(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
One day in August 1997, I accidentally picked up the book, Zhuan Falun, that my mother had left on the desk, and I read it. I immediately believed in the Fa principles written in the book, and I admired and greatly respected the book. When I finished reading the book, I told myself, "This is what I have been looking for. I want to practice cultivation." I thereafter started to walk on the path of returning to my true self.
My husband did not understand me, and he always obstructed me from practicing Falun Gong. I conducted myself according to Master's teaching of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance," and I was able to pass various xinxing tests. My heart was enriched and filled with joy every day. I would like to report to our revered Master on the progress of my nine-year-long cultivation path during the Fa-rectification period and my improved understanding. I hope to share my understandings with fellow practitioners as well.
Firmly Upholding Dafa Amidst Tremendous Tribulations
Tens of thousands of practitioners went to Beijing to appeal on April 25, 1999. Shortly after the incident, my husband came home drunk and attempted to force me to give up Dafa cultivation. Seeing that I was firm in my belief, he beat me brutally.
Jiang then initiated a nationwide persecution of Falun Dafa and Dafa practitioners on July 20, 1999. All practitioners, including myself, went through the transition from personal cultivation to cultivation during the Fa-rectification period, wherein our mission became to validate Dafa and save sentient beings. I went to Beijing twice to validate Dafa. I was never arrested, but every time I came back from Beijing, I was brutally beaten by my husband.
In May 2000, after I had read several articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website at a fellow practitioner's home, I realized where I fell short, and I understood the responsibility of a Dafa practitioner. I no longer passively endured my husband's abuse as I used to do. Additionally, I clarified the truth about Dafa to my husband.
On one occasion, he beat me again, and I was black and blue all over. I thought to myself that it was time to get rid of my attachment and that I should not tolerate the way he abused me.
When others asked what had happened to me, I told them my husband beat me and left the bruises on me. As a result, many people scolded him, "How could you abuse your wife in such a brutal way?" Since then, he hasn't dared to abuse me without restraint.
Fellow practitioners have given up their attachments to life and death in validating Dafa. However, I wasn't even able to rectify my family environment. I decided to calm down and talk to him sincerely. Nonetheless, he still forbade me to practice Dafa, regardless of how I tried to persuade him. In the end, he said, "If you insist on practicing Falun Gong, go back to your mother's place to practice. I won't allow you to practice at home. You get out of here." As he was speaking, he drove me out of the home. Although I was prepared for this, what he did still broke my heart.
After he had tried everything he could think of, my husband discovered that he was unable to force me to give up cultivation. He then filed an indictment with the court to divorce me in November 2000. He did so out of fear that he and his family might be implicated. As a matter of fact, all of his family members worked in the prison system.
During the public hearing on my divorce, I clarified the facts to the judge and everyone present to deny all the slander he wrote in the indictment against Dafa and me. I told people how I conducted myself according the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, how I handled family issues and treated my child, and what my husband had done to my family and me.
I spoke to my husband at the court, "You have tried to defame Dafa and me regardless of the facts. You mentioned that you, as a CCP member and state official, will draw a clear distinction between you and me. What kind of conduct is that?" I then turned to the judge, "We try to become good people according to the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. When conflicts arise, we will search inward to find out where we haven't done well. We will not fight back when being beaten or sworn at. How can you say we are evil? The newspapers and TV have been spreading lies and fabrications. None of the things in their propaganda are true. In order to suppress Falun Gong, the authorities have resorted to all kinds of deceptions and brutal tactics. It is our constitutional right to appeal. But those who appeal are arrested and imprisoned in an attempt to force us to give up cultivation. If Falun Gong were indeed the way the newspapers and television have advertised, do the authorities need to apply such pressure to stop us from practicing? We would have quit practicing immediately. It is precisely because Falun Gong is good that many people decided to practice Falun Gong."
My husband didn't say a word when I was clarifying the truth. In the end, he said to the judge, "I have no other choice. Those above me issued a notice stating that anyone in the procuratorate system, with the public prosecutor, in the court system, or in the judicial system that practices Falun Gong or whose family members practice Falun Gong will be fired. It has not been easy for me to reach my current level of responsibility. In addition, my child will have difficulty going to school, finding a job, or serving in the military because someone in the family is practicing Falun Gong. I asked her not to practice any more, but she insisted on practicing. I have no other choice but to divorce her."
My work unit did not allow me to go to work in an attempt to force me to stop practicing Falun Gong. I found a temporary job in order to earn some money for daily expenditures. However, within one month of getting this temporary job, my work unit supervisors conspired with their supervisors, agents from the 610 Office, the police station, and the brainwashing center. They arrested me in broad daylight. They pulled my arms behind my back and pressed my head. I shouted, "As a Falun Gong practitioner, I simply try to be a good person; I have done nothing wrong. You are violating the law. I refuse to go to the brainwashing center."
At the brainwashing center fellow practitioners and I always resisted the evildoers and exposed their crimes with wisdom whenever there was an opportunity.
In the article "A Suggestion," Master said,
"I suggest that all students who they are trying to forcefully reform (this excludes those who haven't been taken away for reform) expose the evil and clarify the truth to those people who are doing the reform work, and tell them about the cause and effect relationship of "good and evil always have consequences." It is the evil that is afraid of people knowing the truth of the situation, not Dafa disciples."
We clarified the truth to those in charge in the brainwashing class. They were very afraid. They claimed that I was the leader among the practitioners there, and they charged me with the so-called crime of "disturbing class order at school" and put me into a detention center.
At the detention center, every day I recited Master's articles that I remembered. I had recited Zhuan Falun once before I was arrested. In addition, my mother brought me Master's new articles when she visited. I steadfastly followed the progress of Fa-rectification. I was able to see through all kinds of "reform" tactics the "instructors" imposed upon us.
At the same time, we practitioners realized that we should not passively endure the endless detention. We needed to get out of there to fulfill our mission in Fa-rectification and to save sentient beings. The detention center was not the place for Dafa disciples. We didn't violate any law. We should have been released unconditionally.
We started hunger strikes after our appeal was ignored. On the fourth day those in charge took me out and force-fed me in the afternoon. When I was carried back to my ward, I was exhausted and had difficulty breathing.
When she heard the bad news, my mother and other family members came to the detention center and requested that the authorities release me immediately. My mother told the head of the detention center in a dignified manner, "My child didn't violate any law. Why do you put her in custody? You cannot force-feed her. If anything happens to her, none of you can escape the responsibility."
With Master's protection and my family's righteous support, I was released on August 31, 2001.
Do What We Should and Fulfill Our Responsibilities
Because we didn't have any local practitioners involved in editing, printing, and downloading materials from the Internet, it often took us a long time to be able to read Master's articles. Moreover, because no one was good at layout and editing, we usually printed all of Master's recent articles and fellow practitioners' experience-sharing articles randomly. Practitioner A and I decided to form a small material production site. Her responsibility was to download materials from the Internet; my responsibility was to edit and print. Thereafter, our material site was established.
I had never used a computer or touched a computer mouse before this. Practitioner A spent a little time teaching me how to use the mouse and how to copy and paste text. In terms of layout, editing and binding several pages into a brochure, she didn't know anything, either. I had to learn everything by myself.
Within one day, I learned the very basics of layout, editing, and inserting page numbers. Soon after that, I learned some other computer techniques such as dealing with different formats, printing, making truth-clarification CDs and truth-clarification cards, as well as basic computer maintenance skills. The quality of our materials kept improving. I knew it was Master and Dafa that gave me the wisdom to help me learn these techniques in a short time.
The previous local materials site was destroyed. We learned some lessons from that experience and kept the location of this site very secret. We two were the only persons who knew where it was.
I get up at 3:00 a.m. every day to practice the five sets of exercises. I send forth righteous thoughts every hour around the clock. In the morning I make truth-clarification materials. In the afternoon I study the "Fa" and send forth righteous thoughts every hour around the clock. I started to recite (from memory) the Fa at the end of 2003. In a few months, I had recited Zhuan Falun once. Since then, I recite one lecture of Zhuan Falun almost every day. Then I study Master's lectures and new articles. I don't remember how many times I have recited Zhuan Falun. During Fa-recitation and reading the Fa, I continue to understand and enlighten to new principles and become very clear-minded. My main consciousness is strong. Many bad states are gradually dissolving as I recite the Fa. When encountering something or talking with fellow practitioners, I naturally know how I should conduct myself. In "Expounding on the Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancement Master said, "Your enlightened, original nature will automatically know what to do." Now I have a much deeper understanding of this teaching.
During the past several years, our materials site hasn't encountered any significant interference. All Dafa projects are moving ahead smoothly.
I go out to give truth-clarification materials to a practitioner once a week. This practitioner is the only one who comes in contact with me to help distribute materials to other practitioners. Being the only person in charge of a materials site, sometimes I feel tremendous pressure from different sources. I think of Master's teaching, "As a Dafa disciple, your steadfast, righteous thoughts are absolutely unshakable." ("Dafa is Indestructible" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I often use this teaching to encourage myself.
In early 2004, a big local materials site was ransacked. Many practitioners were shocked by the incident. They realized the urgent necessity for establishing small materials sites and individual materials sites, and they started to get actively involved in setting up new sites.
At first, I also went out to post truth-clarification materials and distribute flyers. Later, out of holistic and safety concerns, I no longer went out to distribute flyers regularly. Instead, I put some materials in my bag, and whenever there was a chance, I would distribute them. I often give out flyers to individuals in person or talk to individuals on appropriate occasions.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006,"
"So what this says is, the goal of Dafa disciples' clarifying the truth during this period is to save people and eliminate the poisoning of people by those old elements and by the vile party's evil specters. The reason is, the old forces are to be weeded out during Fa-rectification, the vile party and the evil specters will likewise be weeded out for sure, and all who have a hand in what they do will be weeded out. This is a law laid down in Fa-rectification, and it has to be done this way. If we don't go and save someone like that, he or she will be weeded out by history along with the evil."
In 2005 the Fa-rectification entered a new stage. The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has been widely spread and has persuaded people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. We started to focus on spreading the Nine Commentaries to help people see the true evil nature of the evil CCP and to quit all CCP organizations as soon as possible.
Soon after we got started on the Nine Commentaries, a practitioner who was passing materials from the material site to other practitioners was arrested, so we needed to move our materials site. Practitioner B asked me to move the equipment to a new place. I had never ridden a motorcycle before. However, I was able to ride the motorcycle, and I rushed to move the equipment.
I continued to work at the new site, because there was no one else available to assume the work.
When working with fellow practitioners, we also encountered all kinds of conflicts. I measured myself with Dafa's requirements and was willing to listen to practitioners' suggestions and opinions so as to correct my shortcomings. Without saying much, I am earnestly doing whatever I am supposed to do.
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A." Master said, "Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect." I gradually opened my heart and became truly compassionate and considerate. It is a joyful feeling.
In summary, I have walked through my cultivation under Master's compassionate care, protection, and resourceful arrangement and amid fellow practitioners' trust, tolerance, and selfless help in my daily life.
To complete my sharing, let me quote Master's "New Year's Greetings from Master,"
"While emerging from the hardship, while saving the people of the world, and while becoming more clearheaded and mature, you have come through another year. On the rest of the journey, may you fulfill, with godlike righteous thoughts and righteous actions, the grand vows you made before history!
The endless journey has come to a close
And the pervasive haze is gradually dispersing
While righteous thoughts display the might of Gods
Returning to Heaven is no longer just yearned for"