(Minghui.org) I would like to share some of the cultivation experiences I had after I resumed practicing Falun Dafa in 2011.
As a child, I was timid, introverted, and kept to myself most of the time. I always wondered, “Why do people have to suffer and die when they get old?” However, I wasn't able to think the question through more deeply.
In 1995, when qigong was very popular in China, I saw people practicing it just about everywhere I went. At that time, I was only 12 years old and thought that people who practiced qigong were solely doing it to keep healthy and fit. One day, my father took me to my grandmother’s home where my grandfather and my youngest uncle told us that they had recently been doing a very good qigong practice called Falun Gong.
I was told that Falun Gong was different than all the other qigong practices out there, and that only by following a universal law could one really improve his or her body and mind. They talked about how grand the practice was and shared many miraculous stories about what they and other practitioners had experienced. While I was listening to these stories, I felt wonderful beyond words. I knew that I wanted to practice Falun Gong!
I spent time every day listening to Master Li's audio recordings with my father. Each morning, my father took me to a practice site in a park where we did the Dafa exercises together. Back then, we held each of the four movements in Exercise 2–the Standing Stance–for three minutes, yet I was still unable to persevere in completing the third movement, “Holding the wheel above the head.” My arms once became so tired that they shook uncontrollably, yet I did not put them down. The coordinator said, “You have great endurance!”
Whenever I saw the banner with the words, “Falun Dafa,” at the practice site, I felt very happy from the bottom of my heart. I could easily sit with my legs crossed when doing sitting meditation. My father was very pleased with me.
Unfortunately in 1998, when I entered junior high school, I stopped studying the Fa. As a result, I no longer had a deep understanding of the Fa, and gradually started losing my way in the big dye vat of ordinary people. I felt myself acquiring various human attachments, and knew that I was slowly but surely drifting away from the standard of the Fa. After I moved residences, I even stopped going to the practice site. In the end, I realized that I was no different than an everyday person. I was very depressed and felt a lot of pressure to complete my homework every day. I felt very tired and muddle-headed, and had the feeling that I had lost my direction in life and was drifting along with the tide.
In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution against Falun Gong. I recall turning on the TV and realized that almost all of the channels were parroting the evil Party’s lies about Falun Gong and Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. I was so sad that I cried and cried. I knew that everything that was being said about the practice on TV was false, and I couldn't understand why such a good practice was being slandered. So I immediately phoned my grandmother.
“Grandma, have you turned on the TV recently?”
“Yes, I am watching it now.”
“Do you still want to keeping practicing Falun Gong?”
“Yes. I do.”
“Grandma, why does the TV say that we are not allowed to practice?”
“What the TV says about Falun Gong is false.”
“You must persevere in practicing it, Grandma.”
“Yes, I will!”
From that day on, I rarely turned on the TV to watch the news, as I knew that everything that was being said about Falun Gong was lies! I wasn’t clear about the Fa principles at that time, so I mistakenly thought that the persecution came about to eliminate unqualified Dafa practitioners. I later realized that the persecution was imposed by the evil old forces.
Although I knew that I had lost my way in ordinary human society, and was busy pursuing fame, self-interest, and sentiment, whenever I wanted to do something bad, the word “attachment” would appear in my mind. I always had the feeling that Master had not given up on me, and that He was still watching over me, giving me hints so that I would one day return to the path of cultivation. Although I believed in my heart that I would return to the path of cultivation, I still had all sorts of human attachments blocking me.
A Falun Gong practitioner came to my grandfather's home in June 2011 to share a cultivation experience that she'd had. She asked me to sit on a stool next to her. She then told me about the magnificence of Dafa and how fortunate it was to be a Dafa practitioner. “Seize the time to save sentient beings in your world,” she implored. I tried to suppress my tears, but couldn't. I realized that Master had not given up on me at all, and used this practitioner to give me a hint. I knew that it was my knowing side that was shedding tears, acknowledging Master's profound compassion.
Masters said,
“Upon walking outside this auditorium, many of you will feel like different people, and your outlook will be guaranteed to change. You will know how to conduct yourselves in the future, and you will no longer be so befuddled. It is guaranteed to be this way. Therefore, your xinxing has already caught up.” (Zhuan Falun)
That night, I resumed my reading of Zhuan Falun and doing the exercises. I also quit smoking cigarettes, consuming alcohol, playing computer games, and watching movies on the Internet. My attachments of competitiveness, fame, self-interest, and comfort became weaker and weaker. I realized that I needed to try my best to do everything in accordance with Dafa.
By continuously studying the Fa, I came to realize that as a Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period, I should not only cultivate myself well, but also do the three things well, too, as required by Master. A few days later, the same practitioner came to my home with a special telephone that played prerecorded truth clarification voice messages in Chinese. Within a few minutes, I called several friends of mine using the special phone, but they all hung up before listening to the entire prerecorded message.
Although I felt disappointed, I did not lose heart. The next day, I tried to make a few calls while riding the bus. When the first person I called finished listening to the recording, from beginning to end, I was moved to tears. I was very pleased that this man had heard the truth, and I realized that Master was encouraging me and boosting my confidence.
From that day on, I made calls every day. I made a list of all the phone numbers of people who had listened to the entire recording and called them back to help them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. In the evening, I studied the Fa and did exercises. Some practitioners told me, “You are smart to study the Fa well. This will help you make up for all the years that you didn't cultivate.” I started doing the exercises in the morning so that I could spend the whole evening studying the Fa. I now usually study the Fa until 11:55 p.m. After I send righteous thoughts, I go to bed. In the morning, I do the five sets of Dafa exercises. Although I don't sleep much, I don’t feel tired at all during the day.
Practitioners in our area joined together to promote the use of prerecorded calls to China. Compared to the previous methods that we used to call China, this one was simpler, faster, and more effective.
During this period, my attachments to fear, showing off, comfort, and competitiveness surfaced. As soon as I saw myself being attached, I immediately sent righteous thoughts. Once, while a practitioner and I were heading home with several mobile phones that we had just bought, he told me that he had seen countless small Faluns and a very big Falun surrounding us. I realized that we were doing the most righteous thing in the universe—assisting Master during Fa-rectification. I also realized that Master was always protecting us.
Master said,
"If you are a true practitioner, our Falun will safeguard you. I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." (Zhuan Falun)
A practitioner told me that only a few dozen people had answered the more than 200 calls that we made to China each day. He asked me if I could help check the database of numbers to see which ones were valid. After removing the invalid phone numbers, our answer rate shot up to 80 percent, thus saving our group a lot of valuable time and resources. I now realize that with Master's help, I can solve any problems that arise, including those involving mobile phones.
Master taught us,
“Actually, when Master wants something done a certain way, it’s not simply that he thought of something and then that’s it. I have to do a tremendous amount of preparation, which you cannot see, and all of those gods work on it too. Everything has been prepared, and all that’s missing is for you to carry it out. Yet you won’t take that step…” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
During a large-scale international trade exhibition in China, the promoters broadcast slanderous lies about Falun Gong, every 20 minutes. Thousands of exhibitors from the mainland participated in the event, along with around 200,000 foreign buyers. I realized that not only were their minds being slowly poisoned by the broadcast, but the exhibition organizers were committing the greatest of sins. The first time I sent righteous thoughts to disintegrate the evil in other dimensions, I did not see any positive results.
I then contacted several practitioners and asked them to contact other practitioners that they knew. We then started to send righteous thoughts together to eliminate the evil beings who were controlling the beings in this dimension. I later walked through the exhibition hall and discovered that it was hard to hear the broadcast disparaging Falun Gong, and sometimes it even got stuck halfway through the message. I overheard many people complain that the broadcast was both boring and false. I realized that the evil was sputtering and misfiring! This was the result of the collective power of Dafa practitioners righteous thoughts and Master's strengthening.
It was just as Master said, "I regard eliminating the evil as whisking dust away." (“All for This Day” from Hong Yin III)
I was seriously interfered with a few days later by thought karma, and felt very troubled. I found myself scolding Master and did not know where the bad thoughts were coming from. The next day, I asked Master to strengthen me and help eliminate my thought karma.
Master said,
“Most people, however, can remove and resist it with very strong thoughts from themselves (a strong Main Consciousness). With this, it indicates that this person can be saved and can distinguish good from bad. In other words, the person has good enlightenment quality. My fashen will help eliminate the most of such thought karma." (Zhuan Falun)
After I looked inward, I realized that I still felt some bitterness in my heart when I saw people my age talking about traveling, eating at fancy restaurants, and going to the theater to see the latest movies. My life, on the contrary, consisted of making truth clarification phone calls to China, checking for valid telephone numbers, setting up mobile phones for the practitioners in my area, and sending out hundreds of messages.
Some of my thoughts questioned my belief in Master and the Fa. Whenever they surfaced, I would immediately remember Master's Fa,
“The more hopeless things may seem, it’s possible hope will appear right before your eyes. Especially during those times when you are feeling so bored, perhaps you are in fact establishing your mighty virtue.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
I am a Dafa practitioner walking the path of cultivation during the Fa-rectification period. Since my mission is to save sentient beings, should I still yearn for the comforts and happiness of ordinary people? How many sentient beings are waiting for me to save them? I asked Master to strengthen me and help disintegrate the interference arranged by the old forces, as well as the ideas and notions that caused me to waiver on the path of cultivation.
Since returning to Dafa two years ago, I have felt my entire life unfolding in an orderly fashion. Everything seems so familiar to me as I go about playing my part in the Fa-rectification period. Although I am still attached to fame, self-interest, competitiveness, lust, laziness, comfort, and resentment, I will conduct myself in accordance with the requirements for Dafa practitioners. I believe I will do better and better, thanks to Master's painstaking salvation!