(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings Master,
Greetings to my fellow practitioners,
The Mainland China Falun Dafa Practitioners Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference on the Internet, organized by the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom), is an opportunity given by our Mighty Master to our mainland China practitioners to improve as one body. For the past three conferences I missed the opportunity due to the fear of being unable to write an article well, and I thus felt that I left an omission on the path of my cultivation. For the fourth conference I had written an article to share my cultivation experiences, but I failed to submit it due to many reasons. Compassionate Master knew about my regret and gave me a fifth chance. Thank you Master for giving me the opportunity to make amends! With more participation and communication with Minghui, I realized that the experience sharing articles are true records of our enlightenment during our cultivation process and another opportunity for Dafa disciples to cultivate and provide a way to demonstrate the mighty virtue of Dafa disciples. During the process of validating the Fa, I have felt the joy and honor that come from being immersed in Dafa. Validating the Fa at every stage of a Dafa disciple's life demonstrates the glory and magnificence of the Fa. Only with a pure heart can I live up to the precious opportunity that only comes in millennia.
As Master teaches us in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference",
"I just said, and I have discussed before, that there are Dafa disciples in all professions and in all social strata, and that they are saving sentient beings, validating the Fa, and playing the role of Dafa disciples in all the various professions. And actually, when you manage to, while in the various professions, do well all the things that you ought to do, you are then in fact cultivating. The various professions in the human world are all cultivation sites that are provided to you."
I am a peasant, and the lives of peasants in China are very hard and we often live in poverty. With the corruption of morality in Chinese society, genuine love is rare, even among family members. When my mother was nineteen years old, somebody told her that no matter how hard and bitter her life was, she had to live in the world and wait for Master to spread the Dafa to her. During the year 1999, my mother was 59 years old and diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and ascites. When her liver cirrhosis was very serious, she could barely drink water or eat regular meals. Since she couldn't afford to get treatment, her life depended on several bottles of glucose solution which were borrowed from the clinic center in the village by several neighbors of ours. At that time, I had led a miserable and hopeless life for 38 years, just like my mother. One day in late March, my husband brought us the precious book Zhuan Falun, and on the following day he borrowed the videotapes of Master's Fa lectures in Guangzhou. When we finished watching all the videos, my mother asked my husband, "Who is the speaker? What's his name?" My husband answered, "These are the videotapes of the Fa lectures by Master Li Hongzhi." Tears came down from my mother's eyes, and she said, "It's no surprise that there is a giant Buddha on TV, giving out bright lights. Buddha finally comes!" In this lifetime of hers, she had waited for Dafa for more than 40 years! Because of the personal experiences of my mother, all of my family members are showing their respect to Dafa no matter whether they practice or not.
On July 20, 1999, the CCP regime began to persecute Falun Gong. At that time, my mother and I hadn't learned how to practice the fifth exercise. I begged my husband to search everywhere for us, and finally he found an old man whom we had never known before, and his home was located near a big park in the provincial capital. My husband borrowed the videotapes of The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa from him. After that my mother and I joyfully began our journey of practicing Falun Gong.
A month after my mother began practicing Falun Gong, her liver cirrhosis disappeared and her good health came back. Thus, she threw away all of her medicines. From then on, she worked all by herself to cultivate a big farm with a ten-acre field. When she was working in the farm, she always brought a little tape recorder with her. My mother hadn't learned how to read and write, but she would always listen to the audiotapes of the Fa lectures by Master as much as possible. Within the first month of getting my precious copy of Zhuan Falun, I had read all the chapters of the book seven times. Although I hadn't learned how to practice the five exercises, a miracle happened to me--on the fourteenth day of my reading Zhuan Falun, I took off my 450 degree near-sighted glasses. After that, I threw away the medicine for my heart, of which I had to take two bottles each month. My hot temper changed, and I became more kind and forgiving. From then on, cultivating in Dafa became the sole purpose of our lives. Nothing from the secular world could block our way home.
At the beginning of the year 2000, I heard that many veteran Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to peacefully appeal for Falun Dafa. Although we didn't understand why at first, we figured out that if we kept silent while the slander was being played on TV day and night, then so many innocent people were going to be deceived and thus commit crimes against Dafa. We decided not to watch TV in my home, but it didn't help a lot. We figured that at least we should find ways to tell all my family members, "Falun Dafa is going to save people. Do not believe that slander in the newspaper or on TV. Otherwise, people who believe that stuff will commit sins against Dafa and will thus do harm toward themselves." As a result, my mother discussed with me that as soon as she finished her work on the farm and the summer vacation for students came, we could go back to her hometown on foot to visit her mother, but before that, we needed to prepare fully for the long trek. We then brought a whole bunch of colorful paper and cut them into different smaller sizes. My mother took out several beautiful pieces of fabric that she had saved for her whole life, and I also took several colorful cloths of mine. During the following consecutive evenings, my husband and I together wrote with brushes on those papers and my mother and daughter cut the fabric up. At the very beginning I didn't know how to use the brush to write characters, so I asked Master inside my heart for help. As a result, we could not only write all the characters wonderfully on every colorful piece of paper, but I could also use a huge-sized brush to "paint" characters on a large banner, which was one-meter wide and two-meters long. Also, all of the characters that I wrote down on the colorful banners, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Falun Dafa is good!", were glowing and smiling to us. My mother said, "See, the words are alive!"
In July 2000, we began our first long-distance journey. My eight-year-old daughter never asked me to buy her ice cream. She said that the cost of one ice cream could buy us a new banner. Inside our luggage, bags, and my daughter's school bags, were all the banners to save sentient beings. Wherever we went, we pasted or hung up those banners as high as we could reach, and we even sent them to people who we couldn't meet with. No matter what we were doing at the time, buying some food or finding some water to drink, we always talked with people that we met for a while and told them about Falun Gong. When people heard that my mother regained her health and was given her second life after practicing Falun Gong in her sixties, which enabled her to go back and visit her hometown, they all felt happy for her and said that it was a blessing for her. From sunrise to sunset, my eight-year-old daughter was looking for the right place where we could hang up and display our banners, and she only took a short rest on my back twice during the whole journey. At night, she fell into a deep sleep as soon as we arrived at my brother's house. My mother didn't look a little bit tired at all, she stayed up and talked with her relatives, who had heard that she was returning and stopped by to visit with her.
As we cultivated further in Falun Dafa, we gradually understood that Master is rectifying the Fa throughout the whole cosmos and thus we understood the deeper meaning of what we are doing right now. Realizing that the results of our journey were good, we decided that we should keep doing this twice a year during summer and winter school vacations. We could make our different relatives' homes our destinations so that we could take different routes and meet with more people. During our journey, we got a lot of help, hints and encouragement from Master. There was always a cloud above us to cover us from the baking sun in the summer. Sometimes we only went ahead and forgot to follow the right direction, but we would always end up at the right place to hang up our banners. Our Master granted us all possible opportunities to meet with nice people to be saved. Once at sunset, we had reached a grape-processing plant to find some water. The owner of the place was an elderly woman, and she had already taken the water pump out of the well. After we told her our story and clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to her, she called her son in a hurry and said, "Go, quick, put the water pump into the well and get them some fresh water." Another time, we encountered an elderly man who was riding on a donkey backwards and selling some onions. When he saw us, he suddenly told us that he had been in a sound sleep and thus the donkey went the wrong way for five miles more before he happened to see us. We ended up chatting with him and later on told him our stories and about Falun Dafa. He said that due to his falling asleep, he was able to meet with us so that he could finally know the truth about Falun Dafa. Another time more people were running toward us and calling the names of their family members; when they approached us, they said that they had mistaken us for someone else.
After we arrived at our relatives' homes, we would usually stay with them for several days. During those days, we tried to see as many people as possible to clarify the truth to them, and we also tried to visit many places. We told them our stories and played the audio tapes of the Fa lectures by Master to them. An older cousin of mine and his young son both liked to accompany us. His wife would also stay at home and cook for us when we were going out. Later on, my cousin's wife was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and was sent to a hospital. She couldn't take care of herself and vomited a lot of blood. The doctor that was in charge of her told her family members to prepare for her death. However, the following day, she got out of her bed and recovered all by herself. The doctor and nurses in the hospital were all shocked. Later on, when we would visit with them every year, we were always welcome, and they would ask us about getting more materials about Falun Gong.
I have another cousin who knows the importance of upholding justice. Once he visited my mother, and as soon as he entered the door, he heard Master say from the audio tape, "Some people say, 'I just want to discipline bad people.' I would say that you are best off becoming a policeman." (Zhuan Falun) Upon hearing this, he mumbled to himself, "Well, why is the teacher mentioning this to me?" Curious, he sat down and listened to the Fa lecture very seriously. He even didn't say hello to my mother until the lecture was finished. Later on, we had a very long conversation with him. When he understood that Master is here to save sentient beings, he said, "I will follow what is taught by Master. In the near future, I would also like to cultivate in Dafa."
Before I obtained the Fa, my parents-in-law and their younger son wanted to live in their house alone, so they drove my husband and me out of the big family. At that time we became homeless and very poor, and lived in endless hardships. I had decided at that time that I would never talk to them again. In 1992, my father-in-law passed away, and I hadn't come back to say goodbye to him. At the beginning of 2000, my mother-in-law became sick and was on the verge of death. She asked them again and again to prepare her a coffin made from a pine tree. That was a very difficult task for my husband and two of his elder brothers because they were too poor to afford the coffin. I thought to myself, "Should we continue these endless fights and conflicts with my-mother-in-law, even though she is on the verge of death? Master tells us that we should cultivate to ultimately become righteous enlightened beings that are truly selfless and altruistic. By studying the Fa, I learned that Master said, "If you cannot love your enemy, then you cannot reach Consummation." ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia"). Therefore, if I always run away from them, who will tell them that Master has come to save sentient beings? Master teaches us to treat people with great compassion, so I should follow Master's teachings and become compassionate to them." Although I still felt wronged and hurt whenever I thought of the previous conflicts with them, I still discussed it with my husband and said I wanted to donate all the wood that our family had saved for the new windows and doors for three rooms in our new house. My husband was shocked at my decision and mumbled, "Wow, that's all the valuables for our whole family!" I answered, "Well, it doesn't matter for us. We should follow the teachings of Master and consider others first. Don't make your elder brothers have such a difficult time trying to find your mother a coffin. We'll be taken care of by Master and by gods. We can find other ways, and at least we can wait for several years more to build our new house." After that affair, many people saw us in a new light, and it was easier to save them later on. Even the carpenter that we employed told us, "People who truly believe in gods are different from ordinary people. See all the people in current society, how many people as sons and daughters can behave like you?" After he worked for us to make the coffin for seven days, he only accepted 100 yuan as his compensation, which was a big discount. Later on, our previous house had leaks everywhere whenever it was raining, so we couldn't live there any longer. At the time, as we worried about it, the manager of my husband's company learned of our difficult situation and lent us some money. Then, he also drove to my house in person and brought us some wood. He even sent several workers of his to help us to build a new house, and our neighbors also got up earlier and went to bed late to work for us for free. I was so moved since I hadn't done anything for them except telling them now and then that Master has come to save people, and not to miss the precious opportunity. During the time that people were building our house for us, I played Dafa music for them all the time and told them about the true meaning of cultivation that I had enlightened to.
For genuine cultivators, there aren't any hardships or tests that we cannot pass as long as we keep our righteous hearts with Master all the time.
I remember that it was at the end of 2002 when I was released from a forced labor camp. We had nothing to eat and nothing to burn to keep us warm in the winter. As for food like rice, bread and oil, we could borrow it from our acquaintances; however, I wondered about what should I do to get us some fuel to keep us warm? It could not be found in stores or even in the field, as there was heavy snow covering the ground at that time. The new year was coming, so what should I do? The most important thing for me at that time was to find all the Fa lectures given by Master. As for the dry grass and other things for us to burn to keep warm, I was going to find ways to get them. I went to an elder female practitioner that I knew before and asked her to lend me 100 yuan for living expenses. I never expected that on the eighth and final month in the Chinese calendar, the heavy snow on the ground began to melt and the weather became warmer and warmer. By the 23rd day of that month, all the snow on the ground had melted completely and the grass beneath the snow appeared again. I was so happy and began to harvest the grass for our fuel. I did this for seven days and harvested enough grass for my family. It didn't snow again until New Year's Eve. When my neighbors saw me harvesting the grass, they called to me, "Hey! Don't harvest the grass for now. Just get whatever you need from my house." I told them that Master teaches us about the relationship between loss and gain and that we should upgrade our xinxing if we genuinely cultivate in Dafa. A younger sister who lived closer to me, cried and said to me, "You live in poverty like this. How can it be that you always smile?" I told her, "I recite the Fa inside my heart when I am working. No matter which word was given by Master, it always makes me feel assured and happy whenever I think about it." Upon hearing my words, she said that she would cultivate in Dafa later on.
I remembered the day that I was shopping for the New Year. After I bought chicken, duck, fish and pork, I thought of buying some eggs for my daughter and some other condiments for cooking. I counted the money in my hand and I suddenly remembered that I should buy something to make truth-clarification materials for my relatives in the New Year. I decided to use all the money that I had to buy some colorful papers and cloth first. When I entered a small convenience store, the owner was playing cards alone. I told him that I wanted to buy some colorful paper. He said that he was busy and asked me to get it by myself. So I picked five colors and ten pieces of paper of each color, totaling fifty pieces of paper. The owner said, "The paper there is nothing, and you're buying it to make it into something, so I'll only accept 5 yuan from you." Finally, I bought the colorful paper, eggs and condiments, and still I had 2 yuan left in my hand. I decided to save that 2 yuan as the New Year's money gift for my daughter. On the first day of the New Year, one of my fellow practitioners came to visit me and brought us five apples. I was so happy and said to her, " That's good. You know, I have nothing to present to Master as a New Year's gift. Thank you, because now I have something."
During the following spring, I employed some workers to build an outside wall for me. Some curious neighbors also came to watch. I took out my audio player and played the tapes of the Fa lectures given by Master for them. They all listened carefully and nobody talked. At that time, my mother and I both played the Fa lectures loudly whenever I was working in the field. By doing so, I hoped that more people could hear the Buddha Fa and have good rewards. Once, when I returned from my vegetable field in order to change a new audio tape of Fa lecture, I noticed that an elder female neighbor was carrying her grandson on her back and listening to the Fa lecture in my yard. Another time, she came to chat with me. She said, "You persist in your cultivation in Falun Dafa. You must have an authentic way of cultivation. My husband once said to me that he heard divine music in your yard, and that the music made him feel very good." I told her that the divine music he heard was Falun Dafa music.
One year I worked for a plant manufacturing plastic tubes. They scheduled three shifts for each day, and mandated that two workers should work one shift and each of them should control one machine. Once I was 5 minutes late for the shift change. On the following day, the worker on the same shift as me was late for almost half an hour. I knew that she did so because I wasn't on time the previous night. However, she had only worked for one hour and then she found a teenage boy to replace her while she herself went back home to sleep. Every time when I sent forth righteous thoughts at midnight, I always found somebody to take care of the machine for me. However, that night the boy was so sleepy that he ran off for sleep himself. I had to take care of two machines, finish the plastic tubes and add in more raw materials. The work kept me busy through the whole night until the next shift change at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. I was sweating all over and my voice went hoarse. My colleagues during the next shifts all came to me and asked me what had happened. I told them about the whole affair without thinking too much. Then, they began to make comments and said they would "seek justice" for me. At 7:00 a.m. that morning, one of my fellow practitioners looked for me. When we saw each other, she asked the reason why my voice sounded so hoarse, and I told her my story. Upon hearing that, she replied, "Your xinxing level is not high enough." I pondered her words and looked inward to find my omission. Suddenly, I realized that Master requires that we should treat everyone with the same great compassion. However, I didn't follow the requirement fully. For example, if the late colleague of mine was my younger sister, would I tell others how badly she treated me? Shouldn't I worry about her in case she was going to be fired if I told others about her behavior? Shouldn't I worry that she was going to be blamed by other colleagues? Because she wasn't my younger sister, I complained to others. How selfish I was! Thinking of Master, I felt regretful and cried.
When the time of my shift was coming that night, my colleagues gathered together and continued the morning's topic. As soon as they saw me coming, they said hello to me with smiles and praised me. They said that the colleague with the same shift as me was so lucky that she could meet such a nice and forgiving person like me to work with. I cried again and said regretfully, "Do not praise me like this. If she was my own younger sister, I wouldn't have complained about her to you all. My Teacher requires us to treat people equally and compassionately. However, I didn't follow his requirement fully and completely. My xinxing level isn't high enough and my Teacher would be disappointed with me." They saw me crying when I was speaking, and said nothing more. After a while, a male colleague of mine broke the silence and spoke loudly, "Long life to Falun Gong! The Master of Falun Gong is good! If all the people living on earth would follow the teachings of Falun Gong, what use would we have for fighter planes and atomic bombs? In the near future, we all would like to cultivate in Falun Dafa." After that affair, from the owner of my workplace and ordinary employees, whenever they had time, would come to me to listen to me talk more about Falun Gong. I heard that once some policemen from a police substation came to the owner of my plant to investigate something about Falun Gong, and the owner replied to them, "I don't know anything about Falun Gong. And my plant doesn't belong to your area." They never came back.
There were also cases in which I haven't behaved so well in maintaining my xinxing level. Once, I saw my husband cooking eggs for himself instead of for our daughter after I had come back from my workplace. I thought to myself that if he ate all the eggs, then there would be no more for my daughter, so I hid all the eggs and left secretly. On the following day, something was stolen at my work place. The owner of the plant called everyone except me into the plant to have a meeting about that affair. After the meeting, the employees felt uncomfortable about my not being required to attend the meeting. The owner explained to them that since I am a cultivator, I was very unlikely to be the culprit. I smiled to myself and was too shy to say that I "stole" eggs from my husband. When I came back from work, I mentioned the whole story to my daughter. My daughter smiled at me and said, "Eggs are eaten by people. Whether they are eaten by me or by my father, it's all the same. How come you cannot let go of that little bit of your human emotion?" I also thought so and then put the eggs back in their previous place. The next day at work, the thing that was stolen the day before was found again.
Through all these experiences of mine, I realized that the xinxing level of a genuine cultivator can restrain people and the environment around him or her. Therefore, as genuine cultivators, we should really maintain our xinxing and be strict about every thought of ours at all times; we should be strict with ourselves and examine our speech and actions at all times according to the requirements of Falun Dafa. Every fall I went out to help other people harvest, and I never minded what kind of job was given to me. Sometimes, I liked to choose the jobs that other people wouldn't like to take; sometimes I liked to take the jobs that made the employees feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, I'd like to do more household work such as sweeping the floor and cooking, so that other workers could have more and better rest and made them feel more at home. As a result, the employers who had hired me previously all wanted to hire me again the next year and asked me for more information about Falun Dafa and cultivation. I could feel the respect and care from the bottom of people's hearts. These are the benefits I got from following Master's teachings. Therefore, I realized that as true cultivators, we should truly believe in Dafa and thus behave ourselves with righteous thoughts. We should never doubt what we are doing. If two ordinary people don't trust each other, how can they treat each other fairly and well? If we don't have solid righteous thoughts like a shining diamond, how can we continue our cultivation in Falun Dafa?
Two days after Master announced his resignation from the Communist Youth League, dozens of my family members quit from the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its related organizations. My mother realized that Fa-rectification by Master has almost reached the secular world and whoever participates in eliminating the evil CCP participates in this sacred, divine affair. After that, no matter whether they cultivated in Dafa or not, all of my family members brought the "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party" with them to send to their friends and acquaintances when they went out. Sometimes, people around us also asked for it themselves.
An ordinary person's life will be full of hardships and temptations. As a genuine cultivator, especially in mainland China, his or her life will be full of unimaginable hardships. Looking back at the cultivation paths that we had walked in the big dye vat of ordinary society, how many ordeals, tests and struggles there were! However, within the wretched environment of the CCP culture, Dafa disciples should validate the wonder and magnificence of Falun Dafa with our pure benevolence!
In fact for a true cultivator, the most difficult time is when he has failed to maintain his xinxing and to assimilate to the Fa, while the happiest time is when he has corrected deviated notions or concepts and has assimilated to the Fa. By strictly maintaining xinxing and truly believing in Master, cultivation opportunities are everywhere in our lives, and every living environment is arranged by Master for us to cultivate. There is an ancient saying: great students come from a great teacher. It's the great Fa that creates great lives! Beings that cultivate in Dafa are eternally blessed and honored. Everything in validating the Fa is great!
Nine years in one's life is just like a blink of an eye, and Dafa has made it possible for me to walk the cultivation path toward divinity. Words cannot describe my gratitude for Master's giving me a new lease on life, and I can only devote myself wholeheartedly to Master in order to live up to this opportunity.
I started to write this article last year and finished it this year. I was diligent, but at times, I was also lazy and made mistakes in cultivation. The most important thing is that I truly believe in Dafa and have cultivated. Although I created many obstacles for myself while I assisted Master in Fa-rectification over the past nine years, I did not mention my mistakes in this article. My intention is to validate Dafa positively and thank this conference for offering great opportunities for Dafa disciples.
Once again, thank you Master for giving me a new lease on life! Also, thank you fellow practitioners who have kindly helped me.
