(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings to respected Teacher! Greetings to fellow practitioners!
The Sixth Internet Experience Sharing Conference for Practitioners in China has begun. On recalling my cultivation path over the last ten years or more, as a Falun Gong practitioner who is very fortunate to exist at the same time as Teacher and the Righteous Fa, to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, I sincerely want to report my experience to Teacher.
Delighted to have learned Falun Dafa
In 1996 my wife had cancer of the uterus, which was in its advanced stages. After surgery she developed cancer of the peripheral nervous system and only survived after undergoing emergency treatment for one month at a larger hospital. She was then transferred to a hospital in Beijing and had to stay there for three years. We spent tens of thousands of yuan but were only told that she could not be cured. With no other choice, she discharged herself from the hospital and returned home.
At home my mother came to visit my wife, traveling hundreds of kilometers. She told us that Falun Gong can cure diseases that hospitals cannot cure, and asked us to learn Falun Gong. After three months of practice my wife's cancer was cured and she started to have menstrual periods again. She kept a record of the whole process. When our friends and neighbors heard that Falun Gong cured her cancer, more people came to the practice. The number of people at our practice site jumped to over 50.
Some time later, the hospital in Beijing sent us a letter, and asked if my wife wanted to go back to the hospital for a checkup. They asked whether she was still undergoing treatment, or if we needed to purchase any medicine from them. We replied, “By practicing Falun Gong her disease has been cured and there is no need for any treatment or medicine.”
The doctors at our local hospital conducted a checkup on my wife and found that all the cancer cells had disappeared. When the doctor asked how anything like this could happen, we told him that it was possible by reading the book Zhuan Falun and practicing the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. The doctor was very amazed, and said, “Can you lend me the book to read?” On witnessing the miraculous effects of Dafa, our friends and relatives were very happy for us and encouraged us to continue to practice.
As part of my job I often had to entertain clients with meals and I developed a lot of bad habits, such as drinking and smoking. My wife asked the assistant at her local practice site, “My husband smokes and drinks. Can he quit his bad habits by practicing Falun Gong?” The assistant answered, “Yes, he can.” I then began to read Zhuan Falun, but with some skepticism. After I read a few pages I lit a cigarette and drank some wine. I was very impatient and thought to myself, how come I still failed to quit smoking and drinking? One week passed where nothing happened, but on the eighth day, as soon as I opened the wine bottle or lit a cigarette I would smell something very disgusting, which made me feel very sick and I wanted to vomit. I instantly enlightened that I should not touch cigarettes or wine anymore. This successful episode had profound implications on me, and everyone said that practicing Falun Gong changed me for the better.
Going to Beijing to clarify the truth and displaying the mighty power of Righteous Thoughts
In January, 2001, I went to Tiananmen Square with two other practitioners to clarify the truth and validate the Fa. Before leaving I asked my workplace for home leave. Then I boarded the Beijing bound train with a banner bearing the words “The Fa Rectifies Heaven and Earth.” At the time, my understanding was that every practitioner should go to Beijing to validate the Fa and talk to people about the persecution of Falun Gong, to restore the respect and good name of our Teacher and to call for the government to allow practitioners a suitable environment to freely practice Falun Gong.
We arrived at Tiananmen Square at 6 a.m., and not many people were around. The square was cordoned off and those who wanted to enter had to show their ID. At around 11 a.m. more people were on the square, and several practitioners were throwing fliers into the square. The police beat them with batons and many practitioners' heads were bleeding.
The three of us lined up in a row and shouted, “The Fa rectifies heaven and earth!” while walking onto the square. The police on the square were very surprised and they all looked up, as they were squatting on the ground. It was as if they wanted to see how tall we really were. I felt that my main consciousness flew to a very high place, and Tiananmen Square became too small to see. Only when we reached the center of the square did the police stop us. They said, “Don't shout anymore. We heard you. We know you came to rectify the Fa.” Then, a police car arrived and an officer got out. He bowed to us and said very politely, “Please get in the car!”
We were not verbally abused or beaten. I thought this was because, at the time, we didn't have any selfish thoughts and what we did was one hundred percent for the Fa. We had reached the requirements of the Fa, so the mighty virtue of the Fa was displayed.
We were taken to Qianmen police sub-station and asked to register, but we would not cooperate with them. In the back yard of the police station there were about 300 practitioners who came from all parts of the country. They lined up and were reciting Lunyu. The police tried to order us to stop, but we refused.
Shortly after 1 p.m. several buses arrived and the three of us were sent to different places. I was sent to the Changping County Police Department and then on to a police station. They began to interrogate me: “Were you sent by your Teacher?” I replied, “No, I came to Beijing voluntarily.” “Why did you come here?” I answered, “To validate the Fa.” Then they asked, “Why can't you just practice at home? Why do you want to come here to validate the Fa?” I replied, “To seek justice for Dafa and restore the good name of our Teacher.” “Tell us your name and where you work.” I said, “I don't want to make trouble for anyone else.”
The police threatened me with an electric baton, “If you can bear this you don't need to tell us your name.” They forcefully stripped off my clothes. Then they opened all the windows and let the cold wind blow in. The police asked me, “Isn't it cold?” I said, “Not cold!” They said, “We will give you three more minutes to reconsider.” I did not say anything. Three minutes later they returned with the electric baton. When it was turned on the electric baton's flames flickered three inches high. I was scared on the sight of it. I thought it would burn my skin and flesh. Then I thought of Teacher's words:
“In life, nothing sought,
In death, regretting naught;
Washing away all wrong thought,
Buddhahood, with less
adversity, is wrought.” (“Nothing Kept” from Hong Yin)
I let go of life and death, and was determined not to yield to the evildoers' orders.
A police officer grinned hideously and said, “In that case please enjoy.” As he walked closer to me with the electric baton, the flame died out as it ran out of power. They then started to shock me with a new baton, but, when the baton hit me I did not feel any pain. Instead, I felt a very comfortable, warm current go through me and all of a sudden I became very sleepy. In no time I was asleep. While I was in a sound sleep I felt someone push me using a lot of force. A police officer very angrily said, “We are dog tired shocking you with the electric baton, but you're sleeping very soundly.” I replied, “This is because the electricity made me feel very comfortable. Go and get more batons and shock me for a longer time. I feel very comfortable.” The police then stopped shocking me.
At that time, I did not know how to use supernormal abilities to punish the evildoers. One of the police said, “Shock his penis! I am certain he will not fall asleep then.” My first thought was, “My penis would be ruined. However, it doesn't matter if it's ruined. Teacher, I can bear it.” One officer came towards me, while the others surrounded me. When he was about two steps away from me the flames from the electric baton died out. He shouted, “Get me a new one that is fully charged.” I thought, “Why are you beating me with the electric baton? Why don't you beat the bad guys? I am a good man. They are the bad guys. You should shock them with the electric baton.” While I was thinking that, the officer turned on the power and miraculously shocked two other officers. Then they started to argue with each other. One of them said, “You should shock Falun Gong, not me!”
Four police officers then came forward to help them. Two of them held my arms while the other two held my back, to make sure that I could not move. However, as soon as the baton touched me the four officers were all shocked. They fell to the floor and screamed in pain. This was the effect of supernormal abilities by using righteous thoughts.
These officers still were not willing to stop, so they got a cigarette lighter and tried to burn my body hair and flesh. Soon the room was filled with a very unpleasant odor. When they found that this form of torture also failed, they pushed me to the ground, while several officers took turns to stand on me with their leather shoes. They also threw their burning cigarette butts at me.
One of the officers poured some cold water on the ground and told me to stand in it. Then they got some water from the electric water heater and poured it down my back, saying that this would make the electricity travel faster. Several officers with electric baton in hand then came towards me. However, as soon as they switched the batons on all the policemen immediately threw them to the ground. Then they all bowed to me, “Old man, we give you all these batons. We beg you to tell us your name and where you work.” I said, “This old man does not want to tell you, so you don't need to ask me anymore.”
At that moment the director of the station walked in. He said, “Look at you! Why is the one who is supposed to be interrogated standing in the middle of the room with his hands by his side, while the interrogators are cowering in the corner?” I said, “Director, do they not look like police officers? You must provide them with some training.” The director interrupted me and then talked to the officers, “Listen, he said you are not even qualified to be police officers. Get out of here!” The officers walked out of the room feeling quite embarrassed.
I was then locked up in a small room, which had water on the ground, so I could only stand and not sit down. Several days later, the head of the police department from my province came to collect me. When I greeted him, he quickly replied, “I know you are a good man. That is why I asked for leave to come here. You have never broken any laws.” He then took me back to our province's liaison office in Beijing. I later learned that the fellow practitioners who went to Beijing with me to clarify the truth had told them my name and where I worked. On leaving the police station, all the officers were waiting outside. They clapped their hands and smiled, “We welcome you to come back to Beijing to validate the Fa after the Chinese New Year. We will welcome you.”
At the liaison office nearly 20 practitioners, both male and female, old and young, were squeezed into a room about 20 square meters in size. We read the Fa together, recited poems from Hong Yin, did the exercises together and shared our experiences.
There were only three beds in the room, which had to be shared between all the practitioners. In the evening I spoke with the deputy head of the police station, who was on guard duty that night. I said, “There are many people in here, men and women, young and old. Would you provide us with more rooms?” He replied, “I know you are all not ordinary people. We trust you very much and know you can put up with it.” Between the practitioners we all politely offered the beds to others. The scene was very moving. Most of us slept on the concrete floor. The winter in Beijing was very cold but we did not feel it. Everyone felt very warm. We all knew it was the power of Dafa. As I was always handcuffed, I needed help from fellow practitioners at meal times. They fed me and also helped me if I needed to go to the toilet. The selflessness of the practitioners touched me deeply and melted my heart.
I very much regretted that on returning to our local police station I signed a Guarantee Statement promising not to go to Beijing to protest again. Owing to my shallow understanding of the Fa, and watching veteran practitioners all sign it, I also signed. This left me with a stain on my cultivation. When I finally enlightened that it was not what a practitioner should do, I wrote a solemn declaration and asked fellow practitioner in Guangzhou to help me publish it on the Minghui / Clearwisdom websites.
Validating the Fa at work
As I knew that the CCP had produced a lot of lies against Dafa and Dafa disciples, I made sure that I did things in accordance with the Fa and paid attention to my words and deeds, to validate the Fa at my workplace.
One day I was helping to dispatch goods with people using the forklifts, when one of them, which was overloaded, accidentally tipped up and the very heavy load landed on my feet. The operator of the forklift was so worried. I told him, “It's alright. I have my Teacher to protect me, so I don't need to go to the hospital.” My foot was numb and swollen, but I did not feel any pain. Everyone there was amazed. Since then no one said any thing bad about Dafa in front of me.
There were two air pumps in my workshop, and when they were both turned on it was too noisy to hear anything. When I stood next to the air pumps, I thought, “How nice it would be if the noise was not that loud.” Instantly the noise reduced. Then I thought that if the noise could be turned into music it would be even better. Just then beautiful music began to play. My coworkers were all amazed and asked, “Have the air pumps stopped? How come there is no noise at all.” Finding the air pumps still running they asked me, “What have you done? The pumps are still running, but there is no noise at all. Falun Gong is really wonderful!”
A police officer was sent to work in our workshop. Since he did not know the truth about Falun Gong, he often slandered Dafa. No matter how I clarified the truth to him he would not listen. He said, “I just want to say what I want.” I replied, “In that case you will meet with karmic retribution!” He did not believe the saying, “Doing good deeds is met with good rewards, and doing bad things is met with retribution.” He even challenged me, “Show me that I will meet with retribution!” He was sitting on the table, so I said, without much thinking, “I will let you spin on the table and you can witness the retribution.” He then began to turn around on the table without stopping. He was so scared, and shouted for help. Other workers all came in and laughed, “Look, he is spinning on the table. That officer looks very pale and scared.” He asked me what to do. I told him that he must admit to our Teacher that he was wrong. He said very loudly, “Master Li I am wrong. Please forgive me!” He repeated it a few times and then he stopped spinning. The workers carried on laughing and said, “Why do you always talk nonsense about Falun Gong all the time?”
Forced to leave home to avoid being arrested
After returning from Beijing my personal freedom was restricted. I could not ask for leave from work, I could not return home to visit my parents, and even on the first anniversary of my father's death I was not allowed to go back to pay my respects. The officers from my local police station often came to my home, in the small hours, to harass me and they would stay outside until six o'clock in the morning. One day an officer pointed his pistol at my head and said, “Congratulations, you have been labeled as a 'counter-revolutionary.' I replied, “You break into private homes to harass the residents without going through any legal procedures. You are really the counter-revolutionaries!”
Later, the police wanted to arrest and sentence me. Owing to the compassionate care of Teacher, we managed to leave home and traveled to another part of the country.
When we first arrived, we only had 200 yuan a month coming in, which was not even enough to rent a house. Fearing being implicated and persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of their association with us, friends and relatives dare not provide us with any support. At the most difficult time, my family of three lived underneath the corner of a stairwell, and slept on a straw mat. Sometimes people going up and down the stairs would throw cigarette butts at us.
We managed to support ourselves by doing a lot of different jobs, and met a lot of people with predestined relationships. Though we were very busy, we still found the time to study the Fa and do the exercises. No matter what work we did, and under whatever circumstance, we all clarified the truth to save sentient beings.
When working in a canteen I clarified the truth to the chefs, and told them that the Tiananmen Square immolation incident was staged. I also payed attention to cultivating myself at work to display the beauty of Dafa.
Hygiene is very important for a canteen, but when the chefs were tired they would not wash their uniforms. However, I washed my uniform every day and dried them on the radiators. They dried very quickly, so I always wore a very clean uniform every day. The chefs all learned from me, and eventually everyone in the canteen wore a very clean white uniform every day. We even won praise from the management.
When I had finished my own work I always helped others, and in a lot of cases I would do two people's work. But I never felt tired.
I often handed truth-clarification materials to the chefs as we finished work. They would accept them with a smile and a thank you.
Before, I did not clarify the truth very well, and as a result I lost my job on several occasions, and several times I barely escaped arrest.
One day, while I was clarifying the truth to people in the street, a young man suddenly grabbed hold of my collar and shouted, “Falun Gong is counter-revolutionary! You come with me to the police station! I don't have any money left and I need to get a reward!” I said, “You are heartless! I am here to save you and try to clear up the lies spread by the media. However, you want to harm me and drag me to the police station. The police officers know the difference between right from wrong. If they find that you grabbed a kind hearted person, they would surely beat you up first.” On hearing this he let go of me and asked timidly, “Big brother is what you said true?” I immediately replied, “Since you already address me as big brother, how can a big brother lie to you?” He said in a very low voice, “Let's forget it!” I said, “I cannot let you go that easily. You wanted to take me to the police station. You must be a bad guy, so the police should arrest you.” I grabbed his arm. He said hurriedly, “Big brother, I didn't say anything,” and left immediately.
I later learned that the CCP tried to induce people to commit crimes against Dafa by offering rewards of three thousand yuan to whoever reported on a practitioner.
Setting up a truth-clarification materials production site
In 2001, when I learned that local practitioners could not receive Teacher's latest articles or truth-clarification materials I was a bit concerned, so I returned to my hometown and worked with the other local practitioners there to set up a truth-clarification materials production site.
It was very difficult for us at first, as none of us knew how to use a computer or how to browse the Internet. So, we simply bought a fax machine / photocopier, and used any truth-clarification materials we found, which were posted up on walls, or discarded fliers that already had fold lines in them or were full of creases. If this was the case, we would find a piece of white cloth, put the flier underneath the cloth and then use an iron to iron it flat. This would then become our master copy to use in the fax machine / photocopier.
After the fabricated Tiananmen self immolation was televised we wanted to find a flier that would expose the false information. We searched in several provinces, but due to the limited number of practitioners I knew, we failed to find one. Later, we found a flier pasted on a wall in another province. It bore the words “The Tiananmen Square Self Immolation was staged by Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan!” There were no photos and no explanations, but still we peeled it off with care and took it back to use.
Sometimes I received truth-clarification materials that were distributed by practitioners in another province. I would treat them as my treasure and use them as our master copy.
The first machine I bought was a fax machine because I did not have the money to buy a photo copier. The copies did not turn out very well, so we all put some money together and bought a portable copier. The copier could only produce four pages a minute, but still we were all very happy because we could process truth-clarification materials.
When police conduct a search of practitioners homes, they nearly always confiscate the practitioner's Dafa books, therefore new books were badly needed. We then bought a faster photocopier and made one hundred copies of Zhuan Falun, which solved the pressing need. The books were all put together by hand, and they were very durable and well presented.
At the time we had a lot of attachments: fear, we did not study the Fa a lot and failed to cultivate ourselves well, and loopholes were then created and able to be taken advantage of. We had a show off mentality and failed to pay attention to security issues, and we did not know how to take care of them. As a result, our materials processing site was always sabotaged by the authorities. The first time was in less than three months of its creation. Initially, we only lost equipment, but later fellow practitioners were arrested and persecuted. Over the last few years we lost several printing machines and several practitioners were sentenced to forced labor camps or imprisoned.
With Teacher's help, I have the ability of clairvoyance, and could often hear people reporting to the authorities before the police took any action. I could hear things like, “So-and-so has returned home, hurry up and search their home to see if they are hiding anything.” I knew it was a hint from Teacher so I could immediately inform practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts and strengthen our security measures.
Learning new technology and letting go of the mentality of fear
As we were unable to produce original copies of truth-clarification materials for use in photocopying, I wanted to learn computer technology. I went to another province to learn from the practitioners there, but at first they did not trust me, and so would not teach me. They only allowed me to use their materials and take them back home. We did it this way for more than three years.
During this period of time I would fetch truth-clarification materials every two weeks. Each time I would carry big bags full of materials and have to go through a security check, and then get on either the train or bus. Sometimes there was no seat available, so I would have to stand for more than 10 hours. This was a very hard job. During the peak season it was hard even to get a ticket. Once, I could not get a ticket home before the Chinese New Year, so I had to travel on the eve of the Chinese New Year.
Although it was difficult, it was very good for my cultivation, as I managed to let go of a lot of my mentality to fear. We were warned, by Minghui Weekly, to be careful when passing security check points while carrying CDs. But, each time I brought about four hundred CDs and each time the scan machine did not pick them up. I enlightened to the fact that the machine did not detect them because we were saving sentient beings and were doing the most righteous thing.
When passing the scan machine it was a big test when we were asked to open our bags for inspection. This required very strong righteous thoughts.
One day, I got on a train with two bags of truth-clarification materials. Two hours into the journey the head of the train crew brought about eight crew members and the train police to my carriage. They said they were looking for contraband goods and wanted to search all the bags. I begged Teacher for help, and continually sent forth righteous thoughts. When they were checking the luggage of some newlyweds the bridegroom refused. When the train police insisted, they opened their bags and threw things everywhere. As they found no contraband goods, the bridegroom was very angry and began to argue with the police. Passengers then stood up and confronted the police, refusing to have their luggage checked. When the head of the crew realized it was impossible for them to continue, he called it off and they left. I knew it was Teacher who had protected me.
On another occasion I had two bags of truth-clarification materials when I passed through a security check point at a bus station. One of the staff came over and asked, “What's inside? Open it!” I said, “These are the goods I carried for other people. They are all books. It's OK for you to open it but you need to put them back as originally packed.” I sent forth righteous thoughts while answering him. He patted the bag and said, “You can go now.”
One day I carried a desktop computer to another province to be fixed by practitioners there. It contained Falun Dafa materials which were not encrypted, as at the time I did not know how to encrypt. As I went through the security check the staff asked, “What is it?” I said, “This is the product I ordered for my customer who complained that there is some problem. I am taking it to the factory to be repaired.” He did not want to open it. Instead he kicked the computer twice. I said, “Don't kick it! It's already not working.” I successfully passed the security check.
At a train station in a provincial capital, the police were looking at passengers as they filed into the waiting room. They stopped passengers at random to check their ID cards and luggage. Every time, I had righteous thoughts and managed to go through without any problem.
I had numerous experiences like this over the years, and gradually became accustomed to it. Practitioners in another province couldn't believe that I could travel like that without any trouble. Some of them asked me, “Do you have any special contacts? Maybe you are a special agent. How can you pass the security checks every time?” I did not know how to answer them. I knew that the practitioners suspected me of being a special agent. But I did not say anything. Three years passed and they were really moved by the things I had done for the Fa, so they did not put their guard up and keep things from me anymore. The distance between us had been removed.
Then they started to teach me how to use the computer. They showed me how to do a lot of things that were helpful to produce truth-clarification materials, and also how to maintain and repair printers. Later, I also learned how to install an operation system and how to back it up. As a result, when the computer broke down I could solve the problem by myself.
With the advancement of Fa-rectification the evil factors are ever decreasing, and more practitioners are stepping forward. People from Minghui asked us to have material production sites everywhere, which could blossom all over the place. Together with the local practitioners we worked very hard to improve our xinxing, studied the Fa and passed several tests related to technology. We set up a dozen or so processing sites, both big and small, and were able to break through the CCP's Internet blockade. Now in our local area people are able to read copies of the Minghui Weekly magazine, copies of the Chinese Epoch Times newspaper, nice-looking pamphlets, beautiful Shen Yun material and copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, as well as various kinds of other truth-clarification materials. All of these materials are now being delivered to tens of thousands of households.
Over the last two years, Udumbara flowers have been blossoming in my backyard. They are on the flowers, wood and glass. We are very happy to have personally seen this sacred flower. We knew it was Teacher who was encouraging us, and we can only work harder to repay Teacher's blessings.
Looking back at my journey of cultivation, I just kept tripping as I went forward. Without Teacher's compassionate care, and without the selfless help of fellow practitioners, we would have no way to have walked this far. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the support given by fellow practitioners of another province! My understanding is that we must listen to what Teacher has said, study the Fa a lot and cultivate ourselves during practice. Only by reaching this standard can we save more people.
Thank you!
