(Clearwisdom.net) On the morning of November 1, 2007, when I was waiting for a friend at the bus station in the west suburb of the city, an older man came up and said to me with a smile, "Are you a Chinese Communist Party member?" I replied, "In the past I was, but now I have quit the CCP." He said to me in a pleasant voice, "From your accent I can tell that you are a fellow-villager from Shandong Province." I said, "Over the past year, you must have persuaded a lot of people to quit the CCP." He responded, "Not that many, only about fifteen thousand."
I was astonished, but at the same time, I was doubtful and wondered whether it could be true. I had only succeeded in persuading one person to quit the CCP, even though I spent a lot of time at the market each morning walking around and talking to people. Therefore, I decided to invite him to my home to share with me how he did so well.
He stayed at my home for two days and one night and he told me nearly everything about himself. Even after all this, I still did not know how he did it, so I decided to go out with him to clarify the facts and persuade people to quit the CCP. I felt that I could learn something from him and also gain some good experience. We went out together for five days. Because I was used to having two meals a day, I clarified the facts for four or five hours and then returned home. However, he continued to clarify the truth for at least another four hours and only then returned to his residence. Each day, we stayed together for over half a day and could persuade at least twenty people to quit the CCP. The most we were able to successfully reach in one day was thirty-seven people. It was he who mainly clarified the facts and succeeded in persuading people to quit the CCP, while I simply supported him.
Although I did not spend much time with this older gentleman, whom I shall refer to as "Practitioner A," his mindset of urgently saving sentient beings made a strong impression on me. Here I would like to summarize what I learned from him, based on my observations and discussions during the time that we were together.
Place Fa Study in the Proper Relationship to Saving Sentient Beings
The first issue was the time for Fa-study and how to balance time spent on studying the Fa with clarifying the facts. I suggested to him that we could study the Fa in the morning and then go out to clarify the facts in the afternoon. He immediately pointed out, "That is your human notion. Some practitioners have pointed out that the time I study the Fa is too short and that it seems as though I do not put emphasis on Fa-study because I study the Fa after 8:00 p.m. They think that this is the the time of day that we tend to be sleepy. However," he continued, "I don't agree with this. It is very urgent to save sentient beings. After watching the video of Master's 'Fa-Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners,' Master's benevolence and sense of urgency for saving sentient beings touched a lot of practitioners and sentient beings. We should harmonize with Master's wishes, and our basis for Fa-study should be on saving sentient beings. Whether we study the Fa well or not does not depend on whether we study the Fa in the morning or in the afternoon, or the length of time we study. But it is determined by whether we can study the Fa with a calm mind, solidly cultivate ourselves, have righteous thoughts and actions and try to save more sentient beings. During the daytime, we can meet with predestined people [and urge them to quit the CCP]. Therefore, we cannot stay at home to study the Fa." Practitioner A's words sounded reasonable to me. I also came away with the understanding that the most important thing was that the basis for Fa-study must be appropriate.
Always Maintain Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions
The second issue was how to do things with righteous thoughts and righteous actions. At around 4:00 p.m. one day, while we were walking on the west side of a street, two middle-school girls came by. Practitioner A said to one of them, "I'd like to ask you just one thing. Have you heard about quitting the CCP for your own safety?" One girl was surprised and said, "Oh, you are Falun Gong!" After saying that, she pulled her classmate along with her and ran towards a police station.
I said to Practitioner A, "Will the two girls report us?" I was very upset and started to walk quickly. However, Practitioner A seemed not to hear my words and did not look at the police station. We walked one hundred meters away and did not encounter any policemen. Practitioner A said to me, "Your state of mind is the same as my mind used to be when I first went out to persuade people to quit the CCP. We should not be easily affected by this kind of incident. When we meet people like that or encounter similar incidents, we should not be affected and we also should not have the attachment of fear. The more we have this attachment, the more the evil will take advantage of this loophole. The only thing that we can do is to send forth righteous thoughts, negate the interference and ask Master to help us. When Master sees that we still have righteous thoughts, he will watch over us. Otherwise, if the attachment of fear emerges, you will be like a regular person. Under this circumstance, can Master protect ordinary people? We should first have righteous thoughts and then righteous actions. The more we go out to clarify the facts and persuade people to quit the CCP, the more our attachment of fear will be eliminated, and then we can do things with righteous thoughts and righteous actions." From his personal experience, he understood how to keep righteous thoughts and actions. Therefore, it was practical and useful and conformed to the Fa principle, "Cultivate your xinxing without a moment's pause." ("Real Cultivation" from Hong Yin, Translation Version A)
Abandon the Fear of Hardship
The third issue was about suffering and solid cultivation. Practitioner A walked twenty kilometers each day. I calculated that Practitioner A must have walked at least ten thousand kilometers within one and a half years and he wore out three pairs of walking shoes. If he did not have the solid will of a true disciple and steadfast righteous thoughts and belief in Master and Dafa, as well as compassion and tolerance for urgently saving sentient beings, he could not have done that. Practitioner A told me that he used to be lazy in the past, and that his laziness was related to the fear of having to suffer. The key to solid cultivation is to let go of laziness and to be able to suffer hardship. Therefore, he vowed to Master that he would get rid of his laziness.
Practitioner A said that his laziness came from two factors. Firstly, before his retirement, he was the director at his workplace. He had his own driver and often ordered others to do things. Secondly, his wife was very virtuous and loved him very much, and therefore, she did everything for him. He was used to a comfortable life, but after he began to cultivate Dafa, he thoroughly changed. It is said, "East or West, home is best." Traveling on foot to clarify the truth face to face is a difficult and arduous way to offer salvation to people.
Practitioner A believed that Dafa disciples were helping Master in the Fa-rectification and solidly cultivating themselves. He offered the following analogy: Some practitioners walked on a hard concrete path, while others walked on a soft lawn. The concrete path was tedious and it was very painful for cultivators when they stumbled. However, the more we walk our path, the broader it will become. Cultivators will reach the end in a bright and magnificent manner. The lawn is shaded with trees and full of fresh air. Even if we stumbled, we would not be injured. However, when we tried to move forward, we would find no path to walk on and would have no choice but to turn back, and in this way, we would never reach the bright final destination.
Our Minds Must Remain Unmoved
The fourth issue was the Fa principle that our minds should be unmoved. Practitioner A had a deep understanding of Master's teaching, "...just by remaining unmoved you could handle all situations." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference")
Therefore, he passed the tests of fame, self-interest and qing well. More specifically, he passed the huge test of assisting in Fa-rectification, personally clarifying the facts and persuading people to quit the CCP.
Practitioner A had obtained the Fa in February 1999. Soon after he began to practice Falun Gong, the persecution started. It was very difficult for a middle-level cadre, who had a loving wife, to let go of fame and human sentimentality. It was especially difficult for him to give up concern for money and self-interest. After he retired, he invested all his savings into a big project that a friend of his had started. Unfortunately, the project failed and the bank took over and the friend went into hiding. He then remembered what Master taught us, "If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it." ("Lecture Seven" in Zhuan Falun, 2000 Version) "He who has not attachment to worldly loss and gain, An Arhat is he." ("Breaking Free of the Three Realms" Hong Yin, Version A)
He did not submit a claim for compensation, nor did he appeal to the higher court. Instead, he dealt with it calmly. He still did his best to clarify the facts and persuade people to quit the CCP. If one did not have a rock-solid belief in Master and Dafa, one would not be able do this. Now, he receives a pension of nearly 2,000 yuan per month. He gives several hundred yuan to his wife and uses the rest for traveling around and saving sentient beings. He carefully plans ahead and stays in the cheapest hotels and eats the cheapest meals. Over the past several days, when we clarified the facts together and were hungry, he always ordered a bowl of noodles for 2.5 or 3 "yuan". I asked him to buy something else to eat, but he always refused. It was hard to imagine that Practitioner A was a millionaire in the past.
Just by remaining unmoved, we can handle all situations. This means that we should do everything according to Master's teachings and we shouldn't let our hearts be stirred. Nothing can move our righteous thoughts when helping Master with his Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings. Nothing is more important right now than saving sentient beings. Our not saving someone may perhaps result in the destruction of an entire cosmos. Non-practitioners cannot accomplish this, and neither can cultivators who only talk about studying the Fa but do not solidly cultivate. Only Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, who are walking on the path towards godhood, can do it.
Maintain Compassion and Benevolence When Clarifying the Truth
The fifth issue concerns our speech when we persuade people to quit the CCP; our speech should always be moderate and calm. In other words, we should be compassionate and benevolent. An article written by Practitioner A that was published in "Minghui Weekly" mentioned that we should always be benevolent when clarifying the facts. After clarifying the facts together with him for several days, I noticed that he had not written down a very important point, which was that our words should always be moderate and our tone of voice should be calm. I believe that is his secret for successfully persuading people to quit the CCP.
While we were walking, Practitioner A said to me, "It is difficult to persuade people to quit the CCP. We should be careful to not irritate people." Master said,
"It's hard to save people nowadays. You have to explain things to them by following the logic of their attachments. For the sake of saving them, don't create any obstacles for them." ("Touring North America to Teach the Fa" 2002)
He told me that since we do not have enough time to explain things in much detail, we should carefully choose what we say and how we say it. We should always be calm and smile. He thus taught me his secret for successfully persuading people to quit the CCP. I paid close attention to how he clarified the facts and tried not to interrupt him. As long as we kept strong righteous thoughts, it was easy and pleasant to persuade people to quit the CCP.
Practitioner A remembered that in his recent lectures, Master taught us to urgently save sentient beings. I understand that "urgently saving sentient beings" is to grasp every possible opportunity to save the world's people. The final goal of the old forces and the CCP is to destroy all sentient beings. We are really competing with the old forces in offering salvation to the world's people.
Actually, there are a lot of stories about Practitioner A's righteous thoughts and righteous actions. I only mentioned a few of the main issues, according to my understanding. As for the tribulations and hardships he suffered during the process of saving sentient beings, he did not mention them at all.
I only spent several days with Practitioner A. However, because of him, I was able to find my shortcomings and deficiencies. I also now understand that Dafa disciples have to be benevolent and have to maintain righteous thoughts and actions. Finally, I understood why he was able to persuade so many people to quit the CCP. Because he obtained the great law (Dafa), he could be selfless and suffer unthinkable hardships. It is Dafa that forges great Dafa disciples. He is solidly fulfilling what Master taught us and is genuinely validating Dafa.
The above is based on my limited understanding; please point out anything that is incorrect.
December 5, 2007
