The Minghui Website: A Lifeline on My Cultivation Journey

(Minghui.org) I recently read an article written by a practitioner recalling how she began to read the Minghui website. My thoughts were brought back to my youth.

I was in my third year at university in the summer of 1998, and I had been practicing Falun Dafa for three years. One day, in a local telecommunications company's office, I noticed a computer that one could use to browse the Internet for free. Whenever I had time, I went there to use the computer. The very first time I searched online and opened up a Falun Dafa website from Hong Kong, I saw the spinning Falun emblem. I was very excited.

After the peaceful protest in Beijing on April 25, 1999, the environment in China became tense. It was difficult to get a copy of Master’s new lectures from the assistance center. I began to go online to search for them. At that time, I mainly browsed the Internet at an Internet cafe, plus the Falun Dafa website wasn’t yet blocked, so I could log onto it directly. After the Falun Dafa in North America website was established, it became my main site.

On July 20, 1999, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) launched the persecution and the overwhelming propaganda on TV made practitioners anxiously want to know the true situation. Every day practitioners went to Tiananmen Square to call out: “Falun Dafa is good” and unfurl banners, and were arrested. The Falun Dafa in North America website was blocked.

I didn’t know what to do, as real information was suddenly unavailable. My classes were on summer break. Without other practitioners to turn to for help, I did not know how to visit a Falun Dafa website. Occasionally, I received a mass email, which contained some information about Falun Dafa and I was excited. At the end of the emails, it mentioned that I could break through the Internet blockade through a proxy server.

That’s how I learned that an Internet blockade could be overcome by a proxy server, but I had no idea what a proxy server was, or how to make the breakthrough. However, this email was like dawn, and I saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

I quickly wrapped up my vacation and returned to school over three weeks ahead of time. I spent hours at the Internet cafe near my school looking for a proxy server. I was able to find one and found a way to break through the Internet blockade. I was able to access the Falun Dafa website again.

Soon after school resumed in September 1999, my teachers took turns talking to me and pressuring me to give up practicing Falun Dafa. They got my parents to come to the school to talk to me, as well. I was presented with the choice of completing my degree or holding onto Dafa. I refused to stop practicing and refused to write a guarantee statement. I was dismissed from school and my parents took me home.

After I returned home, I checked the Minghui website, on which I saw the many ways in which practitioners stood up for Falun Dafa. In October 1999, I went to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to speak up for Falun Dafa, and I was arrested. In November, my father came to the local liaison office in Beijing and brought me home. I fell asleep on the train and had a vivid dream. Many Buddhas and gods appeared in the sky. I kept shouting: “Come out to take a look! Buddhas and gods are up in the sky, come out quickly and look!” When I woke up, I understood what the dream hinted at me: Only the practitioners who stepped forward could see the manifestation of Buddhas and gods in heaven. Those who failed to stand up for Falun Dafa could not.

At the end of 1999, soon after I returned home, because of his work, my father was given a laptop computer and a printer. At that time computers were still scarce, and I felt this was truly Master’s arrangement. I began my Fa-rectification cultivation journey.

We didn’t yet have a broadband network, but could only log onto the Internet via dial-up. I broke through the Internet blockade every day to log onto the Minghui website. I downloaded the materials and then passed them to a local practitioner to make copies. The materials I printed weren’t for truth-clarification, but instead described practitioners’ magnificent deeds as they stood up for Falun Dafa and articles about their cultivation.

In June 2000, Master published the new articles, “The Knowing Heart” and “Towards Consummation” on the Minghui website. I downloaded them and passed them to a local practitioner to make copies. Soon every practitioner in our area received them. They were very excited.

I later went to a provincial capital center, where I produced informational materials. I showed other practitioners how to break through the Internet blockade to browse the Minghui website. I showed a young practitioner how to log onto the Minghui website. That day one of Master’s new articles was published. After the practitioner printed out the pictures of Master’s “The Two Hand Positions for Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts,” he had such a bright and sunny smile on his face! He felt happy and proud to be able to produce Dafa materials himself.

I Step Off the Cultivation Path

In 2003, because I watched some pornographic videos online and my attachment to lust was awakened, the old forces saw how I had stumbled and I was persecuted. The prison guards tried to forcibly transform me. Due to the intensity of the persecution, I lost my faith in Dafa. Afterwards, I avoided other practitioners, and I no longer read the teachings. I returned home in 2009. My parents didn’t say much, but only hoped that I could restart my life. I began to lead a regular person’s life.

I bought a radio in 2010. While listening to an overseas program, I heard the name of an application. Few details were provided, but I knew it was an app for breaking through the Internet blockade.

I used my computer to locate the app. I saw it was the Freegate application, which could be used to log onto the Minghui website. I hesitated before I started running it. I was concerned about my safety: What if other people detected my activities online? In the end I decided to open the website.

I read one article after another written by practitioners and published on the Minghui website. They inspired me to resume cultivation. I finally came back. I found the practitioners I knew before I was arrested, and I began to print and mail out truth-clarification letters. I had a dream one night: I fell down into a well, but I climbed back up to the wellhead. Someone reached down and pulled me out. I knew that person was Master, who didn’t give up on me.

In the following years I read the Minghui website every day. The sharing articles from practitioners from all over the world inspired and encouraged me. The miracles that Dafa displayed also negated many of my human notions.

The Minghui website is very important for practitioners. I hope that we will all read the website on a regular basis and do the three things that Master asked us to do well.