(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
While the CCP virus (the coronavirus named after the Chinese Communist Party) was raging across the world in the summer of 2020, I started my graduate studies at one of the campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY), majoring in public administration. I would like to share some of my cultivation experience since then.
Exposing the CCP Infiltration in US Universities with Strong Righteous Thoughts
Once, while reading a notice on the campus bulletin board, I became aware of the Confucius Institute set up on our campus by the external propaganda agency of the CCP. The so-called Confucius Institutes around the world try to promote the CCP’s propaganda and influence the educational sector through cultural infiltration. However, they have met with strong resistance in many places in recent times.
I took a quick look at the notice, which said that the Confucius Institute would invite a certain Buddhist master to introduce traditional Chinese culture, and that this master is an expert on Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and various metaphysical theories.
I remembered what Master said in “Zhuan Falun,”
“In addition, many monks interpret the Buddhist scriptures from their own perspectives. Even the scripture of the Lady Queen Mother has found its way into temples. Many things that are not Buddhist classical materials have also entered temples, making these places quite chaotic and messy now.” (Lecture Five, Zhuan Falun)
I thought: Since this so-called master is a Buddhist monk, how can he also be an expert on Confucianism and metaphysical stuff? Isn’t this messing up traditional Chinese culture?
So I thought of writing a memo to the university management, explaining the background of the CCP’s external propaganda through Confucius Institutes, and to make a suggestion to the university president to remove the Confucius Institute from our campus. Then I thought: The CCP usually pays an enormous amount of money to a university in exchange for setting up a Confucius Institute on their campus. Would the university leadership listen to what I say? Also, as a new student, would I be retaliated against by the Confucius Institute? As I was thinking this way, a line of Master’s teaching came to my mind.
Master said,
“Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy.” (“Rationality,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Guided by Master’s teaching, I thought: Confucius Institutes as part of the CCP’s external propaganda system are exporting the CCP’s party culture and poisoning people with lies. If I fail to tell the truth to the university management, the faculty, staff, and students, wouldn’t it be as bad as hiding the truth and condoning the evil? So I decided to draft a policy memo to the university.
After some research, I found that New York State has the most Confucius Institutes in the United States––as many as ten––and more than half of them are located on campuses. This shows just how extensively the CCP has infiltrated New York State. At the same time I became a little worried about whether it would affect me adversely as a student if I wrote the memo. Still, I decided to go ahead with it.
For about a month, I collected research papers and relevant research reports on Confucius Institutes. With abundant evidence, I wrote a policy memo, using the knowledge and skills I had just learned from my course in public administration.
I explained with facts that Confucius Institutes function as the CCP’s external propaganda agency, exposed the CCP’s evil nature and crimes in destroying traditional Chinese culture and persecuting the Chinese people, as well as the CCP’s recent suppression of Hong Kong democracy and its long and ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. More importantly, I pointed out that relevant research confirms that Confucius Institutes are actually carrying out the CCP’s policy of violating freedom of speech and belief outside of China. I called for the university leadership to remove the Confucius Institute.
When writing the memo, I shared with local fellow practitioners, and they all agreed that such a memo was very important and significant in disintegrating the lies and infiltration of the evil CCP specter in the local area. Many practitioners began to support me by sending righteous thoughts to disintegrate the evil factors behind the Confucius Institute.
I submitted the memo to the university president around mid-October via email. On the weekend after I sent the memo, I developed symptoms of karma elimination and coughed badly. I had never experienced anything like this before.
On Monday, I received an email from the graduate admission office all of a sudden. They asked me to submit evidence of a bachelor’s qualification certificate, saying the documents I submitted earlier were insufficient, and the required supplementary document must be submitted within two weeks. Otherwise my registration as a graduate student would be cancelled.
My heart started to throb as I was reading the email. My mind was engulfed by fear. I was fearful of losing my student status, and worried that all my learning and hard work for nearly two months would all end up in vain. I was even more worried that I might not be able to obtain a copy of my bachelor’s degree certificate since it was awarded to me back in China. I worried whether the school staff members would help me, given the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners there.
I quickly realized that the situation was only a false appearance, created by the old forces that took advantage of my fear. I thought: Everything about me was arranged by Master [Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong], and Master is in charge. The old forces are not worthy of getting involved and even less of testing me. With this thought in mind, I immediately sent forth strong righteous thoughts to dissolve all the interference and persecution by the old forces. Very soon, my mind calmed down and my heartbeat was back to normal, but the symptoms of karma elimination were still there.
In the evening, I shared what happened to me with fellow practitioners during group Fa study. To my surprise, two other practitioners also developed similar symptoms of karma elimination. Through sharing, we came to the understanding that it was interference to us as one body as we worked together to clean up the evil factors behind the Confucius Institute. We decided to continue sending forth righteous thoughts as one body and completely deny the old forces’ arrangement.
I called the admission office the next day and asked what specific supplementary documents were needed. A staff member explained why the documents I had submitted earlier were not sufficient and I needed to provide more supporting documents. What she said suddenly reminded me that when I first arrived in the United States many years ago, an agency helped me contact my university back in China, and they might still have what I needed now.
I contacted that agency and they had indeed kept my file with the supporting documents now required. I ordered the documents and told the admission office they would be mailed to the office shortly. I was extremely grateful for Master’s arrangement and blessing! I kept up with sending righteous thoughts intensively and soon all the abnormal symptoms in my body disappeared. The required documents also arrived on schedule.
A week later, I received an email from the dean of faculty saying that he was entrusted by the president to get back to me about the Confucius Institute. He didn’t mention what I said in the policy memo, but symbolically repeated the general content and regulations of the Confucius Institute, insisting that these things met the standards that the university had always followed. I could feel that the evil elements behind them had been cleaned up to a large extent.
I sent a reply to the dean, reminding him kindly that the CCP is a totalitarian system that suppresses democracy and freedom of speech and thought, and that we need to remain vigilant as the CCP is using Confucius Institutes to distort history, spread the CCP’s evil ideology, and abuse human rights.
Although I haven't received any further reply from the university management since then, activities organized by the Confucius Institute have drastically reduced. During the spring semester of this year, no events were held by the Confucius Institute. I am very clear that we still have much to do in exposing the evil and clarifying the truth, and only Dafa can guide us to walk that path righteously.
Validating the Goodness of Dafa during Internship in a Government Agency
In January this year, the university forwarded an advertisement for a policy research assistant intern position in the Department of State of New York State. I submitted my resume, together with a self-recommendation letter, and I received notice for an interview shortly. A week after the interview, I received a letter of acceptance. At that time I was also waiting for another senior research assistant internship opportunity, as that position offered better pay. I wasn’t quite sure if I should accept the offer by the Department of State. But after two more letters from the department requiring an urgent reply, I accepted the offer, thinking that I should just go with the flow.
I worked part-time as a research assistant for the Department of State beginning in February while attending classes. Although most of the work for government departments was handled online, the workload and time required remain the same. I was pretty busy with online meetings, email communication with other departments, making phone calls, and writing work reports, etc. As a result, I had to cut short my sleep at night to keep up with the internship work and my university studies. As I needed to stay up late at night, I had to adjust my morning exercise time, and very often I had to do the five sets of exercises separately whenever I could during the day.
Master said in Zhuan Falun,
“In terms of conducting scientific research projects or carrying out assignments from our supervisors or other duties, we are very clear-minded and perform them very well.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
I kept Master’s teaching in mind and made sure that I always completed the tasks assigned to me in time, and with high quality. Sometimes I also put forward new ideas to enhance efficiency. My supervisor always appreciated and affirmed my initiatives. Once, he entrusted me with drafting an important report and also invited me to join a review team for government bidding projects.
At the end of my three-month internship, the supervisor asked me if I could extend my work for another three months. I knew that the reason I performed so well was that Dafa gave me wisdom and enabled me to perform well with full spirit and extraordinary physical strength in every task assigned to me. My performance also won the trust of my supervisor. During my internship, I often had opportunities to clarify the truth to my supervisor and colleagues about Falun Dafa and share the benefits I have enjoyed in Dafa cultivation. I also told them about the CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
At a meeting to discuss the immigration policy of New York State, I talked about a Chinese student studying in the United States. His parents were illegally arrested and persecuted by the CCP in China last year for practicing Falun Dafa. He was unable to contact his parents and lost his source of income as a result. After the meeting, I shared a video produced by NTDTV about the student with my colleagues, which made a profound, positive impact.
In April of this year, with the assistance of several fellow practitioners, I produced a video showing the “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition,” accompanied by a beautiful piece of erhu playing as background music. The video was published on the university official website as part of my participation in the university’s annual students’ conference.
During the conference, I sent the link to the “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition” to my colleagues and supervisor at the Department of State. All of them, including the supervisor who had seen the art exhibition, sent me messages expressing their admiration of the beautiful and touching art works and the music, and that they were deeply moved by the stories in the paintings. The supervisor also suggested that they should let more colleagues know about the exhibition so that more people would appreciate and benefit from it.
At the end of April, someone mentioned a medical research report, which talks about the benefits of Falun Dafa in the prevention and treatment of CCP virus infection. I found the report, forwarded it to some colleagues and encouraged them to read the report. My colleagues responded very quickly and forwarded the report to more people in their group. A number of my colleagues wrote back to me immediately, saying they hope they could start practicing Falun Dafa right away. One of the colleagues also searched on the Internet and found a video of Falun Dafa exercise teaching. He then asked two other colleagues to learn the exercises from the video in a park near where they live.
Elevating Xinxing from Memorizing the Fa
From last October, due to my heavy study load and conflicting schedules, I have changed the way of my Fa study, from attending group Fa study to memorizing Zhuan Falun on my own. As I often stayed up late at night, I also wake up at different times, but no matter when I get up, I always make sure to spend one to two hours memorizing Zhuan Falun after doing the exercises. I do not focus on how much I can memorize, but try to keep every single word, including punctuation marks in my heart. Sometimes I can memorize more than one page at a time, and other times, just a short paragraph.
I found that the process of memorizing the Fa is a process of cultivating xinxing, a process of continuously immersing myself in the Fa and being enlightened and blessed by Master. I could enlighten to some new understanding about Fa principles almost every time I recite the Fa, and at the same time I could also realize the attachments I still have, and feel the joy of letting go of them through cultivation. While memorizing the Fa, I also experienced the immeasurable compassion and immense power of our Master. Very often, while reciting the Fa, I could feel bad substances disappearing fast from my body as Master was taking them away.
Since I started memorizing the Fa, I found I can look inward more consciously when encountering problems in daily life and cultivate xinxing. For example, I realized that I was harboring deep resentment towards my father for a long time. I grew up in mainland China, and what I remembered most clearly was how harshly my father beat my mother and abused us. After my mother and I started cultivating in Dafa, my father often interfered with us, especially after the CCP started persecuting Dafa disciples in 1999. He even tried to force my mother and me to give up Dafa cultivation.
My mother passed away while I was in illegal detention. Her death left a deep shadow in my heart. I thought that my father’s interference was partly responsible for what happened to my mother. As a result, I harbored deep resentment towards him in my heart. Even after living overseas for many years, I still rejected my father subconsciously and didn’t want to have much to do with him.
His health has degenerated in recent years, and each time I talked with him on the phone, I just clarified the truth to him in an imperative tone with little compassion, telling him to recite “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I told him that I hope he could abide by Dafa so that he could benefit, but with very little effect.
Earlier this year, a family member who lives with my father send me an email, telling me my father’s Parkinson’s disease was seriously affecting his daily life, and asked if I could find some better medication for his treatment in the United States. As usual, I simply replied: I will, but the two phrases I told him to recite is the best cure.
I never felt uneasy when I replied in this manner in the past, and I never seriously looked for medication for him. I always thought: Dafa is the best, and the two precious phrases can bring about a special effect. What’s the point of seeking other medications. If you don’t listen to me, then go with the evil party... But this time, I felt that there was something wrong – I showed no compassion towards my father! Even if it were a stranger who asked me for help, I would not have responded the way I did!
Master said in “Zhuan Falun”,
“Of course, while cultivating in ordinary human society, we should be good to our parents and look after our children. Under all circumstances, we must be good and kind to others, not to mention our family members. We should treat everyone in the same way. We must be good to our parents and children and be considerate of others in all respects. Such a heart is thus unselfish, and it is a heart of kindness and benevolence—it is compassion.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
Suddenly, I realized there was not only a lack of compassion from me towards my father, but I also bore resentment towards him and had an attachment of self-protection. Slowly, I started to rethink my father. I realized that my father wasn’t truly against Dafa, as I remember he once said to me “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
As an ordinary person, he was only worried about being persecuted by the CCP. So he behaved unrighteously from time to time, out of self-protection. He could be a respectable precious being with kind nature, had there been no external interference and pressure. Suddenly, I felt deep regret that I had failed over the years to clarify the truth to my father from my heart, due to my own resentment and wrong notions. At the same time, I felt so grateful that Master helped me enlighten to my true self with Fa principles, so that I could discern that resentment, selfishness and wrong notions were all part of my acquired false self. To me, the process of memorizing the Fa is like a process of peeling off one’s false self and finding the true self.
Conclusion
Thank you Master for your compassion and salvation! I am extremely honored to become a Dafa disciple when Dafa is spreading far and wide, and to fulfill my prehistoric vow to assist Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings. I very much cherish every day that Master has given us at enormous sacrifice to himself. I’m also deeply grateful that I can continue to study on the university campus now.
In the early morning of Chinese New Year's Eve on February 11 this year, in my dream, I paid a visit to Master together with many fellow Dafa disciples. When Master came near me, he asked “I have something to teach you, would you like to learn from me?” “Yes I would!” I replied loudly without hesitation.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
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