(Clearwisdom.net)
Since the persecution of Falun Dafa started more than 6 years ago, Dafa practitioners have experienced tremendous hardship, and every determined practitioner has developed deep understandings. Here I will take this opportunity during the Second Mainland China Internet Experience Sharing Conference to share my understandings, so that we can join together to validate the mighty virtue of Dafa.
In 2002, I was released from a labor camp. At that time, the pressure was very high, and my family members were against my practice. Plus, the National Security officials and 610 Office staff often came to harass me.
At that time I did not know much about sending forth righteous thoughts, and was unclear that family members' opposition came from other dimensions' interference. I often told my family some cultivation stories, as well as reading some articles from Minghui Weekly. I also made it clear that I would not give up Falun Dafa under any circumstances, and that my life exists for cultivation. Soon after that, my husband agreed to my Fa-study and doing the exercises at home. It is Dafa that broke through the barriers within myself and in my family members. Since then, my family environment has become a very good place for cultivation.
Although my husband agreed to my Fa-study and doing the exercises at home, he was against my going out for Dafa work, and forbade me to contact other practitioners, so I did these things without letting him know. However, there were times when there was no way to prevent him from knowing this. I remember one time during the Spring Festival of 2003, we decided to distribute "truth-clarification materials" in one area, but how could I leave home without letting my husband know? During those days, I thought very hard, but was still unable to find a solution. Later, I decided not to think about it anymore and calmed down to study the Fa.
From the Fa, I understood that clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings is the sacred mission of every Dafa disciple. This is the greatest, and the most magnificent of tasks. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston," Teacher said,
"The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things."
Even the old forces dare not to oppose our clarifying the truth to save sentient beings, so why do our family members--people who have great predestined relationships with us--dare to oppose it? This might be because of our attachments being taken advantage of by the old forces. I then looked inward and found that I had been using human notions to consider my family's opposition to my truth-clarification. I was thinking that an everyday person cannot understand a Dafa practitioner, and thus cannot consider it according to the Fa. In fact, an everyday person also has a side that is clear on this, and he or she also has come for the Fa. Because of my own human notions, the interference lasted a long time. It is just like Teacher said,
"Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely with your human side. Evil demons then capitalize on this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving students in long-term tribulations." ("Expounding on the Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
After I developed a clear understanding from the Fa on this issue, I felt relieved. In addition to Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil every day, I also asked Teacher for help. With Teacher and the Fa, I believed things would go very well. On the night we were to distribute truth-clarification materials, I woke up a little after 3 a.m., and returned a little after 5 a.m. after distributing nearly 300 copies. When it was dawn, I found that my husband did not notice this at all. Through this, I came to understand that as long as we keep righteous thoughts and righteous actions, there is nothing we Dafa practitioners cannot do.
When I first sent forth righteous thoughts, I found it hard to do it on time. The global sending forth righteous thoughts occurs at four set times every day. Except for at 6 a.m., which I sometimes missed due to oversleeping, I rarely sent forth righteous thoughts. This is because noon and 6 p.m. are lunch and dinner time, respectively. I was afraid that my family would be upset if I did not eat with them. At midnight, I was afraid my husband would complain about my staying up late. At other times on the clock, I either forgot about it or was doing something and did not want to put it down.
Through studying the Fa, I realized that I had placed my qing at a higher priority than the Fa. This is not what a Dafa practitioner should do. Teacher has mentioned the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts in many lectures and articles. Some practitioners with their third eye open said that sending forth righteous thoughts globally can eliminate many evils. On the other hand, those who do not send forth righteous thoughts or those whose righteous thoughts are not strong enough hold places for the evil to hide. Every day there are only four opportunities and every one of them takes place only once. Teacher taught us the verses to recite for Fa-rectification and bestowed such a great power on us, so that we "could do what other people can't do even with their hands and feet" (Zhuan Falun). In this way, Teacher made it much easier for us to save sentient beings and establish mighty virtue. However, I have missed so many opportunities. Realizing these things, I felt very guilty since I had not lived up to Teacher's compassionate salvation.
Since then, I made up my mind to send forth righteous thoughts more, and not to miss any chance to send forth righteous thoughts. At the beginning, my family complained about my not dining with them, but I was not disturbed because I knew they were waiting for me to save them. The only way for me to be truly good to them is to follow Teacher's guidance. Only when I am diligent in the Fa can they truly benefit. Thus I explained to them the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts--something every Dafa disciple needs to do--and asked them not to interrupt me. Probably the other side of them was clear, and they started to get used to my sending forth righteous thoughts and knew it was something I had to do.
With improvement in Fa-study, my xinxing was also upgraded. I paid more and more attention to sending forth righteous thoughts, and my family started to support me. Sometimes when I was cooking or doing something else, and my family members saw it was time for me to send forth righteous thoughts, they would come up to replace me. Sometimes when I was sending forth righteous thoughts, if someone came to look for me or there was a phone call for me, they would talk with the visitor or answer the phone so that I would not be interrupted. Therefore, as practitioners, no matter in what circumstances or meeting what difficulty, as long as we can have righteous thoughts, things will change. However, the strong righteous thoughts come from the Fa, so we have to do well in Fa-study as well.
In order to assist Teacher with Fa-rectification, I set up a truth-clarification material site at home. Although my family members do not practice, they were very supportive of me. At home, I could openly and nobly prepare materials, clarify the truth, and share with other practitioners. Sometimes there were problems with the computer and my son would fix it for me. My son also clarified the truth to his classmates, gave truth-clarification materials to classmates, or emailed them a Minghui website address so that they could learn the truth. When there were visitors and I clarified the truth to them, my husband also helped me. Sometime I gave truth-clarification materials to visitors and they at first were reluctant to accept them. However, after my husband said something, they would be happy to take them--probably it was easier for them to communicate with each other. For anyone coming to my place, I would clarify the truth to him or her, no matter whether it was a person selling rice, distributing gas tanks, or collecting trash. When I had no time to talk in depth, I would give them a copy of truth-clarification materials and ask them to remember that, "Falun Dafa is good."
As Dafa practitioners, we need to place cultivation as the highest priority, and do well with Dafa work. Meanwhile, as members of society, we need to fulfill our responsibilities. We cannot use being busy with Dafa work or cultivation as an excuse to neglect family responsibilities and mess things up. A Dafa disciple's path is left as a reference for people in the future, so we have to walk our paths righteously. We need to be good people wherever we are, and leave nothing for people to complain about, even at home. This way, it will help us save sentient beings. Master said,
"In your efforts to save sentient beings you've labored so hard to allow people to have a new understanding of us. So when you don't do well, it's quite possible you are unwittingly undermining the efforts you've made and some of the things you plan to do. You are cultivators, whose conduct is [supposed to be] pure and righteous. There are so many people who think you're great just by having seen how you act. If we don't pay attention to our own behavior in our daily lives, everyday people will see our actions and, since they can't get to know you at a deep level such as by studying the Fa, they will just look at how you act. And it's possible that one sentence or one action of yours will make them unsavable or create a bad impression of Dafa. We need to think about these things." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")
Just changing our family environment to a good cultivation environment is not enough. Under all circumstances, we need to offer salvation to everyone that we come into contact with. I am an elementary school teacher. I took every opportunity to clarify the truth to the school officials, colleagues and students, so that they would know the truth. For the school officials and colleagues, in addition to clarifying the truth to them orally, I also give them truth-clarification materials as well as the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Some school officials dared not accept what I offered, so I would mail it to them from out of town. For every student in my class, I would tell them the facts about Dafa, and educate them with the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance." The elementary school students are relatively pure and the Dafa principles are easy for them to accept. After all, they came for the Fa. In my classroom, there are words of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" posted all over the notice board. Whether it was artistic letters, drawing of the flowers and trees, or students' short articles, they would post "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" on all of them, as if their work would be meaningless without these three words. These three words also appear many times in their daily logs and homework. For my report of every semester, I would include how I use "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" to educate students. The school officials and my colleagues were very supportive of me on this.
In summary, as Fa-Rectification proceeds, the requirements for Dafa disciples become higher and higher. Our cultivation status will be manifested in our cultivation environment. If we are unable to stay diligent, the interference will be huge. Only by strictly following Teacher's requirement of doing the three things can we rectify the incorrect situation around us.
(Articles submitted for the Articles from the Second Mainland China Internet Experience Sharing)
October 25, 2005
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