(Minghui.org) September will always be a most memorable and significant month to me.
A group of practitioners from the city arrived at my county to promote Falun Gong in September 1997. I was one of the 200 strong participants gathered to learn the exercises.
Sixteen years later, in September 2013, nine practitioners came to our county from the provincial capital to do the Falun Gong exercises and study the Fa with our local practitioners.
We revisited Master”s “Fa Teaching at the 2013 Western US Fa Conference” and revitalized the initial zeal we experienced when we first obtained Dafa.
After more than a decade, I finally understood what we are doing in this world, why we need to cultivate, and how to go about cultivating.
I finally enlightened to my need to advance from the state of a lackadaisical “average person” to the elevated state of a sensible “wise person.”
I wanted to make up for my many years of wasted life. I made a determination to be an authentic, Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple.
I recalled the warmth that poured into my body when I first did the exercises. The sensation was so relaxing and refreshing. At the time, I was only able to sit in meditation for 20 minutes in double lotus.
I recalled how, after jogging and doing other physical exercises, all I felt was hot and tired; but, after the five sets of Falun Gong exercises, I felt warm and energized.
Falun Gong not only changed my physical state, it also changed my mental state.
The Chinese society was in transition in the 1990's. Amidst an interwoven disarray with a multitude of world views and various perceptions toward life and values, a blinding and impetuous emotion had siphoned people to look to money as the be-all and end-all.
Material gain became society’s single-minded pursuit in life as well as the accepted measure of success and happiness.
With Falun Gong, many people (I included) discovered a spiritual practice guided by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance whereby we can attain peace and harmony and become better people. Our attachments to fame and fortune are let go of and our thoughts are purified and sublimated.
With that mental change, I began to use my free time on Fa study and on spreading Dafa to people living in the remote countryside. Fellow practitioners and I would take truth clarification materials to distribute them. We would also pass out Dafa books as well as audio and video recordings of Master’s lectures to whomever would accept them.
July 1999 marked the beginning of the mad persecution that swept the whole country. Under the tremendous onslaught, I became a closet practitioner.
To cover any track that could connect me to Falun Gong, I resumed all my bad habits of smoking, drinking, and playing cards.
I was fully aware those behaviors were contrary to Master’s teachings, yet I argued that special circumstances required special treatments. So, I stubbornly refused to correct my ways.
In the eyes of fellow practitioners, I was a half-hearted practitioner who merely did the exercises. In the eyes of my colleagues, I was a self-motivated worker with strong capacities.
I continued to consider myself a practitioner without realizing the dangerous downward spiral I had placed myself in, until I developed a case of gastric bleeding artery vasodilation due to excessive alcohol consumption, and I needed to have two fifths of my stomach removed.
Then, in 2005, doctors discovered a reticular tumor in my brain. Surgery was performed on the left side of my cranium. In 2009, another surgery was performed on the right side.
My practitioner wife and other practitioners remarked that I survived three major operations because Master was still watching over me despite the fact I had not been behaving as a true practitioner.
When the anesthesia wore off nine hours after my second operation, my head felt extremely heavy, my body was unable to move, but my brain was working overtime.
I kept thinking, “I’ve never done any wicked thing in my life. In fact, I have done a lot of good things for others. Why, then, have I been put through the pain of three major surgeries? It’s so unfair!”
As that thought kept going round and round, I felt a current rushed right up through my brain, forming a hat of qi on the top of my head. The pain, the pressure, and all the other inexplicable sensations spilled from my brain to cover the entire ward. I was in great discomfort.
My wife urged me to recite "Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!" She also joined in the recitation. She called on Master to take care of me.
After a while, a sudden flash rushed over my consciousness: “You may have done nothing bad in this life, but in all your reincarnated lifetimes, perhaps you’d done a lot of bad things. The pain you suffer now is repaying past karmic debts.”
And, just as suddenly, the thick hat of qi on my head and all the pain in my body magically disappeared!
All at once, I had an awakening.
In the past, my body practiced the Falun Gong exercises, yet my thoughts were those of ordinary people. I had separated my physical state from my mental state, making mockery of myself and fooling other people.
Master has said in Zhuan Falun that “matter and mind are one thing.” In the past, I used to find that inconceivable. I couldn’t and didn’t believe it. Now I experienced it and understood.
From henceforth, I will never be befuddled in my Falun Gong cultivation practice!
With the awakening, the first thing I wanted to do was study the Fa. So, I motioned to my wife to put the headphones on me so I could listen to Master's lectures. I wanted to get back the time I had wasted.
So I listened and listened and listened.
Three days after surgery, I was able to sit up in bed to do the meditation exercise. In five days I was able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom by myself. The two other patients in the same ward were still unable to sit up ten days after their surgeries.
After about two weeks in the hospital, my doctor finally agreed to let me go home to recuperate.
At home, I began to sit in double lotus while studying Zhuan Falun.
While sitting, I insisted on holding my body erect in the correct posture in accordance with Master’s instruction. The first time I could sit like that for 20 minutes. Then, I extended the time to 60 minutes, then 90 minutes.
Two months later, I started going out with my wife on unsteady steps to pass out truth clarification booklets and other Dafa materials.
A year later, the chief physician of general surgery from the hospital, after several inquiries to find my whereabouts, dropped in to see me and was overjoyed to see me still alive and healthy.
He told me, “I specialize in reticular cell tumor research. I discovered from medical records of our two large provincial hospitals that there are only nine surgical cases with that kind of tumor in recent years. I’ve found the other eight patients, who have all passed away, and one of them was only nine years old… I want to draw your blood so I can go back and do some research to find out why you are still alive.”
I said to him, “I can tell you the reason why I’m still alive after surgery. It’s because I practice Falun Gong.”
So, we entered into a discussion about qigong practices versus hospital treatments.
My wife and I further clarified the truth to him about Falun Gong.
After he understood the truth, we advised him to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and all its affiliates. He readily agreed.
We gave him truth-clarification materials and CDs. He happily accepted and said, “I’m really blessed. It’s probably my predestination to come here so I can learn about Falun Gong and get these materials.”
When I made a determination to practice with diligence, events to test my xinxing came one after another.
One day, I went to pay a visit to a relative. We sat and talked for about half an hour. I had a glass of milk.
On the way home, I felt a sudden onslaught of angina, followed by burst after burst of intense pain arising from my internal organs. My body was sweating from every pore. My mouth could only cry out "ouch ouch ouch…"
Then, my thoughts reminded me, “I am a Dafa disciple. I am not sick. This is not sickness. This is karmic retribution. However unbearable this is, I must endure it.”
Then I kept silently repeating over and over again, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compasion-Forbearance is good!”
Half an hour later, all the pain disappeared. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
My work unit was given notice to nominate a qualified county employee in June 2012 to receive an outstanding Party member award. My unit leader and colleagues unanimously elected me, saying I was excellent in every way, the best qualified and the most deserving.
I thought to myself, “I have already renounced the CCP and all its Party affiliates online. Why would I want this so-called honor?”
So I made a public announcement, “You all think I am good, and I thank you. Indeed, I always strive to do my best because this is what is expected of every Falun Gong practitioner who is guided by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion- Forbearance.”
Later on, my unit leader said to me in all earnestness, “You need to give your future some serious thought.”
A colleague said to me in regret, “You’re not only giving up this honor and your reputation, there’s also the matter of 800 yuan in prize money.”
To those and other remarks, I remained calm and untouched.
Because I had publicly proclaimed my identity as a Falun Gong practitioner, I no longer needed to be evasive in the workplace. From then on, I was able to spread and validate Dafa freely.
I went with my wife and little sister to the provincial capital to meet up with some fellow practitioners on January 16, 2013.
At 3:50 the next morning, we all got up to do the five sets of exercises.
After breakfast, we busied ourselves with producing truth-clarification materials with the two machines available. That took us the whole morning.
After lunch, we studied the Fa together, taking turns to read Zhuan Falun. Then, we shared personal experiences and enlightenment. We ended our group study with sending forth righteous thoughts.
After dinner, we set out in groups of two to distribute the Dafa materials we produced earlier to each residence in the local districts.
We did all the above every day for ten days.
At first, I would keep asking the local practitioners about the number of security in a particular district, the locations of the neighborhood committee and the police station, etc.
I insisted I had no fear, but my persistent questions really belied my actual feelings.
Somehow, I managed to take the elevator by myself to the top floor of a 30-story building and spent 30 minutes going down each flight to deliver Dafa materials to each of the 100 plus households.
During the process, I gradually became at peace and at ease.
This gives proof to the fact that, if fear tries to lay a grip on us, the only solution is to move forward and refuse to let it control our righteous actions, and those actions will give us the necessary courage that will in turn positively influence our thinking.
As a matter of fact, every deed we do and every step we make have been planned by Master. We just need to do the deed and take the step. This is what Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts should be.
After I successfully conquered my tobacco, alcohol, and card playing addictions, I was faced with a vague sense of loneliness. I also began to feel drowsy during Fa study. I couldn’t even hold my palm erect during sending forth righteous thoughts.
These are attachments too, and the symptoms of laziness.
What to do?
I decided I had to challenge myself to the extremes of my mental and physical limits.
I decided I would sit in double lotus for a duration of 160 minutes to study two lectures of Zhuan Falun. Then, I found I could still raise my endurance level. So, I sat for 200 minutes to study three lectures, until one time I sat for 10 hours to finish the entire text. At that point, I stopped that self-challenge.
A week later, I had another thought: I would sit in double lotus to listen to Master's nine-day lectures in its entirety.
So, one Friday midnight after sending forth righteous thoughts, I began to listen to the recordings.
Five hours later, nature called, and I stopped to answer the call.
But that can’t do! A Dafa disciples vow is binding. So, I stood in front of Master’s portrait and said in my heart: “I will pick up that challenge again tomorrow.”
The following day, I sat in double lotus for 13 hours, and finished listening to Master’s nine lectures on tape.
I had successfully met my self-challenge. I felt like having just seen a rainbow after a storm. I gave thanks to Master for having sustained me.
From the beginning of 2010, I began coordinating with fellow practitioners to travel to the outlying rural farms to disseminate truth clarification materials.
I thought of how making each trip involved printing expenses, transportation fees, and all sorts of difficulties we might encounter en route, so I was determined not to miss any family or individual.
Other practitioners would avoid farms with barking dogs, houses without lights, and places off the beaten tracks or far from the main roads. But I would go anywhere and everywhere. I often walked with a trot so that whether it was winter or summer my clothes would generally be soaked with sweat.
A fellow practitioner acquired an off-road vehicle in 2013, which solved much of our en route difficulties, but then, other forms of problems started to show up.
One was constantly running into police vehicles that seemed to be driving by back and forth. The other was being followed by motorcycles that seemed to always appear from behind.
I looked inward seriously and realized I had unconsciously developed attachments to showing off and being pleased with myself, allowing the evil to take advantage of my loopholes.
From then on, I made sure I carried with me nothing but a pure heart and a righteous mentality when I disseminate truth-clarification materials. All troubling incidents never happened again.
In order to make sure every scattered household in the remote countryside had a chance to understand about Falun Gong and the truth behind the persecution, we needed a well-coordinated plan.
To achieve our goal, we realized that each one of us must start by overlooking the self and being willing to play second fiddle so we could all cooperate well.
Then, we set up three courses of action:
First, we would coordinate truth clarification teams to include every practitioner and visit each remote area once a week, leaving together at 10:00 pm and returning together at 5:00 am.
Second, we would coordinate work interactively with practitioners in other localities by going around reciprocally several times a year to do the three things together in both the old and new town districts of the provincial capital.
Third, we would coordinate a global linkage with frequent visits to the Minghui website to download such well designed leaflets as "Magnificent Blessing from the Heavens," "Tips for a Safe and Peaceful Life", and others that reflect global Dafa activities, and turn them into colorful printing for our distributing.
In this way, we become a small particle in Dafa’s global network of particles.
Our truth-clarification pamphlets were delivered to every household in our county with good wishes and hard work from our practitioners. The compassion that accompanied the good wishes and hard work will definitely help people understand and choose a better future.
After the start of the Falun Gong persecution in 1999, Master’s Fa teachings repeatedly emphasized that Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples must do three things, and walk well our cultivation paths until the very end.
As Dafa disciples, if we truly assimilate into Dafa and become genuine particles within Dafa, we will change:
We will enter into a state of selflessness. We will be able to go about doing the three things with righteous thoughts and actions. We will be playing active lead roles in spreading and validating Dafa to save people and fulfill our vow.