Collective Power in the Mountains

(Minghui.org) I live in a mountainous area in a community that is not very large, yet the number of people here who practice Falun Dafa is huge. Falun Dafa came to this area in 1996. Through word of mouth, people with predestined relationships began to practice one after another.

Up until 1999, close to 400 people here were practicing Dafa. Among them were presidents of factories, teachers, engineers, factory workers, and students. After they started to practice, they demonstrated high moral character at work and at home, which was well received in our local communities. In this world of corruption and profiteering, what force made this group of people become noble, pure, and healthy?

My husband’s boss once said at a regular company meeting, “If we had a few more people here practicing Dafa, my work would have been much easier!”

When practitioners can let go of selfishness and think of others first in everything they do, they demonstrate a high level of compassion. When one can break away from disputes over fame, wealth, and love, one can be at ease and happy. When one walks into a group of Dafa practitioners, one feels they are in a pure land in the human world.

Cultivating Dafa completely changed my view of the world. I understood that the purpose of our coming to this world is to return to our original and true selves. I felt fortunate to live on this small mountain, cultivating together with my mother, husband, children, and many other practitioners. Through Fa-study, doing the exercises, and spreading the Fa, my life has been meaningful. I felt the happiness of being immersed in the Fa every day. That period of happiness, an unforgettable experience, continued into July 1999.

Traveling Together on the Path of Validating the Fa

On the evening of April 24, 1999, practitioners in the mountains were studying the teaching in their study groups. Over 20 of us were studying in my home when my husband, an assistant, got a call. Then he whispered to another assistant, “Something happened in Beijing. We have to go to Beijing to validate the Fa.” Then he took some money, put on a coat, told me vaguely that he was going to Beijing, and started to leave.

Back then, we were not sure what validating the Fa meant. Because I wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, I quickly said, “Let me go with you.” He replied, “Why don’t you go to the stadium and wait for me?” Since practitioners who were there studying didn’t know what was going on, they all left.

I said to my mother, “Mom, my husband and I are going to Beijing. Please take care of our child.” My eight-year-old also practiced and was a very good child.

I said to a practitioner, “I don’t know what’s going on. It seems they are in a hurry to go to Beijing. Whether it’s to see Master or help Master rectify the Fa, I have to go.” She said, “I have to go, too.” She didn’t even have time to go home and tell her family, since we had to hurry to the stadium. The practitioners who knew what was going on went to the stadium to wait. Then some left by bus, while others took a flight. After a practitioner called a cab, we went straight to the train station and headed to Beijing.

Several dozen of us from the mountains met at the Zhongnanhai Appeals Office near noontime on April 25th, the next day. We either sat or stood quietly, and we didn’t feel sleepy or tired but had rather a sacred feeling. By evening, many practitioners from all over the country had arrived.

I later heard from the representatives who went inside Zhongnanhai that the issue was resolved. They said that the Prime Minister had agreed to our appeal and released the practitioners being held in Tianjin City. He also allowed practitioners from all over the country to study the Fa and do the exercises freely and asked us to go home. We were so excited to hear that. Soon, over 10,000 practitioners left in an orderly and quiet manner.

Three months later, on July 20th, dark clouds covered the sky overnight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used all its force to suppress Falun Dafa. They slandered Master and attacked Dafa. Local practitioners went to our area government to appeal, but it was in vain. Nearly a hundred people, fearless of repression and with sincere hearts, overcame numerous obstacles to go to the Beijing Appeals Office to demand that Dafa’s reputation be restored.

Forty practitioners from our area went to Beijing again in December 2000. Some of us went to Tiananmen Square to defend Dafa’s reputation. We stood on Tiananmen Square holding banners and shouting, “Falun Dafa is wonderful! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful! Restore Master Li’s reputation!” It was as if the oath made long ago was ringing in my ears, and the roar shocked heaven and earth. The tourists in the square were stunned. The police seized our banners and beat us. History will remember that we risked our lives to validate Dafa on Tiananmen Square.

After enduring numerous tribulations, many of the practitioners in the mountains got together again. Master’s new articles showed us the way, and we gradually matured in our cultivation. We improved based on the Fa principles. We realized that we should validate the Fa, save sentient beings, and negate the old forces’ arrangements. The Fa-rectification had come to a new stage. To fulfill our missions, we worked together using various means wisely and rationally to save those who’d been poisoned by the CCP propaganda.

Practitioners all over China who had been cruelly persecuted by the CCP had to leave home and wander about. Some of them came to our area. For example, I ran into a practitioner I knew who was with another person. She introduced me to the newcomer, saying that she was a practitioner from another city who’d been framed when she clarified the facts to people. The police from her area were looking for her. I held her hand and said, “Since you came here, you should settle in to study the Fa and save people here. We are all family here. This is your home.” I gave her 500 yuan and took off my scarf and put it around her neck. She was so touched that tears came to her eyes. She said, “Thank you for treating me so kindly. I truly feel at home.”

Helping Persecuted Practitioners Harvest Their Crops

In the countryside, the spring planting and autumn harvest are our busiest times. Sometimes, practitioners in our county who’d been detained by the police or who were going through illness karma tribulations needed help with their field work, especially during the spring and fall. Whenever we heard about that, we reached out to those practitioners to help them with their harvests. On the one hand, we helped the practitioners’ families with the work during a difficult time; on the other hand, we were demonstrating the altruistic state of practitioners, validating the Fa.

For example, one practitioner was arrested and sentenced. During the fall harvest, several dozen practitioners, myself included, helped her family harvest their crops two years in a row. We even brought our own food to eat. Normally, the work would have taken several days to complete, but we finished it in just one day. This practitioner’s family was very touched, as were her neighbors, who also witnessed the beauty of Dafa through our actions.

Another practitioner had been fired from his job as a teacher due to his belief. He had to travel all over the place to take on odd jobs before he was killed in a car accident. That occurred during the harvest season, so practitioners from the mountains and the county, over 90 of them altogether, went to his home, again bringing their own food to eat. Seeing them harvesting and digging the earth was quite a sight. About a dozen acres of land were harvested in one day. His family was moved to tears. They said, “You practitioners are so great!” Their neighbors also saw this and expressed heartfelt admiration.

For years, we’ve helped many practitioners who weren’t around to harvest their crops because they were being persecuted. This was one way we validated the Fa and showed people the beauty of Dafa. At the same time, it also provided an opportunity for their family members to get to know Dafa and practitioners better. All of them truly and deeply appreciated our selfless help. Villagers said, “People who cultivate Dafa are truly wonderful! You are so kind! Only among practitioners can we possibly find good people like you!”

We mountain practitioners worked together as one body. The majority of us participated in group Fa study, so we saw each other every day. In the past, when a practitioner was arrested, after other practitioners learned about it, they’d go to their homes to pack up their Dafa items as quickly as possible. Then other practitioners accompanied the family to the police station to demand their release. Other practitioners helped by sending forth righteous thoughts around the clock. Whenever they needed help at home, we’d take turns giving them a hand. As people saw us doing these things, they always said, “Look, they came again. They are so friendly and cooperative.”

During the holidays, practitioners visited the family members of those who were detained and brought them gifts.

We did these things to validate the Fa. Many of the practitioners’ family members went from complaining about Dafa to praising and expressing their gratitude to the practice. Others also witnessed practitioners’ kind actions.

Finding My Attachments Amidst Conflict

Some people have said that the practitioners in our area must have reincarnated as a group, as there are so many of us and we are very united. True, the sacred nature of our relationship with Dafa is why we were born on this land. On the path of assisting Master in rectifying the Fa, we will always hold hands and stand shoulder to shoulder to complete our mission and fulfill our vow.

Even though we strive to work as one body, conflicts often arose when we worked together. This is something inevitable in our cultivation. Master has left us with enough attachments to be able to stay in this human world. Since it’s human beings cultivating, our attachments were bound to manifest. Sometimes we got stuck in a debate about who was right and who was wrong.

What I noticed in recent years was that the conflicts among us mostly came down to jealousy, an attachment to doing things, vanity, an attachment to one’s ego, and not cultivating one’s speech. And I saw that I was guilty of all of them. The evil then made use of such notions and attachments to interfere with us, which caused misunderstandings, false impressions, suspicion, and complaints among us.

By studying the Fa, I came to realize that, to be able to look inward, one can’t look at others, one has to cultivate oneself. Since we all have attachments that need to be eliminated, there will always be conflicts. If this continues, these disharmonious factors form a negative field in another dimension and interfere with our doing the three things. Our area has always been able to harmonize as one body, so why were we having conflicts now? We had accomplished so many things, but we still had so many attachments—that must have made Master sad.

I sorted through the conflicts that had occurred most recently, wondering why they were always related to me. I then saw they were my own issues. I always used human reasoning to defend myself and explain that I was right. Because of my strong ego, I was validating myself as opposed to validating Dafa. I told myself not to complain anymore. It seemed that my complaining was related to my jealousy. I resolved to pinch myself if I ever complained again.

In the movie Once We Were Divine, when Song Guangming got jealous, his world began to collapse, and countless sentient beings were at risk. I examined my heart for any jealousy and changed it whenever I found it. I knew I must overcome this and be determined to eliminate these attachments.

Several things happened recently that I thought might touch my heart. Yet, I found that they did not move me. I was not forcing myself to remain unmoved, instead, I was very calm. I truly felt the relief of letting go of a burden. I had a dream one night that I opened the closet and a big bag fell out, which seemed to confirm my letting go. Recently, while working with other practitioners, I clearly felt that Fa-rectification has progressed quickly. We cooperated with one another with pure states of mind, we set our starting point right, and we let go of ourselves to harmonize with one another. Master had laid the path for us, and our efforts led to a very good outcome.

Conclusion

Writing was not difficult for me in the past. This time, however, it wasn’t easy. My thinking was not very clear and nor was my heart, so the article reflects that. It dug up some impure parts of myself, some attachments that were hidden deep down. As I continue to assimilate to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, these matters will accordingly dissolve.

Looking back, as Dafa was being spread, we obtained the Fa in the mountains one after another, and we studied the Fa together and did the exercises together. When Dafa was persecuted, we let go of life and death to defend Dafa by going to Beijing to appeal. Then, in order to save sentient beings, we clarified the truth throughout the villages and towns, day and night. To bring the former CCP leader Jiang Zemin to justice, our lawsuits are a record of our heroic and righteous deeds. To oppose the persecution, we have sent forth righteous thoughts collectively, and we have used the truth, the laws, and compassion to restrain the arrogance of those in public security, the procuratorate, and judiciary in order to give them opportunities to be saved. In these 25 years of Fa-rectification, we have endured a great deal of hardship. It was Master who led the way for us. We should treasure this opportunity more and more.

Thank you, Master, for your saving grace!