Shared at 2003 Western U.S. Falun Dafa Conference
(Clearwisdom.net)
Our Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. International Fa Conference (July 21, 2001)," "In order to spread the Fa in China, and to not let average persons hear the Fa, many, many Kings of different paradises and beings from very high levels--many of whom I've been looking after throughout history--were gathered to reincarnate in the land of China. Of course, in terms of obtaining the Fa today, everyone is treated the same, whether they were looked after or not. So, there's even more reason for us to save the people there."
I thought that I should also go online to clarify the truth, face to face, as saving one is one saved. However, I also thought that I was old, it was too complicated to use a PC, the monitor screen glared at my eyes, I liked to read stuff on paper, I have forgotten Pinyin (Chinese phonetic spelling), and I never used keyboards before. I worried about this, about that, always thinking about myself.
Our Master has told us: "If human beings are able to take a fresh look at themselves as well as the universe and change their rigid mentalities, humankind will make a leap forward." ("Lunyu")
Why couldn't I take a fresh look at myself? Why couldn't I change the way I talk and make a leap forward? I decided to break my own limitation, and remove the barrier that has prevented me from going online.
The first time, after a fellow practitioner helped me to get online, I asked a person who called himself "the big guy" to have a private chat. We stopped after a few words. What should we talk about? I didn't want to talk. However, I didn't want to get offline either. So I asked for another person to have a private chat. This time it was still "the big guy" that got connected. So both of us laughed. I said, "predestined relationship." and he agreed. I told him that I was abroad, and then I asked him about the layoff issue and some other general stuff in mainland China, and then mentioned Falun Gong. He told me that he worked in Beijing, and didn't want to talk too much on this topic because it could affect his job. However, he also told me that he often went to the Tiananmen Square and had seen the police beating up the practitioners so badly as if they didn't care about their lives. Sensing kindness in his mind, I told him about the goodness of Falun Gong. He was not clear about the "4.25" event and the "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" event, etc., so I told him the truth in detail. He understood in the end, gave me his cell phone number and said he would like to be my friend.
I learned how to post articles on the BBS. There is a voice net containing many chat rooms, Each time I went, it was full of people, yet in each chat room only curses could be heard. I thought that they were very pitiful, and felt depressed in their hearts. So when it was my turn to speak, I said, "Hello, everybody, I hope we don't swear at others." But I was only given a minute or so to speak. So I posted truth-clarifying materials to the chat room. It took about half a minute per chat room. To cover all of them in China, it took several hours altogether. Usually I had finished posting and had already left before they had a chance to kick me out.
There is another relatively big website, and most of the chat rooms there are for people to make friends through singing. Some chat rooms usually have a couple of hundred people in them. In the beginning, I sang Dafa songs once in a while. Because I typed slowly at that time, I compiled a list of common phrases and short articles in advance and posted them while I was chatting. Common phrases like: How are you? Would you like to talk? Are you able to do two-way talking? etc.. Short articles like: "My friend, we have a predestined relationship." "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance exists forever." Or "My friend, do you feel painful and tired walking on your life journey? Please take a rest and listen to me singing a song of 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance". Living beings need friends. Living beings need "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance'," etc. People who have a predestined relationship with me usually would like to have a chat. Nevertheless, sometimes, I stared at the computer screen and didn't know what to say, and kept silent because I didn't know what to do. Sometimes, I felt frustrated with myself for not saying a word; sometimes I was worried that I hadn't finished my Dafa work. In front of the computer, among all these people coming and going, who has a predestined relationship with me? We don't have common language or common goal, what should we talk about? Where to start?
Master told us: "So in other words, clarifying the truth is extremely important, and every student must take this seriously." ("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.")
So why sit there staring blankly at the computer screen? It's more important to save lives. Once the righteous thoughts came out, "cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while transformation of gong is done by one's master." A miracle happened. Someone called my name, and would like to have a two-way voice chat. After exchanging some greetings, I found out that we are from the same city. The more we talked, the more we felt close. He asked me to guess his age. I said it was about 30. He then said: "Am I that old?" I answered: "I only wish you are mature enough." He then told me that he was 24 years old, was married before, and now divorced. He said: "You are so kind. Can we meet since we are in the same city?" I told him that I was abroad and had not gone back home for several years. He then said:"Please come back to have a look. Our hometown has changed a lot." I told him that China's dictator Jiang made me not able to since I practice Falun Gong. He then asked me how I got involved and whether I was afraid. I told him that I was not afraid, that my health was not good before, (I had anemia), but after I practiced Falun Gong, it was gone, and now I am light-hearted. "Is it real?" he asked. "Yes. It's real." I replied. He then asked me about a woman in another city who was said to practice Falun Gong but killed her own daughter in order to go to heaven. I told him that it was a lie. A person who truly practices Falun Gong would never do such kind of thing. I then told him the truth about "4.25" appeal and "Tiananmen Self-immolation" staged tragedy. He understood and said: "I know the truth about Jiang now. Well, never mind. I will make a wooden airplane to bring you home. Of course, just kidding." He wanted to be my good friend and left me his address, phone number and QQ number.
After several hours, I had clarified the truth to three people, and it was quite smooth, which encouraged me a lot. Once I talked with a person who owns an Internet cafe. He knew that I was abroad. As he was cursing at Jiang and the communist Party, I mentioned to him that Jiang has sold China's territories to Russia, so on and so forth. We had a good talk. His wife was by his side scolding him. He said: "The person I am chatting with now is a very good one, not those you have known before. If you don't believe me, go and talk to her yourself." So I talked with his wife for a while. His wife said: "How nice to talk to you. I was not swearing at you. I was swearing at those women who usually flirt with my husband." I then gave them some advice, saying that they should respect each other and strive for a good life together. He then asked me why I am that kind, why I can understand and think about others. I then told him that it was because of Falun Gong that my whole life attitude has changed. "Is Falun Gong really that good? We want to learn it too." He asked. At the time to leave, he kept saying that he would like to talk to me again.
One day I was online chatting with someone through typing. When telling each other where we work, I learned that he was a police officer. I then sent forth righteous thoughts while typing, and in the meantime, I looked for topics: "Are there many prisoners at your place? Do you usually go out to arrest people? Do you beat up people?" I asked. He said that he stayed in an office and didn't do those things. I said that the reason we met is because of our predestined relationship. I then asked him if he believes in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." He said: "Yes. I agree with it." I asked him to treat those good people well and do more good deeds. For a while, there was no reply. I then wrote: "Am I making it hard for you?" He replied: "What you said, I can understand."
During the process of interacting with these ordinary people online, I found out that I had too many human attachments. Sometimes some words of a song would pop up in my mind, sometimes some ordinary people's words would come out. The worse thing was that I couldn't reach the state of tranquility during meditation: contents of my talk with others, whether I said something right or wrong, how should I say it next time, so on and so forth kept coming up. Some weird thoughts often came out from nowhere, drifting in my mind.
"In other words, the fundamental reason for one's being unable to achieve tranquility is not an issue of techniques, but that your mind and heart are not clean." "In genuine cultivation practice one must cultivate the heart: Only when you upgrade your xinxing can you attain a clear and clean mind, and a state free of intention (wuwei)." (Zhuan Falun)
It was because my mind was not clean. I had pursuits. Too many things I intended to do. I then calmed down to study the Fa seriously.
In the chat room, I would not jump into the topic of Falun Gong at once; instead under my influence, the effect was also good. A music teacher from an oil field once told me that he was usually depressed, always felt suffering inside, and would numb himself by drinking. I told him that I used to feel like that before, often shed tears, always felt blue and suffering in my heart. But now I don't anymore. He asked: "Really? How did you overcome it?" I told him it is because I practice Falun Gong. He asked: "Is it really that miraculous? I don't want to practice." I said to him: "I would not pressure you to practice. I hope we can meet often and talk a little each time." The day before the New Year's Day, we met in the chat room. After saying hello to each other, he asked: "You came in late. Did you go to practice Falun Gong?" He then said: "I don't know why. I wanted to practice Falun Gong when I got up this morning."
I often posted "Falun Dafa is Good" on the screen during voice or typing chatting. Some wondered what it meant and went to ask others. Without knowing it, they came to learn the Buddha law as well. Some had read Zhuan Falun before, but were deceived by the lies in China and became puzzled. After I clarified the truth to them, they understood.
I've learned how to send e-mails. I sent out Falun Dafa books and often wrote letters to some people. This was also a chance for me to improve my typing skills. Sometimes when I couldn't talk clearly in the chat room, I turned to phone talk. A person from a provincial communist party school is good at singing, I often presented flowers to him (over the Internet). When he thanked me, we had a talk and became good friends. Once after we talked for a while and when he learned that I practice Falun Gong, he said that he had something to do and would not be able to talk to me anymore. I called and asked him:"Are you afraid?" He said: "No. You are you. I am I." He also told me where he worked and asked me to come to visit him when I go back home.
Before New Year's Day, some good friends of mine sent me e-cards and links to websites. This has given me a hint; I sent two websites of our Falun Dafa to each one of them, as a New Year's gift. After New Year's Day, when we greeted each other, I asked them if they had received my gift. They said that they had seen it, and it was about Falun Dafa.
Of course I have run into many difficulties. "When it's impossible to do, you can do it." (Zhuan Falun). We have Master, we have Fa, and we do things with righteous thoughts. In the beginning, I couldn't clearly hit the right buttons, often hit the wrong one on the mouse, causing pictures to disappear suddenly, or got offline right away thus I had to restart everything. I typed slow, often hit the wrong keys, and spelled inaccurately. I needed to look up words in the dictionary, recite, memorize and practice, and often it took me more than 10 hours online, which left me little time for the Fa-study. Master has given me a hint: In a dream, others were studying the Fa attentively. Thus, after falling down and getting up, stumbling over my footsteps, today I can talk to several persons on-line simultaneously, and sometimes with two-way talking. One day a person said: "You are so good that you can talk to 5 persons at the same time."
Through clarifying the truth online, I've realized that, as Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, we must achieve Fa-rectification cultivation and rectifying the Fa in our cultivation practice, improve and elevate ourselves in the Fa-rectification process. Only then can we understand Fa from the Fa. The little computer monitor is like a grotesque and distorted human world, showing miniature plays by various kinds of people, and is the central place to display the moral corruption of human beings. It is a big dye vat, but also a good place for us to clarify the truth and save sentient beings.
I order to clarify the truth, we need to keep strong righteous thoughts, regard Fa as our teacher, and cultivate our hearts firmly step by step. "Compare with Fa anytime, and when you can really do it, it's called cultivation." (Hongyin) First of all, we must calm down and study the Fa attentively, and keep strong righteous thoughts.
I have experienced merciful hints from our Master. Buddha's grace is infinite, the Buddha law is boundless. Only through doing these things have I realized my shortcomings. I have too many human attachments. In the process of clarifying the truth and doing Dafa work, we must always look inside ourselves when encountering problems, and regard every trial and every tribulation as a good opportunity for cultivation. Keep righteous thoughts and righteous actions. Like screen refresh, use the Buddha law to constantly wash away in our mind and thoughts each single gesture, each single word and each single action of ours arranged by the old forces, truly step forward out of ordinary humanness and become Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period in an upright and noble manner.
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