[Clearwisdom.net] Tibet, a highland covered with snow, has its honest and kindhearted people. The Buddha Law was once widely known there too. "Dafa (Great Law; Universal Principles) is being spread far and wide. Those who hear about it are looking for it. Those who have obtained it are delighted with it. The number of cultivators is increasing daily and becoming innumerable." (Seeking Discipleship with Teacher, Essentials for Further Advancement). It is the Buddha's benevolence and the predestined relationship of the Tibetan people to obtain Dafa and have it spread to their country.
1. Meeting the practitioners in Lhasa
With the heart of promoting Dafa, five of us, including a domestic practitioner, went to Tibet. By chance, we ran into a practitioner named Xinheyuan, in Lhasa and his wife. This couple was young and energetic. They told us that before July 20th there were about 300 practitioners in Lhasa. After which, a large number of people stopped practicing. Practitioners' hardly contacted each other. Moreover, the special geographic and political environment of Tibet made the local practitioners unable to communicate with outside practitioners. It was also difficult for them to visit the Clearwisdom Internet site to keep up-to-date. Under the suppression of the Chinese government, there developed a large difference among practitioners with respect to their understanding of the Fa. This suppression restricted the activities of the local practitioners as a whole. Many were reluctant to come forward to reveal the truth, promote Dafa, or protect Dafa. We were hoping to stabilize the situation and to encourage the Tibetans efforts. Therefore, Xinheyuan, contacted some of the more determined practitioners and we studied Master Li's new articles and some other guiding articles provided by the Clearwisdom editors. While reading the article "The Benevolent and Great Master," I saw tears in some practitioners' eyes. We also introduced the situation of promoting Dafa as well as the popularity and awards of Dafa overseas. They were very glad and uplifted by this account. Lhasa practitioners talked about the specialty of Lhasa, and they said that due to the strict control imposed upon Dafa in the work place and community it had become quite hard for them to widely distribute truth-telling materials. As a result, we thought that the most important thing was to let more practitioners read Teacher's new articles as well as those from Clearwisdom.net, so as to help them improve their understanding of the Fa. This could encourage them to come forward and reveal to their fellow countrymen the power and preciousness of the Fa. Thus, we copied more materials and Xinheyuan sent them to other practitioners despite the potential dangers. In the meantime, we started to promote Dafa in the temples.
We visited several temples in more than ten days. We brought the Tibetan version of "Lun Yu" (statement; comment) and lecture one and two of Zhuan Falun (Master Li's main book). We promoted Dafa to Lamas and nuns. Their kindness, innocence, and determination to cultivate in Budda Law was truly moving. What made us even happier, however, were the stories of those predestined people who obtained Dafa.
2. A cultivator in the "Future Buddha Temple"
This particular temple worships the Future Buddha. At the temple's gate we met an old nun who was preaching the scriptures. We told her that we wanted to see the Rinpoche (the highest of the temple). She said she was willing to guide us to him. Along the road we saw a huge Buddha sculpture on the wall of a mountain as well as tubs of scriptures one after another. This reminded us of the splendid period when the Buddha Law was widely known in this land. We also met a young nun who was carrying water. We showed the Tibetan Version of "Lun Yu" to her and the old nun and told them this was the real Buddha Law. They quietly read it and thanked us happily, while putting the copy into their robes. We were truly happy for them; the seeds for a predestined relationship with the Fa were probably sown.
Upon arriving at the place where the Rinpoche lived, we were told that he was out. He was called by the government to attend a meeting--in order to control the temples, the Tibetan Government often "invites the Rinpoches to participate in certain meetings". Instead, we talked with the lamas who live with the Rinpoche. When we told them that we were Falun Gong practitioners, they held their thumbs up, saying, "Falun Gong is good; Mr Li Hongzhi is good." They told us that they knew Falun Gong from TV, but they did not believe the government's propaganda. They also watched the tape of an overseas interview with the Dalai Lama where he said that Falun Gong is good and people benefit from it. One of the young lama's Chinese was really good and he wanted to learn more about Dafa. We showed him the Chinese version of Zhuan Falun. When he opened the book and saw the "Zhen, Shan, Ren" bookmark he gasped in awe. He then asked with a serious and urgent face: "Is the understanding correct that all the principles of Falun Dafa are contained in the three words, Zhen, Shan, Ren?" We were all glad that he had such good understanding and enlightenment quality. He spent the whole afternoon reading Zhuan Falun, and then read parts of it in Tibetan to his fellow lamas.
We also talked to a senior lama. He came especially to share some experiences with us after he heard of our presence amongst the temples. We talked about our cultivation experiences and our understanding of Dafa. While, he said he still wanted to cultivate in his school, his determined heart for cultivation truly moved us. The lama showed sympathy for the mainland practitioners and the persecution they were going through. This reminded him of the unjust persecution that Tantrism underwent after the 'New China' was founded. His eyes were wet from the memory. Upon our departure, the young lama, who was reading Zhuan Falun, asked to keep the book. Hence, we solemnly presented him with it. He accepted the book with a sincere face and promised to treasure the book as he did to the scriptures of Sakyamuni.
At that moment the Rinpoche suddenly arrived. He was a very old man who did not know Chinese at all. After he read the Tibetan version of "Lun Yu" he said it was good. Because we couldn't communicate with him so easily we said our good-byes and left.