(Minghui.org) I began to practice Falun Dafa in late 1996. I had many understandings through these years of cultivation, validating the Fa, and doing coordination work. Here are some of my experiences.
Beginning to cultivate
Before I began to practice Falun Dafa, my husband used to gamble a lot. Due to the debts he incurred, he was often afraid of returning home during the New Year to avoid his debtors. We fought with each other a lot and I almost had a mental collapse. One friend saw my suffering and recommended Falun Dafa to me. I read it, liked it very much and wished to have a copy. But it was difficult to find Master's books. I carried my three-year-old child on my back and traveled to one town after another, hoping to find a copy in a bookstore. In the end, one store had two copies and I bought both of them. Surprisingly, although my child often had fevers, he was fine this time even though I traveled more than 50 kilometers on a winter day including walking for long distances in the cold.
After reading Falun Gong, I was clear in my heart that this was what I had been looking for. Since then, I learned to forbear when encountering tribulations. After seeing that I became more tolerant, my husband also supported me. His good deed was soon rewarded and he found a decent job.
Persecution leads to a broken family
When Jiang’s regime started to persecute Falun Dafa in July 1999, my husband and other family members listened to the regime's lies, became afraid and asked me to quit. I told them Dafa was good and that nothing could stop me from practicing.
I went to Beijing three times to appeal and, as a result, I was detained three times. I was also sent to brainwashing centers twice and a forced labor camp once. During my detention, my husband had affairs with other women and even fathered an illegitimate child. When I was released, he would not allow me to enter my own home since he had already begun living with the other woman in my house.
The CCP’s persecution thus destroyed my family. My father was very upset upon seeing this and he became sick. He passed away several months later. I had no choice but to go to another city with my child. One practitioner found a rental place for me and I began to work there to make a living.
Clarifying the truth
Later, a practitioner and I went to distribute truth-clarification materials to one village after another in the evening. One evening, when we were about to leave, it became cloudy and windy since a heavy storm was coming. I asked the other practitioner if we should cancel the trip. She said we could not delay saving people. After we continued walking for two or three kilometers, a heavy rain started. When we were half-way through, I looked up and saw the rain had stopped, and the sky was clear with stars. That night, I had a dream that the clouds in the sky had rolled up like curtains revealing the blue sky.
One night when we went out to distribute materials, a person was standing next to his gate. I did not see him and put the materials next to his feet. He yelled and asked what I was doing. I calmed down and said I was distributing truth-clarification materials. I told him the facts of Falun Dafa and asked him to quit the CCP as well as its affiliated organizations. He said he did not join any of them. In the end, I told him to remember “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” He nodded and agreed.
Another time when we were distributing materials, we received a text message saying a massive arrest had been planned by the police. We were thus advised to stay away from home. One practitioner disagreed and suggested we should continue. We continued distributing materials and nothing happened. It was almost 2:00 a.m. when we returned home.
Not long after the 2008 New Year, police arrested many practitioners and the local materials sites were destroyed. One practitioner suggested that I take on running a material site, but I did not know how to do it. I tried, but could not download Minghui Weekly. When I sat down to take a break, I fell asleep. I dreamed that someone came in and told me to click a certain file on the computer. I woke up and clicked the file as instructed, it was Minghui Weekly. In this way, I learned how to download files.
Cultivating myself while doing coordination work
As I interacted with more and more practitioners, I gradually took on the coordination work. When a practitioner came to visit us in late 2009, he shared his experiences of clarifying the truth while visiting people during the holiday season. It seemed to work well, but none of us had tried it in our region. Fellow practitioners suggested that the three of us give it a try while the others studied the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts for us.
Going out that day was like entering a battlefield. Master encouraged me and I was able to see that the gong of fellow practitioners had lined up in the form of a lotus flower and had cleaned up the area we planned to go in other dimensions.
It went well and the next day more than 30 people quit the CCP or its affiliated organizations. As I called on other coordinators to discuss how to do this better, something started to change. Another practitioner who had not done coordination work for five years decided he would coordinate this. This was unexpected and I was not happy with it.
In “Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.”, Master said,
“Dafa disciples, in your cultivation in the ordinary human world you all have understood something clearly that's based on the Fa's principles, namely, not to be attached to the "gain and loss" of ordinary people. So when things related to validating the Fa are involved, there too you shouldn't insist on voicing "my ideas" or on having things done "my way." It's not like only then can you establish mighty virtue in the cosmos. If you've got a good idea, well, you came up with it, you're being responsible to the Fa, and it's not important whether your idea is adopted or whether your approach is used. If another person's idea can achieve the same effect and you aren't attached to your own idea and instead you go along with his, then whether you've shared your approach or not, Gods will all see this and think, "Look, he isn't attached, and he's able to be so tolerant and broadminded." What do Gods look at? Isn't this what they look at? When you're attached to emphasizing your things you are too caught up in it and the Gods watching above can't stand it. Even though you keep claiming it's for the good of Dafa, and that "my approach is good" and can reach such and such goal--and maybe that really is the case--still, we shouldn't have attachments that are too much like ordinary people. If you can really do that, all the Gods will say, "This person is truly remarkable." It's not like Gods see that your idea worked and then they raise your level. Instead, they only raise your level when they see that your understanding of it has improved. This is a truth in the Righteous Fa. If you're thinking, "I'll have XYZ happen to me if I've gained such and such amount of merit," well, yes, that's how it works for an ordinary person, and it might be what's looked at as far as certain facets of the cosmos's Fa-truths go or in a particular situation. But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining.”
As I had more understandings from the Fa, I told other practitioners that I would fully support the new coordinator. As I said these words, I saw that sentient beings in other dimensions were saved and they thanked Master. By the end of that year, thousands of people were saved through our efforts. From this I also saw the capability of that practitioner since things could not have been done as well had I led the coordination effort.
Cultivation is a process of letting go of human notions and being assimilated to the Fa. When doing coordination work, it is important for us to let go of ourselves and be considerate for the group as one body. It does not matter how “correct” we think we are. We need to fully support other practitioners and avoid any loopholes. In “Fa Teaching Given at the Fa Conference Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Minghui Website’s Founding”, Master said, “...just by being problem-free you have dealt the evil its greatest blow.”
There were no major persecution cases in our area in the past several years. After practitioners were illegally arrested by police when distributing truth-clarification materials, we were able to notify all practitioners in a short time. Some went to the police requesting their release and some supported by sending forth righteous thoughts. The one-body work appeared as a large shield in another dimension and arrested practitioners were soon released.
My concluding statement
Throughout these years of cultivation and coordinating to save people, I deeply understood that the power comes from us and comes from our joint effort as one body. I will be more diligent and fulfill my mission. I also want to express my gratitude towards Master.