(Minghui.org) On the first day of the teachers’ class preparation period for the start of the school term in March 1996, I went to the Teaching and Research Office, although I was still on a medical leave of absence. After lunch, a few young teachers suggested that I go to the library upstairs to learn the Falun Dafa exercises.
I entered the room, found a good seat, and more than 20 of us present began to learn the Falun Dafa exercises while listening to the peaceful exercise music. When we were doing the “Holding the Wheel above the Head” movement, I saw (with my celestial eye) myself climbing steps to the top of a high mountain. There were also scenes of many people dressed in ancient clothing, beautiful pavilions, and more. When the exercise music ended, I was still immersed in those scenes. After seeing all of this, I was deeply moved by the miraculousness and preciousness of Falun Dafa.
After I learned the exercises I bought the main book of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun, and some other lectures by Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) from the exercise site coordinator. I took them with me to my office and treated everything as if I had been given a treasure. As soon as I got back to my office, I started reading the books, and every word drilled into my soul. However, I became sleepy and dozed off. I continued reading as soon as I woke up. Thus, I finished reading Zhuan Falun in less than three days. Master had brought me onto a path of return to my original self. I was honored to become a Dafa practitioner.
As I did not achieve the fame, fortune, material gain or relationships I yearned for in the past, I once thought of committing suicide to escape the hard life I had. However, I was worried that my elderly parents could not take the shock of my death. So, I chose to live.
Luckily, I obtained Falun Dafa and found the meaning of life. I wanted to follow Master closely and progress on the path of assimilating to Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, the principles embraced by Dafa.
One day, I was about to go to the practice site to do the morning exercises, when I felt sleepy. So, I lay down again. Just then, a golden Falun appeared in front of my eyes. This was Master asking me to quickly get up and do the exercises. Master got rid of my laziness. Since then, I joined in the morning exercises, day after day, no matter the weather.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I felt physically and mentally purified. I recovered from all my illnesses. Whenever I met people, I told them of the goodness of Dafa. At that time, there were no Fa study groups. Therefore, I invited practitioners to my house to study the Fa.
Getting Rid of the Attachment to Emotion
Master said,
“What makes people human? It is the presence of emotion, as people simply live for it. There is love for family members, romantic love, love towards parents, emotions associated with relationships, and the affection that goes with friendship. People act for the sake of emotional bonds, and emotion follows you everywhere you go. Everything human about this world stems from emotion, from likes to dislikes, from joys to sorrows, love to hate. And so you will have problems in spiritual practice if you don’t manage to free yourself of it. Those who do, will be free of human sentiments and unflappable. In its place will arise compassion, something far more noble.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Doing cultivation made me gain a deep understanding of what life was about. Not long after I started practicing Falun Dafa, I went home from the morning exercises to prepare breakfast when I opened the fridge and saw the chicken and fish which my husband’s company had given to my parents. I also realized that the house was also given to us by his company. In my mind, scenes of my husband’s sacrifices for my parents flashed by. Why didn’t I realize this in the past? I only saw myself treating his family well, but I often wronged him. I felt really sorry for him when I remembered my attitude.
At this moment, I saw my husband sitting on the living room sofa looking sleepy, so I approached him. I said to him, “I have done you wrong, can you forgive me?” I saw tears covering his face. He said, “What is there to forgive? Just don’t treat me like that in the future, and that will be fine.”
Master’s benevolence and Falun Dafa’s mighty power dissolved my icy cold heart which was full of complaint and hatred towards my husband.
Getting Rid of the Attachment to Personal Gain
After I retired, I solicited advertising contracts for a magazine company with a fellow Falun Dafa practitioner. Once, we went to a Chinese medical clinic and persuaded the female boss to advertise in their magazine. After completing the advertising, we went to the clinic to get the soliciting fees, but were told that the money had been pocketed by the writer of the advertisement. That man had brought a woman to stay at the clinic for two to three days and refused to leave without getting the money. She had no choice but to give them the money instead.
At that time, I had just finished reading Master’s lecture “Digging Out the Roots.” The practitioner and I exchanged our thoughts and understandings. We realized that this issue was for us to get rid of the attachment to personal gain. We decided to dig out the roots of this attachment, and thus did not want to go after the money anymore. We went to the director of the magazine company and said that we are Falun Dafa practitioners, and we would not ask for the soliciting fees, which came to more than 3,000 yuan. If not for practicing Falun Dafa, we would have sought redress for this unfair treatment. After bidding the director goodbye, we felt fine, because we had let go of our attachment to personal gain and our xinxing had improved and elevated.
Getting Rid of the Attachment to Fame and Gain
Once, I went back to my hometown and brought along Master’s lecture videos to play for the villagers. I asked a fellow practitioner to help lead the group Fa study. That night, after playing Master’s lecture videos for the villagers, I looked up and saw a big Falun spinning above my head. This was Master’s encouragement.
Nine days after returning home, I dreamed that Master gave me a hint that something was going to happen.
After I reached the Dafa practice site at the school to teach the exercises, I was asked to go to the Receiving and Dispatching Office for a meeting. I had just entered the door when the practice site coordinator reprimanded me in front of many other Fa study group leaders: “Why didn’t you tell the practitioners before you left? They went round looking for other Fa study groups.” I was really embarrassed but in my heart, I knew that this was to get rid of my attachment to vying for reputation. I did not try to explain, but thought to myself that I had asked someone to help, and that it was that person who had not done well. I did not look for my own mistake but pushed the responsibility outwards. Master saw that I did not get rid of my attachment to reputation. Thus, he arranged two more incidents, when there were even more practitioners present, for the coordinator to reprimand me. I understood that this was to dig out the roots of my attachment to reputation. I was undisturbed and just smiled. Things like that happened a lot. Master kept helping me improve my xinxing and elevate my cultivation level.
The Power of Compassion
After the persecution started in July 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa on December 1, 2000. When a practitioner and I went to the train station to buy our tickets and saw police officers, I shivered and felt scared. I said to the practitioner, “Let’s not go today. My son is home and will stop me.” Hiding the fear in my heart, I did not buy the ticket, but went home instead. For a few consecutive nights, I could not fall asleep. I asked myself, what I was afraid of? Before cultivating in Dafa, for fame, personal gain and emotion, I was not even afraid of death. But today, I did not even dare to go and speak up for Falun Dafa. Am I still worthy of the title of “Dafa practitioner?”
Master said,
“If you can let go of life and death, you’re a God; if you can’t let go of life and death, you’re a human” (“Fa Teaching Given in New York City,” Teachings at Conferences in the United States)
I want to be divine and follow Master home! After breakfast, I offered incense to Master, put my palms together and said to Master sincerely, “Master, I want to go to Beijing to submit a petition. Please help me get rid of this fear.” After that, I was calm and decided to go to Beijing with another practitioner that night. Before leaving, I told my family members that I was going to Beijing and no one was to stop me. Both my husband and my son did not say anything.
When we went to the train station to buy the tickets, there were only two sleeper carriage tickets left to Beijing. We bought them, and on the afternoon of December 5, we got off the train, headed straight for Tiananmen Square and hung up our banner emblazoned with “Falun Dafa Is Good” on some small hedges. We then bought tickets to go to the Tiananmen Tower, but we were stopped halfway and told to leave our bags at the small items storage area. When we went to deposit our bags, we were informed that we should not deposit our bags there for security reasons. In fact, this was Master reminding us that we were in danger, but we did not realize it. After depositing our bags, we had just entered the side gate when we were searched and interrogated. They asked us to verbally abuse Master but we refused.
After that, we were taken to a police office. As we got out of the police car, a young male and female police officer held my arms, one on each side. In my heart, I recited Master’s poem,
“Dafa is what you carry everywhere,Zhen Shan Ren, rooted in the mind; A great Arhat walks the earth, Gods and demons fear with awe.” (“Benevolent Might,” Hong Yin)
We were taken to a room where the police officers searched our bags and interrogated us. They wanted to know our address and names, but we did not answer them. Then, they gave us each a name (calling me “No Talking B”) and detained us in a small cell.
A young male police officer told us before he left, “Do the exercises if you are cold at night.” He said that there was also a copy of Zhuan Falun in his house. That night, we sat in between two icy cold rough metal pipes, but we did not feel cold. Master suffered the coldness for us. When we were doing the exercises in the middle of the night, a hint of fragrance replaced the bad smell in the cell.
We were transferred to a detention center. One night when we were watching television I was memorizing the Fa when my mind suddenly went blank and I could not remember anything. I immediately thought that this was my main consciousness not being strong enough. When everyone went to sleep, I closed my eyes and searched for the mistakes that I’d made over the past days. I had to correct them.
The next day, the inmate in charge of our cell asked me for my name and I told her that I am called “No Talking B.” She pointed fiercely to a fellow practitioner whose face was covered with injuries and said to me, “I am good at beating people. Look at those injuries on her face. Those were done by me. If you do not tell me your real name, I am going to beat you!” I looked her in the eye and told her calmly, “If you can reduce your sentence by beating me, then go ahead. I am not afraid.” After hearing that, she hugged me and said, “I am not going to hit you. You are even older than my mother, no, you could almost be my grandmother.” I understood that this was the power of Compassion, a manifestation of, “You put in the effort and your teacher will handle the rest.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
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