(Minghui.org) From an ordinary person’s perspective, I’m already middle-aged, as I was born in the 1980s. The reason I call myself a young practitioner is twofold. First, because I have practiced Falun Dafa since I was a child, I look much younger than people my age. Second, most local practitioners are in their 70s or 80s, and in their eyes, I am still a young man. They all call me a “young practitioner.”
I have practiced Falun Dafa since 1998. At that time, I was still a child and didn’t know much. I just read the Fa and did the exercises with my mother. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999, my mother was arrested and taken to a forced labor camp for going to Beijing to appeal. I lost my cultivation environment and gradually got lost in ordinary society.
My mother continued to practice diligently after she was released from the labor camp and returned home. With her help, I resumed cultivation, but I was not always diligent. Perhaps Master Li (Dafa’s founder) saw my cultivation state and was worried about me, so he arranged many opportunities for me to cultivate and improve.
About 12 years ago, the local practitioner who was in charge of making materials was arrested, and the materials production site was destroyed. Our supply of materials was gone. The local coordinator was very concerned, and he asked me if I could be responsible for re-establishing the site. At that time I was listening to the articles from the Mainland China Online Falun Dafa Conference that I downloaded from the Minghui website. I heard many practitioners talking about their experience in setting up a family materials production site, and I wanted to do it, too. Just then, the opportunity came. So I agreed without hesitating.
I had no experience in how to make Dafa informational materials, and there were very few local practitioners who knew how. So, I read articles from the Minghui website about starting up materials production sites. Guided by fellow practitioners, I found the “Materials Production Site Corner” on Minghui, and I also learned how to go to the Tiandixing Forum.
I am so grateful for the selfless dedication of the technical practitioners. They have produced such good and easy-to-understand tutorials for people like me who were a novice in this regard. Moreover, whenever I asked a question, I soon received many thoughtful and detailed responses from experienced practitioners. All these moved me so much that I felt that Dafa disciples are really one-body. Thus, I followed the steps outlined by other practitioners and built a materials production site from scratch.
Most importantly, Master gave me a lot of hints and help, and many amazing things happened. Once, I went to another region to buy supplies. Because I was not familiar with the area, I couldn’t find the market. Just when I was at a loss, a person approached me and asked me where I wanted to go. When I told him he said that he happened to be going there too, and I could come with him. When we finally got to the door of the market, just when I began to thank him, he had disappeared. I was surprised, but I later realized that this person must have been sent to me by Master.
Another time, the print head of a printer was having issues, causing the printer not to print colors correctly. I coordinated with another practitioner to make materials, and we tried many ways to correct the problem. The other colors became better, but the blue color was still not good.
We sat down and looked inward. Suddenly the other practitioner said, “Blue... Blue... Isn’t that laziness? Have you been more relaxed lately and have the attachment to ease and comfort?” [Translator note: The Chinese character for “blue” has a similar pronunciation as the character for “laziness.”] I felt a little embarrassed, and I admitted, “It has been getting cold lately, and I often couldn’t wake up early in the morning to do the exercises.” The other practitioner said, “Lately, you look tired and are always yawning. The attachment to ease is worse than poison. The more you sleep, the lazier you will become! Doing the exercises is the best form of rest!” I agreed. Going forward I was determined to get up early and do the exercises in the morning.
When we then turned on the printer and tried again, all the colors were fine. We looked at each other in amazement. The machine was fixed after we cultivated our xinxing. It was truly miraculous.
A few years ago, the local coordinator was arrested and illegally sentenced. Due to safety considerations, our materials production site had always been a single line of contact. Only three of us knew about it, among whom I was the technical support. A practitioner made the materials with me, and the coordinator distributed the materials to other practitioners. Even my mother didn’t know anything about it. After the coordinator was arrested, the materials began accumulating in the materials production site. The other practitioners could not get the materials to save people. Because of this situation, I had no choice but to do the coordinator’s work in addition to continuing to provide technical support.
I really didn’t want to take on this task, because I had an ordinary job, and I already spent almost all my spare time doing the technical work for the materials production site. Sometimes I even had to stay up all night to repair the machines. So I really didn’t have time or energy to coordinate and handle all the details. Also, I’m a very introverted person and not good at communicating with people. I was fine doing the technical work, but getting in touch with so many fellow practitioners and helping them resolve all sorts of conflicts was difficult for me. However, I couldn’t really push this work to the practitioner who was making materials. Because the materials production site was in his home, it would not be safe to have him distribute materials to the other practitioners.
In the end, I decided that if this was needed, I would do it no matter how difficult it was. Faced with the issue that I didn’t have enough time, I worked hard to improve my efficiency by planning ahead. I changed my usual sluggish style of doing things, and every day I worked at my full capacity. Because there were so many things to do and I was worried about missing something, I usually carried a memo with me to record the things to be done. Then, I arranged everything in the order of importance and urgency, scheduled the time to do them, and crossed out each item after I completed it.
My schedule was very tight and I often had to run instead of walk. I usually had notime to eat, so I bought buns and snacks and ate them on the way. If I still didn’t have enough time, I slept less. Now, I have gone from being in a hurry and feeling overwhelmed to the point where I can work very efficiently and get everything done. This is really amazing.
I still had difficulties communicating with other practitioners, and I encountered many xinxing tests. As each practitioner has different needs and a different cultivation state, I have to do things differently for each of them. Often there are sudden and unpredictable changes to the situations. During this process, I felt that the capacity of my heart was constantly expanding. In short, no matter what conflicts I encountered, even when I felt wronged, I always remember Master’s teaching:
“Don’t Argue
Don’t argue when people argue with youCultivation is looking within for the causeWanting to explain just feeds the attachmentBreadth of mind, unattached, brings true insight”(Hong Yin III)
Looking inward is really a magic tool for us. From the way other practitioners treated me, I found many of my own attachments, including the attachment to saving face, not wanting to take criticism, a show-off mentality, jealousy, a competitive mentality, and so on. I constantly tried to eliminate them. Thinking about it now, I am very grateful to those fellow practitioners who helped me improve my xinxing.
After the COVID outbreak at the end of 2019, most people were confined to their homes, and many cameras were installed on the streets. As a result, my usual way of clarifying the truth, which was distributing truth-clarifying materials, was limited. To be honest, among the three things that Master asks Dafa disciples to do, clarifying the truth has always been my weakest. Because of my introverted personality, I was never great at talking, and I was never able to make a breakthrough to directly clarify the truth to people on the phone. I made up my mind to get through this bottleneck and truly fulfill my mission.
The first time I made calls to clarify the truth I was so nervous that my hands and legs trembled. Although I read the manuscript countless times, my brain was blank and my speech was totally incoherent. As a result, either no one picked up the phone, or the person soon hung up. I knew that my state was not right. How could I save people if I was so nervous? I quickly adjusted myself, and silently asked Master for help, so that sentient beings would pick up the phones, listen to the truth, withdraw from the CCP and its youth organizations, and be saved.
When I made the next phone call, my tone was more stable. I greeted the person very kindly, and I asked about his current situation. He might have sensed my sincerity, so instead of hanging up the phone, he chatted with me like an old friend. He told me that he was in an area where the pandemic situation was very severe, so he was locked down at home. As soon as I heard that he was in a dangerous area, I truly felt worried for him, and I immediately told him not to be afraid, and that he could stay safe by withdrawing from the CCP.
I asked him if he ever joined any CCP organization. He said that he joined the Communist Youth League. I said, “I will give you a nice pseudonym to use to withdraw from the CCP’s organizations, Ji An, meaning that you will be safe. Will that be okay?” He immediately agreed. I was so excited that I almost shed tears. I was so happy for him from the bottom of my heart. I thanked Master for helping me and encouraging me!
With the first successful experience, I became much more confident in saving people. When I made phone calls again, my words were natural and peaceful, and the effect of saving people kept getting better. At most, I was able to help more than twelve people withdraw. But sometimes, my attachment to zealotry and a show-off mentality would show itself, and then I would immediately encounter people who did not want to listen to the truth, or even cursed at me. I realized that this was to remind me to look inward and cultivate myself to eliminate these human attachments.
Once, a very kind lady picked up the phone. At first, I chatted with her very well, and I thought that it would be easy to persuade her to withdraw. However, no matter what I said, she just would not agree to withdraw. She insisted that the CCP was good. She even kindly advised me not to say bad things about the CCP, since it would put me in danger. At the end, I went through all the talking points that I prepared, but I couldn’t change her mind.
After that phone call, I was extremely frustrated and sad. I looked inward, reflected on myself, and suddenly discovered that I was still indoctrinated by the CCP culture, and I didn’t have a thorough and clear understanding of the evil nature of the CCP. As a result, I failed to help people truly understand the wickedness of the CCP. I was very shocked after I realized this.
I calmed down and read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, Disintegrating Party Culture, and The Ultimate Goal of Communism. Although I had read many of these books, they were all distributed to ordinary people, and I had never read them thoroughly. This time, after carefully reading them, I felt that the barricade in my mind that prevented me from understanding the Fa was gradually disintegrating.
I was able to easily memorize Hong Yin VI, and I finally understood that atheism, the evolution theory, and modern concepts that Master repeatedly mentions in the poems are not just for ordinary people. It is also a very serious problem that affected Dafa practitioners.
Although I just started clarifying the truth by phone, I’ve felt my cultivation quickly improve. Many of my hidden human attachments were exposed, one after another. When someone asked me for money, I saw my desire for material interest. When someone asked me to find him a partner, I saw my attachment to lust. I saw my competitive mentality when something was said that I disliked. When someone was deeply indoctrinated by the CCP, I realized that the CCP indoctrination still affected my attitude.
Now, I have become more and more aware that I can better save people only by cultivating myself well, having a pure and peaceful mind, truly reaching a selfless state, and wholeheartedly thinking of the needs of others. Of course, compared with many practitioners, I am still far behind, and I have to sprint forward to catch up.
We really just need to have a wish to truly cultivate, and everything will be done by Master. Yet Master gives us all the glory. As an individual, we are incapable and weak, but when our hearts are filled with devout respect for Master and Dafa, and when we truly follow the requirements of the Fa in every thought, word, and action, the power of the Fa will be manifested in us, and we will be able to fulfill our sacred mission of assisting Master in Fa-rectification.
My level is limited. If anything is inappropriate, please kindly point it out.