(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share with everyone my cultivation experiences over the last six years.
Before My Cultivation
When I was young, my mother had a very serious health problem that forced her to stay in bed day and night. This illness caused her mental abilities to drop to that of a little child. She always needed people around her to take care of her. In order to pay back the debts incurred trying to get my mom's illness cured as well as to pay for me and my brother's education, my Dad went overseas to work, leaving me alone to cope with my mom and my little brother, who was only in the 3rd grade. The three of us only had the 400 yuan from my mom's illness recovery allowance to live on. Life was very hard. I can't remember how many times I hid in a corner and cried silently. I would look up to the sky and ask Heaven, "Why is my life so hard? Why do I have to live in this world? Why do I feel so lonely?"
However, I always had the feeling that there was something guiding me. The feeling was very strong. Nearly every time that I had difficulties, someone would step in to help me. Sometimes, I didn't even know who brought us things. I remember that one time, there was a person who said that every time I encounter difficulties, an important person comes to help. Everything happened just as he told me, and it was always true. At that time, I couldn't understand why everything was so hard, but now, when I think back, I believe that only if I went through all those difficulties could I have obtained Dafa. I know that Master has been protecting me for a long time.
Starting on the Road of Cultivation
One day in 2001, one of my relatives who is a Falun Gong practitioner came to our home to help us clean the house. Because of the persecution, I didn't have many chances to be in contact with him, so I didn't know much about Dafa. I was also not quite sure what to think about the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) propaganda that slandered Dafa on TV. However, this relative touched my heart. He told me that he had a predestined relationship to obtain Dafa and the reason for him to live in this world was for Dafa. After that I started to learn about Dafa, and I also started to understand what cultivation is. In 2002, I decided to start cultivation myself. Even now I still can't forget that initial feeling; how my heart was overflowing with gratitude and how my horizon expanded so dramatically.
Shortly after I began practicing, I was hit by a car while I was riding my bicycle. I was dragged by the car for several meters and my face was the first part of my body that impacted the ground. The driver was very scared, because my face had immediately swelled up and I couldn't move my body. But as a practitioner I knew that just as Master told us,
"What is owed must be paid for. Therefore, some dangerous things may occur in the course of cultivation practice. When these things take place, however, you will not be scared, and neither will real danger be allowed to happen to you." (Zhuan Falun)
I knew that I would be fine, and in my heart I asked Master to help me to get up. Then, I stood up, and step by step I began to walk. I knew that a large piece of my karma had been eliminated. As soon as I returned home, I did the first four exercises with other practitioners. As a result, all the swelling all over my body went down by the next morning, and I could move quite normally. Everyone who saw how fast I had recuperated from such a serious accident within one day's time was shocked.
Building a Materials Production Center
Not long after I obtained the Fa, the truth-clarification materials production center that always supplied my relatives was destroyed, so it became very hard to get Master's articles. Everybody had to share the one copy of the article, passing it around and copying it down by hand. Sometimes we knew that Master had taught a new lecture, but we just couldn't get any copies. I know that practitioners can give up any ordinary people's things, but they must have Master's articles. Seeing this situation, my heart was not at ease.
Guided by Master, I found an e-mail address printed on a Minghui/Clearwisdom article, and I sent an email to it. I was hoping to get some of Master's new articles, so that I could copy it down by hand. Instead, I got the Minghui daily files! I'll never forget how one practitioner cried so hard that she lost her voice when she saw the Minghui daily file. It was as though we had been struggling across the desert and suddenly found an oasis! When this happened, the feeling of having Master's Law Body always beside me became even stronger. I understood that as long as we have the heart to do it, Master will help us. Having this thought, I decided to start a materials production center. Then, not only could we receive Master's articles, but we would also be able to get to the Minghui website and read fellow practitioners' articles every day.
However, it wouldn't help us if we only had the files without a computer, so some practitioners pooled their money together and bought an outdated computer and a printer. When I began to worry that we had no desk to put them on, a friend of mine called and said that she had just bought some new furniture to replace her old furniture. She had called, wondering if I needed a desk, and if I wanted it, she would bring it to my place immediately. I felt that Master has arranged everything in the best way for us, and it is up to us to choose to take the path that Master has arranged for us.
So, in this way, from the end of 2002 until now, the materials center at our home has been safely working for six years under the care of Master. It has always been a home-based materials center, and all the equipment and accessories were brought together by ourselves. We learned how to repair the equipment and how to use the computer to do the editing. In the beginning, we could only produce supplies for a few practitioners, but now we can cover more than 20 practitioners.
In the beginning, the practitioners didn't even know how to use a computer, but now, they not only know how to operate the computer and do the typing, they can also print the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and even produce DVDs.
When I first started the materials production center, I hadn't even finished reading Zhuan Falun once. I just wanted to help practitioners from an ordinary person's mindset. Because I needed to edit Minghui articles, I would read each article on Minghui every day. Through these articles, I understood the greatness of Dafa and that I am cultivating. I understood that I should handle myself as a real practitioner in order to responsibly take care of the materials center, instead of having an ordinary person's mindset of running one just to help my relatives.
Before I obtained the Fa, I spent a lot of time on my studies, but my efforts were not very effective and I always found it hard to concentrate. After I obtained the Fa, especially after I started up the materials center, I had almost no time to study or to do homework, but my grades greatly improved. One time there was a mid-term exam, and I needed to read several hundred pages for it and this was my worst course. However, since I also needed to make some materials, I stayed up that night, and I only spent 30 minutes to read over some problems in the morning. What surprised me was that the entire exam was centered around those problems that I'd read over! That semester I got a scholarship. To be honest, before I practiced cultivation, I had failed several courses. Countless miraculous things like this kept occurring. Whenever I put Dafa first, I realized that all my effort for Dafa was returned back to me, but even more so in another form. The changes that occurred in my family members also proved this.
My Little Brother Obtains the Fa
Ever since I was little, my mom has been seriously ill and my dad wasn't around. My little brother was always kind of introverted and felt inferior as well. He didn't like to talk to me very much. He always stayed in his room and read historical fiction novels. He was afraid to go out at night, because he said there was always a dark thing following him. Also, he didn't have a good attitude towards Dafa. When I gave him flyers or Master's articles to look over, he refused to read them. Instead he believed the CCP's slander.
About six months before my brother went for his college entrance exam, I had a very vivid dream. I dreamed that he was watching television and his back was facing me, but all the bones inside his body were black. Then I heard a voice saying, "He's got cancer in his bones, and his life has already ended. But because he's surrounded by Falun Gong practitioners, his life has been extended for six more months. If he can't start to practice Falun Gong from his heart within these next six months, he won't have a chance to live." After hearing this, I cried and held my little brother's hand asked him whether he wanted to practice Falun Gong. He said he wanted to practice. Then, we knelt down in the direction where the voice had come from, and did a heshi gesture (a gesture of respect, with both palms touching each other). When I woke up, I had cried so hard in my sleep that my eyes were red. Because the dream was so real and intense, I immediately asked my little brother whether he felt any pain in his bones or not. He was very surprised and said, "I've felt pain for several months. Sometimes, it was so painful that I couldn't even sleep, but I was afraid to tell you because you would worry about me. So I didn't tell you." When I told him exactly what I had just dreamed. He was surprised again. And then, just as in the dream, he decided to practice Falun Gong.
When he was in the last year of high school, my brother had a self-study class until 9:00 p.m. every night, plus the additional burden of all the homework, so he wouldn't have any time to study the Fa and do the exercises. Because of this, another practitioner, my little brother and I decided not to go to the self-study class. Instead, after coming home at 6:00 p.m., we do the fifth exercise first and then read one Lecture of Zhuan Falun.
"There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your mind goes wrong a little bit, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over. "(Zhuan Falun)
Because my brother knew that his lifetime had only been extended because he wanted to be a practitioner, the most important thing to him is to cultivate diligently. Only Master can give him exactly what he needs.
In this way, the three of us have continued practicing together for six months. Every time my little brother did the exercises, his clothing became wet, especially when he did the meditation, he said that all his bones were being reconstructed, and he felt great pain. We understood that he wants to gain the Fa, but he has too much karma. In order to live, he has to give up everything and be a real practitioner to cultivate in Dafa. Dafa gave him a chance to be reborn, and he really lived a new life. He was changed from inside out. He became honest, kind and tolerant. Furthermore, what surprised me even more were his studies. Before he was at an upper-middle level in his class. After my brother started to practice cultivation, his grades kept improving every month. The last time he was second in his class. His teacher thought that he didn't attend the self-study class because he was taking other outside tutoring classes; he couldn't see how his grades could have improved so fast otherwise. His teacher didn't know that sometimes after my brother studied the Fa, he would go directly to sleep without even finishing his homework.
On the day of the college entrance exam, the old forces arranged a big tribulation to interfere with my little brother and made it very hard for him to concentrate on the exam. The day before, I dreamed that he was lying on the ground with dark clouds hovering above him. Whatever I tried, it was very hard to wake him up. I also dreamed several times that the headmaster of his school drove him out of school, saying that he was not qualified to study there. I understood that the old forces had been very closely paying attention to my brother, because we were trying to save him, and he would soon become a Dafa disciple. On the day of his entrance exam, I sat outside the exam building and sent forth righteous thoughts for him. I knew that once he had the chance to get into college, it would not be for his personal benefit in the future; instead the skills and knowledge that he gained at school would be used to help Master in the Fa-rectification period to fulfill his vows and save sentient beings. His final grade on the college entrance exam ranked second place in his class. This was the best result that he had ever achieved. He was not only going to get into his dream college, but he was also awarded a scholarship because of his excellent grades! Our friends and fellow practitioners all cried after hearing this. Master has been taking care of this person whose life had already ended and who carried so much karma on his body. Under the benevolent care of Master, he was given a chance to be reborn.
Going back to the situation about my mom, although in the beginning her main consciousness was not very clear, she was able to recite, "Falun Dafa is good" in her heart and also read Dafa books. Now she can even take care of the house, wash clothes and cook for us. The change from a person who has to lie in bed all the time to an active housewife was amazing. Anybody who saw my mom now would say this was a miracle. Before, the doctor had told us that the best we could hope for would be for mom's illness to not get any worse.
Summing It All Up
Compared to other people my age, I have gone through a lot of hardships in my life. However, looking back, I really appreciate every hardship, because they've helped me to cherish today and cherish the cultivation environment that I have. No matter how hard my tribulations are, I won't forget that Master is always beside me. I will take the Fa as my Master. Then it will be just as Master says,
"After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead." (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
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