(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, Fellow Practitioners!
I have weathered the eight years of persecution. In my cultivation over these years, I have experienced great pains while going through the tests and joys when my xinxing increased. Most of all, I truly feel Master's benevolence, salvation, and everything Dafa has
Clarifying the Truth to Save Sentient Beings
In the summer of 2000, I was reported to the police when passing out "truth-clarifying" materials with a fellow practitioner on the street. We were arrested and taken to the detention center. With righteous thoughts and Master's protection, we walked out of the detention center after 15 days. Later, the Party used this as an excuse to illegally sentence me to three years of house arrest. After that, the 610 Office, the police, and the residents' committee followed and monitored me. My elderly parents really worried about my safety and would not let me leave home.
I thought that I should not stay at home like thiat forever, because my responsibility was to save sentient beings. Master said,
"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy" ("Rationality" from Essentials for Further Advancement II).
How can I clarify the truth with wisdom? I thought that I could invite people to my home if I could not leave home. That way I could clarify the truth without damaging my family relations. So I called my friends, relatives, classmates, and coworkers to invite them to visit my home. Gradually, more and more people visited me, including some friends whom I had not seen for many years. After I clarified the truth to all my friends, I invited my father's friends to come to my home, and I clarified the truth to them, too. As time passed, my cultivation environment at home became more harmonious. My parents understood the truth and no longer stopped me from going out to clarify the truth.
Establishing Materials Site
In 2002, the persecution was especially intense. Truth-clarifying materials sites were frequently raided. Practitioners who produced the materials were arrested, and our equipment was confiscated. Production was frequently interrupted. This was a very big loss for clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings. Every time I heard that a materials site was destroyed, I felt very sad. I always wanted to share the burden with practitioners who made the truth-clarifying materials. Later I had the thought of making truth-clarifying materials myself. It happened that a practitioner had a spare room and he wanted to use it as a materials site. I bought an all-in-one printer with other practitioners' help. Then we established our own materials site.
The truth-clarifying materials, "Minghui Weekly," and Master's articles for our local practitioners were all copied at our materials site. With the progress of the Fa-rectification, I felt that just making copies no longer met the requirement of Fa-rectification. I should learn to use the computer and the Internet to download updated information and make our materials site independent and complete. I bought a used laptop. With practitioners' help, I learned how to use the Internet and how to download materials. Since then, our materials site has independently produced truth-clarifying materials. A Minghui/Clearwisdom editorial proposed establishing small-scale materials sites "like flowers blossoming everywhere" to meet the requirements of Fa-rectification. Many such sites were established. Some practitioners asked me to teach them to use the computer.
At that time, I was also just a novice computer user, but I understood that fellow practitioners also wanted to learn to use the computer to save sentient beings. I am a Dafa disciple. I should do everything that Dafa requires of me. I thought as long as I did the righteous thing, Dafa would augment my wisdom. So I taught other practitioners and learned new computer knowledge myself.
I was very busy during those years. Every day I needed to allot time for studying the Fa, doing the exercises, producing truth-clarifying materials, teaching other practitioners computer skills, and taking care of my parents. Every day I rested and slept very little. Even so, I still felt there was not enough time. I had to further reduce my sleep time. Over these years, we established eight small-scale materials sites. Those materials sites shared the local areas' materials production burden. We could produce truth-clarifying materials, Minghui Weekly, Master's new articles, amulets(1), the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," "Zhuan Falun," and truth-clarifying CDs. Sometimes we also selected some materials from the Minghui website and compiled booklets, cards, and CDs according to truth-clarification needs.
During these few years, I rushed between those materials sites and provided instant technical help to guarantee the normal operation of these sites. At each materials site, I walked the practitioners through every step, from learning the techniques to purchasing and maintaining the equipment to producing the materials, until they could handle everything themselves. Although sometimes I felt it was hard, I broke through the difficulties and tribulations again and again with Master's benevolence and protection. I deeply realized that no matter how difficult the hardships and conflicts are, as long as we believe in Master and believe in Dafa, we can always persevere with righteous thoughts.
When I began establishing materials sites, I did not coordinate very well with other practitioners. We always had conflicts and frequently complained and blamed others for our troubles. Sometimes we were just like ordinary people. Some practitioners had conflicts with others and just quit working. Our attachments hindered truth-clarification and saving sentient beings.
One time a materials site needed some materials. I produced them right away and took them to the site the very next day, but the practitioner there said she no longer needed them and did not say why. I thought, "I am very busy, and I just spent several hours on the road to deliver the materials to her, how could she just change her mind like that?" I was really angry. I told myself that I would never produce materials for that site again.
When I returned home, I calmed down and wondered how this incident could have happened to me as a practitioner. I needed to look inward. I found that I was not calm these days, because I was very busy. I also complained about other practitioners. In our area, some young practitioners have their own computers. They are good at computers, and they are relatively well off. They have the necessary conditions to produce truth-clarification materials, yet they refuse to do it and just let us seniors learn computers from scratch little by little. When we had difficulties, I often complained about them in my heart. Gradually I became attached to complaining about them.
All the difficulties that Dafa disciples encounter today are the results of Dafa disciples' thoughts. It was my fault. I should get rid of it during cultivation. Sometimes I am complacent about how much I have clarified the truth, how many people I have persuaded to withdraw from the CCP, how many materials I have produced, and how many practitioners I have taught to use the computer. My mind still harbors a lot of selfishness. Every day I was just busy doing Dafa related work while ignoring cultivating myself. Only after the conflicts happened did I realize the severity of my problem. I looked inward and studied the Fa with a calm mind. Master said,
"...what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred." ("Further Understanding" in Essentials for Further Advancement).
How can I do Fa-validation well with so many attachments? Dafa builds the beings in the new cosmos. We must "..attain the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" in Essentials for Further Advancement) The beings in the new cosmos are selfless and always consider others first. The "self" in my mind is the attachment of selfishness. Selfishness is practitioners' fundamental attachment and the root of all other attachments. In order to become beings of the new cosmos, we must get rid of the attachment of selfishness, even if it is just one thought in our mind. A fellow practitioner's words always remind me, "Give up the attachment to self, place the salvation of sentient beings as top priority."
I realized that the old forces also hampered us and tried to destroy the materials sites. The dark minions and rotten ghosts see our attachments and are bent on reinforcing and amplifying them to enlarge gaps between practitioners. Then, with the excuse of testing the Dafa disciples, the old forces can interfere with and stop practitioners from producing truth-clarifying materials and saving sentient beings.
After I clearly realized this, I started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the old forces' interference. Later, the aforementioned materials site practitioner apologized to me. We both acknowledged our shortcomings. Our conflict was resolved, and our xinxing improved. Since then we have coordinated harmoniously in the Fa-rectification.
From these events I deeply realized that in the conflicts, no matter how painful the ordeal or how wronged we feel, we should first look inward and ferret out our own problems. Is our behavior based on the Fa? Do we still have attachments to give up? Have we met the Fa's requirements? In a word, we need to unconditionally look inward during conflicts. This is cultivation. Our xinxing will then improve and elevate.
During these years of saving sentient beings and establishing materials sites, I have continuously cultivated myself and improved my xinxing. One time, a practitioner, who was concerned about my safety, told me, "I discussed it with fellow practitioners, and we think you are easily noticeable by the police, so you should not do materials production anymore." I said, "I do materials production work to save people, not to protect myself. To save sentient beings is the most righteous thing in the universe. I know there are risks in materials production. Three practitioners who taught me how to produce the materials and two practitioners who worked with me were arrested. It is the old forces that control the evil people to persecute Dafa disciples. We should fundamentally negate all the old forces' persecution. At the same time we need to be strict with ourselves, righteously walk the path that Master hs arranged for us, and do not give the evil loopholes to exploit."
Power Manifests in the Cooperation of the One Body
In 2003, a large company with more than 10,000 employees in my city persecuted practitioners very severely. Its law office actively cooperated with the "610 Office" to arrest Dafa disciples, deduct their salaries, and host brainwashing sessions.
Every night, the public security patrol used loudspeakers to slander Dafa in the company residential complex. The company prepared to host another brainwashing session. After we got the information, we studied the Minghui article "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People" and Master's comment on it. We decided to work together to expose the evil to stop the persecution and save sentient beings.
We produced truth-clarifying materials, wrote letters persuading officials to stop persecuting Falun Gong, and printed posters. Then we asked practitioners in other areas to send forth righteous thoughts for us. We called and sent letters to the company to support the practitioners in this company. Practitioners posted our letter at every major intersection in the company's residential complex. They also put up self-adhesive posters on the door of the company chief law officer's home and delivered the letter to his office desk. What we did was a great shock to the evil. All practitioners intensively sent forth righteous thoughts as one body. After a few days, the company's chief law officer said that the Falun Gong flyers appeared on his office desk and he did not want to persecute Falun Gong anymore. Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts stopped the evil persecution. Since then, this company has not hosted any more brainwashing sessions and its public security patrol no longer broadcasts slander about Dafa over its loudspeakers. This incident thoroughly displayed the divine power of Dafa and of Dafa disciples as one body.
In the past eight years, I have worked diligently on the three things. Be it passing out truth-clarifying materials, clarifying the truth in person, or persuading people to withdraw from the CCP, I have used every opportunity to do what I can. These things have already became integral parts of my life. I clearly understand the seriousness of cultivation practice. The closer we get to the end, the higher the Fa's standards become. We should strive forward even more diligently. The Fa-rectification is already near the end and the remaining time is very limited. We must walk every step righteously, and we must not let down Master's benevolent salvation and the sentient beings' hopes in us.
October 30, 2007
Note:
1. Amulets -- In China, practitioners sometimes clarify the truth by giving people something small to wear or cherish, bearing a few words reminding them of the goodness of Dafa.
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.
