A Chinese American High School Student's Cultivation Experience

Hao Wang

(Massachusetts, USA)

Greetings Master! Greetings everyone! My name is Hao Wang and I have been cultivating in Dafa for three years now. I am 16 years old and am currently a high school student. Here I would like to share with everyone my recent cultivation experience.

Since the beginning of Chinese government's persecution in July 1999, I participated in almost every large-scaled truth-clarification activity. I helped to raise awareness about the persecution because I knew it was important. But I felt that my involvement was passive and anticipating. I followed the lead of other practitioners for an entire year without really comprehending what is "Fa-Rectification." At the same time, I only had the hope that everything will be fine but did not feel that my involvement could really help bringing the persecution in China to an end.

I attended the Experience Sharing Conference in New York during the U.N. Summit last year September, and it has an electrifying impact on my cultivation. During this conference and the activities that followed, I fully experienced the extraordinary part of the Fa-Rectification. I also gave up a large part of my attachment to fear. Returning from the New York trip, I realized that passively participating was not enough.

1. Hongfa and Clarification of Truth in School

Master has said in "Validation," "Then, as a cultivator, you should make use of all feasible conditions to spread Dafa and validate Dafa as a correct and true science, rather than preaching or idealism--this is every cultivator's obligation." Master also told us in "Environment," "The environment is created by you, yourselves, and it, too, is essential for your improvement." As a boarding student, I decided the best way to promote Dafa and clarify the truth is to practice outside on campus.

For a start, I decided to practice outside on the front lawn of my dormitory. My dormitory is just off a major interstate highway; a lot of cars, buses and people pass by my dormitory during rush hours. Evidently, this is a very good spot to promote Dafa to people. As I put my arms up in the posture of Embracing the Wheel Over the Head however, I still felt a trembling of fear inside my heart. I found that I had not yet let go of my attachment to what other people thought of me. Stories about practitioners in China would then come to my mind and give me courage. They have to risk their job, family and even life to defend their right to practice. The hardship they face, compared to what I'm going through, was much graver and more intimidating.

Gradually and painfully at times, I was able to let go of my attachment to fear. Soon I made up my mind to practice out on the great lawn, which is in the heart of the school campus.

At first many people were perhaps perplexed by my appearance on the great lawn. But still they could not help being curious of the exercises that I was doing. Each day I scheduled two hours of practice. I made an effort to practice every day while on campus. In addition to a sign with "FALUN GONG" in big letters, I brought with me flyers and newsletters that introduce the practice and spread the awareness about the persecution.

Many students dropped by to ask questions or give friendly encouragements. A student from Amnesty International talked to me and expressed her concern about the persecution. While having a class outside on the grass, a Japanese teacher asked one of her students to get a Falun Dafa newsletter from my practice spot and bring it back to the class. Thus the entire Japanese class has come to know about Falun Gong. As time went on, I had more and more encouragements from students and teachers. Instead of being afraid, I have learned to hold compassion in my heart when doing the exercises.

Invited by a history teacher, I gave a successful short presentation to her Chinese history class that touched upon my family's personal experience, the spreading of Falun Dafa in China and around the world, and Chinese government's brutal persecution. The students and the teacher were all very interested and asked me questions after the presentation.

In addition, I talked to my school's librarians and explained to them how the Chinese government was brutally persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. They were moved and became very empathetic to Falun Gong issues. My family donated both Zhuan Falun and China Falun Gong to the library, as well as Falun Dafa periodicals and newsletters. With more in-depth clarification of truth, the librarians became willing to order such periodicals and allowed me to put up a small photo exhibit on a table near the entrance of the library. The result of the photo display was very good. Many students signed on to the petition that I have included in the display.

Around that time a picture of me doing the exercises appeared as the Picture of the Week on the school newspaper. Soon afterwards the newspaper editor interviewed me and wrote an article about Falun Gong and the persecution. In addition to this, I've written four articles for the school newspaper, discussing in depth both the positive influence of Falun Gong and the brutal persecution in China. The feedback from students, parents, and teachers have been very positive.

Besides the usual ways of promoting Dafa and clarifying the truth, I have been constantly trying to create new opportunities. If something was beneficial to Dafa, I would not hesitate to try it out. When I read about the April U.N. Human Rights Commission Meeting on the internet, I immediately thought that this important event created a wonderful opportunity to clarify the truth. So what could I do? I decided to have a signature petition campaign in my school to stop the persecution in China. Using this petition I could clarify the truth to many people including my fellow students, teachers, and even parents. Since the petition itself was not the purpose, I usually talked to people first about the persecution before asking them to sign on. Over 500 students and teachers in my school have signed the petition, and many have signed the online petition. Of these 500, I have almost talked with each one of them at some length about the persecution instead of simply asking them to sign. I mailed copies of these signatures with a letter that I have written separately to President Bush, Secretary of State Powell and Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson. I urged all of them to speak out against the torture and the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Having experienced what it was like to hongfa on campus, I discovered that creating a positive environment in school is not hard at all. I just have to let go of my attachment to fear among other human notions. Maintaining a heart free of pursuit, I should not hesitate to try and to explore various possibilities of hongfa and clarification of truth. I believe that if I truly put my heart into the work and judge things from the perspective of the Fa, the results will be extraordinarily wonderful.

SOS Walk From Boston to D.C.

I am one of the walkers from Boston to D.C. When I first heard about this walk, I thought right away that it was a great project. This walk provided a bridge between ordinary people and us. Ordinary people could understand the urgency of the SOS appeal through this seemingly long and arduous journey. They could see the sufferings of practitioners in China through the difficulties that we endured. Therefore, I did not hesitate much when deciding whether not to go on this walk.

Even from the very beginning of this walk I experienced the power of righteous thoughts. Doubts of whether I could make it to the end of this journey never for once disturbed my heart. I had a strong righteous thought even at the start that I could definitely reach the end. Master talked in San Francisco Lectures about how the gong of a Buddha could create something from its most microscopic particle to its surface particles out of nothing at a single thought. Therefore, my understanding was that my righteous thought of being able to walk to D.C. has already reached D.C. Master also talked about how mind and matter are of one thing. So that righteous thoughts, carrying my gong along with it, have already materialized this walk using my gong in another dimension. Yet my physically body still has to complete this walk that has already been realized by my gong in another dimension. It is like as if I was acting out a play that was already written and rehearsed. As a result, I felt that the entire walk was not at all arduous. I did not feel tired even after completing this walk to D.C. I realize that this is because of the righteous thought I had at the beginning of the walk.

When many of us felt tired or entertained serious doubts about the walk during this journey, I sometimes tried to encourage them by sharing one of my understandings of this walk. Master talked about different dimensions and time-spaces in Zhuan Falun. He mentioned about how the time concept differ from dimension to dimension. My understanding was that in a fast dimension we were already in D.C. We have walked thus far in the present dimension, and we have not yet started in a slow dimension. Therefore, since the completion of this walk was already a reality in another dimension, there was no need to worry if you could make it or not. I think this understanding made some people more confident that they could indeed reach D.C. by foot.

Especially at the beginning of this walk, I felt tired and weak sometimes. Whenever this happened, I would use righteous thoughts to sustain myself. When our group was making slow process, I would use righteous thoughts to strengthen the entire group. Once in a while I felt necessary to ask Master for help or to ask Master to strengthen my righteous thoughts. However, I realized later that I could not always ask Master for help. Master has unlocked our supernormal capabilities and taught us how to use them. Master has also instructed us to use righteous thoughts and told us how to them. Master has already done too many things for us. Now it is time to put our own righteous thoughts to use. We have to play our role in the Fa-rectification with righteous thoughts. This is also building our own mighty virtues.

On some days we felt that we have walked a really long distance, but it was only 15 or 16 miles. On some other days we felt that we have not walked far at all, but the mileage turned out to be a surprising 22 or 23 miles. Why is this? My understanding is that because we were not really walking physically but using righteous thoughts, how much heart and how much righteous thought we put into the walk became crucial. Of course, there was also a factor of using supernormal capabilities. When the heavenly circulation is used to speed up the walk, sometimes we walked really fast without realizing it.

The usual pace for long-distance walking is 2 miles to 2.5 miles an hour. One day, to keep up the schedule with a press conference, we walked 8 or 9 miles in two hours. In other words, we walked at least 4 miles per hour, twice as fast as the normal pace. When I looked to the front of the line, elderly practitioners in their 60's were not walking fast at all. However, young people like me at the end of the line could barely keep up with the pace. I had to run a bit from time to time in order to catch up. Afterwards I asked the people in front how they felt about the pace. Some of them told me that they felt it was somewhat fast, but not by a long stretch as fast as we have walked. A lot of us concluded that we used supernormal capabilities while walking.

Some of our walkers had the understanding that doing this walk was going through the heavenly circulation. My understanding is that we were coming together as one body on this walk like all the energy channels in the body merging into one. We have to move up and upgrade ourselves as a whole and think about things from the perspective of the whole. Only then could we become true particles of Dafa.

At the end, please allow me to share with everyone Master's poem "Climbing Tai Mountain."

Climbing high stairs, a path of thousands of feet,

Winding and steep, difficult to make another step;

Looking back, as if to watch the cultivation of the righteous Fa,

One can hardly obtain salvation if stopping in mid-air.

With a determined heart, lift the feet with legs weighing thousands of pounds,

Forbearing hardships, striving forward, and discarding attachments;

Dafa disciples, thousands and millions,

Completing Gong and achieving Consummation at high places.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/8/1/14145.html

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