(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am a veteran practitioner, having begun practicing Falun Gong in 1997. During my dozen years of cultivation, I experienced happiness after improving myself through the Fa; there were also worries about failing the tests. However, there were more moments that I felt the benefits given by Dafa and the greatness of Master. I would like to share some of my cultivation experiences, in order to help identify my problems and quickly improve on them.
Hardship
After July 20, 1999, the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda did not shake my belief in Dafa at all. I live in a township with many other practitioners. However, we had few resources to obtain outside information. Facing the evil propaganda, we had no idea of what to do. Later, we received Master's lectures, "The Knowing Heart" and "Towards Consummation," and realized that we should go to Beijing to validate Dafa.
With the publication of Master's new articles, our local practitioners continued to improve in the Fa. Fellow practitioners traveled regularly to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. After serious consideration, I decided to go to Beijing for a third time to appeal. Leaving my newlywed wife at home, I went to Beijing with another local practitioner. I was arrested and taken to the city forced labor camp.
Soon after I was taken to the labor camp, I was subjected to brutal and violent torture. At that time, the whole building for male inmates was filled with the smell of burnt skin from the electric batons used by screaming, evil guards. Throughout the hallways, practitioners were lying unconscious from torture. An inmate asked me whether I would "reform;" I said no. The guards handcuffed me, and soon my hands became blackish. Looking at my hands, I thought that I could give up my life for Dafa and that I didn't care about my hands. Once I had this thought, a guard came immediately and ordered the inmate to loosen my handcuffs. He said "Don't injure his arm." After a while, a guard came with an electric baton and shocked my neck. Soon, the burning smell arose. At that time, I thought about Master's words:
"If you can let go of life and death, you're a God; if you can't let go of life and death, you're a human ..." ("Teaching the Fa in New York City")
The guard continued the shock treatment for about ten minutes, then asked me to "reform;" I still said no, and he left. That was how the guards tortured us. At that time, I was terrified by what was going on because I had never experienced anything like it before. I felt heartbroken, watching fellow practitioners give up their belief against their will. I thought calmly about my cultivation experiences. Dafa is true, Master is great. I cannot and dare not give up my belief. I had memorized Master's articles "Definitive Conclusion" and "Expounding on the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement, and I knew the consequences of betraying Dafa. With a righteous belief in Master and Dafa, I endured the hardships. Master said:
"When a tribulation arrives, if you, a disciple, can truly maintain an unshakeable calm or be determined to meet different requirements at different levels, this should be sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control." ("Expounding on the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Later, I was taken to a strict control session, but the guards and inmates did not give me any difficulties. They were even quite polite to me. After three years, I left that evil place with righteous thoughts.
Clarifying the Truth
I was released from the forced labor camp in 2003. At that time, big changes were already evident from the Fa-rectification. After studying Master's lectures, I realized that the persecution was arranged by the old forces, but not acknowledged by Master. I found a document regarding Falun Gong, then presented it to my school president, asking for my salary. The school president said that he had to ask his supervisor before giving me a reply. After several days, the school president called me to his office. He said that I had suffered a lot in the forced labor camp, and that the school would compensate me 1,000 yuan. Later, he said that, since I hadn't worked for three years, I would receive only 70 percent of my salary, but would receive the money immediately if I agreed to the arrangement. I told him that I did not care how much money I received. After all, it was not that I didn't want to work, I had been persecuted and couldn't work. The president asked me not to be difficult, so I agreed to 70 percent of my salary. One of my colleagues saw that I received some back salary and asked me if I had a special relationship with the president. I repeated Master's words to them:
"Learning the Fa is itself a blessing--why would you lose anything?" ("Teaching the Fa at the First Conference in North America")
At the end of 2004, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and Master's lecture "Turning the Wheel Towards the Human World" were published. The Fa-rectification went into another phase and practitioners started to help people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. The first time that I clarified the truth, two students agreed to quit the CCP, and I was quite happy. Later, I enabled more students to quit the CCP; two, three, eight, ten. I remember one day I helped 32 students to quit. The students who understood the truth agreed to quit immediately after I spoke to them. Those who didn't understand the truth needed more time. Later, more students quit the CCP, and to avoid repeating myself, I had to ask the students if I had already helped them to quit. Some students told me that I'd asked them several times. Some students told me that I had done it for them when they were in the 7th grade. Those students who already knew the truth sometimes invited me to their classes to clarify the truth. They shared their afternoon free study schedule and said that they would watch for me, then let me go in to explain the facts about Falun Gong. I then started to pay attention to the school's weekly schedule and looked for sessions when most of the teachers were out. I used these opportunities to walk into the classrooms to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa and tell students how to quit the CCP in order to save their lives. I didn't directly ask the students to quit the CCP in their classrooms; I met them later, then asked them if they understood what I'd said the other day. If they understood, I gave them a pseudonym and helped them to quit the CCP.
Producing Truth-Clarification Materials
Soon after I returned, a local coordinator found me and asked if I would initiate a "little flower" (start a site to produce truth-clarification materials). I agreed, then gave money to this practitioner to purchase the equipment. He acquired a computer and printer for me, then I installed broadband Internet access. My little flower started to blossom. At the beginning, there was a lot of interference. The computer system always had problems, and it was inconvenient to ask people for help each time. During the school break, I attended a county computer class to learn about computer hardware, how to set up the hardware, and how to install the system. After I learned all of these things, my computer rarely broke down, and I could solve all the minor problems. Later, with Master's arrangement, I met a practitioner who was very good at fixing computers, and my skills improved further. At that time, we had a main site where we produced most of the materials, and I helped to make some extra. Later, the main site was closed, and another local site was destroyed, so I produced most of the materials for our area. There are many practitioners in our area. Sometimes I could barely make enough materials with my one computer and four printers. Gradually, several more "little flowers" blossomed in our area, and my workload was greatly reduced. I reviewed the Minghui/Clearwisdom website daily and absorbed the lessons and experiences from fellow practitioners. I dealt with the money and equipment properly, and most of the materials were based on the information provided by Minghui. The site has continued to run smoothly.
Coordination
At that time, most of the practitioners working on technical support were also coordinators. I dealt with technical problems, but when some practitioners didn't pay attention to security issues or strayed from Dafa, I would point out the problems in a serious manner. Some practitioners accepted my comments, but the practitioners who could not complained to everyone. Later, I heard about the complaints and wondered why they acted like that, since I was not wrong. Then I realized that Master said:
"... cultivation is about cultivating yourself; you have to cultivate inward, to look inside yourself." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")
I was not wrong in what I wanted to point out, but during the process of criticizing fellow practitioners, I did not cultivate myself. Master said:
"I often say that if all a person wants is the well-being of others and this is without the slightest personal motivation and understanding, what he says will move the listener to tears." ("Sober-Mindedness" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
I only criticized other practitioners without improving with them in the Fa. My tone wasn't compassionate either, which meant that I didn't cultivate myself during the process. Therefore, I learned to cultivate myself during the coordination work. I also understood Master's words:
"But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining." ("Fa Teaching at the 2002 Philadelphia Fa Conference")
Lessons
At the end of 2006, my wife and I had a lovely daughter, but my cultivation slowed down and the effect of asking people to quit the CCP was much worse than before. I was quite upset. Later, it took me a long time to pass a big test. I thought that if I could pass such a big test, then I could pass any test. I was even quite happy. Since I wasn't diligent at that time, I did not realize that this thought didn't align with the Fa. Master said:
"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts." ("Fa Teaching at the 2002 Philadelphia Fa Conference")
Because my thought was not correct, I became involved when a fellow practitioner got into trouble, and I was forced to leave home for several months. During those months, I became tranquil in order to study and memorize the Fa. I identified the reason that I got into trouble and sent forth righteous thoughts for a long time to disintegrate the evil forces that persecuted me and other practitioners. When my heart felt calm again, I returned to the school. Later, the school president met me in the athletic field and laughed while talking with me. He said, "Now the school is yours. When you were sent to forced labor, I gave you a salary. You did not come to work these past several months, but I'll still give you a salary." I smiled and said to him, "You have been treating Dafa practitioners well. You will be rewarded for that." He smiled and left without saying anything else.
There are so many periods of rain and shine during cultivation. Even if I wrote for days, I could not finish all the stories. After all, we are now at the final stage of cultivation, and I must be very diligent to go home with Master.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Written on Nov 3, 2009.