(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa in July of 1997. After two weeks into my cultivation, the illnesses I had lived with for dozens of years disappeared as if they had never existed. I no longer had gallbladder stones nor the associated excruciating pain. Teacher gave me renewed hope for a life in good health. I spread the word about the greatness and miracles I derived from Dafa to my family and friends and some of them became cultivators in Dafa.
I studied the Fa, practiced the exercises and talked to everyone about Falun Gong. Then, suddenly a gust of evil interrupted my cultivation environment, covering everything in sight, as the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in 1999. Teacher was being framed, and practitioners were persecuted so unexpectedly. I was at a loss and felt as if the essence of life was lost.
Could we practitioners stand by and do nothing as Teacher was being wronged? No! We had to speak up against this injustice for the sake of Dafa and Teacher! All practitioners in our area met to exchange views. We unanimously agreed to immediately leave for Beijing and appeal to the authorities to safeguard Dafa.
More than one hundred practitioners from our region went to Beijing. Alas, we were arrested the minute we arrived on Tiananmen Square and taken to the Tiananmen police station. After being detained for one day we were taken back to our local detention center where we were detained for forty-one days in a prison. My family members became anxious and believed the deceptive stories by those authorities, who extorted 10,000 yuan from my family for my release.
Reciting the Fa and Searching Within
Since obtaining the Fa in 1997, I have been a steadfast believer in Falun Dafa and its principles. I study the Fa daily, especially Zhuan Falun and have read it more than three hundred times over the past ten or so years. I practice the exercises daily, send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the facts about Falun Gong so sentient beings will not be weeded out. Yet, I always felt that my progress was slow. Conflicts were still surfacing, problems were still present and I faced many trials. It was very difficult to make a breakthrough.
When I felt most perplexed, I thought of reciting the Fa. So, in addition to attending group Fa study, I began to memorize the Fa. It was difficult at first and it took twenty to thirty minutes to memorize a short section from Zhuan Falun. Under Master's guidance, I was able to memorize and recite Zhuan Falun twice since last November.
I understand that memorize is very different from reading the Fa. Reciting the Fa allows me to be immersed in the Fa, to quickly untie the entanglements of human thinking and rise in level. In one instance when I was passing through a tribulation, as I recited the Fa I understood the particular principle of the Fa. I felt peaceful, my attachment was let go and everything was resolved.
Memorizing and reciting the Fa made me more aware that cultivation is a matter of cultivating one's self and searching within. We mustn't seek anything externally. I now understand that learning the Fa isn't just about reading and memorization. The crux of the matter is that one looks within, adheres to the requirements of Dafa at every moment, lets go of ill habits, especially selfishness, discards all attachments, have every thought and action adhere to the standards of the Fa and correct one's shortcomings. This is what steady cultivation, what true cultivation, is about.
Memorizing and reciting the Fa has enabled me to find my fundamental attachment, the root of all other attachments - selfishness. It has all been about my attachment to self. This elemental attachment gave rise to other attachments: fear, zealotry, jealousy, reliance, seeking peace and comfort, hatred for the police, and so on. Each attachment presents a barrier, while a group of attachments are a mountain of barriers, impeding my progress. If we don't act fast and discard these attachments, how can we accomplish our historical mission? How can we face up to the grand judgment? How can we accept the Buddha's test? Therefore, we must study the Fa well, search within and discard our attachments. Saving more sentient beings is the most important task for cultivators, and it demands our utmost and immediate attention.
Saving People Requires Attentiveness
Studying the Fa diligently, searching within and saving more people is a practitioner's duty. However, my lack of profound understanding of the Fa principles and about saving people and still being saddled with many attachments has resulted in my wanting to get many things done at once. I distributed thousands of flyers about Falun Gong and the persecution, and thought this was all that was needed to give people a chance at the future. We, in our area, thought that the more materials we distributed, the more people would be saved. Then, my fear stopped me from clarifying the facts face to face, causing less people to be saved.
It took a while, but after diligent Fa study and searching within, I finally clearly understood that saving people is the most important task for a practitioner. It's not something simple, but requires attentiveness and meticulous effort. It can't be said that the simple distribution of a piece of material or a DVD means a person will be saved. After suffering ten years of deception and lies, which have deeply poisoned the minds of so many people, we can't simply claim that distributing materials will save a large number of people. We must understand how difficult saving someone really is.
Teacher said, "Dafa disciples are now the hope of salvation for the people of each region." ("Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website's Founding")
We are Teacher's disciples. We must save people, no matter how difficult the task. We must never slacken. Failing to do well the three things Teacher has asked us to do is as good as failing in cultivation. We must follow Teacher's instructions, study the Fa diligently, cultivate well, find our shortcomings, maintain a sober, reasonable, and mature state of mind at every moment, use our hearts to understand the mentality of ordinary people, distribute materials with direction and purpose, resolve problems face to face, clarify the facts carefully and pay attention to not speak of anything at high levels that might cause any misunderstanding, or we won't be able to save people. Diligence and attentiveness means paying attention to the source of the other person's entanglement. Like doctors, we must be precise in our diagnoses, clearly identify the problem and apply the remedy to the source. Only then can we deal with the patient's condition.
Wisdom is to think more with our hearts and with the knowledge that the Fa has provided us. Maturity is to convince others through reasoning, to have a heart of compassion to help sentient beings, and to help sentient beings truly come to understand that practitioners are good people who are trying to save them.
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Category: Clarifying the Truth
