(Clearwisdom.net)
The Fa rectification is in its fifth year, but there are still practitioners who say that they are afraid of clarifying the truth or that they do not have an opportunity to clarify the truth. My understanding is that on the surface it looks like we are saving sentient beings, but in reality, it is all arranged by our Teacher. What we need to do is follow the cosmic arrangement and save sentient beings. As long as we have a compassionate heart, the power of Dafa will present opportunities for us. Therefore, we should not let our fears or attachments prevent us from fully utilizing Teacher's considerate arrangements, and we should not lose contact with those pre-destined people. It is possible that those predestined people have waited for us for hundreds of thousands of years already. If, because of our own attachments, they miss the opportunity, then after the truth is revealed, we will painfully regret our past non-action. Only when we naturally follow Teacher's arrangements, by not giving up on any people that we meet, and eliminating our attachments during these moments, can everything succeed.
One day during the hot summer, a couple of practitioners and I went to a famous Buddhist place called Jiuhuashan Mountain to clarify the truth. It was nearly dark when we arrived. On the way, Tian Song bought a rosary and we met a chubby little monk who volunteered to tell us a story about this rosary. We also used this opportunity to converse with the monk. In order to pave the road for the future, our conversation was tailored to his interests. After a couple of short conversations, the monk felt that we were not ordinary people and that we had a predestined relationship with the Buddha's Fa, therefore he took us to a temple.
We came to a small, classic, quiet, lone-standing temple. (Later on we learned that this temple was not the big temple to which the little monk belonged.) This small temple only consisted of one abbot and one nun. The abbot did not say hello to us and continued reading the scriptures alone near a window. The nun looked kindly and treated us well. She told us that the abbot of the temple was cultivating the "mouth precept." Besides reading scriptures, he had not spoken to people for a long time and hoped that we would understand. We said we understood, and then we discussed some things regarding cultivation. The nun repeatedly said, "Currently there are not many people who have enlightenment quality like you."
In order to better clarify the truth, we divided into two groups. Tian Song and I formed a group and we continued talking to the little monk. After our conversation, the monk felt that our understanding about the Buddha's Fa was not ordinary and repeatedly asked us who our teacher was. Because we had just gotten there we did not want to reveal our status to prevent interference with this prearranged opportunity. Therefore, Zi Wei said, "Let me just give you two of our Master's poems."
Zhong De and Xiao Fang continued to talk with the little nun, but when they entered into the subject of Dafa, the nun started to scold them and said that the local Buddha association had organized all monks and nuns to go against Dafa and told everyone not to practice Dafa. Xiao Fang was irritated and had a conflict with her and Zhong De also started to get irritated. Seeing this, I hurried to interrupt their arguing and said, "a cultivator should not say anything without understanding the truth. If the things that you heard are not the truth, then aren't you creating karma?" The nun felt that my advice was for her own good, and then became quiet. I continued by saying, "We just came back from touring Beijing and we saw with our own eyes that police beat up a mother whose age is similar to my own mother, and the reason she was beaten to the ground was because she held up a banner that said Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance. We are all people who believe in Buddha Law. Shouldn't we all have sympathy for them?" The nun's attitude became calm and her viewpoint changed to neutral. Zhong De continued to clarify the truth to her, but the end result was not very good.
After coming back to our place, we looked into ourselves and felt that because of our attachments we did not perform well in our truth clarification that day and we resolved to find a chance to talk to that nun one more time.
One day after we finished our activities, we went to that small temple again to talk to the nun, but she was busy taking care of visitors and we had no opportunity to speak with her. Unexpectedly, the temple's abbot, even while under mouth precept cultivation, invited us into his bedroom. His bedroom was very simple, but clean. After we had tea, he opened his mouth and started to talk. He asked us which cultivation way we practiced and what our purpose was in visiting this temple. Without any hiding, we told him that we were Falun Dafa practitioners and we also told him a lot of things regarding the persecution of Falun Dafa.
The abbot carefully listened to us and was very supportive of our righteous acts. He said that at Jiuhuashan Mountain there were some monks and nuns who had practiced Falun Dafa, and that after July 20, 1999 they suffered a lot of persecution. The Buddhism Association fully controlled all the monks and nuns and he did not know what had happened outside this area, but he was now glad to know the facts.
During our conversation with the temple abbot, the nun had run over to report about the situation of visitors a couple times and every time she came she had doubts on her face. The abbot never let other people into his bedroom. She had lived there for some time but she was only allowed to stand by the door to talk to him and he never replied because he was cultivating "mouth precept." This time he let us strangers enter his room and even had a conversation with us. And we hadn't even offered any donation to the temple.
When it was nearly dark, we said goodbye to him. We had unexpectedly positive results and also experienced the power of Dafa, but our wish to talk to the nun was still unfulfilled.
Over the next couple of days, Zhong De and Xiao Fang were working on Fa-Rectification things. The last day, on their way back to the mountain they bumped into that nun and she didn't have that arrogant attitude anymore. She was, however, very upset and said that she had lost a rosary that was a gift from her grand-teacher. She could not find it even though she searched all the paths on which she had walked. The practitioners comforted her, and three of them were chatting along the side of the road. Zhong De told her the facts about Dafa. This time she said nothing against it, and carefully listened with tears in her eyes. Xiao Fang stood next to them and sent forth righteous thoughts. After chatting with the nun, they also gave Teacher's poems to her.
Zhong De and Xiao Fang accompanied the nun and walked back to where she came from. When passing by a gift shop, the nun found that her rosary was lying on the ground. She had not found it there when she looked earlier. It had obviously been lying there for a long time, yet no one had taken it away. Zhong De was very happy for her and bought another rosary to give to her as a gift. The nun was very touched and said that the rosary given by a practitioner was as precious as the rosary that she got from her grand-teacher. She said she would put these two rosaries together and safeguard them.
Several days had gone by and we now had to move to another place. Even though we had finished our plan, everyone was still not satisfied. We were worried that we did not fully clarify the truth to the little monk whom we first met, and now we had our tickets and would leave the first thing in the morning. We would therefore probably miss the chance to tell him the truth about Dafa. We came to the bus station twenty minutes early and immediately saw that monk seated on a long bench. We asked him why he had come to the bus station so early. He said, "You guys only told me half the story and did not tell me the rest of it. I knew you were leaving so I came here to wait for you." Everyone was very touched by Teacher's considerate arrangement. How could we not do our best to clarify the truth to all beings?
This story always reminds me to not miss any opportunity with predestined people who are waiting for us. As long as we have compassionate hearts to save sentient beings, opportunities will be presented in front of us.