Falun Dafa Association of Atlanta
The Great Way
Yue L.
Dear Master and dear fellow practitioners,
my name is Yue L. It has been 19 years since I became a Falun Gong practitioner in 1998. The following experience sharing will be from several aspects of my cultivation.
1. Practicing Falun Dafa
I first heard about Dafa on July 4, 1998 when I watched our Master’s lecture at the “Beijing First Publishing Ceremony of Zhuan Falun”. Wow, it is so wonderful, I must find a copy of Zhuan Falun to read. That night, I went to Li Y.’s home to get a book of Zhuan Falun. After returning home, I read the book all night. I was so excited that all the confusions in my life had answers in the book, the Fa was so immense and encompassed everything. But at that time I did not decide to practice Dafa immediately, because I felt that the practice would take so much time and I might have to put off so many things. It was as if I was not ready at that time. Later, I got all the Dafa books, videotapes of Master’s lectures from Li Y. I spent every minute I had to read the books and watch the videos. I read the books whenever I got a minute at work. The first thing I did as soon as I arrived home after work was watching the videos. Sometimes, I was watching the video while having my dinner. Many of the videos of Master’s lectures were watched a dozen times repeatedly, I could even recite many sentences of master’s lectures. I could follow one sentence to the next. In this way, until more than two months later, I finally decided to practice, cultivate Dafa and go home with our Master.
Shortly thereafter, 4.25 Beijing petition took place, followed by the evil CCP‘s overwhelming persecution of Dafa that began on 7.20. As an overseas Dafa disciple, my fellow practitioners and I have embarked on a extraordinary journey of anti-persecution, assisting Master to rectify the Fa and saving sentient beings. Looking back over the past 19 years, we have been under the care and guidance of our Master every step of the way, and my heart is filled with gratitude. Dafa disciples' participation in the parades, raising banners during the parade, deciding what kind of banners we should carry, should we spend money to do newspapers, what kind of media we needed to clarify the truth, spreading Nine Commentaries, asking the sentient beings to withdraw from the evil party and their youth organizations, how to promote Shen Yun and so on, every step reflected the improvement and sublimation of Dafa disciples in the process of assisting Master to rectify the Fa, saving sentient beings.
In his lectures, Master repeatedly stressed that Dafa disciples must study the Fa diligently. As a disciple I never dared to slack off with my studies. Very often, the revelation of the Fa from Master’s lectures touched me profoundly, but most of the time the initial shock would be gone, and soon I forgot Master’s teachings. Of course, occasionally, some of the jurisprudence can be engraved deeply in my heart, such as a master’s teaching in the fourth lecture "Transformation of Karma" in Zhuan Falun: "There is also an inheriting process.” In the past I read this paragraph countless times, often had a vague feeling, that was, "the family, the grandparents" seemed to talk about others, that did not have much to do with me. But this time was not the same, the Fa showed its true meaning in my level: every Dafa disciple is the king and lord in your universe, you are the highest ancestor in your big family of the universe. If you don’t do well, it will affect all living beings in your entire universe. Shocked, I suddenly felt the responsibility on my shoulders had never been so heavy. If we do not work well, we would let our Master down, we would let Dafa down, we would let countless beings at all levels down. I must work hard!
Every time Master's new lecture came out, I asked myself to read it at least ten times, or even more, to deepen my understanding of the Fa so as to keep up with Master's Fa-rectification process. In all his lectures, Master said that all the other lectures are the explanation of Zhuan Falun. Master said in the Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference: "And at each Fa Conference Master is explaining Zhuan Falun, never does it go beyond that.” I was not so thorough to begin to understand this statement. Until one time in the study of the Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003, Master said: "At very high levels where there are physical forms, Trinity is the composition of True Body, True Spirit, and Thought--that's the Trinity." and then Master told us how he came down from the universe through different realms. I suddenly understood Master’s teaching in Zhuan Falun: "my roots are tied in the universe, whoever can move you can move me, he can move the universe". And I understood that the future universe would never come to an end, because our master is everywhere in the future universe.
During my Fa studies, my biggest doubt was why I didn’t find any explanation of Fa rectification in Zhuan Falun? Once, I studied Master’s teachings, our master showed me the meaning of the Fa in this area, Master explained in the Zhuan Falun in detail the structure of the human body, and in many places of the book talked about how "the human body is a small universe". In the seventh lecture, Master talked about treatment of illness, there are different levels of treatments, qigong treatment, Chinese medicine treatment, Western medicine treatment and a variety of folk treatment methods and so on. If the human body is a small universe, wouldn’t the treatment of human body equal to curing the universe? To the highest level of development, wouldn't this be the exact same thing that our master is doing to rectify and save the universe?
Every time I had a new understanding of Fa, I would be very shocked, excited, and slowly I become calmer and calmer, because I deeply felt that understanding the Fa is of course a good thing, but what's more important is to practice it in reality, which might be another matter. Master said in Hong Yin, Solid Cultivation: "Let each and every thing be measured against the Fa." We often realized the profoundness of Fa, but were not necessarily able to practice it, because it is too difficult. Of course, if you don’t even understand the Fa, it is simply impossible to practice it.
2. Telling the truth
After 7.20, I saw the evil CCP launched an overwhelming slandering propaganda, and many of my fellow practitioners consciously got involved tellinf the truth over the Internet. Because we didn’t have experience at the beginning, when some ordinary people put forward a lot of tricky questions, we really didn’t know how to answer, how to tell the truth. At that time one person asked us on the Internet: your master said, "The First Emperor of Qin killed many people in the course of unifying China. He killed the rulers of many states.“ [Zhuan Falun Volume II]. The Emperor in China's history started from the First Emperor of Qin, how could he have killed other emperors? Unless the word emperor is used before the First Emperor of Qin. Many disciples tried their best to explain, but he was not satisfied, or even cursed us online. I warned my fellow practitioners not to argue with him, because it would not help him to understand. At the same time, I sent a message to that ordinary person to say that you raised a very good question, but I don’t know the answer yet, I will ask other people to provide an answer to your question. Suddenly he did not have the original arrogance, but changed his attitude, “ok, I am waiting for you.” I asked a few more experienced disciples in this area, but I did not get a good answer. I was very anxious, because I did not know how to answer this question. When I opened the first lecture of Zhuan Falun, "I made a careful investigation once and found that humankind has undergone complete annihilation 81 times." I immediately understood, Oh, I have the answer now! I immediately went online to the ordinary people to write a reply to him: "Our master said: mankind has undergone complete annihilation at least eighty times.”
If during the 81 human civilizations, each time had only one emperor, then from this big historical point of view, the First Emperor of Qin could only be regarded as the 82nd emperor. In fact, he was not the first emperor in human history. That depends from which angle you look at this. He did not say a word. Later, he raised a lot of other questions, he always specifically asked me to answer, and his attitude was completely different from the beginning. Now he is willing to discuss, he was no longer arrogant, and of course, I had answered his questions one by one.
At that time, I was on the Internet with a variety of people to tell the truth: there were students, Christians, Buddhists and all kinds of people. At the beginning I did not know where to start, or even simply did not speak, but later, I could answer questions in all areas regarding science, religion and faith. Even now, when I go back to see those posts I wrote more than a decade ago, I am very surprised, I do not know how I could have written them at that time. Of course, there could only be one explanation, that is, "Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of going is done by one’s master".
With the development of the Fa-rectification process, now we have our own newspapers, television stations, numerous websites and call systems and other truth-telling projects, greatly enhancing the abilities of our Dafa disciples to tell the truth and save sentient beings. Of course, Shen Yun, the project led by Master is the biggest human saving project. My work of telling the truth has expanded from network, television, newspapers to Shen Yun promotion.
Once, at a year-end trade show, we promoted Shen Yun. I met a Chinese lady whose husband is an American. Since our daughters are in the same ballet dance school, we knew each other. I took the initiative to introduce the Shen Yun Performance to her. After I said just a few words, she shouted up: “I like all things in China. How can you say that in this world you are the only one to promote Chinese culture, that you are the only one representing China, representing the tradition?!” She was very unhappy. I did not argue with her, just thought, what did I do? Is there anything I didn’t explain well?
After I walked around for a while, I met her again. I found a chance to apologize first: “I'm sorry,” I said, “I was a little anxious, I did not explain well. I mean, how many of us really know their true culture and tradition, because they have been completely destroyed. For example, the Christmas is around the corner, you have come to the United States for so many years, your husband is American, you sure know why the Americans celebrating Christmas, right? Also you know the New Year's Day and last month's Thanksgiving Day. But, as a Chinese, can you tell me why we Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year?”
She was startled and silenced. Then I took the opportunity to tell her the truth: “This is not our Chinese people’s fault, because we grew up from children to adults, we have never been taught the most fundamental Chinese culture and traditional customs. But think about it, we the Chinese people have five thousand years of history, we don’t even know why we celebrate the Chinese New Year, what kind of tragedy it is! And Shen Yun is precisely representing the real brilliant five thousand years of culture of China. Isn’t it a pride of the Chinese people?”
Ever since then, whenever I met many Chinese people, I would take this issue as an opportunity to tell them the truth. I found that almost 100% of the Chinese people I met did not know the history and tradition of the Chinese New Year. And, many people, when they know the truth, would feel very ashamed.
3. Joining the New Tang Density TV
In 2001, under the guidance of Master, Dafa disciples set up NTDTV. From the beginning of the first broadcast, I participated in the production of sports topics. Before I practiced Falun Gong, I was very dedicated to sports, but after I practiced Falun Gong, I gave them up. I never dreamed that this could be a tool to save people at NTDTV. But after a while, I began to envy my fellow practitioners who worked on the projects of telling truth. I felt that the sports program cannot save people, but was a waste of time. Thanks to Master’s lectures specifically to the NTDTV disciples, “TV station should have programs that the ordinary people are happy to see, we cannot only have Dafa truth telling programs, then the ordinary people will not come." (not his exact words). In this way, I gradually felt at ease.
Once in meditation, suddenly a scene appeared in front of my eyes: one day in the future, our respected Master comes to the New Tang Dynasty TV to give lectures to all the living beings around the world. Seeing this, I had a deeper understanding of the profound meaning of the NTDTV projects. But as time went by, I saw many of our TV programs discontinued. Programs made from scratch and kept working were scarce and far between. I secretly swore to master: no matter what difficulties encountered later, I promise to do the programs of NTD to the end, never giving up halfway. Be sure to let the future people of the world hear our master’s lectures on our television.
It was easier said than done. Most of the time we had large Fahui in the weekend, and the world's major sports are mostly in the weekend, too. So this time was my time to show the program. Because I could not prepare in advance, every time I had to work overtime, often working all night. After so many years, the programs I was working on were never delayed or missed because of my attending Fahui.
Another difficulty was to coordinate with fellow practitioners. There has always been some tough times in the past years. At the beginning, when there was a problem, I tried to tolerate and endure, but I always complained inside. Later, I realized that all the problems were opportunities to cultivate and improve. Once we were broadcasting a major international football game, the first part of the game was completed, but the final part was still in progress, the fellow practitioner who was the host of the program suddenly said that he was going out of the city. I said okay but asked him to take a laptop with him. I thought after I finished the final draft, he would be able to do a remote voiceover online.
But the fellow practitioner said that there were too many stuff in his car, no room for a laptop. I hastened to say that you can put it under your seat, but he did not want to take a laptop. I wished to persuade him to take it, but suddenly I felt that that was a chance for my cultivation, so I said: “Forget it.” There was no complaint in my heart.
Looking back, I suddenly understood, if you want to cultivate in this matter, you must encounter such difficulties, and must face it, you could not bypass it. Though I understood this, but I still felt really worried. I talked to master in my heart: Master, the best chef could not cook without rice, without voice for the program, how could we broadcast it? At that time, I suddenly had a brainstorm. I have found all the dubs of the fellow practitioner in front of me, and spent a lot of time to piece them together, and the finale was done! The effect was not bad, if one did not listen carefully, one could not detect the difference. I overcame this difficulty and I was very happy. Thank you master.
3. Solid cultivation during sudden incident
I have practiced Dafa for nearly 19 years, I have encountered many difficulties, large and small, some I handled well, some I didn’t. Once at home working on a project, my mind was on the project while I was using the bathroom. When I left the toilet, I found the toilet was filled with blood. Over ten layers of toilet paper were soaked in blood. I was surprised, "How come? What is wrong with me?" Then, I brushed it off, “Who cares, I give this one hundred and more pounds’ body to master." And I kept doing whatever I was working on and never gave a second thought. So many years have passed, it never happened again. After the incident, I shared this experience with fellow practitioners. I felt good about myself. Until some time ago, in retrospect of my journey of cultivation over the years, I was surprised to find that I didn’t handle it well. I was in the second thought that I would give up myself to our master. My first thought was the same as the reaction of ordinary people.
And then looking further I found my reaction on many unexpected events was always "I, I, I", the second reaction, the third, and only after a while did I begin to have righteous thoughts. I was determined to improve in this area, to make a breakthrough. But it is easier said than done. It seemed that there was an automatic mechanism in my body, whenever I encountered unexpected events, the first thought that automatically came out is "I, I, I", for a long time I could not break it. It made me very depressed.
Finally, once we finished Shen Yun, I loaded a car with kitchen utensils to another city for the next performance, but when I just left the town for an hour, the gearbox of my Honda wagon was burned, it stopped by the roadside of a highway. Our chef practitioners were waiting at the next stop of the show to cook for the actors and actresses of Shen Yun, they all relied on the kitchen utensils in my car. My first thought was to do everything possible to ship the utensils to the destination on time. I must not let these utensils affect the next Shen Yun show. It was urgent, but I was very calm. I sat in my car, a female fellow practitioner said something that was like pouring oil on fire: “Oh, how can I have such bad luck riding with you."
I was not affected, and quickly called another fellow practitioner to send another car, and at the same time called a local wrecking service to pull my car off the roadside. Everything seemed very smooth. In less than three hours, I was driving another car on the road. When I arrived at the next stop at night and gave the kitchen utensils to the fellow practitioners, my heart was filled with emotion. This time I finally cultivated in this emergency situation, from start to finish I did not think about myself, nor thought about the car; I didn’t worry if my wife would be unhappy and angry with the expenses of car repair. Of course, this was far from my practice goal - 100% righteous thoughts when I encounter an emergency situation. I will continue to work towards this goal.
4. Dafa disciples have only one way – to advance further
I am now a full time worker for Dafa. In addition to work on TV topics, I also work for the local Epoch Times sales, am responsible for delivering newspapers and the promotion and coordination of Shen Yun in Southeast United States. I also cook for my wife who is not a practitioner.
There were times that various projects had to be completed at the same time, I was so overwhelmed. I often wished that I could be split into several persons. Finally, the only way I could complete all the projects on time was reducing my sleep time to 3 or 4 hours a night, eating only 2 meals a day, and sometimes even skipping meals. During the busiest time, I had eaten nothing in two days, I only drank some water. So I always felt that in any case I should be regarded a diligent disciple.
But at the beginning of this year, the president of the media, on behalf of the media, made a request to Master, hoping that the end of Fa Rectification would be delayed so as to save more sentient beings. He also conveyed Master's argument. Master said, "The advanced disciples want Master to delay the end of Fa-rectification. Those who are not advanced hope that master quickly ends it" (not his exact words). I was shocked to hear Master’s teachings. Though I had not hoped that Master had finished the Fa-rectification as soon as possible, I did not wish Master to delay the end of Fa-rectification either. I was at an average level of advancement. Advanced disciples race against time every day to tell the truth to save people, and saw that there were so many people not saved, that the time was running too fast. It was only natural that they hoped from their hearts that Master would extend the time in order to save more people. But I did not have this level. So, I began to look at my own cultivation. In the past I practiced once or twice a week, and now I wanted to practice every day; in the past I often learnt the Fa but could not remember. And now I wanted to start recite the Fa, completely reversing my current situation. At the same time, I intensified the truth telling to the Chinese people.
Why do we have to save the people in the present world? Because in the course of the long evolution of the universe, like us, they gave up the heavens in different realms of the universe and followed the steps of our master to Earth. But if they are not saved at the last critical moment of this Fa-rectification, hundreds of millions of years of effort will come to naught, as the old orders are disintegrated. Our Dafa disciples are just a step ahead of them. Although we are now in the right, but if we cannot honor our vows, we will be like them. So there is no second way to go for our Dafa disciples, no retreat, only to practice, to further advance to the end of this road.
In case there is anything inappropriate, please compassionately correct me.
Thank you all.
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