(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. Teacher said in the seventh lecture of Zhuan Falun,
"Don't we practitioners want our bodies purified? We shall constantly purify our bodies so as to progress towards higher levels of cultivation. Why then do you do the opposite by contaminating the body? In addition, smoking is also a strong desire."
"Being a practitioner, from this day on you take it as an attachment to quit, and see if you can make it. I advise everyone: those who want to cultivate genuinely should quit smoking from this day on, and therefore you are guaranteed to make it."
Those words enlightened me early in my cultivation as I studied the Fa and caused me to break my 40-year-old smoking habit, something which I had never been able to do before, although I often tried.
Ever since July 20, 1999, Falun Gong has been persecuted in China and our Teacher has been slandered. In order to speak on our Teacher's behalf, a few other practitioners, my daughter and I got on the train and headed for Beijing. Unfortunately, we were put into a police vehicle and taken to the security bureau as soon as we arrived at Beijing and before we even got a chance to validate Dafa. There were other practitioners from various locations, and we recited the Fa and shared our experiences. That same night we were sent back to our local police station, where I clarified the truth to the police, telling them that I previously had heart trouble, a brain disorder, stomach problems, a lumbar disc herniation, and headaches, and that after I started to practice Falun Gong, all my ailments disappeared. I am also much calmer now, and both my daughter and son-in-law confirmed that I have a much better temper. I further told the police about the beauty of Falun Dafa and all the other benefits I derived from it.
By late 2001, many of our local practitioners were arrested and our material production center was ransacked due to our cultivation loopholes. As a result, we lost tens of thousands of yuan. Thanks to Teacher's protection, when police came to search my home, all the Dafa materials and books escaped their notice. All the practitioners who had been arrested were sentenced to forced labor, some for three years and some for four years. I was sentenced to three years, and because of my shallow understanding of the Fa and my fear, I took a detour in my path of cultivation. I brought shame to Dafa with my unforgivable mistake and let Teacher down. Even after Teacher had picked me out of hell and cleansed away my karma, I was ungrateful and wrote the three statements renouncing Dafa. How could I still be a disciple? And how could I expect Teacher to accept me again?
After returning home from the forced labor camp, and in spite of having written my "Solemn Declaration," promising to follow Teacher to the very end, I still had a lot of fear in my heart. As a result, my cultivation lagged behind. However, through continuous Fa study, hand-copying Teacher's lectures, and reading "Minghui Weekly," I gained a better understanding. The differences between me and my fellow practitioners were so huge that I realized I was far below the requirements set by Teacher. However, our compassionate Teacher did not give up on me, and I felt that Teacher was with me at all times. I regained my peace of mind and wholeheartedly did the three things that Teacher asks us to do.
When I started to clarify the truth, I had only a single copy of Minghui Weekly from another practitioner. I had to copy it by hand, and I made four copies every day and sent them to friends or relatives. Later, when the Nine Commentaries was published, I delivered it to every home that I could and persuaded people to quit the Party. As a result, most of my relatives and co-workers quit. I took every opportunity to clarify the truth, be it in the taxi or on the train. Actually, it was all Teacher's doing - I only needed to have the intention of saving sentient beings, and Teacher assisted me at every moment.
Even though I clarified the truth in this way, there was still fear in my heart. One time, when I was clarifying the truth in a local grocery store, a woman started arguing with me. She even called the police to come and arrest me after I had left. The owner of the store told me later that the police returned to inquire about me many times but they never ran into me. Teacher was protecting me and I encountered no real danger, although I became scared.
The experience taught me that I was doing the most righteous thing. As long as our paths are righteous, we will not run into any problems. As long as we have Teacher and the Fa, we can accomplish anything. Remembering this concept, we have walked steadily on the path of truth clarification, and saving sentient beings, while our path is getting broader.
After having read on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website several times that it is good to establish material production centers in homes everywhere, with the assistance of other practitioners I turned my home into a small production center.
I realized that the larger production centers are often destroyed by the police, which can result in huge financial losses, whereas small home-sized centers are easily set up. This makes it easy for everyone to walk their own paths and to establish mighty virtue.
As soon as I understood this, I encouraged other local practitioners to walk their paths of Fa-validation. Many of them set up their own home production centers and are doing well. One practitioner already had a computer at home, so I gave him a few CDs and asked him to practice making truth clarifying materials. I wanted him to first become familiar with the process and then teach him how to access the website to download files. I promised him that I would give him Teacher's lectures and Minghui Weekly if he could not manage to make copies on his own.
This practitioner was not comfortable with my suggestions and was also afraid of failure, so he left in anger. I calmed down and thought about it. I realized that I must have made a mistake. Otherwise, why would he be so angry? I had been so anxious to help him set up his own production center that I did not explain to him the importance of a home center. Before he fully understood the reasons, I had stopped providing him with truth clarifying materials. I went to his home and apologized to him, and brought him a disc containing all the necessary software. I also taught him how to get onto the Minghui website and how to download information.
This incident revealed my attachment of selfishness. I asked other practitioners to start their own production centers so that I no longer had to print so many materials, which would save me a lot of trouble. Wasn't that selfish of me? After I recognized my selfishness, I uprooted it, exposed it and eliminated it.
Although not everything happened as expected, Teacher has always watched over me and guided me. This year, a few amazing things happened to me, and I want to share them with everyone:
Last spring, while going downstairs to have my zipper repaired, I missed a couple of steps and fell to the ground. My legs hurt badly, but after a little while the pain was gone. I knew that Teacher was protecting me. Thank you, mighty and compassionate Teacher!
I know of two young men who fell like I did. One broke his wrist and the other his kneecap. Although they were only in their forties, both were injured. I am almost seventy, but nothing happened to me! If I were not a cultivator and if Teacher had not been watching over me, would I have been able to escape injury? Isn't this an example of Teacher's great compassion and the miracles of Dafa?
Last August, I was cooking dinner and plugged in the water pot by mistake, thinking it was the rice cooker. I suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the water pot in the kitchen. There was no water in the pot and the electric coil was bright red. I quickly filled it with water and it functioned just fine, although its bottom was all black. Normally, one would think that the water pot should never be plugged in without water, and it should have been broken.
Bicycles are often stolen in our area, and practically every household has lost a few of them to theft. There are many people who pick through the garbage for a living, and even a piece of paper would be taken if it was accidentally left in the basket of a bike.
Last November, my daughter and I went shopping. We bought a lot of things and rushed to carry everything into the house after we had locked our bikes. However, I forgot to bring in my purse. A couple of days later, I wanted to go shopping again and needed my purse but could not find it. When I asked my daughter whether she had seen my purse, she looked out of the window and saw that the purse was still hanging on the bike. It had been more than a day later, and many people had walked by but no one had seen it. In the purse were [Falun Dafa] amulets along with a list of 89 people who wanted to quit the Party. Isn't that miraculous?
I did not want to write this article because I know that I have not done too well in many areas. I cannot calm down to study the Fa, as other thoughts interfere, and I have to continuously regather my thoughts, I have a difficult time gaining new understandings and sometimes I understand but I don't apply the lessons to my daily life. I want to wait before I make improvements in my xinxing, however those miraculous incidents have changed my mind, and I am so moved that I have to write about our Teacher's great efforts and protection. I want skeptics to know about Teacher's boundless compassion and the miracles of Dafa.
