(Minghui.org) I am a college professor. Last May I filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for suppressing Falun Gong, using my real contact information. Several months later, in November, the city police department located me and pressed the college I work for to punish me. As a result, both the president and Party secretary of the college decided to remove me from my teaching position and stop me from mentoring graduate students.
Fear and Selfishness
This unexpected news hit me hard. Nonetheless, I decided to take this opportunity and clarify the truth to school officials. Once I started talking with them however, both the president and the Party secretary appeared annoyed. They told me it was a decision from higher officials and they had no choice but to follow. I was initially very upset, but soon calmed down and tried to let go of the attachment to fighting. In the end, they told me that things were not finalized yet.
Upon returning home, I was surrounded by fear seemingly coming from all directions. I could feel the fear aggravating my human notions and blocking my righteous thoughts. Nonetheless, I began to send forth righteous thoughts and was wondering exactly what I was afraid of. Was it arrest, my family, or my work? I noticed many human notions behind the fear, including showing-off as well as the attachment to comfort and material interest.
I then began to look within and realized that many of these human notions were based on selfishness. Although there were many manifestations, they were all rooted in selfishness. My mind became clear and I was able to recall Master's lecture related to this.
“The basis before was self-serving, whereas everything forged by Dafa is not attached to self.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference”)
To achieve that, I have to put down my selfish mentality and truly consider the sentient beings. With that thought, the fear disappeared and was replaced by compassion.
A Letter
To help school officials learn the facts about Falun Gong, I decided to write a letter to them. Before writing, I calmed down and made it clear in my mind that the letter was to save them, not to complain about the mistreatment I had received. In other words, I was doing this to wake them up and help them regain their conscience.
Over the weekend, I spent several hours writing, and Master helped open my thoughts. In the 7-page letter I explained my experiences and the suppression in several aspects, including legitimacy, morality, and spirituality. By clarifying the staged Tiananmen Self-immolation incident, I listed how the Chinese communist regime deceived people with hate propaganda and harmed innocent practitioners with forced organ harvesting. I also included the physical and spiritual benefits I had received from the practice as well as the consequences of the nationwide suppression.
At the end of the letter, I wrote, “If the college officials insist on punishing me, I will leave the school. But this is not a voluntary resignation. In fact, I hope you will give this a second thought, since any paperwork or signatures are evidence of wrongdoing by firing me based on my belief.”
Two weeks after I submitted the letter, the Party secretary came to talk to me. He was very sincere, “Many people I speak with know you are a good person and doing very well at work. I respect your belief.” I thanked him and explained it was because I acted by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He then asked me to stay at the college and do something else instead of teaching. “You may come back to teaching after these sensitive days,” he added. I thanked him and accepted it.
I later overheard that the city officials considered me a major case in the local area, and the school officials helped a lot to protect me.
During those days, some practitioners said it was not fair to remove me from my teaching position, and that I should appeal that decision. I felt that I should not just consider myself, but rather should focus on cultivation and letting go of human notions. After all, Master was aware of this, and doing things other than teaching would give me some free time to do other important things.
Quitting Chinese Communist Party
I had been a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member for a long time and renounced it soon after the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published in 2004. One year later, I thought about writing a resignation letter to separate myself from the regime. I wrote the letter and gave it to school officials. The Party secretary said that since no one had done this previously, I would not need to attend related activities, and he would not accept my request either.
After this incident, I brought this up again and school officials asked for a formal request. So I wrote another letter and explained that the Party always promoted violence, cut off ties with traditional culture, deceived people, and was doomed. The officials did not say anything after reading the letter and I was thus able to quit the Party this way.
Continuous Improvement
In the past, I thought I was able to look within. But from this incident I could tell that I had done poorly in cultivation. Upon thinking it over, I realized that my looking within was not deep enough, as my thoughts were based on selfishness. It was through this opportunity that I came to understand the importance of consistently looking inward and becoming able to let go of human notions whenever they arose.
For example, when a family member asked to make an investment, it may imply that I was attached to material interests. When other children did not treat my child fairly, I noticed my sentimentality (qing). When thinking of the comfortable lives of other practitioners, I knew I was still attached to this earthly world, and when seeing other practitioners being very diligent, I saw my own attachment to comfort. When witnessing other practitioners complaining about their family members, I could see the influence of the Party culture on me.
One day when calmly studying the Fa, I could feel my physical body becoming larger. I have since realized that as long as we have faith in Master and the Fa, we will have the wisdom to fulfill our mission of saving sentient beings.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
