Introduction
Since the persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999, practitioners in China have remained unmoved and resolute on their path of cultivation. For the past five years, while opposing the persecution, they have legitimized and safeguarded the reputation of Falun Dafa and allowed millions of Chinese people to understand the true nature of the persecution. Since the publication of Falun Dafa founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi’s Lecture at the U.S. Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Florida on December 29, 2001, Falun Dafa practitioners in China have joined their fellow practitioners in more than 60 countries to fulfill the three tasks of studying the Fa, sending forth righteous thoughts, and clarifying the facts about Falun Dafa to the world. In this process, they have gained innumerable valuable experiences in improving their moral character, exposing the truth about the persecution, introducing people to Falun Dafa, and establishing great virtue.
Through the many trials over the past five years, Falun Dafa practitioners in China have certainly matured on their cultivation paths. They have become more clear-minded and rational and have shared their invaluable depth of experience with all of us. Because of the ongoing persecution, much of the information is focused on practitioners’ opposition to the persecution and on the suffering they have endured. In order to help eliminate the evil factors behind the persecution, show people the goodness of Falun Dafa, expose the lies that maintain the persecution, and to compensate for the lack of a safe environment for large scale cultivation experience sharing conferences in China since the persecution began, Clearwisdom[1] called for the “First Written Experience Sharing Conference for Falun Dafa Practitioners in China” to be held over the Internet. This conference took place between October and November in 2004. Thanks to the overwhelming support of practitioners in China, a large collection of experience sharing papers was received. It proved to be a majestic and honorable experience sharing conference for practitioners in China, and an inspiration to practitioners around the world.
Through this conference, practitioners from different parts of China have been able to learn from each other’s experiences and reflect on their own shortcomings. This valuable sharing encouraged other practitioners to overcome obstacles and make tremendous progress.
This collection of sharing shows the world the honorable and pure intent of Falun Dafa disciples upholding the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.” We also hope it will help fellow practitioners strengthen their resolve and further eliminate the evil factors behind the persecution. In this light, the following experience sharing papers have been selected and compiled into a book for the benefit of all readers.
Table of Content
1) "Your Teacher Is Really Great" – How I Safeguarded the Fa
2)A Seventy Year Old Practitioner's Advice: Keep Up With the Pace of Master's Fa-Rectification
3) A Young Practitioner: Nothing Will Shake My Belief in Falun Dafa
4) Actually, Cultivation Is Not That Difficult
5) An Eighty-Year-Old Woman Speaks from Her Heart
6) Becoming More and More Clearheaded
7) Being Grateful for Master's Compassion and Protection: My Story of Going to Beijing to Appeal for Falun Dafa in 2000
8) Braving the Storm with My Head Held High
9) Clarifying the Truth for Four Years: Each Day Is Like the First Day
10)Completely Negate the Old Forces' Arrangements When Looking for Employment
11)Cultivating Diligently on the Path to Godhood
12)Doing My Part to Safeguard Falun Dafa
13)Eliminate Evil with Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions--Clarify the Truth to Save the People of the World
14)Following the Path toward Divinity with the Diligent Use of Righteous Thoughts
15)From a Farmer's Hoe to a Computer Mouse
16)How My Family Benefited from Attaining the Fa
17)I Am a Disciple of Master Li Hongzhi
18)I Am Our Magnificent Teacher's Disciple; No One Can Harm Me
19) I Came to the World for Dafa: My Cultivation Experiences in Validating Dafa During the Past Five Years
20)I Would Still Want to Be a Falun Dafa Disciple If I Were to Choose Again
21)Keeping Righteous Thoughts at All Times and Walking Along the Cultivation Path Arranged by Teacher
22)Maintain Righteous Thoughts, Play the Role of a Dafa Particle
23)Making Use of Every Opportunity to Clarify the Truth
24)My Experience Downloading Information from the Internet to Make Truth-Clarification Materials
25)Only When I Absolutely Have Faith in Teacher and the Fa and Study the Fa Constantly Can I Avoid Taking A Detour in My Cultivation Practice
26)Only With Firm Belief in Falun Dafa and Teacher Can We Effectively Validate Dafa
27)Only With Determined Faith in Master Can I Walk My Cultivation Path Well During the Fa-Rectification Period
28)Play a Major Role on the Big Stage, and With a Pure Heart Be Responsible to Sentient Beings
29)Pure Compassion Shocks And Frightens the Evil
30)Purifying Myself - My Path in Validating the Fa
31)Relatives and Neighbors Learn the Truth about Falun Gong
32)Righteous Belief Guided Me Through 5 Years of Persecution with Righteous Thoughts and Actions
33)Saving Sentient Beings With a Pure And Compassionate Heart
34)Some Thoughts on Clarifying the Truth about Falun Dafa
35) Steadfastly Cultivate Dafa with an Unflinching Will - Improve as a Whole to Save Sentient Beings
36)Strive Forward Courageously and Diligently On the Path of Fa-Rectification Cultivation
37)Strive Forward on the Path of Cultivation During the Fa-Rectification Period
38)The Choice of a Young Falun Gong Practitioner
39)The Cultivation Path of a New Practitioner: So Many More People Waiting to be Saved
40)Towards Fundamental Improvement
41)Treat the Fa as Teacher, Rectify Myself, and Do the Three Things Well
42)Using the Wisdom Endowed by Falun Dafa to Harmonize My Fa-Rectification and Cultivation Environment
43)Validating Falun Dafa in Steady Steps While Denying the Old Forces' Arrangements
44) Validating Falun Dafa – Touched by Master's Enormous and Powerful Grace
45)With Righteous Thoughts, Eliminate the Evil Factors
46)With Unwavering Faith in Our Teacher, I Overcame Tribulations One After Another
Compassion Overcomes Evil
1) "Your Teacher Is Really Great" – How I Safeguarded the Fa
By a Falun Gong Practitioner from Dongying City, Shandong Province
A friend of mine who is not a Falun Gong practitioner said to me, "Your Teacher is in the United States and has not looked over your shoulder, yet you still risk your life and unreservedly listen to your Teacher. This is really great. From your words and deeds I know that those who cultivate Falun Gong are good people. I am positively inclined towards your Teacher. He is really great."
* * * * * * * * *
I began to practice Falun Gong in October 1997 and have diligently practiced the exercises and studied the Fa ever since. However, I only went to the practice site to join the group practice in April 1999 at the insistence of other practitioners. Several months later the persecution of Falun Gong began.
In facing the unprecedented persecution, I pondered deeply upon it and finally decided to firmly cultivate in Falun Dafa. I believe it to be the great Fa that can save sentient beings of the universe. I was so fortunate to come across Falun Dafa; therefore I should not renounce it. I knew instinctively that no matter how difficult it became, I would cultivate to the end. Sadly, at that time, most of the people who did not practice were deceived by the untrue propaganda. They could not understand why I would continue to practice Falun Dafa, and they made sarcastic comments about me. It was not unusual to hear criticism or accusations. Because of the political pressure, leaders at my work, the county and the city talked to me again and again in an attempt to persuade me to give up my practice. At that time, I was not clear about the concept of clarifying the facts, but I understood the greatness of Falun Dafa. I would talk about the beauty of Falun Dafa, the improvement of my health and my moral standards. I safeguarded the Fa anytime someone badmouthed Falun Dafa. Some of the leaders believed me and expressed their understanding, but others, the leader of my work in particular, thought I was too stubborn and too obsessed. She talked to me five times and I told her clearly that there was no need for her to keep trying to persuade me any more because I would not change. She has not tried to persuade me ever since. During that time, many relatives, friends and neighbors visited me. They attempted to convince me to give up my cultivation. I used these opportunities to clarify the truth to them.
My workplace arranged someone to keep surveillance on me. She reported my words and deeds to my boss regularly. I used every opportunity to talk about the beauty of Falun Dafa and the positive changes within me after I began the practice. I also told her that the propaganda about Falun Gong was nothing but lies. Gradually she changed her attitude toward Falun Dafa. She changed from not believing to believing. Gradually she found that it was not enough to just listen to me, so she read the truth-clarification materials many times by herself. She not only stopped her surveillance of me, but also helped me to print or hand out truth-clarification materials. In the 2004 Chinese Lunar New Year, she wanted to donate 200 yuan for printing truth-clarification materials to save sentient beings. Even though I did not take the money, I felt very happy for her positive action.
During the process of studying Teacher's new lectures, I gained a better understanding on clarifying the truth to everyday people. It is our sacred duty and historical mission, so we must do it earnestly using different methods and should not miss any opportunity.
Normally, I would clarify the facts to friends and relatives either by visiting them or when they visited me. I also went for three days to a friend's home in the countryside. During that time, I clarified the truth to nearly 30 people. Later on I began to clarify the truth to strangers. For example, when service people came to my home to fix doors and windows, or to fill up the natural gas cylinder, I would clarify the facts to them and give them truth-clarification materials. One day when a service provider came to my home to fix the air-conditioner, I put the truth-clarification material into his tool bag, as I could not find any opportunity to talk to him. My daughter jokingly said, "You should not let anyone leave without having clarified the truth to him."
Teacher provides opportunities for me to clarify the truth, as long as this is my heart's wish. One day when I swept the stairs, I found a 5 yuan note on the floor and I guessed it might belong to the elderly lady upstairs. I went to her and talked about how practitioners would not keep the money they find, because they want to be good people. I talked to her about the beauty of Falun Dafa and gave her some truth-clarification materials and a VCD. Later on this elderly lady came to learn Falun Gong.
There were times when my truth clarification did not go smoothly. Yet, none of these impediments made me lose the wish to continue clarifying the truth. I would search within, look for my shortcomings or check to see if I had any loophole that the evil had taken advantage of. After careful thinking it over, I would find my shortcomings and I would improve during the process. In clarifying the truth, I also used the methods of handing out truth-clarification materials to nearby residents and mailing materials to police departments, police stations, procuratorates, courts, judicial departments, the 610 Offices, primary and high schools as well as radio and TV stations.
During the process of cultivation in validating the Fa, whenever I had xinxing problems or came across major setbacks, Teacher gave me hints to help me overcome them and continue to diligently go forward.
One day, I learned that my district would hold a photo exhibition slandering Falun Dafa. Fellow practitioners and I took action to stop them from poisoning people’s minds. We sent forth righteous thoughts, handed out truth-clarification materials, clarified the truth to the organizers and exposed the persecution. At that time, I enlightened that we should give truth-clarification materials to the leaders of a dozen or so companies to clarify the facts and expose the persecution. I believed strongly that once they realized the truth they would stop these bad deeds. I immediately prepared 30 truth-clarification packages and was ready to mail them. Just at that time a relative of mine came to tell me that because I clarified the truth publicly and promoted the beauty of Falun Dafa, someone had reported me to the 610 Office, and I was listed as a key Falun Gong practitioner. Therefore I could be arrested at any time if I continued to clarify the truth. That was a real test for me. Should I mail the letters I had prepared? If I took blind action and was spotted by the police, would I be severely persecuted? What should I do? I could not make a decision. Suddenly my granddaughter asked me to help her in reciting a passage. She asked me to listen, compare it to the book, and check for errors. When I opened the book, the title "A Step Forward" caught my attention. I was a bit shocked. Wasn't that the clearest sign from Teacher, hinting that I had to overcome the difficulties and step forward diligently? How could I be misled by false manifestations? Nobody could stop us from clarifying the truth and nobody could sabotage what we were doing. So I sent out the letters I had prepared. Our concerted efforts frightened the evil and the photo exhibition that slandered Falun Dafa was cancelled.
During my truth clarification work over the past few years, I not only helped a great number of people learn the truth, I also helped 9 people to learn Falun Dafa and embark on the path of cultivation. Among them was a woman in her eighties and a 6-year-old girl. The 6-year-old was very pure of heart. After she heard that the construction of truth-clarification materials required money, without blinking an eye she took all her savings, about 100 yuan, from her piggy bank and gave it to us for making truth-clarification materials. Later on she again gave us the 300 yuan she had received as Lunar New Year gifts or birthday gifts. Another elderly practitioner had had various illnesses before practicing Falun Dafa. She could not walk on her own upstairs or downstairs and needed to be carried on other people's backs. After she learned Falun Dafa, her health improved with each passing day. Now she can take the stairs up or down without anyone's help. She is illiterate, but with the help of Teacher's Law-body, she can now read Zhuan Falun. This is a magnificent manifestation of Dafa.
During the past years, I also helped four practitioners who lagged behind or had left the practice return to the path of cultivation. Teacher said, "Advance together, ever diligent, to a glorious future." (One With the Fa –Hong Yin) I enlightened that no matter how well an individual has cultivated, his power is still limited, and only when practitioners as a whole improve together can they form a powerful force. I also enlightened that practitioners, no matter where they are from, are one body and should help each other. When I was told that five Falun Gong practitioners (one of them was my relative) in Zibo City, ShandongProvince could not get Teacher's new articles since their contact person had been arrested, I took Teacher's new articles to them. I studied the Fa and shared with them. We all benefited a great deal.
The home environment is a good place for our cultivation. My husband at one point had no income, so he relied on my salary. He opposed my practice of Falun Dafa and several times threatened to send me to the police station. I began to feel suffocated by this. Teacher hinted many times that I still failed the test at home. The tribulation lasted for a few years.
Teacher said in Zhuan Falun,
"During cultivation practice there may be two scenarios in dealing with specific conflicts or when someone mistreats you. One can be that you had probably treated this person badly in the previous life. You may feel uncomfortable and wonder, 'How can he treat me this way?' Then, why did you treat him that way in the past? You may claim that you do not know what you did in the past, and this life has nothing to do with the one in the past. That is not permitted. "
After I understood this from the point of the Fa, my Xinxing also improved. I found my own shortcomings and my husband's strong points. In the past I did not treat him well and often criticized him. I began to show concern for my husband and changed my tone when I spoke to him. At the same time I also used opportunities to clarify the truth to him.
When he found the change in my attitude and saw my physical changes after practicing Falun Dafa, he changed his attitude toward Dafa. He did not oppose my practicing Falun Gong any more. Later on he even helped me rebind Dafa books, buy Teacher's Fa lecture video-tapes and exercise instruction tape, and fixed the cassette recorder. Some times when I failed to wake up at midnight, he would wake me up so that I could send forth righteous thoughts. He later bought an alarm clock and put it beside the bed. He sometimes would buy fruit and put it in front of Teacher's portrait. Because the environment at home changed for the better, fellow practitioners would often come to my home to share experiences. When I first began to study Falun Gong, my son-in-law opposed my decision. Now he has changed his attitude. My daughter also helped me print truth-clarification materials. Our home, as well as the surrounding environment, has changed for the better.