(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings to our revered Teacher!
Greetings to my fellow practitioners!
1. Personal Cultivation:
I was born premature, and I had been physically weak and feeble since I was a child. I was diagnosed with osteomalacia from lack of Vitamin D. In P.E. classes, I never passed any tests. Later I had arthritis of the joints and bones. When I was transferred to do manual labor in the countryside as an Educated Youth, I began to have rheumatism, which progressed into chronic rheumatic heart disease, and caused stenosis (narrowing) of my two heart valves. I had to take leave from the university for half a year. For treating my disease, I was often given steroids orally or by injection, thus I became overweight and out of shape.
Starting from 1986, the small bone joints of all my extremities were swollen. After tests, "rheumatoid arthritis" was the doctor's diagnosis. For more then 20 years, I had never stop taking anti-rheumatoid pain pills of all sorts, which damaged my stomach. Nightly, I had to take painkillers to fall asleep. Early the next morning, I was awakened from pain. All of my fingers were distorted, and the constant pain I suffered changed my temperament and personality. In 1992, I was bedridden and almost paralyzed for several months because the nerve endings of my slipped lumbar discs were inflamed.
In the '80s, I came into contact with qigong, and, very soon, I was able to do "Self-Emitting-Gong." Later for the purposes of mitigating pain, I went to learn all types of qigong that were coming out. Prior to attaining Dafa, I had practiced six to seven kinds of so-called Daoist, Buddhist, and Tibetan Tantrist qigong, one after the other. I became extremely interested in all sorts of qigong; I bought and read many books. With the notion of "selecting the best from all practices," I spent a lot of effort studying the Book of Changes (The I Ching) and Buddhist scriptures with an intense heart of pursuing knowledge, healing illnesses, and developing supernormal capabilities. After following this and that, my sicknesses weren't cured, but my state of mind was in turmoil, and my thoughts were worse. My exploration in this domain serious conflicted with what I have been raised in within the materialism educational environment. I was full of questions, not only to what manifested in my own self, (I realized what animal (evil spirit) possessions and the cosmic languages were after studied Dafa,) but also more as to the origin of life and the confusion over the significance of human life. Often times, just the word "I," gave me splitting headaches. When I had questions I read more books, from which I was only left with more questions.
One day in the fall of '95, I came across a book Zhuan Falun. I could not put it down since turning the first page, and I knew in my heart that the answers to my questions were all in this book, which is what I've been searching for. Eagerly and seriously, I read on: The principle of Dafa deeply nurtured and purified my thoughts, and opened up my heart. I felt a lot of the words were directed at me. Up to the third day, all aches and pains from my ailments turned up anew. I tossed about in bed (I could neither lie down nor sit up) because of the pain--I tried to ignore the pain (at the same time, I was reading the book) and I realized in my heart that Teacher was purifying my body, eradicating of the disease from its root--I should bear this bit of pain.
About three days later, all of a sudden, I no longer had pain anywhere in my body! From that day on, I have never taken any pill for rheumatism. It had been more than 20 years since I knew what pain-free felt like. Words could not express my infinite joy and excitement; not just because I was no longer physically in pain, but, as I later realized, it was because I could conclude my experience in four characters: "Attained [the] Fa [and] Be Saved."
Finally I was enlightened to where life comes from; the purpose and meaning of human life; what genuine cultivation is; how to cultivate; and the fundamentals of how to be a good person. I firmly bore in mind what Teacher said,
"To tell you the truth, the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments." (Zhuan Falun)
I realized that the most fundamental characteristic of the universe, Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, is the highest expression of Buddha Law, and it is the standard that determines what is good and bad in the universe. A person should return to his original, true self--that's actually the true purpose of being human. The only way is to abide by the standard of Zhen, Shan, and Ren to return to your original, true self. I realized that a true cultivator must focus upon cultivating one's xinxing. The most supreme law, pulled me back from the difficult muddy crossroads, like the sun penetrates the dark night and shines on my heart and the path (of cultivation). I firmly believed in the Teacher and set my mind on cultivating Falun Dafa. When I finished reading Zhuan Falun for the first time, I no longer had any questions about life, or any pursuit in this world. From then on, I just could not part with Zhuan Falun. Before long, I took part in the Teacher's Videotaped Nine-Day Fa Lecture and Exercises Workshop. Pursuant to the workshop, I seriously read of all Master's books a few times. With my continuously studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, the atrophied muscles, from a slipped lumbar disc pressed against some nerves, which caused numbness my right leg, was gradually restored to health.
On April 25, 1999, I wrote to the Provincial and Municipal Physical Education Committee respectively, telling them about the benefits of Falun Dafa in my own experience: In the cultivation of Falun Dafa, not only did I regain my health, but I also further understood how to be a better person and the significance of human life. We follow our Teacher's teachings to assimilate to the standard of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in all things we do. We do not return punches when hit; we do not to talk back when cursed; we accept any responsibilities with no complaints in the workplace; we do not seek personal gain; in conflict with others, we look inside our own hearts to find problems; we always consider others before ourselves; we strive to be a good person in home life, at work and in the society. Now, I'm disease free, my character and temperament have improved; my relatives and friends all say that I have become kinder and kinder. In fact, every true Falun Gong practitioner strives to maintain a high moral standard.
On July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime started the full-scale persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners. All of a sudden, the evilness overwhelmingly pressed down: all propaganda machines were fabricating lies and defamatory words to frame Falun Gong, like dark clouds falling down from sky. In the face of great danger, threats, criticism, isolation, mail checks, phone tapping and so on, I was able to keep a clear head always. Although I didn't know the reason for this persecution yet from the Fa, I had an unwavering faith in our Master. He is absolutely righteous and Dafa is absolutely good, so nothing could shake my belief and nothing could make me renounce my practice. One day around noon, while under pressure for refusing to write any statements of giving up my practice, I opened up my book Zhuan Falun. Staring at this precious book and thinking about the sufferings of our innocent Master and Dafa, I felt very sad. With tears, I held Zhuan Falun up and said aloud: "Teacher, I shall never betray you!" Immediately after I said these words, I saw a fast rotating colorful Falun in front of my eyes. I was very excited and also quite amazed. I closed my eyes and I still could see the rotating Falun. I know that it was Master who was encouraging me.
2. Fa-rectification Cultivation
Since July 20, 1999, no matter how evil the environment was, I never stopped studying the Fa. I repeatedly read Zhuan Falun and all other Dafa books. The more I read them, the more unshakable my faith in Master and Dafa strengthened. I also never stopped grasping any opportunities to tell others about the greatness of Falun Gong and the greatness of our Master using my own experiences. I told them that all the slanderous programs on TV were lies. After I heard about the Self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square, my first reaction was it was definitely not the conduct of Falun Gong practitioners. Whoever mentioned the incident, I would tell him our Master's teachings about killing and his words that even suicide is considered as committing crime. I also told people about this teaching of our Master in later truth clarification work. At that time, I didn't know that telling others the truth is saving them. I had no specific goal in my mind, thus I did it as if out of my own nature.
In the winter of 2001, a fellow practitioner secretly gave me a hand-written copy of Master's lecture in 2000 entitled "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference." I was very excited. It had been a long time since I heard Master's new teachings. I hurried up to finish reading it and returned it. I bore in mind Master's teachings that the Fa created all in the universe, and that everything in the universe has deviated from the Fa and Master is rectifying the Fa; nobody can damage Dafa and no one is worthy of testing Dafa. A true cultivator must safeguard Fa. I am a particle in Dafa. To tell others about the truth of Falun Dafa is to save him, so I must go to do it. I also realized that I needed to improve and be more diligent in many areas. However, that I was able to keep a clear mind amidst of this big test was due to my Fa study.
The first time I learned about other practitioners' stories in validating the Fa was in the winter of 2000. One night I was working overtime with a colleague. I told him about the truth of Falun Gong by sharing my story of health improvement. I told him that it did not only happen to me. Many other practitioners in our work unit have benefited both physically and mentally by practicing Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party always stated that one should respect facts, but now in front of these many facts, why didn't they acknowledge it? I talked a lot and my colleague smiled at me while listening. In the end, he whispered to me that earlier that day after he walked out of his apartment, he saw a flyer on his door saying: "Return innocence to Dafa; Return innocence to our Master." I was encouraged and said repeatedly: "Very good! Very good!"
At the beginning of 2002, I finally made contact with fellow practitioners who had stepped forward to validate Fa. When I first saw the pictures of the brutal persecution of practitioners in China and the spread of Fa outside China, I couldn't keep from crying out loud. I was deeply moved by the great stories of practitioners in China who had been persecuted to death as well as those of overseas practitioners. I felt that I was not alone. Since then, I could access Master's new articles and Minghui Weekly (Collection of articles from the Minghui/Clearwisdom website). Fa study and reading articles from Minghui Weekly have enabled me to keep up with Master's Fa-rectification process. Each time I got an issue of Minghui Weekly, I read once again Master's teaching in the Essentials for Further Advancement II article "Rationality" printed on the front page:
"Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy." ("Rationality," Essentials for Further Advancement II)
After I saw Master's poem in Hongyin II with the title "Hurry Up and Tell Them", I often recited it in my heart,
"As Dafa disciples tell people the facts, It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths, Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies. Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them."
When I was walking, I often thought in my mind that I should go to tell these precious Chinese the truth about Falun Gong. Master has told us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference:"
"Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections."
In the past several years, I was able to tell the truth of Falun Gong to people from all walks of life including intellectuals, officials, military workers, students, medical staff, armed police, police, peddlers who repair shoes, street vendors, shop clerks, insurance agent, beauty salon owner, taxi drivers, workers, peasants, contractors, small private business owners and so on. Towards anyone I ran into or I visited on purpose, I had only one thought in my mind: "hurry up to tell them the truth." Since I have talked to so many people, it has become easier for me to speak to anyone, regardless of age, sex, or occupation. I learned how to bring up the topic, how to clarify the truth from their point of view and how to respond appropriately based on their feedback. The effort of overseas practitioners validating Fa have greatly encouraged and helped practitioners in mainland China.
During my truth-clarifying process, I had a strong sense that with the elimination of evil, people became more and more clear-headed and more willing to listen to the truth. They also became more and more appalled by the persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners by Jiang's scoundrel regime. Some people spread the truth to others once learned it themselves, and some told me that they shared the VCD with their relatives and friends after watching it and would also like to learn Falun Gong. Particularly, since 2004, I felt it became much easier to clarify the truth. Many people thanked me after hearing it. Almost all people acknowledged that Jiang Zemin is bad. I was often told that they had received a VCD from Falun Gong practitioners before and already knew the truth. I was moved by my fellow practitioners each time I heard it.
To distribute truth-clarifying materials, we carried a few with us whenever we went out and gave them to people on our way; sometimes, we chose an area and took materials to every residence there. No matter whether we did it alone or with a couple of other practitioners, we sent forth righteous thoughts each time, targeting our destination before we went and during the distributing process. It works well to have two people to adapt to instant changes; one distributing the materials and the other one watching out and sending forth righteous thoughts. The best times for us were the hottest noon in summer, the coldest night in winter, windy, rainy and snowy days, midnight, dawn, and the meal time and rest time of people. Each time we received materials printed using practitioners' own money, we would read it over once first, then fold them into colorful papers, so that it would look nice and be waterproof. This way, people with mental barriers would not discard it casually without taking a look at it. We took extra care when distributing truth-clarifying VCDs; most of the time we delivered them to people in person. We felt that the distribution process would be smooth whenever we had enough righteous thoughts. At the beginning, I had a thought that I would not tell the police the source of materials even if they beat me to death once caught. But later on, after I studied the Fa, I realized that this thought was a loophole in my cultivation because I didn't completely negate the old forces' arrangements. Master doesn't acknowledge the old forces, and what we are doing is the most righteous thing because we are saving people. If we have righteous minds and thoughts, completely deny the old forces' arrangements, they would have no way to take advantage of our loopholes. Furthermore, we are truly negating the old forces' arrangements from our understanding of the Fa, not because we had deep fear to cover and wanted to avoid being arrested.
January 19, 2004 was 12/28/2003 on the lunar calendar. According to the weather forecast, the temperature of the next two days would drop to 29 degrees below zero centigrade. According to my plan, I would distribute truth-clarifying materials and VCDs in my residential area. In the daytime, I needed to look after my elderly father who was ill. There were patrol police and computer monitoring in my neighborhood. I became quite anxious because I wanted to distribute them before the New Year' Eve so that people had time to see them during the holiday. After sending forth righteous thoughts at midnight, I could not fall asleep. From my window, I could see the holiday decorations brighten the whole residential area. But I had only one thought in my mind: No matter what, I would distribute all of the materials. Before 4 a.m., all the lights went out. I got up quickly and walked outside putting on only an overcoat. In order not to disturb my family members, I closed the door carefully. After distributing all the VCDs, on my way home, I started to recall the weather forecast, but I didn't feel cold at all. I had only pajamas on underneath my coat without a mouth cover, hat, scarf, gloves or socks. I really didn't feel cold at all. Looking up the sky, there was no moon, but it was full of stars. With a warm breeze, it felt like spring. I suddenly realized that it was all because of Master's arrangement and compassionate help. Instantly, a warm current ran all over my body. The next day around noon, when I went outside, a strong north wind blew hard. I still felt chilled after bundling up.
In the last several years, several of us practitioners have been sharing experiences together based on the Fa, cooperating and encouraging each other on the path of Fa-rectification. In 2003, I brought some truth-clarifying VCDs with me to attend an alumni party of about 30-40 people. Before my departure, I went to a fellow practitioner's place and only asked her if she had more VCDs available. At the party, I was able to clarify the truth of Falun Gong and distributed all the VCDs that I had. The fellow practitioner mentioned to me later that she had been sending forth righteous thoughts the whole evening during the party time period. Whenever one of us needed improvements or were not diligent in cultivation, we would discuss with an open heart and point things out sincerely and compassionately. With help from one another, we made progress together rapidly. When anyone had a new understanding from the Fa, we all felt happy for that practitioner from the bottom of our hearts. One practitioner said whenever she saw other practitioner making real progress, her heart felt like a flower in blossom. She was happier than for that practitioner than she was for herself when she made improvements. Each practitioner has her own unique cultivation path. The attachments displayed in ordinary society are different too, but we are all cultivating ourselves while validating the Fa. We must do things according to the Fa and constantly improve our xinxing. I have truly seen the changes and improvement of my fellow practitioners.
I deeply felt that Minghui Weekly has played an extremely important role in helping practitioners to study the Fa well, correctly understand important issues, improve as a whole and keep up with Master's Fa rectification process. In the environment of mainland China, we could not hold experience-sharing conferences very often. It was impossible to have a large Fa conference, even to gather a few practitioners together was difficult. Reading articles on Minghui is like attending a global Fa conference. Sometimes I had an attachment that I didn't realize on my own. When it was mentioned in a fellow practitioner's article, his understanding from the Fa about the issue immediately enlightened me and I was able to correct myself too. In particular, I was often moved to tears by fellow practitioners' understandings from the Fa and validation of the Fa through their righteous thoughts and righteous actions.
3. Have righteous faith in Fa study and completely eliminate the evil possession of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
After the Fa conference in New York City, I read the first and the second part of the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party." During the reading process, I was greatly shocked. I grew up with the education from the CCP. Although I have a clear understanding of the CCP because I had personal experiences with "The Cultural Revolution" and the "June 4th" incident, and now the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and Falun Gong practitioners, I never thought about the evil nature of it, thus I viewed the CCP and opposed it while using its way of thinking. Furthermore, I have read all the classic works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong. So I accepted them all naturally, thus I was deeply poisoned by it. In my mind, I always thought the CCP was good at the beginning but degenerated later on. However, the articles "On What the Communist Party Is" and "On the Beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party" helped me realize that the Communist Party is an evil specter and the CCP began by gathering all the evil of the world, Chinese or foreign, past or present The huge contrast, those trenchant analysis with arguments and facts that were totally different from what I learned before from my history book, stirred up a big wave in my mind and I could not fall asleep the whole night. In fact, there was a big battle between good and evil in the layers of other dimensions of my body. At the beginning, when I looked at things using a human mind, the influence of the evil party culture began to take over. I could hardly keep reading once I reached Part Three of the "Nine Commentaries." In the meantime, I suddenly shivered all over my body and fell asleep with my mind racing. I felt that evils were encompassing me and I suddenly realized that I had been taken advantage of by the evil because I had a loophole in my cultivation and I was being persecuted by the evil. So I sent forth righteous thoughts and my body recovered quickly. However, my mind remained in a chaotic state for a few days. So I studied the Fa a lot and recited Master's words in my heart:
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
One day, a question suddenly appeared in my mind: "Do you not believe in your Master now? No, I believe him!" Then instantly from the most microscopic particles to the most macroscopic particles of my life, I felt a powerful force drive out the sleepiness that entangled me for the past few days. I picked up Part Three and read it smoothly.
As I was writing this experience-sharing article, I carefully read the "Nine Commentaries" five times. Each time I read it, I felt that I was cleansing out the evil spirit possessions of the CCP in the layers of my body; cleansing out the evil party's logic; getting rid of the poisonous factor and imprint of its culture. Each time I read it, I had a deeper understanding of its evil cult nature that opposes nature, heavenly law, human nature and universe. Each time I read it, I felt that it was a rectification and cleansing process of the sources of my thinking, a process to save my soul and purify my spirit. I have awakened and passed the tribulation. I called my fellow practitioners in China and told them my experience. I hoped that they could learn from it, and that if they could access the "Nine Commentaries," no matter what, they should read it seriously. It would be a process to remove the poison of the CCP evil spirit possession injected into us.
For those of us who have lived in mainland China for several decades, only a tiny portion of families have not been persecuted by the CCP. Even if your family was lucky, your neighbors had all experienced it. Many people of my parents' generation, the people I saw with my own eyes and I myself have had their human nature twisted, conscience eliminated and life taken away. Yet I didn't realize that all these disasters, sufferings and crimes had come from the CCP.
My personal understanding is: as a Dafa disciple, purifying our mind first is very important. How could a person with the Communist Party evil spirit possession and its poison in their thoughts and mind still be called a true Dafa disciple, let alone reach Consummation? To break away clean from the restriction of the Communist Party evil spirit possession is no doubt a necessary step on the Fa-rectification path of each Dafa disciple who has been poisoned by the Party's culture. Have unwavering faith in Master and study the Fa, there are no impassable tribulations.
I am a life born in the old cosmos and all lives in the old cosmos have a selfish nature. So my life was selfish too. Without Master's merciful and arduous salvation, without cultivation in Dafa, without Master renewing me from the most microscopic part of my life, I would still be playing with mud inside the garbage pile of the cosmos and never could return to my true homeland. I also know that any single remaining human attachment would not enable me to return. Our benevolent and revered Master has taken on all of our sufferings but in the meantime, bestowed upon us the most wonderful things. The little bit of work we do to validate the Fa is not for our Master or the Fa, yet Master has given us this unprecedented huge honor in return. Whenever thinking of Master, I cannot hold back my tears. Words cannot express my gratitude to our Master.
The Fa-rectification is progressing rapidly and the time for rectifying the Fa in the human world is coming. I will cherish this time period and do well the three things Master has told us to do. On the basis of the Fa, we must validate the Fa, not individuals. We must maintain righteous thoughts and righteous actions and walk the remaining journey.
My personal experience is: Righteous action comes from righteous thoughts, righteous thoughts comes from righteous belief and righteous belief comes from Fa-study.
Thank you Master. Thank you everyone.
