(Clearwisdom.net)
Attending Master's Lectures Was an Unforgettable Experience
In the closing of Zhuan Falun, Master said:
"In the course of teaching the Fa, there have also been things that have not gone smoothly, and different kinds of interference have been quite enormous."
Our veteran practitioners who attended Master's lectures in the early days might have a deeper understanding of this. I'm lucky to have been to Master's lectures four times. There was always strong interference in the early lectures each time. The first lecture at Shijiazhuang began on March 3, 1994 (Thursday) in the evening. Master lectured in the auditorium on the first floor, but the second floor and the exterior of the theatre had dances and it was very noisy, so the seminar was forced to relocate. Another lecture was in the middle of June 1994 at Zhengzhou City (Henan Province). It started in an old stadium, but the facility was very old and rundown, so the seminar had to be moved. One session was in late June in Jinan City (Shandong Province). Relocation happened again (first in a stadium, then changed to Huangting Stadium). During the session held in Guangzhou city in late December, the tickets had to be changed because the price had gone up. I felt that none of this was coincidental, through these minor issues, I could feel the difficulty in spreading the Fa, and in fact, we are not able to know as how much Master has been through!
Master said in the Lecture Two of Zhuan Falun:
"A few individuals may fall asleep and wake up as soon as I finish my lecture. Why is that? It is because their brains have illnesses that need to be treated."
One day while I attended the lectures in Shijiazhuang, a veteran practitioner sitting next to me nudged me and said: "See that practitioner, she fell asleep once Master started the lecture and she woke up as soon as Master said: 'Time's up.'" Then I noticed that it is truly like that; once the class is over, she would talk to others about the mess that she had encountered when she practiced another qigong. She actually had a lot of bad stuff in her mind, and Master cleaned those things up for her every day.
After returning from the Shijiazhuang lectures, I was doing the exercises at the playground at school one day, when the person in charge of the qigong practitioners association of the school (who practices some other qigong), who has always looked down on me, suddenly came and talked to me. They wanted me to share with them and practice with them. I was told that one person in their association had changed the Falun Gong exercise three and was using it in his own practice. At that moment, I recalled Master's teaching about practicing only one way, and having no interaction with people practicing other stuff, so I politely declined. He came and talked to me a few times afterwards. I stuck with the practice of only one way and didn't get involved with them. In "Determination and Solidity" in Essentials for Further Advancement, Master said,
"Why don't you think about it? Why did they ignore you before you learned Dafa? Why have they become so concerned about you after you have learned Dafa?"
Whenever I read this paragraph, I always recall this story, and am glad that I could pass the test. After that, I contacted other practitioners in our school, so I that I might attend the next few lectures.
After the Shijiazhuang lectures, a few practitioners from school set up a practice site at our school. Due to incomplete understanding about the Fa, we went to extremes on "wu wei (without intention)", thought that "wu wei" meant "don't do anything." In the lectures at Zhengzhou, a practitioner asked Master the question of whether we should take care of unattended running water. Master read it and mentioned it in the lectures. Master seriously and compassionately corrected the extreme understanding. And Master mentioned the case again in the lectures at Jinan, where a few of our practitioners attended, and they clarified the incorrect idea at once. Whenever we talked about that later, we all felt that Master was mindful of each one of us; he knows the status of each practitioner and addressed our issues, taking every opportunity to teach us.
After the lectures at Zhengzhou and Jinan, a student practitioner from our school sensed the importance of the practice, but went to extremes--quit school and wandered around the country, claiming that he was taking the approach of being a professional practitioner. We didn't know how to convince him otherwise, even though we felt that his way was inappropriate. A few months later, he came back and told us that he went to Master's hometown, Changchun, and stayed with some veteran practitioners there. One night they called Master, and Master spoke a few words with each one of them, Master told him to study the Fa well and understand the Fa well. Then he realized that he had not followed the correct path, so he came back to continue his education. He brought back the message that Master would have lectures in Guangzhou, giving us an opportunity to attend the last lectures in China.
In December 1994, the school put a lot of pressure on us, as did our families, and there were also financial issues. I had been hesitating ever since I heard of the notice about the lectures, Should I go or not? Because we were ready for graduation, and according to the situation, if the school ever found out that I went to Guangzhou, I could be expelled from school. I decided to go anyway. When I was standing in line to buy a train ticket, many bad thoughts boiled up in my mind, but when I truly thought it over I was ready to let go of everything, even being expelled. I suddenly felt that my body had become gigantic in a moment and all the troubles that had bothered me a moment before turned into nothing, just like what Master said in the Q&A section of "Lecturing in Sydney" in 1996:
"Once you give them up, you will find that the tribulations have become smaller and you have become bigger. You will overcome them in one step, and the tribulations will become nothing. It is guaranteed to be this way."
When I came back from Guangzhou, everything was normal, and those bad things in my imagination didn't happen at all.
On the first day of the lectures in Guangzhou, my throat became swollen and it was hard to speak, but just as what Master said in the classes, "I will clean up your body by day four"; by the end of day four, my throat returned to normal. I deeply felt the power of the Fa. About the seventh lecture, Master told us to clean up our bodies again. Then Master asked us to stand up, and follow his orders, when Master said: "Everybody get ready to stomp with your left foot. Ready, stomp on the left!" I stomped with no intention, and then I felt a huge chunk of black stuff spin off my body. All at once zealotry and pursuit came up in my mind, when Master said: "Ready, stomp with the right foot!" I stomped very hard, but I didn't have that kind of feeling anymore. When I talked about this with other practitioners after class, they told me: "You were being too selfish."
When I graduated in 1995, a practitioner quoted some words from the closing part of Zhuan Falun as a memento. He hoped that I "will treat myself (yourselves) as practitioners in future cultivation practice and truly continue your cultivation practice." I didn't pay attention at that moment. But after a few years of practice, looking back on my path, each time I didn't do things right, didn't really treat myself as a practitioner, and didn't truly cultivate myself, Master's words brought me back. I deeply felt Master's painstaking arrangement.
Attending Master's lectures was really the most happy and joyful time for me. Whenever I think of those days, I am moved. In the past ten years of personal and Fa-rectification cultivation, we've been through many storms, and though I have done a lot of Dafa work, and I have gone the wrong way many times, no matter what, I never lost hope. I have always believed in what Master said: "The Fa-rectification will definitely succeed, and Dafa disciples will definitely succeed." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference")
