(Minghui.org) We are husband and wife Falun Dafa practitioners who were born and raised in Inner Mongolia. We’d like to share how we began to practice, and our experiences in cultivation.
When I was eight years old, I told my younger brother, “I will go to a Buddhist temple and become a monk when I reach age 13.” At the time I said so merely because I yearned to understand the truth of life. My whole family was shocked by what I said.
The first time I met my girlfriend (who later became my wife), she told me about Falun Dafa and to remember that it is a true Buddhist teaching that could be summarized in three words: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Her words opened my eyes, and I exclaimed, “These three words are the three best characters in the Chinese language!” I noticed that she carried herself differently from others. She was chaste and poised and respected herself even while living in this modern society. We did not have a sexual relationship before we got married.
A few months after we got married, I often got sick. Knowing that my wife never needed any medicine made me envy her. One day I read the book Zhuan Falun with her. It wasn’t easy because I speak Mongolian and my understanding of Chinese was limited.
In the winter of 2016 I read the Mongolian version of Zhuan Falun. My understanding of the teachings deepened, as the power of Falun Dafa manifests in all different languages. I started to experience many of the wonders of this cultivation practice.
Since childhood I’ve had questions such as, “Where did I come from, why am I here, and where am I going?” Sometimes I pondered these questions until late at night, and would cry bitterly when I believed that I’d be non-existent and forever lost after I died.
One summer I learned Falun Dafa, and understood many of the mysteries in life I couldn’t figure out. I felt so blessed. It took me two months to finish reading Zhuan Falun because I had to translate Chinese into Mongolian word by word. Reading one page took me two hours and I could only go through five pages a day. In the process, I experienced a few miracles. Often I’d find the exact word I was looking for in the dictionary on the first page I turned to. Sometimes every word in Zhuan Falun emitted golden rays. Gradually my Chinese improved and I could better understand the principles in the book. At the time, I remembered in my head which page had what content, and how many times a certain phrase appeared in the book and in what chapters. These abilities later disappeared.
I always believed that if I fail to abide by the Fa principles, my physical health would go wrong. For instance, when I spent too much time on the cell phone, or watched pornographic content, my crotch area would itch badly. I knew that I had a hidden attachment to lust and desire, and tried to eliminate this filthy notion.
I was very attached to material interests, especially my car, which I was careful to take very good care of. Many nights I woke up from nightmares, in which I lost my car, and I often felt ashamed of myself for being so concerned about such a trivial matter. This year my car constantly needed repairs and I knew that it was Master hinting at me to wake up from this attachment. Now I am able to slowly let go.
In terms of truth-clarification, I slowly eliminated the notion that “I don’t know how to tell people the truth about Falun Dafa face to face.” Whenever I get a chance, I talk about the phony, vicious and struggling nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I tell people that Falun Dafa is a righteous practice, and that quitting the CCP will bring them safety. I also make sure that they know that the CCP staged the self-immolation on Tiananmen Square in 2001. In recent years I have gained more confidence when talking to people about Falun Dafa, as more people are waking up to the CCP’s evil nature.
One night I suffered high fever and fatigue, and could barely get out of bed. I wasn’t a bit worried and played Master’s lectures all night. I had listened to five lectures before realizing it was time for me to make the morning tea. I told myself that I had to get up to make the tea, or my mother-in-law would think that I had COVID-19. This would prevent me from effectively validating the Fa and Dafa’s health benefits in front of her and other relatives and friends. Not wanting to deprive them of the chance of practicing Falun Dafa, I got out of bed without a problem. I felt no pain or discomfort. I experienced the power of righteous thoughts and the manifestation of Falun Dafa’s power. Now my mother-in-law tells everyone she knows, “My daughter-in-law was fine facing the vicious pandemic.”
In terms of the relationship between husband and wife, we are able to let go of the attachments to lust without much trouble. We know the Fa principles on this issue, and that if we held on to the filthy attachment, we wouldn’t be worthy of Master’s salvation.
During free time at work, I normally listen to the Fa lectures, memorize the Fa, or learn skills that can be used to clarify the truth. When I go on a business trip with a coworker, I stay in our hotel room in the evening and study the Fa, do the exercises, and send righteous thoughts after my colleague goes out. I then talk to the people in the hotel and expose the brutal persecution of the practitioners in China.
At the end of the day I often ask myself if I have done the three things and done them well. I try not to browse my phone and computer and waste time on videos and photos. As soon as we get home, my husband and I leave our phones inside a Faraday box for digital safety and security. My wireless is always turned off unless I need to get online. I pay attention to the online safety issues when using a cell phone, and use only cash for payments. I never have my phone with me when I go out to clarify the truth.
My child is a precious young practitioner whom Master entrusted to me to bring up and take care of. I will take the responsibility and make sure that he does not lose himself in the modern society.
Every time I had a new supervisor at work, I frankly told him that it wasn’t my wish to join the CCP in the first place, and that I didn’t want to be in any of the CCP members’ meetings. I said I’d rather spend time working on more meaningful things that benefit the company than doing superficial work. My supervisors agreed with me and had me attend few meetings. One time at a meeting my supervisor asked me a question in a CCP member’s meeting. I simply talked about my duties and how to improve my professional skills and how to be tolerant and work well with others. The word CCP never came up in my answer.
Every day I tried to wake up my coworkers’ conscience by talking to them about moral values. In the end I was able to go to their homes and deliver Falun Dafa fliers. I tried to remove everything about the CCP at the workplace, including burning the red scarfs, the CCP symbols, flags and books. I took the opportunity to tell people the evil nature of the CCP in order to eliminate the CCP’s ideology in their mind before I told them the truth of Falun Dafa.
There are many ways I use to clarify the truth, including distributing Falun Dafa fliers and talking to people face to face. I also collect phone numbers from commercials, paper notices, official documents, package wrappings, business cards, and notices on bulletin boards, and give them to other practitioners to call and further clarify the truth to them.
The people I talk to are of all races, ages, education levels, income levels, and occupations. No matter where I go, whether it’s work, friends’ homes, streets, public transportation, restaurants and supermarkets, I clarify the truth when I get a chance.
When I make a purchase, I give paper bills with the truth written on top. Sometimes I show the bills to people and clarify the truth to them. If they listen to me and have positive attitudes toward Falun Dafa, I’d let them have the paper bills. They often are happy to have them and carefully put them away.
Before my husband and I go out and clarify the truth to people, we first study the Fa and send righteous thoughts. Earlier on, the attachment to fear oftentimes emerged. We then focused on eliminating the attachment, knowing that after all, our final goal is to relinquish all notions, including life and death. Gradually, we were no longer afraid.
Sometimes conflicts between the two of us emerge because we insist on doing things our own way and refuse to work with each other. At one point our affection for our child started to interfere with us, and we began to worry about his future. When this occurs, we judge things based on Fa principles, and find and eliminate our attachments as soon as possible. The fewer human notions we have, the more smoothly we can clarify the truth.
We never forget the idea of “saving people” wherever we go. Things like long travel times, money spent, and difficulties in finding a place to stay, never bother us because our intention is to save people. When we do things with pure hearts, there is no place for the old forces to exist. We have accumulated many precious experiences in clarifying the truth over the years.
Sometimes we become lazy and do not want to work hard. As a result we doze off when studying the Fa, slack off in doing the exercises, and lose focus when sending righteous thoughts. At times we lie to cover our mistakes, and have strong attachments to resentment, fighting, and jealousy. We sometimes can be crafty, extreme, and bossy. We fail to treat our family members as sentient beings to save and are not compassionate. There are also the attachments to self interest and fame, not wanting to be corrected and admit our faults, feeling superior to others, and liking to play with our cell phones. We still have many things that require improvement, but we continue on with rectifying our actions as we cultivate ourselves.