(Minghui.org) A Falun Dafa practitioner asked me recently: “Over the past decade, your cultivation path has been very smooth. You've not been persecuted by the authorities, you've provided a stable group Fa study environment, you've helped other practitioners in need, and you’ve run a truth-clarification materials production site from your home. How are you able to achieve all this?”
The truth is, we need to truly follow what Master (the founder of Falun Dafa) says and pay attention to Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts. Doing these things consistently will enable us to have a smooth cultivation path while we clarify the facts and save sentient beings.
Studying the Fa and Sending Righteous Thoughts
I went to Beijing in 2000 to appeal to the government to allow us to exercise our right to practice Falun Dafa. I was arrested and detained for two years. Upon returning home from the detention center, I learned a serious lesson: Do not try to learn from others. Earnestly study the Fa and learn from Master.
Master has told us the importance of memorizing the Fa, so I followed his guidance and memorized the Fa.
It was hard at first, and I gave up several times. But I believed that I must follow what Master says – I have no other option. After much effort, I was finally able to memorize the book Zhuan Falun.
The sole reason that I haven't incurred any major problems on my path of cultivation is because I always study the Fa a lot.
Late last year, the police harassed many practitioners after they filed lawsuits against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party, for initiating the persecution of Falun Dafa.
A practitioner in our Fa-study group was arrested one day, and some of the other practitioners felt pressured to leave home for a period of time to avoid harassment. I also felt the pressure.
I remembered Master's Fa teaching:
“Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations.” ("Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.")
I only know one way to stay unaffected, and that is to study the Fa more and extend the length of Fa study. After I memorized Master's new Lunyu, I wrote it down once a day. Master has given us the supernatural power of righteous thoughts, so every morning I send forth righteous thoughts on the hour.
I went out to mail some letters one evening, and a neighbor informed me that the police had come to my home right after I left. No one answered the door, and they have never come back!
Many local practitioners were arrested in 2005, so other practitioners suggested that we should leave home for a period of time.
I believed that only Dafa and the supernatural powers Master has given us could protect us. Thus, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts regularly, and I have remained safe.
An Invitation to Fa Study
My husband and I met a fellow Dafa practitioner in a supermarket one time. I didn't know her, but I learned from the Minghui website that she had been released recently from detention. The Fa study group she used to attend didn’t want her to go there anymore, so my husband invited her to our Fa study group.
On the day of our next group Fa study, I went to the bus station to pick her up. My attachment of fear emerged, and before I left home, I said to Master, “If she is not a true practitioner, let her miss the bus.”
My thoughts were wrong and I realized that I was trying to protect myself.
I picked her up at the bus station and brought her to my home. I did this for quite a while after that. She often made mistakes while reading, so I talked to her after Fa study and exchanged my thoughts about respecting Master and the Fa.
I asked her to relax and try to avoid making mistakes while reading the Fa. She improved quickly after our talk, and later returned to her previous Fa study group.
Over the past decade, several practitioners who didn't have a place to stay or were just starting the practice came to my home. They believed that our home was a safe place for practitioners. I vowed at the beginning of my cultivation that my home would be available for practitioners, and I believe that this has also been arranged by Master.
Gaining Confidence to Talk to People About Dafa
I've never liked to take the initiative to speak to strangers, but Master asks his practitioners to go out and tell people the truth about Dafa, so I must follow what Master says.
Initially, I didn't have the confidence to talk to a single person. But I kept at it every day, and eventually I was able to start a conversation and talk to people about Dafa.
One time while distributing the Minghui Weekly, I met a man who didn't look friendly. I didn't feel safe near him and didn't want to give him the magazine.
I suddenly recalled an article that I had read on the Minghui website the day before: In it a practitioner believed that there was danger ahead and didn't want to move forward. The practitioner rectified herself right away and got rid of her negative thought.
After I remembered that, I gave the man the Minghui Weekly. He glanced at it and asked me what it was. I told him, “This is Falun Dafa material. Falun Dafa is being persecuted, so please read it and learn the truth. It is not like what is said in the media.”
He took a look at the magazine and thanked me.
Practitioners Must Listen to Master
By following what Master says, and by putting an emphasis on Fa study, Dafa has opened my wisdom, and I have learned how to look within. While talking to people about Dafa face-to-face, sometimes I’ve come across someone who was not friendly and my attachment to fighting and resentment emerged. Sometimes I’ve met men who have spoken flirtatiously, which indicated that I still had hidden attachments to lust.
In my future cultivation, I will try hard to eliminate these attachments and steadily walk the righteous cultivation path arranged by Master. I hereby also ask practitioners to listen to Master and study the Fa more!
