(Clearwisdom.net) I was fortunate enough to have attended Master Li's lecture series in 1994, and I have been practicing Falun Gong for fifteen years. I know that I am still far from the requirements of the Fa. I want to treasure every second to do the three things well, and harmonize with the group in order to more effectively save sentient beings.
1. Getting Involved in Coordination
There were many people who practiced Falun Gong before the persecution. About a year after the persecution started, in 2000, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong several times. Every time I let go of life and death with firm belief in Dafa, and did not cooperate with the persecutors, even after being arrested. While detained in Beijing I met many diligent Falun Gong practitioners from many areas. We studied the Fa together and shared experiences. We enlightened that we needed to come out to validate the Fa as one body and clarify the truth about Falun Gong to others. After half a year, I was released unconditionally and returned home at the beginning of 2001. Righteous belief in Master and Dafa enabled me to walk out of the jail. I shared my experiences with local practitioners many times, and my sharing had a positive impact on validating the Fa as one body and clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to others in our area. That year, practitioners in our area hung over one thousand banners about Dafa during the night, and installed speakers for a radio broadcast close to every labor camp and detention center. This was the first coordinated action in our area, and it was extremely effective in shocking and restraining those responsible for the persecution.
On New Year's of 2003, practitioners came to my home to share experiences. All of them were diligent with a firm belief in Dafa. They hoped practitioners in our area could form one body and asked me to be involved in the coordination. Although I did not realize the importance of the whole body, I tried very hard to cooperate. However, during the coordination, I insisted on my opinions and developed misunderstandings with practitioners. In addition, I was not diligent enough and pursued comfort. I did not cherish the path I had already walked. During group study, when practitioners were sharing their experiences and coordinating a project, I did not want to expose my bad cultivation state, so I covered up my attachments by isolating myself. Even though Master gave me several hints on this, I did not pay attention.
As result, I was arrested again. This time I started a hunger strike, using human courage, to go against the persecution. I was sent to a hospital for emergency treatment. During the brutal force-feeding, I was fearful. Under the high pressure, I yielded to the police's demands against my will. After coming home, I was clearheaded again. I felt a pain which was worse than death. Thanks to Master's compassion, I studied the Fa, sent righteous thoughts and dug out my basic attachments. After seven months, I was back to a normal cultivation state. I will never forget this lesson.
For a long time after this I studied the Fa calmly and sent righteous thoughts every day. After work I distributed Falun Dafa truth-clarification materials, and clarified the truth to people around me. I felt that I had improved a lot during this time in doing the three things. Some practitioners came to me to share the situation of the coordination in our city and hoped veteran practitioners like myself could participate in the coordination. But I believed that I needed to cultivate myself well first, and there were many other capable practitioners in our area who had cultivated well. Besides, I had deviated on my cultivation path. I did not want to take on the responsibility. So I said that with it being the Fa-rectification Period, our local situation could not be compared with the favorable conditions overseas. Instead, we should take directions from the Minghui website, and every practitioner could do what they know how to do on their own.
In 2006, a severe incident of disruption happened in our city, and it was exposed on Minghui immediately. I found out that many practitioners were affected, and the impact was big. Some practitioners had seen that a problem was about to arise, but they could not reach many people. As result, their opinions were not shared and communicated. The evil took advantage of the loophole. Many practitioners were persecuted, which badly interfered with Fa-validation and saving sentient beings in our area.
This incident shocked me. I looked inwards and found "selfishness" buried deep inside. I enlightened that I needed to put down "me" completely and harmonize with what Master wants. Everything needs to be based on the Fa. What we do as a group is of more importance. At the same time, I started to communicate with practitioners actively. Many practitioners had not realized that the evil could take advantage if we did not form a whole body. Soon, some practitioners in our city who had been validating the Fa and clarifying the truth started to pay more attention to coordination. Many Fa study groups were set up. The coordinators from different districts formed one Fa study group, and we started working together as one body. We now study the Fa and send righteous thoughts together, then we share our experiences and talk about problems we have encountered during cultivation. At the end, we will discuss project coordination. We have become more mature in this environment.
For example, we will divide a district into several areas. Then we go together to send righteous thoughts towards locations nearby where Falun Dafa practitioners are persecuted. Branches of the 610 Office, police stations, judicial and police organizations, National Security Teams, CCP organizations, and residential committees are all included. The practitioners are organized to send righteous thoughts every week towards those locations. When something bad happens nearby, we will send righteous thoughts more intensively. The environment has changed a lot since we started doing this. Many practitioners who had not come out to validate the Fa have now joined the group. Now we send righteous thoughts at eight, nine, and ten o'clock every evening to eliminate the evil in our area in addition to the four global times.
At the beginning of 2007, several practitioners from our city were reported while they were distributing truth-clarification materials in another area. Some of the practitioners were able to escape, but five practitioners were arrested. The practitioners who escaped did not leave the area. Instead, they sent righteous thoughts from a hotel room which was close to the police station. Right after sending righteous thoughts at midnight, I received a phone call from a practitioner from that area. I went out to use a public phone to notify every coordinator in the different areas of our city. On the second day, the director of the local 610 Office and police station sent the practitioners home, one by one. No questions were asked and no conditions were brought up during the whole process. Later on, they did not harass the practitioners either. It was like nothing had happened.
We shared our understandings and realized that the evil was thwarted because we worked together as a whole body. Our actions conformed to the Fa, so the Fa's power manifested. Practitioners from our city had all sent righteous thoughts to strengthen the arrested practitioners. Many practitioners had sent righteous thoughts intensively overnight to eliminate the evil and deny any persecution arranged for the practitioners by the old forces. The practitioners who were at the local site had sent righteous thoughts too. The practitioners who were arrested clarified the truth to the police while in detention. We had all formed one strong body. Apparently, the police were very fierce in the beginning. But after learning the truth, they did not want to participate in the persecution, and just notified the 610 Office to pick up the practitioners. The personnel of the 610 Office had been controlled by the strong righteous field sent out by practitioners, and their plans fell apart.
2. Cultivate Solidly While Coordinating
In 2008, a new form of clarifying the truth by sending text messages with cell phones was promoted in our city. This method can reach more people effectively, but we also faced several problems: technical issues, getting cell phone cards, creating the message, etc. Gradually over the past two years, we got better and better at this project. We collected cell phone numbers, overcame several difficulties, and sent out mass truth-clarification messages in our city with proper coordination. It has had a very positive effect on saving sentient beings.
After the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, some practitioners came to me and said, "We should send text messages to the areas affected by the earthquake, and let them know the truth." I refused the idea, using the excuse that we had not finished covering our city. One practitioner told me directly that I was picking and choosing who to save, and that the people in the earthquake zone were in more danger. But I insisted on my opinion and felt annoyed by what they had said. After they left, I calmed down and looked inwards, and discovered the selfishness behind "saving sentient beings in our area first." At the next group study, I shared my experience. We all realized that we should not be selective when it comes to saving beings. We should not have the notion of "I will save people here, but you should save people there." We are one body, and we should use pure and compassionate hearts to clarify the truth and save more people. While doing the three things, we need to continuously remove our human notions, and get rid of attachments in order to improve. The cell phone method is not limited by time and location. It's effective and flexible. We should use it fully. Some practitioners suggested that we should call directly to ask people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations while paying attention to safety. We could also tell them to remember "Falun Dafa is Good and Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is Good" to save people in danger. Some practitioners suggested we should intensify truth clarification using this method to call areas where the persecution is still severe and where there are not many local practitioners.
So we collected the phone numbers and divided them among several groups for texting or calling directly. Several practitioners did well and improved very quickly. We asked them to share their experiences with other groups to improve together. The success rate of quitting the CCP was very high during that time when we clarified the truth to people in areas affected by the earthquake. One or more people would quit the CCP during almost every phone call. Later, more practitioners got involved in this project.
At the end of June 2008, I learned from Minghui that the CCP was creating a new round of terror in the name of security for the Olympics, especially in Beijing. They started mass arrests and even persecuted practitioners to death. I shared my understanding, that we should actively eliminate the evil in the area and step up our efforts to clarify the truth, during group study. Practitioners all agreed, but some were worried that putting our focus towards the severe interference in Beijing would result in adding pressure to local truth-clarification efforts with cell phone text messages. Because everything was now running smoothly, we did not want to create any trouble. We studied Master's "Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference" together. Afterwards, we decided to clarify the truth to people in Beijing, and dissolve the evil's stronghold there. In the beginning we encountered great difficulties, like phone card blockages, constantly having to change the content of the message, etc. Practitioners sent strong righteous thoughts, were not moved by the results, and supported each other. All of the interference eventually disappeared. After we improved our xinxing, the effectiveness of the truth clarification improved too. We found many people who had taken part in different political movements in Beijing and knew about the CCP's bad deeds. They knew the CCP was bad and very corrupt, and should have been eliminated a long time ago. Many agreed to quit the CCP and said Falun Gong practitioners were good because they were not afraid of the CCP and dared to speak the truth.
3. We Cannot Be Attached to Self
At the beginning of 2009, I was followed by CCP agents. Soon after, several dozen practitioners, including some coordinators, were arrested. Facing this so suddenly, we did not know where our problem was. Our general environment to validate the Fa seemed to be getting better and better, and practitioners were becoming mature in each project. After this incident, some coordinators started to panic. Their truth-clarification materials centers stopped running and some were ready to leave their homes.
The evil used this round of arrests to lead me to believe that I had not done well and could be arrested at any time. Although I had practiced Falun Gong for over ten years and I was very firm in the Fa, I still felt the enormous pressure. I could not study the Fa calmly, and often could not concentrate. I was constantly trying to come up with the reason for this new wave of persecution. I could not find my root attachment, and my body felt uncomfortable; I felt weak, like something was tied around my head. At this critical moment, Master compassionately hinted that I should share with practitioners. I shared my situation, saying that I felt regretful, and thought I had caused harm to the whole body; I felt very guilty, and was sorry to have let Master down. But the practitioners pointed out that my understanding was not based on the Fa, and that I had actually put myself above fellow practitioners. We cannot acknowledge the old forces' arrangement, and cannot stop what we are doing. We should do what we need to do rationally and firmly, and this is denying the old forces' arrangement, and this can help us get out of the hardship. The practitioners' words shocked me. After the sharing I became clearheaded. Because I was attached to myself and not clear on the Fa principles, I overemphasized the situation, and unknowingly agreed to the old forces' arrangement.
At the group sharing, every practitioner looked inwards based on this incident, and found his/her shortcomings and attachments. We submitted an article of our sharing to the Minghui website. We realized that the hardship was a result of our attachments, and we were able to improve our xinxing. During this period of studying the Fa, sharing, and looking inwards, most of the practitioners were released unconditionally.
4. Summary: Looking Inwards and Harmonizing with the Group
Over the past several years, I have gradually learned how to do the coordination work. Through studying the Fa and cultivating solidly, I enlightened to many Fa principles and am gradually assimilating to the Fa. The sharing above is a small part of my understanding.
Validating the Fa, clarifying the truth and saving sentient beings will go smoothly when we conform to the Fa. When we cannot base our work on the Fa and have attachments, we will not be able to do well and will have difficulties. But we can change the bad situations into good things after we improve our xinxing through Fa study and breaking through the old forces' arrangements. I need to continuously put aside myself, look inwards unconditionally, and treat fellow practitioners compassionately. I need to harmonize with the group using a pure heart to achieve what Master wants. I am not to validate myself. Practitioners as a whole body will become mature. The whole body is becoming mature, which is Master's wish and a requirement of the Fa.
