(Minghui.org)
Greetings, revered Teacher. Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am 23 years old, and I am a veteran Falun Dafa practitioner. I came to the US in September 2011, so I have been in the US for a year now. I'd like to share some of my cultivation experiences from the past 16 years of my cultivation.
1. Becoming a Practitioner in China
1996 was an unforgettable year for me, because that's when my parents and I were fortunate enough to obtain the precious book Zhuan Falun. At that time, I was very young, but I enjoyed looking at Teacher's picture and listening to my parents read the book to me. We were all immersed in Teacher's saving grace, and we kept elevating both mentally and physically.
On July 20, 1999, the evil CCP (Chinese Communist Party) began to persecute Falun Gong. Before the persecution started, both of my parents were assistants at our local exercise site. After July 20, they went to the provincial government and Tiananmen Square to appeal to the Chinese government three times, our local police station kept us under extremely close surveillance. At the beginning of the persecution, police station and local community management committee personnel often came to our home to harass us. Sometimes they peeked at us through the windows, sometimes they pounded on our windows and door and demanded that my parents sign the guarantee statement, threatening that they would be fired from their jobs and I would be expelled from school. At that time, we didn't know what truth clarification was; we were only aware that practicing Falun Gong had benefited all of us. So we began to argue with the police officers, and we refused to write the guarantee statement many times. What we did shocked the authorities to a large extent in our local area.
Within a few months, many practitioners were arrested for going to appeal to the government. At that time, my parents and a few practitioners came to understand that we should clarify the facts. Therefore, they decided to use the daytime to make information materials. At night, I went with my parents to local residential areas to go door to door to hand out truth-clarification materials. I was very young at the time, yet I enjoyed handing out leaflets. One time practitioners from the whole city coordinated with one another on the night before the anniversary celebration of the CCP's establishment, and we managed to hand out more than 10,000 brochures. In mainland China, buildings that have fewer than seven floors are not equipped with elevators. Our practitioners had to walk to the top floors to hand out materials. They didn't want to miss a single household. One practitioner often took care of one or two dozen buildings, and within just over three hours, climbed more than 100 floors, rain or shine. However, what they did is seldom mentioned in mainland China, as it is the basic means of clarifying the truth to people.
In February 2002, the local cable station in Changchun was tapped into, and truth-clarification programs were broadcast on the TV. Because my dad was a technician at the TV station, police officers took him away, and our home was ransacked. At that time, the head police officer grabbed my collar. He yelled at me and swore that he wanted to kill me. Our home was turned upside down. They took my parents away and left. I was only 12 years old then. During the time when my dad was held for a year, my mother and I consistently clarified the facts to our neighbors. At school, I used my own experience to clarify the facts to my teachers and students. After they learned the truth, they were very supportive and admired me. They often asked me about my dad to see how he was doing and if we needed help. After my dad was released, we left our home and began to move from place to place.
With the Fa-rectification moving forward, the material-production centers in China went from being more centralized to becoming more spread-out and family-oriented. Even though we didn't have a permanent home, we were still making materials in large quantities. During the past 12 years of cultivation, I came to understand the responsibilities that a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple shoulders and the true purpose of clarifying the facts. Teacher said in “Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference:”
"Every Dafa disciple will shoulder immense responsibilities in the future. There are so many beings that need you to save them--there are so many lives that need you to save them. During this period of time, you yourselves need to harmonize and consummate everything that's needed for your own Fruition and countless beings. Your mighty virtue and everything of gods are within it. That's why I often say that in validating the Fa, you should do well the three things Dafa disciples need to do, and everything is encompassed in them. So I say that the most important goal for you in clarifying the truth is to save even more beings in the process. This is what's foremost, and this is the real purpose of clarifying the truth." (Teaching the Fa at the Conference IV)
2. Using the Internet to Clarify the Facts in Singapore
In 2008 after I graduated from high school, instead of applying to universities near home, I applied to Singapore Technology Institute and went there in April 2008. In October 2009, I became enlightened on what Teacher said in "My Thanks to Sentient Beings Who Have Sent Greetings:" "Dafa disciples are the sole hope of salvation for the beings in each region and each nation." I came up with the idea of clarifying the facts to universities around the world. Because I was a college student in Singapore, I could apply to a university and clarify the facts to different recruitment offices. On every application, there was always one question asking what impacted one the most, be it a person or an event. To address this topic, I could easily draw on my personal experience and tell about the CCP persecution of Falun Gong, what Falun Gong is about, as well as the impact of brutal persecution on practitioners, especially their children.
After I prepared for a month, I started processing my applications. At first, it was very difficult. I remember before I sent out my first application, I had already spent three hours on it. The university website was right in front of me, my application form was filled out, yet I was so hesitant to press the send button. At that time, Teacher's "What's to Fear?" in Hong Yin II appeared in front of me, and I suddenly understood. Teacher opened up my wisdom, and I managed to speed up. I went from sending out one application in an hour to sending four applications in an hour. At that time, I was doing my internship at a global freight company for six months, and I was very busy during the day. After I finished work, I clarified the facts over the Internet until midnight. On Saturdays, I worked at a hotel for 15 hours. On Sundays, from 10 to 10, I clarified the facts and wrote down my reflections on the week. In time, I started getting feedback from the universities. Some was positive and some was negative, some was encouraging, some tried to be intimidating. Seeing people gradually waking up, my state of mind about clarifying the facts changed as well. Without fear, I could save more sentient beings. Very often I received a dozen reply emails from the recruitment offices of different universities. The number of universities that I had contacted was growing.
In the end, the universities that I clarified the facts to by submitting my applications included all the top 500 universities in the world that teach in English, including universities in North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, and South Africa. Based on their feedback, I followed-up with them to further clarify the facts.
For two years, I clarified the facts by mailing university applications. Because I did not submit application fees, many of them would not consider my application. In the end, I was admitted to two universities, one in the US, the other in Australia.
In February 2011, three days after I graduated, I went back to the company where I did my internship and began my first full-time job. I felt a lot more pressure in this full-time position than as an intern. I had to handle at least 50 phone calls and check more than 400 emails, as well as deal with complex interpersonal relationships. As a new graduate, it was very hard for me to handle. On top of all that, my colleagues and boss often mistreated me. During that period of time, I was very depressed.
Thanks to my parents' reminder, I began to use Internet to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to my colleagues and clients. I was able to get every employee's email address as well as our local clients' emails numbering in the thousands. Through sending them emails, I was able to tell them about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. I hoped they could learn the truth and know about Falun Gong. During that time, I sent hundreds of thousands of emails. Through truth-clarification, my work environment also improved. My work was finally recognized by my boss and other colleagues, and I successfully passed my probation period. When I left this company, both the general manager of the company and my director wrote reference letters for me.
3. Clarifying the Truth in San Francisco's Chinatown, Saving Sentient Beings
Teacher said in Zhuan Falun: "As a practitioner, your path of life will be changed from now on. My fashen will rearrange it for you." Many practitioners, myself included, have deep understanding of what Teacher said. Because I graduated from only a three-year college program, I had been applying for transfer to a university where I could do my graduate study and get a university degree. In April 2011, without my submitting any application, a business school in Boston called me for an interview. After that, a series of extraordinary things happened. I was notified that I would be admitted with a 50% full scholarship offered. Later they told me that there was no room at their Boston campus, so I had to go to their San Francisco campus. After I came to San Francisco, I suddenly understood that this was another path Teacher arranged for me.
After I came to the US, I found that the environment for truth-clarification was very different from that in Singapore. There were many truth-clarification projects in the Bay area, and some of the headquarters were set up right in the Bay area. I joined Sound of Hope last November. Since my study was very intensive, I could only do it on a part-time basis.
This June, the attack on practitioners in San Francisco Chinatown became a focus for Bay area practitioners. After this incident, practitioners realized the importance of clarifying the facts in Chinatown. At that time, I had one week of vacation, so I went with other practitioners to clarify the facts. At first, I resented and was critical of the evildoers, and I had a competitive mentality, neglecting to cherish kindness, and it didn't turn out very well. Later when I was studying the Fa, I saw Teacher said in Zhuan Falun:
"If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble."
I came to understand that when one clarifies the facts, one cannot have any attachments, only then can one save sentient beings.
With the elevation of my xinxing, businesses in Chinatown began to understand the truth, the environment became more peaceful, and people began to take flyers from us. At this July's DC Fa conference, I mostly wanted to see Teacher, but then I thought about what Teacher said in “Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference:”
"How many people have really gone to San Francisco's Chinatown to clarify the facts? If you haven't persisted at it and there have only been a few people involved, of course things won't change! Given that there are so many disciples in the Bay Area, why don't you make that area a priority and put in some effort there?"
I decided to stay in Chinatown to clarify the facts.
After the DC Fa conference, we moved up the time for setting up our truth-clarification location from 6 a.m. to 4 a.m. Later we changed it to be 24 hours. I could clearly feel we were short of hands, but no matter what, I always remembered what Teacher said:
“Doing any form of cultivation entails undergoing a trial such as this and a path with such features. Only if one can persevere and continually forge ahead does it amount to true diligence. It's easy to talk about, but putting it into action is tremendously difficult. That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank." (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference”)
Clarifying the facts in Chinatown entails being out in the scorching sun or wind and sometimes being sworn at. One practitioner said, “If it weren't for Teacher asking us to come here to save them, I would never have come here.” I felt the same way and thought to myself, “As a graduate student, I came to save you yet you are full of hostility,” I was so sad. I felt they were so hard to save. When I began to read the Fa that night, the first sentence jumped out at me:
"There's something you must pay attention to: you are validating the Fa, not validating yourselves. A Dafa disciple's responsibility is to validate the Fa. Validating the Fa is cultivation, and what you remove in the cultivation process is none other than the attachment to self; you can't, instead, go and exacerbate the problem of validating oneself, even if you do it unwittingly. When you're validating the Fa and cultivating, that is a process of removing self, and only when you do that are you really validating yourself. That's because ultimately you have to let go of all your human things, and only after you've let go of all your human attachments can you step out from the throngs of everyday people." (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference VI)
Indeed, Dafa practitioners' honor was granted by Dafa. If I didn't practice Falun Gong, I wouldn't be where I am today. With the progress of clarifying the facts in Chinatown, the number of sites has been increasing. Teachers from the Fei Tian Academy clarify the facts with us in Chinatown during the day. At night, we make truth-clarification boards at Fei Tian Academy. One time, I only had 45 minutes of sleep, yet I still went to Chinatown the next day. Our truth-clarification umbrella and boards went from one to five, then to nine, until you could see our boards at each and every intersection.
With the cooperation among practitioners, we began to set up truth-clarification boards at Dedun Street. Especially at the Quitting the CCP Service Center, our truth-clarification messages really got people's attention. Local residents and tourists in Chinatown began to change their attitude towards us for the better.
By writing this sharing, I had some new understandings:
In terms of overall cooperation, I came to understand that only if we work well with one another will it be impossible for the evil to take advantage of our loopholes.
Cultivation means letting go of one's attachments, breaking through one's notions, and letting go of one's own ego—not holding on to one's own opinion .
By studying Teacher's Fa, we understand things from just one certain angle. We should not use Teacher's Fa principals to measure others, only ourselves. This is truly looking inwards.
This is my cultivation experience. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you, Teacher. Thank you, everyone.
(2012 San Francisco Fa Conference)
