The Joy of Cultivation Fills My Heart and Soul

For most people, the thought of going to jail is an unimaginable fate, comparable to death. Once in jail, death may be rationalized as just a way to end all of one's trouble. But what does the prospect of going to jail really mean? Although I used to treat the thought of death jokingly, at the moment that I had to actually deal with it, I knew it was not just about courage. Previously I thought I could take the question of life or death lightly, but when finally faced with this possibility, I found I still had so many emotional attachments to things in this life that I was very reluctant to give up. To be able to let go of these attachments requires a certain degree of enlightenment. Master Li Hongzhi has said, "Live without personal pursuits, being prepared to die without a yearning to stay; clean up all your ill thoughts, and your cultivation of Buddhahood will not be difficult." Every word of the Master is profoundly valuable and directed at the hearts of humanity.

I took a stand for Dafa, and went to Tiananmen Square to loudly proclaim, "Falun Dafa is good! Master Li Hongzhi is wonderful! Don't persecute Falun Dafa practitioners!" My voice came from the depth of my soul and rose to penetrate the sky. I felt that my voice emerged from the remote past and was heard far into the future. I didn't know my voice could even be so loud because it was loud for the first time in my life. Tiananmen Square was full of plain clothes police officers and military police. With other practitioners, I was rounded up, forced into a prisoner transport vehicle, and then sent off to jail.

One's bad karma needs to be eliminated by one's own retribution. In a way, this is a kind of predestined relationship. The weight of one's personal decision of whether to step forward and take a stand for Dafa could not even be imagined by tourists and passers by in the Square. There were multitudes of police, and a checkpoint with detectors at every step of the way leading up to Tiananmen Square. But once I was finally able to let go of my attachments, the clouds parted and the fog dispersed.

I felt it was a critical moment for the Tao to prevail over the oppression. It has come to the point where one needs to put their enlightenment into action. Practitioners conduct themselves according to the moral teachings of Dafa, so they can't be vague about what should be done.

Looking over my shoulder at the onlookers, I reflected upon the present state of human society, intertwined with and bound by the threads of human desires. I seemed to hear the groans of lost souls amid the tired cycles of lifetimes, each repeatedly exhausted in despair. I saw the powerful despots trying to suppress the practitioners by threatening them with humiliation and torture, by partitioning them with jail cells and suffocating them with long prison terms. But none of these actions can ever shake our resolve to always maintain righteous thoughts.

A human body is difficult for a soul to obtain and life is very precious, while the opportunities for cultivation are remote and, therefore, even more precious. I don't intend to evade high pressure from the powers that be. I can make light of society's scorn, and can calmly accept the words of pity from my relatives and the words of sympathy from my neighbors.

How easily clouds can prevent the shining of the sun, and slumber hinder the advancing of time! In the grand scheme of things, human beings are so trivial and awkward. The lifespan of an ordinary person is only scores of years, while in reality, that's just a snap of the fingers. How can we not treasure it? The Buddha Fa is so profound and extensive, yet human beings can comprehend only a tiny portion of it, even with their most advanced capabilities. On the cultivation path, however, there is wisdom and happiness at every step of the way; and in the Dafa practitioner, Falun is manifesting boundless magnificence.

Does cultivation bring too much suffering? I say no, but other people don't believe it and say I am just so tough that I can bear any hardship. But I don't feel this is hardship. On the contrary, it's great joy. The happiness pours forth from my soul in every dimension and permeates everything. The everyday people around me who neither know nor care about cultivation, are the ones who are really suffering. Their suffering has become so ingrained in their life experience that it has become hard to distinguish from life itself. From the beginning of each lifetime, past karma has been included in life's sufferings. Those who are ignorant of cultivation have just become numbed to it. Of all my sufferings, that which appears the most difficult to bear is only that which is evident on the surface of events. But happiness runs deep in my heart and I only appear to be suffering on the surface. My suffering is like only a thin layer of scum on the surface, which is gradually skimmed off as each little bit of my karma is eliminated. But those who do not cultivate will find their suffering to be endless. The more they struggle against it, the more suffering they will incur.

It is out of compassion that I urge people to go cultivate themselves. Falun Dafa is wonderful! The brightness of Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance), and the rotation of "the three flowers gathering above the head" [a phenomenon observable in other dimensions, indicating the highest level of cultivation in "In Triple World Fa", described in "Lecture Eight" of Zhuan Falun] are all part of the real world. I know that Master Li Hongzhi is watching over us; observing, guiding and protecting our progress in cultivation; but each step toward my cultivation may only be taken by myself.