(Minghui.org) The right attitude makes a big difference when helping Chinese people quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). My smugness has often interfered with doing this, and even got me arrested.
Finding Falun Gong
I had all kinds of ailments before I began cultivating, and was always exhausted physically and mentally. I sought treatment from qigong masters, but it didn't help.
In March 1996 I happened to be on my patio and closed my eyes for a moment. Far away I saw the image of someone who gradually disappeared. Soon after, I began to practice Falun Gong. When I watched the exercise instruction video, I realized that the person I had seen was Master.
Master's Law Body led me to a practice site in a park. A Falun Dafa poster I saw impressed me. After only a few days of doing the exercises in the park, my illnesses went away.
As I was doing the Falun Standing Stance exercise one day, I saw an enormous Buddha standing between heaven and earth. I didn't know who he was at the time, but when I watched the exercise instruction video again, Master looked exactly like the Buddha that I saw.
I was raised in an atheistic society, where most people did not believe in gods or Buddhas. As a new practitioner, I realized that Master wanted to encourage me. He helped me to see that the Buddha really exists.
Day by day, I worked hard at everything I did, especially in my cultivation practice. I often brought work home, and worked late into the night, sometimes until midnight. Even so, I was determined to read at least one chapter of Zhuan Falun before I went to sleep.
I sometimes didn’t get to bed until three or four in the morning. I get up at five to join others for exercises at the practice site. Despite sleeping less, I feel full of energy throughout the day.
I firmly believed in the Fa. This period laid a solid foundation that helped me survive the evil environments of the brainwashing centers, forced labor camps, and prisons.
Eliminating My Conceit
When the persecution began, police in my area broke the law by fabricating evidence as a matter of course. I worked hard to rescue other practitioners from arrest and imprisonment. Then it happened to me—more than once.
As soon as I began a five-year prison sentence, I prepared a formal letter of appeal to the appellate court. With a feeling of self-righteousness, I wanted to expose the truth to the court. I wanted to tell them how much I had improved mentally and physically. My letter explained that this had not happened because of modern medicine, but through the supernatural science of Falun Gong.
I also described how the 610 Office had persecuted me and other practitioners. I didn’t realize that my ego was getting in the way, despite my good intentions.
I proudly showed my letter to the head of the prison and others. They advised me not to send it. I didn't listen to them.
My only thought was to help others quit the Party. I asked my relatives to make copies of the letter and send it to city officials and members of the district judiciary. I truly believed the letter would eliminate the authorities’ malevolent mindsets, have them rule in my favor, and save many Chinese people from their dangerous attitudes.
The appeals court upheld the original sentence. This setback gave me the opportunity to adjust my attitude. What I was doing was the most righteous and sacred thing in the universe, and my mind was very clear. I no long thought of myself. My only thought was to save others. I cleansed myself of self-satisfaction, and suddenly felt my body merge with the universe. I completely denied everything the old forces arranged.
Practitioners supported me by sending righteous thoughts for my release. With Master's merciful protection, the evil's illusion of imprisoning me dissolved. Master created the impression that I was ill so that I could be released. My family brought me home without going through any procedures or paying bail for medical treatment.
My Notions Caused Me to be Persecuted
After my release, practitioners whom I had not seen for several years visited. We studied the Fa and shared cultivation experiences together. Instead of asking how I got out of prison, they asked why I had been persecuted for so many years.
I was shocked. No one had ever asked me this before. I tried to explain, but later realized that I was looking outside myself and not within. Master arranged for them to bring attention to my attachments.
I then asked myself, “why was I persecuted so many times?” When I looked within, I discovered how my conceit had gotten in the way of validating the Fa. I had considered doing things to be the same as cultivating. I recalled times when this thought emerged.
During the peak of the persecution, our group produced large banners and posted them everywhere in the city and countryside. Not many practitioners were able to do this. We made banners six and a half feet wide by 13 feet long that said, “Falun Dafa is Good,” “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is Good,” “Restore Master's Innocence,” and “Put Evil Jiang On Trial.”
One night we went to the local food market and hung banners on nearby telephone lines. The next morning, we saw many people looking at them as they passed by. CCP officials were helpless to do anything.
I began considering myself very special. Even though the CCP detained me, I could easily escape with righteous thoughts. Some practitioners also admired me, which reinforced this dangerous notion.
I thought about my courageous acts, and felt very self-satisfied. I liked showing others how great I was. I should have behaved better since I was the coordinator in the area.
I had always moved with Fa-rectification as it progressed, but I still harbored human notions. When I did not pay attention, my attachments and human notions emerged like everyone else. Evil beings took advantage of these notions, and the old forces persecuted me.
I now realize that everything I accomplish comes from the magnificence of Dafa, and is all arranged by Master. When my wishes conform to the Fa, I can achieve great things with Master's help. I walked out of the dark den each time because Master was merciful and bestowed his Buddha's infinite grace on me. Master said,
“The cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master.” (Zhuan Falun)
How could I still be so complacent and such a show-off? I was only doing what Dafa practitioners are supposed to do. Dafa gave me this mission. It was my job to do it well.
Later, when the attachments of complacency and showing-off surfaced, I denied them, and they gradually affected me less and less. As I cultivate, I begin to understand what Master said,
“For a cultivator, looking within is a magical tool.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference”)
Cooperation Harmonizes the Whole Body
With these new insights, I wanted to study the Fa calmly and truly cultivate myself, so I resigned as coordinator. If the new coordinator missed something, I just did it.
There was a big demand for printed materials in our area, so I bought six printers. I shared some understandings with the practitioner responsible for producing brochures. We talked about how to keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification. He needed help, so I offered to help him.
Compassionate Master arranged for another practitioner to help. We had four printers to print enough materials for our large Fa-study group. Other material printing sites used the six printers I bought. In this way, we solved some difficult logistical problems and provided the necessary truth-clarifying materials to save the sentient beings in our area.
Thinking of Others First Brings Great Results
How well we clarify the truth and save sentient beings closely relates to how well we cultivate ourselves. Master said,
“... so you have to do well clarifying the truth. Don't just go to talk for the sake of formality. Whenever you talk to someone you need to have him understand.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference”)
Master’s words became crystal clear as I was waiting for a bus one day. I started to chat with a lady at the bus stop. She told me she was in her seventies and had retired as a senior engineer at a design institute. As we boarded the bus, I had the thought that I must save her.
I asked whether she had heard that withdrawing from the CCP would keep her safe. She said she had traveled to many places including Taiwan and Hong Kong, and saw information about quitting the CCP, but as an atheist since childhood, she did not believe it.
I passed my stop so I could continue talking with her. “Most of the people in the world believe in gods. Only the Communist Party prevents people from believing in higher beings. There are only three countries that are still communist—China, North Korea, and Cuba.”
I told her that some of the greatest scientists in the world believed in gods, including Einstein and Newton. She agreed. I followed her when she got off the bus to do some grocery shopping and we continued to talk.
I told her about Falun Gong, why Jiang Zemin used the CCP to persecute Falun Gong, and why Falun Gong practitioners encourage people to quit the CCP.
Finally, she patted my shoulder. “I know that the CCP persecutes good people. I no longer trust it. Please help me to withdraw from the CCP, the Communist Youth League, and the Young Pioneers. You said this will keep me safe. As an older person, that’s all I really want.”
I saw that she really understood the truth and said to her, “Congratulations! It is your good fortune to understand this.”
From this incident, I realized that if I can always follow what Master teaches me to do and have a merciful mind every time I clarify the truth, I can save more sentient beings.
Helping Others Brings Good Things
As I wrote this article, Master arranged a series of events to help me forget about myself and truly think of others first.
I planned to use a free evening to write this article. My plan changed when two practitioners came to visit. One was older and for several months had suffered from sickness karma. I thought to myself, “We are one body and should help each other. I need to cultivate myself to become an enlightened being who always thinks of others first.”
I said to the other practitioner, “Let’s help her clean her dimensions by sending righteous thoughts for an extended period.” She agreed.
I could feel Master strengthening me. Energy surrounded my body, and I felt relaxed and comfortable. The automatic mechanism of the Falun was rotating and would not stop.
We sent forth righteous thoughts for over an hour, then studied the Fa together. We shared and compared our everyday thoughts, words, and actions with the Fa's requirements.
The older practitioner had not felt that she had any attachments, and did not know how to look within. But she now discovered many attachments and human notions in herself.
We finished at around midnight. When they left, I started to write the article. Master opened my memory and wisdom and my ideas just flowed. I wrote until 2:30 and then went to sleep.
I got up and did the exercises at 4:00 a.m. That day I felt energetic and not sleepy at all. This is what it means to truly cultivate and improve within the Fa. I truly feel Master's compassion, as he helps me and all Dafa practitioners walk a righteous path during the Fa-Rectification period.
At this final stage of Fa-rectification, we must cultivate diligently, save more people, and save them faster before Fa-rectification ends. We must be worthy of the name “Dafa disciples in the Fa-Rectification period” and the mission Dafa has bestowed on us.
Thank you, Master, for arranging everything for your disciples.
Category: Improving Oneself
