(recorded by a another practitioner)
(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, Revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
In 1995 we borrowed a copy of "Zhuan Falun" from a friend who had come to our home many times to promote the Fa. After reading the book, my husband kept saying it was very good and everything in the book was the truth. Soon we bought our own copy. My husband tried very hard to get me to read the book as well, but I didn't pay attention then. All I wanted was for my husband to learn. Unfortunately, he was unable to persevere in cultivation back then.
1. Beginning cultivation
In February 1999 I brought our child to visit a practitioner friend. Our son soon fell asleep, and my friend began to play one of Master's audio lecture tapes. The more I listened, the more I wanted to listen. I felt everything Master said was so good, and I figured this Master was nothing ordinary. My son didn't wake up until the tape had finished. Later on I realized Master had made arrangements for me to obtain the Fa. My friend told me reading that Zhuan Falun was as effective as listening to the audiotapes. Once at home again I immediately dug out the copy of Zhuan Falun we had bought several years before. Since then I have never put this book away.
The first six months of my cultivation I only read the book without doing the exercises. When my friend became aware of this, she urged me to practice the exercises as well. I got a copy of The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa and began to learn the exercises from the book and found practitioners to help me correct my movements. Because our son was still small, I didn't join the group exercises.
In June 1999, the group exercise site in our city began to encounter interference from the local authorities. I was anxious and felt I should protect Dafa, so I joined the group exercise in the park.
My second time at the group exercise site, Master opened my third eye while I was "Holding the Wheel on Both Sides of the Head" in the second exercise. I saw all the practitioners' bodies shining with bright light. I knew it was encouragement from Master. A few days later, evildoers interfering with the morning exercises snatched my bicycle. Initially I was convinced that it was no big deal and that practitioners needed to be able to give up material interests. Then I felt as if I was fostering the evil if I let them take away what belonged to me. I got my bike back right away.
2. Validating Dafa in my daily life
Just 29 days after I joined the group exercise, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began its persecution of Falun Gong. I suddenly lost the cultivation environment with other practitioners. All I saw and heard was defamation and slander of Dafa. I realized, though, that I must safeguard Dafa, clarify the facts, and validate Dafa as a part of cultivation.
In 2000 when I noticed practitioners distributing truth-clarification materials, I went to a veteran practitioner's home to ask for some materials to hand out. Because I was still relatively new, she was hesitant to give me any. I insisted, saying, "Don't worry. Give me some, and I'll be very careful." I didn't have a clear intention to offer sentient beings salvation then and merely wanted to validate Dafa. From then on I persevered in handing out materials. Especially between 2001 and 2002, I went to the above-mentioned practitioner's home several days a week to get materials and went out to distribute them almost every day. Later on, many people commented that I had lost weight. I discovered that I'd lost over 10 pounds. This didn't feel right. Wasn't this persecution by the old forces? After I realized this I soon regained the weight, and I did better and better to clarify the facts.
One morning shortly after 4:00 a.m. I went out to put up truth clarification information and rushed home after I was done. To my surprise it felt like I was flying, with my feet barely touching the ground. Thus I "flew" home just in time to do the exercises.
One night I took my son with me to distribute materials. By the time I finished, my boy had already fallen asleep. Even though he was only five, he weighed around 50 pounds. It would be a bit tiring walking home even just empty-handed, in addition to carrying my son. I wondered if I could do it. Then I thought, "How could this be a big deal? It's all worth it when offering sentient beings salvation." To my surprise I didn't feel tired at all carrying my son all the way home.
I feel great appreciation to Master for His protection and care of practitioners. The miracles of Dafa will show themselves when our xinxing reaches the level the Fa requires. Below are several examples I'd like to share with everyone.
Early in my cultivation a fish bone lodged in my throat while I was eating dinner. It was uncomfortable. I at first used my human thinking and had two bits of bun and drank some water, hoping to force it down. But it didn't work. Then I thought, "I am a practitioner. I'm not afraid of you. See how long you can stay there." At that moment I felt the fish bone seemingly leap to tip of my tongue. This was really a Dafa miracle.
Once when sending righteous thoughts I began to cough and couldn't stop. I knew it was the evil fearing its elimination, so I said in my mind, "I am a divine being. Don't you come to bother me!" My cough immediately stopped.
Another time I felt a sharp pain in my genital area and could barely ride my bike home from visiting my parents. I first thought I could just partially sit on the bike, but I told myself, "I am a Dafa practitioner and I should not show this image to people. Pain is a good thing during the process as a human walks towards divinity." As soon as my xinxing was at the right place, the pain vanished.
One morning in 2006, no sooner had I gotten up when I began to feel extremely dizzy and nauseous. I couldn't stop vomiting. I thought I might feel better after vomiting, but this thought only made me vomit more. This kept up until later than 10:00 am, when I realized my earlier thought was wrong, and I should believe in Master and the Fa. The vomiting and dizziness then stopped.
I have experienced numerous such events like the above-mentioned ones. These are just a few.
3. Coordinating Dafa work in my area
When I first began to ask veteran practitioners in the second half of 2000 to give me materials to hand out, I only asked for just enough for my sister-in-law (also a practitioner) and me to use. In the spring of 2001 I was advised to pick up materials for all practitioners in our district. I agreed without hesitation. From then on I got the materials to our local practitioners and also began to do some coordination work.
In 2003 the practitioner in charge of a materials distribution center had to leave our area for personal reasons. He thought I would be a perfect replacement for him. He asked my opinion, and I agreed without hesitation to set up the center in my home. This distribution center was responsible for making materials available to several hundred practitioners in our local area.
Practitioners from a nearby materials site delivered materials to my home twice a week. Local practitioners then came to my home to pick up materials. My family worried about our safety. I clarified the facts to them and helped them strengthen their righteous thoughts. I told them to look at the positive side and not be obsessed with negative thoughts. Gradually my family members showed more and more understanding for what I was doing. My neighbors often saw other practitioners arrive at my home. I maintained strong righteous thoughts, and none of them reported me to the police. Concerned about my safety, practitioners in charge of the information site asked several times if I wanted to move to a difference location to set up the distribution center. However, we couldn't find another good place, and to this day, our home is still the local distribution center.
Several retired practitioners nearby were enthusiastic to do more Dafa projects. In order to reduce the burden of the information site, we took on additional responsibilities. Starting in 2003 the information site only provided us half-finished materials, and we then did all the collating and binding of the pages.
In November 2004 the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published. We began to bind copies of the Nine Commentaries, which turned out to be no easy task. We needed to sort all the pages in ascending order before trimming the booklet's margins. It was tedious, especially trimming the edges, and one needed to learn to do it well. Initially a young male practitioner did the cutting. When he was unable to help any longer, my husband took over. In the end, it was my turn to cut the edges. The paper cutter had broken from overuse. While waiting for a practitioner to fix the cutter I thought to myself, "If a cancer patient can recover after practicing Dafa, a tool used in Dafa projects should also be extraordinary. It must become useful again." When I tried the cutter one more time, it really was fine.
By the end of 2004, more and more small-scale sites were established everywhere and played a significant role in offering sentient beings salvation.
4. Establishing a good family cultivation environment
Ever since I began cultivation, I have held myself to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, be it at home or in society. I feel that only by following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is one truly able to respect Master and the Fa. When we meet the requirements of the Fa, we feel everything is wonderful. Some practitioners are burdened by emotions and unable to treat their family members as sentient beings. They neglect validating the Fa to their family members, thus making trouble for themselves.
When the persecution began in 1999, my previously supportive family members wanted to stop me from cultivating. But this made me only more determined to continue. I didn't clarify the truth face to face to my family members initially, as I didn't want to argue with them. Instead, I paid more attention to them, offering them even more tender care.
After the staged self-immolation incident took place in Tiananmen Square, I felt it was time for me to clarify the facts to my family. After all, they should be offered salvation. Gradually they learned more and more about the persecution. Sometimes they would even help me clarify the facts to our guests at home.
One day my husband suddenly asked suspiciously, "How come our income and expenses don't match? Did you donate money to Falun Gong?" Initially I wanted to hide the fact. Then I thought, "Why should I conceal anything from him? Was I afraid he might get angry? Was I trying to protect myself? And what's wrong with using our own money on Fa-validation projects?" So I smiled and said, "Think about it: how many times would a non-practitioner have to go to hospital every year? How many medications might one have to buy, and how much money might one have to spend? Ever since I became a cultivator I have been perfectly healthy. I don't need to take any medicine. In addition, I am very thrifty. How much money have I saved our family? Isn't it doing a good deed when I take some money from our savings to offer sentient beings a way out? Rest assured, as a practitioner I am not going to spend money mindlessly. If you still don't feel comfortable, how about you keep your own salary and we just use mine for daily expenses." He felt my sincerity and never mentioned the money issue with me again.
My family has also benefited from knowing the truth. When my son had a cold or fever I normally didn't offer him medicine. He also helped me with truth clarification activities. When my husband found out what our boy did, he couldn't understand and even cursed me. But I remained calm, no matter how angry he was. When he saw our son got better without taking medicine every time, my husband stopped cursing me.
One night in 2001 my husband had a strange feeling in his chest near his heart. He wanted to go to the hospital. I asked him to recite, "Falun Dafa is good" instead. He insisted on a checkup. I urged him to recite "Falun Dafa is good" on our way to the hospital. It turned out nothing was wrong. He wasn't sure about the examination results, so he went to a cardiac hospital. The doctors there used all kinds of medical equipment but still couldn't see anything wrong. A treadmill exercise followed, and they continued their examination. Everything was still fine. The hospital administrator, my husband's friend, commented that he had such a strong body. My husband was truly convinced by Dafa. From then on he never took any medicine, nor did he visit hospitals again.
Once several practitioners came to visit me during our family lunch. I had the practitioners sit down in another room and set up a lunch table for them. That day we happened to have a special dish we rarely had for lunch; it was expensive. I asked my husband if I could share the dish with the practitioners. He wasn't very happy about it, so I didn't insist.
After the practitioners left, I didn't blame my husband for his stinginess. Instead I told him the following story: "In ancient times there was a Taoist who came from afar. When he passed a farmer's home he saw a woman picking pears in her yard. He walked up and asked for a few pears to quench his thirst. The woman picked the biggest pear to offer the Taoist. Because of her benevolent act, her family later was blessed with good fortune." Listening to this story, my husband realized he could have done better. Later on, whenever we had practitioners visit during mealtime, my husband would take the initiative to buy good food for them.
When my home-based distribution center first began binding copies of the Nine Commentaries, my husband didn't quite understand its contents. I told him of the crimes Jiang Zemin had committed in persecuting Dafa and the evil nature of the CCP. At first he wasn't willing to listen and sometimes even got angry with me, but I kept patiently clarifying the truth to him. He eventually understood and quit the CCP. He also offered to help us cut the extra paper off the Nine Commentaries copies. Once we needed to finish a batch of them and worked late into the night. We fell asleep, but my husband kept working until 1:00 in the morning.
When we change to conform to the Fa principles, our family will also change. My husband finally began cultivation in June 2007.