(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings esteemed Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!

Failing to participate in past Internet experience sharing conferences, I felt I had cultivated poorly and lacked confidence to participate. Reading the articles, however, I realize that each practitioner shines in his own way. Master cherishes every disciple. Participating in the Internet experience sharing conference is a precious cultivation way, and I told myself I should let go of my ego.

1. Obtaining the Fa

I served in the special forces in 1996. When I traveled to Beijing at the end of 1996, a fellow serviceman introduced me to Falun Gong and taught me the exercises. Since then, when I walked on the street my body felt light, as if I was lifted up. An unspeakable joy rose in my heart.

An older practitioner took me to a local assistant's home the following day where I obtained videos of Master teaching the Fa. Within two days I finished watching the videos and then decided to practice Falun Gong. I went to a local practice site in the early morning. It was still dark, and the group exercise hadn't begun. But older practitioners already sat in meditation in the cold wind.

Before I left Beijing I got the precious book Zhuan Falun and brought it back to the army. After I arrived at home, the first thing I did was to clean out all fake qigong materials and burn them.

2. Practicing True Cultivation

Fellow practitioners in Beijing mailed Essentials for Further Advancement, Zhuan Falun (Volume II) and The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa to me in 1997, as well as practitioners' cultivation stories. I then understood that a Dafa practitioner's most important task is to study the Fa and cultivate xinxing. I spent as much free time as possible to read Dafa books and listened to the recordings of Master teaching the Fa. Reading "True Cultivation," made me acutely aware of how much I learned, and I remembered it. Then, in daily work and life, I examined myself to see whether I did real cultivation and disciplined myself along the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, to get rid of the desire for recognition and renown, self-interest and emotions. Gradually I became mentally calm, benevolent and kind to others from a person who had previously been impressionable and narrow-minded.

I had great difficulties in practicing cross-legged sitting. Initially my legs were stuck up very high. I couldn't do single-leg crossing. My legs were as hard as wood. It was not until half a year later that I began to practice single-leg crossing. Once I was anxious for success and hurriedly put my right foot on top. A severe pain shot through my left ankle, as if it had been torn open. The ligament in my left ankle had a symptom of a sprain and couldn't be touched. I bore the pain and continued cross-legged sitting; my feet became purple-black and I was racked with pain. The exercise music repeated every five minutes. I increased my meditation period, cycle by cycle. As I practiced cross-legged sitting I recited, "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it." ( Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

Master once encouraged me when I practiced cross-legged sitting. After sitting in meditation for half an hour I felt a Falun rotating in my conjoined hands.

Every year the army granted me one month for rest and recuperation. I took this opportunity to study the Fa, do the exercises and exchange cultivation experiences with local practitioners. Because the rest of the year I lived in the army's enclosed environment, I very much cherished the opportunity of practicing cultivation in group and benefited much from it. Although fellow practitioners got together by chance, everyone was kind and compassionate; an unforgettable experience for me.

Between 1997 and 1998, as a deputy director I was in charge of training to two groups of new soldiers, a difficult task with heavy responsibilities. The complex environment was a good opportunity to practice my xinxing. I abandoned my ego and proactively cooperated with the director.

It was intolerably hot in July and August in the South of China, during a busy training schedule. Some training involved danger and had heavy burdens, a responsibility that most trainers didn't like to accept. Thinking of Dafa and that I should be a good person in any environment I told the chief of staff who arranged the trainers' schedule that he may assign me those difficult tasks. The political director who worked with us praised me, "I greatly admire your work and your humanity." For two consecutive years I was given the top advanced award, the only one in my division.

As my xinxing gradually rose, Fa principles were revealed to me level by level when I studied the Fa. My mind was pure, and I felt comfortable and wonderful. In a dream I rose up as a balloon into the sky, level by level.

3. Wind and Rain

The environment was very tense after July 20, 1999. I knew the real tribulations would start. I calmed down, considering what I should do next.

According to what usually happened, whenever the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) carried on a movement, the army was closely controlled. What should I do - bend to the evil, or stand up to safeguard Master and Dafa? I decided to stand up and publicly declare my identity as a Dafa disciple. I clearly understood what would be waiting for me then because of my job category.

When I told my wife my decision, she spoke in a tearful voice and took a bottle of sleeping pills, trying to stop me. I believed that with Master and Dafa, nothing would be wrong with her. I gave her water and helped her to become conscious again. In the evening, I called the political head of the mission, telling him that I was a Dafa disciple. He said, "Are you kidding me?" I replied seriously, "Yes, it's true." Ten minutes later he arrived at my home. Several minutes later, officials from the division's security section arrived and took me away.

I was taken to the political head's drawing room. Over ten officials from the division and the mission who were Party members came to speak with me in turn, asking me to give up practicing cultivation and admit that I was wrong. The following morning I was taken from the troop housing area and, after a four-hour trip, taken into a fuel depot buried in a mountain.

I was placed under house arrest and monitored the whole day. In the daytime, officials investigated me, took statements and ordered me to be fingerprinted. I told each official the principles of Dafa; how I obtained the Fa, and my cultivation experience. As more and more officials arrived to investigate me, they all understood the truth, saying that they only followed the order.

A guard told me privately one day, "Seeing you, a team leader, personally clean the toilet, I really feel moved. I advise you not to insist on your practice. These people are heartless and cruel. They could do anything. I have seen them place a soldier in a cage in summer, and shine bright lights on him at night so the mosquitoes bite him. I heard that they want to send you to a madhouse. What a pity it is." I said, "Thank you. I am not afraid."

The evildoers tried many methods to reform me and sent my gray-haired father to visit me afterwards. I was the only child in the family who had left our hometown in my teens. Seeing my father drove an arrow through my heart. I immediately realized that I should let my emotions go and pass this test. My father was reasonable. After hearing my introduction to Dafa's principles and my situation my father said, "There is nothing wrong with you being a good person. But as human beings we have to face the reality." My father deeply understood how evil the CCP was. He couldn't face this great difficulty.

My wife came daily to the fuel depot to visit me after sending our child to school. The huge pressure made her look gaunt. She told me that quite a few times she fell into a trance while riding bicycle and almost had a car accident. She also told me she might have already left the world, had it not been for our child.

Two months went by. I looked within, searching what attachments I hadn't gotten rid of. I was attached to time and reaching consummation. In addition, I worried about my wife. The detention didn't end until I was transferred to civilian work the end of that year.

Several years later, I understood that it was right to have stood up under pressure. But the problem was my basic reason for standing up. I pursued reaching consummation instead of validating the Fa. I didn't break through the old forces' arrangements from this aspect of personal cultivation, and still harbored emotions and the notion of a happy marriage. That is why I think I the old forces severely persecute me.

4. Breaking Out of the Detention with Righteous Thoughts

I returned home after being transferred to civilian work. The evildoers seemed to be everywhere. Although I couldn't study the Fa and do the exercises, I thought of Master and Dafa, and always reminded myself that I am a practitioner.

In 2000 I found a job in a state-owned enterprise. Thanks to compassionate Master, I was assigned to work with an elderly practitioner in the same room. I finally got Zhuan Falun again. I was as a lost child seeing family members again. Reading Dafa materials this practitioner had copied, I got to know how harsh the persecution was, and how great Dafa disciples at home and abroad were, to safeguard Dafa. I felt sure-footed. The practitioner helped me declare my intention to resume Falun Gong practice.

I tried my best to resume studying the Fa and doing the exercises. One noon when I studied the Fa at my workplace my wife suddenly arrived. Seeing Dafa books and materials, her color changed immediately. In the afternoon she became more and more angry and beat me on the head with a glass bottle. The bottle broke and shattered glass all over the ground. I didn't feel any pain and wasn't injured. I knew that Master had borne all of that for me.

After the staged Tiananmen Square self-immolation broadcast, practitioners in my local area immediately made solemn statements, telling people that Falun Gong practitioners had by no means conducted this kind of act.

I was just about to go to my hometown. Taking this opportunity I brought a lot of truth-flyers to my hometown. I put them in residents' letter boxes and bicycle baskets at noon and during the afternoon. My residential place was remodeled and fixed that year. I chatted with the home improvement decorators and clarified the truth about Falun Gong to them. In the evening I posted materials with words, "Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good" on telephone booths, telegraph poles and at parks.

The end of 2001 I was on a business trip to another city with a colleague to collect payments. This task might take one to two months. We didn't have much to do except visiting companies who owed us money. I studied the Fa at a hotel during the day and posted truth-clarifying materials in the evening.

While walking along a street one afternoon, several people suddenly rushed at me, arrested me and transported me to a detention center. I calmed down and made two decisions. One was to recite the Fa, take the Fa as Master and perform with righteous thoughts and deeds. The other was to look within, and to search for my xinxing reason why the evil persecuted me.

Three days later I realized that my basis for clarifying the truth was impure. I had past deviations in my cultivation practice. After seeing later on how other practitioners validated the Fa and clarified the truth I admired them. But at the same time I became envious, compared myself, and discovered I merely did things as routine and validated myself. That is why the evil capitalized on my weakness to persecute me. Then I became aware that I must escape, because a detention center is not the place where a Dafa disciple should be.

I remembered Master's teaching,

"No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil's demands, orders, or what it instigates. If everyone does this the environment won't be this way." ("Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts are Powerful," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

"If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

"If you can let go of life and death, you're a God; if you can't let go of life and death, you're a human--this is the difference." ("Teaching the Fa in New York City," Lectures in the United States)

The next day I went on a hunger strike to resist the persecution and continually sent forth righteous thoughts.

I treated other prisoners with compassion. One prisoner was given a heavy sentence after he accidentally hurt others. Being functionally illiterate, he didn't know how to write an appeal. I then helped him, which he appreciated. The prisoners told me, "We knew as soon as you arrived that you were a good man." I clarified the truth to them and told them the wonders of Dafa. Everyone listened carefully. I asked them to keep "Falun Dafa is good" in their hearts/minds. I explained the truth to one prisoner until midnight.

Although the police interrogated me, I refused to answer and just clarified the truth to them. Detention center officials planned to give me intravenous infusions. I still refused and removed the needle. Several guards pushed me down and infused me with a bottle of glucose.

One day the police department head led a group of people to subject me to a physical exam. The result showed that I was very healthy, which amazed all of them. In the evening I had a dream. Several friends and I played a game on beautiful grass. What was this game? It was called going on a hunger strike. How many days did we need to go on? Seven days. Then I awoke. I felt that it was Master enlightening me and therefore I had confidence to go on a hunger strike.

On the eighth day my father and officials from my company's security section came to pick me up. Every prisoner looked at me as I walked out of the detention room. I could see a special light in their eyes and them, "Remember what I told you."

On my way home a colleague told me that the police had planned to send me to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and detain me there for two years. I understood that it was Master taking care of me at every moment. My righteous thoughts and deeds eliminated the evil.

5. Creating Cultivation Environment and Clarifying the Truth to Save Sentient Beings

Half a year later I got a job in a privately owned corporation in another city. Beginning with my daily work, I brought a Dafa disciple's purity to the dimensional field of this company. My boss got to know the truth and had read Zhuan Falun twice. I became a key member in this company, and was the most trusted employee for every colleague. Once when I clarified the truth to a deputy director she told me that her mother-in-law is also a Falun Gong practitioner. She told me of her mother-in-law's circumstances, saying that she commented, "Hiring such a person, your company will have great rewards."

Master had told us that one's practice will benefit the whole family. In my situation my practice benefited the whole company. My company was in an industry where other, similar companies had safety incidents every year while my company didn't have any. We did well and were stable. Although we experienced two difficult situations, we still came through safely.

(i) Visiting the Minghui Website and Building My Own Materials Production Site

I bought a desktop computer in 2005 and became proficient at visiting the Minghui website. Because I only knew few practitioners and lived far from them, visiting the website made me feel as if I entered the family of Dafa disciples all over the world. There was an experience sharing conference every day. Each time I visited the Minghui website was a process of purifying and correcting myself. I really appreciated that Master gave us this precious website, and thank practitioners much for the website.

I downloaded step-by-step instructions, to learn to make truth-clarifying materials. I cherished each flyer and made every one neat, showing the wonders and solemnity of Dafa. When I distributed materials I only put them in clean and nice places, letting people respect and cherish Dafa materials and prevent them from creating karma. During the whole process I thought of being responsible to Dafa and sentient beings.

Every year I spent most of my time on business trips. I bought a laptop in 2006 so that I could visit the Minghui website wherever I was. It seemed as if I brought the website with me. Because it was inconvenient to print materials while on a business trip, I chose to make truth-clarifying discs. This way, distributing discs, I brought the truth to sentient beings wherever I went.

As Master's disciples we should try our best to harmonize what Master wants. As long as we work for that, Master arranges everything for us. Actually, it is as fellow practitioners shared - everything is done by Master; we are simply practicing cultivation.

(ii) Helping People with Predestined Relationships Quit the CCP to Save Them

I found that my many business trips afforded me many good opportunities to clarify the truth and help people quit the CCP on a bus or train. It was in 2006 that I first successfully helped people to quit the CCP. At that time I was chatting with two young men from Qingdao City in a train sleeping compartment. Gradually I mentioned the truth about Falun Gong. I told them of The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. They both quite agreed and finally quit the CCP. I knew that it was Master encouraging me.

Once I clarified the truth to a gentleman. While I persuaded him to quit the CCP, another lady in the middle berth always helped me. A young man sat around us who had heard the whole talk. When he was about to get off the train at a stop the lady urged me saying, "Hurry up! Go to ask the young man to quit the CCP; otherwise, we'll miss this opportunity." I caught up with the young man at the train door and successfully helped him quit the CCP. As I expected it turned out the lady was a fellow practitioner. This incident let me see how eager the woman practitioner was to rescue sentient beings and found my gap.

Another time I saw a forestry worker at an intersection and chatted with her. I asked her about her work situation and showed my empathy for her difficulties in life. We began to talk about the corruption of the evil CCP. I clarified the truth to her and told about the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party for more than an hour. She happily quit the Young Pioneers.

A man came to visit my company. Thinking that as long as I have an encounter with a man or a woman, it was the people having a predestined relationship with me and decided to offer him salvation. I showed him around my company and chatted with him saying, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Gong is good. It is framed and persecuted by the CCP. The CCP has done so many evil things. Heaven will eliminate it and all its members one day. As long as you quit the CCP, you will be safe. Let me help you quit it." He immediately said, "Yes!" How rapidly the preordained opportunity went.

Sometimes things went smoothly while persuading people to quit the CCP; other times it did not.

One morning I encountered an elderly lady on her way to her children's house. I clarified the truth to her and told her to recite, "Falun Dafa is good," saying that it would keep her healthy and bring her good rewards. She was very happy saying, "You are really a good man." I happened to see her again at noon. A young man and woman around her looked like her children. Thinking that it was really a coincidence I went directly to them and said, "Are you going back?" They nodded. I asked, "Have you joined the CCP or its affiliated organizations? Quit, to keep you safe." To my surprise the young woman said angrily, "Are you sick?" The elderly lady looked embarrassed and didn't dare to say anything. I walked away.

Master said,

"No matter what it is you have encountered as you've gone about validating the Fa, it is all, I will tell you, a good thing--and that's especially so in these years of persecution--for those things have come about specifically because you do cultivation." ("Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference")

I looked within and found my problems. The elderly lady knowing the truth didn't mean her children knew the truth. I didn't clarify the truth to her children first and immediately asked them to quit the CCP, making them misunderstand. I didn't save them. Worse still, I caused them to make karma.

(iii) The Power of The Whole Body

As always, I hoped that I may have a group cultivation environment as other fellow practitioners. When I was transferred to civilian work a practitioner introduced me to an older woman practitioner. I called her aunty. Then, whenever there were Master's new teachings or other materials such as Minghui Weekly available, aunty made an extra copy for me, even though she had difficulties moving. I eventually went to work in another city. But I still missed her very much, and hoped that I may help her break through her undesirable situation. When I visited the Minghui website I paid attention to sharing articles relating to her and then shared the points with her. Initially we only talked about looking within. Later on we realized that during the period of Fa-rectification, Master had not arranged any of the incidents that interfered with Dafa disciples' doing the three things; they were the persecutions by the old forces. We should deny them completely and send righteous thoughts to eliminate all of them. Now I realize that the aunty might have some promise with the old forces before and she should repeal it.

This spring I went to the aunt's house again. Her family members said, "We have recently felt that you would come." These words made me realize the following: sharing and help among practitioners may seem simple when they are actually strong energy fields in another space. Connecting with each other represents the whole body. When I went on the hunger strike in the detention center, I remembered that a female practitioner had successfully broken out of the evil den by going on the hunger strike. I mentally asked for her support and at once felt a very hot sensation in my back. I made the heshi gesture to her and appreciated her.

In 2007 I realized that it was not Master's arrangement that I hadn't engaged in the whole body of local practitioners in such a long period; it was the barrier set up by the old forces. After realizing this I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the barrier. Soon a coordinator arrived and brought me to a practitioner couple's house. I was then immersed in the whole body.

A couple of practitioners were arrested and taken to a brainwashing center last year. After their release they went on the evil path, abandoning the cultivation. Many practitioners heard of it and came to help them. One afternoon, soon after I arrived at their home, another four women practitioners arrived. Some of them shared their cultivation experience; some sat quietly, sending righteous thoughts. At the moment, as I calmed down, I suddenly felt the four practitioners were gigantic and incomparably tall gods. Their arrivals and each of their words and thoughts were eliminating the evil.

Conclusion

On the cultivation path for 14 years, Master has taken care of me at every moment and provided me compassionate salvation. Practitioners have also given me much selfless help. Let's remember Master's following teaching in heart and encourage with each other,

"Only if one can persevere and continually forge ahead does it amount to true diligence. It's easy to talk about, but putting it into action is tremendously difficult. That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")