PureInsight | March 25, 2002
Greetings, Master! Greetings, everyone!
My name is Tang Wanlin. I have practiced cultivation for more than three years. I’m very happy to be here to share with you my cultivation experiences. I’d like to thank Master and all my fellow practitioners for giving me this opportunity today. Next, I’ll share with you some of the understanding I’ve gained in my cultivation practice.
1. Believe in Master and Steadfastly Cultivate Falun Dafa
I practice at the Chinatown practice site. When I first came to this site, I was the only person who spoke Cantonese. Everyone else spoke Mandarin. In the beginning, I had difficulty understanding Master’s words in the exercise tapes, but veteran practitioners patiently taught me the exercises. After the exercises, they said they were going to study the Fa. I thought, “What kind of practice is this? There are so many practice systems in the park. None of them requires reading.”
I’d like to talk about how I attained the Fa. Because I wasn’t in good health – I just had an operation a few months before – I went to the park and was planning to practice some qigong. I had never heard of Falun Gong and had no clue of what it was all about. One day, I was taking a walk near the park and sat down next to the courthouse. I saw a woman with her eyes closed, practicing a qigong system that was new to me. She seemed to be doing a lot of repetitions, and her movements were quite unique. She also did meditation. One day the woman noticed that I was observing her. She walked over and introduced the system to me. Because of my poor Mandarin and many other reasons, I did not start practicing Dafa until three months later. It was truly an example of “the Buddha light illuminates everywhere” and the Fa saves people with predestined relationships. Everyday after we were finished the exercises, they would talk about the benefits of the practice. Although I didn’t understand completely, I liked talking with them and went there everyday to do the exercises. Soon after I attended the nine-day seminar. Quite fortunately, two months later, I saw Master at the Chinese Trading Company and listened to Master lecturing on the Fa and answering questions from practitioners. It was very hard to describe how I felt at that moment. I was quite upset that I had attained the Fa this late and that I had wasted so much time. Through studying the Fa, I’ve gradually understood things that I was never able to understand before. I realized that I could find answers to many questions from this heavenly book, Zhuan Falun.
2. Validate the Fa First Within One’s Own Family
Since April 25, 1999, Dafa has been persecuted in the human world. Our revered Master has also been attacked. Our practice site, which comprised of 30 people, was reduced to 10 after July 20, and not all of them came everyday. At times, there were only a few people showing up. But I wasn’t scared. I did my best to “Follow Teacher closely, steadfastly cultivating Dafa…” (From “The Knowing Heart”). With determination, I went to the practice site everyday for the exercises. I told the other practitioners that our daily exercise was a form of validating the Fa. We were not frightened when we were being followed by agents or misunderstood by other people. My family was concerned about my safety and asked me to practice at home instead of in public. One evening, it was quite hot. At around 8 pm, I took a small cassette player with me and went to the Federal Courthouse near Columbus Park to practice and meditate. Many Chinese went there in the evenings to cool off. There were police officers guarding the gate. My husband was worried about my safety and came to take a look. When he saw the police officers standing at the gate as if they were protecting me, he went home without any worries. That was what he told me after I got home.
Last year, an incident happened at our practice site. Someone posted a flyer slandering Master and Dafa, asking us to so-called “awaken,” and so on. A fellow practitioner went there and took it down, but another copy was posted the following day. We took it down again and wrote a few words of advice. We also urged the person who posted the flyer to have a talk with us. After that, it was never posted again. One day after we finished practicing the exercises, a big, tall old man came by. He chatted with us and told us that he studied and understood all kinds of qigong. I asked where he was from and how long he has been in the United States. He only told me that he came to the United States less than two years ago, and that he was not from Southern China. We had the feeling that he was the person who posted the flyer. We told him that it would be better for him to read Zhuan Falun and where he could purchase the books. We also shared with him our cultivation experiences as well as the improvements in our physical health. Later, when he saw that he couldn’t persuade us to stop practicing, he left.
Master said in “Deter Interference”, “The Fa can reveal all attachments, the Fa can eradicate all evils, the Fa can expose and dispel all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.”
Last March, a resolution sponsored by the United States condemning the Chinese Government’s abuse of human rights was to be voted on at an annual Human Rights Session in Geneva. Many practitioners went there to support local Falun Gong activities, clarify the truth to various governments, restore the reputation of Master and Dafa and resolve the current crisis in China. I wanted more people in the world to know about and support Falun Gong. After this thought developed, I deterred all interference and went on a weeklong trip to play the role of a Dafa particle. After I returned, my husband told me, “I’ll cultivate Falun Dafa with you. We’ll go home together.” I am so grateful for Master’s benevolent salvation!
My mother-in-law became fearful when the evil became more reckless. She attended the New York Falun Dafa Conference in 1999 with us and also saw Master. After the conference, she began to practice with me and also read Zhuan Falun. One day, she brought a few Chinese newspapers full of false reports to my house. By telling her anecdotes, I gradually explained the truth. I asked her to believe in Master and believe in Dafa. She tried to stifle my opinions with her seniority, but when she saw that I was so calm and composed, she simply couldn’t get angry. Shortly thereafter, we participated in a Falun Gong parade in Chinatown. Later, she visited our house again. When I saw the look on her face, I knew that this was to be a tribulation, but I was very calm inside and had no fear. She started by reciting lies about Falun Gong that she read in the newspapers, throwing a fit and crying. After a few minutes, I asked her if I could now speak. I talked about many things, from the changes in my mind and body after I started practicing Falun Gong to the truth about Falun Gong. I urged her not to believe in those lies. She said the Master that she saw at the conference was tall and young, but he was described as an old, small man in the newspaper. She said she didn’t believe it. I told her all those reports in the newspapers were untrue. Shortly after that, my mother-in-law came to our house again, acting the same way as the last time. My husband said a few words criticizing her and then left the house. She then directed all of her anger towards me, saying that their family had never participated in politics or gotten into trouble, and that they had always been law-abiding citizens. She implied that I had corrupted her son. “Safeguarding Dafa with your own conduct is forever the responsibility of Dafa disciples, because Dafa belongs to all sentient beings of the universe, and this includes you.” (From “Stability of the Fa” in Essentials for Further Advancement) I admonished her, “You can criticize or swear at me any way you like, and I won’t hate you. But don’t ever say anything disrespectful about our Master or Dafa. It won’t do you any good. Everyone has the right to choose what he believes in. I’ve chosen this and will practice it to the end. I will not waver. I ask that you calm down and think about this without any prejudice. Haven’t I changed? Every time when you came and swore at me, I never took it to heart, nor did I hate you. I actually treated you even better than before because our Master taught us in Zhuan Falun that in order to cultivate Falun Dafa, we should try to be a good person first – never hit back when we are hit and never swear back when we are sworn at. You can ask your friends to see if they have a daughter-in-law like me. This is all because I am practicing Falun Dafa.” She was speechless. In the past, I didn’t like her coming to visit us so often, but now I’ve changed. She’s a sentient being, and we should try to save her.
3. Clarifying the Truth Everywhere
In order to clarify the truth, we go to subway entrances to distribute Dafa materials. We are there during the morning and evening peak hours or whenever we think would be the busiest time. We identify the busiest streets and hand out flyers there. On Sundays, we conduct photo exhibits and display related information in Chinatown, with a couple of practitioners demonstrating the exercises and another two distributing flyers. We take turns and hope that more people will come to learn about Falun Gong. We have persevered doing this in the wind, rain or snow. Sometimes our fingers became so numb from the freezing cold that we dropped the flyers. Then, it was challenging to pick them up. When we handed out flyers politely, some kindhearted people looked at us sympathetically and admiringly. Of course, we also have encountered some very unkind people, but we all tried to explain the truth to them compassionately.
In July 2000, our whole family went back to Hong Kong and Mainland China for a visit. I thought of going to China to clarify the truth to my friends and relatives at the beginning of 1999. My husband felt the same when I proposed the trip in May. Quietly, we booked our airplane tickets and told family members about it afterwards. My brother, sister, parents, mother-in-law and even my son were against it. They thought we were going to Tiananmen Square. Actually, I had lived in the United States for twenty years. Because he left China when he was very young, my husband was clueless about China and even where his hometown was. It would be the first time back to the Mainland for both of us. We only had one thought on our minds: to spread the Fa and to clarify the truth. I brought several copies of Zhuan Falun, two copies of the Great Perfection Way of Falun Buddha Fa, Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, Essentials for Further Advancement, lectures given by Master in different regions plus a few copies of “Memories of July” and articles downloaded from Clearwisdom. I also brought with me 9 tapes of the seminar Master gave in Jinan, 2 tapes of the exercise music, a cassette player and other materials. When my son learned of this, he had a very strong reaction. He had heard a little about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Government from English newspapers and TV, so he only wanted to go to Hong Kong and didn’t want to visit the Mainland.
Our family of four arrived in China from Hong Kong on July 21, right after the first anniversary of the beginning of the persecution. When going through customs, my husband and my son were standing together in one line, while my daughter and I were standing in another. When the person in front of me went up to the processing counter, two customs officers suddenly appeared about five or six meters away from me with a police dog. I immediately wondered if they came for me and had my pictures because our local newspaper published a picture of my practicing in front of the UN more than once. I was also wearing a necklace with the Falun emblem, and the necklace was in plain view. However, I rectified my unrighteous thoughts right away and removed the restlesness in my heart. When it was my turn to go through customs, I passed by the two officers very calmly. During the ten days we were in Mainland China, I spoke about Falun Gong with my friends and relatives. Most of them said that it had nothing to do with them. They were only concerned with money. A relative’s son was saturated with the official propaganda. Jiang Zemin is so evil. Every employee had to fill out a form promising that he would never practice Falun Gong; otherwise he would be fired. I told them about the true situation of Falun Gong overseas and my own experiences. I gave them truth-clarifying stories and materials from Clearwisdom.net, hoping that they would have a correct understanding of Falun Gong. Three relatives learned the five sets of exercises from me during our initial meeting. When one of them saw me again, she asked me to correct her movements. She said she knew this practice system must be very good as soon as she saw how healthy I looked. I gave away all my copies of Zhuan Falun and lectures given by Master in different regions. They said that they would read them carefully.
On April 1, 2001 when I was clarifying the truth to Chinese in Battery Park, six people from the Chinese delegation walked toward us. A practitioner handed them some Dafa materials, and they refused to take them. They sat down at a place very far from us. “Validate the Fa with reason, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save all sentient beings with benevolence – this is establishing the mighty virtue of an enlightened being” (From “Rationality”) So, I went over to have a chat with them. When I handed them the flyers, one of them was quite nasty and said, “We don’t want these. Go away!” I asked, “Do you really know about Falun Gong?” “We know all about it. Go away!” They tried to make me go away again. I said, “We are all Chinese. Although living aboard, we feel close to people coming from China. I’d like very much to hear about what’s going on in China.” They got angry, “How can you be so shameless to say this? You’ve embarrassed the Chinese people. You are going against the country.” I said, “You are wrong. I was born and educated in the new China. I also love my country. You see, I sent my two children to learn Chinese, and one of them had to go to school five days a week to learn it. They have to go to Chinese school after their regular school for two hours of Chinese lessons. The older one has been learning Chinese for 12 years and the younger one for 9 years. They were all born in America. But Chinese should understand the Chinese language because we are from the same ancestry.” I turned around and saw a Westerner passing by, and I handed a flyer to him. That Chinese person continued, “You’ve been deceived. You don’t know what’s written in your English flyers.” He slandered Master. He also said that we don’t cook for or take care of our families. I said, “You are wrong. I cook two meals a day. In a little while, I am going home to cook.” He said, “You go everywhere to distribute flyers and do not take care of your family. You husband must be upset about it.” I said, “On the contrary, after he saw how I became such a good person after practicing Falun Gong, he is also practicing.” Seeing that they became speechless. I handed them Dafa flyers right away. Three of them accepted them. The side of them that understood was functioning. Master said at the 2001 Lecture on the Fa at the Washington D.C. International Conference, “Clarifying the truth isn't a simple matter -- it's not only a matter of exposing the evil. When we clarify the truth we are saving sentient beings…”
Once, we were collecting signatures on 42nd Street. We ran into a young man who not only refused to sign but also uttered a few very bad words. I saw him talking loudly to a practitioner and at the same time translating the conversation to his Western friends. I went over and handed a set of Chinese materials to him. This young man said that he could not read Chinese. I asked him, “You’re so young. Why do you resent Falun Gong so much?” He said he learned about Falun Gong from the Chinese newspaper his father bought. After we clarified the truth to them, he gained a positive understanding of Falun Gong. I gave each of them a set of English flyers and also one set of Chinese flyers for the young man to take home to his parents. He happily accepted and said, “Thank you.” Seeing the two people who might be saved entering into the train station, I smiled.
One day in August, my husband and I were displaying some pictures and spreading the Fa in Chinatown. Shortly after we began, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law passed by. Seeing us standing there, she got angry even before we had the chance to greet her. She was already quite upset with my being here. Now, she saw her son doing the same thing. She said, “Aren’t you making a mistake – the two of you are selling pictures here.” A few passersby stopped and looked on. I thought that if this continued, it would damage the reputation of Dafa. I saw a practitioner walking toward us, and I immediately greeted him. My mother-in-law did not want to be seen having an argument, so she walked away. I thanked Master, “Thank you Master for your help.” When the onlookers left, my mother-in-law returned. She asked my husband to call others to replace him. She said she didn’t want other relatives to see him there. My husband said, “I’m doing this from my own free will. No one can force me to do this.” I continued, “We both feel very proud. You said that I forced him to do this. Now it’s you who is forcing him to leave, but he doesn’t want to leave. He is doing this from his own free will.” When she returned for the third time, she whispered a few words to her son and left. Her attitude completely changed. At around 6 pm, a Caucasian man started looking at the pictures. When he was almost finished, I handed him some flyers. He asked for more copies so he could take them back to his students. He taught high school in Long Island. There have been quite a few people like this. There are also people opposed to Dafa. Everyday, we try to awaken the kind nature and benevolent thoughts of people with the compassion cultivated from Dafa. We hope that they can be saved.
During the last three years of cultivation, there are many things I could have done better. I must study the Fa more and be more diligent. “…he carries great aspirations while minding minor details.” (From “Sage” in Essentials for Further Advancement) Finally I’d like to end my speech with Master’s poem “Solid Cultivation” (From “Hong Yin”)
Study the Fa and obtain the Fa,
Share in learning and share in cultivating,
Following [the Fa] in everything,
Compliance is cultivation.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, everyone!
