(Clearwisdom.net) I am an elderly practitioner living in the countryside. Since I attended school for only a short time I do not have much education. However, since I started to practice Dafa cultivation, I have no doubt in Master's Fa. I know that Master came to offer salvation to people, and that Dafa is the great cosmic law. I firmly believe in Master's teachings. Whatever Master asks me to do, I will do it well, whole-heartedly.
In the past several years, no matter what great changes have taken place with regard to the overall situation, regardless of how severe the circumstances were, I never doubted Master and Dafa. In my mind, validating Dafa and rescuing sentient beings is always of foremost importance in cultivation. I do not allow anything else to affect this most important task. At the same time I strictly follow Master's teachings, so as to balance well all kinds of matters at home and in society. Master requires us to fit in among everyday people as much as possible. If we fail to do well in this respect and go to extremes, we will not be able to validate Dafa; moreover, we might impact Dafa in a negative way.
Since I firmly believe in Master and Dafa, I am able to follow the pace of Fa-rectification. In the past several years I never had fearful thoughts while clarifying the truth about Falun Gong. It is because I know that with firm faith in Dafa, Master is always protecting me and is right beside me. I am following Master's requirements to clarify the truth and rescue sentient beings. What I am doing is the most upright thing and the best thing in the universe. No evil dares to approach me; none of the evil beings are worthy of testing me. As long as my conduct is upright, Master does not allow any evil to interfere with me. Master taught us in Zhuan Falun,
"If you are a true practitioner, our Falun will safeguard you. I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." ("Lecture One" in Zhuan Falun)
The evil is nothing! It simply exists for us, as Master has told us. It should be the evil who is afraid of us! That is why I have no fear! I go all out to do what a Dafa disciple is supposed to do. I have not suffered from any severe persecution since July 20, 1999.
However, in the spring of this year, something happened. It was a big lesson for me. It alerted me that cultivation is extremely serious. One will encounter problems as soon as one's mind is not upright. I would like to share my experience with fellow practitioners, so that others can learn from my mistakes and walk on the final stretch of the cultivation path in a solid and upright way.
One day a fellow practitioner told me of the completion of a new residential subdivision not too far away from where I live. It was a "blank spot" in terms of truth clarification because it was under strict surveillance. The security staff members take turns guarding the gate. Numerous video surveillance cameras have been installed in the subdivision. As a result, not a single fellow practitioner had been to this new subdivision for truth clarification yet. I was quite worried after I heard this. I quickly called together several practitioners to discuss this matter and proposed that some practitioners go together to distribute materials to all of those residences at once. However, other practitioners thought it would too dangerous, because a number of practitioners would be involved. I thought to myself, since I came to understand this matter I should go clarify the truth; rescuing sentient beings is a most urgent matter. I took 160 copies of truth clarification materials and copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party with me and went to the new subdivision four times within a short time. However, I didn't cover all the residences. I decided to continue the effort and distribute the materials to every single household.
Master taught us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Washington, DC Conference," "So in validating the Fa, no matter what the situation is, none of you should let down your guard." I was preoccupied with the wish to quickly finish distributing the materials. I had forgotten Master's Fa when I was distributing the material.
I chose to go to the subdivision around noon, after the global sending forth righteous thoughts, because there were less people walking around at lunch time.
One day at noon I rode my bike to the subdivision again with a lot of materials. I didn't have any sense for safety and was not alert. I was doing my job, building by building. When I was about to leave the subdivision, a big, dark-faced man rushed toward me and stared at me. He asked, "Why did you shuffle between buildings? Were you the one who distributed the materials? Stay here!" He grabbed my bike and wouldn't let go. I calmly explained the truth to him and tried to persuade him not to do such things to practitioners, because it would do himself and his family no good. He refused to listen to me. He told me maliciously that he was just released from prison and was afraid of nothing. He even took out his cell phone to call the subdivision security staff. Obviously, he wanted to report me to police so that he would be rewarded.
I decided not to waste my time talking to him any more and sat down to concentrate on sending forth righteous thoughts, "Only Master can arrange things for us disciples. What you plan to impose on me is nothing. Even if I have omissions, the old forces are forbidden to control my cultivation path." Another young man came over. As soon as he saw me he said, "You must be the Falun Gong practitioner who distributed materials. Now that you have been caught you should be sent to prison for a few years!" I felt very sorry for this young man whose mind was so poisoned, and could not distinguish between good and evil. I sent forth righteous thought to eliminate the evil in other dimensions manipulating them to commit a crime against Dafa.
Shortly, the police came and took me to a police station. The station head was absent. I thought to myself, "Nothing is accidental. Now that I have come here, I will achieve the effect a Dafa disciple should bring about." I concentrated my mind and sent strong righteous thought to eliminate all dark minions, rotten ghosts and the evil Communist specters inside the police station. At the same time, I looked inside myself and realized that I had recently developed complacency and the mentality of getting things done. I had become pleased with myself because I had done a lot of things for Dafa and had not encountered any trouble. After I found my attachment, I thought that saving sentient beings is so urgent and I have so many things to do; I must not waste any precious time here. I asked Master to strengthen me and helped to leave the police station as soon as possible.
The station head later arrived. I told him I must go home because I had urgent matters to take care of. He was hypocritical and pretended to chat with me instead of using a tone of interrogation. He asked me about my home address, my name, where the materials came from, and who else I had connections with. I kept in mind Master's teaching, "No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I defied his questions and told him the tremendous physical and spiritual changes I have experienced since I started to practice Dafa, the wonders of Dafa, and told him it is wrong to persecute Dafa and Dafa practitioners. He kept making notes of what I said. In the end he asked me to sign his notes. I told him, "I am illiterate. I will not sign." He then signed the notes himself and released me.
If we look at the reasons for this incident in our human dimension, the despot Jiang came to our city on the 10th of the month and I was arrested on the 8th. The city 610 Office and Security Bureau staff arrested more than 20 practitioners during this time. Some of the arrested practitioners were just released from a labor camp; some had just returned home after leading a fugitive life for some time; some were not diligent in cultivation, and still others were arrested when they were playing mah-jong at home. Many of them wrote statements to give up Dafa. Some indeed gave up cultivation after they were released and had returned home.
One fellow practitioner who was also arrested had experiences similar to mine - she had the mentality of getting things done, didn't care much about safety issues and had recently developed complacency. I didn't point it out to her because I didn't want to embarrass her. I felt guilty after she was arrested. I failed to treat matters related to fellow practitioners as my own. Immediately after her arrest we proposed to expose the evildoers on the Internet. Her practitioner family members disagreed and attempted to help get her out through personal connections. Instead, she was sentenced to forced labor camp, even though her family tried to work for her release through their personal connections.
These incidents had a negative impact on our efforts to rescue sentient beings in local regions. I felt profoundly sad. We made it possible for the evil to take advantage of our loopholes and persecute us because we failed to walk a righteous path. I felt sorry for those practitioners who had begun Fa cultivation but did not know to cherish Dafa. Cultivation is a very serious and arduous matter, as Master reminded us.
Master said, "Cultivation, as I have said before, is like great waves sifting sand--what's left will be gold, and gold is indeed gold." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005") I hope I can be the genuine gold.
Although I did not cause much loss this time, the lesson is profound. I truly realized that the cultivation path is quite narrow. It would be dangerous if we developed one single, impure thought. I will set strict requirements for myself and remain clear-minded. I will look inside myself at all times and correct every single thought. Only by doing so can we follow our Master to cultivate to the very end.