(Clearwisdom.net) I am an eleven-year-old middle school student and Dafa practitioner in China. I would like to share my cultivation experience under the heading, "Following Teacher Closely and Steadfastly Cultivating in Dafa."
I started becoming aware of Falun Gong from my grandmother when I was three and a half years old. I was not able to understand Falun Gong then. Getting older, I gradually had some understanding of the Fa but had not yet cultivated the Fa. All I knew was that Dafa practitioners were good people.
I was only five years old when the persecution began on July 20, 1999. I could not understand why good people would be persecuted. My grandma told me that the bad guys would be afraid of there being too many good ones. I had an idea that a person who arrested Dafa practitioners must be a bad one. Later, I knew that some of the bad guys had been deceived. We needed to tell them the real truth of the Fa and let them know that Falun Dafa is great and is the righteous law.
With Fa study I began to become aware of several things: A practitioner is a good person; as a practitioner, you do everything according to Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance; do not strike back if someone hits you; do not swear in return if someone curses at you; look with forbearance on all difficulties you encounter; and, look inside yourself when conflicts arise.
When I was afraid of hardships in Fa practice, Teacher would give me a hint. I had a dream that during practice I saw Teacher smiling to me. Another time Teacher wanted me to jump into a swimming pool. I was very much afraid and did not dare to jump. Teacher smiled at me again and also nodded his head. Then, having gathered my courage, I closed my eyes, jumped--and awoke from my dream. I became aware that Teacher had encouraged me. With Teacher's protection I was making progress in cultivation and could persist in practicing the exercises, cultivating, and sending forth righteous thoughts.
During the years of persecution, although my daddy did not allow me to practice and study Dafa, it did not change my mind about Fa practice. To save human beings, I frequently went out with my grandma to distribute Dafa flyers, helped her stuff envelopes with Dafa materials, and delivered the envelopes to the mailbox. When grandma received the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, I read it but had some difficulty understanding. With grandma's help, I read it carefully. I was able to complete the whole document and am prepared to read it again when I have time.
Persuading people to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP), the Communist Youth League (CYL) and the Chinese Young Pioneers (CYP), I first withdrew from the CYP myself, and then persuaded my younger brother and sister to withdraw from it as well. In the meantime, I also helped an 84-year-old grandma to learn how to read and to study the Fa.
Aware of the shortage of money for printing Dafa flyers, I donated all my saving of 100 yuan and later donated 400 yuan, which were Chinese New Year gifts from my parents and relatives. Five hundred yuan is not a large sum, but it expressed my intention to offer salvation to human beings.
When everything was going along smoothly and on track, the sudden arrest of an older practitioner disturbed me very much. Since my daddy did not agree with my Falun Gong practice, he tried to separate me from my maternal grandma and did not allow me to stay alone with her. Grandma and I shared the book "Zhuan Falun." This separation lasted nearly two months. I was very upset, and my grandma was worried, too.
Once I cried when I talked to grandma and said, "Don't worry, Grandma! I know that Falun Dafa is great. Falun Dafa has been rooted in my heart, and I will never give it up." Both of my grandmothers and I, all three of us, sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all the evil factors surrounding my daddy. As a result, my daddy slowly changed his attitude so that I could study the "Fa" with my grandma.
Completely unexpectedly, my parents decided, without asking my opinion, to sent me to a boarding school 100 li (50 kilometers) away. This meant that I could only go home every two weeks. As a result, my Fa study opportunities would be less. I could only study one to two chapters of Zhuan Falun and practice the Falun Gong exercises biweekly. Nevertheless, before school started I had memorized Lunyu and Hong Yin. Every night at school, before bedtime, I recited Lunyu and Hong Yin and I truly felt as if
"A hundred hardships falling all at once, See how one lives."("Tempering One's Heart and Will" from Hong Yin )
I cried many times and missed my family very much, but I firmly held to my faith in the Fa. Each time I went to my grandma's house I would study the Fa and practice the exercises first and then do my homework.
I realized that Teacher has arranged my cultivation path. Because I had not encountered hardship before and because I was fearful about hardships, in order for me to let go of this attachment, Teacher arranged for me to have a rough time (by staying away from home for a period of time) to improve myself. Remembering Teacher's words,
"Eating bitterness treated as joy." ("Tempering One's Heart and Will" from Hongyin)
and,
"all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials." ("A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It" in Essentials for Further Advancement),
I do not feel any hardship at all.
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