(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1998. My cultivation road was quite bumpy. I know that I have not done well at times.
However, going forward I will learn from my past mistakes and do better.
I attended a prestigious middle school, lived in a dormitory, and went home once a month. When at home, I listened to Master’s lecture tapes with my mother. Although I still did not quite understand how to cultivate, I knew that practitioners lived by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I wanted to be a good person.
Passing the Truthfulness Test
After an exam, I was first in my class and scored full marks in mathematics. But then I realized that I had made a mistake, which the teacher had not caught. Because I was constantly among the top three in my class, the teacher gave my work only a cursory glance.
I wondered if I should keep quiet about it. I remembered the Dafa principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and thus told my class monitor about it. He said: “If you don’t tell them about the mistake, you’ll be first in the level and win glory for our class. If you tell them, you’ll only be third with your marks, as they will be cut down. Think about it.”
It did not feel right to keep quiet about my mistake, and I told the teacher the next day. My marks were lowered, but during the awards ceremony, the principal praised my honesty.
Back then, only because of my mother, did I remember Master's teachings to be a good person and to live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
I finally started to cultivate Dafa in the autumn of 1998. When I had time, I studied the Fa. When my mother asked me how much I remembered from Zhuan Falun, the main book of Dafa, I recited Lecture One without missing a word.
Actually, I had not memorized the book, but I had read it so many times that I unintentionally memorized it—this was the power of the Fa.
Homeless, Destitute, and Detained
The Chinese communist regime started to persecute Dafa in 1999. Consequently, I was also persecuted.
I was arrested, detained, and tortured in 2001. My face was beaten until it was swollen and unrecognizable, and because I was whipped with a bamboo cane, my legs were covered with wounds. I went on a hunger strike to protest the torture and was soon released. But I became homeless and destitute.
However, I decided that I had to protect Falun Dafa. Therefore, I went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Because there were many police officers, I walked around Tiananmen Square and wondered what to do.
That evening, I remembered I had some Falun Dafa materials in my bag and deposited them all over the square. I was caught by police, and when I was dragged into a police van, I shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!”
They took me to the Tiananmen Police Station, where a policeman swung a metal chain across my face. I was not afraid and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors behind the policeman. He calmed down and took me to another room, where he tried to find out my hometown address. Instead of responding, I told him the facts about Falun Dafa.
Another policeman entered the room and tried to burn me with a lit cigarette. Then, the first officer pointed to him and said, “Don’t touch her, and get out!” The officer left the room. After that I was taken to the hallway where he cuffed my hands to a chair. I told him that the shackles were too tight, and he loosened the cuffs. I could even free my hands, but I was too afraid to escape since it was in the middle of the night.
The next day, I was still illegally detained, so I again went on a hunger strike. I was released after 15 days.
Going with the Tide
After 2001 I was arrested and sentenced to a labor camp. I was released in 2007. However, at that point it was difficult to make a living. Faced with many complications, I felt helpless, and instead of resolving my problems based on the Fa, I turned back into an ordinary person.
I did not study the Fa diligently, and there were no fellow practitioners to share experiences. I became low-spirited and pursued the comfortable life of an ordinary person. I struggled, pondered, went with the tide, and for a while was adrift in ordinary society.
But Master did not give up on me and hinted over and over again about the solemnity of cultivation practice. I thought, “How could I destroy myself and wallow in self-pity?”
Relegating the Upset to the Past
I decided that I would no longer fret and dwell on the past. I bought a printer and made some Falun Dafa materials such as CDs, Shen Yun DVDs, and calendars with information about Dafa. I distributed them after work, and my salary increased from a few hundred to five, six, and sometimes eight thousand yuan.
A large company employed me, and there were over 10 people in my department. I told them about Falun Dafa and faced some antagonism at first. I sent righteous thoughts and felt the environment improve.
A female colleague who told me not to talk about Falun Dafa, then began to talk about the practice. She broke through the firewall with the links I had given her and gained an understanding of Dafa from reading about it on foreign websites.
Breaking Free from the Party Shackles
One of my colleagues lived close to me. He often confided in me and I guided him based on the Fa when it came to dealing with his friends.
I told him the facts of Falun Dafa and urged him to quit the Party. He agreed and said that he believed what I said, because in his eyes I was a good and upright person. He and his friends quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
He told me during a meal that he wanted to be a member in good standing of the CCP, but because I told him the facts, he wanted to break free from its shackles. I said that he should remember Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good. I gave him and his friends amulets.
Trying to make a livelihood became secondary after I started a small company, which gave me time to focus on studying the Fa better, doing the exercises, sending forth righteous thoughts, and telling people I met at work about Dafa and quitting the Party.
Master Gave Me Wisdom to Help Fellow Practitioners
Because there were no skilled practitioners in my area, I had to provide technical assistance. I began to help fellow practitioners update their computer systems beginning in April 2014.
Much was left for me to figure out in terms of technical necessities. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not figure out one particular technical issue. But that night in a dream, Master explained to me how to solve certain problems. I listened to Master, but after I woke up I just could not remember anything. I knew it had something to do with my current problems, so I started up my computer, waved the mouse pointer around, and accidentally clicked on a system file.
Suddenly, I understood some fundamentals about the system software. I knew that this was the wisdom that Master gave me. Therefore, I began to help fellow practitioners with their problems. Even practitioners from faraway asked me to fix their computers, and I realized that this skill had to be shared.
I bought a small portable hard drive and loaded all the software into it. I gave the information I saved to practitioners who wanted to learn, and I patiently taught them step by step.
One lady, in her 50s, who had no experience in fixing systems, wanted to learn. When I taught her, she wrote down every word, including whether to right-click or left-click. I was touched by her willingness to learn and felt a greater responsibility to teach her. Whenever she encountered problems, I would pinpoint it and teach her until she could do it on her own. She has been a great help to the practitioners in her area.
Overall, I have fallen many times since I stepped on my cultivation path. I have not done certain things well and feel rather guilty. But, I know for certain that I can only move forward through diligent Fa-study, doing the exercises, sending righteous thoughts, and spreading the word about the goodness of Falun Dafa.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
