(Minghui.org) Greetings, Masters! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I began practicing Falun Dafa in January 1997 when I was in college. After an elderly Chinese practitioner gave me the book Falun Gong, I joyfully ran home like a child. After I finished it, even though I understood very little of the profound Fa principles, I deeply felt that I finally found the purpose of life.
In less than a year after I began practicing, the symptoms of my sinusitis along with my chronic headaches and stomachaches were gone. From then on, my body felt very light without any illnesses.
After the persecution started in 1999, my sister was illegally arrested and sentenced. In April 2009, a practitioner who knew us was arrested, and under torture, told the police our names. My family had to flee China in June 2009. We settled in the US in June 2013.
Removing Human Attachments
In February 2011, the telephone platform to rescue mainland Chinese practitioners was created. The team mainly works on the persecution cases reported on the Minghui website. We phone the CCP’s public security, procuratorial, courts, prosecutorial departments and 610 Offices. I started making phone calls as soon as the platform was established.
Calling people who work in these departments is really like being a monks that wanders around encountering all kinds of people. When I first started calling, I heard so many curse words, especially words defaming Master and Dafa. There really are no words to describe how bad I felt. Maybe because I’d never heard those evil words in before, I couldn’t help fighting back. Even after I hung up, those words kept coming back to my mind.
After I calmed down, I tried to look inside myself: Was it due to my competitive mentality being too strong and the attachment of being unable to take criticism? Or could it be because I still had disrespectful thoughts about Master and the Fa that the evil dared to say such malicious things? On the other hand, it could be because the interference manipulating people was afraid of being eliminated and tried its best to say shameful words defaming Master and Dafa to stop us from doing what we were supposed to do--make phone calls.
I learned that some practitioners started making fewer and fewer phone calls after they were cursed at. They said they didn’t want to hear those words curing Master and Dafa, and they didn’t want those people to get incur karma and harm themselves. However, I didn’t think these thoughts were right. If we stopped calling, wouldn’t that encourage the evil?
Along with clearing away my competitive mentality, my attachment to lust and desire, and anything in my dimensional field that was disrespectful of Master and the Fa during the first five minutes of sending righteous thoughts, I targeted evil beings persecuting Dafa. I then didn’t stop calling them until they stopped cursing, listened to what I had to say, or no longer took calls. Sometimes it took me a few hours to call one number. I had to call some of the people in charge more than a dozen times before they answered.
One time I called a policeman who participated in the persecution; he answered 116 times, but never said a word. The first 12 times, he hung up as soon as he picked up the phone. The next 12 times, he listened for a few seconds before hanging up. I tried to make my words concise and was able to say one or two complete sentences each time. He stopped picking up the phone after I called him the 117th time.
As I made phone calls, I gradually discovered the numbers provided to Minghui by mainland practitioners were not very complete. Some practitioners from the rescue team didn’t do a very thorough job of organizing the numbers either. Some cases only had a few numbers available, some just one or two. In some instances, the names and phone numbers of the responsible people were not available.
I started to complain about the mainland practitioners who provided incomplete information and about the practitioners within the team that didn’t do a good job organizing and updating details and critical information.
Then I tried to put myself in their shoes: It is extremely difficult to collect correct information for mainland practitioners under such harsh conditions. Also, some older practitioners don’t even know how to use the Internet. The practitioners who organize the information for the calling team usually don’t have firsthand experience calling, so they do not really know which phone number is important and which not to keep. Also, many of them have day jobs with limited spare time.
These phone calls are very time sensitive. If we don’t get the numbers of the people in charge, the rescue effect can be very limited. For a long time, I felt depressed and helpless and sometimes even couldn’t fall sleep at night. I once even planned to leave the project and make "quit the CCP" calls instead. But every time I saw the new persecution cases on Minghui, I deeply felt I should continue.
After approval from the team coordinator, we formed a group that specialized in checking phone numbers. After a while, I discovered we still often don’t have the right contact information of the department and person in charge. Especially in new cases, the available information is very insufficient. Without this information, our efforts are not very effective. I asked Master to strengthen me while sending righteous thoughts and started to obtain phone numbers directly from the departments involved in the persecution.
Requesting numbers is a process of tempering my determination. Sometimes it takes a few hours to get just one piece of information. When I call, I start out being very polite. If they have a bad attitude, I speak with more determination, “What you are doing is assisting evil, committing a crime, a crime against heaven.” Then I clarify the truth to them. Most of them realize they’re doing wrong and will quietly listen to me.
I continue to call until they give me some relevant information or stop taking the calls. Little by little, I've been able to obtain some critical information, such as the name of the person in charge and his office number, home number, or cell phone number. Some of this information was given voluntarily.
I’d like to share an example. Once I called Beijing's Chaoyang District pretrial department, which is directly in charge of persecution. The first time I phoned, the man hung up without saying anything. The second time, he started cursing badly as soon as he picked up the phone. After he acted like that a few times, I started telling him about incidents of karmic retribution.
In the beginning, he would immediately hang up. When I called back, he wouldn’t answer. After I tried a few more times, when he picked up phone again, he completely changed his voice, saying he was just someone on duty. Then he gave me two phone numbers. I asked him what those numbers were for, but he didn’t say.
I asked him if he would want his supervisor to hear the recording of our previous conversations. He remained silent. Then I asked him if he wanted to listen to it himself. He didn’t think I'd recorded him, so he said, “Go ahead.” He hung up as soon as I started playing the recording and would not answer the phone.
I didn’t pay much attention to the two numbers he gave me at first. After I finished all the other numbers, I tried those numbers. They were both for the pretrial department. The person who answered sounded as though he was someone in charge and he was very surprised that I got his number.
When I look back at all the unpleasant things I've been through while making phone calls, they are really nothing compared to the ordeals and torture those illegally arrested and detained mainland practitioners experienced.
When I eliminated more human attachments, I could remain calm and my heart unmoved no matter how badly they cursed over the phone. When I first started, I had to take a break after little more than an hour of calling. Now I don’t feel tired even after five hours.
Through making phone calls, I've been able to let go of many human attachments, and my determination and righteous thoughts have strengthened.
Raising a Little Disciple
Master said:
“But among those who cultivate Dafa, often there are many families who have children, and it’s very likely that they are no ordinary children. Before reincarnating, the child knows—'This family will study Dafa in the future. I want to reincarnate into this family'—in which case it’s very likely that he might have an extraordinary background.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia”)
I think that, since my child is reincarnated into a practitioner’s family, I need to be responsible for her. Otherwise, I’d commit a crime that I could never redeem. I should put Dafa at the first place when educating my child.
Before my daughter turned five, I often read Fa to her. After she heard some poems from Hong Yin, she could memorize them. When she was five, I started teaching her to readZhuan Falun. At the beginning, it took 30 minutes to an hour to go through one paragraph. I had to show her some characters dozens to over a hundred times for her to remember. Gradually she began to learn them. It took me a little over two months to go over Zhuan Falun with her. From then on, she could read the Fa with adults. Whenever she misread or added or missed words, I’d correct her and help her reread the sentence.
When she started to read Zhuan Falun more fluently, I noticed a problem. Sometimes she was not as focused as she used to be. So I read some Minghui articles regarding memorizing the Fa to her. After she listened, she said, “Mom, I also want to memorize the Fa.” In September 2009, when she was 7, she started to memorize Zhuan Falun.
When she first started, it would take her a few days to memorize one paragraph. She would ask me to test her whenever she finished memorizing one paragraph. I required her to recite the paragraph with no mistakes three times in a row before she could move on to the next paragraph. Sometimes I needed to test her a few times for her to pass one paragraph.
In time she was able to memorize a few dozen paragraphs every day. It took her 27 months to memorize Zhuan Falun the first time. Then it took her 12 months to memorize it the second time. I also squeezed in time to study Master’s other lectures and new teachings with her.
While my child was studying and memorizing the Fa, I started to teach her to do the exercises. In the beginning, she was reluctant. Apart from being tired, she would often feel dizzy. She also didn’t like to do the sitting meditation for long. So I found some cultivation stories on Minghui to share with her. Gradually her fear of hardship lessened, and she no longer felt uncomfortable and liked to meditate. One time, she was able to sit for two hours. As long as she was at home, she never stopped memorizing the Fa and doing the exercises.
Apart from having kids learn more of the Fa and traditional culture, I think as parents we also need to educate them by setting a good example ourselves. Usually I don’t easily promise anything to my child, but once I promise something, I try my best to keep my word. If I don’t give her permission to do something, I don’t give in no matter how bad a fit she throws. I made it clear to her that it is no use or will even make matters worse if she continues to behave that way. In dealing with other matters, I also emphasize cultivating her morality.
There've been times when I couldn’t maintain my xinxing well. I remember one time very clearly. I had a conflict with her and lost my temper. I got so angry that I felt weak and confused and fell down. Then I saw myself blowing up like a balloon, then, suddenly, with a huge “Bang!” the balloon burst. One side of my body got a severe shock. I realized Master was telling me my capacity was not large enough and that I need to upgrade my xinxing.
Raising a little disciple seems to be also a long process that has helped me to abandon a lot of human attachments. When I eliminated more of my attachments, my daughter became more and more obedient.
Suing the Evil
In May this year, the Chinese Supreme Court established a new lawsuit filing registration system, requiring that all lawsuits be filed and all complaints addressed. Also, at this year’s New York Fa conference, Master clearly affirmed what it means to sue Jiang. I realized the time had come to sue Jiang Zemin. Yet, due to my human mindset, I was afraid that family members in China might be harassed, plus I didn’t think I had much to say.
Master said:
“It’s just like what I described in an example. I said that at critical moments, some people are able to give up their futures, jobs, and careers. If that’s the case, didn’t these people pass this trial? What do human beings live for? Don’t they live for the possibility of having a good future among everyday people and having satisfactory careers so as to fulfill their dreams? They want to accomplish certain things. When these things are placed in front of them, can they step out of them when challenged? If they can walk away from them, haven’t they passed a life and death trial? Don’t human beings live for those things? When they can let go of these, aren’t they able to let go of the attachment to life?” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Canada”)
In a Minghui article published on May 20, 2015, titled “To End the Persecution, the Evil Head Must Be Held accountable,” it said in part: “To a cultivator, it is the manifestation of Master pushing the Fa rectification to the human world, it is another opportunity for human beings, it is a great opportunity for Dafa disciples to save sentient beings, it is a requirement for Dafa disciples to safeguard the universal principles, to save people, to let go all attachments, to reach their fruit status. Of course, whether or not we dare to sue Jiang using our real names and addresses, whether or not we dare to present the deposition personally or mail it to the local Procuratorate and court is a serious test for cultivators.”
When I saw my human attachments, I thought I’d rely on my husband, and let him write something to represent the family. But my husband was busy working every day. I got worried as I began to read the Minghui articles regarding the lawsuit. Little by little, I sorted through my thoughts and clearly understood that the purpose of suing Jiang is to save more sentient beings before the Fa rectifies the human world.
Just then, I saw a white swan slowly flying up into the sky. That kind of swan is very rarely seen. At once, a warm current flowed through my heart. I knew Master was encouraging me.
I hope that, in order to cooperate with the change in the heavenly climate, those practitioners who have not written their depositions yet hurry up and sue that most heinous evil head, quickly put him on trial, bring him to justice, and strive to save as many sentient beings as we can during the limited time left. Just like the lyrics in the Shen Yun song: “Don’t let the regret become an eternal regret.” (“Don't Make Me Regret For You” from Hong Yin III)
When I recall the past 18 years, because of my lack of diligence, I missed many opportunities to validate the Fa and save people, letting Master worry. I feel terribly sorry.
With Master’s benevolent care, I've been able to walk my cultivation path for 18 years. No words could ever describe my deep gratitude toward Master. During the remaining time, I will do the three things well; be diligent, diligent, and more diligent; fulfill my oath; and be worthy of Master and sentient beings’ expectations.
Please kindly point out anything inappropriate in my sharing.
Thank you, benevolent Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2015 Mid-US Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
