By a practitioner from Shandong Province

(Clearwisdom.net) I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1997. Like many other practitioners, I began cultivation to cure my illnesses. Before my cultivation, my spine protruded and pinched the nerves, making it impossible for me to walk. I was bedridden. My family and I were under tremendous pressure. After I began cultivation, Teacher cleansed my body. In a dream one night, a person pulled silk from my body where I had the pain. He pulled one string at a time--red, green, and yellow in color. I realized that it was Teacher cleansing my body. Before I practiced Falun Dafa, I did not know anything about animal possession. I would pray to anything in order to cure my illnesses. As a result, my illnesses were not cured and my body was badly contaminated. Soon after my dream, I was free from all illnesses and became quite healthy. I was very grateful to Teacher and cherished Dafa even more. At the time, more and more people started practicing Falun Gong. We started a practice site near my house, and I served as the site coordinator.

After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, I left my hometown under the overwhelming pressure. Because I had not studied the Fa well enough and still had a lot of attachments, I was unable to base my understanding of Dafa on the Fa itself and wrote the so-called guarantee statement to not practice. After that, although I still regarded myself as a practitioner and still read the book, I only did the exercises off and on. This lapse in my cultivation lasted for five years. In 2004, thanks to Teacher's arrangement, I met a fellow practitioner and had a discussion with him. I realized that I had totally lost touch with Fa-rectification cultivation. I had fallen very much behind. The practitioner told me that Teacher wanted us to send forth righteous thoughts. When I read the lecture, "Teaching the Fa on Easter, 2004, at the New York Fa Conference," I suddenly awoke. My tears kept falling. I was truly in debt to Teacher, who had saved me. I had not fulfilled the historic mission that had been bestowed upon me. I did not lead the group of people at the practice site well, and I truly felt sorry.

Understanding this, I began to study the Fa immediately. In the meantime, I declared that I had resumed cultivation. I spent time reading through all the lectures that Teacher published after July 20, 1999. I cannot describe my feelings of being able to practice Dafa again. During that time, I studied the Fa all day, hardly taking time to eat.

Not long after I returned to cultivation, I began to experience more serious reactions of karma elimination--my legs hurt a lot and I could not walk; it hurt even when I was sitting. It was so painful that I could not stop crying. I had to ask for Teacher's help to be able to cross my legs in a full lotus position for the fifth exercise. It was wintertime. The husband of a practitioner was beaten to death at the police station when he delivered an overcoat to her. The police wanted to settle the case by giving her some money, but the practitioner firmly rejected this offer. The police were angry and stopped the practitioner from appealing to higher authorities. With no place to sue or appeal, we realized that for practitioners, we are one body. We will not allow the wicked police officers to do what they wish and persecute Falun Gong. We planned to expose the incident to the public.

We formed one body and distributed flyers everywhere. There were only a few of us because some practitioners were still hesitant to step forward in the face of the persecution. My leg hurt and I could not walk. It was truly difficult. Then I thought, "I am Teacher's disciple. I steadfastly believe in Teacher and Dafa. Teacher has handed me this sacred mission and given me the noble title of 'Dafa Disciple.' I need to carry out this responsibility. Wherever I go I will not forget that I am a practitioner. I do not have any illness. I shall complete my mission of saving sentient beings and I need to step forward."

With this thought, I bit my teeth and said, "Let's go. I will go out and put up posters even if I have to crawl all the way." I ignored my family's opposition and went out with practitioners.

It was December. The winter in northern China is very cold. I forced myself to withstand the pain. When we put up posters, the glue made from rice soup would freeze before we had time to brush it on the poster and stick it up. I became impatient and thought, "What are my hands for?" I threw away the brush, and used my hands to grab and spread the glue. My fellow practitioner would put up the poster right away and send forth righteous thoughts in the meantime. I concentrated on spreading the glue and putting up the posters, and forgot about the pain in my leg. Before I realized it, the posters were all up, and my leg no longer hurt. My hands were covered with glue but I felt it was warm rather than cold.

On the way home, looking at the glue that covered my hands and arms, my two fellow practitioners and I laughed. They and my family witnessed the wonder of Dafa. My family members have never stopped me from doing Fa-rectification work since then. That time I validated the Fa with my righteous thoughts.

I would like to share another incident. I was over 50 years old at the time. At first I did not know anything about computers. But with Teacher's blessing and fellow practitioners' help, I quickly learned how to download files and do some simple printing tasks. All wisdom originates from Dafa. Nothing is too difficult if one studies the Fa well. Some time ago, the practitioner who had been my direct contact was arrested, which scared me and I stopped my work. This completely exposed the deficiency in my cultivation and my hidden worries. I was quite sad and could not pull myself together. When I sat down and quietly studied the Fa, I enlightened: "Do I stop cultivation if others stop? Am I cultivating for others? I have only one Teacher and one Dafa. I cannot be so stupid anymore. I will listen to Teacher and not miss this once-in-a-million-years opportunity. I cannot be sad anymore. I need to completely reject the interference from the old forces."

Teacher said in Zhuan Falun:

"Actually, for being a good person among everyday people there are heroes who serve as models, but those are models among everyday people. If you want to be a practitioner, it all depends on cultivating your heart and on you, yourself being enlightened since there are no role models. Fortunately, today we have made public this Dafa. In the past, if you wished to practice cultivation, nobody would teach you. This way, you can follow Dafa and perhaps you will do better. Whether you can practice cultivation or make it and what level you can reach all depend on you, yourself."

Teacher has made it so clear in his lectures. I need to be diligent. I will lay down my attachments, study the Fa more, strengthen my righteous thoughts, and do well the three things that a practitioner needs to do.

Posting date: 8/28/2007
Original article date: 8/28/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/27/159659.html

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