(Clearwisdom.net)
I started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. Soon afterwards, I was laid off from my job so, in order not to lose the precious opportunity to cultivate in Dafa, I chose to start my own business and became a street vendor. At that time, I had only one thought in my mind: I will follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in doing business so, for sure, I will do well in my business. It turns out that I have been keeping up with studying the Fa and my cultivation. My life has been orderly, intense, full of hardships, fruitful, pleasant and free.
Since July 20, 1999, when the evil people began to persecute Falun Gong, I cast my sorrow away and began to face the calamity with righteous thoughts. I am a Dafa practitioner. I am determined to follow Teacher and safeguard the Fa firmly! At that time, my working environment became an important place where I studied the Fa, clarified the truth, and shared with other practitioners, while we exchanged ideas and encouraged each other.
At the time when the evil persecution was the most severe, agents of evil often harassed me. They were people from my workplace, the local community management committee, the local police station, the local police, the local Domestic Security Brigade, and the local Political and Judicial Committee. I treated those pitiful people who came to my home to harass me with a Dafa practitioner's principles of "Safeguarding the Fa and spreading the Fa." No matter what kind of attitude they had or what kind of tactics they used on me, I was conscientious and treated them with kindness and compassion and clarified the truth to them. We cultivate "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." We cultivate a righteous Fa. Falun Gong teaches people to be good and value virtue. We are good people in society and we always think of others. After I practiced Falun Gong, many of my illnesses were healed so I have become very healthy. My realm has improved as well. After I was laid off, I didn't cause any trouble for my workplace, but rather found a way out on my own. The majority of them who came with the intention of harassing me stopped doing that after they learned the truth and some of them even demonstrated their sympathy for Dafa's being persecuted and their understanding towards Falun Gong practitioners.
In 2000, I began to write letters to our local municipal government and local policemen with my real name and address to clarify the truth. In the letters, I requested a face-to-face meeting with them to talk about Falun Gong. I hoped people from the local government and relevant departments could learn the truth and stop the persecution of Falun Gong through our personal experiences in practicing Falun Gong. I didn't receive any reply after the first letter was mailed out, so I sent out another letter requesting a face-to-face meeting with the municipal government and police, but it also ended up in vain. So I decided to do the exercises in the public in order to "break" the ban.
At that time, I found another job. Before I went to work, I went to a park to do the exercises before going to work. In the first few days, some bystanders whispered around me. Some other kind-hearted people tried to persuade me to not "hurt" myself by doing this and some others said "mind your own business," and left in a hurry. One day, the authorities finally found out that I was doing the exercises openly in the public, so they had plainclothes police follow me and finally had me arrested. Even though the police officers use a series of interrogation methods to force people to confess, even truly good people who are Falun Gong practitioners, I was well prepared for clarifying the truth to them. Therefore, whenever I was humiliated, I thought about Teacher's lecture about "Forbearance" and the story of Han Xin. When the evil people stopped me from clarifying the truth to them, I calmly demanded a hearing from them: "When you say something, I listen carefully, so when I say something to you, you have to listen as well, because the People's Police should be reasonable and well-behaved." Later, they stopped interrupting me when I was talking by saying something senseless. At that time, I had this one firm thought in my mind: I will never utter a word that is not supposed to be said by Dafa practitioners and I will be determined to say what I am supposed to say. Under Teacher's protection and empowerment, I successfully clarified the truth to the agents of evil. Within one day and two nights in a row, I managed to clarify the truth to our local agents of the evil organization face to face and in an upright manner. This became the first step of my clarifying the truth, validating the Fa, opposing evil and assisting the Teacher in saving sentient beings.
Later, while doing work related to clarifying the truth and validating the Fa, I have been abducted three times, once to a brainwashing center, once to a detention center and once to the police station. These abductions lasted three months, one month, and 15 days, respectively. During that time, Teacher published many articles on Fa-rectification and using righteous thoughts to eliminate evil. Teacher has been pointing out to us the path of validating the Fa and cultivation from time to time. I follow the guidance from Teacher's words, "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy." (from "Rationality" in Essentials for Further Advancement II) and "Clarify the truth thoroughly, eliminate evil with righteous thoughts, save all beings, and safeguard the Fa with determination." ("Dafa is Indestructible" Essentials for Further Advancement II). I have been maintaining a clear understanding of the principles of the Fa and a firm belief in Dafa and Teacher, using my righteous thoughts and actions, making use of opportunities of being illegally detained by the agents of evil to turn them into opportunities for face-to-face truth-clarification, to eliminate evil with wisdom, so that I have been able to return home safe in the end.
By and large, during the past years I have been growing under the Buddha's light, I have been tempering my will under the persecution and have become more and more mature. Especially during the process of clarifying the truth and validating the Fa, many people who used to be deceived by the evil Party became clear. They stopped following the evil Party in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Many of them made a wise choice and quit the Party. Among them are people who work for the police, the Domestic Security Brigade, and the Political and Judicial Committee, who used to be my teachers, classmates, friends and relatives. They are from all walks of life and they will all be among the sentient beings who will walk into the future.
Thinking back, under Teacher's benevolent care, under Dafa's guidance, under fellow practitioners' working well with each other, under the support of good citizens in society, we have walked a path full of hardships, a path full of tears and, also, profound joy. It is full of opportunities that Dafa has brought us and engenders gratitude for Dafa.
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