Shared at 2004 Chicago Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings to Master and fellow practitioners. I am Yu Ning, a Chicago practitioner. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my experiences of sending forth righteous thoughts at the Chinese Consulate and of clarifying the truth to legal professionals and university professors.
Sending forth righteous thoughts at the Consulate
Chicago has Chinese Consulate office; it is also the focal point of the Jiang lawsuit. Practitioners in Chicago have a special historic task. I know that sending righteous thoughts at the Chinese Consulate is very important; it helps eliminate the interference and persecution directed by the evil toward practitioners. In the summer of 2002, I tried to go to the Chinese Consulate after work to send forth righteous thoughts and to practice the exercises. But the transportation time alone took 3 to 4 hours. Together with the two hours outside the Consulate, the whole trip was 5 to 6 hours. It caused problems not only to my other Dafa projects, but also to my duties at work. Therefore, after trying several times, I gave up. Then winter came. I wasn't able to get up for the morning round of sending righteous thoughts at 4 am at all. I made up the excuse that by saying: what's the use of sending forth righteous thoughts if I wasn't clear-minded enough? It's almost like sleeping in a somewhat unusual position. Among the three things Master asked us to do, I did poorly with sending righteous thoughts. Because of that, I failed to properly clean up my respective field in the other dimensions. Everyday I felt lethargic and drowsy. Neither did I do well in Fa-study and truth clarification. I knowingly stayed a situation where I knew I shouldn't be. Wasn't the problem serious enough? I told myself that I couldn't continue like that anymore.
A practitioner once told me that she begins each day by reading three chapters from Zhuan Falun [main teachings of Falun Dafa] and feels energized all day. She becomes efficient and completes every task quickly. I thought it was a good idea. But Chicago is a place with a Consulate office. How should I manage my time better? My job is scientific research. I am also involved in the media and other Dafa projects. Time is limited for me. But at that time I was determined to make a change. As my xinxing [mind nature, moral character] reached the requirement, Master helped me. I discovered that at the prime time of rush hours while the buses are running at short intervals, the transportation time back and forth would only be 1.5 hours. If I went to the Consulate in the morning I could study Fa on the bus while giving out fliers. My time for practicing the exercises and Fa study could be guaranteed. Therefore, at the end of last April, after the New York Fa conference, I went to send forth righteous thoughts and to practice outside the Consulate 6 times per week early in the morning before going to work. In the summer, Chicago practitioners send forth righteous thoughts at 5 am. I caught the bus after sending righteous thoughts at 5 am. Besides giving out fliers, I was able to read at least one chapter from Zhuan Falun. It was a good feeling to be able to do all the three things first before going to work. Since then my drowsiness disappeared.
But the story is not that simple. In no time the evil started interfering. On Tuesday of the second week as I returned home from the practice site, I felt as if there was a heavy object crouching on my shoulders. Around ten minutes' time when I biked from the practice site to the lab, that feeling filled my whole body. Every movement caused me to ache all over. I was in so much pain that I couldn't do anything. To cope with it, I spent more time studying the Fa [universal law and principles, the teachings of Falun Dafa] however, the situation got worse. The following morning when I was on the bus traveling to the Consulate, I almost collapsed. When I finally reached home I wasn't able to go to work. At home, I simple couldn't move at all. So I spent the whole day studying the Fa in front of my computer. After reading 7 chapters, I couldn't continue anymore. I struggled to move to my bed and the sharp pain cause me to begin sweating and feeling feverish. In bed I couldn't move at all. The following day I went to the Consulate as usual in spite of the pain. After practicing the exercises that morning, I felt that Master took that thing away from me. Then I realized that the pain actually originated from back of my neck. By then the pain was relatively too mild to be noticed. I obtained Fa after July 20, 1999. I have to cultivate myself and validate Fa at the same time. I know if I remain steadfast with strong righteous thoughts, Master can do anything for us. Thanks to Master.
When the interference came the second time it took me a while to realize it. One day, after returning home from the Consulate, half of one of my molars broke off. The edge of the remaining half was as sharp as a blade, cutting the inner part of my mouth whenever I talked, ate or even opened my mouth. Before long it started bleeding. Immediately an everyday person's thought came to me: Pull the remaining half out. Such an everyday person's thought gave the evil further excuse to interfere. Although later on I figured out what it was really about, the fact that I had slipped to an everyday person's thought made the tribulation last for one weekend. Since then I have further realized that cultivation is serious. We shouldn't let even one single thought of ours slip to the everyday people's level. When we adopt everyday people's thoughts, we are on the level of the everyday people and would be restricted by the logic and rules at that level.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference" that "The past principle of the cosmos was absolute in terms of having negative and positive manifest at the same time, and it held for human society as well, with it manifesting in everything. With whatever everyday people want to do, positive and negative, and good and bad, come with it." The evil has never stopped interfering with my going to the Consulate for sending righteous thoughts. Last October at the Houston Falun Dafa conference I was badly bitten by stinging ants. Upon returning to Chicago, my lower legs and feet became swollen and developed blisters, which were extremely itchy. I wasn't able to work. I bathed twice everyday. As the blisters broke I began to feel better and resumed working. Although I wore two pair of trousers, the discharge from the blisters quickly soaked through them. I had to keep adjusting my trousers and socks to make sure they didn't get stuck to my inflamed skin. Still, some of the newly formed scabs got pulled off that way and redeveloped new scabs. It took more than a week for me to really feel better. I overcame every tribulation by spending a lot of time studying the Falun Dafa teachings. I was further enlightened that the evil feared that I went to the Consulate. This understanding has further strengthened my determination to continue with what I do.
When Winter came the temperature sometimes dropped to -4 degrees F. When I meditated outside the Consulate, the wind cut my face like a knife. I felt my face was frozen. But then I felt that when the freezing wind reached my face they became warm. All of a sudden the freezing sensation disappeared. I understood that it was our compassionate Master who was helping me.
In the most recent episode of interference the evil used a different trick. It kept me from sending righteous thoughts. When the time for sending righteous thoughts came, I would fall asleep. Then right at 10 past the hour I would wake up. Everyday when I went to the Consulate I felt extremely tired. I was very upset. It didn't help no matter how I studied Fa or looked into myself. In March, Master's article "Eliminate the Dark Minions With Righteous Thoughts" came out. As I eliminated the dark minions in my sending righteous thoughts I was free from that state immediately. So that was something done by the dark minions.
Over the past year I met many upright persons with predestined relationships and I will give several examples here. One Sunday afternoon I was sitting on a thick layer of snow sending righteous thoughts outside the Consulate. A man on the other side of the street held up a camera, signaling that he wanted to take a picture of me. I signaled to him my consent. As I finished sending righteous thoughts I realized that he was there quietly waiting for me to finish. I gave him truth clarification materials. He said he would put up a link on his own web page to our web page, to tell more people about the persecution.
Another Sunday afternoon, after giving out my fliers on the redline train I started studying the Fa. Twenty minutes later as I got off the train a person ran up to me and asked, "Do you speak English?" He said, "The Chinese government is really stupid, persecuting such a group of peaceful people. I would like to join you, to ask them to stop the persecution. Do you have a contact phone number?" I was so moved by the person's uprightness and compassion that it took me a while to calm down. I gave him a flier about our practice sites. I was really happy. There was another time, a Sunday morning. The redline train was rather empty. A person started asking me questions after reading the "Reader." So I answered him. Gradually the rest of the passengers started listening. As I got off the train, they all said thanks to me. Indeed, many people are waiting to hear the facts of Falun Dafa. There are also people who were interested after watching me studying the Falun Dafa teachings. They asked, "Are you reading a bible?" Then I told them about Falun Dafa. Following the major changes in the overall celestial phenomena, I come across more and more people with predestined relationships. Few days ago as I got off the bus, a woman came up to me after reading the Reader and said, "Meeting you today is my predestined relationship. Now I understand, it's because the body is not pure so people get sick. When a person's body is purified, he won't get sick. I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. I think I will be healed by practicing this. She walked away happily with the flier about our practice sites. Last week a person came to our site to learn the exercises. He said, "I finished reading the materials that you gave me on the bus. This is a rare practice so I came. At the end of the session he felt very good and bought a copy of Zhuan Falun right away.
Because I am a living being created by Dafa, I have been able to overcome these tribulations one after another. Master is here. The Fa is here. There really is no unconquerable tribulation. A year has passed. I have come to realize that perhaps I had made a promise with Master. This is perhaps my mission. Going to the Consulate to send forth righteous thoughts is part of my cultivation.
Clarify the Truth to Lawyers and College Professors
When doing things together, we need to coordinate collectively, each put aside our "self," purify our hearts and become one body. Only in doing so can we do well in saving living beings. But putting into practice this understanding in Fa is not that easy. In the process there are a lot of attachments to get rid of. Last year in the Mid-Western Falun Dafa Conference, Master mentioned the issue of clarifying the truth to legal professionals. For a long time afterward we couldn't find a good way to start working on it. Through our group sharing, we all agreed that the annual meeting of the American Bar Association was a very good opportunity. It would allow us to clarify the truth to the lawyers face to face, something that we rarely have the opportunity to do. I also attended the conference. Through that experience I further understood the importance for us to coordinate as one body. At the meeting, practitioners each used the ways they feel appropriate to clarify the truth. Some were outside the meeting venue practicing the exercises and giving out fliers, so that the people going into the venue would become more ready to hear practitioners' truth clarification inside. In the end, the truth of Dafa reached all the participants. Taking part in all these, I noticed how I lagged behind other practitioners. At the beginning I was too nervous to approach people just by myself. I needed to do the talking with at least another practitioner in order not to feel nervous. Somehow I worried that my not speaking English well enough might have a negative effect. I knew I was there to save those people but I was attached to self. We fell from that incomparably splendid world above to here precisely because of selfishness. So, getting rid of the attachment to self is most difficult. Gradually, however, as I was able to let go of that attachment and to truly think for other people, the situation changed right away. I was no longer nervous and my truth clarification appeared to be very effective. In fact, it is through doing Dafa work that we eliminate our attachments and make progress in our cultivation. One of the practitioners with us was able to clarify the truth at any time and place. Even in the short interval of riding the elevator she managed to clarify the truth concisely to the passengers, who would immediately become interested and took the flier from her. It is like what Master says in Hong Yin II, "Righteous thought can save the people in this world."
Before this Fa Conference, Chicago practitioners tried all out to clarify the truth to as many university professors as possible. Group coordination became an important issue. Initially I was attached to the idea of doing the face-to-face speaking on my own in truth clarification. But the more I was attached to it the less opportunities I had. I was able to come across very few professors in the visits and often ended up merely stuffing their mailboxes with truth clarification materials. As other practitioners did well in the face-to-face truth clarification I became anxious. At that moment Master's words in "Essentials for Further Advancement" echoed in my ear,
"Whoever does the work is spreading Dafa. It is not important whether it should be done by you or by others. Are you going to bring to a paradise this attachment that you cannot let go of, and contend with Buddhas?"
Indeed, as long as we as a body are saving people, why does it matter so much what role I play in it? What's the need for such self-importance? Before cultivating Dafa, I was very attached to fame, striving to be the winner in everything. Fame for me was a deep-rooted attachment rather difficult to eradicate. Thus, Master has given me many opportunities to eliminate it. Although I have eliminated my attachment to fame among everyday people, my attachment to fame in Dafa work keeps surfacing from time to time. As soon as I noticed that and faced it with a pure heart, there came the opportunity. One practitioner once visited a certain department of a university. At the end of the day there were still many professors that she had not spoken to. So several days later another practitioner and I went there again. The effect was very good this time. I maintained a calm and pure mind; I had only the thought of saving people, without the attachment of doing the talking. The practitioner who went with me speaks very good English. I let her speak; I supplemented and supported her efforts and sent righteous thoughts. Under the impact of our pure energy field, our listeners responded to us with strong upright thoughts.
For this Chicago conference, I especially requested one week's leave to do the pre-conference truth-clarifying work. But upon learning that the most urgent need before the conference was to distribute fliers to all the universities' professors and students, I felt that it wasn't worth it to take vacation just to do mail delivery. Immediately I realized that that was my attachment to the self. I'll do whatever Dafa needs me to do. Why am still so egotistical? But as I set my attitude straight I realized that the situation was not like what I thought. For example, one afternoon fellow practitioners and I visited different ABA offices to deliver our exhibition fliers. Very smoothly we succeeded in requesting the staff to pass our materials to the members of their ABA division. At one office a person said she would send an email to their over 500 member lawyers, informing them about the exhibition. On our way to the offices we also ran into a lot of people with predestined relationship; they were all their waiting to learn the facts about Dafa. Once again, I deeply feel that when our mind-state is pure, our words can profoundly move other people.
"Compassion is capable of melting heaven and earth to bring Spring back,
Righteous thoughts can save the people in this world." (Hong Yin II)
Master, don't worry, I, your disciple, will seize the remaining time to do well in the three things you asked us to do.