PureInsight | August 2, 2004
[PureInsight.org] I looked back at my cultivation during the past eight years and at many experiences over my whole life. Those experiences are scattered. One day, all of a sudden these scattered pieces came together and formed a theme, that my life is meant for Fa rectification and in the process of having lived all my previous lives I have come for Fa rectification.
My life's trivia would be insignificant had I not practiced Dafa. In a world of fame and fortune chasers, my stories seem unworthy of notice; because I was blessed to hear the Fa and practice Dafa and, more fortunately, I was handed the opportunity to help Master to rectify the Fa, these insignificant dots formed a golden thread.
The evildoers began persecuting Dafa in 1999. The Chinese consulates spread their lies, and these consular officials in a certain area showed a Dafa -slandering video during a Thanksgiving Party. I stood up to clarify the truth, and another practitioner requested to be given the opportunity to play a truth-clarifying video.
Afterwards I realized I should participate more frequently in activities held by Chinese student organizations, to help the Chinese students studying overseas learn about Dafa. During a 2000 Chinese New Year party, I ran back and forth to help the president of the student organization with the preparations. My kindness touched her and she asked me to be the next president. I had been a student leader, beginning in elementary school all the way to college. At that moment I realized that all of that was to prepare me for explaining the facts of Dafa.
During the following two years when I was the president of the Chinese Student and Scholars Organization, the Chinese embassy did not have any more opportunities to slander Dafa at my school. For the new terms, hen new students came I helped them search for housing. I picked them up at the airport, wearing a Dafa T-shirt. One day I spent all day picking them up and helping them out until midnight. I clarified the truth to them as soon as they entered the car. I had picnics with them and took pictures with them wearing Dafa T-shirts. I also clarified the truth to visiting scholars when they came to my school. Once, a schoolmate's wife called her parents in China who said derogatory things about Dafa. She immediately said, "Stop saying that! The president of our student organization and his wife are both Falun Gong practitioners, and they are both very good people."
In late 2000 I heard a fellow practitioner say that a newspaper is very important. I had edited news bulletin boards from elementary school to college. After I graduated from university I organized the compilation of a book. Several years had passed but the fellow practitioner's words came back into my mind and I immediately went to a bookstore and bought a book on typesetting software. I read half of the 800 + pages book without stopping. Then, together with several others I drove to Atlanta to study editing and software installation. After returning to Washington, D.C. we started preparing everything: buying a computer and installing the software and worked on our first newspaper while reading the book. Several of us sat in front of the computer for three days and two nights and then we sent the first newspaper to the print shop. I concentrated so hard that I forgot about fatigue. When we returned from the print shop I hardly had the strength to get out of the car. My experience of editing news bulletin boards in school time came in handy for Fa rectification.
During the 2001 July 20th Fa conference we planned to make 400 torture pictures to be used in the parade. The pictures needed to be framed for easy carrying. I designed an easy-to-make wooden frame. Because of urgent scheduling and because we didn't have professional tools, I thought about resorting to an out-of-state practitioner who is a carpenter, but he was participating in an SOS walk. When I was a young, my parents hired carpenters and I watched them make furniture. I also stole their tools to make wooden swords and knives. Maybe this is predestined, because my memory of making wooden toys as a child suddenly flashed across my mind. Within two days I visited all Home Depot stores in my area. I bought tools, lumber and nails and built a workshop. The night before the parade, with several practitioners' hard work, we made 200 large pictures frames and 200 small handles from over 500 pieces of wood. The next day these 400 pictures were shining in the magnificent parade. From then on I became one of the carpenter-practitioners in the D.C. area. My skills improved improved. I made wooden stands and folding screens used in picture exhibits, or built whatever was needed for work in Fa rectification.
Years ago, one day soon after I had graduated from college, my wife and I walked in the street of Beijing and I spotted an ad saying an adult school iswas recruiting students. I decided on computer science on the spot while my wife chose Chinese calligraphy and painting. My major is pharmaceutical science and I didn't know that much about computers. On the surface, I was learning computer science to expand my knowledge to suit my job. Later on, my computer skills proved to be extremely valuable in Fa rectification.
Before the New York Falun Dafa conference in early 1999, several Chinese experience-sharing articles needed to be typed. I had been in the U.S. for only one year then. I didn't have much money and needed to buy a car. Nonetheless, I had a strong feeling that I needed to make good use of my fast Chinese typing skill. I found a cheap notebook computer online. I placed the order and cancelled the order and placed the order again. I finally utilized my typing skills for Dafa work.
On July 20, 1999, practitioners from around the world gathered in Washington, D.C. to appeal for Dafa. We formed a computer group. In two weeks we quickly typed fellow practitioners' experiences and opinion articles and put them online.
The pre-destined arrangements are closely tied together. Soon after, I used my typing skills in clarifying the truth online. As truth clarification set higher standards for me, my computer knowledge lagged behind. So I bought a 900-page plus book about network servers. Because it was very technical and difficult to understand, I picked it up and put it down several times. Several thoughts emerged, "Will Fa rectification end soon? Is there enough time for me to read this book?" It eventually took me more than one month to finish this brick-like book. After that, my reading speed improved greatly. Sometimes when needed, I can finish reading a book in two or three days and have already finished about 20 books to improve my knowledge of computers and networks. My computer knowledge and skills have been enriched and my ability to maintain software and hardware, building websites, maintain a server and send emails have grown quite powerful because they are used for Fa rectification.
Since late 1999, most of the time I stayed at my office until around 3:00 a.m. to compile truth clarification materials, send truth clarification emails and study computer techniques. I was living by myself, so I ate at the office. I lived off of crackers and instant noodles for over one year. In early 2001, my wife and my one-year-old daughter came to the U.S.A. We were by then compiling human rights reports that were to be sent to the United Nations. We were up day and night, so I sent my wife and daughter to live with a fellow practitioner.
The three of us lived on less than 1,000 dollars a month salary, and the 4,000 dollars my wife brought from China were used to pay back credit card companies. Fellow practitioners helped us greatly during that time; they provided most of the toys and clothes for my daughter. Once, when my wife took my three-year-old daughter to shop, my daughter picked up one thing and put it down, saying to my wife, "Is this expensive? If it is, don't buy it, let's wait for someone to give it to us."
In order to make ends meet, I found a restaurant delivery job from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. It was during a time when we had many nighttime teleconferences to discuss Dafa projects. I participated in those conferences as I delivered food. Sometimes I accessed and left the conference calls several times and left other practitioners curious. Another time, when a Fa conference was held in Washington, D.C., I went to the conference in the daytime and shared in small groups at night. Then I rushed to the restaurant to pick up the deliveries. At 3:00 a.m. I went back home to drive a fellow practitioner to the airport. The switching of times and dimensions in the same day is like a montage in the movies.
Just as we were able to save a little money our old car died. We had to make nearly a $200.00 monthly payment on a used car. Just as we balanced out this expense, in early 2003 I got in a car accident. I didn't know how to pay the over 2,000 dollars for the repair. Fellow practitioners' consideration and righteous thoughts were a great help to me. One practitioner said, "Just take my car." He is a poor student just like me and only has one old car. His words, though, touched me. Ten practitioners in the Washington, D.C. area got into car accidents during that time. When we gathered to share experiences, we negated the tribulations arranged by the old force with righteous thoughts.
My car was damaged; I had no money; my wife was pregnant again. My wife and daughter didn't have health insurance then. I felt the pressure of living. My professor gave me one week off to deal with the car accident. As I spent large amounts of time to study and recite the Fa, I felt Fa rectification is far more important than pressures in daily life. I spent that week to finish a trial website relating to worldwide lawsuits against the chief perpetrators.
I had not finished my Ph.D. degree, but I had to find a job. I sent out over 100 resumes but didn't receive a single response. I had no work experience and the economic recession made it difficult for me to get a job. It was like a dark cloud hovering around my heart - sometimes dense, sometimes light. Perhaps because of predestined relationships, I suddenly remembered a fellow practitioner who had experienced greater difficulties than me. I called her and asked if she could afford to pay her rent. She reluctantly admitted that she was broke. So I took some money out of my savings account and helped her out. Soon thereafter, her car died. This time, no matter how much I wanted, I could not help her anymore, but I never forgot about her car. Coincidentally, another practitioner was going to buy a new car and wanted to sell his old car to the dealer. I rushed to him but was too late. He had already gone to the dealer. Hope disappeared. Two days later, the practitioner came to me and asked if I wanted his old car because the car dealer's price was too low and he wanted to keep it. I told the practitioner in need of a workable car about this one being available and it saved her much trouble. These predestined relationships were brought into play along with my every thought.
This predestined relationship gave me courage and righteous thoughts and helped me eliminate fear. As Dafa practitioners, we should validate the Fa at all times instead of improving our abilities to live. The difficulty is not how to solve a problem but whether we can see the main thread of Fa rectification from the distracting, multitudinous surface phenomena at every step and to be aware of what we came for in this life.
Soon after, I heard a company was looking for a temporary employee. I worked out an agreement with my professor that I would work for the company from Monday through Friday, and on the weekends I would write my dissertation and work in the lab. My financial situation improved, but I was under heavy time constraints. I had to better utilize every minute so my Fa rectification work would not be affected. Two months later, because of my outstanding performance, the company offered me to interview for four different positions.
Twenty days before my wife delivered our new baby, I changed from temporary to permanent employee. My family received medical insurance. Over 4,000 dollars incurred during the delivery of the baby would be covered. My son was born on in October 2003, the day of the Houston Fa conference. It seems he couldn't wait to attend a Fa conference.
My heart grew calm with a satisfying job. Two months later, my car overturned on the highway. A fellow practitioner, her one-year-old son and I were unscathed. The car was totaled and I had yet to make over $8,000 in car payments. This was during the Global Chinese New Year Gala in New York and Washington, D.C., and I didn't have time to mind these tribulations. I used the time to clarify the truth to as many people as I could.
Several months later, my company re-structured and our group's project was shut down. I knew the old forces would use every opportunity to intensify the persecution, so I sent forth righteous thoughts on a more frequent basis. The day came and more than 200 people including me were laid off. My family's livelihood bore on my mind and my colleagues cried. I asked myself repeatedly, "Why did this happen?" The thread of Fa rectification again came to mind. Very calmly I said to my colleagues, "I had heart disease at the age of 27 and would have died had I not practiced Dafa. In the past five years, Falun Gong practitioners in China suffered tremendously because they are being good people and spoke the truth. It is only a small thing to lose my job." They were surprised that I could be so composed. Now I regret I didn't find more opportunities to clarify the truth to my colleagues.
I worked for that company for exactly ten months. The tremendous change in Fa rectification activities and fellow practitioners' magnificent feat in Fa rectification during that time did not create a mood to lament my fate after losing my job. While I was looking for another job, at the same time I full-heartedly devoted myself to Fa rectification. I clarified the truth to people in the U.S. legal community, human rights organizations and the media around the world, using the as an example the incidents of Jiang being served with several lawsuits overseas. I also helped pass the aspirations of "Peace Pedals," little practitioners who biked in North America, to the world, participated in the lawsuit against Bo Xilai and did other things.
Three months flew by. I found a better job. This time I felt calm – felt less joy and also less worry. Such is the ebb and flow of life. Fa rectification is an opportunity that will never come by again.
Master said in "Touring North America to Teach the Fa,"
"Since mankind was created for Dafa, Dafa is this play's main theme, and all sentient beings' existences revolve around this main theme. It's just that people have been engrossed with the conflicts and clashes that have been acted out in the details of the play, and have forgotten the play's main theme and the purpose of life."
I know I came for Dafa in this life, and had come for Dafa in all my past lives. I used to practice martial arts and qigong to obtain a healthy body and also had become a lay Buddhist. All of these were done to prepare me to obtain the Fa. I edited news bulletin boards and made wooden swords and knives in my youth. I was a student leader and a student journalist. I hosted organization parties and learned about computers, all of which were used in Fa rectification. Master's benevolence put together pieces of my life and formed a golden thread for Fa rectification. Master guides me to take part in the glory of Fa rectification. He shows me the magnificence of a Fa rectification disciple and leads me on the path to return to my true, original self and achieve Consummation by assimilating to Truth, Compassion and Tolerance.
I have overcome numerous tribulations because of my predestined relationship with Dafa. No matter how difficult, I have always stayed within the whole body of Fa rectification. Many times we help each other as fellow practitioners on the difficult path of Fa rectification. I participated in numerous projects and paid attention to everything in Fa rectification. I often helped fellow practitioners by fixing their computers, building websites and sending emails. Sometimes I had a row of computers waiting to be fixed. On the surface I spent some time and energy, but I am the one who is truly benefited. When I am in the midst of a tribulation, the whole body of Dafa practitioners helps me to connect tighter with Fa rectification, so my heart beat along with Fa rectification instead of being affected by so-called tribulations arranged by the old force.
I cherish all of the abilities and opportunities Master gave me, and I will maximally use them for Fa rectification and try my best not to be affected by show-off mentality and attachment to fame and fortune.
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference," "This affair itself brings a great deal of honor, so Dafa disciples need to be worthy of such an honor."
Thank you, Master; thank you, fellow practitioners
