(Minghui.org) Master said,
“What you do well is everything that you have validated and enlightened to. Put that part in order and remove the unwanted dregs, and the essence that remains is the path to your success.” (“Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003”)
I have many shortcomings, but I want to share my unique and precious cultivation experiences so we can improve together.
My child was diagnosed with an unknown disease when he was three years old. He received various treatments in Beijing for two years. During this time, my mother-in-law, who lived nearby, turned a blind eye to our difficulties and did not offer any help. We had to take our child to our hometown and ask my mother to take care of him, because we both had to work. I was very hurt and decided not to contact her anymore. My husband felt hurt as well and did not want to visit his parents.
I was a strong-willed woman, but I cried bitterly several times because my mother-in-law did not treat me well. My younger brother felt sorry for me and wanted to help me. He did not practice Falun Dafa, but he believed that Falun Dafa could help me, because he witnessed his colleagues change after they practiced Falun Dafa. They recovered from their ailments and became open-minded. So he borrowed the book Zhuan Falun and asked me to read it.
One of my classmates had practiced other qigongs, and it did not interest me. I thought all qigong practices were deceptive and did not want to read the book. My brother did not give up. He read Zhuan Falun to me every night as I knit.
I thought it was interesting. The strange thing was that the characters in this book appeared very large to me. I did not give it a second thought and returned Zhuan Falun to my brother.
At the end of 1997, I wanted to reread Zhuan Falun, so I borrowed it for the second time and noticed that the font of the characters was actually of a standard size. I felt strange but did not think about it any further. It took me three days and two nights to read through it. I thought that the requirements in Zhuan Falun were too difficult for me to master, so I didn’t want to practice.
I had a dream that night. A voice asked me, “For whom to cultivate?” The voice asked me the same question over and over again all night long. Before I woke up at dawn, I answered in my dream, “I cultivate for myself. I cultivate my heart.”
I started to cultivate. After reading Zhuan Falun, I understood the matter of a predestined relationships between people. I understood that maybe I treated my mother-in-law badly in my previous life, so she was not nice to me now. I took my child to visit her to make up with her. My mother-in-law was very touched and told her neighbors that I’d become nicer after practicing Falun Dafa
My mother-in-law developed righteous thoughts about Dafa because of my behavior. When I was persecuted because of my faith and detained in the police station, she brought me food and a watermelon in the hot summer of July. She is overweight, so it was not easy for her to travel a long way to visit me. She was not afraid and told the police to release me immediately, because I am a good person and did not do anything wrong.
However, I slacked off in 2003 and did not do well in cultivation. It was just as Master said: “When an average person hears it, this person will practice it on and off.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
I started to pursue fame and self-interest, and my slacking off resulted in big tribulations. The police came to my workplace and arrested me in front of all of my colleagues at the end of May 2003. They dragged me by my hair, threw me into the police car, and took me to my hometown.
My first thought at the time was what Master said,
“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.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
The police forced my mother to beg me to renounce my belief. I comforted her, but I did not relent.
The next day, the police in my hometown took me to the county police department and handcuffed me to a big tree. I had only one thought—send forth righteous thoughts and deny the persecution. After a while, their attitude changed, and they unlocked the handcuffs.
I did not cooperate with them. In the afternoon, they brought in the practitioner who had revealed me to the police. When I saw her, I did not resent her. I hoped that she could walk her path righteously. I had been sending righteous thoughts for the whole morning. Nobody monitored me anymore in the afternoon.
That day I realized that Master was hinting that I leave. At first, I did not want to follow Master’s hint because I wanted the police to release me officially and apologize to me. But Master repeatedly hinted that I leave, so I decided to give it a try. I walked out to the yard. When I did, all the officers were looking in other directions, so no one noticed me. And sure enough, there was a small hill next to the two-meter high wall, so I quickly climbed on top of it and jumped down.
When I jumped down, an old man standing next to the wall asked me how I’d gotten out. I ignored him and walked away. Just then, a policeman in uniform walked over and the old man said to him, “She jumped over the wall.” I thought, “Don’t chase me! If you chase me, I will freeze you.”
I didn’t run or look back. I asked someone how to get to the long-distance bus station. As it was on his way there anyway, he gave me a ride on his motorcycle. I missed the last bus home, so I took a taxi to a local practitioner’s home. She arranged for me to stay at a relative’s home and suggested I not go home.
I thought about not going home, but then I realized it was the path the old forces arranged, so I went back to my city a week later.
I went to a senior practitioner’s home instead of mine. She was very diligent. She studies three lectures in Zhuan Falun and does the exercises every day. She sends righteous thoughts every hour. She made very good use of her time.
When I studied the Fa with her, I first could not focus as I read. However the more I studied the Fa, the better I was able to focus. Later, when I picked up Zhuan Falun, I felt that it was a divine book.
Master let me understand many Fa principles during that time. For example, I slept very little. One day I felt that I had slept for a long time, but when I woke up, just five minutes had passed. I was afraid that I would get distracted when sending righteous thoughts, so I kept my eyes open. One day, I saw the “sleep demon.” It disappeared after I said, “Eliminate.”
Master said,
“After the Taiji plate cracks open with a snap, one will see images; however, it is not that there is a Taiji in your head. It was the master who installed a set of things for you at the very beginning, one of which is the Taiji. He sealed your Celestial Eye. By the time your Celestial Eye is opened, it will crack open. The master intentionally arranged it that way, and it was not something originally from your head.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
I saw that Master installed in our bodies the verse we say before sending righteous thoughts.
Doing real cultivation, my skin became delicate, and I could feel and see changes in myself every day. When I went home a month later, I looked as if I was around 18 years old. I truly felt the magic and greatness of Dafa.
I decided to validate the Fa at work because I’d been arrested there. So I went and told everyone I was back safe and sound. I later learned that the police in my hometown had come to my city and told the police there to arrest me. However, the local police ignored them. This was the power of righteous thoughts.
But it was not over yet. The day after I returned to work in 2004, the general manager of the company came to my office and said, “I just wanted to give you a heads up so you can be prepared. We are planning to take you to a brainwashing center.” He said it was a decision from headquarters, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
I thought of what Master said, “Wherever there’s a problem, that is where you need to clarify the truth and save people. Don’t take a detour when you run into difficulties.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)
So I decided to clarify the truth to headquarters. Master arranged things for me very well: I had two days of vacation, so I sent forth righteous thoughts frequently. I also understood a principle in the Fa that, if it is in line with the universe’s design, a practitioner can have a job and a family in ordinary society, and whoever dares to persecute a Dafa disciple will be eliminated.”
It is as Master said,
“The wretched demons just deserve to be killed, and this is also something inevitable in the Dharma-Ending Period and the time of Last Havoc.” (“Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
As soon as I enlightened to this principle, my celestial eye saw a building collapse in another dimension.
I wrote a letter to the leader at headquarters and gave it to him when I ran into him. A few hours later, he called my manager and told him to not take me to the brainwashing center. But then he asked me to write a guarantee statement to promise I would not go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa and would not distribute truth-clarification materials.
I wrote a letter expressing my appreciation to the company and told them I would be responsible for myself.
At that time, I was not that stable and wondered if my company would accept my statement. Suddenly, I heard Master saying, “You are qualified if Master says you are qualified.” Tears came to my eyes when I heard Master’s voice, a1nd my righteous thoughts came back immediately: “Yes, I am Master’s disciple!” I calmed down, knowing that this incident would end well.
Later, I learned that my company was not rated as good as before because I practiced Falun Dafa. Headquarters was angry and put great pressure on the branch where I worked. But the issue was resolved.
From this tribulation, I realized the seriousness of cultivation. Since then, I have treated myself as a cultivator and walked on a righteous path. My manager also had righteous thoughts. He refused to assist the city security department several times when they tried to persecute me. He heard more and more of the truth from me over the years.
A driver who worked in my office had a habit of stealing. Our supervisor once asked all of us to be alert for thieves in front of him. I knew the supervisor did that on purpose, so I said, “Everyone makes mistakes. It will be fine if one can realize one’s mistakes and do better.” I was nice to everyone, including the driver, who’d also stolen money from me. He gradually understood that practitioners are good people and he quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organizations. Once, a salesperson said nothing when I clarified the truth to her. The driver suddenly said, “Quit as soon as possible so you can stay safe!”
At first, my supervisor did not accept the truth. She once even reported me when I gave informational materials to my colleagues. I didn’t harbor any resentment and often helped her. I always asked my husband to give her a ride after work, even in bad weather. She eventually understood the truth and once gave me the Dafa material she found in her building. She said, “I found this on the ground. I cannot tolerate people stepping on it since I know you are all good people, so I’ve brought it to you.”
Master said,
“...In each and every rebirth,the waiting in suffering has been heartbreakingThe secular world and the sea of desires are endlessAll for this piece of paper that seems so ordinary!”(“Pay attention,” Hong Yin III)
I cry whenever I read this poem. I know that I made a prehistoric vow to save people, so I have been distributing truth-clarification materials ever since the persecution started.
In 2005, I set up a material production site. I bought laptops, desktops, printers, and other equipment. At that time, these things were expensive. Still, whenever I needed money to buy the equipment, I would get a bonus or a gift from a family member so I could purchase what I needed.
I carried truth-clarification material with me every day, and whenever possible, I would distribute them. My colleagues knew that I would not miss an opportunity to distribute them. They would ask me to go with them when they went out and covered for me so that I could distribute the material.
Our office was in the downtown area, where there were many surveillance cameras. When I distributed materials during my lunch break, I usually had no time to change clothes, so I went out in uniform. Once I felt a little scared, so I kept thinking, “Human thoughts are all unrighteous. All these feelings are unreal.” I kept thinking that until I calmed down and no longer thought about being caught. After work, I usually just had snacks for dinner, so I could have more time to distribute materials in the nearby community.
There is a residential area for the staff of a cable TV station. I wanted to distribute materials in those buildings, but, because of the surveillance cameras, I didn’t find a good opportunity for a long time. One day it was raining, so I went there with an umbrella. One security gate happened to be left open. This gave me the opportunity to distribute a few brochures. When I got home, I wondered if there would be any results. Given this thought, I saw a screen with my celestial eye. A man in his 40s picked up a booklet and read it. He said, “Oh, that’s what happened!” He understood! I knew that Master was encouraging me. I simply go do it, so that sentient beings will have an opportunity to learn the truth.
I distribute materials in all kinds of weather and during holidays, including New Year’s Eve. Once I had to take the stairs to distribute materials in an 18-floor building. I suddenly thought, “Master is always beside us.” My righteous thoughts were strengthened with this thought. I distributed more than 50 large-sized booklets, almost in an instant. When I went downstairs, I felt as if there were only a few flights.
After I retired, I spent more time distributing materials. My husband also helped me a lot. I once printed 100 brochures and wondered where to distribute them. My husband suddenly said, “Today, let’s go to the mall to shop for home appliances.” He added, “Do your things first and then we go to the store after you finish.”
Another time, when I didn’t know where to give them out, he said, “I’ll show you a place!” He drove me to the community where his friend’s parents lived. He said, “Sometimes I drive around and look for places where you can distribute materials.”
Master said,
“Keep your righteous thoughts strong, and realize that you are doing that work to save people.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
Once when I came out of a building, I ran into the security guard. He yelled that now he knew who was distributing the materials. I turned around and said while holding strong righteous thought, “I am distributing truthful information about Falun Dafa to save people.” Surprisingly, he softened his tone right away and begged me to take the materials away because his boss lived in that building.
I wanted to clarify the truth to this guard, so I went back and took back a couple of brochures that I placed in noticeable places. He was very pleased and asked for them.
At a residential area for the military, I once tried to enter the building, but the security guard stopped me. Later I took a practitioner’s advice and went there in a raincoat when it was raining. I left right after I finished distributing to one unit. I went there several times but never managed to finish, because there were always people in the hallways. One day, I asked myself what I was afraid of and asked Master for help. I went there again and left materials at every door.
I also paid attention to cultivating myself when I distributed materials. A while ago, Minghui changed the size of the brochure from medium to large. Some fellow practitioners still wanted the smaller-sized ones. I held a negative opinion about them and thought they had the attachment of fear. Later I saw Minghui also provided smaller brochures. I was moved by Minghui’s consideration for different situations in China. I realized that I should not have negative thoughts and biases.
Since 2011, a fellow practitioner and I have gone out every day to clarify the truth face-to-face. I study the Fa in the morning, recite Zhuan Falun at noon, and go out in the afternoon. I eliminated many human attachments such as jealousy, showing off, and attachment to self.
We often sense that Master is right next to us. When I once asked a man if he was a member of the CCP or its other organizations, he just read the brochure and did not respond. I asked Master’s help to save him. With that thought, the man immediately agreed to quit the CCP’s youth organizations. More than 40 people decided to withdraw from the CCP within three hours that day. It was amazing! I realized again that it was due to Master’s blessings.
When I started to clarify the truth in person in the early years, I always told fellow practitioners in the Fa-study group how many people had quit the CCP, what problems we’d encountered, and how we solved them. I eventually realized that this was the mentality of showing off, and I eliminated this attachment.
I have become more and more aware of the seriousness of cultivation. If we cannot focus when studying the Fa or sending forth righteous thoughts, we are just doing things without having any mighty virtue.
Sometimes I bring a cell phone that can automatically play the truth-clarification recordings. After they understand, the person can withdraw from the CCP by pressing the keys on the phone. This has proven to be very effective.
My son practiced Falun Dafa when he was a child, but he slacked off when he grew up and often played video games. Once, I became very angry when I saw him playing again and even thought maybe he would wake up if he encountered a tribulation. I realized that my thought was not right. Just then, my third eye saw layers of galaxies being renewed. I suddenly understood that when I recognized my attachment, I was getting rid of its ill effects. The corresponding dimensions were assimilating to the Fa at the same time.
In recent years, I’ve also realized that no attachment exists on its own. They are all interconnected.
One day when we were telling people the facts about Dafa, a young man threatened to report us. The other practitioner got nervous and started to pedal away. Our bicycle fell, and my head smacked into a pole. I told myself I was okay and stood up immediately. I said to the young man, “Do you know that Falun Dafa is good? How can you report us and help bad people persecute Falun Dafa practitioners?” The young man just said mechanically, “I want to report...” but did not do anything.
The other practitioner drove away without me. She did not even pick up the bag with our materials. I picked it up and chased her. I did not blame her after I stopped her, and we continued to help more than 20 people quit the CCP.
Back home, I saw that my left knee was purple and my left ear hurt. I did not mention this to the practitioner as I did not want her to feel guilty. I removed the feeling of resentment and looking down on her. However, I felt I still had a hidden attachment that I had not found. What was it?
When I was studying the Fa in our study group, a practitioner said I’d missed a word when I didn’t. When we were finished, another practitioner said that the other two practitioners had visited her recently. I was upset because I thought the two practitioners should have visited me first. I realized right away that I had an attachment of jealousy and eliminated this attachment immediately.
At home, my son was playing games again. I asked him to do housework, but he yelled at me and refused to do it. I scolded him for being so conceited, selfish, and so on.
While I was listing his shortcomings, it occurred to me what had happened in the Fa-study group that day. I suddenly realized I was pointing out my own shortcomings. I talked back and was upset when other practitioners said anything that I did not like to hear. I realized I had an attachment to self.
Master said,
“Since you have found the cause that prevented him from moving forward, why don’t you point it out to him? It shouldn’t be a problem if you tell him kindly. Is it because you are a little afraid of him getting upset with you? Yet, wouldn’t the bad attitude of that person be a perfect chance for you to cultivate yourself? It doesn’t matter even if he didn’t understand what you said—shouldn’t this emotion (qing) of an everyday person be given up? You should tell him if you see a problem.” (Teachings at the Conference in Canada)
I realized I did not like to be criticized and I had an attachment of defending my selfish heart. Now I understand that it was Master who asked me to remove my attachment and improve in cultivation.