(Minghui.org) We had approximately nine young Dafa practitioners in our small town. Our parents are diligent Dafa practitioners. We started Dafa cultivation with our parents at young ages. After we grew up, we were tempted by ordinary human society and slacked off in practicing. However, now we have resumed diligent cultivation again. We firmly study the Fa every day and assume the responsibilities of saving sentient beings. The following are some of our cultivation stories.
When I was five years old, I started practicing cultivation with my mother. She always read the Fa and many cultivation stories to me. The bud of cultivation had already sprouted up in my heart at that young age and slowly took root. I could understand the Fa at my level. I knew I was different from my peers. I realized that Master is great. My mother was a coordinator, and always took me along to her activities. She established a Fa study group and taught new practitioners how to do the exercises. She occasionally corrected the exercise movements and postures for other practitioners. As I can remember, we had a very spacious group study site. On the wall was a banner reading: "Solid Cultivation" from Hong Yin:
“Study Fa, obtain Fa,
Compare in studying, compare in cultivating,
Examine each and every deed,
Accomplishing is cultivating.” ("Solid Cultivation" in Hong Yin )
One year later, we moved out of town. Many things have happened since then. After the persecution began, police often disturbed us, causing us to be reproached by my father. I was in first grade at the time. The media started slandering Dafa. The whole school acted as if it was part of a political movement. All of the students were forced by teachers to make declarations and sign their names on a big white cloth. I signed my name against my will, but my mother helped me solemnly declare that my signature is null and void. I was afraid of hearing any knocking on our door and was always very careful after school every day.
Under such a tense atmosphere, my mother still remained firm in practicing cultivation. She spent most of her time studying the Fa every day. I listened beside her and asked questions sometimes. When practitioners began to resist the persecution, my mother and I, along with other practitioners went out in the evening to distribute materials containing important facts about the persecution. We also put up self-adhesive stickers and hung banners.
Because of my father's misunderstanding and repeated harassment from the police, my mother was forced to leave home and moved back to that little town that we used to live in. I was 12 years old at the time. After my mother left, I no longer studied the Fa diligently. but I always considered myself a Dafa disciple and kept in contact with local practitioners. During middle school, I was tempted by ordinary society and was intrigued by dating, visiting internet cafes, playing billiards, among other things. But I couldn't expel my inner loneliness and anguish. As described in the article “Salvation” written five years ago, I roamed alone on the streets all night and felt the bitterness of loneliness and pain on many cold winter nights. However, I did not go bad, because in my heart I had the Fa and Dafa to restrain myself. After graduating from middle school, I went back to the little town more than 600 miles away to see my mother. When I first came to live with my mother, I had a very bad temper and often got angry. I was sometimes diligent in studying the Fa, sometimes not. This situation lasted a long time until one day I attended a local Fa conference. After listening to other practitioners share their experiences, I realized my own shortcomings and decided to cultivate diligently.
With the encouragement and help of other practitioners, we set up a young practitioners' Fa study group. In the beginning, the group studied the Fa once a week. Now, they do so every day. I then began to help my mother make booklets and burn DVDs every night. Doing this, I felt fulfilled in my heart and happy. I often helped other practitioners install computer systems because, as a coordinator, my mother always brought back home some technical problems they had. She also often took me to other places to teach people printing skills. We also delivered materials containing important facts about the persecution to places hundreds of miles away. I shared my experiences with practitioners there and improved together with them. Gradually, I had a reputation as a technical practitioner and, to encourage me, some practitioners even called me “Little Coordinator”, meaning the coordinator for young practitioners. I was happy to hear the praise. More importantly, I knew I had to be more strict with myself. Xiao Jian (an alias) was 13 when he and his mother obtained the Fa at my house. He then practiced the exercises with us because my mother was an assistant at that time. He spread the Fa with the adults occasionally. He never felt it was hard even though he had to travel dozens of miles with them to do so. As he grew older, Xiao Jian no longer studied the Fa diligently and slowly gave up. He also started to smoke. Whenever his mother asked if he was a Dafa practitioner, his response was always positive, but I felt sometimes that he did not seem like a Dafa disciple at all.
One time, his mother was arrested by the police for persisting to practice Falun Dafa. They had many Dafa books at home. While the plainclothes police were still outside his home, he wisely moved the books to a safe place. Later, he was lured to the police station and then illegally detained in a detention center for 12 days. In the detention center, he was repeatedly intimidated and beaten by police. But he did not betray any practitioners nor Dafa.
A year went by and he still didn't study the Fa. However, Master never gave up on him. Xiao Jian didn't give up on himself either. When he later joined the young practitioners Fa study group, he quit smoking with the help from his parents and young practitioners. Slowly, he began to improve again. A few months later, he even got involved with a project to install our regional NTD receivers. It was really impressive that he did it like a professional. (New Tang Dynasty Television is an independent, nonprofit television station that broadcasts uncensored news).
We had another young practitioner called Xinran (alias). She has worked closely with me in coordinating young practitioners. We have looked for young practitioners to join the Fa study group.
Xinran started practicing cultivation with her family at the age of six. Since her home was an exercise site, she always did the exercises with many other young practitioners. However, as she grew older, she slowly departed from Dafa and did not realize that she had done a lot of things inconsistent with the requirements of the Fa. Although she occasionally studies the Fa in school, I always felt that she just flipped through the pages casually. However, great merciful Master did not give up on her. Her repeatedly occurring sickness karma disappeared each time after she studied the Fa with her mother. Although she was aware that it was Master helping her she did not really improve herself.
In 2010 when she was a college sophomore, she enlightened after discussions with her mother: “Like this, not only can't I study the Fa diligently and improve my xinxing, my behavior is no different from ordinary people. It is wasting time. It is better if I go home to cultivate and do the three things well. I feel that this approach is also one way to remove the attachments to fame and gain.”
She then began to study the Fa and do the exercises every day after she came back home. She even worked with another practitioner to clarify the truth, do the three things, and distribute materials which inform people about the persecution. A year later, she started a new job and put aside her Fa study and stopped doing the three things again. At that time, she still didn't realize the urgency and the importance of studying the Fa and saving people.
Because she had not studied the Fa for a long time, it was really very hard for her to break out of that state again. Fortunately, her family background provided her opportunities to see the improvement of many practitioners. Through Fa conferences and experience sharing with other practitioners, she finally realized the gap in cultivation between her and other practitioners. She also realized the meaning of what Master said in a poem.
“Ordinary people have difficulty knowing the hardship of cultivation, Competing and fighting treated as happiness” (“Cultivating in a Maze” from Hong Yin)
Gradually, Xinran has improved again. She studies the Fa and practices the exercises every day. She has also taken on the responsibilities of many of our regional projects in saving sentient beings, such as installing computers, setting up MP3's and MP5's, engraving letters on coins with an electric pen, and changing serial numbers of cell phones. She also has solved technical problems for practitioners in other cities when asked by their coordinators. She has done those things quietly and has neither bragged nor shown off.
Another young practitioner is called Xiaoxue (alias). She and her younger sister started practicing Dafa with their mother in 1996. She joined the adults to do group Fa study and group exercises while she was young. When she grew up, she got distracted with dating and chased after fame and personal gain. Even her mother couldn't do anything about it. One day in 2010, I chatted with her and told her that the time to save people was urgent and studying the Fa is important. She started reading the books, but did not persist because of a lack of perseverance, which is a common problem for many young practitioners. When our Fa study group was formed, she joined us after seeing us learn well. Xiaoxue has changed a lot. She was irritable and often quarreled with her parents. Now, she knows to forbear and to look inward. She is also taking the attachments of fame, gain, and emotional attachment lightly. To be able to save people, she has joined the team to clarify the truth by phone. We occasionally hold regional experience-sharing conferences and she always checks with me about the schedule for fear that she may be left out. Xiaoxue's younger sister did not study the Fa often. She was too sick to eat for several days last winter. Her mother brought her to our experience-sharing conference and her disease disappeared after listening to other practitioners share their experiences. We all witnessed that miracle. Since then, she has studied the Fa and practiced the exercises with us.
We still have a few young practitioners who currently are students. In school, they persistently study the Fa and while on vacation, they join our group Fa study.
Next, I would like to share some things we have learned since our Fa study group was established. We did not encounter any difficulties in setting up the group. This might be attributable to the tendency of playing together because we were the same age. In our group Fa study, we study all of the Dafa books systematically. The young practitioners in our group improve rapidly. We understand the importance of group Fa study as well as the principles of the Fa.
If there is something unclear, we learn from each other. In future Fa study, I know that I will start to guide other young practitioners to look inward. In addition to understanding the importance of group Fa study, the compassionate support from one's family also plays an important role. All parents who are practitioners wish for their children to improve based on the Fa. But the key to really helping them is to be compassionate, rather than being driven by emotional attachments.
Recently, many young practitioners have been puzzled by a question. They ask why the Fa-rectification process is still happening, and it doesn't seem close to the end. I was puzzled myself too. But I now realize that it is because Master is waiting, waiting for the salvation of more sentient beings, and waiting for those fallen young practitioners to catch up.
I now feel more and more that things in the human world are not real, so what is there to hang on to? No matter how old we are, we all should quickly seize the time to save sentient beings, have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, avoid slacking off, and fulfill our vows.
