(Clearwisdom.net)
Browsing through some old papers, I saw a poem written by a fellow practitioner:
Clarifying truth everywhere, enduring hunger and hardships
Facing misunderstandings and ridicule, cultivator patiently goes on
Saving sentient beings rain or shine, always with compassion radiating
No fear of the evil persecution, only wishing sentient beings happiness
This fellow practitioner's words reflected my thoughts and inspired me to write my own story.
Because Fa study wasn't done diligently and doing the three things wasn't a priority, the political system ordered massive arrests of Dafa practitioners. My wife and I resisted fiercely. When the police dragged her, she passed out. There were over a hundred bystanders. In full view of the public's wrath, the authorities did not dare to do anything further. After this, it was harvesting season, and I had to leave home for two months. I later learned that my wife was in the hospital.
“As Dafa disciples clarify the truth
Sharp swords shoot forth from their mouths
Tearing open the rotten demons’ lies
Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them”(“Hurry Up and Tell Them” in Hong Yin II)
Master's poem reminded me that I needed to clarify the truth to the village cadre, so I returned home.
After the the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published at the end of 2004, it triggered a huge surge of people quitting the CCP. Later, Master published “Turning the Wheel Towards the Human World.” My wife asked over a dozen elementary students to quit the CCP Young Pioneers. When their parents found out, they said we were against the Party and many came to our house to remove their children's names from the list. They reported us to the Village Political Committee, my brothers were pressured, and I was monitored closely. Whenever they were around and we mentioned Falun Gong, they would kick me and glare at me. What should I do? Master told us that we are doing the most righteous things in the universe.
Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Great Lakes Fa Conference in North America:”
“In extremely difficult situations and when the most evil beings act most savagely, we’re still able to be so merciful—this is the performance of the most magnificent Gods. When we’re in the midst of the worst suffering, we’re still saving others. (Applause) This isn’t getting ourselves involved in politics—much less getting involved in ordinary human affairs—because it isn’t wrong for us to use ordinary human forms to expose the evil.”
“This is how you’re doing it. This is the mercy of a Dafa cultivator—not some ordinary human activity.”
I adjusted my mentality, “ I was saving them, I needed to continue to clarify the truth. If I could not save sentient beings in my own village, who else could I save?” I started with my family and then went to visit the other families in our village. Some pushed me away, andothers tried to knock me off the chair while I was talking. I did not take this personally. They did not understand. I went back, again and again, three or four times. I did not leave out the influential people in our village who had authority. With a compassionate heart, gradually they understood. Everyone quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, except for two families. No one calls me crazy anymore.
In 2006, I began clarifying the truth to strangers. One day I went to sell lotus roots, when it suddenly began raining, and many people ran under the awning in front of the market. I used this chance to clarify the truth to them. As I was talking, a 610 Office agent came over and started to drag me to their office. I thought, “Oh no, they are going to arrest me.” My fear immediately acknowledged the old force's arrangement. While he was making a phone call to dispatch a police car, I came to my senses. I realized I need not be afraid. I kept clarifying the truth in the car on the way to the police station. At the station, a plainclothes officer slapped my face repeatedly. I spoke to him sternly, “I have not done anything wrong; you are the one committing a crime here.” Several policemen came in, took my photograph, and interrogated me, I refused to cooperate with them. Then they pulled my hair and pushed me around roughly. I told them the truth about Dafa and that they need to stop persecuting Falun Gong. After four hours, they took me to the local police station; it was 3 p.m. After that, I refused to answer them, regardless of the questions. They brought in food and water. I began to write. I told them how the “Tiananmen Self Immolation” was staged. Before signing my name, four or five police officers and the director threatened me, wanting me to give them all my truth clarification materials. I signed my name and said that the truth was for them to learn, that they were also the sentient beings waiting to be saved. I clarified the truth even more and explained to them that good deeds meet with good returns and evil deeds bring retribution. Thirty minutes passed, and then finally one person came back and said, “You can go home now.”
When I arrived home, my wife told me that the police had come and taken Master's picture, two DVDs, and one notebook. This made me sad. Many of my concerned relatives and friends, who were afraid for my safety, asked me to not clarify the truth in public anymore. I remembered Master's warning:
“It's not a big deal if you haven't done well. Just do things well next time and try to find out where the problem was. There's a prominent phenomenon in you folks' cultivation, which is, after you haven't done something well, you're only overwhelmed with regret, and you don't do it over. If you regret it too much then that's another attachment. Once you've done something wrong, seen where it was wrong, and recognized it, then do it well next time, do it over. If you trip and fall, and just keep lying there instead of getting up, (audience laughs) then that's no good.” (“Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”)
When I thought back about that day, someone had warned me not to clarify the truth there, because they knew that was a store owned by a 610 Office person. In the future, I needed to remember to clarify the truth with wisdom.
Master said in Zhuan Falun:
“If we clear all obstacles in your path of cultivation practice, how will you practice cultivation? It is under the circumstance of demonic interference that you can demonstrate whether you can continue your cultivation, be really enlightened to the Tao, be unaffected by interference, and be sure-footed in this school of practice. The great waves shift the sand, and that is what cultivation practice is all about. What is left in the end will be genuine gold.”
“... It remains a question of whether they can understand your Dafa itself while they are in the midst of confusion and tribulations."
“It involves such an issue, so there will be interference and tests.”
Master's Fa already paved my road for clarifying the truth.
My biggest test came in 2007 when my wife, also a practitioner, became ill. She went to the hospital because of an inability to urinate. The first night her symptoms were relieved and she wanted to come home. I did not enlighten to it and asked her to stay one more day. The following day the physician prescribed something for her that caused an allergic reaction. The reaction was so severe that it took her life. Her sudden death grieved me terribly and also caused some to think negatively about Dafa. What should I do? At her funeral, I delivered her eulogy and stated that she had been ill for 28 years and had been to nine famous hospitals across three provinces. After she obtained Falun Dafa, she lived for 12 more years. She followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, became a kind mother and considerate wife. People who attended the funeral understood the truth.
My wife's sudden passing was an enormous shock to me. I remembered when she began learning about Dafa and doing the exercises. She could not read the book because of her lack of education, but she was very diligent and clarified the truth, often face to face. After being reported, because of her righteous thoughts, she left the police station that very day. Why was she still persecuted by the old forces? When I looked inward, it was I that had attachments, did not study Fa, did not send forth righteous thoughts, and did not exchange experiences with her; it was my fault. What should I do in the future? How would I handle the housework? And what about my children and grandchildren? Should I still clarify the truth? I opened up Zhuan Falun, and Master once again enlightened me:
“Someone may say, 'I’ll earn some more money to settle my family down well so I won’t have to worry about anything. Afterwards, I’ll practice cultivation.' I would say that this is your wishful thinking. You are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control others’ fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or brothers. Can you decide those things?”
“Cultivation practice must take place through tribulations so as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of human sentimentality and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble.” (Zhuan Falun)
I should not let her passing stop me from clarifying the truth. I still needed to save sentient beings. I would improve in helping Master rectify the Fa.
One day in 2009, I was selling melons on the street and reciting Hong Yin by heart. Around 8 a.m., a man on a motorcycle said to me, “You are teaching Falun Gong, you need to come with me!”
I realized that I had been reported. “What are you talking about? I have to sell my melons.” He said, “I have been looking for you for a while now. The county political committee, an employee at the hospital, and a teacher all said that there is someone talking about Falun Gong on the street. At last I found you.” He took out his cell phone. I said, “Wait a minute. I know you are not a plainclothes agent. Don't you have a kind heart? I did not hurt anyone here. I am teaching Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, how to be a good person,. What can be wrong with that? Why would you want to have a kind person arrested for no reason? How do you sleep at night after doing such things?” I told him about the wonder of Dafa, and how widespread Dafa had become, all over the world. I sent out strong righteous thoughts, and he calmed down. A housewife came out of a nearby house and yelled at him, “Why don't you take him away?” I asked the woman to examine her conscience and asked her why she felt it benefited her to have me arrested. He picked up his phone to call, and once again I stopped him, saying “Every human being has a Buddha nature and a demon nature. You always have a choice, but you should know that good begets good, and evil begets evil. You are also one of the sentient beings our Master asked us to save. Think twice. If you respect Dafa, it will bring happiness to you and your family. I know very well why the CCP persecutes Falun Gong. Why do I still tell you the truth? I am saving people, I want you to have a good future.” The street vendors all supported me and spoke up for me. I pulled my cart away and left. After a while, I glanced back to see him still standing there, perplexed .
We are Dafa disciples. Why are we still afraid when there is less and less evil. Master told us that we are the key players, we are the future Buddhas, Daos, and gods. Master wants us to rescue and save sentient beings. If we are still afraid of going out to clarify the truth, how can we repay Master for his salvation! Master leaves us the mighty virtue, how can we not do well? “When they return with full bounty, The multitude of gods shall receive them.”(“Stirred by Reflection”) This is what Master expects.
