Gong in Beijing. They don't do any work once they start practicing Falun Gong, and they think that they can get anything they wish.” I told him, “That is all propaganda by the evil CCP. The CCP is the real cult. Falun Gong practitioners want to cultivate themselves to achieve the universal truth and have no ambition regarding money or political power.” He followed me home. I prepared tea for him and played the DVD “Minghui Shifang: Walk Away From Politics and Start Cultivation.” He paid close attention while watching it. My wife and I prepared a fine lunch for him. Then we played the DVD “Hidden Words in Stone” and persuaded him to quit the CCP and its associated organizations. He said, “The government is so corrupt and all the officials are after money. The provincial agriculture committee sent me here to research a planting technique just so they can apply for more money from the central government. I really have seen enough of it. Let me become a practitioner.” I gave him the book Zhuan Falun and the DVDs of the Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa and the Shen Yun performance as gifts and told him, “My nephew's planting technique is really good. He has led the whole village in achieving more wealth with the technique and won a lot of acclaim. He used to be a government official but now he has started practicing Falun Gong. You two should have a good chat.” I then showed him to my nephew's home. Another predestined person has started cultivation now.
Last year I was sentenced to one year of forced labor. In the labor camp, I clarified the truth to over 100 people including nine camp guards. I left the labor camp with a list of 23 names of people who wanted to quit the CCP. After learning the truth during the few months they spent with me in the camp, three people started practicing Falun Gong. One of them was from Henan Province and was a vocational school graduate. He was in the labor camp for engaging in pyramid scheme sales. He liked to listen to me talking about the high level cultivation principles and learned the verses of all five sets of exercises and a few poems from Hong Yin. I felt that he had a very good foundation for cultivation, so I told him to come to my home to learn Falun Gong after he was released. He telephoned me once he got out. I welcomed him to my home and played truth-clarification DVDs for him. He then studied Zhuan Falun and practiced the exercises with me. He was very smart and quickly learned all the exercises. For the fifth exercises, he could sit in the single lotus position for 44 minutes the first time. The next time, he could sit in the double lotus position for 45 minutes. Both my wife and I were so happy for him and had him stay with us for four days as our valued guest. Before he left, he had downloaded the audio files of the Lectures in Jinan and the exercise music. My wife also gave him some nice clothes and told him to study the Fa well, do the exercises, and save more friends and relatives. He nodded in agreement.
2. Saving Sentient Beings through Truth Clarification
Thirteen years of cultivation has transformed me from a karma filled, selfish person into a practitioner who has compassion and thinks about how to save people all the time. Dafa has given me a new life, something that I could not have imagined before. In the process of saving people, I don't differentiate between different kinds of people, including the young and the old, the deaf and the blind.
I used to practice martial arts; I've been a soldier in the military and worked as temporary labor. So, I can start a conversation easily with all kinds of people and then do my truth clarification based on their situations and ability to understand. My neighbors in surrounding villages all know me as someone with a warm heart, willing to help others. For instance, people often ask for my help in things like writing Chinese calligraphy wedding couplets or being the bookkeeper for wedding and funeral receptions. Sometimes, I initiate contact to offer my help to others in order to create an opportunity to tell people about Falun Gong. While biking on the road, I stop and talk to passers-by, whether they are youngsters, middle-aged or very aged. I also offer a cigarette to those who smoke to show respect. As I treat people with my warm heart, the effect of my truth clarification has been very positive.
In the summer of 2008, I was invited to my cousin's wedding banquet. Upon entering her front yard, I talked to two people and persuaded them to quit the CCP. After the banquet started, my cousin's husband invited me to the room where the matchmakers were seated. Everyone there was very well dressed. When I sat down, a young man politely offered me a cigarette. I tentatively told him in a low voice, “I practice Falun Gong and don't smoke.” He was a little surprised and whispered back, “Most people here are village government officials. That person seated at the head of the table is a town government official.” I smiled back. Next, a young village official poured wine for me. I stood up politely and said with a smile, “Thank you. I am a Falun Gong practitioner, so I don't drink alcohol.” Suddenly all eyes were focused on me. I said to them, “Do any of you really think that I look like someone who would kill others or commit suicide?” Next, I continued to tell them the truth behind the self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square and how Falun Dafa is being widely spread all over the world. The village official who offered me wine pointed his finger at me and said, “You are not afraid to talk about Falun Gong. You must not have been in jail.” I smiled and replied, “I have been there four times already.” Everybody at the table stopped drinking and looked at me carefully. Then I continued on and told them how Jiang Zemin suppressed the student democratic movement and persecuted Falun Gong and that now he was going to be punished by Heaven. The village official could not successfully debate me and probably felt he had lost face in front of his superiors seated at the table. Once again he stood up and pointed at me, “Tell your daughters don't ever dream about going to college.” I replied, “You are wrong again. Our ancestors believed in Heaven and divine beings. We Falun Gong practitioners believe in divine beings too and are blessed and protected by the divine beings. My daughters are all college graduates and have good jobs now.” The room was suddenly filled with many people talking in hushed voices. Maybe they were happy for me. I saw them smiling. I spent a lot of time talking to them about Falun Gong and did not eat enough food. However, I had let everyone at my table know the truth. Later, another village official told my cousin's husband, “That relative of yours was really bold. He dared to talk about Falun Gong in public.” My cousin's husband joked, “He has a lot of connections in high places. He even knows people in the United Nations.”
On the morning of July 2, 2011, when I had finished making lunch, my wife came home from the local market and told me, “There are five workers out there repairing the road. They are right in front of our home. Go out and tell them about Falun Gong.” I grabbed a pack of cigarettes and rushed out the door. I saw them standing there sweating profusely. I said to them with a smile, “You guys are working so hard. Which town are you from?” “Xu Town,” they replied. I offered a cigarette to each of them and said, “I have two fellow soldiers from my company who live in Xu Town.” When I mentioned their names, they all said they knew them. I asked them if there were many Falun Gong practitioners in their town. They said, “Over ten years ago, there were some. But nowadays we haven't heard of any.” Then I invited them to lunch. They said they only had some crackers. So, I invited them to come to my home and drink some water. Once we entered my front yard, I told my wife to go buy some watermelon. The workers refused and wouldn't let my wife go. I told them, “The road in front of my home has been repaired twice in the past few years. We always offered the workers hot water. Last year there was an older worker who stayed at night to watch the construction site. My wife used to give him egg drop soup. It is predestined relationship that brought us together today. You guys are my guests. It takes time to boil water. So, it is only natural to have a couple watermelons while we wait.” They were moved. Then I turned on my DVD player while my wife bought the melons and cut them open. The workers enjoyed the electric fan and watermelons while watching the truth-clarification DVDs. They all seemed to be excited and shocked by the content about ancient prophecies. I told them about the prophecies and persuaded them to quit the CCP. Except for one illiterate worker, all the other four agreed to quit the CCP. They said they would tell their family members to quit too. So, I told them the methods their families could use to do the quitting. I prepared some DVDs for them including the Shen Yun show, “Prophecy and Life,” “Ordinary and Extraordinary,” and some others. I told them to share the discs among themselves. Three of them asked to buy Dafa books to bring home. I told them, “You guys still need to stay at the construction site for a couple more days before going back home. It is easy to keep the DVDs but it's not convenient to keep the books with you. If you really want to become a practitioner, come back later and I will give you the books and the exercise DVDs.”
Last month, someone from a neighboring village asked me to help them with the bookkeeping for a funeral. I went there early and stayed after finishing the work so that I could talk to more people there about Falun Gong. I talked to over twenty of them. Three of them agreed to quit the CCP. I handed out ten sets of DVDs, and one person wanted to learn Falun Gong. In my opinion, weddings and funerals are good places to do truth clarification. Over the years, I have been to many of them, and the effect has been really positive.
3. Upgrading Xinxing in the Process of Saving People
Around April or May 2009, I was riding a bicycle to a fellow practitioner's home 20 kilometers away. After riding a few kilometers, I saw someone jogging ahead of me. I caught up with the jogger and greeted him. Then I started to talk about Falun Gong. Unexpectedly, he had a bad attitude about Falun Gong and immediately started rambling on and on about the rotten CCP's propaganda. He said, “The CCP led people in the revolution to overthrow the three big mountains...” I guessed that he was a retired government official. I interrupted him saying, “I could recite what you are saying even in elementary school. But, communism came from Marx who was German. Now even Russians have abandoned it and yet we Chinese are still burdened with it. Some government officials are still fans of communism to the extent of being stupid and say that they will go to see Marx after death. Why don't they go to see Emperor Yan or Emperor Huang after death?” I grew more agitated the more I talked, “Would Marx even recognize you, as a foreigner?” The senior retiree jogged away. I went on biking for another kilometer before I realized that I had been really offensive. I looked inside as I kept biking along and was clear that I had made a big mistake. I reminded myself, saying, “Clarifying the truth is to save people. Even if I cannot change a person, another practitioner may be able to do it at a later time. But, I pushed that person further away from being saved today. Will it be even harder to save him next time?” My blunder was a result of my attachment to competitiveness and debating. After so many years of cultivation and being tempered in prison, I thought that I had gotten rid of the attachment to competitiveness and fighting. Yet, I still had it and it was displayed clearly in front of my eyes when I encountered this special situation. I could not forgive myself and slapped my own face fiercely to let myself remember it deeply and clearly.
In our area, there was a new practitioner in her 60's who was very active in truth clarification work during the first two years of her cultivation. One time, she persevered in going to her relative's home to do truth clarification. After the third visit, her relative finally accepted the truth. However, in the past couple of years, she has not been able to overcome a tribulation of illness karma which caused her legs to ache and her ankle to swell often. Recently, she would not even do the exercises with the excuse that her legs hurt even more after she did the exercises. I have found that she could not look within when she encountered conflicts. When I pointed it out politely to her, she said, “Other practitioners have the same issue.” One day I pointed it out to her again with more harsh words. She immediately became irritated and argued with me and made some complaints. To alleviate the tense atmosphere, I changed the subject and reminded her to be careful when dealing with another new practitioner who appeared to be irrational. She suddenly snapped back at me, “Quit being such a nag!” I felt so embarrassed and hurt as if someone had just slapped me in the face. I thought to myself, “Before, her life depended on medication and surgery. After practicing Falun Gong, she enjoyed good health without having to take any drugs. She can ride her electric bike freely. I had to go talk to her at her home at least twenty times just to persuade her to start practicing. How much effort and energy did I put into her? She should be grateful to me but instead she is treating me like this. How sad and hurtful it is.” After going home, I studied the Fa and took a long hard look inside myself. I found that I had the same problem she had. We both love to hear compliments but hate criticism. Looking deeper within, I realized that I had the feeling of being superior to fellow practitioners because I had been to Tiananmen Square to unfurl a banner, been through the tribulations of detention center, brainwashing center and labor camp. I used to think that the bridges I had crossed were longer than the total road that a new practitioner had walked. I often considered myself to be the group leader and only wanted to criticize others without being criticized by others. After realizing this, I was determined to overcome all these attachments and sentiments in the future. I soon felt relieved all over my body.
Down the road, I will study the Fa more diligently and earnestly, get rid of the bad habit of drifting off while reading the Fa, strive to do the three things well and save more sentient beings in order to thank our benevolent Teacher.