(Clearwisdom.net) I have nothing extraordinary to share about my cultivation. I've stumbled along the way and it is Teacher's compassionate care that enabled me to come this far. Perhaps it is the rock solid belief in Dafa, shared by tens of thousands of Dafa disciples like me, that provides a firm foundation for Dafa in the human world. I feel extremely proud to be a particle of Dafa. I will share my cultivation experience of how I changed from a non-practitioner obsessed with fame, sentimentality and material interests, to a good person who can look within when faced with conflicts, and an even better person who can let go of personal interests in order to save sentient beings. I thank Teacher for His immense compassion.
1. Treating "Sickness Karma" With Righteous Thoughts and Passing the Tribulation Smoothly
For several days in 2007, I felt soreness and a dull pain in my lower back. But I paid no attention to it, nor did I try to figure out what was going on. One day when I was using the restroom, I found the whole toilet bowl was stained with blood. I thought it must be that a lot of bad things had been purged from my body. So I simply flushed the toilet and went on with my life. My back pain got a bit better afterwards.
A few days later, while I was meditating, I suddenly felt something as sharp as a knife thrust into my left ribs. It was so painful that I cried out. I immediately sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the bad elements interfering with my practice and harming my body. Later I passed blood one more time, but it was less severe. Soon everything returned to normal. During the whole process I wasn't obsessed with my "symptoms." I thought it was my "non-attachment" that left no loopholes for the evil to take advantage of and I had achieved the status of, "...not even acknowledging the elimination of their ordeals' manifestations." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
My realization from this tribulation is that we must follow Teacher's Fa when facing sickness karma. If we can truly let go of our attachments to illness, we will see a bright new world.
2. Believing in Teacher and the Fa--Negating the Persecution with Righteous Thoughts
Recently many practitioners have been discussing how to use supernatural abilities to eliminate evil and negate the persecution. My own understanding is that if our "xinxing" has reached the level required by the Fa, and if we can let go of our selfishness and focus on saving sentient beings, then we don't have to try very hard to intentionally use our supernormal abilities. They will come out naturally. Our supernormal abilities are just like our arms or legs. If we want to walk, our legs will naturally take steps. If we want to pick up things, our hands will naturally reach out. The same goes for supernormal abilities. We don't have to try to intentionally use them.
Therefore, in order for our righteous thoughts to be effective, we have to pay attention to our hearts. Are we sending forth righteous thoughts as cultivators or non-practitioners? If we harbor human notions in our hearts, our supernormal abilities won't come out. On the other hand, if we maintain a cultivator's state of mind, one righteous thought will bring out our supernormal abilities. The universal law of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance determines everything, and only cultivators are able to access supernormal abilities. When I realized this, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) flag and it disappeared the following day.
When I clarified the facts to strangers, I came across a person who wanted to report me to the police. I was very calm and never thought any danger would occur. The only thing on my mind was to save him. I said to him, "Have you thought about why I told you all these things?" He appeared a bit uneasy, but still insisted on calling the police. I managed to walk away with wisdom and he didn't chase me. I didn't try to intentionally use my supernormal abilities, but my righteous thoughts effectively negated the situation. Dafa can rectify everything. When I was able to maintain powerful righteous thoughts, the evil factors manipulating this person were immediately eliminated.
Before the Olympics, my company asked me to write a "guarantee letter," or else be detained. A representative of the company came to my home with a form for me to sign. I clarified the facts to him and firmly refused to sign it. My company then reported me to the supervising authority, which then asked me to meet with a certain official. I sent forth righteous thoughts all the way to that official's office. He was very polite to me. He had me sit down and offered me some tea. He asked why I refused to sign the form. I replied, "In 1999 my fellow practitioners and I went to Beijing to legally appeal for Falun Gong because we just felt it was a good practice. At that time we thought the government just didn't know the truth. Later the government made it clear they intended to suppress Falun Gong no matter what. We then decided not to go appeal any more. In the past nine years, I have been a model citizen. I care for my parents and children and I work hard. I have done nothing illegal. Now that the Olympics are about to commence, you guys are not sure about us and came-up with this form for us to sign. We have no dignity whatsoever. I don't want political power or money. All I want is dignity and human rights." I was very calm and upright. I still firmly refused to sign the form. The official kept persuading me, saying that was his job and he couldn't help me.
Then I remembered what Teacher said in "Expounding on the Fa" (Essentials for Further Advancement),
"When a tribulation arrives, if you, a disciple, can truly maintain an unshakable calm or be determined to meet different requirements at different levels, this should be sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn't the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?"
Thinking about the above passage of the Fa, I wondered why the official insisted on getting me to sign the form, given that I had been able to "maintain an unshakable calm, and to let go of selfishness to save sentient beings." Wasn't the evil capitalizing on my weak spots? I stared at the official and thought, "Master please strengthen my righteous thoughts. I will eliminate all evil elements that persecute sentient beings and Dafa disciples." Just when I had this thought, the official said, "How about we sign on your behalf?" I immediately stood up and began to walk out. He stopped me saying, "We trust you." I replied, "Since you trust me, I will work harder on my job." When I stepped out of the office, I felt very light.
The highest realm of a life is to "attain the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature," Essentials for Further Advancement) Such a life pays no attention to loss or gain, and all he does is simply follow the Fa. Believing in Teacher and the Fa not only manifests in our ability to use supernormal powers to protect ourselves, but also shows up more in how we walk with a calm mind on the path of Fa-rectification. Letting go of our human notions, personal interests, and attaining the righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism is the purpose of our cultivation. Looking back on our cultivation, aren't we having the opportunity to practice this principle over and over again?
The persecution has been going on for nine years, and practitioners have been talking about how to end it. In my opinion, we should all let go of the fear of being persecuted, and remove our attachments to selfishness. If we just clarify the facts to save sentient beings, and cultivate ourselves to attain righteous enlightenment of selflessness and altruism, the evil will disintegrate under our strong righteous thoughts and the persecution will naturally come to an end.
3. Doing Well Bringing Up Little Dafa Disciples and Showing the Wonders of Dafa
My son obtained the Fa at the same time as me. He has been practicing for over ten years. I'd like to share his cultivation experience concerning the high school entrance exam.
First, I shared my thoughts with him regarding how to view the exam. He agreed with what I said to him, "Teacher has arranged disciples' cultivation path. You will be admitted to whatever high school is arranged for you. Wherever you go, it is for you to cultivate and save sentient beings there. We're not attached to grades, but disciples are good people and you should study hard and be a good student."
Once he was clear on the Fa principles, he knew what to do. When the exam drew near, there were a lot more homework assignments. Even though he had no difficulty completing the assignments, he had to spend much more time on them. However, he never slacked off in studying the Fa. Every day he studied the Fa for one hour. Sometimes he also joined me in sending forth righteous thoughts. Overall, he maintained a calm mind.
Two weeks before the exam, my son received an offer from a top-notch high school without having to take the exam. I figured that accepting the offer would be in conformance with the Fa, since we weren't obsessed with the school and financially we could afford enroll there. I asked for his opinion and he felt the same way. But after considering other factors, my son still decided to take the exam. In China, students' exam grades can affect the evaluation from their teachers and my son had very good grades. He said something that deeply impressed me, "I am sure I can do well on the exam, because I am taking it for other people's sake."
About one week before the exam, my son's teacher called, asking me to pick him up, as he had a fever. When we returned home, we watched Teacher's lecture videos together and then analyzed why he suddenly had sickness karma. After we discovered that he had zealotry and a show-off mentality, he felt a bit better but his temperature was still high. I then helped him figure out another attachment - his dislike of the fact I had divorced his father. I said to him, "Your father and I divorced because I didn't do well in cultivation back then. You are also a disciple and should be understanding of adults' hardships and treat this with compassion. You can't be just like a non-practitioner child and be attached to an everyday person's beautiful life." As soon as I finished saying this, I heard him saying, "I've removed this attachment." He was lying in the couch. When I touched his forehead, I felt some perspiration, but he no longer had a fever. Then he got up and had some dinner. The next morning he was very energetic and his symptoms had disappeared.
After the exam, he told me he did very well. It turned out he scored number one in his whole school. He still went to the above-mentioned high school, which waived most of the tuition based on his excellent academic performance. Many parents asked me for my advice in raising and educating my son, and I told them it was Dafa's miraculous power. I advised them to recite "Falun Dafa is good" and they would be blessed.
4. Harmonizing Minghui and Raising my Level in Writing Articles
I go online almost every day to read articles posted on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. Fellow practitioners' articles have greatly inspired me to become more diligent. I then began writing articles to submit to Minghui. I feel that writing articles is also a good cultivation process. By sorting through my thoughts while writing articles, I am able to rectify my mind. Many attachments not caught early on during typing would be dug out later. After my articles were published on Minghui, I compared my original submission with the published version. I found that the Minghui editors often made the articles more concise and the Fa principles more clear. Once I included a certain detail in one article to make it flow better. When it got published, I noticed the editors had removed it. My face blushed after reading it. That little detail didn't hurt the article at all, and the editors would never have known it was made up. But it was deleted, which is evidence of the wonders of Dafa. This incident taught me about the seriousness of writing articles. From that point on, I knew that whatever I wrote must be factual.
There were times when my articles didn't get published. For those articles, I kept them for a period of time, and measured them against the Fa by asking myself why they didn't get published. On two occasions, the Fa principles I enlightened to were a bit extreme and the Minghui website chose not to publish them. I realized my mistakes and rectified myself, avoiding unnecessary losses.
Reading Minghui articles and submitting articles has now becoming an important part of my cultivation. Sometimes I think to myself how comforting it would be if my articles could serve as reminders to fellow practitioners.
Concluding Remarks:
Every time I watch the Divine Performing Arts shows, tears run down my face. The pure beautiful pictures shown on the digital backdrop, and the compassionate voices can only be found in a divine world. The memories deep inside me have all come to life, yet I can't describe my feelings in words. I only become more determined in Dafa. The picture of divine beings following Lord Buddha coming down to the human world to save sentient beings seems so remote, yet it is as if it occured yesterday. I am not sure if I am one of the divine beings, but I have no doubt that becoming a Dafa disciple is a choice I will never regret. If I had to choose again, I am still willing to exhaust all I have in exchange for the title of Dafa disciple. It is a forever an honor to be a disciple assisting Master in the Fa-recitification period.