A Young Falun Dafa Practitioner’s Transformation

(Minghui.org) I’m a young practitioner who was born after 2000. For all these years, I have seen myself as a young practitioner; I only wanted to learn from older practitioners, despite the fact that I’ve been able to make my own decisions for a long time now. As I have matured and improved my xingxing through Fa study, I’ve experienced many changes that I want to share with fellow practitioners.

Transformation After Making Fa Study a Priority

Growing up, I studied the Fa with my mother. Because I was so young, I didn’t have a good understanding of Dafa’s principles, so my learning the Fa was always superficial and passive. I failed to realize my responsibility and mission as a practitioner. I knew that Dafa was good, but I didn’t see the things that a practitioner should do to be relevant to me.

During the pandemic, I was able to spend a lot of time studying the Fa with a calm mind.

After I read all of Master’s teaching on the Fa in chronological order, my mother helped me to understand the different issues that Master taught. As I read the questions raised by practitioners, I felt as if I was experiencing the joy of just obtaining the Fa, the pressure at the beginning of the persecution, the righteous faith of practitioners, and Master’s compassion.

I would sometimes get very excited when reading the Fa. At other times, I would cry. I suddenly understood the greatness of Master’s Fa-rectification, and that I was also part of this process. I realized that I could no longer be my old self and had to really immerse myself and become a particle of Dafa!

Returning to Tradition

As a young person growing up under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its indoctrination, I learned very little about traditional values and was taught very bad habits. Fortunately, my mother has been guiding me based on the Fa, and I knew right from wrong. But although I have not done anything really wrong, I followed the social trends without realizing it. I fantasized about love and success when I grew up, which caused me to lose virtue.

One verse in Master’s Hong Yin says:

“...Keep good and kind, resisting today’s wayward trendsStay true to tradition as the world declines,and the Divine shall remain at your side ...”(“Dafa Leads Back to Heaven,” Hong Yin VI)

I was a little scared when I came across this passage, because I didn’t do well when I was in school. It made me realize I should not behave like other young people.

But I also didn’t understand what the traditional ways of doing things was. My mother played traditional culture stories for me, and I learned a lot from them. One was about a scholar who went to the capital to take the imperial exam. His ranking had already been decided, but because he did bad things on his way, the gods lowered his ranking and even made him poor.

This was very touching to me, someone with fantasies about the future. It turns out that everything you do, good or bad, is linked to your future. I also had a better understanding of something Master said:

“Thus, those who seek power and wealth must first accumulate virtue. By suffering hardships and doing good deeds one can accumulate virtue among the masses.” (“Wealth with Virtue,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Another story that left a deep impression on me was about a man who had always been very devout and believed in gods and Buddhas. He did many good things, but he was always unlucky. He failed the imperial exam several times. He prayed to the Hearth God every year and explained the injustice he endured.

One day, the Hearth God came to his home and told him, “Although you believe in gods and Buddhas on the surface, you have desire in everything you do. On the surface, you have not done anything out of line with women, but secretly you have many lewd thoughts. From now on, you should change your ways and do good deeds. Don’t have any bad thoughts at all, and maybe things will change for you.”

After hearing this, he suddenly realized the truth and changed how he did things. He ended up doing a lot of good for people while also learning to be in the state of: “When you are still, no thoughts arise; when you move, all good things follow.”

I was truly shocked that a regular person could do something like that and knew that I, as a practitioner, should do even better. After that, I started paying attention to my every thought and action. If any bad thoughts popped up, I’d try to subdue them. I also studied the Fa more to strengthen my righteous thoughts.

Doing My Best to Clarify the Facts to People

Master said:

“Despite this, when Dafa is about to consummate you, you are unable to step out of humanness, and when the evil persecutes Dafa you are unable to stand up to affirm Dafa. People who only want to take from Dafa and not give for Dafa are, in the eyes of gods, the worst beings.” (“A Suggestion,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)

I didn’t want to be one of the worst beings. I didn’t want to be left behind, so I started clarifying the facts to my friends. However, my motive was impure. In addition, I had the attachment of accomplishing a task. Although I did feel at peace after talking to people, I didn’t explain very well. My friends all thought I was being kind and agreed with me for that reason, as opposed to really understanding the truth.

After the outbreak of the pandemic I realized that only when clarifying the facts to people could they avoid becoming infected. I had a slight breakthrough when I talked about this with an elderly woman and a taxi driver when I was trying to stay out of the rain. But I still didn’t feel I made myself understood. After some people did not agree with me, I felt discouraged and didn’t know what to say.

After I seriously studied the Fa, I began to understand that clarifying the facts to people didn’t mean how much we had done for Dafa but rather, because we were particles of Dafa, this was what we were supposed to do. One must validate the Fa.

I watched the movie Once We Were Divine and saw the truth about what the male protagonist told the security guards in the interrogation room. Only then did I realize that this was how to clarify the truth. I remembered that when I traveled a few days later. I told a friend on the train what I remembered and some of my understandings from day-to-day life.

My friend was studying for a master’s degree at the time, and she felt that fighting for her interests with her supervisor was very tiresome. After listening to what I said, she felt much calmer and realized that it was the evil CCP that has made society like this, and she had to abandon it. This incident gave me a lot of encouragement. I finally learned how to clarify the facts! However, I didn’t know enough facts, so when I helped my mother print informational materials at home, I read everything carefully.

After reading Master’s lectures after 1999, I suddenly realized that he had told us how to clarify the truth. I also came to understand why one had to clarify the facts to people, which was truly to save them during the last havoc. Only because they made a vow to be saved by Dafa did they descend to the human world. So I couldn’t let them lose the opportunity.

In the past, I was afraid of how my relatives might react. When we got together for the Chinese New Year and my mother clarified the facts to them, they behaved badly and fought with her. After seriously studying the Fa, I understood that their behavior wasn’t that important, as they were only regular people who were controlled by other factors and did not have strong opinions of their own.

By following what Master said, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the factors controlling them, as well as any interference from the old forces. In addition, when I listened to the podcasts on traditional Chinese culture, I gained a lot of understanding. When I clarified the facts to people, I could expose the evil CCP by citing good examples.

Afterward, my cousin invited me over. However, my aunt’s workplace was heavily infiltrated by the CCP, so I was afraid that she was deeply poisoned. I didn’t want to go out of concern that they might say negative things about Dafa. However, I realized that this could be an opportunity for me to clarify the facts to them. In addition, this time I truly understood a lot more about Dafa and knew how to talk to them. So I made up my mind to go.

Two days before I went, I couldn’t calm my mind. I thought and thought about what I needed to say to them and what I should say if they talked about this or that. I even thought about my visit while doing the sitting meditation, nervous about how to express myself effectively. During this time, my aunt sent me a curt message. I wondered why saving people had to be so difficult.

Luckily, I had Master to help me, and I had the opportunity to say what I had been thinking about for a long time in the evening. I also begged Master to give me wisdom. At first, they were still very agitated and didn’t seem to understand at all. Even when my cousin said that she knew the “self-immolation on Tiananmen Square” was a hoax, she remarked that the government “had to do it that way.” That made me cry, and I said that this “had to do it that way” had caused my mother and my family to suffer so much injustice and prejudice! My aunt replied, “I am not prejudiced against your mother.”

I said, “When she was persecuted, when no one in society could tolerate her, and when her family didn’t understand her, didn’t stand by her and support her, and even fought with her, can you imagine how much pressure she was under?” My cousin cried when she heard this. My aunt also calmed down and said, “Oh, yes, I fought with your mother, but I don’t mind what she does now.”

I noticed that the situation had slightly changed, so I continued to talk to them about Dafa for nearly two hours. This time they understood things about Dafa a little bit better. My aunt finally said, “Then you can talk to your friends and people who are willing to listen to you. Wait for the day when you will be vindicated.” My cousin also said that my mother had a good daughter who supported her.

After I finished talking, I couldn’t calm down for a long time. I finally felt that the truth I learned recently was not in vain, as I’d finally made progress in truth clarification. But I knew that these were all given by Master and by studying the Fa. As long as I really understand those Fa principles, they will appear. I just need to follow through when taking action.

I also explained the truth in-depth to several friends and had the opportunity to show them Once We Were Divine and Master’s article “How Humankind Came To Be.” After reading “How Humankind Came To Be,” one of my friends said that he would keep it and take it out to read whenever he had certain questions. I was very grateful! Finally, I fulfilled their expectations!

Epilogue

Given more in-depth Fa-study, I realized that I’m a true Dafa practitioner. Even though I still have many attachments, I truly believe that once I understand my role, I’ll eliminate them. I will keep pace with the Fa-rectification process and do better going forward!