"Cultivation Depends on One's Own Efforts, While the Transformation of Gong is Done by One's Master"

By Xiao Ming

August 2, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net) I once thought to write down my experience of doing Dafa work from last year while I was forced to be homeless to avoid further persecution, and to share it with fellow practitioners. However, compared with the touching experiences of those who broke through brainwashing classes and detention centers with mighty righteous thoughts, mine is so trivial to be written down. Recently I suddenly realized, didn't the success of my Dafa work and turning danger into safety several times exactly manifest the careful protection from Master to disciples? Why not write it down and share it with fellow Dafa practitioners?

1. Appeal in Beijing for Fa rectification with righteous thoughts; Master helped me get out of prison

   In the end of March 2001, we eight Dafa practitioners were arrested after unfurling Dafa banners in Beijing. Later, someone could not endure [the torture] and was forced to reveal our addresses and names, and we were then taken to the local government's liaison office in Beijing to be picked up by the police department. It would take two days for the local police officers to arrive. I thought I must get out. It was not because of the fear of suffering but because there were so many fellow practitioners longing for Master's articles, there were so many sentient beings waiting to be saved. When I shared this thought with fellow practitioners, some remained silent, some had doubts, some said it would implicate others, some said that Master would help you if you were destined to go, none of them seemed to have the intention to go along with me. There were two chances in the evening but the circumstances were not so great. I thought I should leave it as it was. So I slept.

   I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and saw the door was open. The two guards were asleep, and all my fellow practitioners were also asleep. I thought, let the guards go into a deep sleep and don't wake up. (At that time, I didn't know about sending forth righteous thoughts yet). I secretly wandered around the building. At last, I found a small window and got out. I had memorized the route when I arrived. So I gracefully went out of the front door along the same route that I came in.

   Just several steps away from the front door a taxi drove up, then I smoothly arrived at the train station and left Beijing. I think the reason I could come out so successfully is that Master saw my selfless and intrepid heart. From then on, I was forced to lead a homeless life and I devoted myself entirely for Dafa work.

2. When to come and go were all arranged by Master

   In the end of October 2001, I went to a fellow practitioner's home in C city to send some materials. He was about to go out and left me alone in his home. I was prepared to leave the next day. In the evening, I burned nine sticks of incense in front of Master's portrait. The next morning, I found that one incense had only burned a little bit. I knew that this was not an accident. However, I didn't understand what it meant. So I burned another nine sticks of incense. The result was the same and the one that remained was facing exactly towards the direction of my departure. I suddenly understood, that it seemed I should stay for some other work. As a result, when the practitioner returned home, he brought along some fellow practitioners. I helped them find any gap of understanding the Fa and corrected some of their wrong thoughts. Several days later when I wished to go, I happened to hitchhike in a relative's car of this fellow practitioner and clarified the truth along the way. Things like this were countless. If everything was from the Fa's perspective, it would be under Master's arrangement at all times.

3. An unexpected incident happened; ingeniously dodging the search

   On April 8, 2002, I took the bus to C city to deliver Master's lecture Touring North America to Teach the Fa to fellow practitioners there.

   I went to sleep when the bus almost reached C city. In the state of being half awake, I heard someone say, "Now they are searching for Falun Gong practitioners." I woke up right away. However, I could not figure out whether this was said by a person on the bus or someone from my dream. At that time, the bus stopped and someone got off. We were still 100 meters away from the station and the way to the fellow practitioner's home would pass that station. I didn't pay much attention to that sentence that I heard when because my mind was not that clear, so I thought I would get off when the bus reached the station. Then the bus driver said, "The clutch went bad. Everyone must get off." I had to get off. When I passed the station, I saw a police car parked on the road. Two policemen seemed to be waiting for something. If I were on the bus, it would have been big trouble. So I ingeniously dodged this unexpected incident under the protection of Master.

4. Good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought

There are many more experiences like the one above that I got out of danger under the protection of Master. Nevertheless, there were some moments that my mind was not pure. For example on May 10, 2002, two fellow practitioners and I brought some printers and staff from Y city to another city to establish sites [to make truth-clarifying materials]. We took four boxes onto the train. The first time the conductor came over, I didn't think anything and he didn't ask anything. The second time he came over, I thought what I should say in case he asked. As this thought occurred, he did ask and let us open the box. In the mean time, the security officers on the train also came over. I unhurriedly opened a box while the other two practitioners send forth righteous thoughts. Then the officers left without any suspicion. Just like what Master said, "good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought." (Zhuan Falun)

Later I looked into myself, as those days I was busy with establishing the sites, I didn't study the Fa calmly. In addition with my own imagination, some impure thoughts popped up, it almost brought a loss to Dafa.

During the period of being forced to be homeless for more than one year, I experienced various work ranging from delivering hand-copied articles from our Teacher to communicating among material sites and then establishing the sites, from never touching a computer to handling the printers, editing and logging onto the internet. As long as I devoted myself wholeheartedly to Dafa, everything was under Master's arrangement, all the wisdom was offered and created by Dafa. Of course, we have to learn from our lessons. Master said, "Past lessons should have made you more mature." ("Towards Consummation" in Essentials for Further Advancement II) More importantly, we must remember all the time "no matter how busy you are with your work, you can't stray from your Fa-study," and "It has to be Dafa disciples who do Dafa work." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" in Guiding the Voyage)

Several months ago, the thought popped up in my mind that so many fellow practitioners had broken through the big tribulations and they were so great, while I was only detained half a month and was only beaten once in Beijing. The pain I had endured was so little. Maybe it would be arranged for me to go into the detention center to make up this experience before the Fa rectifies the human world. Immediately, I realized that this was the arrangement of the evil. They wanted to stop my Dafa work to endure their persecution. What I was doing was the most righteous and dignified things in the cosmos, they are not qualified to test me. Fa-rectification cultivation is just to thoroughly deny all the arrangements of the evil forces.

If we could be truly in the realm of "no attachments at all," ("Realms" in Essentials for Further Advancement) "Do but pursue not," ("In the Dao" in Hong Yin) [then we must follow] "Get rid of any attachment you have, and don't think about anything. Just do everything a Dafa disciple should do, and everything will be covered." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference" in Guiding the Voyage) and "As long as something is good for Dafa, you should take the initiative to do it, take the initiative to work on it." ("To All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference" in Essentials For Further Advancement II)

Enduring sufferings is not the whole of cultivation, the key is to temper one's mind and soul. "To truly practice cultivation, you must cultivate your mind. This is called xinxing cultivation." "Dafa is boundless, and it is completely up to your heart to practice cultivation." (Zhuan Falun) As long as every single thought and your mind, every word and deed stem from the Fa, they are the purest and most secure ones. As long as all the things in your heart are the Fa, everything is under the arrangement of Master, under the protection of Master and you will truly feel that "cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Zhuan Falun) and truly feel the responsibilities that Master takes for disciples.

In addition, we must first keep up our personal understanding of the Fa with the pace of the Fa-rectification progress. When seeing the problems or shortcomings of fellow practitioners, we must point out and help them out with our purest heart and a responsible attitude toward Dafa, thus, we can make progress as a whole entity. This is the indispensable aspect of current Dafa work and also a main facet of assisting Master in his journey in the human world. I think it is far from enough that we only have a firm heart toward Dafa, the most important thing is whether we can satisfy the different requirements at different levels, and be "diligent without letting up." ("A Righteous God") If we follow closely with the progress of the Fa-rectification, make ourselves more rational, more mature and purer, Master will protect us disciples from getting into trouble, so the evil won't dare to touch us.

All the above experiences, feelings and understandings could be summarized into one sentence: Don't think what I do for Dafa but think what Dafa needs me to do.

To be able to assist Master in his journey in the human world during this cosmos' Fa-rectification period is the true meaning of my life. I am so proud of it. It is beyond words to describe the appreciation that disciples have for the immense benevolence from Master. Let's cherish Master's tremendous kindness, be more diligent than ever and not fail in our missions. This is the best way to show our appreciation of Master's benevolence!

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version