China Fahui | A Young Practitioner Improves Herself While Providing Technical Support to Others

(Minghui.org) “Providing technical support to other practitioners is like farming. From selecting seeds to planting them, from fertilization to weeding and watering, I had to help with each step of the process. Upon seeing practitioners’ harvest – beautiful truth-clarification materials, I am really happy for them. I know helping them is my role.” – from the author

* * *

Greetings, Master!Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996 when my parents took up the practice. Over the past 20-plus years, I have matured in my cultivation after going through many trials and tribulations. Thanks to the guidance from Master, I have come this far and I am deeply grateful to Master. 

During this 19th China Fahui, I am glad to share my stories of providing technical support to other practitioners all these years, which has been a process for me to let go of selfishness and eliminate human notions. 

Getting Started

Jiang Zemin, former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), ordered the persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999. In the early years of the persecution, the practitioners who provided technical support in my local area were either detained or forced to live away from home (with some moving to other countries). At one point, we could not even find a local practitioner to install computer operating systems, and we had to go out of town to seek help. 

At that time, an elderly practitioner Yan approached me and suggested she and I learn how to install computer systems together [translator’s note: Computers in mainland China often come with all kinds of spyware. Practitioners need to install clean versions of systems and other tools needed for various truth-clarification projects].

I had always felt computer technical support was something to be done by male practitioners. As a girl, I had no interest in anything technical as it seemed foreign to me. I just wanted to access Minghui and did not plan to be an expert. Despite my hesitation, I did not turn down the request from Yan because being able to help other practitioners with technical issues would be a good thing. 

This way, Yan and I started learning computer skills. 

Yan is a practitioner who pays attention to detail and follows rules. She watched how a practitioner in another city installed systems and made some notes. But she did not quite understand it or have a chance to install the systems herself. The two of us then tried to figure it out based on her notes. It was a process of improving xinxing. We encountered many problems along the way – it was difficult and boring. 

Both of us were novices and we could not understand some technical terms at all. Very often, we moved forward only a little before getting stuck again. When that happened, we had to try all kinds of methods to resolve the issues. It was normal for us to spend a long time fixing one problem. In spite of these challenges, with help from Master, we were able to successfully install the systems in the end. 

Improving Xinxing

I had been impatient since childhood. I also tended to avoid difficult problems and always wanted others to take care of the problems. All these attachments were exposed as I provided technical support to other practitioners. Master helped me see my human notions still yet to be removed. 

Once a practitioner brought in a new model of HP laptop computer that only supported Windows 10. Before that, I only knew how to install Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, not Windows 10. And we did not have local practitioners who could do Windows 10 either. Then I thought, since the computer came to me, I had to handle it instead of walking away. So I decided to learn how to install Windows 10.

From an online technical forum run by practitioners, I found some instruction materials. In the beginning, my human notions were strong including impatience, frustration, and fear of difficulty. My mind was not calm, nor could I read the instruction materials. In fact, I was thinking of giving up. Then I told myself, “the impatient thought is not part of me. I must calm down.” My human notions still kept surfacing though. I then realized that I must work to remove my human notions; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to learn how to install Windows 10. 

I recalled a Shen Yun program about the Monkey King, who borrowed the palm-leaf fan three times to put out flames on the Fire Mountain. Since this story appeared in Shen Yun, I knew it must have some profound meaning and is related to our cultivation. The Fire Mountain was the only way to go west for the scripture. According to the Five Elements theory, fire corresponds to the heart. I came to understand that my quick temper is a fire mountain on my cultivation path. I had to let it go, put out the fire, before reaching a serene mind. With this thought, I began to sort through things and oppose the fake version of me. By eliminating that human notion, I was able to gradually calm down. My mind was clearer and I could continue reading the instruction materials. 

Following the instructions, I downloaded the software needed. Then I read through almost all the tutorials on Windows 10 installation and began to follow them step by step. When I made mistakes, I had to start all over again and redo everything. It took me about two days to successfully install Windows 10 for that HP computer. During that time, I found when I put down human notions, Master would give me wisdom and I was able to move forward smoothly. Later on, the technical forum provided a toolkit for installation and it became even simpler. 

Over the years I have seen all kinds of computers from practitioners. Some of them were very old with low settings and some of were new, high-end computers. The models were different and there were all sorts of problems. Sometimes I would take a shortcut and push the problems to others. When that happened, the situation would continue and the problems would come back to me. 

I knew these were opportunities given by Master for me to get rid of attachments of relying on others, avoiding complicated situations, and fearing difficulty. When problems arose again, I would not push it to others and would instead try to figure them out myself. It seemed boring, but many human notions were eliminated in this process. With support from Master, I also accumulated a lot of experience and gained new knowledge from the technical forum. I think this path is my cultivation journey. I had to cultivate according to the Fa principles, eliminating human notions and improving with righteous thoughts. 

Like what has been mentioned in some experience-sharing articles, technical support practitioners are similar to commercial in-home IT services technicians. The difference is that we provide help free of charge. Therefore, some practitioners really appreciate those of us with technical skills since we could help answer their burning questions quickly. As a token of appreciation, they often offered gifts to us and would be unhappy when we declined. Because I did not want to lose face and have attachment to material interest, I would still take some inexpensive gifts, especially when I really had trouble saying no. 

One time after I installed systems for a practitioner, she insisted on giving me some food.
“You don’t have to do that. I have plenty at home,” I said. 
“Come on, please help me,” she said. “I bought them quite a while ago. If you do not take them, they will end up in the trash.”
Since they were about to expire, I took the food items. 

On the way home, I thought about this again and felt uneasy. Assisting Master with Fa-rectification is something so sacred, and how could I accept things from other practitioners? If I offered help in exchange for gifts, am I still a Dafa practitioner?

I also remembered Master’s words, “They would gradually go from accepting small tokens of appreciation to accepting larger gifts, to at some point even taking offense at lesser gifts. And they might eventually reject gifts altogether, demanding money instead.” (The Third Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Thinking about Master’s teachings made my hair stand on end. What have I done? How could I accept gifts after providing help as a practitioner? Upon returning home, I checked the prices of the food items and deposited a sum equal to the food cost in an account dedicated to the Dafa project. I did this a couple of times and also explained to practitioners why I could not accept gifts. 

Master said, “For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests.” (“A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It”, Essentials for Further Advancement) I noticed that, when practitioners kept praising me after I helped them, I would feel good about myself. When that happened, I would be on alert since the zealotry was not me. I said to myself, “The mentality of showing-off and zealotry are from the notion of validating oneself. It is not me. I must negate it since it could destroy me.” 

In my mind, I also recited the following words from Master, “The desire to show off plus the attachment of zealotry are most easily exploited by the demonic part of your mind.” (“Definitive Conclusion”, Essentials for Further Advancement) This way, my random thoughts would stop and I would come back to the reality. 

I later helped an elderly practitioner named Jing from another region. She brought her computer to my place. After installing systems on her computer, I had to teach her everything, even including how to turn on and shut down her computer. I grew impatient with her, though I managed to hold back my frustration because I knew it was not easy for her to learn technical stuff at an advanced age. Still, my human notions kept arising, I complained in my heart it was too time consuming to teach her. During this process, Jing paid attention to detail and did not want to miss anything. After making notes step by step, she finally learned everything. 

Looking up from her notes, Jing asked if I could go back to her home with her because she was worried that she might not know how to connect the computer to her printer. 

I could not hold back my impatience and said something not nice to her. As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I knew I was wrong and apologized to her immediately. I explained that the drive for the printer was already installed in the computer and that everything should work well. I also made her a copy of the printer drive and told her what to do if any issue came up. She wrote down the steps. I said I’d go to her place if there were still problems. 

Looking back, I found myself still lacking compassion and patience. I was selfish and didn’t want others to take too much of my time. It was through that incident that Master helped me to let go of this human notion and improve. 

Most of the practitioners I helped these years were elderly practitioners who usually needed more patience and time on my part. As long as it is needed for saving people, I would cooperate unconditionally. 

Good Collaboration

The QR codes for truth-clarification websites are very effective and easy to distribute. Many practitioners like to give them out. Some practitioners said certain QR codes did not work well and the link would not open. Since practitioners kept asking me about QR codes from time to time, I knew I needed to work on the project in order to better save people. So I downloaded software and tutorials from the technical forum and calmed myself down to learn step by step. After generating QR codes, I would test them and pass them to other practitioners for distribution. 

The amulets that read “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” are also very powerful. Some practitioners preferred to give out such amulets first before talking to people about Falun Dafa and clarifying defamatory propaganda from the CCP. When there were not many amulets available, local practitioners asked if I could make some. In the beginning, I was lazy and thought this was not my area. Later on, more practitioners came to ask me to make amulets. 

Since I heard about it, it must be something I should do. Once again I downloaded tutorials from the technical forum and learned step after step. I bought equipment and consumables and produced very beautiful amulets. I then provided them to practitioners clarifying the truth face-to-face to people. Although making amulets involved hard work, I was happy to see practitioners going out with the amulets to save people. 

Some practitioners were also interested in setting up material production sites at home, and they came to me for help. Since Master wanted practitioners to do home-based material production sites, I realized I should offer whatever help I could provide unconditionally. There are many elderly practitioners in this region and some have never used computers previously. So they have to learn everything, from installing systems to selecting printers, from maintenance to repair.

Providing technical support to other practitioners is like farming. From selecting seeds to planting them, from fertilization to weeding and watering, I had to help with each step of the process. Seeing practitioners’ harvest – the beautiful truth-clarification materials produced--I am really happy for them. I know helping them is my role.

I think this is my cultivation path arranged by Master, and I decided to do it well and walk the path well. Being a young practitioner is an advantage and I need to make the best use of it. 

More than 20 years have passed and I have come this far thanks to the care and support from Master. There are still places that I need to improve. For example, I have laziness and attachment to comfort, making me unable to do the exercises every day in the morning. I also have an ego and do not want to lose face. I still harbor fear too so I am not very good at face-to-face truth clarification. As a result, most of the time I only dare to clarify the truth to elderly people whom I feel more comfortable with. I will do better in the future. 

I am determined to do well on the remaining cultivation path. By assimilating myself to the Fa principles, I am confident that I will be able to let go of human notions, improve myself, and live up to Masters’ expectations. 

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate protection and guidance!Thank you, fellow practitioners!