(Minghui.org) I am 71 years old and started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. During these past 22 years, my health has been restored and I can let go of attachments to fame, profit, sentimentality, and hatred. Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, taught me the true significance of life and helped me to find my true self that had been buried by karma and human notions.
Master opened my celestial eye the first day I began to practice Falun Dafa. Early in my cultivation, I gradually became indifferent to fame and wealth. I also saw my gong upgrading rapidly.
Ups and Downs in Cultivation
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999. I was arrested in April 2000 and held in a forced labor camp for three years because I organized a conference for practitioners in our city to share their experiences with one another.
I slacked off in my cultivation after I was released and was blocked by a barrier between me and the Fa. Although I didn't stop doing the three things, I couldn't be diligent and felt bitter in my heart. Previously, I often talked to Master in my mind, but at the time I didn't want to talk to Master anymore, and couldn't find the reason why.
During my most difficult and worst time and despite various pressures, I actively participated in organizing Dafa materials production sites and delivering and distributing truth-clarification materials. I saw with my celestial eye that Master was riding with me and another practitioner to deliver the materials.
Looking Within
I carefully looked within and realized that I had been deeply poisoned by the CCP's indoctrination during these past decades, and although the brainwashing in the forced labor camp didn't delude me into being “transformed,” it had somewhat affected me. I also realized that even though I didn't say it, the belief in Master and Dafa was not strong in my heart, which could be the main reason for the barrier being created between me and Dafa.
The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published in November 2004. I read it repeatedly and actively participated in printing and distributing this book. I also studied Master's recent lectures a lot and looked within. I could feel the barrier gradually being eroded, but I still couldn't experience the state of cultivating that I had experienced when I first started.
Master said,
“... during the journey you will have hardships, tests of every sort, unforeseen ordeals, and you will have unexpected interference from all kinds of attachments and emotion. The interference will come from family, society, good friends, and even fellow cultivators.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. VII
I realized that my history contained uncountable feelings of resentment and hatred that I held at various times, and were based on attachments to fame, profit, sentimentality, hostility, and lust. These degenerate materials had accumulated in my mind, and they reinforced my resentment and hatred.
I began to understand that this strong mentality was the main cause of the barrier between me and the Fa. Among all the causes of my resentment and hatred, the main factor was that I sought positive returns or acknowledgment when I did things for others.
In some cases, people even showed hostility towards me, which hurt my heart. Master said, “Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself.” (“Realms,” Essentials for Further Advancement) I was exactly like that.
I understood that among all the causes of my feelings of unfairness, the fundamental factor was selfishness. This selfishness formed and developed all kinds of attachments, negative thoughts and feelings that tormented me for many years.
Eliminating My Attachments and Returning to Purity
When I dug out the fundamental reason for the barrier between me and the Fa, I was surprised and also a little sad. I was determined to eliminate my attachments and return to the pure and innocent state that I had at the start of cultivation.
I continuously sent forth righteous thoughts and continued learning and memorizing the Fa a lot. Over time, I felt the hard ice that was formed by resentment and hatred begin to gradually melt away.
Master saw my heart and helped me remove this attachment, which was replaced with compassion. Now I realize how wrong I was when I complained about others.
I continued to send forth righteous thoughts, and after a period of time my mind was calm, and the feeling of being separated from the Fa disappeared. It was replaced with feelings of peacefulness and richness.
At some point, I began to silently talk to Master again. When I studied the Fa, the Fa principles emerged a lot. The feeling that I used to have when I first started to cultivate returned.
I eventually found the way back home.
Helping People Quit the CCP
Many practitioners in our city have been phoning people to tell them about Falun Dafa and helping them to quit the CCP and its youth organizations.
We started by calling cities and towns far away from us and then started to call cities nearby. At first, many people who answered the phone dared not listen to us, and some of them even cursed us.
However, over time more and more people listened to the recorded messages, and many of them quit the CCP. A lot of people told us that they had received these types of phone calls many times and were well informed about Falun Dafa and the movement of quitting the Party.
Now, we are focusing on phoning people in our city. Because we hadn't attached enough importance to these people, most of them who answered the phone were initially afraid to listen to our messages, just like the people we called years before in other cities.
There are dozens of universities and numerous luxury buildings in and around this city. These people have less opportunity to meet practitioners because their facilities have security that blocks our access, or they tend to drive instead of walking to their destinations.
We made a lot of phone calls to these people, and many listened to our messages. We continued to make calls to local numbers, and after a period of time, more and more people chose to quit the Party.
One family, who were all members of the CCP, declared to quit together. Another time, a family of eight also quit.
Walking the Path Arranged by Master
All practitioners clearly understand that it is Master who is saving people. We are just walking the path arranged for us.
Master said,
“These things are in the hands of one’s teacher; it is he who does them. And this is why it’s said that one only needs to focus on practicing and one’s teacher will handle the rest. It is actually he who handles things, whatever you might hope or try to accomplish.” (The Second Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Over a year ago, when I was meditating I saw a giant Falun fully loaded with neatly placed black and white cobblestones. But I didn't understand what it meant.
When I participated in the global sending forth righteous thoughts at noon that day, I saw the gong that I was emitting was composed of shining, white diamonds. But, again, I didn't know what it meant.
Then, a paragraph of Master's Fa helped me to understand,
“Indestructible righteous faith in the cosmos’s Truth forms benevolent Dafa disciples’ rock-solid, Diamond-Like Bodies, it frightens all evil, and the light of Truth it emanates makes the unrighteous elements in all beings’ thoughts disintegrate. However strong the righteous thoughts are, that’s how great the power is.” (“Also in a Few Words,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Only then did I realize the meaning of what I saw. The black and white cobblestones resembled our “rock-solid and Diamond-Like bodies”, and the gong shining like white diamonds resembles our immutable belief in Dafa.
Category: Improving Oneself
