(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, Revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I’m a Dafa practitioner from Hong Kong, and I previously worked as a fine arts teacher. I was fortunate to begin practicing Falun Dafa in early 1998. Over the past ten-odd years of cultivation, I changed from being a weak, sickly, and timid lady into a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period, who is able to take charge of things independently.
Saving People with Compassion
Not long after I obtained the Fa, the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong. The first project I participated in was to validate the Fa in front of the Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong. (Later it changed its name to The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and hereafter is called the “Liaison Office.”) I was born in Hong Kong and was brought up in a comfortable environment. In the face of the rampant suppression of Falun Gong, I didn't know what to do. However, I knew that Dafa is good and I should safeguard the Fa.
I faced the misunderstandings that the Hong Kong people had about Falun Gong, and the pressure from my family. I endured the hardships with firm faith in Dafa. I studied the Fa conscientiously, from reading one lecture per day to reading three lectures per day. I could maintain a calm mind for Fa-study and when doing the exercises, with very little distraction.
Later, big xinxing tests came along. The practice site assistant requested that I arrive at 6:00 a.m. for group exercise. At I didn't give much weight to what she said, because my home is rather far away, and bus service didn't start until 5:30 am, so I could not possibly get to the site by 6:00 am. However, the assistant kept mentioning this. I stored up a lot of complaints against her in my mind, and even wanted to change to a different practice site. One day, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to look within. I found out that there was a mini bus service in Hong Kong that runs around the clock. So I got up at 4:00 a.m. and took the mini bus to the practice site. After I started to do the exercises on time every morning, all the conflicts disappeared. So this was cultivation! So simple. I realized that it was Master who encouraged me to let go of myself by using the mouth of the fellow practitioner so that I could elevate my level.
I often heard fellow practitioners say that I was not assertive enough, that I lacked opinions of my own, that I always followed others, that I did not take much initiative, and that I was not independent enough. In January 2005, The Epoch Times in Hong Kong advanced from only a weekly edition to a daily newspaper. I was assigned to distribute the newspaper daily in the Jinzhong area. Jinzhong is located in the central area of Hong Kong, an area that is full of government departments, financial institutions, and different consulates. I was the only person assigned to this area to validate the Fa. It was a large responsibility, and I needed to take charge of things on my own. I greeted each day with a feeling of gratitude, because I knew every day is precious and every day is a day that Master expects me to improve myself, to save people, and to demonstrate the beauty of Dafa. Every day is worth one thousand pieces of gold, or ten thousand pieces of gold, and it is the most precious time in the universe.
I've set a standard for myself that I try to base every single thought on the Fa and make sure that each of my actions is filled with kindness. When encountering other people’s doubts or even annoyance, I always respond with a sincere wish and kind smile. I keep sending forth righteous thoughts while distributing the newspapers and greet people with kindness, regardless of their attitude. Gradually, people have changed. Some responded to my greetings, some accepted the newspaper, and some people even offered me chocolates.
One day, a police officer approached me to check my ID card. I didn't show it to him, because I hadn't done anything unlawful, and he had no right to check my ID. While I was reasoning with the police officer, a Western lady who travels the overhead bridge every day saw us. The next day, the same police officer came up to me again and said, “I don't dare ask to check your ID card anymore. Yesterday, that lady in the legal profession lodged a complaint against me!” Another time, when a person rudely hit my newspaper, a passerby stepped forward and said, “If he dares to bother you, I’ll protect you!”
The police officers have become my friends. One morning, two young police officers came up to me and said they would be transferred to another area. I know that their knowing sides are very grateful to Dafa. Not only have the police become my friends, even the security guards and cleaners in nearby buildings have become my friends. Whenever it is windy or raining, they come help me pull the newspapers. We now have four distribution sites in Jinzhong instead of one, and the number of newspaper batches we distribute has increased from one to 13.
Over the years, I heard from time to time that some neighboring countries were cooperating with the CCP in persecuting Falun Gong. As there are quite a few consulates in the Jinzhong area, I put up banners and display boards in that area. When I maintain a pure heart to save people, Master arranges for me to have opportunities to meet officers working in the consulates, and exposes them to the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP. After they learn the truth, they say that they will give our truth-clarifying materials directly to their government.
During the proceedings when cases of Taiwan Dafa practitioners being forcibly deported, and members of Shen Yun Performing Arts were denied entry, we went to the Supreme Court to validate the Fa. In the central area of Hong Kong, people have plenty of opportunities to read The Epoch Times and to read information about Dafa. Group after group, people have learned the truth. They've walked out of the shadow of the CCP lies and showed us sympathy and admiration. Many government officials, legal professionals, and staff members of the consulates have become readers of The Epoch Times.
Being Persistent
In addition to distributing newspapers every morning and clarifying the truth to passersby, I also delivered the newspapers in person. For years, we delivered The Epoch Times to 60 members of the Legislative Council. I always reminded myself to do things with my heart and do even better.
The regime's “Liaison Office” is a place where a lot of evils gather, and it is also the place were we keep clarifying the truth and sending forth righteous thoughts. The street outside the “Liaison Office” is not very wide, there is a lot of traffic there, and it is rather noisy. In summer when the weather is steaming hot, it is quite a xinxing test to continue holding up banners out there. There are no trees in that location, and there is nowhere to get shelter from the sun. At the beginning, the Liaison Office and locals nearby often lodged complaints against us. The police would come to check our ID cards, and sometimes they tried to take away our banners and display boards. We were even arrested a few times and sued. But now, very few people complain about us, and the police no longer bother us. Instead, they have become our friends and loyal readers of The Epoch Times!
On weekends and public holidays, we hold banners in front of the Liaison Office, and send forth righteous thoughts. In the past, I always liked to have someone with me when doing things, but now I can take charge of things on my own. Master has tempered me into a mature and independent Dafa disciple!
Regaining My Original Enthusiasm for Cultivation
As I was doing more and more in validating the Fa, I heard more and more praise as well. I gradually developed many human attachments. I always had a strong show-off mentality and an attachment to happiness. I have consciously tried to overcome them, but it was far from enough. Moreover, they began to grow larger and were reflected in my attitude toward fellow practitioners. I tended to hold onto my own notions and impose my ideas on others. When I heard differing opinions I would immediately find an excuse to deflect responsibility and blame external factors, and I would criticize and complain about others. When encountering difficulties in validating the Fa, I used to first think about how I should try to meet the requirements of Dafa. However, after I became more self-centered, I started to think about whether it falls in line with my views or if it suits my schedule.
An incident that happened two months ago fully exposed the demon side in me. Hong Kong experienced severe winds in September 2011, so the government decided to close all schools and businesses for the day. Since the closures were not announced until 5:00 a.m. that morning, The Epoch Times newspapers were already printed, and the delivery van had already hit the road.
I saw typhoon signal No. 8 at about 6:00 a.m. My first thought was that my site would not distribute the newspaper. I picked up the phone and asked the printing factory if the newspaper had been printed. I was told that they had only printed 20,000 copies, half of the usual number, so each distribution site would distribute only half of their usual load. I then picked up the phone and called the delivery van driver, telling him that our distribution site would not accept any newspapers.
The next day was a Thursday, the busiest day of the week for me. I would need to pull the newspapers, batch by batch, up to the overhead bridge. The delivery van arrived on time at around 7:00 a.m. The driver unloaded the newspapers for that day and then gave me another six batches of newspapers from the previous day. When I saw the old newspapers, I immediately became angry and said to the driver, “This is my busiest day of the week. How can you ask me to distribute yesterday’s paper on top of what I have to do? We won’t distribute the old paper. Take them back. While I was saying this, I threw the older papers back onto the van. The driver also got impatient, saying, “What shall I do with them if you don’t distribute them?” As he was saying this, he threw the papers back down again. I said, “You can give them to other sites or take them back to the factory!” I then threw the papers back onto the van again. The van drove away. I was very angry, and after I finished distributing the newspapers that morning, I called the coordinator to complain. At dusk, I also went to see the head of the newspaper agency. He was not in, so I asked a fellow practitioner to tell him about my complaint.
After I got home, I felt rather uneasy. Why did I get so angry? What was it that made me lose my sense of rationality and feel so annoyed? When I thought about it more deeply, I realized that it was “me.” I complained that others did not appreciate “me,” did not respect “me,” and hurt “my” interests. In fact, it was not a big deal at all. If I had looked at the matter from the angle of the coordinator, I would have known what to do.
From this incident, I realized that I had lost the enthusiasm and the cultivation state I used to have in the early days of cultivation, and selfishness had covered up my true self. In the early days, whenever I came across difficulties, I would search within to find the gap between me and the requirements of Dafa, and make an effort to pass the test right away. In fact, with the six batches of old newspapers, we could have shared them between the four distributors in that location. We could have asked people if they wanted yesterday’s paper. If we had any more left, we could have taken them to the sites where there were many Mainland Chinese visitors. Master has always reminded us to save precious Chinese people. What does it matter if we have a bit more hardship? Didn’t we come to validate Dafa and to save people in the first place? This precious time will pass in the blink of an eye!
I was shocked to see that although I had done a lot of things to validate the Fa in recent years, my xinxing has dropped by a large margin! Amidst praise from fellow practitioners and everyday people, the element of “me” had grown larger and larger. Unconsciously, I was chasing after “fame.” As “me” was becoming larger and larger, I had developed attachments to doing things and to validating myself. The fundamental reason for this was that I had slackened in my Fa-study and in solid cultivation. Fa-study had been reduced to a task that I needed to finish. Moreover, I had even forgotten to let go of the most basic attachments to fame, self-interest, a mentality of showing-off, and being overly happy. The old forces took advantage of my self-indulgence and tried to pull me down. I have now rectified my attitude towards Fa-study and made sure that I read at least one lecture of Zhuan Falun and other new jingwen every day, and I have once again started to participate in the weekly group Fa-study.
I’m determined to cultivate solidly and regain the original enthusiasm I had for cultivation.
Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
