(Minghui.org) I once went up a mountain to install a big microwave dish. The weather was nice at first, but it began to snow in big flakes as soon as the installation was finished. With no time to rest, I hopped on my motorcycle and drove downhill. The snow was getting heavier and heavier and I was going as fast as I could. The wheels of the motorcycle churned up the snow and dirt that in turn hit my face and body with force. Soon the wind started and, combined with the snow, covered me with mud. I was so dirty that my wife could not recognize me when I got home. I had to tell her, “It is me! Pull my clothes off.” My dirt-covered thermals stuck to my body. She thought that a fellow practitioner had given me a new set of clothes. As a matter of fact, such storms in the mountains are quite usual and I have experienced this a few times.
– By the author
Greetings, respected Teacher! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
Cultivating in Dafa changed me from an uneducated old man into a person who is quick thinking and swift acting, one that even young people cannot compete with. Fellow practitioners gave me a nickname—“Mountain Flyer.” I am taking the opportunity of this Fa conference to report for the first time to Teacher my cultivation experiences in the past ten-plus years. Please point out my deficiencies.
1. I Learned Dafa When I Was Suffering
I was born in a difficult time in a poor mountain village in 1952. My mother died after giving birth to me. My grandmother took me with her while begging for food, and so I grew up as a beggar. The evil Party kept starting new campaigns. With the “Great Leap Forward” and communal living, the life of this poor family got even worse. We had no food at home. My mental and physical development were way behind what was normal for my age. I could not go to the school when I was the right age and did not finish my elementary schooling by the time my peers were graduating from middle-school. The Cultural Revolution later completely demolished my opportunity to study.
Relying on my diligence and sincerity, I got a satisfactory job and created a happy family. However, I could not find my true purpose in life. I did not know who I was or why I had come to this world. I wondered what was the meaning of this life. I am introverted, and I kept deliberating these questions that no one could answer.
As time went by, I developed the habit of smoking, and consumed two to three packs of cigarettes a day, but it did not reduce my anxiety. On the contrary, it caused my health to deteriorate. I developed high blood pressure when I was only in my 30s. Other health problems, such as headaches, leg pain, back pain, and stomachaches followed, and I had to go to the hospital often. Once my wife and I were both hospitalized at the same time and I suffered a great deal. I asked if I was here in this world just to endure these illnesses, and wondered who could explain to me the meaning of life.
On day, a friend told me, “You should read Zhuan Falun. It is very good.” I said, “I am not educated enough.” He said, “You’ll know when you read it.” So I went to the bookstore and bought it, and began to read it right there. I usually did not wash my hands, but I wanted to wash my hands the first and every time I read this book. I had a habit of watching the evening news, which I always did no matter how busy I was. But that night, not only did I not watch the news, I ignored my wife when she called me to dinner. I kept reading the book until past 9 p.m., and finished reading it that night.
Zhuan Falun answered all my questions and resolved my confusions about life. I learned the meaning of my life and realized who I was. I had been very addicted to smoking and was thinking of having a cigarette when I was reading, but with the cigarette box right next to me, I just could not raise my hand. I enlightened that Teacher did not want me to smoke, so I quit and have never done it again.
The next day I read the book again. The feeling was different than the previous day. My nasal mucus and tears kept flowing, and I went to the restroom five times that day. I knew Teacher was cleansing my body for me. There was a manhole on the road to my office. A few days after I read the book, the manhole cover was broken but no one noticed it. Two of my colleagues fell into the manhole on separate occasions. I was the third one who stepped on the cover. It flipped, but I ended up standing next to it. Everyone was curious, but I knew that it was Teacher who was protecting me. Right around then I found that I had a hard time walking downstairs. Instead of going downward, I always floated upward, and I had to grab the handrail to walk down. I knew that Teacher had cleansed me through my great heavenly circuit. Dafa is just so wonderful: My illnesses all disappeared and I could float after I read the book for a few days.
From then on, I was on a path of cultivation. I went to the bookstore and bought all the Dafa books. Following the illustrations of the Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa, I learned the exercises myself. At first I shut the door and hid it from my wife. Later she discovered me. Seeing the wonderful changes in me, she began to practice Falun Gong, too. From then on, the two of us paid little attention to other things and concentrated only on Dafa. We had no knowledge of things happening around us in society. Only until August, when we enlightened that we needed to attend the group exercises, did we begin to look for the local practice site and learn what had been happening.
2. Installing Microwave Dishes to Save Sentient Beings
In 2006 a fellow practitioner from out-of-town suggested, “Why don’t you help people install microwave dishes?” I said, “That is high tech stuff. I am not well educated, and I cannot do it.” He said, “To save sentient beings, Dafa disciples can do anything.” I thought it over again and again after I got home, became clear-headed after I studied the Fa, and decided to take on the responsibility. I have been installing dishes since 2006. I began with large dishes and then smaller dishes, according to the need as the New Tang Dynasty TV signal changed. The area that I covered was quite large. I have let go of life and death since I began installing dishes, and I spent all my effort doing it. I went wherever and whenever I was needed, rain or shine.
I do not charge anything for my labor, and for those practitioners who were especially needy I provided free materials, too. Some fellow practitioners saw my hard work and suggested that I collect 30 yuan to compensate me for my labor, as other people did. I said, “I am saving people. Collecting money reflects a heart that is not pure. I am not installing dishes for ordinary people. I have quit my job to do this and I certainly will not try to earn the 30 yuan from a fellow practitioner.” Actually, just when I decided to take on the responsibility of installing dishes, a neighbor found me an easy job near my house that paid well. Before I responded, my wife turned it down for me, and told me, “This is a test. Such a good job did not come earlier, but did come right when we have decided to install dishes.” In the past few years, I followed Teacher’s requirement to save people with a pure heart. Wherever I went, there were more and more people asking me to install dishes. I had little time to rest.
At first, I did not have the know-how and was unfamiliar with the geography. I was not paying attention to safety either. I modified a regular tricycle by adding an electric motor to it, and loaded the dish and equipment on the back with no cover. One day, not able to find where I wanted to go, I parked on the roadside to make a phone call. Four police cars came and surrounded me, and the police examined the materials I had on the tricycle. When I tried to start the tricycle after I finished the phone call, the four officers stood there motionlessly, facing the other way. I knew it was Teacher who helped me and fixed them there. I concentrated totally on installing dishes and had no time to worry about the evil persecution. Seeing that I had a very pure heart, Teacher immobilized the police. It is just as Teacher said: “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” from Lectures in the United States)
I had studied a great deal of Fa before I began installing dishes, so all my thoughts were on how to save sentient beings. I had let go of life and death and I was completely selfless. I was truly doing divine work with a human body. That incident strengthened my belief in Teacher and Dafa and made me more confident in my ability to install dishes.
Once I went into the mountains with two other practitioners. The weather in the mountains changes quickly. While it was sunny when we departed, it soon began to snow. By the time we were done with our work, there was already a foot of snow on the ground. The bus that had taken us up stopped running. The other practitioners wanted us to stay up there. But it would take at least three weeks before the snow melted, and the bus would resume operations, so we had to leave. Three of us thus began the long journey down the snow-covered mountain 30 miles away from home. With snow still falling, we held on to each other hand in hand and began tumbling down. Soon we all turned into snowmen. Sometimes we crawled and sometimes we just let ourselves tumble. We recited Teacher’s poem:
“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
Free of attachment to living or dying
He walks the path of Fa-rectification
confident and poised” (“Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” from Hong Yin II)
The day was getting darker. We walked 15 miles, with 15 more to go. When we were all exhausted, suddenly a taxi van appeared in front of us. We were all stunned and were positive that it was Teacher sending the taxi to save us. How else could a taxi appear from nowhere on a snow-covered mountain? We all were most grateful and our eyes filled with tears. The incident helped us move steadfastly forward in our Fa-rectification journey, with no obstacle able to stop us.
My main job is to install the large dishes, and I work outside most of the time. My wife has willingly taken over all the chores in the house and has supported me wholeheartedly. Every day after we finish the global group exercises, she makes sure that I take the time to study the Fa while she prepares breakfast and works on other things. Teacher has emphasized the importance of Fa study in every lecture, telling us that we need to study the Fa no matter how busy we are, and that studying the Fa well is the guarantee of doing everything well. So I study at least one lecture of the Fa before I leave home every day. I do not rest in the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Most farm work stops in the winter. Many practitioner farmers want to have their dishes installed at that time and it is my busiest season. I work on the roof or other high places, and the wind freezes my hands. They swell like two big buns. My palms are full of cracks, with the longer ones going through my palms, while the shortest ones are a few millimeters long. The pain is indescribable.
3. Learn the Skills and Help Fellow Practitioners
Because I install dishes everywhere, I have met many practitioners. In sharing with them I learned that a large group of practitioners in a particular area enlightened along an evil way and had a bad impact. Teacher said: “So as for the Dafa disciples in any region, you are basically the hope for the beings in that region to be saved--their only hope, in fact.” ( “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York”) Teacher also said: “You folks can't just go and abandon a person without trying hard enough. No matter what kind of mistakes someone has made, or what kind of a person he is, I still want to give him a chance.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference”) I know it is not easy to pull these practitioners back, but I am a true disciple of Teacher’s and I will do whatever Teacher wants me to. So I had no choice but to help them wake up, as each of them is associated with lots of sentient beings. If they all are evil-enlightened, then none of the sentient beings in that region will be saved. To save people, I definitely need to pull these practitioners back to Dafa. I absolutely want to let the sentient beings in that region have the opportunity to be saved. I made an appointment with them on the mountain, but on the bus there, I suddenly had a stomachache. It was so painful that I could not stand it and I asked the bus driver to let me off. The driver said, “I cannot let you off in this remote area. There is no one to take care of you. I cannot.” But I insisted and he finally let me off.
I writhed back and forth on the side of the road. I prayed to Teacher: “Teacher, I need to help these people. I cannot help them if I miss my appointment. Please help me pass this tribulation.” With this thought, the pain lessened somewhat, and I sat up slowly. However, the place was about 10 miles from any station. I could not just sit there and wait, so I tried to walk. After I had taken just a dozen steps, a bus came from behind, stopped next to me, and opened its door, as though the bus driver knew that I was in trouble and had come to get me. When I arrived at the mountain top, there were about a dozen people waiting there already. I told them what had happened on the way, and that if it weren’t for Teacher’s help, we would not have been able to meet with each other that day. They were all moved and appreciated Teacher’s benevolence toward them. With Teacher supporting us, I sent forth strong righteous thoughts and was determined to pull these practitioners back from straying. Teacher said:
“Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos’s Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples’ rock solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings’ thoughts disintegrate.” (“Also in a Few Words” from Essentials for Further Advancement II.)
Relying on the power of Dafa and the benevolence of the Fa principles, these practitioners who had enlightened on an evil path all came back and re-joined the Fa-rectification, and are now using their abilities to save sentient beings.
Every practitioner needs a lot of Dafa informational materials to save sentient beings. To operate the equipment needed to make these materials (computers, printers, and DVD burners) takes expertise. I always felt that I could not touch them. However, once I learned how to install the dish, I no longer had fear. Once I saw a man who was older than me playing in an Internet café, which further strengthened my confidence. I was much younger than he, and if he could do it, I could, too. Furthermore, I am a Dafa disciple, who can do everything. As soon as I had this thought, Teacher brought a practitioner who knew the computer well over to my house and helped me to acquire all the necessary equipment. I do not even have an elementary school diploma, but now my home is filled with all the high tech equipment, including computers, printers, a copier, and a DVD burner. Not only can I install satellite dishes, but I am also an expert at making informational materials. I make lots of them every weekend and give them to practitioners who need them.
An out-of-town practitioner thought that I had had a pretty good education after he read the materials I made. I told him I was not well educated, but it was Teacher who gave me the wisdom and skills so that I could cultivate myself in Dafa and help Teacher rectify the Fa.
Because I know lots of practitioners and have lots of contacts with them, I often am more informed about what is happening. I treat fellow practitioners’ businesses as my own and help them with all my heart. This way we are all united. Not only do our local practitioners bond together, I also pay lots of attention to practitioners who have been forced away from their homes and wander to our area, and I do my best to help them.
One practitioner was away from her home and came to our area. She worked with local practitioners and went to a remote mountainous area to tell people the facts. When I learned that she needed some maps and equipment, I prepared them for her the next day. She was delighted, and said, “It truly saved me lots of trouble. This equipment is very expensive, and I could not afford it myself. You are so generous.” She was forced away from home for resisting the persecution and saving sentient beings. She was so steadfast even in such a difficult situation. I felt obliged to get the best Fa-weapon for her in order for her to fully apply her abilities to save sentient beings and help Teacher.
In the past ten plus years, I have followed Teacher’s requirements and faithfully cultivated myself. During the process of fighting the persecution, saving sentient beings, and helping Teacher journey in the human world, I have said only things that were necessary to say and did not say anything irrelevant to my cultivation. I only dealt with business and nothing else. I always finished things that needed to be done and did not promote myself. The important thing is to always have the Fa in one’s mind and follow Teacher’s requirements on everything, and always treat oneself as a Dafa disciple.