(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am a middle-aged Dafa practitioner. Here I would like to share my cultivation experience and understandings.
Beginning to Practice
I began to practice Falun Gong in 1998. By reading through Zhuan Falun, I came to understand many things. When doing the exercises, I experienced wonderful and sacred feelings. With improvement in both mind and body, my life was full of happiness.
Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Action
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Dafa in 1999, my family was strongly against my practice. As a result, I stopped practicing temporarily. I thus indulged in pursuit of reputation, material interest, and sentimentality again. After watching a CD in 2003 which explained that the “Tiananmen Square Self-immolation” was a fabrication and frame-up by the CCP, I knew that the CCP had deceived the entire world. By overcoming various obstacles, I returned to cultivation again. There were two types of resistance at that time, one coming from my wife and the other coming from my workplace.
My wife always listened to me in the past. However, now she hit me and swore at me for no reason. In addition, she threatened to walk out or to overdose on pain pills in an attempt to force me to stop practicing. By following the xinxing requirements, I did “not fight back when being punched or insulted” as mentioned in Zhuan Falun. After seeing me still treat her well and my unwillingness to stop practicing Dafa, she stopped bothering me anymore. As I looked back, I realized that Master helped me overcome the difficulty once I met the xinxing requirement.
In 2008, officials from the local police station, 610 Office, and Political and Judicial Bureau came to my workplace and asked about my situation. Due to pressure, my workplace officials demanded that I write a statement that I give up my practice. They said they would turn me in to the police if I failed to do so. During this time, I felt intense pressure. After looking inward, I found many attachments, such as fear, material interest, the attachment to seeking comfort, and lust. I decided to eliminate them. I also realized that, since we are to conform to everyday society, we need to maintain a stable everyday job. This allows us more time and opportunities to save sentient beings.
Someone called me on the phone and said the labor camp was very bad and that I could not withstand it. I replied, “I am all right. I only believe in Master and follow Master.” At that moment, my heart was light and my righteous thoughts were strong. Master thus helped me eliminate the interfering elements. The officials at my workplace stopped harassing me. It was just as Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference,”
“If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace.”
Validating the Fa at My Workplace
I first worked in the customer service department for my company. When people gave me gifts, I often returned them or paid them back. This way, I earned their respect, making it easier for me to clarify the truth later on. However, the heavy workload sometimes interfered with my joining the global sending forth righteous thoughts. Later I was transferred to another department with a lighter workload. In my spare time, I was able to study the Fa or read articles on minghui.ca (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom). Over the past several years, I have hardly ever missed sending forth righteous thoughts at noon or in the afternoon. I am very grateful for Master's help with this.
I clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to my coworkers. Most of them and their family members agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. I also took opportunities to clarify the truth to customers, and the results were good. I always took some truth-clarification materials or DVDs with me, and gave them to people when there was no time to talk in detail.
Forming One Body
In order to help various truth-clarification materials production sites, I began to help with coordination and I provided technical support. Through self-learning, and with help from Master and the Fa, I was able to overcome the technical difficulties one after another. Now, I am able to install the operation system, download and edit video files, maintain and repair printers, and compile materials. I also established a materials production site at my home. I printed booklets, prepared money with truth-clarification phrases on them and submitted articles to the Internet along with persecution news or lists of names of people who had quit the CCP.
As long as something is needed by Dafa, and needed by practitioners, I always stopped any household chores and supported the activity unconditionally. I helped wherever it was needed and with whatever was needed.
Sometimes, I traveled more than 50 kilometers (33 miles) by motorcycle to help practitioners in the countryside set up materials production sites and provide consumables. Once when a practitioner praised me for my capability, I shared with her Master's words,
“Some are more capable when it comes to one thing, others with another--you definitely shouldn't let your thoughts run wild based on that. You say that you have such great abilities and so on and so forth, but that was all bestowed upon you by the Fa! Actually, it wouldn't work if you failed to attain that level of abilities. Fa-rectification required your wisdom to reach that point, so you definitely shouldn't think that you're so capable.” (“Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”)
Because I hoped to save sentient beings, Master gave me such wisdom.
Master Paved the Way
Whenever I had time, I often went out to clarify the truth to people or to ask people to quit the CCP face-to-face. My biggest understanding over the years is that as long as we are doing something based on the Fa, especially when we are saving people face-to-face, Master will be able to help us. For example, Master could guide people to us. It was just as Master mentioned in “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa,” “Everything has been prepared, and all that’s missing is for you to carry it out.” I often ran into friends or former classmates that I had not seen for many years. I also went to my hometown numerous times to clarify the truth. More than 100 people quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
In order to talk to more people about Dafa, I decided to organize a gathering of my middle school class. I talked with several classmates, and they were very supportive of getting together. One classmate volunteered to pay for two-thirds of the expenses, while I was responsible for contacting people. After deciding the meeting date and place, we began to ask around for more classmates. The result was very good. Nearly 50 classmates and nine teachers showed up. Everyone was thankful for my organizing this activity. One of them even came from Xinjiang Province, and some classmates came with family by airplane, followed by driving.
I was especially touched by a female classmate's experience. She was hesitant because she made a living by preparing and selling pancakes on the street. When speaking with her over the phone, I said, “We are all classmates and there is no difference whether one is rich or poor. Plus, there is one good thing coming up. I will talk to you directly about it after you arrive.” In the end, she gave up several days of business and came with her child. It was not easy for one person to be saved. I clarified the truth to her and her child. Both of them agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, and both of them were very happy.
This gathering was held at a classmate's home who lives in the countryside. At one point we sat down together to watch a DVD of a Shen Yun performance. However, the DVD was in poor condition and so the quality of the video was bad. I happened to have the most recent Shen Yun DVD with me, so I replaced that DVD with mine. Thus, more than 60 people watched part of the Shen Yun performance together, including the opening program. I am very thankful for Master's help.
It was already after 10 p.m. when the dinner was over. I clarified the truth to people one by one and gave them informational materials. However, there was not enough time, since the gathering would be over the next day. Then, a classmate suggested that we extend the activity through the whole night. That gave me more time to clarify the truth. In the end, most of the classmates and teachers knew the truth.
Be More Diligent
There are at least two aspects in which I haven't done well in my cultivation. One was that I was unable to balance family responsibilities well. This was partly because I was unable to care for my family more due to my Dafa work. The other aspect was that I should have shared the techniques I learned with more practitioners so we could improve together as one body. In “Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference” Master said,
“A person who has a position of responsibility is actually a coordinator, and getting more capable people involved is what's key. How big of a role can any one individual play? Only when the group as a whole plays its role has the coordinator done well. When a coordinator does well himself, well, if you're the only one doing well, then you should just be an average student in that case. The key is that you have got to play the role of and fulfill the duties of a coordinator.”
I hope I can do better in cultivation and help other practitioners so that we can save more people. We cannot fall short of Master's compassionate salvation and sentient being's expectations.
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