(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am a doctor of Chinese medicine. I began practicing Falun Dafa in May 1996. Soon after I moved to England in late 1996, I opened a local Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic. In March 2020, due to the outbreak of the CCP virus (the coronavirus named after the Chinese Communist Party), the clinic had to close. It has been fifteen months since then. For me, it was a rare opportunity and it allowed me to dedicate most of my time to doing three things–like having an intensive training period–and almost every day I gained new insights.
Eliminating Fear Through Fa Study
In March 2020, the husband of the secretary at the treatment center I visited every Saturday died five days after he contracted the CCP virus. This news shocked all of us. We all felt that the virus and death were very close to us. This is a mysterious virus––its origin is unknown; its transmission route was multiple; and its virulence was fierce. Even though I am a doctor, I couldn’t explain with the basic theory of infectious diseases and knowledge of viruses that I had learned or do anything about it. Like everyone else, I was in a panic as well.
When I studied the Fa teachings one day, the sentence “one righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun) caught my eye. It went straight to my heart. I knew Master was reminding me not to be scared or panic. Fear was an attachment that I needed to overcome and eliminate.
Master told us:
“But a pandemic like the current Chinese Communist Virus (or “Wuhan Virus”) comes with a purpose behind it, and it has targets. It is here to weed out members of the Party and those who have sided with it.” (“Stay Rational”)
Master made it clear to us:
“You are not here to change history, but rather, to save people at this most dangerous time in history, by raising awareness, persuading people to withdraw from China’s three major communist organizations, encouraging people to sincerely say the magic words, and so on. All of these are the best medicine possible, the best way to rescue people—when people’s morals change, things will change for the better. The CCP is in its death throes and trying to harm people by causing pandemonium in the world. Dafa disciples should not allow themselves to get ungrounded by any of this. Stick to the fundamentals, and you will be able to see the upheaval that’s taking place in the proper light.” (“Stay Rational”)
By studying Master’s new scripture over and over again, the panic and fear dissipated. It also helped me understand the limitations of modern medicine. I understood the origin of the plague from the basis of the Fa teachings and how people should cope with it––the healing power of Dafa that can save people. Following what Master taught us, I called my friends and relatives in China and also clarified the truth to my clients and friends in England, and it worked very well.
Timely Reminder to Focus on Cultivation
Late last year, I received a text message from a fellow Western practitioner, saying that she had lent the book Zhuan Falun to her friend, who had recently moved and thrown the treasured book into the recycle bin, and that today was the day of the garbage collection. She asked me to go there and find the book. This was serious. I went straight to the address she gave me.
It was one of the row houses. I knocked on the door, but no one answered it. Obviously, whoever lived there had already moved out. As it was early in the morning and during the strict home quarantine period, I couldn't knock on the neighbors’ doors. I went to the back street and saw the garbage cans outside of each house to be collected. I couldn’t find the one I was looking for, number fifty-one. I saw someone across the street and asked for his help. While carefully maintaining social distance from me, he showed me an unmarked garbage can and said, “This might be it. Also you may need to pour things out to look.”
I opened the lid. It was full. I looked carefully and saw something blue. I reached my hand into it and grabbed it––it was what I was looking for! Seeing that the book was not damaged in any way, I was relieved. I knew Master helped me. I opened the book and saw Master’s smile. The man mentioned above also came over and looked at Master’s photo. I told him that the gentleman in the picture is the author of this book, our Master of Falun Dafa, who teaches us the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. This book has been translated into more than forty languages. I thanked the man again for helping me find this precious book.
When I mentioned this to a fellow practitioner, she asked why I was the one to come across this. I realized that I should look within. During that period, I was so preoccupied with the U.S. election that I spent much time reading the news and watching YouTube channels and I slacked off in Fa study.
From this point of view, I was the same as the people who did not know how to cherish Dafa books. The Internet is just like a garbage can, filled with fake news and corrupted things, but I dove into it with great interest and wasted lots of time.
Master reminded us:
“You must study the Fa well, for that is the fundamental guarantee that you return to your position.”
“If you don’t study the Fa well, there are many things you will not be able to do well.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
I enlightened to the fact that in this chaotic world, only Master’s teachings are right. Only by cherishing time and learning the Fa well can I be responsible for my own cultivation and for saving sentient beings. And yet, I wasted a lot of time indulging myself in ordinary people’s affairs.
I was determined to quit watching the news online and on TV and made sure I spent the time studying the Fa. When I was able to study the Fa teachings, I found that my heart became calmer and my head became clearer. At the same time, I overcame my fear of the difficulty in memorizing the Fa and started to do it.
Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts and Persevering in Doing Exercises
The first day when my clinic was closed, I extended my sending forth righteous thoughts each time to half an hour. I also did two hours of meditation and one and a half hours of the standing exercises.
When I passed the one-hour mark in sitting meditation, my legs began to have piercing pain. In particular, my right ankle felt as if it was being cut by a knife, and all ten toes felt as if they were being burned by fire. Tears and snot ran down my face. I knew it was a good opportunity to eliminate my karma. Master said, “When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun). It encouraged me to persevere. As time went on, the pain gradually shortened and the pain level diminished, and finally I broke through for two hours and no longer felt pain.
When I was able to meditate without pain, a fellow practitioner suggested that I videotape myself while sending righteous thoughts and doing the exercises. As a result, I saw myself sending righteous thoughts with a fallen palm. When I was holding the wheel in front of my head, my fingers were not aligned. And when I was doing the meditation, I actually fell asleep. I was ashamed. I made up my mind to do better.
When I sent forth righteous thoughts, I carried it out like a routine. I could not feel anything, so I did not trust my own ability. But I knew it is the fundamental issue of whether I believe in the Fa and Master or not.
Master told us:
“So you’re all clear on the purpose of Dafa disciples' sending righteous thoughts, which is mainly done to clean out the evil beings that control the human race and make it do evil against Dafa and persecute Dafa disciples and the world's people, and it’s to save the human race and sentient beings, and to clear out the obstacles to Fa-rectification that were set up. So it’s of utmost importance. No Dafa disciple can neglect this. Nor can you use any excuse to neglect sending righteous thoughts. That’s because if you don’t cleanse yourself well you won’t be able to do well yourself, and if you don’t cleanse yourself well you’ll also interfere with others.” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. III)
I found a series of teachings from Master about righteous thoughts, studied it and understood it better. I realized the importance of sending righteous thoughts from the Fa and improved the quality of it in action. I sent forth righteous thoughts more frequently whenever I had time.
After a period of sending forth righteous thoughts, I realized that as long as I could keep my posture straight and my mind focused and do everything according to the requirements, I would not doze off or drop my palm. I felt the energy enveloping me.
I often used the excuse that I have been cultivating for 25 years to cover up my attachments and seek comfort. I unconsciously cut corners, and it would attract interference from other dimensions. Now I have a deeper understanding that the accuracy of one’s exercise movements are not directly related to the length of one’s cultivation. Nor is it that once one knows the movements one will know them forever. We should take the exercise movements seriously and constantly examine whether we are doing them accurately––it’s also part of our mind cultivation.
Master taught us:
“The exercises are part of the harmonization and perfection in our Dafa. Dafa is thus a comprehensive mind-body cultivation system. It is also called “The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection.” Dafa requires both cultivation and exercises, with cultivation taking priority over the exercises. A person’s gong will not increase if he merely does the exercises and fails to cultivate his character. Meanwhile, a person who only cultivates his character but does not perform the exercises of the Great Way of Spiritual Perfection will find the growth of his gong strength impeded and his innate body (ben-ti) unchanged.” (The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection)
Doing the exercises means strengthening the various qi and mechanisms given to us by Master, which enables us to transform our own bodies and purifies our own spatial fields. It also enhances our gong power and energy to save all sentient beings. It was a good thing that I had the time to extend the time for doing exercises, but I also needed to pay attention to the quality. I could correct my movements quickly, but if my mind would not settle down, it proved to be hard to achieve tranquility. It has everything to do with my xinxing level. I should pay attention to solidly cultivating in order to improve on an overall level. I would often exercise in front of the mirror to check my movements and make sure they were accurate.
Seizing the Time to Spread the Truth
In June 2020, a fellow practitioner forwarded a notice from the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP and we realized that this was a reflection of Master’s Fa-rectification advancing at a rapid pace. We learned that practitioners in New York had been distributing the End CCP fliers for two months. We had to keep up and act quickly.
Afterward, I talked to several fellow practitioners in UK about this matter and learned that some of them had difficulty in reaching a consensus on the choice of words for the English translation of “demon.” Some said that the British public would not accept the word “demon” and should use “evil” instead; others said that there were already fliers with similar content and they were well accepted, so it would be good to keep distributing them. A fellow practitioner told me that the special edition of The Epoch Times is very comprehensive in clarifying the truth, so if I wanted to send out fliers about dismantling the CCP, it was better not to send the materials together.
This time, the notice from the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP came with a template, which provided convenience for us. The local practitioners and I decided not to wait, but to start printing the fliers ourselves and distribute them.
Interference Could Not Stop Me
After we distributed the fliers for about a month, when I inserted a flier into a mail slot on the door of a house one day, a big dog inside suddenly bit my right middle finger! It bit down hard and refused to let go. I was shocked and scared. I asked Master for help. I finally pulled my hand back. It looked awful and would not stop bleeding. I sweat profusely because of the excruciating pain.
My first thought was: “I am a Dafa disciple. I will be fine. I don’t need a rabies vaccine.” I repeated this thought, rejecting my tendency to judge things with the medical knowledge I had. I finished distributing fliers on the street that day.
When I got home, I immediately called a practitioner and told her that I was bitten by a dog and that I would not get a rabies shot. In fact, there were still unspoken words in my heart, that is, someone had to know about my situation just in case. Looking back now, my thought revealed that I did not have 100% faith in Master and the Fa. For that reason, my wound took time to heal.
I cleaned my hand with water and alcohol and wrapped up the wound with a bandage. Several days later, the scab formed but it still hurt badly. When I opened the bandage, I saw the area was red, swollen, and oozing yellow liquid. There was pus as well. It was infected. I went to my clinic, but I quickly left. I should not be manipulated by the old notions. “I am a cultivator. I believe in Master and the Fa. I will be alright.” I washed the wound with cold salty water and did not pay attention to it anymore. I realized it was caused by my unrighteous thoughts at the beginning and that I should not acknowledge the persecution forced on me by the old forces. The wound gradually healed.
I think the incident was an indicator that the old forces were interfering with our distribution of the End CCP fliers. Of course, the old forces always take advantage of our omissions to persecute or interfere with us. While negating the old forces, I have to look within.
Eliminating Attachments While Carrying Out Dafa Tasks
While distributing the fliers, we often met people who disliked the CCP, either after seeing how the CCP suppressed Hongkongers in the anti-extradition law protests, or after hearing about its forced organ harvesting and persecution of Falun Gong. Some said, “I agree very much with the content of the fliers and have already signed the petition.” Some said, “I like this. I will go to sign it online.” Others said, “You are doing a good job; you are very brave,” and so on.
At first, I saw people’s approval as encouragement from Master that I was doing the right thing and that I should keep doing it. But after hearing more praise, I started to think about some practitioners’ concern about the flyer and muttered in my heart, “Master is omniscient. Dafa is omnipotent. Who says this flier can’t save people? How can you say that this flier is not in line with the British public sentiment?” These thoughts reflected my attachment of elation, contentiousness, resentment, and self-righteousness.
Master said:
“A cultivator has no role models. The path each person is to take is different, because each person’s foundation is different, the sizes of their various attachments are different, the characteristics of their beings are different, their jobs among everyday people are different, their family environments are different, and so on. These factors determine that each person’s path of cultivation is different, that how they get rid of their attachments is different, and that the sizes of their tests are different. Therefore, amidst the manifestations of things it’s very hard to find a path that others have made, and it’s even less possible for a person to get a ride down one. If there really were pre-made paths and effortless rides, that definitely would not be cultivation.” (“Path,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I realized each Dafa practitioner is walking one’s own cultivation path, and everyone is busy saving people. No matter which version of the flier we use, they all can save people. We just need to support it with righteous thoughts and not judge things according to our own notions. These attachments are also mixed with the absolutist, one-size-fits-all CCP culture. When human thinking takes over our righteous thoughts, it will be exploited by evil to create trouble.
A Western practitioner and I persevered in distributing the fliers. We have now distributed over 90,000 End CCP fliers. During the distribution of the fliers, the coordinator of The Epoch Times told me that the special edition could be distributed together with the flyer. We did so, and the feedback was very good. Many people said they liked the special edition and others asked how they could subscribe to The Epoch Times.
Currently, there is a petition drive throughout the UK to stop the CCP’s live organ harvesting. We are sending both anti-organ harvesting and End CCP fliers together so that the British public can learn more about the truth and hopefully more people will choose to side with justice and kindness.
During the pandemic and stay-at-home period, I mostly went out to distribute informational materials after my morning exercises. In order to save time, I ate a simple breakfast while driving; I rushed back at noon, made truth-clarification calls to people in China, and then studied the Fa for the remaining time of the day. I was even busier than when I was at work, and it seemed like there was never enough time.
I know I have to fulfill my vow and responsibility as a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. I believe as long as I do the three things well, follow Master’s guidance and solidly cultivate myself, success is bound to be in sight.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(2021 International Online Fa Conference)
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