(Minghui.org) It has been 30 years since Falun Dafa was introduced to the world, and it has been 28 years since I started practicing Dafa.
Twenty-eight years ago, I attended three Fa lecture series and two introductory seminars held by Master in China. It was so fortunate for me to have the opportunity to listen to Master’s lectures in person.
Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong, I have never wavered in my faith over the years. Dafa is deeply rooted in my heart and nothing can change that.
(Continued from Part 1)
Setting Examples for Us
I attended Master’s second Fa lecture class in Tianjin in March 1994. A group of practitioners (myself included) who had attended the previous lecture in Beijing ordered the tickets together. We received some discount for the tickets as returning students – only 25 yuan per ticket. Although we ordered the tickets early, we didn’t receive them until when it was near the start date. We were disappointed to find out that the tickets were in the back rows.
Some practitioners questioned why we didn’t have seats in the front rows since we ordered the tickets first. I had the same thought but then realized that was not the right idea. I had attended a lecture class already, why should I be concerned with the front or back seat? Any seat would be good to listen to Master’s lecture. I picked the last row on the second floor.
Near the end of the sessions, we were learning the fifth set of exercises. I closed my eyes. Then I heard some whispers. I opened my eyes and saw Master came up to the second floor and stood near us, smiling at us. I was so excited. It was truly a happy surprise after letting go of the attachment to having front row seats.
Master held the weekday lecture sessions in the evening and the weekend session during the day. Later a fellow practitioner shared in an article that Master did it for the convenience of students who had day jobs.
Staff members for the lecture arranged practitioners to take photos with Master on Sunday before the lecture started. We arrived earlier in the courtyard outside the auditorium. Shortly after, Master and several staff members came. I was only a few meters away from Master.
As practitioners began to surround Master to take pictures, I heard some staff members talking among themselves that Master had worked very hard with little time to rest. I thought it would be very tiring for Master to take pictures with so many people. Then I decided to skip the photo opportunity to avoid adding more burden to Master. I also wondered if I would see Master in the Heaven. Suddenly a force pushed me backward. I looked at Master, and he was listening to the practitioners talking.
Later Master told us in the class that his gong (energy) can be sent over without him looking at us and that positive energy can push people backward. I realized that the force that pushed me back was the gong from Master.
My mother was in the same class with me. I also told her not to take pictures with Master. She heeded my advice but in her heart she still wanted a picture with Master. The other day when I came to the class, she told me excitedly that Master had a picture taken with a few of them.
She told me that after the class one day, she and another practitioner went to the backstage to see if Master had left. Master showed up in front of them and offered to take a picture with them. The photographer took several pictures. Master’s tall stature reminded me of Buddha’s statues in temples. My mother and the other practitioner smiled happily next to Master. Maybe this was what Master said “getting things naturally without trying to get them.” (Lecture Given at the Conference in Sydney)
Interference to the Class
Some of us from Beijing rented a bus to go to Tianjin every day. For a few days the bus broke down on the way back and it took the driver a long time to fix it; then we got home after midnight. Another day the bus stopped on the way to Tianjin, making us late for the class.
Some practitioners said the bus had problems, some said the driver was suspicious, and another one said the bus might have carried someone who should not attend the class. I didn’t know how to interpret it.
One day during Master’s lecture, a strange yell suddenly broke out, followed by loud cries. Master stopped lecturing and asked the staff member to take the woman making the noise out. She came with us on the same bus. Master then said to the class, “Beijing students, why did your bus break on the road and cause you to be late? You should think it over. This is interference.” That was my first time to understand evil interference.
I read a short newspaper article criticizing Falun Gong. The author said that he had attended Master’s class and that Falun Gong was not conforming to science. Was this an interference to Master’s spreading the Fa? I brought the article to the lecture’s staffers and suggested not to let that author attend the classes anymore.
Master’s teaching also helped me understand a math problem that our High School math teacher taught us: For a one-foot long stick, if you cut half of it off every day, you can keep cutting it forever, never ending. I couldn’t understand why before. But after Master’s lecture, I got it.
People from the Institute of Physics and Chinese Academy of Sciences came to test Master’s energy on the last day. They wrote a note to Master that the equipment they placed on the stage had detected all kinds of matter in Master’s gong. I suddenly had a feeling it’s really not easy for Master to teach the Fa to the world.
I attended Master’s gong demonstration session in the Auditorium of the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing in May 1994. Some videos taken there were included in Falun Gong’s exercise teaching video.
After that, I attended Master’s second Fa lecture class in Jinan starting on June 21, 1994. I was so happy to see Master and listen to his teaching again.
Hot Summer Became Cool
The lecture in Jinan was held in Huangting Stadium. Over 4,000 people from the country came.
It was quite hot then and the stadium had no air conditioning. I sat in the far back. I was listening to Master carefully initially but gradually I was distracted by people fanning and started thinking: Fanning was not appropriate during an everyday people’s meeting, how can someone do it here? How impolite was it to Master!
Master then said to the audience that those who held fans in hand might want to put them down. Isn’t the heat a good thing (for people to reduce karma)?
My mother, sitting on my left, stopped fanning but the woman on my right still kept fanning. Shortly after, I felt my mom’s side became much cooler but my right side remained hot.
The place we stayed was hot at night and some people couldn’t fall asleep. I had a thought: Could Master bring rain to Jinan to cool down the temperature? (actually this thought was not respectful to Master though). The next day I heard thunder and rain during the lecture. When we came out of the stadium, it was drizzling outside. The city of Jinan indeed cooled down and it remained cool till the end of class.
Attachment of Zealotry
I was very excited after learning Dafa. However I didn’t fully understand the Fa and didn’t know how to fit in the everyday people’s society. I used to pay much attention to my appearance. But after learning Dafa, I started to mimic some Taoist figures in literature, not caring about appearance. I also started talking about supernormal things. My colleagues felt that I had changed into a strange person and did not like talking to me anymore. Some even said, “You should just go to a temple.”
I mentioned this to some fellow practitioners I met in Jinan. Then I heard Master taught us in his lecture:
“Due to human excitement, one will develop unnecessary zealotry. It causes one to behave abnormally in one’s manner and in social interactions with others within an ordinary human environment. I would say that this is unacceptable.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
Master also said,
“In other matters and in the course of cultivation, one should be sure to not develop the attachment of zealotry—this mentality can be very easily taken advantage of by demons.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
My Understanding
A question kept surfacing in my mind when I was in Jinan: Who is Master? Master told us clearly during his lecture, “By no means am I Buddha Shakyamuni.” (“Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Guangzhou,” Zhuan Falun Fajie)
I heard a Buddhist story that Future Buddha Maitreya will come down to preach the Fa and save people. Is Master Future Buddha Maitreya?
Later the word “Savior” showed up in my head. Besides Master, who else can do things this big?
Once during the lecture break I went closer to the stage. I heard Master asking a staffer, “Did you record the lecture?”
“Yes.”
Master said with the recording, people can listen to it afterwards.
I was very close to Master at that time but my mind was blank, as if being suppressed. I forgot to Heshi to Master. I wanted to ask Master questions but I just didn’t know what to ask. All I could do was to look at Master. Master smiled and then left.
After returning to Beijing, I looked for the recording of Master’s lecture. Later I obtained a set of the recording in Jinan. I was so excited!
I understood from the Fa that Master has given us brand new lives and precious things. I cherish and respect Dafa and take it more important than my own life, because Dafa has created everything, including me. I would not exist without Dafa, just like life cannot exist without breathing air.
At the end of the class, Master did the hand sign of rotating big Falun around the whole stadium. My celestial eye was closed, so I couldn’t see this sacred scene in other dimensions. But I was so excited and kept clapping my hands. My heart was in the air – Master was truly leading us to high levels! I had a thought: I would never give up Dafa for anything else, even if for the whole world.
I didn’t want the class to end. I wanted to stay with Master forever.
I had attended Master’s three classes by then. Each time Master asked us to write our understanding and experiences. I didn’t do it during the first two classes as I felt that I didn’t have much exciting stuff to share. I then decided that I must write for the Jinan class.
I started with how much hardship I suffered in my childhood. If everything I endured was for me to take up Dafa, I am perfectly happy to do it. It is Master who cleansed us, gave us the golden, shiny Falun, and explained the Fa to us. Master gave us a ladder to climb up to Heaven! I felt that Master was the Savior to bring people out of suffering. I hoped more and more kind-hearted people can practice Dafa.
The Jinan class was the last time I saw Master.
On July 20, 1999, then head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, launched a nationwide campaign against Falun Dafa and Master.
My own family’s experience with the CCP made me disgusted with the regime. My great grandfather was a wealthy person with a strong spiritual belief. The CCP confiscated his assets after it came to power in 1949. The CCP arrested and detained both my maternal and paternal grandfathers because they had served the Kuomintang government, the official government before the CCP stole the power. Some of my parents’ cousins were tortured to death or sent to remote areas to live. I also saw that CCP soldiers fired at students and citizens during the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. I just wanted to stay away from the CCP.
However, after practicing Falun Dafa, I put down my own disgust of the CCP. Like other practitioners, I talked to the authorities out of our pure heart, trying to help them understand the truth of Falun Dafa, so that they could stop the persecution and return justice to Dafa.
I was quite sad at that time and missed Master a lot, since Master didn’t say anything for a while. I was worried about Master.
My workplace sent several people to try to talk me out of cultivating Dafa. They showed me the videos that many countries’ embassies and consulates denounced Falun Dafa, creating an illusion that the whole world was against us. I told them, “Even if everyone else in the world stops practicing Dafa, I will continue to practice!”
They saw that I often went out and asked me what I wanted. I told them that I wanted to tell the truth of Dafa to the authorities. They said they could pass it on for me – my workplace was a ministerial-level organization. I then told them how Dafa had restored health to its practitioners and brought benefits to the country. They indeed sent my message to one of the top leaders and brought the response back to me, “The top leaders know what you have mentioned. But China does not allow a living Buddha to exist.” I was naive and didn’t realize the vicious intention to kill behind the sentence of “not allow a living Buddha to exist.”
The CCP held a large picture exhibition titled “Respect Science and Oppose Superstition” at the Military Museum in Beijing in March 2000. The exhibition attacked Master and Dafa. I decided to go to the museum to tell people the truth.
Another practitioner said she’d go there too. But I couldn’t find her when I arrived at the museum. “What should I do? Do I go in by myself?” I asked myself.
“I must go,” I said to myself, “Master was being defamed, and how can I watch it happen without taking any action? Even if there is a mountain of knives or sea of fire in front of me, I will go. It would be good even if I could only reduce a small bit of libel against Master.”
I went into the museum. The whole exhibition was dark. I didn’t want to look at the CCP lies, so I looked for the person in charge. A staff member appeared in front of me. I followed him to the other side of the hall. I saw a temporary setup of a “Command Center.” I went inside.
Several men sat there smoking and playing cards. A woman stood next to them. I saw the title “Deputy Commander” on her name tag. I explained to her that Falun Dafa can bring health to people and that the museum might have created this exhibition out of ignorance – actually Falun Dafa has done no harm but only benefits the country and people. I then told them that I wrote a letter and wished them to read it. All the people there had no response after I finished talking, except the woman who signaled for me to leave the letter on the desk. When I left, a row of police officers stood in front of me. Were they to arrest me? I walked by them – they were all motionless.
I saw a big TV showing Master waving his hand to fix the sickness for practitioners at the Fa lecture class. In that wave of hand, how many lives were relieved from suffering! If our human body is a small universe, how many things inside the universe and how many universes had Master cleansed!
However, the CCP was using vicious words attacking Master on TV. Sadly, some people, old and young, stood in front of the TV watching. The Fa of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the fundamental of all lives. If those innocent people believed in the CCP’s lies, where would they go in the end?
I couldn’t remember how I came out of the Military Museum. But I knew that without Master’s help, I could not get out easily.
My tears kept coming down when I was on the bus home. I felt the boundless compassion from Dafa – to be a being for others. I just wanted to tell everyone “Falun Dafa is good!” Once a life knows that Dafa is good, his life is saved!
I have practiced Dafa for 28 years. I was imprisoned for over ten years. I felt that I had let Master down and didn’t do well for Dafa, so I didn’t dare to share my experiences.
Now I realize that I have changed from a selfish being to a Dafa disciple who thinks of others; this change was brought by Master’s boundless compassion and Dafa’s enormous grace. I finally broke out of the interference and wrote this article, to record the change that Dafa brings to beings.
I could not fully describe my gratitude to Master! On the 30th anniversary of Falun Dafa’s public introduction, here I presented my commitment to Master to be diligent in cultivation!
Happy Birthday, Master!
(The end.)