PureInsight | July 1, 2002
Dear Master Li and fellow practitioners! I am F. from Chicago, and I started practicing Falun Gong in July of 1998. I’ll report to you my experiences during my cultivation of Dafa.
Before I came to the USA, I had been hoping to learn Qi Gong, but didn’t do it because I was too busy or for whatever other reasons. I immigrated to Chicago in 1989. On one occasion, I took part in a so-called “Music Qi Gong” class, and bought a tape there. But the tape broke the second time I listened to it, so I stopped. I asked other people in the class about it, but their tapes were OK. Now I understand that this was not a random circumstance.
On July 18, 1998, I read an introduction to Falun Gong in the Chinese newspaper, ShengZhou Times. It said you could practice in your own home. Since I had been looking for an easy and flexible Qi Gong to practice, I was very interested. I knew one of the contact persons listed. So I called her, and visited her home on July 20, 1998. After meeting her, she said that all the righteous Qi-Gong practices that had appeared in China before were meant to pave the way for Falun Gong. I was deeply impressed by this comment and thought:” Oh, actually Falun Gong is what I have been waiting for. I’ll study it diligently.” I instantly learned first four sets of Falun Gong exercises, got a copy of “The Great Consummation Law” and an exercise instruction tape. So I started my learning at home.
On July 27, 1998 I got the book, Zhuan Falun. Everything in the book was all new to me. Some things I thought were right. Some things I didn’t understand. Some of the things I thought were important, so I read the book and marked it until I got to the ninth lecture in the book. In the section “Enlightenment” Master Li said:” Some people just cannot improve their enlightenment quality. They casually make marks in my book. Those of our practitioners with the Celestial Eye open can each see that this book looks very colorful, golden, and shiny. Each word bears the image of my fashen. If I tell lies, I will be deceiving everyone. That mark you made looks very dark. How do you dare to casually make marks in it? What are we doing here? Aren’t we guiding you to practice cultivation toward high levels? There are things you should also think about. This book can guide your cultivation practice. Don’t you think it’s precious? Can you truly practice cultivation by worshipping the Buddha? You are very reverent and dare not even lightly touch that Buddha statue for which you burn incense daily, yet you dare to ruin the Dafa that can truly guide your cultivation practice. ”
At this time I felt very sorry for the marks I had made. So I talked, in my mind, to Master Li: “Dear Master, please forgive me, I am just ignorant about this.”
So I tried to erase those marks, but it was hard. After reading that copy of Zhuan Falun three or five times, I didn’t read it anymore. But I remembered some sentences in the book. For example, Master Li said :” To tell you the truth, the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments.” This sentence has been the guidepost for my cultivation. I check myself all the time with this sentence.
My thinking was that only Master Li, only truth-compassion-tolerance shall be in my mind. I even thought: “Dafa is my life.”
I didn’t study Fa for a few months. Though I tried to be good, it was hard to do it.
One night, I had a dream in which a gang of people with guns were rushing at me, while others quickly ran away. Just as I was going to run, one of them pointed a gun at me and said: “Have you read the book?” The next morning, I realized that was Master Li was reminding me to read Dafa books. So I took the Zhuan Falun I had marked up and thought:” I marked in this book, so better not give the book to others. I’ll use this book to guide my cultivation! Until I reach consummation, I will not change my book.” I tried again to erase the marks, this time with success. For nearly four years, the book has been with me no matter where I study the Fa, whether at home or at a group study elsewhere.
In July 20, 1999, just at the time when I attained Dafa for one year, Jiang Zemin started slandering Falun Gong in China. Hearing the vilification of Dafa, I had thoughts or even doubts about Dafa, but generally, it did not shake my righteous belief in Master Li and Dafa. I still kept on practicing outdoors. But gradually, once the slandering and propaganda from the Chinese government became vicious, and due to some people’s sarcastic comments, I didn’t dare practice outdoors anymore and just practiced in my home.
Once I read an article on the Minghui web site that said: “Life can be given up, but not Dafa. I should protect Dafa and Master Li with my life.” I cried. After reading other articles, I became more determined. I talked to myself: “If it really happened that I should use my life to protect Dafa and Master Li, would I do it? Would I be scared to die?” I told myself: “So many people are not scared, so why am I?” I then visualized that if nobody knew it, I would not be scared of being killed or of dying. But if I were insulted by being paraded through the streets while bound up, I would be afraid. I imagined cases in which different torture methods or insults were applied to me to see how I would face them. I knew it would be hard. But by asking myself such questions again and again, I was mentally better prepared to face difficulties. After that, I started to practice outdoors again.
After August 31, 2001, Mid-USA practitioners planned a ten day hunger strike to ask all people to pay attention to the persecution against Falun Gong in China. I participated in three days of it. I joined the hunger strike with a tranquil mind with no fear at all. The only thing on my mind was to call for redress for Dafa and Dafa practitioners in China. I was not hungry during the three hunger strike days. I kept walking back and forth to give out Dafa truth materials, and I was full of energy and very happy.
When the hunger strike finished, I began to meditate and send forth righteous thoughts in front of the Chinese Consulate for one hour every day. I was a little scared on the first day. During the hunger strike days, they dared to beat Dafa practitioners even with so many practitioners onsite. But I was determined. When I got there, nobody else was there. I thought about it for a second, and then sat down. Except for special cases, I would go there everyday. On weekends, another practitioner would go with me. We took trains there, and sent out Dafa truth materials on the way. One big issue for me is that I do not understand English. At the beginning, I would ask Master Li:” Dear teacher, I do not know English, please help me on the road.” Actually, I really would get lost if I made mistakes on the way.
At first, I was afraid of people asking me questions when passing out English materials. Then I thought:” What I am out for? Isn’t it to tell the truth to people? So why I am afraid of being asked?” So I started by telling people that I did not understand English, then I’d show them the photos, proclamations about Dafa, and the pictures of Dafa practitioners being tortured in China, then tell them about the web site. In this way, even some people who didn’t accept my materials at first would accept it and read them carefully. Sometimes they greeted me and shook hands with me. Some might ask for more copies for others.
Ever since I went to the Chinese consulate to practice Falun Gong, and experienced the wind, frost, rain and snow, I became more and more energetic and determined with powerful righteous thoughts. I felt that I was just following an arrangement made by Master Li.
I would usually finish the meditation at 11:30 AM. On wintry snowy days, it might at 12:00 pm or even evening. When it was really cold, there might be too much snow, but I could always find a spot free of snow along the walls. One day I saw a lot of snow outside due to the previous night’s heavy snow fall, and I thought:” I may not be able to do the sitting meditation today.” But when I got there, somebody had cleared the snow off.
I didn’t like rainy days because they made it hard for me to practice meditation and deliver Dafa truth materials. One morning, I took an umbrella with me. When I was two blocks away from the Chinese consulate, the rain became very heavy, making it even hard to just stand there. I talked in my mind to Master Li:” Dear teacher, the rain is so heavy. If teacher has arranged this rain to test me, I would sit in the rain without hesitation. But, if it’s to disturb my sending out righteous thoughts, I’ll eliminate it. Dear teacher, please help me!” So I send out righteous thoughts while walking, at the end of the two blocks’ walk, the rain stopped. So I just sat down and started sending forth righteous thoughts, then even the drizzling stopped.
After Master Li’s latest articles:” Righteous thoughts and righteous actions” and “The Difficult path to godhood” were published, I realized that I go to the Chinese consulate for the purpose of eliminating evil and to save even more people, so how could I be afraid of a little rain? I should make use of the opportunity to eliminate more evil. No matter what attachment it is, we should get rid of it.
