(Clearwisdom.net) Before becoming a Falun Dafa practitioner, my sole goal in life was to be an outstanding individual and achieve greatness in society. After I began the practice, I understood that non-practitioners have worldly desires that are in opposition to cultivation. Teacher guides us on a most pure, magnificent, and sacred road that enables a person to become a celestial being. I finally understood the meaning and mission of my existence.
1. Placing Saving People as Top Priority, Balancing Relations Between Home, Work, and Society
Teacher said:
"Dafa has been established in human society, and your form of cultivation has you conform to ordinary society to the maximum extent. Many people think it's about being lenient with and making things convenient for our cultivation, but diligent students don't see it that way. It is, rather, the path that Dafa disciples must take as they cultivate. So everything that you do, be it your balancing well your family relationships while you live among ordinary people, balancing well your relationships in society, how you perform at your workplace, how you conduct yourself in society, etc., none of these are things you can just go through the motions on. All of these are part of your cultivation format, and are serious matters." ("Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006")
Domestic Relationships
I became a practitioner after I was married. Although my husband is not a practitioner, he is very supportive of Falun Dafa. I knew that one's attitude toward Dafa will position everyone in the future. Because he married me, my husband had a predestined relation with Falun Dafa and I believe he has chosen a great future because of his positive attitude towards Falun Dafa.
From the day I started the practice, I did not avoid or hide anything from my husband. It did not matter what happened to cause conflicts between us, everything was often resolved after I unconditionally looked within and painstakingly eliminated my attachments. Because of studying the Fa, I could tell better how the evil in other dimensions manipulated people to interfere with me. Through sending righteous thoughts and eliminating evil elements, the knowing side of people gradually awakened.
At times I talked with my husband about how I passed tests and tribulations following the principles of the Fa in a way he could understand. I hoped his life could be rectified by this profound teaching. Many times compassionate Teacher demonstrated miracles in front of my husband. As a result, a firm believer in modern medicine and science, an atheist, and a medical doctor became a Dafa supporter. Because of him, I escaped persecution.
Many people whose minds were poisoned by the lies publicized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asked my husband how he handled his wife being a Falun Gong practitioner. Every time, his positive attitude gave me a good opportunity to validate the Fa, clarify the truth, and eliminate the evil. A colleague of mine couldn't understand why I continued with the practice after the persecution started. Because of my truth clarification and my husband's support and understanding when I suffered tribulations, he told me a story. One time he saw a friend beating his wife who insisted on practicing Falun Gong and threatened her with divorce. He told his friend my story and asked him to stop treating his wife that way. He even told his friend he respected and regarded practitioners highly. His kind act not only alleviated the stress in that practitioner's family but also laid a foundation for his bright future.
Balancing Work Relationships
I worked in a high school where the interpersonal relationships between people were tense and complicated. I followed Teacher's directions:
"What I've told you is that you should be a good person wherever you are and have others say that you are a Dafa disciple. You need to handle the things in your family well and handle the things in your workplace well. As Dafa disciples, how well you've cultivated is precisely reflected in these areas, in front of the world's people." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference")
I was the only person that practiced Falun Dafa at that school, and I knew I shouldered a great responsibility. Every move and word of mine might decide whether a person could be saved. Hence, I strictly followed the Fa and did not fight over personal gains. With intellectuals, I tried to use rational ways they felt comfortable with when I interacted with them.
One day I was talking about the persecution of Falun Gong to the dean. The associate dean and the chair of the 610 Office came by and heard me talking. The associate dean cut into the conversation and complained about how he was upset with what practitioners did. He was upset with practitioners calling him from overseas in the middle of the night. He called it harassment and said that practitioners posting truth-clarification messages and fliers were damaging and polluting the environment. He even questioned the accuracy of the content in the fliers because of the language used. Other people present started to agree with him and agreed that practitioners clarifying the truth were venting their discontent with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I felt really sorry for them, as their minds were poisoned by the Party culture. They accepted the lies they heard and were manipulated by the dark minions and evils in other dimensions. I sent righteous thoughts with a calm mind and talked to them kindly. I told them that practitioners, in order to expose the lies, had given up almost everything. They only wanted to tell people what was really happening with the persecution of Falun Gong. I said that the behavior of practitioners was compassionate and magnificent. They had to break through the CCP's obstructions and restrictions and endure all kinds of pressure from society. Hence, they might have acted wrongly, made mistakes, or failed to conform to common norms. I explained that practitioners would improve, because they wanted people to understand them and be saved.
Then I told them of the brutal tortures used to suppress practitioners and why the practitioners risked their safety to tell the world about the persecution of Falun Gong. I spoke of the damage the CCP had done to our great Chinese culture and how it hurt the Chinese people. Because they understood what kind of person I was and approved of my performance at work, they agreed with what I said. Later I was told that the associate dean became a defense lawyer for a practitioner.
My supervisors and coworkers understood the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong and agreed with my actions. They often protected me from the CCP's harassment and persecution. Sometimes I was faced with an emergency situation. I needed to rescue a practitioner that was arrested and needed time off. I held my righteous thoughts and clarified the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong as I explained to the division supervisors why I had to take time off. They often approved my requests quickly and told me to be careful of my safety. Many of them had become "live advertisements" in telling people the facts of Falun Gong.
Balancing Relationships Well
Practitioners practice in the human world, and I realized that we had to present ourselves like an elegant lotus flower growing up out of the mud. We had to save sentient beings.
Teacher said:
"Everything that Dafa disciples are doing today is for the sake of saving people. Otherwise what are you doing it for? Clarifying the truth in an upright and open manner are the very things Dafa disciples should do. I'm also telling you that all beings in today's world came for the sake of the Fa. If you want a being to clearly understand this point, you should go and clarify the truth to him. It is a master key, the key that can unlock that one thing all living beings have had sealed off for a long time and been waiting for more than an eternity." ("Explaining the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")
One time several practitioners and I wanted to go to a forced labor camp at night to send righteous thoughts nearby. In order to save money, we took the same taxi. We tried to tell the taxi driver the truth about the persecution. He did not believe what we said, especially when we talked about the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and quitting the CCP and its affiliates. He resented the idea of quitting the Party. We decided to send righteous thoughts to clear the evil elements that controlled him. I figured that, given his age, he had a school-aged child. I started talking about how tough it was to be the parent of a school child and discussed the corruption and dark side of education. Then I talked about the CCP's evil persecution and how many innocent Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured. He listened quietly. Soon we arrived at the forced labor camp. As we got out, we continued clarifying the truth to him. When the last of us had gotten out of the car, after a great deal of struggle, he said, "I agree with you practitioners. Please help me quit. I am a CCP member." He had finally understood the truth.
2. Practitioners Coordinate and Demonstrate the Mighty Power of Falun Dafa
I took part in several Dafa projects. I had no specific idea of what I wanted to do or what I could do. I often accidentally bumped into practitioners' Fa study sessions. They asked me to join them in some activity after a couple of group meetings. I found that they coordinated, worked in informational materials production sites, and delivered materials. I joined their efforts. Several years ago, I wrote an article about how I was persecuted and submitted it to the Minghui Website (Chinese version of the Clearwisdom Website). After that, I collected practitioners' articles and polished and edited them before sending them to Minghui.
Several years ago, I became involved in rescuing imprisoned practitioners when I indirectly received a letter asking for help to rescue from a practitioner in prison.
Teacher said about an article:
"Well said. Each person's cultivation path is different, the way in which each validates the Fa is different, their social statuses are different, their occupations are different, and their surroundings are different, but they can all cultivate nevertheless. This is the path Dafa presents to its cultivators. Dafa disciples are one body, and I affirm everything they have been doing during Fa-rectification-they are all doing what Dafa disciples should do. Different approaches are in fact the all-encompassing way in which roles are dynamically distributed in the operations of the Fa, and the Fa-power is a reflection of the one body." ("Master's Comment on a Student's Article, 2/16/03")
We all know that there is no work in the Fa, only practice. Creating and participating in various projects are to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Practitioners are involved in projects they are qualified to help with. I deeply feel that the most powerful guarantee for doing Dafa work well is for practitioners to coordinate with and support each another.
Several years ago, only one practitioner and I were involved in rescuing imprisoned practitioners. There was a lot of interference from evil in other dimensions. We had to help imprisoned practitioners to improve their xinxing based on the Fa and encourage their families to have faith in the Fa. We also needed to expose the evil in order to stop the prison guards from torturing practitioners. We needed to gain support from ordinary people and clarify the truth of the persecution to them. Whenever we found that we lacked righteous thoughts, we studied the Fa and shared our thoughts based on the Fa. That was how we regained our righteous thoughts. Teacher said:
"So as a cultivator, what is truly remarkable is when you can be steadfast and have righteous thoughts so firm that nothing can sway you. Be solid and firm like diamond, or granite, and then nothing can affect you--evil will be afraid at the mere sight of you. If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate, and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace. One thought born of righteous faith is all it takes. And whoever can hold firm that righteous thought and go the distance will become a magnificent god forged by Dafa." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")
In the spring of 2008, we received a letter from an imprisoned practitioner asking us to visit her. Before we were ready to leave, we called the practitioner's family who are not practitioners and discussed what we were about to do. They tried everything to stop us and told us that around the Olympics, the authorities would not allow family visits. They believed the prison would turn down our request to visit because we were also practitioners. We realized that we had shortcomings in our minds. I found that I had the attachment of rushing things, complaint, and wanting to use the work to validate myself. My righteous thoughts got stronger. I called the practitioner's family again without any thought of insisting on what I wanted to do. I communicated with them calmly with the attitude of consulting with them. Later her family was happy to agree to take us to see her.
Before we took off, I notified many practitioners to send righteous thoughts to support us and the imprisoned practitioners. At the prison, we did not have to go through any procedures and saw the practitioner without any problems. Despite being monitored by many guards, prisoners, and cameras, we maintained our righteous thoughts and shared with the practitioner based on the Fa openly and nobly. Because of everyone's coordination, we did what we intended to do. We gave the imprisoned practitioner encouragement based on the Fa. What we did also amazed the practitioner's family. They truly respected what we did, and one of them even told us, "You guys are really gods."
Teacher's compassionate guidance and protection have helped us pass tribulations and interference. We gradually eliminated our human notions and ideology. As long as there is a practitioner who needs help, we do whatever we can to coordinate. Teacher said:
"Master affirms what Dafa disciples have done. As long as you are doing things out of a wish to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, I will affirm all that you do. And when you go do those things, there will be my Law Bodies or gods there to amplify it and make what you do yet more magnificent and extraordinary, and they will assist you."("Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference")
Currently we work with practitioners across six districts and conduct widespread rescue operations, expose the evil, clarify the truth, and save sentient beings.
