(Clearwisdom.net) I am a fairly new Dafa practitioner, as of 2003. Four years of cultivation in such troubled times. I continue purifying myself and remain on the right cultivation path Master has arranged for me. I am reveling in Master's infinite Buddha grace that encourages me.
1. Beginning the Practice
I had missed several opportunities to practice the cultivation prior to the onset of the persecution on July 20, 1999. I was not aware of the opportunity to see Master when he was originally in town giving Dafa lectures only a mile from my house.
As of 2002, my poor health, which I had suffered with from a young age, was getting worse. I frequently caught a cold or had fever. I had habitual headaches, stomach aches, anemia, sensitive skin, asthma, and other illnesses. I became a frequent hospital visitor and took large quantities of medicine, as if I was eating a meal.
At that time my brother visited for a while. He had practiced cultivation since 1997 and had been arrested three times and detained twice since July 20, 1999. He escaped arrest the third time with the power of righteous thoughts. Every day he would help me with our daily meal and tell me about the miracles practitioners experienced. As a child I loved to read novels with stories of miracles, and I decided it would be better if I could practice Falun Dafa. The other practitioners had cultivated for so many years, and I thought I might not have enough time to practice to return to my origins. But it would be worth it if I could become even a little angel. With these motivations, I had my brother teach me the five set of exercises. I read Zhuan Falun. As a result, my health got better and better.
2. Overcoming family interferences
My husband had a short temper and was strongly opposed to my practice. He would have a fit every time, but I would kindly attempt to tell him the facts about the CCP-arranged Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation farce and the persecution of Master and practitioners. However, every time he would stop me after I had spoken only one or two sentences. He was furious. No matter how he scolded me I could bear it. But when he started scolding Master and Dafa, I could not control myself. I sobbed and ran into the other room and faced Master's portrait. I felt wronged and thought of what Master said:
"In the course of cultivation practice many of you will find that when practicing qigong, your spouses will often become very unhappy. As soon as you begin the exercises, your spouse will throw a fit at you." (Lecture Four in Zhuan Falun, March 2000 translation version)
I saw Master smile kindly at me from that portrait.
Once my husband got exceedingly angry just because our son made a small mistake on his homework. He started abusing Dafa. My son was so frightened that he started sobbing. I stopped what I was doing, cleaned up the broken things on the floor made by my husband, and did not say a word. I was calm and felt I would do anything to practice cultivation. For no reason, I was still in tears even with a calm mind. Facing a mirror, I told Master from the bottom of my heart, "No matter how he treats me, I will firmly practice Falun Dafa!" Ever since then, my husband stopped resisting my practice like he used to. It was just like Master said:
"Yet it is also an indication of a certain level. After a period of time, this phenomenon will no longer be allowed to exist. In other words, after these debts are worn out, they will not be allowed to come and interfere again." (Lecture Six in Zhuan Falun)
Now, I can openly practice Falun Gong and go online to view the Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom) website at home. My husband does not interfere in my cultivation and my son also has begun to cultivate.
3. Creating a Dafa materials production site and offering more people salvation
With other practitioners' help I soon created a small Dafa materials production site and made truth clarification CDs and Dafa printouts from the Dafa website. I was initially afraid to distribute them. I walked for an hour and only handed out two or three CDs. Even after I got home I was still fearful for a couple of days and spent much time thinking of how to deal with police officials, should they show up and attempt to arrest me.
Following Fa study and experience sharing with practitioners, I realized that my cultivation status was too low. It seemed I had some attachments that I needed to let go of. They reminded me that what we are doing are the most holy things in the whole universe. Even gods are watching us. What are we afraid of? They are right. Evildoers should be in fear, but not us.
I began memorizing Zhuan Falun to get rid of those old concepts. The memorization took care of my fears. The increased cultivation efforts purified my mind. I was deeply touched by Master's compassion and felt grateful. I have nothing to do but the three things. I will do the three things well according to Master' requirements.
Gradually, I could open up and tell my friends and colleagues the facts of Dafa in a rational manner. One of them became a practitioner and started his own material production site to offer others salvation.
4. Walking the cultivation path
In one particular region, no one knew about Dafa. Two other practitioners and I decided to go there to clarify the truth. Preparation was smooth, except for getting train tickets. Finally, we were able to buy three tickets in a sleeping compartment. Usually a sleeping compartment has four people. When the train stopped to pick up additional passengers, no one else joined us, and all the other sleeping compartments were packed with four people, and there were no empty seats, yet our compartment had an empty seat. We felt this might be Master's arrangement. We freely sent righteous thoughts, exchanged our cultivation experiences, and worked on a to-do list for the trip.
Once we found a hotel, we deposited our luggage and went shopping for stationery. We spent three days making truth clarification VCDs/DVDs and Dafa flyers. Through friends, we were able get in touch with some people who might have a predestined-relationship with Dafa. We introduced the practice, how it has so far reached 80 countries worldwide, and told about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s persecution of practitioners. We taught them the five exercises and played the VCDs/DVDs. They were serious and wished to disseminate the practice in their region.
The fourth day we rented a car and went to villages more than 200 miles away to validate Dafa. We drove across endless prairie in a heavy rain. For a while the rain stopped. It was getting dark, and we drove very fast. We were amazed to discover a huge rainbow to the north, right behind us. It stretched across the road, all seven colors very clear. In about six minutes, there was another rainbow, a double one this time, the inside one with seven clear colors and the outside one with unclear colors. One end was behind us and the other in front of us, about a mile apart. The two rainbows seemed to move as our car moved and followed us for a half hour. When we reached our destination without making any turns, we saw that the rainbow seemed to have made a 90-degree turn and positioned itself across the road, so that we drove through a rainbow gate. We were full of praise and could not describe it in words. We felt this was encouragement and protection from Master. That day we introduced Dafa to people until very late in the day.
Finally we finished what we had planned to do and completed our mission. Before leaving the town we really wanted to take a hot shower. This seemed a problem, though, because the centrally controlled hot water source run by the local government was under maintenance for a couple of days, meaning there was little chance to have hot water. To our surprise, when we returned to the hotel at 11:00 p.m., there was hot water. We each took a shower and made more VCDs/DVDs. The hot water flowed until 1:00 a.m. In the morning we discovered that the hot water was gone again.
After we told a local friend of the hot water incident, he was stunned and said it was impossible. He hadn't had hot water for ten days, and routine maintenance happened yearly at this time. It was impossible to get hot water in the middle of maintenance--in the middle of the night! We did not say a word, but we knew what had happened. We once again witnessed Master's great compassion and protection.
There were many incidents displaying the mighty power of Dafa. All we have to say here is, "Thank you, Master."
I will study the Fa diligently and not let Master down. I will catch up with the tide of Fa Rectification.
