(Minghui.org) Before I started to practice Falun Gong, I had been suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis for two decades. During that time, my joints swelled up and became deformed. When the symptoms got worse I could not roll over in bed, dress myself or get up. I cried a lot. A day seemed like a year to me. My parents and my husband sought medical treatments for me everywhere, but my illness was uncontrollable. My family was under a tremendous amount of stress and financial burden.
Luckily, I started practicing Falun Gong in March 1998. My mind and body significantly improved and I have had no reason to see a doctor since then. My husband and our two children support Dafa, and they are all in good health. I have learned many lessons on my path of cultivation, as I gradually got rid of my attachments and enlightened to the principles of the Fa. Furthermore, I experienced the protection and enormous compassion of Master.
Helping to set up a Fa study group and awakening former practitioners
I live in a small town in the countryside, and when I started practicing there were already hundreds of practitioners in the surrounding towns. After the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, some practitioners stopped practicing because they were afraid of being persecuted; some only practiced at home and dared not step out to clarify the facts. Master said:
“By July 20th of 1999 I had already pushed all of the pre-July 20 students to their positions—I pushed you to your highest positions.”
“Indeed, as long as there's still one day when the persecution hasn't ended, that day is an opportunity. Use it well, do better, come back sooner, and don't miss any more opportunities. Don't dwell on your past mistakes—if you've made mistakes, then do well from now on. Don't think about the things that have happened. Think about how to do well from now on, and become truly responsible to yourself and to sentient beings.” (“Touring North America to Teach the Fa”)
Several of us shared our understanding of this article and realized that Master wants practitioners to harmonize with each other, and so we should help former practitioners return to the Fa.
Each of us contacted pre-July 20 practitioners that had stopped practicing in a different region. We gave them copies of Master's lectures, studied the Fa with them and shared our understanding on the status of Fa-rectification and Master's protection of us. A practitioner was very touched and tearfully said, “Master is really merciful. He is still taking care of me. I shall practice well.” Some former practitioners also started to practice again.
More than a dozen people were practicing Falun Gong before July 20, 1999 in a town that is 10 miles away from us. After the persecution started, their Fa study group was disbanded and the former assistant there stopped practicing. He appeared to be sick and was admitted to the hospital. We studied Master's lectures with them and encouraged them to let go of their fears and reinforce their belief in Master and the Fa. The former assistant said emotionally that he would firmly cultivate and would started a Fa study and exercise group in his home. His sickness soon disappeared, as they had an environment to study the Fa, exercise, share and improve together. The practitioners there cooperated well, distributed truth clarification materials, informed people about Falun Gong and the persecution, and helped to save the people in that region.
With the help of an elderly practitioner, several other towns set up Fa study groups within two months, and practitioners soon came together to study the Fa. During a sharing with fellow practitioners, the elderly practitioner told us that there were still many former practitioners in the county who had not come back to the Fa.
We visited and shared our thoughts with the former person in charge of the Dafa Assistance Center and the assistants in the county seat, and got their support. They visited every town in the county within a month and decided to hold an experience sharing conference among the assistants in all of the townships in the county. It was the first experience sharing conference held there after July 20, 1999. Practitioners were very excited. During the conference, practitioners summarized the successes and lessons they had learned during these years of Fa-rectification. They also talked about the Dafa projects that were taking place around the county, such as informing people about Falun Gong, exposing the persecution, rescuing fellow practitioners in prison, and other things. However, it was widely agreed that we have not done enough, as some practitioners have not come back to study the Fa yet.
Working together to save sentient beings
Master said:
“From now on, the Dafa disciples in China as much as anyone, both new students and veterans alike, should let go of their long-standing human attachments and start to seize the day and comprehensively save the world's people. Once the current time period is over, the first large-scale process of weeding out sentient beings will begin. For a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, personal liberation is not the goal of cultivation: when you came, saving sentient beings was your great aspiration, and that is the responsibility and mission history has bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification. Thus great numbers of beings are to be saved by you. Dafa disciples, don't forsake the magnificent responsibility that has been bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification, and even less should you disappoint those beings, as you are now their only hope for entering the future. For this reason, all Dafa disciples, students both new and veteran, should get to work and begin comprehensively clarifying the truth. This is especially so for the Dafa disciples in Mainland China: each must come out and clarify the truth, bringing it to every field and valley, mountain and hill, not omitting a single area where there are people. (“Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People”)
After we read Master's lecture, practitioners formed truth-clarification groups to better serve the purpose of saving sentient beings. A group comprised of two to three people, and every group had a practitioner who had good experience and skills in truth-clarification work.
We went to the surrounding markets to let people know about Falun Gong and the persecution. Practitioners who lived up to 20 miles away also came to participate. We divided into several groups and went all over the market to clarify the facts and distribute truth clarification materials. The righteous energy field was very strong, and the police around the market did not bother us at all. Many people asked for the truth-clarification materials and were happy to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Practitioners who previously were not willing to step out or speak to people began to have confidence and righteous thoughts. We went to surrounding open markets to clarify the facts.
Looking inward is key
One practitioner's husband, who stopped practicing when the persecution started, began drinking alcohol, swore and beat his family. The husband would often throw the practitioner and their daughter out of their home at night, and they had to stay overnight at their aunt's home. The aunt is also a practitioner. The husband's alcohol addiction became so severe that he was admitted to a mental hospital for several months. After treatment, he would be sober for a few months but then begin drinking, swearing and being physically abusive again. The practitioner and her daughter eventually had to move out and live with her parents. Her father is also a practitioner, and he had been tolerant of his son-in-law's behavior and sent righteous thoughts for him. One day, the husband drove a car to his father-in-law's home and he had a weapon on him. Her father was going to report him to the police and have him be taken back to the mental hospital for his own safety.
After we learned this news, we immediately got in touch with the practitioner, her father and her aunt. We realized that we had to look at this situation from the prospective of the Fa. This person's wife, father-in-law and his sisters were all practitioners. There must be a reason why such a thing would happen. Master said:
“Nothing happens in cultivation without a reason. When incorrect states and bad human conduct surface among us, those things have come to target human attachments. We don't acknowledge the old forces' arrangements, but, when we fail to do well they will exploit our gaps. So, perhaps it was that a particular place needed to be targeted in that manner, and that was why an incident happened.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference”)
Following Master's teaching, we all looked inward. The practitioner married to the abusive husband found that she resented him and was fearful of him. The sisters found that they also had resentment and bad notions towards their brother. The father realized that a practitioner should not use the punishment of ordinary people to solve problems, but should be compassionate and tolerant. At the same time, we understood that the husband was a practitioner before the persecution, and that Master wants to save him. We sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate our bad notions and eliminate all the old force elements that blocked him from returning to the Fa. We then went to the practitioner's home and spoke to the husband. We helped him regain his conscience and righteous thoughts during our conversation. As a result, he said, “I won't drink anymore. I will eliminate the old force elements and set up a Fa study group in my home.” The practitioner moved back home, and that night we all studied the Fa together.
Rectifying every thought
A practitioner who came from a different town once fell and severely injured her lower back. I went to visit her for three days in a row, and sent righteous thoughts to eliminate any old force elements that wanted to persecute her. But on the third day, she lay down before I finished sending righteous thoughts, and later told other practitioners that her pain became more intense when we were sending righteous thoughts for her.
I felt hurt when I heard her comment, as I had gone out of my way to help her, but she didn’t seem to appreciate it. I knew it was not without a reason that she said this. I had to look within. I realized that it was because I had formed some bad notions of her. For example, when I worked with practitioners, I often thought that he or she has certain characteristics and will not be helpful. Through this experience, I realized that I should not use my notions to judge people, and should respect every practitioner.
I also had negative thoughts when teaching my daughter. Nowadays, the Chinese school system is a mess and I worry that she would be influenced by bad children, become a bad kid and not study well. As a result, she became rebellious, her scores dropped, she had conflicts with her classmates and complained about her teachers. Master said:
“Typically, when an everyday person thinks about something, what he or she generates is something in the form of the brain. Because it does not have energy, it will disperse shortly afterwards. A practitioner's energy, on the other hand, can be preserved much longer.” (Zhuan Falun)
I realized that it was my selfishness and sentimentality which led to my daughter behaving the way she did. I generated bad thoughts and bad things towards her. How much negativity did I put on her? I should change my thoughts and rectify myself. Whenever I had a bad thought, I eliminated it. My daughter is a practitioner and will judge her own behavior according to the Fa. She will do what's right. When I changed my behavior, my daughter's behavior also changed.
Once, my daughter came home in tears. She said to me, “Mom, the school is very bad. The morality of some students is very low. It is very hard to deal with them.” I understood her and comforted her. We then studied the Fa together. Master said:
“The bigger you perceive the challenges to be, the harder things will be to carry out, since “the appearance stems from the mind”... by that I also mean that the difficulty stems from your overstating the importance of the matter itself and seeing yourself in a lesser light.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”)
When we finished studying the Fa, my daughter smiled and said, “I know what to do. I should treat people and the things around me with a good heart, use righteous thoughts to change my surroundings and save sentient beings.”
Three weeks later, she came home and told me, “I followed Master's words. I changed my thoughts and the students also changed. They said to me, 'How can you be so kind and at peace with the world?' Mother, I really want to study the Fa a lot.” I was very happy to hear this.
After studying the Fa more, I further understood the sacred nature and magnificence of our responsibility. We should rectify our every thought according to the Fa, look within when problems arise and use our actions to fulfill our prehistoric vows.