(Minghui.org) When I look back at my course of cultivation practice, I realize that when I have studied the Fa diligently, I've done well and remained in a good cultivation state.
When I was in high school, I came upon Falun Dafa books at a bookstore and thus obtained the Fa. After I went away to college, one evening I saw that there were many qigong exercise sites nearby. I thought to myself, “It would be great if I could find a Falun Dafa exercise site.” I went into a bookstore on my way back to my dormitory and saw Dafa books on the shelf. It turned out that the owner of the bookstore was the coordinator of the local practice site. I went to the group practice site the next morning. We had a good environment there at the time. We studied the Fa together every evening and improved very fast. In the meantime, I also had no difficulty completing the assignments at school. I was the second best in my class and received the Top Grade Scholarship.
After the persecution began [in 1999], we started to recite the Fa. I recited the Fa for two hours every morning, and I could recite the whole book of Zhuan Falun in about four months. I realized that it was a book for serious cultivation. This set a solid foundation for my cultivation and helped me overcome subsequent obstacles.
At the end of 2000, several fellow practitioners and I went to Beijing to validate the Fa. We shouted in Tiananmen Square, "Falun Dafa is good!" After we were detained, we recited Zhuan Falun together at the detention center. Later, I was picked up by officials from my university and detained at a local detention center for 15 more days. Afterward, I was expelled from school.
I was held in a detention center again in 2001. I started my first hunger strike to protest the persecution. During the hunger strike, I recited Master’s articles over and over, nonstop. I felt a powerful energy field surrounding me. I had an indestructible will, and I didn’t even feel hunger or misery. Ordinary people said I was protected by gong. After that, I felt that I changed a lot. I was able to get rid of many attachments and strengthen my Main Consciousness. I knew Dafa had renewed my life.
In 2003, I recited two to three lectures of Zhuan Falun every day during my imprisonment. The guards urged the prisoners to force me to write statements renouncing my faith in Falun Dafa. A prisoner beat me three times. I wrote a 12-page letter, in which I clarified the truth about Falun Dafa systemically. I wrote the facts about the staged “Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation” incident and the “April 25, 1999, Appeal.” I also described the persecution that was occurring at the hands of guards and some of the prisoners. I submitted the letter to the head of the prison, and he then announced that sentence reduction promised to the prisoner who had beat me would be postponed.
After sharing understandings with fellow practitioners also detained at the prison, I realized the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. Master opened my Celestial Eye, and this gave me more confidence. We had an electronic watch, and two other practitioners and I made sure to send forth righteous thoughts every hour. Once, I saw three Faluns in the face of the electronic watch when we sent forth righteous thoughts. We knew it was Master’s encouragement. We were able to arrange with the guards to do hard labor only half the day and have free time in the other half of the day. We started to recite the Fa. A fellow practitioner who was very diligent would write down the sentence that I recited, and then recited it himself. He wrote down all of the lectures that I could recite. When I saw prisoners lining up into a building one day, all of them looked like skeletons. After sharing our understandings, fellow practitioners and I realized that these prisoners were not doing well because they had bad notions about Dafa. We knew that we should explain the facts about Falun Dafa to them, so we clarified the truth to all of them individually.
In 2004, a guard tortured us by forcing us to stand for a long period of time. I began a hunger strike to resist the persecution. On the seventh day, I saw Master ask the gods in other dimensions to come to support me when I sent forth righteous thoughts. The head of the prison talked with me that day and stopped the torture. In the afternoon, I stopped the hunger strike.
After I was released from the prison, I didn’t have Master’s new lectures. One day after returning home, I saw the previous coordinator of our exercise site waiting for the traffic light beside me. I was able to get Master’s new lectures from him.
I was arrested once again in 2007. I was force-fed during a hunger strike. When I lost consciousness, I saw that my Main Spirit went off into another dimension, where there was a giant golden Buddha. Then I regained consciousness.
In the prison, I got to know a fellow practitioner who had obtained the Fa in prison before the persecution started. He insisted on studying the Fa and doing the exercises even after the persecution started. He read all of Master’s new lectures. We read Zhuan Falun and other lectures every day and sent forth righteous thoughts at 7, 8 and 9 o’clock in the evening. We started to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa to everyone in the prison. When we come across difficulties, we read the Fa more and sent forth righteous thoughts. Our environment became better. We always heard the prisoners talk about withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After several months, 70 to 80 percent of the prisoners had quit the CCP. Many prisoners refused to participate in persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners. Then the guards had to persecute us by themselves, and we took that opportunity to clarify the truth to them. Soon, they stopped mistreating us.
I did very well in a severe environment, but I didn’t do well in a relaxed environment and developed many attachments. I wasted precious time and felt very regretful.
I will be diligent again from now on. I will study the Fa, save more people, and do the three things well.
