(Minghui.org) In the spring of 2015, I regained my freedom after being incarcerated under the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong. Upon coming home, I learned that my husband had passed away while I being held. My child was attending college at that time, so I thought I would go to southern China to find work.
I quickly wrote my criminal complaint against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and mailed it out. However, the letter was seized by local police. Another practitioner who mailed a letter after I did was arrested on the same day. I was afraid. So, I rented out my residence in a few days and left home.
Facing My Biggest Ordeal
I went to an area where I had a non-practitioner friend and lived in her home. She worked in direct sales for a nutritional products and cosmetics company. She said the products were invented by an American scientist and that they healed her illness after she used it.
She kept telling me how good her products were and asked me to try them. I bought her cosmetic product and put it on my face. It seemed to have a positive effect. I also tried a bottle of her nutritional supplement. My interest was aroused. I decided to make a living like she does, selling these products.
I went back to my hometown and sold my products to three practitioners. They bought the products for their non-practitioner family members. Another practitioner suggested that I read “Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”. Here is the related part about direct sales:
Disciple: There are practitioners promoting pyramid schemes and direct sales products among practitioners, and they won’t listen to others’ well-intended suggestions [to stop].
Master: Whoever spreads among practitioners things unrelated to the Fa-rectification is interfering with Dafa disciples and damaging the form of Fa-rectification! The sin is bigger than that of demons. In the old forces’ words, it is more severe than what demons have done. That is truly causing harm. I have raised this question before: who can damage the cultivation form of Dafa disciples? Have external factors been able to damage it through persecution? They have only tempered Dafa disciples and made them mature, sifting out the sand. Who can really harm this cultivation group, or harm Dafa? No one can, as experience has shown. As I’ve said, that is how things are, and those who are interfered with are people with attachments—but nothing can damage the Fa. Only people within the group can have an adverse effect. Whoever does these things is not a Dafa disciple, so don’t regard him as a Dafa disciple no matter how long he has cultivated for. (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
My heart pounded. I thought that maybe I was wrong, since Master discussed it so seriously. But I still wanted to continue to sell the product line to non-practitioners, including friends and relatives. As a result, I did not succeed in selling the products. However, I kept using the nutritional products myself.
I lost a lot of weight while using these products. My whole body, including the white of my eyes, turned yellow. My whole body was itchy and weak. The friend who sold me the product told me that I’d better use more of her other kinds of nutritional products; then, my sickness would go away. I believed her and began to take six of her products, until I was sick of water. As soon as I saw water, I wanted to throw up.
Master told us:
“Each of your attachments could cause your cultivation to fail.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)
I read Teacher's Fa, yet I still kept taking the products.
One month passed, and my health was getting worse. By then, I began to look within. I have practiced Falun Gong for 19 years, and I did not take a single pill. My body was healthy and energized. Why did this bit of nutritional products harm my health? Maybe the direct sales were wrong? It was that the old forces took advantage of my loophole and began to persecute me, pushing me toward death.
I thought I should not deviate like that again. As a Dafa disciple, I have to listen to Master unconditionally.
Master said:
“The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.” (“Drive Out Interference” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
The old forces saw that I wanted to study the Fa and improve, so it used all sorts of ways to interfere with me. I felt tired and always had lots of things to take care of. I always wanted to lie down. I felt like I was wrapped in a thick substance and could not break through it. The result was that I could not study the Fa with undivided attention. I wished that a diligent practitioner would come to help me by studying the Fa together for a while.
The next day, a fellow practitioner volunteered to accompany me to study the Fa. I heard that she could study six lectures of Zhuan Falun in one day and was also busy saving people.
I was overjoyed. I knew Master was taking care of me. I had to rectify myself to catch up, and I should not cause Master to worry more.
Every day, I studied the Fa with that practitioner. Whenever bad thoughts emerged, I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate them. Thus, my xinxing kept elevating, my understanding of the Fa principles improved day by day, and I gradually got out of the dark den of direct sales.
I recalled why I got into direct sales. My human thinking prevailed at the time. I was not in line with the Fa, so I was stuck in my misunderstanding. It was the Fa principles that helped me break through so many barriers.
Misconception One: Direct sales was allowed by our country; one only needed to apply for a business license and pay taxes. But a Dafa disciple needs to follow the Fa’s principles rather than everyday people’s regulations, regardless of the situation.
Master told us:
“No matter how much society changes, no matter how much people’s moral standards slide, no matter how degenerate the world gets with each passing day, and no matter how badly people just think about money, the universe doesn’t change based on how mankind changes. A cultivator shouldn’t follow ordinary people’s standards.” (Zhuan Falun)
Misconception Two: The product I was selling was invented by an American scientist, and it was a famous international brand. I was too attached to the ordinary science of everyday people, while Dafa is the one true science.
Misconception Three: The person who sold me her products also used it, and her sickness was healed. I witnessed the changes in her.
Master said:
“And there’s one thing I have to clarify: what typical qigong treatments and hospital treatments do is postpone and shift the tribulation, the root cause of the health problem. They push it off to sometime later in the remaining years of your life or to the future, and the karma isn’t touched at all.” (Zhuan Falun)
I was a little confused because I did not treat those products as medicine. I used them as nutritional supplements to have a face mark removed and strengthen my body.
Master also told us:
“We intend to attain the kind of body found in a Buddha’s realm. Can you attain that by taking nutritional supplements? Definitely not. So why take them? It’s not like that stuff is something delicious and worth sampling for its delicate flavor. We make your body purer and purer during the course of cultivation so as to have it gradually reach the most natural and optimum condition. That’s something taking medicine can’t achieve. Aren’t you still doubtful about cultivation if you take medicine or ingest supplements? You simply are not seeing yourself as a cultivator. Isn’t that the reason? If you don’t see yourself as a cultivator, how could we? Makes sense, right? Whether it be Chinese herbal medicine or Western medicine, it’s medicine all the same, for sure. Your goal is simply to have a healthy body, but our cultivation achieves something well beyond that.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland”)
I was shocked after I read this Fa. Master gave this lecture before 1999, and I had read it many times. How come it did not leave an impression in my mind?
I had not calmly studied the Fa since I was released from detention. I was driven by self interest and only wanted to earn money. I took a large detour and had a major fall. Once a practitioner loses his or her righteous thoughts, he or she may unknowingly walk down the path arranged by the old forces.
A fellow practitioner with her third eye opened saw that the old forces had an arrangement for each practitioner, which was like a huge pyramid formed with layer upon layer of old gods and rotten ghosts. This pyramid was formed with countless smaller pyramids. Each small pyramid was specifically doing a small thing. Some were persecuting the practitioners' bodies, some arrested practitioners, some harvested their organs while they were still alive, and some interfered with their cultivation.
The direct sales method these products used had a similar principle: to keep developing the business like cells develop, with one dividing into two, two dividing into four…, continuing like this to form a pyramid with huge profits.
Now, I realize that traps and ordeals are everywhere.
The three practitioners who bought my products also realized it was wrong. Each of them found their attachments. We all appreciated Master’s merciful protection.
The person who values us most in the cosmos is Master. The person who wants us to reach consummation is also Master!
We decided to adjust ourselves and do the three things well to save more people and catch up. I hope those practitioners who are still stuck with direct sales issues hurry up and awaken. We should abandon the attachment of self-interest and not let Master down.
Looking Within Unconditionally and Recognizing the Old Forces Persecution to Completely Deny It
Having experienced one ordeal after another within four years, such as my imprisonment, my husband’s death, involvement in direct sales, and suffering from illnesses, I began to calmly study the Fa and look inward unconditionally. Many attachments had not been removed.
Master said:
“If the problem hasn’t been healed since taking up cultivation, you really should try to find xinxing problems on your part, see if you have some sort of attachment, and figure out in which ways you need to cultivate better. This really is a matter of your personal cultivation.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference”)
I realized that my direct sales business had caused consequences that were worse than if it had been a demon. I thought my sickness was the result of that wrong-doing, which was also acknowledging the old forces' persecution. Therefore, the old forces persecuted my body more blatantly.
On one occasion, I had stomach and back pain, threw up, and had diarrhea. I began to think about what attachments I still had. I sent righteous thoughts to remove them, but there was no effect.
I recalled a paragraph of Master’s Fa. I kept reciting in my mind, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” I went to sleep, but my mind was still reciting the nine words. Upon waking up, I felt that something pressing on my belly being instantly removed, and my body immediately felt relaxed. It was so amazing. I knew that merciful Master removed it for me.
I recognized that I was accepting the old forces’ persecution until I studied Master’s Fa, “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference.”
My body appeared to have pain symptoms later. I sent these righteous thoughts: “I am Master Li Hongzhi’s disciple. I gave all my things to Master, and my life was arranged by Master. Even if I have human notions and attachments, all of these will be adjusted in Dafa. No beings are allowed to persecute or interfere with me using any excuse. I completely deny the old forces’ persecution of my body.”
I gained a heathy body soon afterwards.
The old forces have precisely arranged a set of their systems for each Dafa disciple. When disciples deviate slightly from the Fa, the old forces use a variety of forms to persecute us. We need to recognize this and completely deny it all the time.
However, my physical pain appeared again a few days ago. This time, it was fiercer than before and had a long duration. I quietly recited, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” However, this time, it did not work. I asked Master to help me.
During the process, I found my strong selfishness. I kept seeking from Dafa but did not want to give for Dafa with the excuse that I had to stay home to study the Fa; I thought I would go out to save people after my body had been adjusted. That was an attachment to how my body felt, and this thought was arranged by old forces. I did not deny it, so the old forces kept persecuting me endlessly.
Other practitioners helped me a lot during this time. Some accompanied me in studying the Fa, some shared their cultivation experiences with me, some sent righteous thoughts to clear out my dimension, and some helped me economically. Thus, I could calm down and improve myself with the Fa.
I began to go out to put up Dafa truth-clarification posts on clean walls and telephone poles. I did this every day with sincerity. Another practitioner gave me a cell phone, which I used to call people to clarify the truth about Dafa to save them. My health improved day by day. My skin became lighter, and I gained some weight.
One day, I looked up at the sky, thinking about a story I had heard: Master formed his body from invisible to visible and went down to each world. Kings of each world pledged to assist Master to rectify the Fa. I was one of them. When Master arrived at my world, I joined the team to come down. The thoughts of my true self must be in line with the characteristics of the cosmos: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. All the thoughts I generated were post-natal and not from my true self.
Thereafter, I added one more thought whenever I cleared my dimension: I am Master Li Hongzhi’s disciple. My path and everything of mine were arranged by him. I walk only on the path Master arranged. Each thought that does not assimilate to the cosmos’ characteristics is not from my true self. I deny them all completely.
My life was prolonged by Master. No matter what incident I meet with, I shall look within unconditionally to rectify each thought and action. I shall do the three things well to fulfill my vow. I completely deny the old force’s persecution to walk well the path arranged by Master.
This article is written from my limited understanding, and I may have not expressed all the Fa principles I enlightened to. Please point out anything that is not correct from the Fa’s perspective.
Category: Improving Oneself
