(Clearwisdom.net)
"Falun Dafa is good and has improved our village." This is the praise that the inhabitants of one village in Wuxue City, Hubei Province, have for Falun Dafa and Dafa disciples.
Ten years ago, things were not good in the village where several dozen families live. If one family's grain had been cut but not bound together, someone would steal it at night. If one family's vegetable garden was doing really well, someone would take their vegetables when nobody was there. As for being behind in paying the national land tax and participating in public welfare activities and so on, these things where always a problem.
In 1998, several locals began to practice Falun Dafa and followed the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" to govern their behavior. Starting with their own conduct, they managed their households with diligence and thrift and worked hard to become prosperous. They paid the land taxes and participated in all kinds of public welfare activities. They also promoted Falun Dafa from house to house. They used their own experiences to tell the truth about Dafa and to share its wonderful benefits, including getting rid of diseases and keeping fit. Dafa enabled people to upgrade their moral standards. Individuals from almost every family started to cultivate. The social scene in the village and the inhabitants' spiritual sides saw big changes from then on.
Originally, the village not paying the land tax was the biggest headache for the town and village leaders. In the fall of 2002, the leaders had trouble collecting funds to pay the land tax. After a female practitioner--whose husband had just returned from a forced labor camp because he had defended Dafa and then was taken to a brainwashing center by the village leaders--heard about this, she resolutely took several hundred yuan accumulated by frugal living to pay the land tax she owed for that year. She said, "This is Dafa's mercy. The criteria of 'Truth-Compassion-Tolerance' tell me to do this. We are still persecuted when we follow 'Truth-Compassion Tolerance' to be good people. If I were not studying Falun Dafa, I would not have paid the money I owe today." She only said a few sentences, but what she said was righteous, and her compassion, endurance, and selflessness shocked all the leaders and everyone else present. The town leader was very grateful and announced in the presence of everyone: "Falun Gong is so good, but it is persecuted. Please bring her husband home as soon as possible!" This event immediately caused a stir locally. From then on, the problem of collecting the land tax was solved.
In the past, because people in this village did not pay attention to de (virtue), lazy people and thieves proliferated, and there were disasters and diseases. Now, illuminated by Falun Dafa's Buddha light, the seed of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" has been planted in the people's hearts. In the past, because of its troubles, the village had a bad reputation. Now it has become a well-known "noble village" in the town and surrounding areas.
"Falun Dafa is good and has improved our village" has also become the villagers' heartfelt motto.
January 13, 2008