(Clearwisdom.net) I'm a Falun Dafa practitioner from Zhejiang Province and I'm 60 years old. In 1996, I started practicing Falun Gong. Under Teacher's benevolent compassion, I have walked my path to this day. I have truly come to understand the inner meanings of cultivation, and I have been holding myself against the universal standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance by being a good person, being kind to others and putting others first. There have been fundamental changes happening to my body, and my realm of thought has been continuously elevated, as well.
Obtaining the Fa
Before I became a practitioner, I was a victim of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). When I was a child, I experienced the "Great Famine," so that I was starving most of the time and couldn't keep warm either. When I was a teenager, I experienced the "Great Cultural Revolution." During that period of time, I was deprived of the opportunity to continue going to school. I was one of the top students at school, yet I had to drop out after the first year of junior high school.
After I got married, there was the "One-Child Policy" movement. Since I kept having daughters, I became a target of this movement. My family was broken apart, and I lost my younger brother. As a result, I was in a terrible place, both mentally and physically. My sadness was beyond description. By 1996, all four of my daughters were in school, but I was having great difficulties taking care of them and making ends meet. After experiencing all these difficulties, I became physically very weak and developed many illnesses.
Toward the end of that same year, Falun Dafa spread to our village. I became a practitioner and came to realize that the purpose of being a human is for returning to one's original and true self. Since then, I have been under Teacher's saving grace.
Harmonization
The practice site in our village grew from one dozen to several dozen people. At that time, practitioners were practicing very diligently. They got up at 4:00 in the morning to do the exercises, and studied the Fa every night. At that time, even though I was very busy with household chores, I still tried to squeeze in time for participating in group exercise and Fa-study. I did this because I came to understand the preciousness of Dafa, and its truly heavenly book, Zhuan Falun.
At first I quit smoking, drinking alcohol and playing Mahjong. At one point, I had bumps on my head and I developed a fever. I couldn't sleep well at night, and I also had headaches. I understood that it was Teacher cleansing my body. At that time, I was thinking about what Teacher said:
"When you feel very uncomfortable, it indicates that things will turn around after reaching the extreme point. Your whole body will be purified and it must be completely purified." (Zhuan Falun)
For the following week, I did not take any medication or injections, then after my canker sores discharged pus, I was healed. After having my illness karma eliminated, I became much healthier. My weight has been increasing, my facial complexion became fairer. While I was walking, I felt very relaxed. From early morning until late night, I worked in the fields without feeling tired at all.
Since I began to cultivate, my wife and I have always felt that Dafa has given us so much. Our entire family has been doing well, we have been in great harmony, even our crops were doing extraordinarily well. Many neighbors said to us that Falun Gong was truly wonderful!
The ability of Dafa to harmonize our environment, and the way it transformed my body and mind made my wife truly appreciate Dafa from the bottom of her heart. My wife often said to her neighbor, "Falun Dafa is truly wonderful. Without Dafa, we would not be where we are today." She was very supportive of my practicing.
The tuition for our children to go to high school and university usually adds up to more than 20,000 yuan, which is a lot of money to a Chinese farmer's family. However, every time I was preparing for their tuition, I could always manage to find enough money. I have also built two houses. Other villagers all said to me: "You are a lucky person! Falun Gong has changed you for the better!" I totally agreed with their statement and came to feel that it was Falun Dafa harmonizing practitioners.
At 8:00 one night, my wife went to the city to buy some vegetables. She was riding a three-wheeled cart. On her way home, a motorcycle hit her from behind, and the collision caused a big dent in her vehicle, bending the steel rim of the wheel. My wife was thrown quite a distance. After getting up off the ground and checking herself, she found that there was only a small bruise on her leg. That was it! Seeing this, the person who was riding the motorcycle was dumb-founded. It was such a miracle.
My wife went with another villager to bring the three-wheeled cart back. She told me that the reason she was not hurt was because she was under Teacher's protection, therefore, she decided not to ask for a penny as compensation from the other party. I very happily said: "You handled it well!"
The next day, we took the three-wheeled cart to get fixed out of our own pocket. After that, we went to town again to sell vegetables. Because of this incident, my wife started practicing Falun Dafa as well. By doing the exercises, her tinnitus disease, for which she had been unable to find a cure, was healed.
Righteous Thoughts and Actions Eliminate Evil
On July 20, 1999, after the evil began to persecute Falun Gong, our exercise site fell apart. The assistant supervising the exercise site was detained in a brainwashing center. After that, she was forced to stop practicing. Police officers from the County Police Station tried to force every practitioner to write the so-called guarantee statement and hand in their Dafa books. Under pressure, many practitioners gave up practicing. They wrote the guarantee statement and handed in their Dafa books, and really stopped practicing.
One night, while I was sitting outside, the director of our local Community Management Committee found me and asked me to write the guarantee statement to stop practicing. I said: "Falun Gong teaches us to be good people. I'm not doing anything bad, why are you asking me to write such a thing?" He replied: "The police station does not allow you to practice. All you need to do is to write this on a piece of paper, after that, you'll be fine." I said: "We practice Falun Gong in order to exercise the body, and be good people. What's wrong with that? If people from the police station insist on stopping it, I'll go to talk to them." He replied by saying, "Okay, I'll let you talk to them." So the director and I went to the police station together. The person in charge of the police station made up reasons why I was not allowed to practice Falun Gong. In the end, he said: "People who practice Falun Gong must write the guarantee statement. If you write it, you'll be fine, and we will not hold you accountable for practicing Falun Gong before."
After I heard what he said, I began to challenge him: “Your police station is supposed to only arrest bad people. Only bad people need to write a guarantee statement saying they won't do bad things again. We practice Falun Gong and are good people, we exercise our bodies, eliminate our illnesses and keep fit, and become better people, what's wrong with that? I would never write this kind of statement.” After hearing that, the person in charge of the police station said: “What I'm telling you is what I was told by my supervisors, as long as you write it, you'll be fine.” After that, he started to pass me a pen and a piece of paper. “I'd never write this kind of statement.” After saying that, I started walking out. He said: “If you don't want to write it, I'll keep bugging you every day!”
Since I returned home, the person in charge of the local Security Committee and people from the police station have never come to my home to harass me. I have come to realize that my firm belief in Dafa and my righteous thoughts and actions have eliminated such evil. Surprisingly enough, in our village, a few people who have written the “guarantee statements” and stopped practicing have been harassed by people from the police station. What a great pity that they were forced to give up this wonderful opportunity. I have tried to talk to them about not giving up this precious opportunity. This is also a reflection of their not being steadfast in Dafa, and their lacking righteous thoughts. They became trapped within the arrangements of the old forces.
I lost the environment for doing the group exercises, which is a big test for practitioners. I understand that Dafa is so wonderful, and Teacher was framed by the evil CCP. Teacher said: "What’s unfolding at present was arranged long ago in history." (“Towards Consummation” from Essentials for Further Advancement II) Therefore, I further strengthened my righteous thoughts and clarified the truth to family members, explaining the wonderfulness of Dafa. I told them that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the universal Fa, and the “self-immolation” incident was staged, and was solely directed by the government. Some people responded by saying that they believe Dafa is wonderful, but there were others still deeply poisoned by the evil propaganda.
With the progress of the Fa-rectification, Teacher has published many new articles and lectures from different places where he taught the Fa. As a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple, one must do the three things, which are studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and clarifying the truth to save sentient beings. When I was doing the three things and validating the Fa, even though I had righteous thoughts, I also had many human attachments, such as fear and selfishness, which have brought obstacles to validating the Fa, clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. As a result, some people did not want to listen to me. Now thinking back, it all came down to my lack of Fa-study and righteous thoughts.
Deeply Eliminating the Root, Eliminating Attachments and Saving Sentient Beings
A couple of days ago, I read Teacher's lectures: “Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Manhattan International Fa Conference” and “Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan.” Teacher clearly indicated the great responsibilities we are shouldering as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. Now reflecting on the requirements in the Fa-rectification, validating the Fa and doing the three things well, it made me feel that I was shouldering great responsibilities, which made me truly worried. In my future cultivation, I need to learn how to solve the obstacles that are keeping people in the world from being saved, and look for my shortcomings in order to save more people.
On Fa-Study
Teacher has asked us to put Fa-study in a very important place in our cultivation, and he has mentioned this many times in his lectures. Teacher told us:
"Pay attention: no matter how busy you are, you cannot neglect Fa-study. This is what fundamentally assures that you move toward Consummation and do Dafa work well." (“To All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I have come to realize that I have studied the Fa with a human heart. I didn't put Fa-study in the first place, and overlooked the importance of studying the Fa. Sometimes I slacked off, considered that I was the key provider in my family, so I put doing my ordinary person's work as most important. I ended up only studying the Fa when I was free, thinking this was how I should conform to ordinary human society to the maximum extent. For an ordinary person, one can never satisfy one's desires. When some people have money, they still want to save more for future generations. Only a practitioner knows the true meaning of being a human being.
As a matter of fact, when I was slacking off, I was trapped by the old forces and didn't even know it. I spent all my time dealing with ordinary people's affairs. Later through Fa-study, I came to realize that this was an omission on my part.
Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
I have come to realize that sending forth righteous thoughts and doing the three things well go hand in hand. Many practitioners confirm this in Minghui Weekly. If a practitioner studies the Fa well, and has strong righteous thoughts, he or she surely does well in clarifying the facts, helping people withdraw from the CCP's organizations and saving sentient beings.
When I was discussing the facts about Falun Dafa, I did not fully display the immeasurable power of righteous thoughts. At the four set times for global sending forth righteous thoughts, I clearly knew that I needed to be focused, but subconsciously, I still had many other thoughts in my mind. By the time I became alert and tried to stop those thoughts from occurring, 2 to 3 minutes had already passed. As a result, I couldn't stay focused, and my righteous thoughts lacked strength, so that the power to clean my own dimension and other dimensions was reduced, which affected truth-clarification and helping people with withdrawing from the CCP.
Clarifying the Truth, Helping People with Withdrawing from the CCP and Saving Sentient Beings
At the beginning, I always felt that I was not outspoken enough. I first looked for people whom I knew, or my relatives and friends. After hearing the truth, some quickly withdrew from the CCP or its subordinate organizations,while some were willing to listen to the truth but were not willing to withdraw from the CCP. In explaining the facts about Falun Dafa, I judged people first. If a person looked to be smart, kind and well-educated, I'd consider that he probably would be willing to listen to the truth. Usually, these people ended up only thinking of themselves, thinking they were more intelligent and knowledgeable than others. With other people who were not so outspoken, they were the ones that usually turned out to be very happy to withdraw when I clarified the facts to them.
I came to realize that my approach of judging people reveals lots of human attachments and fear. Teacher has clearly pointed out to us that people around us are people who are to be saved by us. Teacher said:
"On such a path, the problem that is most apt to occur is that you slack off and lapse into ordinary ways. And that is especially so in the period of validating the Fa, where you are all the more liable to get discouraged when faced with so much pressure and ordeals of every sort. Of course, though, you are Dafa disciples who made vows beforehand after all, and your lives co-exist with Dafa. With such an enormous Fa here, the Fa will be with you when your thoughts are righteous, and this is the greatest assurance. But on the other hand, when your righteous thoughts are inadequate and not in line with the Fa, you will be cut off from the Fa’s power, and it will seem like you are alone and getting no help. Even if the things you are doing are Dafa things, you still have to conform to the Fa or else the Fa’s power will not be there." ( “Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan”)
Teacher's words touched my heart. Through Fa-study, cultivating myself and looking within, I came to realize my loopholes in doing the three things. It made me truly realize the great responsibilities that I was shouldering and the urgency of saving sentient beings. It is time to wake up and be diligent!
