(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in October of 1996, and I have been fortunate enough to make it through on the bumpy road that has been my 16 years of cultivation under Teacher's guidance and protection. Actually, every practitioner's cultivation path is a book, and I will tell a few short excerpts from mine to demonstrate the mighty virtue of Falun Dafa and also help practitioners improve in saving sentient beings.
I initially began practicing Falun Gong to cure my illness, but as I read Zhuan Falun, I slowly realized that it was a book for cultivation. I was diagnosed with a liver disease when I was in elementary school, and because it was said to be contagious, some people avoided me. As a result, I was psychologically scarred, which led me to become narrow-minded and withdrawn. When I grew to be a young adult and was ready to get married, my parents were afraid that I would be looked down upon by my future husband's family and that my disease would be passed down to my children. Therefore, I followed my mother and started learning the five sets of exercises as demonstrated by Teacher in The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa, in hopes of being healed. The day after I began practicing, I clearly felt that my rhinitis was cured, since in the past, every morning my tongue and throat had always felt dry and uncomfortable. I felt that the effects were wonderful and it deepened my determination to continue practicing. In the beginning, I spent more time on my exercises than on reading the Fa. Later on, when I began attending study groups with other practitioners, I began to logically understand cultivation. I am now not only free of disease, but I've also become easy-going and considerate. Falun Dafa changed me from being narrow-minded to being thoughtful.
Our practice is one that cultivates both mind and body, and so my facial features also started to transform positively, and I became younger looking and more attractive. My cousin's wife, who had already quit the CCP, said “You still look the same as you did ten years ago and haven't aged a bit.” Another time one of my close co-workers said to me, “A newly transferred college student is interested in you and asked if you were single.” I thought she was joking because I had already been working for more than a decade at that time, and my daughter was well into elementary school, so I said, “Stop kidding around.” She said, “It's true, but right away I turned him down for you.” I didn't say anything in reply. After I told this story to my mother, who is a practitioner, I discovered that I had strong attachments to zealotry, showing off, and vanity. Nothing that happens around practitioners is coincidental. On the surface, the incident took place because I do look young and elegant, but in reality it was caused by my hidden attachment to lust. Sometimes when I walked down the street, I would think, “I must attract quite a bit of attention,” which is actually not a thought that comes from my true self. Living in the current society, I am sometimes affected by non-practitioners' thoughts such as, if a woman has a nice face and a good body, she has a right to show off. Even if practitioners are blessed with good attributes, are they meant for us to use to enjoy ordinary life? Aren't they for us to validate the Fa? Whenever someone compliments me on my looks, the most important thing is that I tell them it is because I practice Falun Dafa.
Predestined People
My niece once invited her friend Linlin to my house. Linlin also calls me “auntie” endearingly. I heard that she would be leaving the next day on a train back to her hometown, so I decided to take that opportunity to clarify the truth to a person with a predestined relationship with me. We talked about school first and then I got to the point. In talking with her I learned that she disdained the CCP but still had some misunderstandings about Falun Gong, so I told her about the staged “Tiananmen Square-Immolation,” the Udumbara flowers blooming, and Falun Gong being spread in over 100 countries. She listened and nodded from time to time and then quit the Communist Young Pioneers and Youth League with the help of her parents, who are practitioners. I then pulled out a Shen Yun Performing Arts DVD and asked her if she had seen the show before. She immediately took out the laptop that she carried with her and said that she wanted to copy all the information that was on the disc onto her computer. I thought that people really have a desire to be saved and to know the truth.
The next afternoon, my niece told me that Linlin had boarded the train and asked my niece to thank me for her. My niece later revealed that Linlin has a difficult life but she is very independent and optimistic. I suddenly enlightened that, to be saved, people suffer a lot in this complex, everyday society and perhaps for more than one lifetime. They have suffered throughout their different lifetimes, so when Teacher asks the practitioners of Falun Dafa to clarify the truth to more people, he is not only thinking of the practitioners' mighty virtue, but also the hardships experienced by the people who need to know the truth. This is only described to a certain extend in human words. Actually, it is Teacher who has suffered the most, and our gratitude to Teacher can never be expressed in words. We Falun Dafa practitioners must study the Fa more and better, and clarify the truth to save more people if we really want to help Teacher rectify the Fa.
A Small Flower That Is My Home
My home, a small flower, bloomed in 2005 and has since then became a place to print the Minghui Weekly, truth clarification materials, bills, amulets(1), and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and to burn truth clarification discs, etc. One thing that I found particularly wonderful also helped me realize that Teacher is constantly beside us and protecting us. We use prepaid Internet cards, and when I bought mine, the seller told me that one hundred yuan would cover one month. When I returned to refill the card, there was still leftover credit and much more than we expected. Three hundred yuan provided us with at least half a year of Internet connection and the Internet card always showed our location to be from another area.
I Want to Be Like You
One of my colleagues who had already quit the CCP helped me with some work that was assigned to me when he saw that I was very busy. When I thanked him, he said, “It didn't take much effort and you said the other day that we should be more considerate of others. I think that is reasonable, so I want to be like you and try to be considerate as much as possible.” I remembered that I had told him the other day, “They all say that people are selfish nowadays, but our Teacher requires everyone to be a good person who is always considerate of others. No matter how others treat me, I will always follow this standard and will not regret it.” This colleague heard what I said and, apparently, that is why he said what he did. I came to enlighten that we Falun Dafa practitioners must always act like practitioners in any environment and use the standards of Dafa to determine what is correct. Then our environment will be transformed by Dafa practitioners and more people will be saved.
Another thing I experienced is that Teacher can see every being clearly but always speaks as if there could be some discussion on the matter, such as “Is this OK?” or “Could that be done?” Isn't Teacher accommodating us? Teacher has set a standard for us. As Falun Dafa practitioners, shouldn't we frequently ask questions like “Do you think this is OK?” “In your opinion, is this a good idea?” when speaking to fellow practitioners and non-practitioners? These questions, when asked, are like pure lotus flowers emerging from our mouths, and this is beneficial to other people who need to know the truth. Practitioners will be able to cooperate better as well. Of course, when facing the evil forces, our words must be backed by adamant righteous thoughts.
There are many other things that I would like to say. Sometimes when I'm alone I can't help but become teary eyed thinking of the hardships Teacher bears for practitioners. Teacher values our lives more than we ourselves do, and although I cannot see anything with my human eyes, I have one hundred percent faith in Teacher's words. This faith comes from deep within my heart and it tells me, “I am a being that came here for Dafa!”
Note: (1) Amulets – 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.
