(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa with my parents when I was seven years old. After the persecution started in 1999, I stopped. I knew Dafa was good, but I didn't treasure it and was ashamed to face the founder of Falun Dafa Master Li Hongzhi. Two years ago, my father was arrested. During the process of rescuing him, I returned to my cultivation path.
I am grateful for Master's mercy and compassion. He extended the time before the Fa-rectification. So, in this final period, I still have a chance to cultivate diligently.
Doing the Three Things
While working to rescue my father, I started studying the Fa but realized I had too many human notions and an attachment to fear. With the help of fellow practitioners, I was doing the three things. But I did so with fear, and the results were not good. I continued to study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts, and work to save people. However, I considered them as tasks to do and hoped Master would help solve any problems. My main problem was that I had never really thought about whether I was genuinely cultivating.
When the CCP virus pandemic started a year ago, my feeling then was that this was the final elimination. I stocked up on food, watched TV, and read the news. We then read articles by practitioners on the Minghui website about making good use of our time to save more sentient beings. So we prepared truth-clarification materials and went out to distribute them.
A few days later, several police officers came to my home and arrested me. At the police station, I realized that I hadn't paid enough attention to safety. I clarified the truth to the officers and reasoned with them about policies and laws related to the persecution. I also asked Master to help me. Two days later, I was released on bail.
Improving Myself for the First Time
After I returned home, I gradually realized that my goal in cultivation was not pure. I wanted to be a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple and have the honors that Master bestows on us, but I didn't want to solidly cultivate myself. I cut corners, not realizing it was a big sin to do that. Master has been very merciful. He wanted to save me and gave me another opportunity.
This year, I started paying attention to cultivating myself, sending righteous thoughts, and saving sentient beings. When I had strong human notions and slacked off, the police came and took me to the station, but I didn't cooperate with them.
However, I still hadn't let go of my attachments. My mind was not clear when I sent righteous thoughts. I also couldn't clarify the truth with mercy because my thoughts were not righteous.
Continuing to Improve
Last month, a police officer called again and ordered me to the police station, saying that my case had been submitted to the Procuratorate. I was afraid and felt sick. I asked fellow practitioners for help, and they told me not to cooperate with the police and to completely deny their arrangements, look within, and send strong righteous thoughts.
I did what they suggested. Soon afterward, however, I got a call from the procuratorate, saying they had my case in their system and I should wait for a phone notification for a written record. My heart sank. I thought, “When they call me to go, I will go to clarify the truth to them and defend myself based on the law; I can't just wait and do nothing.”
I had been studying Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003 and realized that I didn't know how to cultivate, was unclear what a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple is, and didn't know how to study the Fa. I didn't know what it meant to send righteous thoughts or why we needed to clarify the truth to save sentient beings. I was also unclear about what Master has done for us and why the Fa-rectification hadn't yet come to an end. After studying that lecture, I suddenly had answers to all my questions.
I understand that Master has bestowed upon us the title of Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, which is a great honor, and that we should deserve it. We should follow Master and return to where we came from.
After I became clear about my mission, I then realized that I was not cultivating well: If I didn't let go of my human notions, I couldn't save those who were predestined, I wouldn't have the ability to assist Master to rectify the Fa, nor could I fulfill my prehistoric vows.
If we don't let go of human notions, what we think are human thoughts. Then, as a human being, how could I have righteous thoughts? If a thought is sent forth by an ordinary person, there is no effect on ordinary people. When I hold human notions yet I want to be accorded the greatest honor, isn't that a bad thought? How can the old forces let me pass? We are walking on a cultivation path to become divine beings. We are creating paths that a person can follow to divinity, which will be a reference for people in the future.
All of what we do in the Fa-rectification period should be like what a divine being does, which is why Master asks us to be powerful with strong righteous thoughts. When we achieve this, if we look back, we will see that the persecution is nothing and our attachments, which seemed so hard to let go of, are tiny compared to who we truly are. We have Master, and no one can harm us.
Master is very merciful and doesn't want to leave one practitioner behind. He has suffered for us, but we don't treasure this and aren't diligent. Master has taught us the Fa very clearly and comprehensively, so why don't we pay enough attention to it? Why don't we cultivate ourselves well, stop the persecution with righteous thoughts, and know how to believe in Master?
I think about what Master has said and ask myself many questions. I figured out that I should just believe in Master, let go of my attachments, do the three things as Master requires, and return home. Nothing more.
Thank you, Master, for the opportunity for me to wake up and understand my own cultivation path. Every divine being should have their own path that they understand. When we identify the need, we should act. Anything based on the Fa is correct. So, in the future, when we face our sentient beings, we will have the ability.
I would like to share Master's Fa:
“But all the same, Master doesn’t acknowledge them. And you shouldn’t acknowledge them either. Do things well in an upright and dignified way, negate them, and strengthen your righteous thoughts some. “I’m Li Hongzhi’s disciple, I don’t want other arrangements or acknowledge them”—then they won’t dare to do that. So it can all be resolved. When you can really do that, not just saying it but putting it into action, Master will definitely stand up for you. What’s more, there are lots of Fa guardians around Master, there are lots of Buddhas, Daos, and Gods, and there are even greater beings, and they will all participate, because forced persecution that’s not acknowledged is a crime, and the cosmos’s old laws don’t allow it either—irrational persecution absolutely is not allowed, and the old forces don’t dare to do it if that is the situation. So you should do things as righteously as you can.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)
“No matter what, in this persecution, regardless of how much a Dafa disciple has been persecuted, what awaits a Dafa disciple is the most wonderful. That is because what's seen as "life" and "death" in the human world aren't true life and death for a being, so during this persecution however much a Dafa disciple has been persecuted, that's how much honor and glory he'll receive. ” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IV)
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