(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in May 1996, when I was a college student. I read Zhuan Falun after a friend told me about it. I felt that it was what I had been looking for and I considered myself very fortunate.
I have worked diligently at the same high school ever since I graduated, guiding my actions with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and achieving wonderful results as a result. I would like to document my cultivation experience. I am grateful to Master for his grace, compassion, and merciful salvation!
1. “You Have Freedom of Belief Here. As Long as You Do Your Work Well, I Won't Interfere with Your Beliefs.”
I started to teach at my current high school in 1996. I couldn't hide my excitement at obtaining the Fa––I shared it with my colleagues and gave them Dafa books.
“This is a very good book—the requirements are very strict,” said our principal after reading Zhuan Falun. “Although I don't think I can do it myself, you should keep practicing it!”
I devoted myself to my job wholeheartedly. I cleaned the classrooms, prepared hot water, and got along well with my coworkers. They all knew that I was a Falun Gong practitioner and a good person who was willing to help others. On campus, I once had a few students hold up Dafa banners and play the Dafa exercise music, which was very impressive.
However, after July 20, 1999, things suddenly took a turn for the worse. School officials at all levels pressured me to give up my faith in Falun Gong, but the principal who knew the truth of Dafa defended me.
“You have freedom of belief here. As long as you do your work well, I won't interfere with your beliefs,” he told me.
Sure enough, in the early days of the persecution of Dafa, the principal and the vice principal stood up to the authorities and protected me and my Dafa materials. Every time I was illegally detained, the principal brought me back to school without complaint. After I was illegally sent to a forced labor camp, he kept my Dafa books in my dormitory safe and untouched.
Because of the good deeds he did, he was promoted and left the high school in 2003.
2. “Pay Attention to Your Personal Safety in the Future.”
My second principal was the previous vice-principal. During the first few years of the persecution of Dafa, he had worked with the principal to protect me.
While I was on summer vacation in August 2006, the principal called and asked me to meet him in a hotel in the city. The call sounded like something related to Falun Gong. At the hotel, I saw the principal and other school officials. They chatted with me over a meal.
After the meal, the principal said to me, “I have nothing special to tell you. I just heard that you gave some Dafa keepsakes to the ninth grade graduating students, but one of the parents who did not know the truth reported you to a government official in charge of education.
“Fortunately, the leader covered up the matter. But you should pay more attention to your personal safety in the future.”
I was happy and relieved that this principal and the leaders had made the right choice!
3. “If Everyone Cultivates Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, It Would Be Great!”
In August 2007, my third principal delivered his superior's decision on the persecution of Falun Gong at a teachers' meeting. After the meeting, I spoke with him briefly.
"No, I will do what my superiors ask us to do,” was his response. “This is a matter of principle."
I was not discouraged and some time later talked with him in detail. This time his attitude eased.
“Actually, I have heard of you. Okay, you can practice it yourself. But it is not appropriate to publicize it to teachers and students in the school,” he said.
“You know that 1+1=2. If someone says 1+1=3, do you still think it's right?” I asked.
“Yes. This is a matter of principle. Even if our superiors are wrong, we have to say they're right.”
Even after two conversations with him, I couldn't change his mind. I was at a loss: what should I do?
Master said: “Saving beings, improving yourself, and resisting the persecution are all acts that validate the Fa; only walking straight your path amounts to validating the Fa.” (“Walk Straight Your Path,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress, Vol. III)
We are Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period. Validating the Fa is the mission that Master has given us. We are cultivating in an ordinary society, and I realized that we should show the beauty of Dafa to ordinary people.
After we had worked together for a year, his attitude changed 180 degrees. He said, “If everyone cultivated Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, it would be great! Everyone would work conscientiously, and there'd be no need for me to manage anybody.”
Then he quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. On the eve of the 2008 Olympics, he withstood all kinds of pressure from his superiors and refused to cooperate with them to pressure me about my beliefs.
I was very touched by this awakened life and happy that he made the right choice.
4. “For Such a Talented Person, I Definitely Want to Keep Her Here.”
Before the beginning of the new semester in 2012, school officials had several meetings to discuss my job assignment.
They were very satisfied with how I managed the instrument room and wanted to keep me; they worried that someone else might not do the job as well. The principal, however, wanted me to be a dormitory night shift administrator.
He privately said to the director of political education, “If she is the dormitory administrator, I’ll be able to sleep well at night.”
“A cultivator like her can do whatever you arrange for her to do,” replied the director.
“Yes, she’s so talented—I definitely want to keep her here.”
At the first teachers' meeting, jobs were assigned. I became the administrator of the girls' dorm, and the principal praised me specifically because many teachers were unwilling to change jobs since they thought that they would lose face.
I had no complaints. I told him that, because I was a cultivator, for me there was no such thing as a lowly job or a noble job.
Master requires us to be someone who “...should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
So I let others have the sought-after opportunities. He was very satisfied with my choice.
It was this principal who had listened to the CCP’s lies when he started his job at my school. He hated Falun Gong, refused to listen to the truth, and participated in the persecution of other Dafa disciples. He also thought I was poisoning my daughter by letting her watch Shen Yun performance videos.
But I still tried to find opportunities to clarify the truth to him and explain the principle that good is rewarded and evil is punished. At work, I strictly followed Dafa's requirements. I worked hard and devoted myself to my job wholeheartedly. He saw it with his own eyes and sensed my sincerity. In the end, the words and deeds of a Dafa disciple finally melted the ice in his heart.
As Master said:
“Compassion can harmonize Heaven and Earth, ushering in springRighteous thoughts can save the people in this world”(“The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos,” Hong Yin Vol.II, Translation A)
Another life was saved!
In November 2013, the head of our city police department publicly slandered Falun Gong and all the teachers who practice it at a principals’ meeting in the city. In response, I wrote to the Director of Education, asking him to undo the damage to Dafa’s reputation and its practitioners.
In early January of 2014, the head of the city police department and others came to my school to harass me. But when they arrived, the principal protected me and prevented me from meeting with them. In front of everyone, he spoke highly of me and told them not to harass me. They left.
Afterward, the principal told me that, if anything like this had happened before, he would have kicked me out of the school. But this time, due to Master Li's profound grace, he understood the truth and changed completely. He made a rational choice.
Listening to him made me want to cry because I could sense Master’s immense compassion. I thought of the drastic changes in the principal's attitude, and the time and effort that Master must have taken. Master never gives up on any life. The meaning of “a Buddha's compassion” was deeply impressed upon me in that moment.
5. “Now I Know Who You Are and I Know What to Do.”
In July 2019, it was time to renew teacher contracts, and the principals of primary and secondary schools had to rotate to different schools. Our school, like the others, brought in a new principal, the fifth one since I’d worked at this school.
He learned that I worked hard and got along well with my colleagues. He also protected me under pressure. When police and personnel of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee came to the school to harass me, he refused to cooperate.
He said to me, “I didn't know you when I first came here. Now I know who you are and I know what to do.”
I was happy that this fifth principal had, like the others, chosen a bright future for himself.
