(Clearwisdom.net) I began to study the Fa in 1995 and have understood the true importance of Fa study through all these years.
Master said,
"As a student, if his mind is filled with nothing but Dafa, this person is definitely a genuine cultivator. So you must have a clear understanding on the matter of studying the Fa. Reading the books more and studying the books more is the key to truly elevating yourself. To put it more simply, as long as you read Dafa, you are changing; as long as you read Dafa, you are elevating. The boundless content of Dafa plus the supplementary means—the exercises—will enable you to reach Consummation. Group reading or reading by yourself is the same." ("Melt Into the Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
Master said,
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Master said,
"…shouldn't use any pretexts to conceal your not reading the books or studying the Fa. Even if you do work for me, your Master, you still need to study the Fa every day with a calm mind and cultivate yourself solidly." ("Towards Consummation" Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Master mentioned the importance of Fa study in many of his lectures.
Whether one can maintain firm righteous thoughts, whether one can eliminate human notions, whether one can understand the Fa from the standpoint of the Fa when facing the evil persecution, going through life or death sickness karma, facing the test of giving up the attachment to sentimentality, or experiencing different tribulations and interference; all of these depend on how well one studies the Fa.
If one has built a firm Fa-study foundation and can calmly study the Fa every day, no matter how busy one gets, one will be able to maintain righteous thoughts and righteous actions, negate the old forces’ arrangements and prevent the evil from taking advantage in tribulations. If Fa study is not placed in the foremost position, and one can’t study the Fa diligently every day, no matter how much work one does for Dafa, one's cultivation realm and level wouldn’t ascend.
Master has incorporated everything into this Fa, from the very beginning of being a good person to cultivating to beyond the Three Realms, and to a very high level. That is why genuine cultivators should keep on cultivating solidly, continuously study the Fa and be strict with themselves to assure their constant improvement. If one lacks daily diligent Fa study, one will not be able to maintain a determined mind during tribulations, and the brutal, evil persecution. One wouldn’t be able to easily let go of attachments. One would still use human notions to view any issues. The tribulations and challenges would be tougher and last longer. One could even end up complaining about Master not helping.
Master is only protecting true Dafa practitioners during this persecution. He protects those who have righteous thoughts and actions. The firm belief in Master and Dafa all comes from the Fa; it is our cultivation compass. Dafa is the power source of our righteous thoughts and actions. Below, I would like to share my experiences with fellow practitioners.
1. Sickness Karma
I was physically weak before I began practicing Falun Dafa. I often caught cold. I had tracheitis and coughed for 16 years. I suffered from hemorrhoids and also took many medicines, but none of them helped that much. In June of 1995, I was fortunate to be introduced to Dafa. I strictly follow the Fa principles as a Dafa practitioner. I feel that my view of the world has changed. All my illnesses disappeared without me even realizing it. I now feel great, illness-free.
In October of 1995, a few months after I had begun Fa study, I suffered from a very bad toothache. Half of my face was swollen. I couldn’t open my mouth. When I tried to eat, I had to use chopsticks to squeeze food into my mouth. I didn’t realize it was sickness karma. I went to the hospital and took some medicines and got injections. Later on, through further Fa study, no matter how bad my sickness karma became, I always maintained firm righteous thoughts. The worst sickness karma was my hemorrhoids experience in 1998, bleeding badly at each bathroom use. It lasted for two weeks. I was weak but I didn’t slack off on Fa study and practicing the exercises. After 20 days like that I started thinking, "How much blood can a human being have?" I was a little nervous from that much blood loss.
Later when I studied the Fa more; I clearly understood Master's words:
"Why does a new student who has just begun studying the practice, or a veteran student whose body has been adjusted, experience physical discomfort in his cultivation, as though he were seriously ill? And why does this happen once in a while? I told you in my Fa lectures that this is to eliminate your karma and to improve your enlightenment quality while eliminating the karma from your different previous lives. Besides, this is also to test whether you are determined in following Dafa; this will continue until your cultivation reaches Beyond-Triple-World-Law. This is putting it in general terms." ("Sickness Karma" in Essentials for Further Advancement)
I firmly believe in Master’s Fa and realized it was sickness karma. Purifying the body is a good thing. So I let go of the fear. The bleeding stopped after a month. I recovered completely within ten days. I felt full of energy again.
2. Stepping forward to Validate Dafa
On September 30, 2000, I took some truth-clarification materials and a letter I had written to clarify the truth about Falun Gong, and went to Beijing. At 6:00 a.m. on October 1, 2000 I put the materials on benches, stone tables and public phones in a park. I then went to Tiananmen Square with my letter. I had a sense of responsibility to the country and wanted to tell people the truth about Falun Gong. I was not afraid of arrest. I thought I could use this opportunity to clarify the truth to them.
Several other practitioners and I were illegally arrested and sent to a place where there were soldiers and policemen. While we were inside, several reporters came to videotape us. I took out the letter I had written and handed it to a reporter. He videotaped the letter as well. Later on the officials sent us to the Hebei Province Liaison Office in Beijing.
We weren’t frightened at all. Wherever we went, we clarified the truth. That night, more than ten Dafa practitioners from different areas were handcuffed to heating pipes. The next morning at 5:00 a.m. I was thinking that it would be so nice if I could open my handcuffs to go to the bathroom and wash my face. Right then, my handcuffs opened! I was surprised and happy. I didn’t know that this was due to miraculous power. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. It wouldn’t have been difficult to leave that place. But there was another practitioner with me who had never left home before. I didn’t want to leave him behind. So after I washed my face I returned and put the handcuffs back on, not locking them tight. I could open them anytime.
The police took us back to the local detention center. During an interrogation, the police wanted us to admit that it was I who organized all six of us to go to Beijing, so they could sentence me. I had not organized this! Everyone just went there on his/her own to clarify the truth and to validate Dafa. I remember that three policemen had tortured me that day, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They first made me lean my head against a wall. My feet were two feet from the wall. They took turns to kick my back, bottom and neck. When they got tired they found a more brutal way: they placed a small stone in between my head and the wall, which made me suffer more.
No matter how badly they tortured me, I never cooperated with them. I firmly believed that we weren’t wrong. We merely wanted to clarify the truth and validate Dafa in Beijing. We had not committed any crime. I only had one thought at the time: I wouldn’t say anything against Dafa, even if I had to die.
After a while they let me sit on a chair. One of the police sat in front of me holding a wooden board, one foot long, one inch wide. He was calling Master’s name and ordered me to curse Master. He said this so many times. I refused to do so. Every time I said no, he slapped my face with the board until the board broke. He was furious and said, "I don’t think I can’t straighten you out. I will look for a stick." He found an eight-centimeter-diameter stick, one meter long. He made me put my head against the wall again. The abusers took turns beating me with that stick. One policeman said, "He might be using his power. There is no way for an ordinary person to endure this."
The policemen were tired. I also pretended that I couldn’t stand it any more and lay on the floor. They pulled me up again after they had rested. One of them put that stick on my toes and put his whole weight on the stick. After that, he put the stick on a different part of my feet and pushed it. After more than five hours of torturing me, they still had not reached their goals. It was already 1:00 p.m. and they were hungry. So they stopped the evil torment.
Fellow practitioners cried when they saw me. I didn’t feel as much suffering as I described. Although they hit me really hard on my face with that board, I didn’t feel any pain. The board was broken, but my face was not red or swollen. When they pushed the stick on my feet, I didn’t feel any pain, either. Only the back of my legs showed some marks. I knew that Master was protecting me! Without Master’s protection, if it were just an ordinary person, even if he didn’t die, he would have bruises or broken bones and have swelling all over the body. Returning to my cell, I told the three practitioners that I felt that Master was right by us and protecting us. I was happy about it.
I cried when I was reading Master’s lecture, "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005." Master said,
"Even though gods were protecting them and Master was watching over and protecting them, while being persecuted could the Dafa disciples truly have righteous thoughts and righteous actions like gods? Making it through depends on one's own steadfast righteous thoughts and firm belief in Dafa. Master can take on the suffering for you, and I can even bear the pain in your place, but can you position your mind in a righteous way when under such cruel and harsh pressure?" ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005")
I only realized then that Master was protecting me. I didn’t know how much Master suffered for me. Recalling the experience, I didn’t really do anything great. I did what a Dafa practitioner was supposed to do.
3. Walking with Dignity Out of the Brainwashing Center under Master's Protection
On September 26, 2001, I was at work. The County Political and Judiciary Committee Secretary and a group of people took me to the so-called "Law Education Center" – a brainwashing center.
Master said,
"Those who do the so-called "reform" work, too, are people who have been deceived. Why not turn the tables and expose the evil and clarify the truth to them? I suggest that all students who they are trying to forcefully reform (this excludes those who haven’t been taken away for reform) expose the evil and clarify the truth to those people who are doing the reform work, and tell them about the cause and effect relationship of "good and evil always have consequences." It is the evil that is afraid of people knowing the truth of the situation, not Dafa disciples." ("A Suggestion" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I think this Fa lecture was specifically for the Dafa practitioners who are illegally arrested and held in brainwashing classes, detention centers, forced labor camps, prisons, etc. I think the effect of clarifying the truth in these places is usually better than clarifying truth to people outside. First of all, after the human beings understand the truth, they won't be eliminated when the Fa rectifies the human world. Secondly, it will help create a relatively relaxed environment for the incarcerated practitioners and alleviate the persecution. So, I actively clarified the truth and exposed the media's slanders and the defamation of Master and Dafa.
Once, six persecutors came to my cell, formed a half circle around me, started attacking me verbally and tried to "reform" me. At first I kept silent and just quietly listened. The reason I listened carefully was so I could clarify the truth, using facts to contradict their points. After a while I asked them, "How many of you have read Zhuan Falun?" They said, "We don’t read that." I said, "Then, only I can speak of what the book Zhuan Falun is about and what Falun Dafa truly is." I continued, "Falun Gong is in fact a Buddha cultivation practice. In Falun Gong practice one has to first become a good person. Progressing from being a good person to becoming a selfless, noble enlightened being would require one to strictly follow the principles of ‘Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.’ Our Master says if one assimilates into the principles of the universe one then becomes a good person. If one is going against the principles of the universe, then one becomes a bad person. Our Master said,
"if every one of us cultivates his inner self, examines his own xinxing to look for the causes of wrongdoing so as to do better next time, and considers others first when taking any action, human society would become better and ethical standards would again rise. The spiritual civilization would also become better, and so would public security. Perhaps there would not be any police. No one would need to be governed, as everyone would discipline him or herself and search their inner self. Wouldn’t you say this would be great?" ("Lecture Nine" in Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)
One person said, "Your Master tries to collect money." I said, "Don’t be deceived by the media propaganda. It is all slander and framing. Our Master not only does not collect money, but also selflessly gives all he has to the sentient beings. I know that Master gave three speeches during the 1993 Health Exhibition. He donated his income from one of the exhibitions to the Upholding Justice and Saving People in Danger Foundation." Another person said, "He made money by selling books." I smiled, "The cost of books similar to Zhuan Falun is usually priced double or several times more than that of Zhuan Falun. Furthermore, the bookseller makes money. What does any of this have to do with our Master? All our Master got was the author’s remuneration he was supposed to get."
Somebody else said, "It was an illegal publication." I told them, "Zhuan Falun was published by the China TV Broadcasting Agency Publishing Company and was distributed by Xinhua Book Stores all over the country. It has its official ISBN. It was once listed as one of the top ten best selling books. Are you really aware of this? These are all facts. You are all knowledgeable people and you should use your own analytical skills. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda. During the Cultural Revolution, Leader Liu Shaoqi was brought down as 'Traitor, Spy and Turncoat.' They said they had irrefutable evidence. But everyone now knows what was really going on then."
Through continuous truth clarification, the persecutors began to understand Falun Gong in a positive light. A staff member told me specially they all liked to chat with me. One night the deputy head of the brainwashing center brought his wife and child to my cell to listen to the truth. They could not understand certain things and asked me some questions. I answered them one by one. Another day one of the staff members gave me a paper and pen and said, "If you write a guarantee statement and give up practice, we’ll let you go home. After you leave you can continue to practice as you wish. Don’t be so narrow-minded."
I was thinking, "I have been using my mouth to clarify the truth all these days. Now you are giving me paper and pen. Isn’t this a good opportunity for me to write the truth? Isn’t this negating the old forces’ arrangements and walking the path Master arranged for me?" I wrote about how Master asks us to be good persons and how my health had improved and how my mind became purified after practicing Dafa. When they read it they said, "This isn’t what we told you to write. If you don’t follow the requirements, we can’t let you go home."
From then on I started a two-day protest hunger strike. I didn’t eat or drink for two days. I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Later I changed my mind, thinking I should do something I’m supposed to do instead of ruining my health like this. So the third night, I escaped from the brainwashing center, even under close watch.
Although I escaped from the brainwashing center, I couldn’t go home. We were building a new house at that time. My being detained had made the construction stop. I found a place and read all of Master’s lectures several times. After 40 days of wandering outside, a brainwashing center deputy head and another staff member went to my home and said to my wife, "If you can find him, call him back. He can go to the center to explain, and then we’ll let him go. You should finish building your house." My wife told me about it. I knew that those two people had some understanding of the truth of Falun Gong and knew that practitioners are good people. So I decided to meet with them. After I went there, both of them said, "We’ll make sure they let you go once you talk to them." I said, "Fine. I will go. But I have one condition. They can’t ask me to write any statement or anything." They agreed. I returned to the brainwashing center.
Upon arriving there, I found that matters were not up to those two. The brainwashing center head said, "Because of you, our leaders in the city almost dismissed me. The night you left we were looking for you the whole night without getting any sleep." I said, "But you should think of me, too. We are building a new house. There are many things waiting for me to be done. I have been busy at work, too. Why did you abduct me and bring me here for no reason?"
I had to figure out a way for myself. One person said, "It wasn’t us who called you over. It was someone from your township." A person from the Political Security Section came to take me to the second floor. All of the brainwashing center staff members took turns to persuade me. They used all their techniques to make me write a statement. Finally, they ran out of ideas and said they could write it for me and have me sign my name.
Master asks us to never cooperate with the evildoers' requirements, commands or requests. No matter how they threatened me – sentencing me or sending me to a forced labor camp, I maintained my firm faith. I thought, "Even if you shoot me, I would never cooperate!"
The Township Political and Judiciary Committee secretary was the last one to appear. He put down a paper and a pen and said, "If you don’t write it, we will send you to a forced labor camp for three years." He then left. After a while he returned and changed his attitude. He said casually, "It is too late tonight. It is not safe [on the streets] to go home this late. You can go tomorrow." I said that I was not afraid and told him, "It is up to you whether or not you let me go." He left again after I said that. At last he came back and said to go downstairs to meet with the center head one last time. When I went downstairs, all the staff members were standing in the yard, including the director. I said, "Sir, anything else you need? If not, I’m leaving now." He said, "Nothing. You can go home now!" Before I went out of the gate, they said, "When your child gets married, give us a call. We'll wait for the marriage feast." I said, "Sure. I will!"
Conclusions
These experiences made me truly realize that if we Dafa practitioners would really maintain righteous thoughts and righteous actions, firmly believe in Master and Dafa, Master will be able to do everything for us!
The power and wonders of Dafa will reflect on us. Without a good foundation from studying the Fa, it would be very difficult to achieve this.
I pay great attention to Fa study. Every time I read the Fa, I feel as if Master is talking in person. I mainly focus on Zhuan Falun. I also study Master’s lectures, particularly the lectures after July 20, 1999. Reading the "Minghui Weekly" is also important. It helps present us with fellow practitioners' understandings for our cultivation. I read almost every edition of the Minghui Weekly and all articles in each edition. Finally, I would like to remind fellow practitioners who haven’t been paying enough attention to Fa study: it is critically important to study the Fa calmly and diligently if we want to do well the three things Dafa practitioners are supposed to do.
