A Practitioner Recalls Teacher's Graciousness

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) Back when Teacher was spreading Dafa in Mainland China and enduring countless hardships while traveling everywhere, Dafa's amazing beauty was like a magnet that drew tens of thousands of people with predestined relationships, coming from all directions to listen to Teacher teaching the Fa and the exercises in person. Each place Teacher went, besides the local practitioners, there were also a large group of "seminar followers," practitioners that followed Teacher everywhere. When the seminar ended, practitioners did not want to leave Teacher. They all wanted to stay next to Teacher for one more moment. How precious were those moments!

I was fortunate to be one of the "seminar following" caravan-like group of practitioners.

I remember that at Guangzhou and Jinan, after getting off the train a fleet of cars with Falun Gong signs on them was waiting to pick us up. Teacher had made all these arrangements. At the square outside of Guangzhou Stadium, during Teacher's seminars, there were scores of big and small passenger vehicles with Falun Gong signs on them. They picked up practitioners and sent them off. On the way they looked so grand and imposing that pedestrians stopped to look, "Ah! Falun Gong has so many people!"

On the first day of the Yanji seminars, the room that could hold several thousand was completely full, but beside me there were a few empty seats. Teacher started lecturing but still no one came to take the seats. Just then, a travel-worn middle-aged man came in with two boys, one about eight or nine years old, the other eleven or twelve. They came and sat down in the empty seats near me and said that they had just gotten off the train. I whispered, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I came from Gansu." I gasped in surprise: so far away! Then I heard Teacher say (paraphrased), "This Fa is being spread quite widely; many have come from very far away."

Teacher knows everything! Now the two little boys gently crossed their legs and straightened their backs, listening to Teacher lecture with their full attention. I thought, "Only Teacher, only this great and sacred Fa of the cosmos, can attract this many predestined people to come from thousands of thousands of miles away to listen to the Fa." Afterwards I heard that there was even a group of people who came from the Xinjiang area to listen to the Fa in Guangzhou. On the way they had to overcome many difficulties, it was truly a long journey!

But how many people really realized at these seminars, whether for local or visiting practitioners listening to the seminar from beginning to end, how much of Teacher's hard work and heart went into the whole process!

I heard from a practitioner who came from Anhui that she had brought her husband's two younger sisters to the Changchun Falun Gong seminars without telling her husband. Because they missed the ride arranged to pick up practitioners, they took the bus to the location of the seminar--Jilin University Auditorium--but could not find the door. A smiling elderly person came and asked them, "Are you here to attend the Falun Gong seminars?" She said, "Yes." The elderly person led them to the door and said, "You were able to come here from as far away as Anhui, and did not even tell your husband. You even got to the front of the place. How come you couldn't find the door?" This practitioner gawked, wondering, "How did he know what I did?" After she listened to Teacher's lecture she enlightened that the elderly person was actually Teacher's fashen that he had arranged to come get them, and she felt truly touched.

There was also a young man from the countryside of Anhui, who was very tall (about five foot 10) and quite handsome. He told me that just half a year before he was handicapped, his back bent at almost a 90-degree angle. When Teacher first lectured in Anhui, the local Qigong Association introduced him to Teacher. Teacher patted his back several times, and he could straighten it right away. He could not express in words the gratitude he felt towards Teacher. Wherever Teacher went, he followed him. At a later seminar, Teacher found out about his financial difficulties and even waived his seminar fees.

Speaking of the seminar fees, at that time the Falun Gong seminars charged the lowest fees in the whole country compared to other qigong seminars. And for veteran practitioners who "followed" the seminars, they were only charged half price. Because the fees Falun Gong charged were so low, it displeased other practices and they demanded that the Qigong Association ask Teacher to raise the fees, but Teacher never changed them.

There was one practitioner from Changchun who brought a family of four, including an 80-year-old mother who could barely move. They missed the time of the pick up, so she and her mother and her family had to walk down the street, looking for a hotel. They walked and walked and saw a small, two-story residential building. She thought, "Wouldn't it be great if this was a hotel." Right then, a window opened on the second floor, and an elderly woman looked out and asked them warmly, "Are you looking for a place to stay? Come stay at my place!" This practitioner realized that it was Teacher protecting his practitioners, fearing that the mother would not be able to walk anymore, so help was arranged.

At this Zhengzhou seminar, the evil in that area wanted to interfere with Teacher imparting the Fa. One afternoon as Teacher was teaching the Fa to practitioners, suddenly there were strong winds and heavy rain with hail. Some hailstones were the size of eggs! The sky that was originally bright and sunny suddenly became black. A practitioner who could see through his third eye said, "In this kind of circumstance, the first thing Teacher did was protect practitioners. One huge Falun immediately covered up all the practitioners inside itself, and then Teacher started to eliminate the evil."

Soon the sky was clear and bright again, and Teacher continued to teach the Fa. From this incident, I saw with my own eyes how Teacher protects his disciples.

Taking pictures is the wish of all practitioners attending the seminar. No matter how busy Teacher was or how hard he had to work, he never refused practitioners this request and arranged time to take pictures.

But taking pictures is hard work, especially when several thousand practitioners all wanted to get their pictures taken with Teacher. Zhengzhou in the summer is extremely hot. According to the rules of the seminars, practitioners from each province were allowed to take one group picture with Teacher. How many provinces are in the whole country! Teacher was already working so hard, but practitioners still weren't satisfied. After the province-level pictures were all taken, they arranged for groups of practitioners by city to get their pictures taken with Teacher. Teacher was asked to stand here and there and here and there. The hot weather can really be hard on people, but Teacher was never agitated. He was always peaceful and compassionate, smiling while as he walked about taking pictures with everyone.

Looking back on that time, I feel truly ashamed of my selfishness. In the presence of Teacher, whom everyone respects, how come I wasn't thinking of Teacher's welfare at all? Why didn't I help see to it that Teacher had less hard work, less labor, fewer pictures taken--once would have been enough. Why didn't I think about Teacher? After so many days of lectures and on the day he had lectured the entire morning, in the afternoon he stood for pictures with everyone for so long under the burning sun!

Under the compassionate protection of Teacher, we have walked to this day. Most fellow practitioners are mature, but I still have so many attachments that I haven't relinquished, all related to the concept of "self," all stemming from this "self." Only when I eliminate all the deeply hidden "self" can I reach Teacher's required standard of selflessness.

Today I have recalled some of Teacher's countless hardships while spreading the Fa in Mainland China and how on the surface we could feel Teacher's compassion and protection, But these are truly just drops of water of the great sea! In actuality what Teacher has given us and the huge hardships Teacher has endured for us, we will never know, but we will never forget.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/3/30/123989.html

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