(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings to venerable Teacher! Greetings to fellow practitioners!
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1999. I would like to share my cultivation experience of the past several years.
No one can change my mind about continuing to practice
I learned about Falun Dafa in 1997 but didn't pick up the practice until two years later. Teacher said in the "Lecture at the First Conference in North America",
"Especially when you new students read the book for the first time, if you can't finish reading it in its entirety, you will find that from now on you won't have the time or opportunity to read it. Even when you have time you won't remember to read it again. "
This was like a "stick-wake up" for me. That is why I missed two years. Since then, Fa study has became a part of my life. The day was wasted if I didn't study or studied only a little of the Fa. I was still a little lazy and didn't join a group at an exercise site until March 1999. On June 26, 1999, I was able to do the double-cross legged meditation for the first time. It lasted 20 minutes and it felt great. I was overwhelmed because I knew it was a result of xinxing improvement. I felt deeply what Teacher said, "However high your character is, that's how high your gong is " in Zhuan Falun.
The persecution began on July 20, 1999, as I was still enjoying my personal cultivation. I didn't know how to react and wondered why the government banned Falun Gong. Not too long before that date, the government had stated that it would not interfere with the practice. Why did it change its mind all of a sudden? I knew the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was evil and was determined, but "no matter what happens, I believe in Teacher and Dafa and no one can change my mind."
Studying the Fa more and clarifying the facts better
On July 23, 1999, my supervisor told me, "You should do the exercises at home. No one can explain why this (the suppression of Falun Dafa) has happened. We just had a meeting and it's a rule now that no one can practice Falun Gong. There is nothing I can do but try to persuade you." Later a company director found me and asked whether I was still practicing. I answered, "I am! I would be a fool not to."
From then on, I took Zhuan Falun with me wherever I went. I did the exercises whenever I had time and told everyone I met how great Falun Dafa is. Almost everyone at work knew that I was a practitioner. I didn't know anything about clarifying the truth or sending forth righteous thoughts at that time and only spoke about what had happened to me. I never thought that it could be unsafe when I talked about Dafa; I only wanted the people who misunderstood Dafa to know that everything shown on TV was phony. My understanding was that when practitioners don't worry about themselves and only think about others, the evil forces cannot do anything but watch practitioners save sentient beings.
Later, whenever I had a chance to work at the counter and come face to face with customers, I gave them materials that introduced Falun Dafa. After I was done with a customer, if he or she wasn't in a hurry to leave, I told each one the facts about Falun Dafa, when I had time. When two girls came to my counter, I told them to read the material I had with me while I worked on their oder. One of them, after reading the material, said out loud, "Falun Gong! I heard that you can get a reward of 5000 yuan if you report one to the police!" Before I could respond, my colleague sitting next to me stood up and said to the girl angrily, "Go ahead! We all practice Falun Gong here! You could make all kinds of money, couldn't you?" The girls became silent and I quickly told them the facts about Falun Gong. I told them that all practitioners were good people and that they shouldn't report practitioners. They understood.
I got along with this colleague of mine very well. I often told her about Dafa and if I had time, I read Zhuan Falun to her. Though she never practiced Dafa, the thought that she would defend me was precious. I seemed to understood something from this incident and experienced what Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland, 1998"
"I'll tell you all, you should read the book more, read the book more, and read the book more--you must read the book repeatedly."
Everything comes from the Fa. The more we study the Fa, the more the Fa will be on our mind and the less bad things can appear. Other people saw me as a straightforward, simple, naive, or even silly person. I used to think that I was silly and too naive. No matter how badly others treated me, I never bothered them and always acted like nothing had happened. I was unable to be sneaky and take revenge, no matter what others thought of me. After I started practicing Dafa, every time I heard such comments, I smiled and replied, "I like the way I am. As a practitioner, it is not easy to eliminate some attachments." I feel lucky that I am so naive and simple. Teacher told us in "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Sydney, Australia, 1999",
"If you cannot love your enemy, then you cannot reach Consummation. (Applause) Then why is it that when an ordinary person angers you, you cannot forgive him?!"
In fact, practitioners should be selfless, and compassionate to everyone.
Always the Fa first as when practitioners coordinate
One time I was with several practitioners studying the Fa together when police officers broke in and arrested us. We were taken to a local police station overnight and then to a detention center. We were left alone initially. We started sending forth righteous thoughts. The guards there tried everything from lying to threatening us. We acted like one body and were determined to leave together. Though some practitioners cooperated with the guards, all I said was, "My mind is blank. I don't remember a thing. Stop asking." At the same time, I thought to myself that I only live for Teacher and the Fa. A guard told me, "Other practitioners have confessed. We just want to confirm it with you. Others cooperated very well except you. It's a big deal, can you afford to do so?" I thought to myself, "I am a Dafa practitioner and I can do anything."
Several days after that, we looked inward trying to find our gaps that didn't conform to the Fa. Eventually, we realized that we had only kept righteous thoughts but forgot that these guards were also poisoned sentient beings who had been instigated by the evil. They needed to be saved, too. We didn't have compassionate minds, so the guards beat us. We decided to negate the arrangement of the old forces completely. Afterwards, we memorized the Fa, did the exercises, sent forth righteous thoughts, clarified the truth, and explained the importance of quitting the CCP.
Though we behaved quite righteously in the police station and detention center, our arrest caused great loss to Fa validation, because we didn't know why we had been arrested and what we did wrong, thereby creating a gap to be used by the evil. Through this incident, I realized that all practitioners are one body under any circumstances, and we should put the Fa first and coordinate with others to make up for each other's shortcomings. This way we will be more powerful when we validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Also, no matter where we are, we should never forget that we are practitioners during the Fa rectification and we must do the three things well.
I would like to encourage other practitioners by using the following words, "No matter what, I believe in Teacher and Dafa."
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