(Clearwisdom.net)
Editor's Notes: The Clearwisdom website is hosting the "First Written Experience Sharing for Falun Gong Practitioners in China."
Jiang and his faction have mobilized all of China's resources to persecute Falun Dafa since the persecution began on July 20, 1999. Practitioners in Mainland China have remained steadfast in their practice of Falun Dafa nevertheless. While clarifying the truth and exposing the persecution, practitioners safeguard the Fa and validate the Fa. Since the publication of Master Li's Lecture at the Conference in Florida on December 29, 2001, practitioners in Mainland China have become more clearheaded about the three things Falun Dafa practitioners should do well, i.e. studying the Fa well, sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth. They cultivate diligently to upgrade their xinxing, validate Dafa and save sentient beings while establishing their mighty virtue, as do their fellow practitioners in over 50 countries around the world.
The main body of Falun Dafa practitioners is in Mainland China, and after 5 years of persecution, they have accumulated a wealth of invaluable lessons and experiences, thoughts and improvement. They have become more clearheaded, rational and mature through cultivation in the Fa-rectification period. Their written experiences will leave the world with precious legends in time to come. Immersed for the last five years in an environment of severe persecution, most of the information we have provided to date on this website has revealed the severity of the persecution and practitioners' brave acts in the face of it. Now, Clearwisdom is hosting this "First Written Experience Sharing for Falun Gong Practitioners in China". This is done to allow practitioners to better eliminate evil with righteous thoughts, to validate Dafa and clarify the truth more extensively and deeply, and also to compensate for the lack of cultivation environment and opportunity to upgrade as a whole body that would be provided through a large-scale Falun Dafa experience sharing conference in China. Since practitioners in Mainland China are not able to present their experiences at a conference in person, Clearwisdom will publish their sharing articles on the website.
I began to practice Falun Dafa ("Dafa") with my mother when I was 12 years old. It's been 8 years now. During this 8-year period, I didn't have to overcome Xinxing tests like grownup practitioners. In fact, during the first several years, I didn't really understand Dafa. I didn't ask any questions either. I just tried to be like my mother. I continuously studied Dafa materials and went to the practice site to practice the Dafa exercises daily. My practice progressed smoothly during that time.
After the persecution of Dafa started on July 20, 1999, we saw fabricated reports about Dafa on TV. My mother decided to go to Beijing to clarify the truth about Dafa. I wanted to go too, but my mother wouldn't allow me to go. She said, "You should stay at home to protect the Dafa materials. You must do a good job." I guaranteed that I would guard the Dafa materials with my life and that no one would be able to touch them. I thought to myself: I have Teacher and Dafa. I'm not afraid of anything. Teacher told us in Zhuan Falun:
"I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe."
Because of my righteous thoughts, we didn't encounter any problems. Even my father was holding up, although he was still afraid of the persecution and was worried, since he didn't practice Dafa. He was worried because of the widespread persecution of Dafa practitioners. I tried to console him and said, "I'm a dignified practitioner. The persecutors are nothing."
During that time, other than the time I had to go to school, I stayed at home to protect the "place." I even "guarded" my father since he was not a practitioner. I felt like I couldn't trust any ordinary people. This is because after my mother left for Beijing, I made a pledge in front of Teacher's picture: "If I betrayed Teacher and Dafa, I would be eliminated through the total extinction of body and soul. Nobody could shake my belief in Dafa." After my mother returned from Beijing, she told me that many practitioners went to Beijing to clarify the truth about Dafa, and that they were all unlawfully detained and beaten by the police.
After hearing this, I really hated those policemen and considered them bad people. Then I realized that these are ordinary people's thoughts and they were not up to the practitioners' standard. But when I saw those policemen behaving like criminals, I felt that I shouldn't just sit there and do nothing. I suddenly thought of using righteous thoughts to stop the evil and let the villains receive karmic retribution. At that time, Teacher had not published the article on sending forth the righteous thoughts. So I didn't know what to do. But I knew I must steadfastly stick to having righteous thoughts. Through this, I realized that every practitioner should think and behave righteously.
Later I decided to copy Zhuan Falun by hand. I thought to myself: no matter how bad the evil is, after I study Dafa more and immerse myself in Dafa, I will eliminate evil. I continued copying Zhuan Falun throughout my vacation. But once I returned to school, I began to slack off. I felt that it's not easy to keep up with school-work and copy Dafa books. I decided to wait until I had some free time. I waited for three years! I'm embarrassed to mention it. It took me three years to finish copying Zhuan Falun. Having no time was just an excuse. The real cause was my laziness. As a practitioner, any attachment is a roadblock to improvement. If we recognize things we didn't do well, we need to take corrective actions immediately. We should not wait and see what other practitioners are doing. A practitioner can only improve through his or her own practice. After I finished copying Zhuan Falun for the first time, I copied it for the second time. I also copied Chapter II twice and Hongyin for three times. It only took me a little over two months to finish all these.
Through copying Dafa books, I started to understand Dafa more and more. I realized what an honor it is to be a Dafa practitioner. Teacher taught us Dafa and gave us the most precious thing in the universe. Many people talk about what's the right thing to do, but they always blame others for not doing it. One can make many resolutions each day, but it won't help if one doesn't implement any of them. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun:
"Even for those who can continue their cultivation practice, it remains to be seen whether
you can succeed and if you are determined to practice cultivation."
Whether we keep on the right track in Dafa practice depends on how well we study Fa.
Looking back on the past five years of the Fa rectification period, I recognized that all activities, including hanging Dafa banners, distributing Dafa materials, putting up Dafa flyers, protecting Dafa materials, writing to newspapers and government officials, would not be successful without Dafa. As a Dafa practitioner during Fa rectification period, let's get rid of our attachments and carry out the three things Teacher asked us to do. (1)
(1) Study the Fa, Send forth righteous thoughts, and clarify the truth.
(This article was presented to the first Chinese Practitioners Written Experience Sharing Conference)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
