(Clearwisdom.net) I began practicing Falun Gong in 1997, and I'm now in my sixties. During the persecution of Falun Gong under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), I became blind, which has brought many difficulties to my later cultivation path. However, nothing can interfere with me and my progress in cultivation, nor undermine my determination in my belief in Teacher, Falun Dafa, and solid cultivation.
Clarifying the Truth and Saving Sentient Beings to Fulfill Our Mission
As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, doing the three things is a must.
Seizing the time to save sentient beings is our historical mission. In order to fulfill our mission and save more sentient beings, clarifying the truth among only family members and relatives is not enough. With kind help and encouragement from fellow practitioners, and also with the great support of my husband who is also a practitioner, I finally managed to step forward and clarify the truth to more people and help them with the three withdrawals (withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations). Through working well with other practitioners, I have been clarifying the truth more and more effectively. Usually another practitioner and I walk up to a person and greet him or her. After we break the ice, one of us takes the lead in talking, while the other acts as an assistant, sending forth righteous thoughts. This works well for us. My blindness can be an advantage in clarifying the truth to strangers, as I am not affected by their expressions, our surroundings, etc. in the least. I can now be a “main member of the cast” to a larger extent. Based on each individual's situation and his or her level of acceptance, I adjust my mindset and what I say to clarify the truth. During this process, I have truly come to feel the protection of benevolent Teacher and the power of the Fa. I have also come to feel that sentient beings are longing to be saved and I have seen their happiness and gratitude after learning the truth and proceeding with the three withdrawals. I would like to share a few of my experiences clarifying the truth with fellow practitioners.
One day Practitioner A, who is also a senior practitioner who received minimal education in her youth, and I ran into an older man riding a three-wheeled vehicle with an elderly lady. Seeing that the lady was not doing well, I ask her about her health. She said that she had heart disease. Then Practitioner A and I began to clarify the facts to her. We talked about why there were so many natural calamities in China, and about the corruption of the CCP, atheism, why so many people oppose heaven and earth, Buddhism, and the CCP suppression of its own people. I also talked about what Falun Gong was, that Dafa practitioners were good people who lived according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and how the CCP relies on "deception, evilness and struggle" and doesn't allow people to be good. In order to incite and deceive people into hating Falun Gong, it plants false evidence and frames Falun Gong practitioners. For example, it fabricated the self-immolation incident, among others. It has committed great sins against heaven, Buddhas, and gods, therefore, the heavens will eliminate it. We also talked about why doing the three withdrawals would ensure one's safety. We talked until she fully understood the facts. In the end, we gave her an amulet (1) and asked her to tell her family members about what we discussed. After she took the amulet from us, she held it with both hands to show her respect, and had tears in her eyes. She said, “Thank you. Please come back and save me again!”
A few days later, we ran into this elderly lady again. As soon as she saw us, she began greeting us from a distance. She said, "That day, after I got home, I talked to my daughter about what you told me. But she didn't accept it. Instead, she said that she would burn the amulet. I was so worried that I told her right away, 'You can't burn it. Let me return it to them.'" She kept the amulet and didn't let her daughter see it again.
After a while we ran into a middle-aged women pushing a wheelchair with an older man in it. We saw that the man was the husband of the elderly woman whom we ran into the other day. The middle-aged women said, "He is my father. We are going to the hospital since he is not feeling well." We then asked, "How is your mother doing?" She said, "She is doing well. She often rides a three-wheeled vehicle to take my father for a ride." The other practitioner then talked to her about how we clarified the truth to her mother. After listening to us, both the daughter and father accepted the truth-clarification materials and also agreed to do the thee withdrawals. When we ran into the elderly couple again, the husband was doing well also.
Another time, this practitioner and I ran into two women. We walked up to them to greet them, but they responded by doing hand signs, so we understood that they were deaf. We tried to talk to them, and it turned out that they could understand us. We began to clarify the truth to them about Falun Gong, about the cause of natural calamities, and ways to ensure one's safety. Seeing that I was blind, they asked me to sit down and listened to me very attentively. After I clarified the facts to them, I asked them to remember "Falun Dafa is wonderful" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful." I asked the other practitioner to write it down on a piece of paper, and then gave it to them. After that, they practiced reading it. Even though I could not understand their pronunciation, I could truly feel that they were reading it with sincere hearts. In the end, they held the piece of paper tightly with both hands, had tears in their eyes, and didn't want us to leave. Later I heard from the other practitioner that when she turned around and looked at them after we had walked for a distance, they were still looking at us.
We are Dafa practitioners, here to assist Teacher in Fa-rectification. Therefore, as long as we are on the Fa, we should always think about sentient beings, and have strong righteous thoughts. Our wisdom and abilities will then be extraordinary, which is hard for ordinary people to comprehend.
When the practitioner and I were clarifying the truth to a few university students, we thought quickly and spoke rationally. We went from the fact that in ancient China, wise emperors respected heaven and earth so that they had good years, to the countless calamities in this day and age as a result of the evil CCP fighting against heaven and earth. We discussed that Falun Gong teaches people to follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be good people, to the "deception, evilness and struggle" promoted by the CCP and its encouraging people develop hatred against one another. We also mentioned that good and evil are rewarded accordingly, and in due course, heaven will eliminate the CCP, as well as that only by doing the three withdrawals can one ensure one's safety. They listened very carefully and proceeded with the three withdrawals. Both of them happily accepted the amulet we gave to them, and thanked us. In the end, they asked me what my profession was. I replied by saying that I didn't have one. They were quite surprised and asked, "How do you know so much?" I told them, “Because I'm a Falun Dafa practitioner.”
Cultivating and Elevating Myself Amidst Conflicts
Teacher said in “Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital,”
"Cultivation is about cultivating one's self. No matter what kind of state emerges, you need to take a hard look at yourself.”
“If whenever something happens you instantly jump into who's right, whose problem it is, and how you have done, then while on the surface it looks like you are resolving the conflict or tension, in reality that's not the case at all. On the surface it looks plenty rational, but in reality that's not rational at all. You haven't taken a step back and fully cast off your attachment, and then thought the issue over. "
I belong to the ranks of those who are impatient and rather ill-tempered. Because of that, I have run into conflicts with other practitioners from time to time. Each time, I came to realize that the harm I brought to other practitioners was the result of my attachments, and I felt deeply sorry for them.
Practitioner A and I often went out together to help people with the three withdrawals. One day, Practitioner B, who recently stepped forward, went to a park with us to clarify the facts. B was leading me, and we lost A on our way. Next day, the three of us went out to clarify the facts again. Practitioner B mentioned along the way that she had had a dream. In her dream, there were three eggs. When one began to roll, it collided with another one, and both of them broke. She also heard Teacher whisper in her ear, “Take showers in the mornings and evenings, for one to do the exercises in the mornings, one needs to get up early.” B asked me to try to enlighten on what her dream meant. I couldn't figure it out. While we were talking, A began to mention how the three of us had lost contact with each other the day before. A and I insisted on our own understandings of it, and we ended up in an argument. Then none of us behaved like a practitioner. Seeing that we were arguing, B got worried and said, "Please stop arguing. Doesn't it affect what we do?" As soon as she said that, we both stopped arguing. Why did we come here? Who'd be happy about our arguing? Weren't we being taken advantage of by evil specters? Gradually we became clear on the meaning of the dream. The three eggs represented the three of us, and when we were together, we easily ran into conflicts. Wasn't this an enlightenment to all of us? I also came to enlighten that it was Teacher using Practitioner B to remind us that every morning and in the evening, just like washing our faces, when we see our bad attachments, we should clean them up, so that we can behave like a true practitioner at all times. After that, our conflicts were resolved, and the three of us were in high spirits. Moreover, we did very well helping people with the three withdrawals that day. We managed to help about seven or eight people withdraw, which truly reflects "One’s gong level is as high as one’s xinxing level." (Zhuan Falun) When our xinxing was improved, we were more effective in doing things. For the sake of practitioners' elevation and moving towards maturity, Teacher has been enlightening and helping us all along!
During our cultivation, when we ran into conflicts with everyday people, we usually were able to hold ourselves to the requirements of Dafa. "...as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted." (Zhuan Falun) We were tolerant to others and did not care about their attitudes, so that we were able to display the demeanor of practitioners. However, when we ran into conflicts with other practitioners, we didn't do such a good job. We thought that since we both were practitioners, we should each be tolerant of the other, so we relaxed the requirements on ourselves. We ended up arguing with each other non-stop. Sometimes we used Teacher's Fa to suppress others in order to cover up our own attachments. We were trying to raise ourselves and suppress others, which resulted in harming other practitioners. Also, in other people's eyes, when husband and wife are both practitioners, if they can help each other strive forward vigorously together, others will be envious. However, in that situation, it's even harder to keep ourselves under control when we run into conflicts. We need to improve our xinxing to pass the test.
One time when I was home, I called my husband. I didn't hear him respond and thought that he hadn't heard me, so I called him again, but he still didn't respond. I clearly knew that he could hear me this time, which made me really upset, and I started to call him for the third time. He still didn't respond! I thought he was doing it on purpose. I became furious and thought to myself, “Is he doing this to me on purpose? Is he bullying me because I can't see? What a practitioner!” At that time, my anger, resentment, feeling of being wronged, lacking help, etc., every emotion flared up. Even though I was keeping myself from speaking out, all the emotions kept expanding inside my chest. My chest started to hurt, there was something stuck in my neck, and my tears kept coming. I was almost at the point of shouting, ready to let everything out.
Just then, one righteous thought hit me, "I'm a practitioner." After that, "When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it." (Zhuan Falun) echoed in my ears. I tried to bear the pain and began to recite, "When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it." word for word, for once, twice, and three times... I recited it so many times, faster and faster. Suddenly I felt that my entire body became very soft, and all the discomfort disappeared. My mind became empty but was also clear. Whatever I felt before, like resentment or worry, all disappeared. I couldn't remember anything. I truly came to feel the wonderfulness of, "After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!" (Zhuan Falun) The entire process didn't last very long, yet the changes involved were tremendous. There were many miraculous pieces that were hard to describe. I can only say, “In any situation and conflict, as long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, remember Teacher's Fa, and strengthen your righteous thoughts, you can surely pass the test.”
Note:
(1) Amulet - In China, practitioners sometimes clarify the truth by giving people something small to wear or cherish, bearing a few words reminding them of the goodness of Dafa.
