(ClearWisdom.net) Teacher said, "Dafa disciples are magnificent, because what you are cultivating is the ultimate Great Law of the cosmos, because you have validated Dafa with righteous thoughts, and because you have not fallen amidst the massive tribulation." (See Teacher's "The Disciples' Magnificence")
It is a force of righteous thoughts that encouraged me to write this story about how a practitioner persisted in cultivation during this Fa-rectification course.
In the May 2001, while visiting a fellow practitioner I occasionally answered Ah Ping's phone calls from a brainwashing class. Ah Ping (alias) told me that she had been detained there for more than 50 days, and she really wanted to get out, but she failed in several attempts. I encouraged her, "You have not cooperated with the evil, or signed a renouncement letter, so you are very great." She said, "No, I am not great at all." I told her, "Even Teacher said 'Dafa disciples are magnificent'. In his new article 'The Disciples' Magnificence', Teacher used eight phrases of 'great' or 'magnificent' to validate what we practitioners have done." Then she asked me to read the article to her. As I was reciting the article she was moved to tears. Then she said, "Since I am so great as Teacher said, I will not cooperate with the evil arrangement. I want to get out, but I don't know how." I told her, "Only if you want to, will you find the way out." "But where can I go if I can get out of here?" I said, "Just get out, then you will find a place."
Indeed, encouraged with Teacher's article Ah Ping succeeded in getting out within three days. Several days later, some practitioners arranged a meeting with her, but after that I lost contact. Later, I heard from another practitioner that Ah Ping went to a remote mountain region to introduce Fa to people there. Since she does not have money, she experienced a lot of tribulations that helped strengthen her resolve. To help her, I forwarded 500 yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan] to her.
Later she came back and shared her thoughts with me, so we lived together for several days and heard her experiences. She said, "I could not stay in this city since too many people know me. A practitioner helped me move to another city and rented a place for me. However after the first term, I had only three yuan left and I did not feel comfortable asking the practitioner to renew the rent for me, so I left that city without any idea about where I should go and where I could sleep."
"With no destination in mind, extremely exhausted and starving I trudged forward into the darkness of the evening. When I passed by a roadside house a young man saw me and said to his old mother, "Mom, see that poor weary traveler. She looks like she hasn't eaten at all today. Please let her in to eat." Then the old lady stopped me and invited me for dinner. That time I was so hungry so that I ate three full bowls of rice and drank a lot of soup, and drank three bowls of boiled water. That night I stayed in that house, introduced Dafa, and clarified the truth about persecution to the whole family. The next morning, I started on my new journey."
"I used my artistic skills to introduce the Fa to the people in the mountain areas. When I drew, I never asked for money. Although I was so hungry, I did not think about trading the pictures for food. What I first thought was to save the person who was interested in my picture. My thoughts were very pure so most people gradually understood me and treated me fairly."
"I remember one day I arrived at a school at the entrance of a village as it was getting dark. I found the principal and volunteered to help him write slogans to decorate the classrooms. He happily accepted my offer. Then I told him that I had been forced to leave my home because I practiced Falun Gong. He said, "No problem. You can live in my office." Then he gave me the key and went home. The next day I was able to introduce Fa to the villagers. I found they all believed in gods, and worshipped Buddha statues in temples. Seeing they were actually worshipping the possessed things on the statues, I felt very sorry for them. Then I recited "Lunyu" to them. All of them said they liked it. They invited me to stay with them. So, I stayed there for several days. Everyday some of the villagers obtained the Fa. Truly, the people there were so kind and deserved to obtain the Fa."
"I also remember that on the day I left, a man on a motorcycle caught up with me and offered me a ride. He said he was the village officer in charge of security. Whenever higher authorities asked him if any Falun Gong practitioners had come to the village he always answered no. But actually he knew where to find Falun Gong practitioners. With his information, I met practitioners there and then I found they did not have any of Teacher's new articles so they did not know if they should continue their cultivation. I gave them the new articles, and told them the progress of the Fa-rectification in the world and lead them into the Fa-rectification too."
Those days, Ah Ping indeed had many bitter experiences. Some kids treated her as a beggar and cursed and hit her. She did not care since she knew it was because of the collapse of human morality. She had no clean underwear, and wore the old tattered clothes the kind villagers had given her. Some days she didn't have even a piece of bread to eat. However, all of these did not bother her. She ran into rogues when she was traveling in the mountains. A hoodlum attacked her when she slept on a big bed with both male and female travelers in the same room in some cheap inn. However, she used her righteous thoughts to control them and even introduced the Fa to them. Taught them to behave and to become good people.
I felt she told only a portion of her experiences. In front of other practitioners, she rarely talked about herself or just very little since she thought those tribulations are nothing to her. She said, "I really did not feel so bad. I remember when I was in the mountains someone asked me, 'You know if you did not go out to appeal for Falun Gong, you would not have been arrested. Why didn't you just stay at home?' I answered, I was used to vomiting blood, and none of the hospitals could cure the problem. It is Falun Dafa that saved me, and it is the Teacher who gave me a new life. You know if a hospital saved some patient, the patient would present a big golden plaque to express thanks. Now, my Teacher does not want anything from me shouldn't I speak out the truth for him? However, the authorities do not allow me to speak the truth, so they chase me to apprehend me, and forced me to leave my home. Is it my fault? Hearing my words, those villagers agreed with me and thought all I did was reasonable."
When she made this point, I could not help crying, like every other practitioner. We sobbed, not in the way of ordinary sentiments, but in the mutual caring among our fellow practitioners, as we are all parts of the same harmonizing unit. I promised her, that from now on we would not allow her to suffer those inhuman tribulations. We are 'assisting Teacher in human world,' doing the most righteous things, so we do not deserve those tribulations that old forces arranged. We should object to them. The practitioners gave her their own clothes or gave her some money to buy clothes, replacing all the dirty ones. This kind of pure caring can only exist among Dafa practitioners. Really, Falun Gong is the pure land in the human world. Five days later we parted to continue our great Fa-rectification activities.