(Minghui.org) Greetings, esteemed Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
My thanks go to the Minghui website for giving me this opportunity to share how I acquired the necessary skills to assist Master in the Fa-rectification.
“What I am saying is, make use of your expertise. To use your words for it, help Master in Fa-rectification and save sentient beings. That’s what you should do.” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day”)
Many practitioners from our area were arrested around the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Three were imprisoned for 7 years and more than 10 were sentenced to forced labor.
I realized that all practitioners who used to coordinate or had important technical skills were still jailed or had left the city when I returned home after being detained for a month. That meant we lacked people with technical skills when we met again and decided to continue to do the three-things.
Now I very much regretted that I did not learn any of these skills, because I had had enough time and the opportunity to acquire them. I used to drive the technical support practitioners around to install computers and software, maintain printers, and purchase equipment and supplies for local practitioners. But I did not learn the technical skills, nor did I write down the contacts where we purchased the equipment and supplies.
I faced several problems. There was no one with the necessary technical expertise and no one I could contact, yet fellow practitioners expected me to lead the Dafa projects. I then made up my mind that I would learn the skills needed.
My family, however, was not supportive. My mother had died recently, having succumbed to the harassment and tremendous pressure by the authorities. Friends and relatives were afraid to associate with me, and my brother's and sister's families were monitored around-the-clock because of me.
I told myself that I would not be deterred by theses obstacles, because I had to learn the skills to help fellow practitioners save lives.
The first task was to get anonymous cellphones so that we could clarify the truth. Because the authorities monitor all cellphone communications, we must use anonymous phones to avoid being traced.
I downloaded a software and went to a secluded place to work on phones. The software was supposed to change the serial number of the phone, but it just did not work for me. I tested it over and over again and forgot the time.
My cellphone was at home, because it could be used to find me. When I finally returned home around noon, I was surprised to see my younger sister and her husband waiting for me. They were very worried. Because I did not return home for lunch and they could not reach me on my cellphone, they worried that I had been arrested again.
Another time I bought a few phones that allow the owner to change the serial number. My niece saw me working with them and called her parents. My sisters came and offered to buy the phones. I understood that they were trying to protect me and wanted to prevent me from giving the phones to fellow practitioners. They believed that if a practitioner was arrested, the authorities could find me by tracing the source of the phone. I could not convince them otherwise.
Eventually I mastered the skill of making anonymous phones and began to share this truth-clarification project with fellow practitioners. Through this effort I understood the importance of skills and technical knowledge.
Master has encouraged and helped me, and a miracle happened when it was needed.
The authorities announced in 2013 that everyone had to show their identity cards when they purchased sim cards beginning in September of that year. I purchased a few hundred sim cards before the regulation went into effect and activated them. Then I distributed the cards to the practitioners involved in this project.
The new regulation took effect on September 1, 2013. The supplier called me and said that the cards activated with his method wouldn't work anymore. The sim card user had to make a phone call to activate it again.
Fellow practitioners returned the cards to me because they didn't work anymore. I still thought we could use them somehow, because they were valuable resources and should not be wasted.
I put one of the cards in my phone and tried to activate it. It worked. I tried another one, and it worked, too. In the end, I found out that only the cards fellow practitioners activated stopped working. Other intact cards could be activated without any problem.
Later on, I noticed that any sim card could be activated as long as it stayed with me for a while. Master said, “...and we cultivate divinity, so of course miracles have indeed happened.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference”)
Next I had to learn how to install an operating system for computers. Because many local material production sites had been destroyed and their equipment confiscated, we needed to purchase new computers and install the operating system.
I followed the instructions on a website on purchasing computers. But the instructions on installing a customized operating system were way over my head. What to do?
A fellow practitioner connected me with a practitioner from out of town who could teach me how to do it. I invited local practitioners to a place where we could learn this skill. When the practitioner arrived, he was quite surprised that all his “students” were silver-haired.
I told him not to worry, just teach us, and we would learn. My method was probably the dumbest. I wrote down everything he said and every step of the installation process. Then we practiced it a few times.
In the end, I was the only student who could get the computer to work. However, I could only follow what we were taught, but was unable to solve any new issues. We created a communication channel through the Minghui website, so we could get help from the practitioner when in need.
I began to install operating systems on PCs and equipped new Dafa material printing centers. However, the practitioner who helped us was arrested and sentenced to one year of forced labor. We found another practitioner. A short time later, he was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years.
The two incidents awakened me. I realized that I could not rely on fellow practitioners to provide tech-support, and my attachment had brought them a tribulation. I decided to let go of the attachment of reliance and learn the technical skills needed for this task.
I took my laptop to computer stores to ask questions and learn from them. I submitted questions to online forums and tested the answers on my laptop.
When Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP, we successfully upgraded to Windows 8. Now I can even teach and provide technical support for practitioners in other cities.
It is just like a practitioner once shared on the Minghui website. The skills were partly given by Master, partly learned from fellow practitioners, as well as from one's own experiences.
Since 2008 the authorities have ransacked practitioners' homes and confiscated many Dafa books. Dafa books were consequently in short supply. Some practitioners in our area started to print Dafa books. However, because they lacked expertise in printing, the quality of the books was not good.
The high demand for Dafa books from fellow practitioners prompted me to think about printing books.
We followed the instructions online and purchased the necessary equipment, such as a paper cutter, laser printer, and laminator. Then we printed regular books for practice, such as the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and Anything for Power: The Real Story of China’s Jiang Zemin.
After we mastered the skills for printing and making books, we made Dafa books.
We are very respectful and humble when we print Dafa books. The practitioners who participate in this project often remind each other that it is such an honor to print Dafa books. A sacred feeling fills our hearts when we print and make them.
We follow the highest quality standard in every step to print and make Zhuan Falun. Then we laminate the cover and insert a beautiful bookmark.
We also print other Dafa books. The books are so beautiful that many practitioners could not believe that they were printed locally.
We've printed nearly 1,000 copies of Zhuan Falun every year since we started this project, and a few thousand other Dafa books. These books met the demand of local practitioners and there were also enough for other areas.
These Dafa books were printed and made inside a very small room without heat or air conditioning. The room was filled with equipment and supplies. The temperature inside could crack the laminating sheets in winter and shut down the printer because of heat in summer.
For most Chinese, Chinese New Year's Day is a time to greet relatives and friends. I always spent the day inside this small room because it was the quietest day of the year, and no one would interrupt my work.
A practitioner once asked me how long I planned to print and make Dafa books. The answer is: as long as fellow practitioners need me. I am prepared to do this until the day the Fa rectifies the human world.
Recently I've felt that many skills and knowledge not directly related to Dafa projects are also important.
Driving is one of them. My car was confiscated in 2008 with the excuse that I used it to transport copies of the Nine Commentaries. When I was released in October 2009, I wanted to ask for my car back. I discussed it with my older sister and she told me to let it be. She thought that we should not annoy the authorities by asking for the car.
However, when I was leaving her house, a police officer called me and notified me to reclaim my car. I understood that Master was helping me to get the car back.
This was the only car we had, and I took practitioners to surrounding villages to pass out Dafa truth-clarification materials, send forth righteous near where practitioners were being detained, attend Fa sharing in other cities, buy supplies, and drive lawyers to defend incarcerated practitioners.
Legal knowledge is another skill. I took several courses in law in school. With that legal knowledge, I helped fellow practitioners hire defense lawyers by explaining Dafa from a legal perspective.
After we started filing lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, I wrote a criminal complaint against Jiang for a practitioner and the lawyer had the detained practitioner sign it.
Before the Minghui website provided a template for criminal complaints, I used this letter as a template that helped many local practitioners.
Other skills such as language, knowledge of culture, and writing are also important. I have the education, so I could use some of my skills to help the older practitioners write their sharing articles and revise and submit stories for fellow practitioners to the Minghui website.
What is a skill? I believe that if you can do something to serve the Fa-validation or help a practitioner to validate the Fa, it is a skill. It can be something very simple and does not need to be complex.
For example, I learned how to reset a printer a few years back. Practitioners in other cities soon began to invite me to teach them.
Over the years, I have learned how to make truth-clarification DVDs, install software to overcome the Internet firewall, print and make desk and wall calendars, do screen printing, print truth-clarification messages on paper currency, print self-adhesive stickers, and operate new equipment.
When Shen Yun DVDs and labels were downloaded in 2013, it took me an entire day to master how to do the printing and packing. Then I taught it other practitioners working on the project.
Master encouraged me that night by showing me a high level dimension where trees were so green and the landscape was like in a painting.
I also noticed that a few coordinators were very busy coordinating projects and took tech-support practitioners around to help with this or that. Years later, they still don't know how to connect to the Internet, input Chinese characters, or send emails. They often claim that they are too busy or too old to learn.
I think if all coordinators can become tech-support experts in their area, then the support tasks will be distributed among more practitioners. That will mean every tech-support practitioner will have enough time to do the exercises and study the Fa. This will keep them from being persecuted by the old forces because they are too exhausted or lack the time to study the Fa.
Then, skilled practitioners should teach others practitioners who need the skills and can become tech-support.
I believe that, if a practitioner understands the meaning of assisting Master in the Fa-rectification, he or she will always answer “I can do it” when Dafa needs us.
I feel that I have learned a lot and understood more in the past several years. I understand that I am still far from what Dafa requires, but I will be diligent in my cultivation and acquire more skills along the way, because they are all given by Master.
“The cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master.” (Zhuan Falun)
It is all under Master's control. I just need to do it wholeheartedly.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!