Looking Within: Improving Myself While Being a Coordinator

(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1998 and was offered a position as a coordinator in 2000. Besides the one-and-a-half years of being persecuted in a forced labor camp, I have always been taking up the role of a coordinator. The work faced all sorts of ups and downs, but no matter what, I have managed to pass each ordeal. Given Master Li’s (Dafa’s founder) protection and help from fellow practitioners, I have let go of many attachments and placed myself in a position that lets me treat coordination work as my responsibility to guide the practitioners around me well.

Cooperating As “One Body” to Save Sentient Beings

A few practitioners and I wanted to ask local practitioners to form a “one body,” since 2000. Many practitioners were still in a lost state and did not know what to do after the onset of the persecution. A few practitioners from other cities came to exchange cultivation issues, and how to validate the Fa given the current situation. Given Master’s empowerment, and with the help from the practitioners out of town, we quickly formed a “one body,” who all held righteous thoughts.

Practitioners in another city provided us with a lot of truth-clarification fliers, and we would go out at night to distribute them. We divided into groups for different villages and delivered materials to thousands of households. Roads from the villages to the city were limited and badly damaged. Although the roads were full of potholes, yet, the practitioners could pass them smoothly at night, as though floating on air. We were all astonished.

Besides distributing materials, we also hung up banners. I would print out the template, buy red, yellow, and blue cloth, and print and put the words on the banners with the help of other practitioners. After drying the banners, we would slot in metal rods on the top and bottom and tie them with string. One side would be weighted to help keep the banner unfurled. As we walked, we hung up banners on trees and lamp posts swiftly and accurately, such that people could see them in the streets, parks, along the river banks, and police station entrances. The scene was amazing. People said, “Falun Dafa practitioners are really amazing, they appear to fly an airplane to hang these banners.”

We followed the progress of Master’s Fa-rectification closely. We started with distributing informational materials, clarifying the truth face-to-face, to using cell phones to let people know about Dafa. I also set up my materials production site with the help of practitioners from another city and helped practitioners to set up their own materials production sites, so they were everywhere. Additionally, we sued Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader, who initiated the persecution. Practitioners were doing the three things needed to let people know the truth of Dafa. The whole process seems to have gone by in a flash, but it was only possible because of Master’s help.

Going to Tiananmen Square to Validate the Fa

Thirty-six Western practitioners from 20 countries appeared on Tiananmen Square on November 20, 2001, unfurled a banner with the words Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance printed on it, calling for the CCP to stop the persecution of Dafa practitioners. This act made me feel the difference in level between those practitioners and myself.

The Western practitioners went to Tiananmen to validate the Fa, but we Dafa practitioners in China did not go there to seek justice for Master and Dafa. I felt guilty for not doing that. Therefore, I thought that I must go to Tiananmen to validate the Fa. I went to discuss my thoughts with two practitioners.

One night, I dreamed of a man dressed in army attire. He was riding a phoenix while approaching me. Then he left after handing me something. After waking up, I thought that that item was a stamp. I understood that Master was hinting to me to make a Falun Dafa truth-clarifying banner to validate the Fa on Tiananmen Square. Therefore, I started to write out the words and made them into templates. After that, I bought yellow cloth to make the “Falun Dafa is Good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” banners. Once the preparation work was done, we agreed on a date to go to Tiananmen.

It was my day off from work – a Sunday in 2002. I woke up in the morning and decided to go early to Tiananmen so I could return early. I did not tell my family about it and returned within a day. I boarded the long-distance coach to Beijing with two other practitioners. I could not suppress the joy coming from the bottom of my heart. I was in such bliss. I usually had serious motion sickness such that I would start vomiting and get dizzy after taking just a short car ride. However, throughout this entire journey, I did not feel sick at all.

After arriving at Tiananmen Square we noticed many policemen in plain clothes everywhere. A plainclothes female officer kept following us. We smiled at her and sent forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the evil beings and elements controlling her in other dimensions. After about 10 minutes, we did not feel there were any more bad elements, so we walked to the east side of the flag pole in the Square. A tour group happened to pass by, so the three of us took out our banners, raised them over our heads, and shouted out “Falun Dafa is good,” “Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa,” “Return my Teacher His innocence.” I cried as I shouted. After we finished shouting, we hung the banners on the railing behind us and left the Square from the east tunnel exit. While doing so, I heard someone from behind say, “Falun Dafa is really amazing.”

Altogether, it took eight hours to get to Beijing and back on the same coach, the whole process went so smoothly due to Master’s protection. After returning home, I went to exchange my thoughts with other practitioners on the importance of validating the Fa at Tiananmen, encouraging others to go there to seek justice for Master, so they would not have any regrets.

Within a short period of time, most of the practitioners within our city and surrounding villages went to Tiananmen Square to display Dafa banners and validate the Fa, seeking justice for Master. Apart from two or three practitioners who went there with the attitude of “in case I don’t make it back” and were brought back to the police station and detained for two days, the rest returned safely. The practitioners all had deep feelings about this experience and were very proud when they talked about it. Even now, they are still quite excited when they recall this experience of theirs.

Stopping the Damage

I formed a small team with practitioners Jia and Bing to distribute materials and clarify the truth face-to-face in the villages and markets.

After talking to people at the market, I returned to a meeting point to meet with Bing and saw Jia’s electric vehicle there. I thought that she may have come late, so I returned home without waiting for her. I only found out that afternoon that she had been arrested by two plain-clothes police officers. Bing reminded me that Jia lives alone and there are Dafa books at her house, Master’s lecture videos, a computer, three printers, materials, truth-clarifying bills, and so on. I could not let these things fall into the hands of the police.

As we had her house keys, I asked Chen to go home to get her tricycle. Together with Chen, Bing, and Dan, a practitioner who came from the same district as Jia, the four of us moved all the things out of Jia’s house.

With the vehicle keys we found in Jia’s house, we brought Jia’s vehicle back from the market the next morning and went back to Jia’s house to make sure nothing had been left behind.

Not long after we left, officers from the domestic security arrived. Under Master’s protection, we had moved all of the materials, and no losses were encountered.

Expose the CCP and Stop Their Evil Acts

After finding out about the persecution of fellow practitioners, we tried to expose it online as soon as possible. At the same time, we distributed or pasted fliers containing the persecution information about it.

Practitioner Weng was taken from his office by domestic security officers. His mother is also a practitioner, but she did not agree for us to expose her son’s persecution for fear it might affect Weng’s job. Therefore, she only asked practitioners to help send righteous thoughts to strengthen him. After exchanging understandings with a few coordinating practitioners, we felt that Weng’s mother’s request was not in line with the Fa. Exposing the evil is to stop the evil and save sentient beings. So we started making truth-clarifying stickers. We had just finished making them that night when Weng came back! We were in awe of the miraculous nature of Dafa and the power of cooperating as one body.

Correct the Wrong State

Whenever practitioners are arrested, some others get scared and stop attending group Fa study, clarifying the truth, and distributing materials. They say they would wait for a while to see what happens. Seeing these practitioners’ negative states, I became anxious. But I can’t blame them or complain, as that will only aggravate their negative thoughts. We can only look at their strengths, exchange understanding with them based on the Fa, encourage them to step out, let them study the Fa more, and send more righteous thoughts.

Master said,

“While working, your tone of voice, your kindheartedness, and your reasoning can change a person’s heart, whereas commands never could!” (“Clearheadedness,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

When we point out the practitioners’ shortcomings and possible consequences with compassion they really understood that, and were able to improve themselves very quickly afterward.

Getting Rid of the Attachment to Fame

I always thought I didn’t have an attachment to fame. I have been paying attention to my speech and behavior to try to care about the feelings of others and think more of others' needs. However, when practitioners told me that somebody asked me to go to their home, I always thought that I had done something wrong and the practitioner is going to point it out to me, or somebody had said something bad about me.

When I went to other counties to exchange cultivation experiences and those practitioners spoke a lot, I felt uneasy in my heart as if they had overwhelmed the guest (me) a bit, being overbearing. I realized this was wrong, and was brought about by the attachment to fame. I tried to suppress these thoughts and get rid of them.

When I am sharing with fellow practitioners, I worry that practitioners will not accept my words and thus I become careful about my speech. I realized these thoughts are not based on the Fa. As a coordinator, as long as my thoughts for helping others with no tinge of selfishness, practitioners are able to feel it.

As a coordinator, I need to cooperate and harmonize with the one body. I am not better than others, nor do I have any great capabilities. It is just that Master bestowed me with this responsibility and mission to help coordinate the practitioners around me. In order to do well as a coordinator, I must first not think of wanting to be better than others. A coordinator is not a leader. He/she is just someone who helps fellow practitioners to cultivate based on the Fa and progress on their cultivation paths with full belief in Master and the Fa. There should not be any orders. It is only when practitioners have the awareness of the one body will the power of the one body be great. Only then can we assist Master and help to save more sentient beings.

I follow Master’s teachings, so the coordination work these past few years has been very successful. The practitioners are also very good at cooperating, so our local environment as one body has always been very good.

To Be a Coordinator Who Is Up to the Standard

My becoming a coordinator is under the arrangement of Master. Therefore, I cherish this opportunity, and is my privilege. For so many years, I have benefited a great deal through cultivation sharing with practitioners from different places. They helped further strengthen my belief in Master and the Fa.

I have always treated work as a coordinator as a top priority. Throughout the 20-plus years of coordinating, between the two practitioners who used to do the coordination with me, one went on the wrong track due to fear, such that he no longer cultivates; another no longer participates in the coordinating work after coming out of a labor camp.

Among the practitioners who stepped out and became coordinators, some were imprisoned, some were persecuted to death, some are going through illness tribulations, and some no longer come out due to family reasons. One practitioner even said that things would be fine with just one coordinator, meaning me.

No words could describe the feeling in my heart when I learned what this practitioner said. For one second, I thought: what if I quit? Who will manage the coordination work? This is Master’s arrangement! We can only harmonize with each other, cooperate, and do well. Only then will we not let Master’s compassion bring the power needed. Luckily, with Master’s arrangements, new practitioners quickly helped to share the load.

When a practitioner started cultivating alone because of her job and family, I went to her place with another practitioner to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts together. Despite this, she still did what she pleases and treated us indifferently. We didn’t have much chance to share with her. Later, this practitioner’s mother, who is also a practitioner, passed away due to illness karma, and she also went through a big tribulation.

The sudden symptoms of illness almost cost her life. Only then did she wake up and overcome the tribulations. We invited her to study the Fa and share our understanding together. Two months later, she was finally able to force her way free from the shackles to step out. We were really happy for her.