By a Dafa practitioner from the Northeast of China

(Clearwisdom.net) Ever since I started practicing Falun Dafa (in 1996) I've been healthy, happy, and joyful as a result of a purified heart. Before that, it was like I was unconsciously sliding down into an abyss, and I had pain in my heart and body. When I look back at my experiences through the context of the present society, I shudder over how dangerous my previous situation was. I became worried for people who are experiencing similar situations, and hoped they would gain happiness from Dafa as I did.

I used every opportunity to promote Dafa and clarify the truth to sentient beings. At the same time, I contacted many other practitioners, to meet and share our experiences of cultivation, assist each other, and improve together. Dafa practitioners are one body, and improvement of an individual can improve the whole. The environment of the whole is able to stimulate everyone's advancement in the Fa. It can eradicate the efforts of evil beings in other dimensions who manipulate wicked people to damage Dafa, which will consequently allow more people the freedom to awaken and be saved. I write this now to report on my experiences in several areas to Teacher and fellow practitioners.

Teacher said in many lectures that studying the Fa in a group and participating at Fa conferences is important. He pointed out that this was an environment that practitioners shouldn't part with. During my cultivation I have deeply felt that this is so. Before the persecution started in 1999, I felt I improved quickly when I studied the Fa and did the exercises in a group every day. The change in my body was good. However, since the evil has tried to destroy Falun Gong, I feel I have lost this good group environment. Since then, I sometimes have easily slacked off. In the past I have seen that some practitioners quickly recovered from severe illnesses after practicing the exercises in a group. But now under the high pressure of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they can't continue to study the Fa or do the exercises, not to mention strive forward diligently. Illnesses have come back. Some practitioners have lost their lives under the torture of illnesses arranged by the evil.

Living in Mainland China during the persecution, I clearly felt a strong interference when I studied the Fa. It often took me more than two hours to finish one lecture. When I did the exercises, I could seldom reach the state of tranquility. I realized it was because of a lack of group study. Therefore, I decided to create a group study environment. If it was only me studying at home, I would read the Fa to my family when possible. Sometimes I contacted other practitioners to study the Fa together. In doing so, I clearly felt that I was able to concentrate during Fa study.

However, things didn't always go smoothly. When I read the Fa to my wife at home, sometimes interference came. She might suddenly become angry and say, "Don't read it to me. I won't listen to it anyway." She even said worse things. When that happened, I felt very bad in my heart. I thought that if someone were to read the book to me while I was doing chores, I would have been very happy. But I quickly realized that this matter was aimed at my human heart. On the one hand, I readjusted my thinking. On the other hand, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements in other dimensions that influenced her. I didn't miss any opportunity to read the Fa to her.

I had similar experiences with some practitioners. This summer, I heard that a practitioner whom I used to know very well was not diligent. I overcame many obstacles to study the Fa with her. The authorities had illegally arrested her husband for practicing Dafa and she and her son were left at home. Because she was not diligent, her neighbors often asked her to play Mahjong with them. Her son couldn't keep up with his Fa-study either. Therefore, I went to her place often to find out about her husband's situation and to encourage her and her son to study the Fa. Only then did she give up Mahjong. Sometimes, she was attached to fear. When I called on her, she didn't allow me to come inside. Instead, she would come out and speak with me for a while. Sometimes, she reluctantly let me in the room. I then studied the Fa with both her and her son. This was in the middle of a hot summer. To set a good example, I always kept my back straight and sat with both legs crossed in the lotus position the entire time there. Sweat ran down my body, but I kept in mind that I was doing this to help them. After those days, while studying the Fa in any environment, I basically kept the good posture with my back straight and both my legs crossed. I remember when I went to her place to study the Fa with her back then, it was with great difficulty, as if I was bringing her a great inconvenience and asking something from her. Of course, I had this feeling because I still had human notions. When I realized I had these human thoughts, I got rid of them. Later, her son stopped participating in Fa-study because he was busy with schoolwork. Then she stopped our Fa-study with the excuse of fear that her neighbors would say this or that about my being there. I am now trying to find another female practitioner who lives nearby to go to her home and study with her. Every two weeks I contact her and ask about her Fa-study and if there is anything she needs help with.

There was another incident which touched me deeply. One fellow practitioner was a supervisor at work. He had been very busy with work, and it was often late when he got off work. There was no time left to study the Fa, send forth righteous thoughts, or clarify the truth. I was very anxious for him. I called him often to make an appointment to study the Fa together. I also went to his home to encourage him to study the Fa with his family (several of his family members were practitioners.) At first, he politely refused, " I am with my supervisor!" "I am with my friends!" "I am tied up." On many of these occasions my human notions told me that I could not contact him ever again. My heart complained: what did he have to do that was more important than an appointment to study the Fa?

Later, I realized that that was a human thought that I should discard. I said to myself: I will improve myself continuously and also encourage him to do the three things well. When I felt things become difficult, I would ask a practitioner whom he trusted to go to his place. Moreover, I shared my concern with other practitioners whom he knew well. All of us agreed that we should help him and contact him often.

Through the efforts of all of us, he clearly made an improvement in his cultivation. He started to welcome practitioners to his place to share experiences. One day, we agreed to meet at his home in the evening for Fa study. However, in the afternoon, I vomited twice and felt terrible. I really wanted to take a nap at home and think about the rest of the day later. But when I remembered that I still had to help fellow practitioners with Fa-study, I knew that I must go no matter how terrible I felt. I couldn't fail to keep the appointment. I sent forth righteous thoughts and gathered my energy. When I got to his place to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts, as usual I kept my back straight and my legs crossed. A while later, the symptoms of illness disappeared. I felt the energy in my body flow quickly. It was a wonderful feeling.

Suddenly, I realized something. Teacher said,

"In these situations your conduct should always show Dafa disciples' tolerance, kindness, and niceness. The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things." (Teaching the Fa at the Washington D.C. Fa conference.")

I gained a new understanding of these words. I came there to help fellow practitioners, but I ended up being the one benefited first. Fellow practitioners' families will certainly benefit from it as well. Once, I arranged for other practitioners to go to his home to study the Fa and share experiences. When I recited Teacher's Fa, he became very excited and called for the rest of his family to listen to the Fa and learn from it. After this incident, he told me that when I recited the Fa his Celestial Eye saw that numerous Buddhas, Daos, and Gods came there to listen to the Fa. They were behind every dimension, layers upon layers. Practitioners all understood that Teacher let him see this scene to encourage all of us to strive forward diligently.

I sometimes met with different practitioners in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. We exchanged information and shared experiences. Regardless of how many people were present, we always recited, read, and studied Teacher's lectures and writings. I positioned Fa study as my priority. We must study the Fa as a group, and send forth righteous thoughts together. Half of the time was spent on that, and the other half was spent on experience sharing. We all felt that the result was very good.

I often wrote down information about truth-clarification efforts in our area in a timely manner. I sent the reports to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website so that we could improve as a larger group. In October 2000, after overcoming layers of obstacles, we arranged for over 30 practitioners to take a trip to Tiananmen Square. We displayed a banner to validate Dafa. After being arrested, half of us were able to leave detention within two weeks. I returned on the same day and immediately wrote two detailed reports for the Minghui/Clearwisdom website. After Minghui posted the article, the World Falun Dafa Radio Station broadcast it as well. Many practitioners heard the news and went to Tiananmen Square.

During my cultivation, I once tripped and fell when validating the Fa. I wrote the lesson down on paper to offer it as a reference for other practitioners, so that they could do better and take a less tortuous path. Whenever I realized something, I wrote it down. Some of my writings were not posted on the website, but I wasn't discouraged. I thought that those articles were conclusions to my experiences in validating the Fa. The process of writing an article was also a process I could take to look at myself and measure myself against the Fa. When I wrote, I could expose something that needed to be corrected within the context of the Fa. Writing is a process of improving my understanding of the Fa.

When a sudden event occurred, such as local practitioners being arrested, I quickly got the details and sent the information to the Minghui website. I saw this as an important responsibility. If I couldn't get the details immediately, it was all right. (However, the information must be accurate. If there were anything I was unsure about, I wouldn't include it. Rather, I would verify the information before using it.) When fellow practitioners saw the article, they would help to send forth righteous thoughts to rescue and empower those practitioners in detention. Then I would continue my investigation. When new information surfaced, I wrote it down and sent it to Minghui. As a result of the articles I sent in, at least four practitioners who were illegally arrested gained freedom in about ten days. This strengthened my determination to expose the evil's persecution. Sometimes I encouraged other practitioners to write information or experience sharing articles. I also promptly reported news about myself or other practitioners who endured torture. All of this effectively exposed the evil.

When the evil manipulates wicked people to aggressively persecute Dafa, they will use all kinds of degrading methods. The evil often adopts the method of "partition," in order to separate practitioner and to destroy practitioners' cohesion. Sometimes a vicious person orders a spy to get close to a practitioner. There was once when I almost fell into the trap. One practitioner I knew was deceived, which caused other practitioners' arrests. Because of the existence of the spy, many practitioners didn't dare to contact other practitioners much. While we did this to keep ourselves relatively safe, it was a loophole that the evil could take an advantage of. The evil used the attachment to fear to cause separation and estrangement among practitioners.

In 2004 a mother and her daughter met practitioner A; then all three were arrested. When the authorities released the mother and daughter, practitioner A went on a hunger strike and broke free of the detention with righteous thoughts within a week. However, rumor quickly spread, saying that practitioner A was a spy. This news was also published on the Minghui website. Therefore, more and more people started to suspect practitioner A to be a spy. After all, practitioner A had been arrested numerous times and had broken free under hunger strike many times. However, a lot of practitioners knew her well and trusted her. Practitioners partitioned themselves into two groups based on whether they thought practitioner A was a spy or not. Even those who tried to clarify the truth about practitioner A were suspected. I realized that the evil in other dimensions had taken advantage of practitioners' fear and created a false manifestation. Their goals were to divide local practitioners, deter us from forming a cohesive group, and prevent local practitioner from sharing experiences and validating Dafa with practitioners in other regions. So I shared my thoughts with many practitioners to try to eliminate the misunderstanding. But because my xinxing hadn't reach a certain level, the result was not what I expected. One year passed and the suspicion still existed. The rumor of the spy was even circulated in prison by practitioners who were detained.

When I realized the seriousness of the circumstances, I once again contacted practitioners whose suspicions were most strong. I sincerely told them of the information I had gathered, guided them to look inward and to inspect themselves in accordance with Teacher's Fa. I also came up with a way for both parties to get in touch with each other in order to get to know each other and eliminate any misunderstandings. More and more practitioners realized the truth of this matter. The partition among us was disappearing.

In fact, local practitioners functioned as a whole body on many occasions. Our hearts were in the same place and our energies were gathered in the same spot. It dealt a great blow to the evil, and it saved sentient beings. When each of us did our own work separately, while it became more of a voluntary act, what we lacked was cohesion. I believe that with Teacher's empowerment and fellow practitioners' efforts, local practitioners can definitely form an indestructible and harmonious whole. We can adopt various flexible ways (whether gathering as a whole or working separately as individuals) of eliminating all the evil elements and awakening and saving more sentient beings.

During these long years of cultivation, Teacher's compassion has touched me deeply. Regardless of whether I trip and fall or strive forward diligently, Teacher enlightens me with the Fa, gives me hints, strengthens me, helps me to improve, and pushes me forward. I believe that all practitioners can certainly improve and advance in cultivation. Therefore, whenever I got up from a fall, I would help other practitioners up who had also fallen and were having difficulty getting up. When I set my goal and strived forward, I would also remind those practitioners who still hesitated, were lost, or who had slacked off. I felt that this was my mission. This was Teacher's guidance reflected in me.

Above are my experiences in cultivation and Fa-validation. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.

Posting date: 11/27/2005
Original article date: 11/27/2005
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 11/14/2005
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/11/5/113810.html