(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master, greetings fellow practitioners.
I appreciate the opportunity to share my experiences during the past eight years of my cultivation.
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Searching for Many Years, Finally I Obtained the Fa
In the summer of 1993, when I was an eighth grade student, I read a book introducing Nostradamus’ prophecy, which mentioned that a huge disaster would occur in 1999. Although all my family and friends didn’t believe it, I somehow knew it was true and it would come. I spent the whole summer being nervous. Since then I always had a question: How can human being avoid this disaster?
In school, teachers taught us to be honest and nice. But in society, I found that many people who told the truth didn’t get rewarded, but those who lied got promotions and other benefits. I didn’t know what kind of person I should be. Should I go with the trend or maintain my own character? What kind of principles should I obey? I had been looking for the answers to these questions. I read many books such as Chicken Soup for the Soul and some Buddhist books, but none gave me the answer.
In September 1998, when I was a sophomore in college, I talked to a freshman one night. We talked about what books were worth reading. She said that “Zhuan Falun” was the best book she had ever read. Her roommates started laughing and I didn’t hear what she said. She repeated three times and finally she showed me the book. I liked the book almost immediately when I saw the big Falun symbol on the cover. I borrowed her copy and read it until the electricity was cut off in my dorm. The first thing I did after getting up the next morning was to continue reading the book. I finished it before sunset. Then, I borrowed more Falun Dafa books from her. On the third day, Master eliminated the sickness karma for me. I vomited and had diarrhea. Meanwhile, I felt that a Falun kept rotating in my belly. I knew that it was Master cleaning up my body. Although I didn’t feel good physically, I felt very happy in my heart. One day when I was thinking that I would start cultivating, I heard somebody saying in my head, “This is the thing that you are looking for in the human world.” It was just like what Master said in the poem “Destined Return for the Holy Fruition,”
“Oh how many the years, looking for the master,
Finally the day has arrived to meet him.
Cultivate and return, the Fa now gained,
And follow your master to return, consummated.”
(Hong Yin)
Although I have not seen Master, I know that Master is with me at every moment, watching me.
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The wind and clouds suddenly change, and the heavens seem to crumble. The mountains shake, the seas churn, and the ferocious waves billow. Follow Teacher closely, steadfastly cultivating Dafa.
In July 1999, I brought several copies of Zhuan Falun and some other Dafa materials home, planning to promote the Fa in my hometown. On July 18, I got to Guangzhou. I planned to stay in my friend’s house and introduce Dafa to them. But on the second day, the persecution started. All the media, TV stations, newspapers and radio stations started slandering Dafa. My friends, who planned to read Zhuan Falun, refused to take the book. I didn’t know what to do. I could not contact the fellow practitioners in Beijing, and I didn’t know any practitioners in Guangzhou. But I believe that everything Master said is truth, and Dafa is righteous. So, I started clarifying the truth to my friends based on my understanding and asked them not to believe the lies. It was a very difficult period. Every piece of news on TV and newspaper was a test for me. It was like what Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference,”
“A comprehensive test has targeted all human attachments. No matter what attachments you held when you came to Dafa, those attachments had to be tested.”
But, no matter what kind of tricks the evil play, they cannot shake my solid heart.
After the summer, I went back to Beijing. Since the exercise site at school was banned, we had to rent a small house to study the Fa and do the exercises. From October 1999 to January 2000, many practitioners went to Beijing to validate the Fa. We helped those practitioners, who came from far away, to find places to stay and provided them with Dafa books. We also witnessed many great events of validating the Fa.
Although I didn’t cultivate for too long, many of my classmates knew that I was a practitioner. The monitor of our class reported me to the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) committee of our college and the teacher who was in charge of my class. The teacher asked me to have conversations in her office every three to five days. She told me that her parents were persecuted by the CCP during the political movements and Cultural Revolution. In her mind, nobody can fight with the CCP. She asked me to focus on my school work. She also said that if the leaders of the school found out about me, then she and other teachers would be punished too. The secretary of the CCP committee of our college threatened me. He said that Dafa was superstition and against science. He gave a list of books and asked me to read those books, which attack Dafa and Master. No matter what they said, I recited the Fa in my heart:
“Whether it is a Buddha, a Tao, an immortal, or a demon, they should not move your heart.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
I told them that I would not read those books.
In May 2001, I passed the graduate school entrance exam. The secretary had a conversation with me again. Since he is in charge of all the graduate students in our college, he said that I cannot go to graduate school if I cannot pass the so-called political examination. I told myself, “He cannot arrange my life. My Master will make the arrangements for my cultivation.” With a solid heart, I entered graduate school. In graduate school, my advisor learned from the secretary that I was practicing Falun Gong, so he wanted to talk to me, which was a bigger test. Since one of his relatives practiced Falun Gong before the persecution started, he thought that he knew a lot about Falun Gong. He said that Master seeks money and some contact persons made money by selling practitioners Dafa books. I didn’t accept what he said. Master taught us to be selfless and always consider others first. How can a contact person make money from selling the books? Later when I calmed down, I realized that the individual behaviors cannot represent Dafa or Master. Master’s teaching in 2005 cleaned my mind and helped me improve my understanding. Master taught us:
“Cultivation is about cultivating oneself--why look at others?
I have taught you cultivation, but that doesn't mean I am cultivating just as you are. If that were the case, and if we had become bad, then you'd just stop cultivating? Is that how it would work? Nothing in the Fa I've taught says that the Master must go through grueling cultivation just as cultivators do. The evil has assaulted me because I have been suffering on behalf of sentient beings. And when it's Dafa cultivation--where people don't leave the secular world to cultivate, and the disciples are from all walks of life--how could the Master be the same as all his disciples? And why would he have to live like those of his students who have the most karma or the most hardship? If it happens that your Master does things differently from you and you find it objectionable, then are you going to stop cultivating? Isn't [your notion that] the master who saves you must be like his disciples, the result of being poisoned by the Party-culture of the CCP?” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference” February 26, 2005)
Master’s teaching cleaned the poison of the party culture from my mind.
3. Walking on the Path Arranged by Master, I Came to Singapore and Created an Environment to Validate the Fa
In early 2004, I was about to graduate and started job hunting. One day I saw an advertisement on a website, which said that a company in Singapore was hiring people. I felt like I would get this job, so I sent my resume to the company. After 9 months of testing, I came to Singapore in September 2004 and started a new journey in cultivation.
In Master’s arrangement, I lived very close to a practitioner, and I also had contact with the local exercise site. On a Sunday morning, I went to the exercise site. When I saw practitioners doing the exercises and the truth-clarifying materials next to them, I could not help crying. The feeling was that a lost kid had found his family. Just like that, the peaceful environment of studying the Fa and doing the exercises came back to me. After reading the new articles systematically, I improved my understanding of the Fa. I now pass out truth-clarifying materials on weekends, and make phone calls to Mainland China to convince people to quit the CCP. I go to workers’ dormitories to pass out The Epoch Times newspaper and copies of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.” In early 2006, with fellow practitioners’ help, I started a new project to broadcast the truth over the phone. Later, under fellow practitioners’ encouragement, I helped the local practitioners to install devices to broadcast the truth over the phone automatically. Just like that, I devoted myself to Fa-rectification in Singapore.
Looking back at my cultivation, I see that I have many shortcomings. In particular, I didn’t do well in clarifying the truth in the period from 2000 to 2004. I still need to improve myself in the project of broadcasting the truth over the phone. I need to keep reading the Fa to eliminate my attachments. Master said,
“Of course, being able to do all these things well is inseparable from each of us, from each Dafa disciple's own cultivation and improvement.” (“Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.”)
So, I should study the Fa better and cultivate myself better in the future.
Finally, I would like to share Master’s poem with everyone.
Climbing Mount Tai
I climb the steep steps, stretching miles ahead,
Winding upward and steep, this road,
even to set off is hard;
Glancing back, ‘tis just like cultivating Righteous Fa,
Pausing half way makes salvation hard.
So steel the will, and lift thy leaden leg,
Endure the pain, diligent, and cast off attachments;
Dafa disciples, the tens of millions—
A place still higher awaits you at Consummation.
(Hong Yin)
Thank you, everyone.
