(Minghui.org) I have been cultivating for over 10 years. Although I’ve stumbled several times along the way, Master has never given up on me. Time and again, I have felt immersed in Master’s boundless compassion. Here I would like to report some of my cultivation experiences to our great Master and fellow practitioners.
1. Breaking through human notions – I overcame an obstacle under Master’s care
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used the excuse of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to wantonly persecute Dafa practitioners. About 20 Dafa disciples in the small district I lived in were kidnapped and sent for “reeducation”, which are actually brainwashing classes. The evil told them that those who refused to write “transformation” statements would be sent to forced labor camps. I also was deceived and taken to the brainwashing classes.
That day, I received a call from my section head at my workplace. He asked me to come to the office as soon as possible, to attend an emergency meeting. I immediately smelled something fishy, as this was how I had been tricked and taken to a brainwashing class in 1999. When I received the call, I was shopping in the supermarket with my husband. He agreed with me that the CCP was out to harm us Falun Gong practitioners, and asked what I would do. I replied, “Let's go home, I’m not going to the office.”
The moment I got home I received a call on my cellphone. When I answered the call, I heard a fellow practitioner who works in my office sobbing to our office head. This office head was an accomplice in the persecution. The practitioner said, “No good will come to you if you send me to that place.” I immediately realized that this practitioner had been duped into going to the “meeting,” and he was trying to send me a warning. Because I did not have sufficient righteous thoughts at the time to openly resist the persecution, I packed my things and went into hiding.
During the next few days, the evil force directed some people who did not understand the truth about Falun Gong to search for me. They also harassed my family members with threats of forced labor, retrenchment, and so on. Because my family were not practitioners, they could not withstand the evil’s pressure. When I went back home to bathe and get a new change of clothes, they advised me to cooperate with the evil, and even said that once I wrote the “transformation” statement everything would be fine. When I saw the state they were in, I felt uncomfortable, as most of them understood the truth and had benefited from Dafa. Yet they were about to lose confidence in Dafa because of my current situation. I then thought about my colleagues, relatives, and friends who understood the truth. If I did not return to work, I would have to leave home and become a fugitive. The ordinary people who knew me may have an even greater misunderstanding of Dafa, which is not what Master wants. If my choice prevents those people from truly understanding Dafa, how much damage would it bring to the work of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings? I thought, I must return to work with nothing to hide, I must eliminate the persecution, validate the Fa, and better save sentient beings. My path in life is determined by Master and only by Master.
First, I decided to find two other practitioners who had also been avoiding their workplace in order to avoid the brainwashing classes. I wanted to interact with them, and completely dissolve the obstacle of the brainwashing session once and for all. At that time, Master’s lecture “Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference” had just been released. While reading Master’s lecture, I could feel Master’s boundless compassion. Master said,
“Master affirms what Dafa disciples have done. As long as you are doing things out of a wish to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, I will affirm all that you do. And when you go do those things, there will be my Law Bodies or gods there to amplify it and make what you do yet more magnificent and extraordinary, and they will assist you.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference”)
Master’s Fa teaching made my righteous thoughts and determination stronger. The two practitioners and I agreed to go straight to work the next day.
When I got home, the atmosphere was very tense. All my family members were trying to persuade me to attend the brainwashing session, so that I would not be sent for forced labor or be fired from work. My husband even said coldly, “Your Master doesn’t care about you anymore!” I calmly and firmly told him, “I’m going to let you see how much my Master cares about me.”
Although I wanted to go to work, many of my human notions, accumulated over the years, began to unceasingly surface. For example, when I was leaving the house, I started thinking that I should bring a cell phone with ebooks in it, so that if I was locked up I would still be able to study the Fa. Just as this thought surfaced, I immediately realized that it was wrong. I quickly restrained and banished that thought, sending righteous thoughts to dissolve it. As I was driving to work, I had another thought, “When I get to the office I must park my car at a convenient place, so that when the police come I can leave quickly.” I immediately realized this thought was also wrong. As I tried to get rid of that thought, all my human notions and fears suddenly burst into my mind in a frenzy. Not only did I feel awful mentally, physically I felt awful as well. In my heart I steadied myself with this thought: I listen only to Master, no one else can have any say. Simultaneously, I told my thought karma, human notions, and human attachments: “You don’t scare me, no matter how many of you surface. I know that you’re not a part of me, and for each one that surfaces I’ll destroy every single one.” In this way I sent righteous thoughts all the way to work. When I entered the doors to my workplace, all my notions and attachments to fear immediately disappeared without a trace. My body felt incomparably light and relaxed. I knew that Master, seeing that I had strong righteous thoughts at this level, had removed all those bad things for me.
At work I met my section head, who asked me to see the party secretary. I knew what he was trying to do. So I clarified the truth to the party secretary. He understood and said, “As long as the CCP agents don’t see you, I won’t report about you to them.” As such, my day passed without any mishaps. When I got home my husband asked, “Did anyone come to look for you?” I replied, “No.” Shocked, he said, “Really? No one came to look for you?” I said, “It’s true. Didn’t I tell you? I’m going to show you how well my Master takes care of me.” My husband didn’t say anything else.
The next day at work, I noticed that I hadn’t seen one of my colleagues who was also a practitioner. Her office was next to our work place's leader’s office, so when I went to look for her, I bumped into the leader. She told me to see the party secretary immediately. I thought to myself, I’m not going to cooperate with you, and replied that I was very busy and walked away. However, she continued to call and make things difficult for our section head who didn’t want to do anything wrong, and yet didn’t want to offend the leader. Suddenly, I became aware that I had a notion of seeking protection from ordinary people. I also had this fear of being sent to brainwashing session by the party secretary and the leader. I still did not have full confidence in Master and the Fa, nor did I fully deny the persecution. As such, I told my section head, “Don’t worry about it. Just tell her that you’ve already told me, and that I’m not cooperative.” My section head said doubtfully, “Is that right?” I replied that it was fine. At the same time, the two fellow practitioners and I decided to clarify the truth to our leader, to prevent her from participating in the persecution any further.
When we got to the leader’s office, we took turns clarifying the truth and sending righteous thoughts. The leader is a person of conscience. After listening to the truth she said she would have us meet with some agents, and gave her word that she would not let us be taken away. We told the leader that the regime agents' words have no backing, and we would not cooperate. The second time we went to clarify the truth, our work place's party secretary came by, and as soon as he saw us, he immediately left. Soon after, the people who are in charge of the persecution from the bureau entered. When we saw them we immediately got up to leave. I said, “You guys have your chat, we’re leaving.” They said, “Don’t go,” and one of the bureau personnel at the door started towards us to block us. I gave him a stern look, at which he froze like a piece of wood. We left the leader’s office with dignity. Later, in a frenzy of anger, some of the bureau personnel threatened to arrest us with armed police if we refused to cooperate. We felt very pressured. Back home, my husband also pressured me to cooperate with the agents. A huge sense of pressure and fear weighed down on my heart. I met with another practitioner to study Master’s lectures and recite the poem:
“Confident and magnanimous, I rectify the colossal firmament
Huge is the adversity that accompanies me
as I journey Heaven and Earth
Credit and honor are not what is on my mind
As I rectify heaven, rectify earth, and rectify all lives
True thoughts, a grand wish, and diamond-like will
Recreate with one thought the enormity”
(“In One Thought” in Hong Yin Vol. II)
Throughout this entire process, the fellow practitioners in our area cooperated with us as one body, helping us send righteous thoughts. We steadied our righteous thoughts, and Master helped us eliminate the evil. When we truly felt, from the very depth of our heart, that Master was the only one who could decide our future, and when we had totally let go of our attachments, the entire situation changed. That day, I went to work as usual. Around 10 a.m., one of the practitioners ran to me and said joyfully that the brainwashing session had been disbanded, and the leader said we no longer had to worry about being taken away.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank Master and fellow practitioners for supporting us with righteous thoughts!
2. Doing what has to be done with righteous thoughts and actions
The incident at my work place made me realize that, there are no insurmountable obstacles on the path Master has arranged for us. There is no need to be afraid of having human notions. As long as they are recognized in time, corrected based on the Fa, and constantly being rejected without being swayed by them, we can conquer them and become one with the Fa.
At that point I remembered a wish I had always had, which was to write down my experience into an article for spreading the Fa and clarifying the truth. I felt that the people who knew me would take the time to read my story from start to finish, including those who were influenced by the CCP culture, as people would generally find things that are close to their lives more interesting. As I did not have enough righteous thoughts in the past, I had yet to write such an article. This time, I was determined to finish it. So I wrote down how I had benefited from practicing Dafa, the improvement to my health and mind, and how the Fa taught us to be a good and responsible member of one’s family, society, and work place. I also exposed my experience from years of groundless persecution, to allow the people to distinguish good from evil and thus be saved.
Some fellow practitioners advised me not to write the article yet, as it was currently a very sensitive period, and I had only just returned to work. If something happened… But I clearly remembered Master’s Fa, so I sent my article to the Minghui website, and after it was posted on the website some practitioners and I emailed it to the people in our district. The article did help people understand the truth to some extent. One young man told me, “After reading your story, my perspective of Falun Gong has changed.” When they met my husband, some people in the persecution bureau said, “I heard that your wife wrote this article?” but they quickly added, “It’s not a big deal, perhaps she wasn’t the one who wrote it” to assure him that they would not report on me. Under Master’s protection and support, I was safe and sound.
Through this incident, my fellow practitioners and I experienced Dafa’s miraculous power and Master’s compassion. It strengthened our righteous thoughts and our faith in Master and the Fa, as well as our determination to do the three things well. The ordinary people who knew about this incident also experienced the extraordinariness and miracles of Dafa.
3. The Power of Compassion
In the past I viewed problems with human notions, and treated the persecution as something inflicted by men on other men. Consciously, I viewed the police as accomplices in the persecution, and would send righteous thoughts whenever I saw them (actually, a lot of these thoughts were bad thoughts). Over time, as my understanding of the Fa deepened and I removed many human notions, I gradually realized that the police are no different from other sentient beings, and should also be saved. Moreover, through studying the Fa, I came to understand that the old forces had placed them in this position. From my understanding, Master said that it is because of us [Dafa disciples] that they have to undergo such humiliation, and they are even more pitiful than the average person. If we can totally negate the old force’s arrangements, and treat them with compassion, then they too can be saved.
Due to being reported by someone who did not know the truth, police officers broke into my younger sister's apartment. My sister is also a practitioner. The police were attempting to raid the apartment and arrest my sister. When I heard of this, I immediately went to my sister’s home. Just as I stepped into her house, I heard the head officer say to me, “I know who you are.” I ignored him, and only had the thought of clarifying the truth to them and preventing the persecution from extending further.
My sister had locked herself in one of the rooms, and the officers were outside the door shouting at her to open it. They hurled threats of using physical force and raiding her home, making the atmosphere very tense. I did not view them as siding with the evil. Instead, I sent righteous thoughts to clear the evil behind them while clarifying the truth to them. One officer said, “Don’t bother telling us these things, we’ve heard them so many times.” I remained unmoved and continued to talk to them, and also told them that police are supposed to be upholders of justice. When I started talking about the organ harvesting, they said that they didn’t believe it. I then told them about the findings from my own investigations, but they continued to voice their disbelief.
Thinking to myself that I must promote the righteous elements, I said, “The fact that you don’t believe it proves that you’re kind at heart, and you yourself would never do something so evil.” The moment I said this, the entire atmosphere changed into a more peaceful one. The head officer called my sister’s husband to one side and suggested that my sister come to the police station for a while. He promised that there would be no issues and would soon send her back. He said that if my sister’s husband wasn’t convinced, he could bring my sister over in his own car and take her back afterwards. With those words, all the officers left and went downstairs. At this point, my sister emerged from the room. She said her righteous thoughts were very strong, and she kept sending righteous thoughts to forbid the evil from directing the officers to commit evil.
At first, my sister didn’t want to cooperate with the police. The head officer pleaded with us not to make things difficult for them, as they would be held accountable. I then spoke with my sister, and told her that we shouldn’t cause the police to misunderstand Dafa disciples, and should help them be saved. It’s not about the superficial appearance of the things we do; the things that we do are for saving sentient beings, be it at the police station or anywhere else. So my family and I went with our sister to the police station in our own car. At the police station, my sister clarified the truth to the police and urged them to quit the Communist Party, while I sent righteous thoughts outside. After a while we went home safe and sound.
4. Cooperating with fellow practitioners silently and unconditionally
Some elderly practitioners from my district once went to visit fellow practitioners in other districts. The practitioners in the countryside wanted to do some truth clarification projects, but the elderly practitioners from my district noticed that the countryside practitioners were very poor. So the elderly practitioners told them they could provide funds to the countryside practitioners if they needed it. One elderly practitioner, who had obtained the Fa recently and wasn’t as familiar with the issue of collecting funds, did indeed start to raise funds in our district out of a heart to do something for Dafa. Moreover, his target was several hundred thousand dollars. When I heard about this, I thought, “Isn’t this collecting funds?” So I quickly went to put a stop to it. When I met that elderly practitioner, he was interacting with some fellow practitioners. I told him what I thought without any reservations. Unexpectedly, not only did he reject my opinion, he even lost his temper and started verbally attacking me, and even said in protest, “See if you can stop me from taking the money to them.” The practitioners there also had very strong opinions about me and berated me. I thought, he’s clearly in the wrong, why are they all accusing me? Just as I thought that I couldn’t stop this wrong act, help arrived. One practitioner came and had a friendly discussion with the elderly practitioner, convincing him to give up the idea of collecting funds.
This incident affected me greatly. Looking within, I realized that while on the surface I appeared to be acting in consideration of the Fa, in actuality I harbored an attachment to proving myself and sticking to my own human notions. Master said,
“When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different--everyone's path is different--and the truths that beings validate and enlighten to in the Fa are different, too, but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.”)
One year later, a practitioner spoke to me about a practitioner from another district who had a very good experience to share, particularly on the issue of overcoming illness karma. He wanted to introduce this practitioner to the practitioners in the countryside, and asked if I could give them a lift so they could go there. When I met the practitioner from the other district, I realized that it was the same practitioner who wanted to collect funds! But I immediately told myself that I shouldn’t judge others based on my own personal opinions. We are all cultivating in Dafa, and this practitioner must have made great improvements in his cultivation.
This elderly practitioner didn’t recognize me. During the experience-sharing session, I noticed, from my own understanding of the Fa, some aspects in which he lacked an understanding of the Fa. During the interaction I expounded on the areas in which he showed righteous thoughts, and shared my own understanding of the Fa. I didn’t try to point out where he was wrong, and how it should be. In essence, I no longer had the attachment to proving myself. At the time, the atmosphere was very peaceful. After we returned, I met the elderly practitioner again when meeting with another practitioner. I interacted with him for a while, during which he felt that what I shared was good. He then asked another practitioner next to him, “Who is she?” The practitioner replied, isn’t this so-and-so? He remembered with a start who I was. When we met again, he said with emotion, “Look at this, the last time I saw you I didn’t recognize you. We had such a huge conflict in the past, and yet you helped me so much at the last meeting.” I replied, “This is all for Dafa, how can we mix in our own personal notions?” The elderly practitioner said sincerely, “You’ve improved so much from your cultivation, I, too, will definitely cultivate diligently as well!”
I was very touched by his words. Thank you, Master, for creating such a cultivation environment for us. One practitioners’ improvements in his/her xinxing also has the effect of motivating others and helping others elevate together. I wish to reassure Master that I’ll definitely redouble my efforts in cultivation.
(from the 9th China Fahui on Minghui.org)