(Clearwisdom.net) Looking back at the past seven years fills my heart with emotion. Falun Dafa practitioners, including me, after having lived as ordinary people, stepped on the sacred path of cultivation. We firmly believe in Teacher and Falun Dafa. We have stood up to a huge group of political villains that has misappropriated the entire nation's resources for its horrific persecution of Dafa. We became Dafa disciples, firmly walking on gods' paths to validate the Fa amid overwhelming tribulations. We have truly experienced Teacher's boundless compassion as well as the magnificence and sanctity of Falun Dafa.
Being diligent when first studying the Fa"Born into a sphere of suffering
Man struggles just to survive" ("On Reading Weathering the Storm")
These words accurately describe my condition before I began studying the Fa.
I was sickly since I was young. I suffered from headaches, stomachaches, rheumatoid disease and other illnesses that attacked me every now and then. As an adult, I developed stomach disease, hemorrhoids, lower back pain and terrible migraines that tortured me day and night. My life was awful because of these illnesses.
At college, I read library books and tried to find out the meaning of life from these books. Fortunately, I began studying Zhuan Falun in the spring of 1999. I understood that the meaning of life is to return to our true, original selves and to return to our "heavenly palaces" after repaying our debts accumulated over countless lifetimes. Zhuan Falun also clearly answered many questions that had bothered me for a long time. Falun Dafa is the truth, and Dafa gave me a new life. I bonded with Dafa and took the sacred path of cultivation.
With unquenchable thirst, I read all of Teacher's published books and articles. I studied the exercise movements and watched Teacher's lecture videos in Dalian City. My view of the world and of life changed completely; for example, I changed from being a hard-line atheist into an absolute theist. I lived a fulfilling and happy life after all of my illnesses miraculously disappeared. The true reason is that Teacher removed the karma for me. I cherished life, because life had meaning.
In order to help more people learn Falun Dafa, I provided the equipment, meditation mats and location to help fellow practitioners do group exercises and share experiences. I was a volunteer assistant at the practice site. We did the exercises at the same time each day-- once every morning and again at night. Afterwards, following Fa study, we shared our understandings. All of us felt tremendous changes overcome us. We also had incredibly miraculous and magnificent experiences and feelings during Dafa practice and we deeply felt the mighty power of Dafa.
Sometimes we went to a downtown stadium to do the exercises, to introduce Dafa to more people. Demonstrating the exercises at the stadium created a powerful energy field. Once when I was doing the Falun Standing Stance, I felt as if my body was on fire, and my arms were so heavy I could hardly hold them up. I pleaded with Teacher to help me and I quietly recited, "It's hard to endure, but you can endure it. It's hard to do, but you can do it." ("The Ninth Talk" in Zhuan Falun)
A cool breeze blew over me and took away all the heat. I felt so comfortable--as if the wind had gone right through me, as if my body was completely open. I experienced the supernatural power of Dafa. I then told other practitioners about it. One practitioner said he saw an incredibly wonderful ladder that went up toward heaven. Many practitioners experienced the magnificent power of Dafa.
Standing up again in the persecutionJust as more and more people joined our practice site and some practitioners had barely begun practicing, the most wicked and vicious, villainous and most absurd persecution in history began. In an instant, the cultivation environment changed from harmonious and wonderful to extremely severe and terrifying. Pressure was exerted on all practitioners, some overt, some covert, from families, society, workplaces, friends, and relatives. It felt as if the sky had collapsed. Practitioners faced unprecedented life-and-death tests. Radio stations, TV stations and newspapers churned out slanderous reports, one after another, attacking Teacher and Dafa in order to ruin practitioners' reputations. 610 Office agents and officials from the National Security Bureau frequently harassed practitioners. They went to every practitioner's home according to lists they had compiled long before the persecution had begun and attempted to coerce every practitioner into writing a "guarantee statement."
Most of the practitioners in our area had just begun the practice. I had practiced less than six months. Many practitioners' human notions took over when confronted with such severe persecution and the regime's confiscation of Dafa books and forbidding them to communicate with each other. A brainwashing session was held in our city in 2001. From 200 to 300 people, as personal cangues, monitored a few of us. Many practitioners wrote guarantee statements under the suffocating pressure. They thought this would not mean anything, since they had no intention of giving up Dafa, as they could still go home and practice it. I eventually realized this thought process is extremely wrong. If we were really gods, would gods do something so filthy?
Although fellow practitioners and I fell, Teacher did not give up on us. I would like to solemnly announce one more time that all of my previous words and actions that didn't conform to Dafa are completely void. Teacher compassionately looked after every practitioner who fell and told us to get up when we tripped. Teacher is so compassionate and magnificent. We often cry despite ourselves when we read Teacher's articles. We were able to steel our wills, start anew and do well. We will follow Teacher home, no matter what happens.
Other practitioners and I did not fall again, despite the continuing persecution and the serious situation. We realized the true nature of this persecution and took an even more serious stand for Dafa. We rationally practiced cultivation and completely negated the persecution imposed upon us by the old forces. We felt more keenly how difficult it is for Teacher to save us and cherished much more this most precious, once-in-10,000-years opportunity.
We calmly and rationally thought about this persecution. What is wrong with practicing Truth, Compassion and Tolerance? What is wrong with trying to be the best people in the world? What is wrong with wanting to have a healthy body and a pure mind? We did nothing wrong. Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa. We are proud and happy to practice Dafa!
The only reason we were able to make it through this most severe persecution is that we firmly believe in Teacher and Dafa and took Fa study and the exercises seriously.
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" in Essentials For Further Advancement II)
Studying the Fa and doing the exercises laid the foundation for doing the three things well. Everything originates from the Fa--our improvement, our increases in gong and every change in our bodies. It is the basis for truth clarification and sending forth righteous thoughts. Teacher is here and Dafa is here. If we have Dafa in our hearts and minds, the lies will disintegrate on their own. Violence cannot change our minds and cannot shake our determination to practice Dafa.
Harmonizing the whole body will assure us a bright future1. Discussing our opinions, believing in Teacher and the Fa, revealing the truth about the persecution to the world's people
The persecution escalated relentlessly. We lived in constant terror--from confiscation of Dafa books, audio and videotapes, and cutting off our contact with the outside from which we obtained information, to home ransacking, persecution of people related to us, arrests, around-the-clock monitoring, interrogations, criminal detention, labor reeducation (brainwashing) and imprisonment--every practitioner faced the trial of life and death.
All of us firmly believe there is nothing wrong with practicing Dafa, and there is nothing wrong with what Teacher had told us, which is to be a good person. We never stopped communicating among practitioners and have held small-scale experience sharing conferences since the early stages of the persecution. We utilized what was at our disposal to help people understand the truth about the persecution; these people included our families, colleagues, acquaintances and strangers. We did this so they would be sympathetic, understanding and supportive toward us. We distributed truth-clarification materials in the local area. I applied for some foreign-based websites and used them to clarify the truth about Dafa. I chatted on the Internet to help some people learn the truth, including that Falun Dafa is good, and about the persecution of Falun Dafa. I know although what we have done is but a drop in the ocean, we at least helped some people learn the truth.
2. Breaking through the blockade and establishing material production sitesIt would have been almost impossible for us to overcome such severe persecution if we had not gotten Dafa books and materials on time. We needed Teacher's instructions during those exceedingly difficult times. That was my understanding at the time. Our area was isolated from the outside and we didn't have access to Dafa-related information, so I thought about getting information from the Internet.
I bought a secondhand computer in the spring of 2000. With selfless help from other practitioners, I learned to use ISP to break through the blockade and access the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. I was ecstatic beyond words. Later on I made use of the software program that overseas practitioners had developed. The software was constantly improved. We truly broke through the evildoers' blockade. As Fa-rectification sped up, more and more new tools to break through the Internet blockade were developed. It was no longer possible for the evildoers to block the Internet. More and more people could access the Minghui website, which provided ample supplies of truth-clarification materials.
As things improved over time, we wanted to establish our own Falun Dafa material production site to ensure the safety of the materials, to save time and money, to ensure the quality of the printout, to ensure that all practitioners had Dafa materials, and to save more people. Before the production sites were established, the truth-clarification materials had to change hands several times and took days to print. It was expensive to print. Our funds fell short of the actual costs, so we owed money for a long time. Although the practitioners in charge paid many of the expenses, the number of copies we were able to print was still quite limited and did not meet the demand of all practitioners in the area.
Some information printed by non-practitioners was of low quality. The typesetting did not work out well and the words were blurry, which made it difficult for older practitioners to read the articles. With Teacher's arrangement, I spoke with an older practitioner about establishing our own material production sites and said, "Right now, we are only printing Teacher's articles and no truth-clarification articles. We are not saving sentient beings this way, and it is not helping practitioners improve as a whole body. It is necessary for us to establish a production site." He immediately agreed. We quickly pooled some money and bought a computer and a laser printer. One practitioner who volunteered to coordinate these affairs helped us harmonize this site. It has operated very smoothly up until now. This site has had a tremendous impact in spreading the truth about Dafa, saving people and contributing to the improvement of practitioners as a whole body.
3. Harmonizing the whole body and keeping up with Fa-rectificationEverything would go well if practitioners truly do well with the three things Teacher requires of us.
"For Dafa disciples there are just three things right now. One is clarifying the facts. One is sending righteous thoughts--sending righteous thoughts has an effect on your own bodies and things outside of your body. And the other is cultivating yourselves and studying the Fa well. These three things are of utmost importance." ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference") (April 20, 2003)
After Teacher presented a lecture dealing with sending forth righteous thoughts, for the past few years I have rarely missed a single opportunity to send forth righteous thoughts. I have always done it four times a day on time. I have eliminated a lot of evil elements that persecute Dafa and Dafa practitioners, disintegrated many of the old forces' dark minions and rotten demons, and destroyed all elements of the Communist evil specter and all of its evil factors in other dimensions, which created a better environment for clarifying the truth and saving people.
We brought out more variety in truth-clarification information and materials after we had our own production site. We had small flyers, talismans, information pamphlets telling about historic prophesies, copies of Jiang Zemin: The Real Story, "The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," "Weathering the Storm," and "The Great Trial," among others. When people with predestined relationships asked to learn Dafa, we had a complete set of Dafa books, including Zhuan Falun and Teacher's articles. We also had VCD and MP3 versions of Teacher's lectures in Dalian City and Teacher's exercise VCDs. We had almost everything.
We clarified the truth to non-practitioners and at the same time went back to some practitioners who had fallen behind because of fear. We talked to them and strengthened their righteous thoughts. We printed some articles from the Minghui website, urging fellow practitioners to awaken quickly so they could return to Dafa practice. We did what we could with the joint efforts of all practitioners.
Looking back, although we did a few things within our capabilities, we still fall far short of the requirements Dafa demands of us, compared to regions where practitioners do really well. Having firmly persisted until this day despite tremendous tribulations, we truly feel Teacher's boundless compassion and the splendor and sanctity of Dafa. We still feel great responsibilities for saving sentient beings, but Dafa can endow us with infinite wisdom because we have unwavering faith in Teacher and Dafa. We will rationally, wisely and compassionately do well with the three things. With Teacher's compassionate protection and a harmonious whole body, we will have a bright future and fulfill our pre-historic vow.
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