(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, venerable Teacher,
Greetings, fellow practitioners,
My name is Li Cuihui, and I'm a middle school teacher from Pingtung. I'm very honored to be here today to share my cultivation experience with everyone. Through the process of writing my cultivation experience, I realized that this is also a process of purifying myself, a process of being steadfast in Dafa, and of validating Dafa.
Ever since I was a kid I was frail and had various illnesses. For a long time I was stressed out by work. As a result, my entire immune system was weakened. By chance, through a colleague's introduction, I came to know Falun Dafa. At the time I had no idea what Falun Gong was or that it is a great practice of both mind and body. Perhaps it was because I had no intentions, but the second day after I began practicing the Falun Gong exercises, my body underwent a rapid purification. I also experienced the process of having my Third Eye opened within a short period of time as described in the book, which enabled me to see that each word in the book was a Law Wheel in different, dazzling colors that sparkled with golden light. I then realized that Teacher's book was indeed a heavenly book.
My ex-boyfriend of six years often came to the practice site to harass me after he was drunk. He also stopped me on the street and prevented me from going home. He even went to my workplace and claimed that he would make me lose my job. Again and again, I kept enduring his irrational behavior passively.
Because I had just obtained the Fa, I did not have a profound understanding of the Fa-principles. Knowing my situation, fellow practitioners often discussed Fa-principles with me, and I therefore came to realize that this was interference for me, and a test for my xinxing. It was indeed as described in the "Third Talk" in Zhuan Falun:
"When you say you want to cultivate, they won't put up with it, 'You want to cultivate, you want to leave. If you develop gong I won't even be able to reach you, I won't be able to touch you.' They won't let it happen, and they'll do just about anything to block you. They'll try to stop you from cultivating. So they use all kinds of tactics to interfere with you, and they might even come to kill you."
"Maybe later on you'll be slapped in the face a couple times in front of the very person you least want to lose face around, and that's to humiliate you, to see how you handle it, and to see whether you can endure it. Maybe you can endure it but you can't get it off your mind. That's not good enough." (From the "Ninth Talk" in Zhuan Falun)
I knew that I was afraid that my image would be tarnished and I had a deep fear of losing my reputation, which further intensified the tribulation. Through constant Fa-study, I came to realize that I shouldn't endure it so passively. Instead, I should completely reject this interference and let go of my mentality of fear. As long as I elevate my xinxing, there is no tribulation that I cannot overcome.
Teacher says:
"If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist." (From "Eliminate Your Attachments" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Therefore, no matter how he treated me, I simply did what Teacher said in "Eliminate Your Attachments" in Essentials for Further Advancement II:
"Just by having your heart unaffected you will be able to handle all situations,"
and I truly let go of that attachment. I remember the last time he came to the practice site to harass me. I looked him straight in the eye. He finally changed his old habit of constantly harassing me. He actually did not even try to stop me from going home, and I have not seen him since. The karmic relationships during this Dharma Ending Period are absolutely impossible for ordinary people to resolve, yet I was able to resolve it benevolently in one shot. I realized that these tribulations are my opportunities to cultivate. Without these tribulations, Teacher says,
"If the human race was made free of all sickness and lived in total comfort, even if you were given a chance to be a Celestial Being you wouldn't take anyone up on it." (From Zhuan Falun)
I thank Teacher for compassionately and painstakingly scooping me up from Hell and saving me. Had it not been for Teacher's enduring life after life of karma for me, I would not have ended up where I am today.
I have personally experienced Falun Dafa's greatness and miraculous effects. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, but Falun Dafa was a master key to open my mind and soul. How could I not promote such a good practice to everyone around me every chance I got, so that their minds and bodies could also benefit from it and help them become truly happy people? Therefore, I distribute flyers door to door, volunteered to teach the Falun Gong exercises in schools, and set up practice sites. I use the Fa-principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" to help students with behavior problems. I instilled the Fa-principles into my teaching and brought truth to every class I taught. Students are pure and truthful. If we put gold in their heads, then they are gold; if we put dirt in their heads, then they are dirt. After learning the truth, they said they could not believe that such a dictatorial, brutal regime like the Jiang's faction of the Chinese Communist could still exist. The students' sense of justice was inspired, and they expressed their wish to support the global effort to bring Jiang to justice. They helped me fold truth-clarification flyers, and they gradually learned to hold themselves to the Fa-principle of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance." I was really happy for their future. I also invited communities to develop a plan to double the number of people practicing the exercises in order to bring Falun Dafa's beauty to those in other communities so that everyone could have an in-depth understanding of Falun Gong's truth. I believe that this has had a certain effect in spreading the Fa and clarifying the truth.
Through constant Fa-study, I realized even more that I was a Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa disciple, who shoulders the great mission of saving sentient beings. In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference" Teacher says:
"Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness."
Hence, I always carry truth-clarification material with me and try my best not to miss out on anyone who might have a pre-destined relationship. If everyone of us remembers our mission to save sentient beings and keeps that thought in our minds at all times, I think the effectiveness of our truth-clarifying efforts will be different.
Among the many possible approaches, I chose to make phone calls to clarify the truth, because I feel that calling is the most direct and fastest way to have an effect. Calling not only can restrain the malicious authorities, it also can alleviate pressure on fellow practitioners. I had deep fears when I started making phone calls and others constantly scorned me. But day after day, after constantly reading on the Minghui website about the evil using all sorts of inhuman and horrendous tortures to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners even more brutally, my mind was greatly shaken. I often shed tears as I read those articles. When I began reading an article, I felt as if I would never reach its end. Teacher says in the "Ninth Talk" in Zhuan Falun:
"...there's a problem with your character if you don't do anything when you see something awful like murder or arson."
Even more so when we are cultivating the Great Law! When we see our fellow practitioners being persecuted, can we stand aside and just watch? Do we still hesitate and fear this or that? I remember once during an experience sharing, when one practitioner suddenly felt unwell, all the practitioners immediately recited Lunyu and sent righteous thoughts at close range for this practitioner. Think about it, who can recite Lunyu and send righteous thoughts at close range for fellow practitioners in Mainland China? If we don't eliminate our human attachments, we will escalate the tribulation of fellow practitioners in Mainland China, because we are one whole body.
Making phone calls is like wandering about from place to place as required of some professional cultivators. (Master refers to this in "The One Who Practices Gets the Gong" in Zhuan Falun.) Some people scorn you, some threaten you, some ridicule you, some people are kind, and some people appreciate you. You run into all kinds of people, and it is up to you whether you are able to guard your xinxing and handle yourself by following the basic requirements of a cultivator:
"Don't even hit back when you're attacked, or talk back when people insult you."(From the "Ninth Talk" in Zhuan Falun)
Amidst our clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings, Teacher lets us cultivate away our various bad human attachments like competitiveness, jealousy, showing off, being overjoyed, fear and pursuit of comfort. There are so many human attachments that we need to give up. Teacher says:
"The whole process of cultivation is a process of constantly getting rid of human attachments." (From the "First Talk" in Zhuan Falun)
Cultivation is not choosing something easy to do and is not about escaping something that is hard. Cultivation is simply tough. Teacher says:
"Cultivation is the process that enables a human being to ascend to heaven and become a god, so how could it not be hard?" (From "My Version of a Stick Wake-Up")
Precisely because it is hard, we can cultivate our mighty virtue.
My biggest realization from making phone calls to clarify the truth is as Teacher writes in Hong Yin II (provisional translation):
Mercy can dissolve heaven and earth, bringing about Spring
Righteous thought may save people in the world
When I clarify the truth with righteous thoughts and a compassionate mind, the effect is the most powerful. When I study the Fa well, I have strong righteous thoughts and the phone calls I make are good. When I do not study the Fa well, I cannot make good phone calls. I realized that, although studying the Fa is important, I could not simply rely on studying the Fa and not cultivate myself. It is not like when you study the Fa well you'll be "insured" and that you do not need to fear anything. Sometimes I got into the frame of mind of the inevitability of interference when I validated the Fa. The evil indeed has never stopped interfering with me, but if I held on to such a thought, wouldn't I also be seeking something? Isn't that a strong pursuit for interference? Now, I see it this way: I completely reject the old forces and reject all interference, I don't even acknowledge the old forces' existence, I don't even think about it. It is very important to maintain righteous thoughts at all times.
When I did not do well in making phone calls, I looked inward to ask myself, "What happened?" Was it because I lacked compassion? Was it because my tone of voice was not kind? When I found my shortcomings, I adjusted my mindset and treated the person with compassion. When what I said was without a shred of selfishness, the person listened to my truth-clarification. It is very dangerous if we have a selfish mind or if we do Dafa work out of our attachment to Consummation, because the gods of the entire cosmos are watching each and every thought of ours so closely and they are afraid even to blink. The path is very narrow. But when we establish a correct foundation, the path is boundlessly wide and spacious.
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference" Teacher says:
"But as Dafa disciples, you cultivate kindness, so you should be compassionate. Whether they're receptive or not, you should always treat them with compassion, and you can't get competitive with ordinary people or look at sentient beings with human thoughts. Just do whatever you should with compassion, regardless of whether they're receptive or not. Compassion comes from a person's cultivation, and it's not something that's acted out; it comes from deep inside, and it's not something done to show others. It's something that exists eternally, and it doesn't change with the passage of time or changes in circumstances."
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference" Teacher says:
"Gods are merciful and have the greatest capacity to forgive, and they are truly responsible to beings, instead of focusing on a person's actions at a given time. That's because gods awaken a being at a fundamental level, and enliven a being's Buddha-nature at a fundamental level."
I remember when I heard the news about vicious police shocking practitioner Gao Rongrong's face for seven hours. I called the vicious police and related departments. One man, who worked in the Procuratorate, asked me about Gao Rongrong's situation and promised me to bring this issue to higher authorities. Through fellow practitioners' help, Gao Rongrong successfully escaped from her illegal detention. When we send out our righteous thoughts, Teacher says:
"What could human beings possibly do to gods? If there were no outside factors, would humans dare to do anything to gods?" (From "In Fa-Rectification Your Thoughts Have to be Righteous, Not Human")
The course of Fa-rectification progresses very rapidly. Many practitioners have gathered in Manhattan to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. When I think about practitioners who have sacrificed their lives in order to safeguard Falun Dafa and about those practitioners who have steadfastly stood in front of Chinese Consulates to send righteous thoughts over the past few years in bone-chilling weather, rain or blistering heat, I am especially aware of my shortcomings. Let's do well the three things that Teacher requests us to do. No matter where we are, let go of all human attachments and let's just set our minds to be diligent and to save sentient beings. Lastly, as mutual encouragement, I would like to end my article with Teacher's poem "Be Steadfast" (Provisional translation from Hong Y in II):
Those who enlighten and leave the world are revered
Those who earnestly cultivate sincerely believe in reaching consummation
In the midst of great tribulation, one should be steadfast
The will to strive forward whole-heartedly cannot be changed
Thank you Teacher! Thank you fellow practitioners. Please kindly correct me if there's anything improper.
(An article from the 2005 Taiwan Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)
