From a Farmer's Hoe to a Computer Mouse

Greetings, revered Teacher, greetings, everyone!

I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Jilin Province in China who started to cultivate Falun Dafa in 1998. I am a farmer in my thirties, living in a remote rural area. I have experienced and being through many hardships since I was very young, and I have received little education. Living in poverty and in a spiritual void, I developed the bad habit of drinking to excess. In order to make money, I slaughtered sheep. I also often sold adulterated grains and cheated people by short-changing them. In my ignorance, I accumulated much karma.

In February of 1998, I started to practise Falun Dafa. I finished reading the Falun Gog teachings in the book Zhuan Falun in one sitting. I was very excited, having finally found my life's goal. I made up my mind to cultivate right up till consummation. To stop drinking was the first big obstacle I had to contend with. Because my desire for alcohol was so strong, on the first day that I stopped drinking, I couldn't even eat anything. With help from the teachings in Falun Dafa, I was able to pass this test after a great deal of effort. Since that day, I have never again drunk any alcohol. I have continued along my path of cultivation with a firm mind.

After I started to practise Falun Dafa, I removed many bad habits and started to act as a righteous person. I also helped people around me to learn Falun Dafa by buying books for them and providing a place for them to practise the Falun Dafa exercises. Then without warning the persecution started on the 20th of July, 1999. From then on I started to cultivate under an extremely harsh environment whilst using my efforts to let people know the true facts about Falun Gong and the persecution.

Because there was a shortage of factual information about Falun Gong, I asked some people who don't practise Falun Gong to print some Falun Gong related materials for me. They charged a high price, and I didn't have much money to spare, yet I could not find a better way, so I kept using my own money to pay the printing costs. Later on, I shared my experiences with some practitioners around me who had not stepped forward to appeal for Falun Dafa, encouraging them to step forward so that we could act together to let more people know about Falun Gong. Gradually more and more practitioners came out to appeal for Falun Dafa, forming a large group locally, which powerfully suppressed the people responsible for the persecution.

Because I did not understand the Falun Gong teachings well, the evil took advantage of my attachments and arrested me. In spite of the brutal torture, I remained firm and refused to cooperate with them. After I escaped in 2002, I was forced to leave home and go from place to place to avoid arrest. I helped out at a site for producing Falun Gong materials.

The local production site experienced many tribulations. Since 1999 it has been destroyed many times by the authorities. This created a huge dent to our local efforts to let more people become aware of the truth. My fellow practitioners became numb and passively withstood the persecution. For some time, the dark cloud of persecution covered the whole area. Most of the diligent practitioners who participated in the work of the productions site were arrested, resulting in a shortage of manpower. The remaining practitioners lacked experience and the necessary skills. We lost the source of truth-clarifying materials for the whole area, and everyone was worried. Having experienced many attacks, the local practitioners were all afraid and felt that there was nothing they could do.

Later the practitioner who had the skill to reach the Internet through the blockade was also arrested, and we could not access the Minghui (Falun Gong) website anymore. Not knowing about the events transpiring in Fa rectification or being able to read Teacher's new articles, we suffered greatly, as though we were blinded. Eventually a Falun Gong practitioner from another area heard about our situation, and helped us access the Internet and produce more materials. The practitioner bought a computer and a printer for us, but no one knew how to use them. The available practitioners were either old or poorly educated, and most of us had never even touched a computer.

There was a struggle in my mind: although I was the appropriate candidate to learn the computer skills, I was very afraid, realising that all the practitioners who had accessed the Internet for us had been arrested, and I would be no exception if I learnt the skill. At that time I had just come from the local detention centre, where I was so badly tortured that I lost consciousness several times. I was still under the shadow of the persecution. The struggle in my mind was very intense - to step back and protect myself in the face of hardship or to bravely step forward to learn how to get to the web, letting go of my attachment to life and death in order to serve Dafa. After a few days of struggle, I finally decided to learn the computer skills to reach the Internet. Looking back at the incident, I now feel that my fear originated from my unclear understanding of the Falun Dafa teachings.

When the practitioner put the computer and printer in front of me, I was overwhelmed. When the practitioner asked me if I knew how to use the mouse, I said with much difficulty, "I have never even touched one." Hearing that, the other practitioner felt nearly as helpless as I did. My heart was beating hard, and I said to myself, "The task of accessing the Internet for the whole area is now on my shoulders, and all the practitioners are eagerly waiting. What will happen if I cannot learn the skills? This is a huge responsibility!"

Having been a farmer all my life, I had spent most of my time performing hard physical labour. My palms are covered with thick calluses. I worked with hoes so much that my hands were stiff and distorted, and my fingers would not straighten. I have no trouble doing farm work, but manipulating a computer mouse is extremely difficult for me: I could not even double click on the left side of the rounded, slippery object. Opening a file was hard, and I could not double click on the icon after several attempts. To make things worse, my brain is not used to thinking about these tiny things. While the practitioner was teaching me, my brain was completely empty, and I could not remember a thing. As if all of this were not enough, the practitioner who came to teach me was very busy and had only three days to teach me the skills. I felt that learning how to use a computer was harder than ascending to heaven.

Later I reminded myself, "I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, so I am capable of doing anything. I am doing the most righteous things, so I should eliminate all interference." In my heart, I said, "Teacher, please help me." I tried to expel the notions and obstacles in my mind, such as, "I am a farmer, I have little education, and I am not intelligent enough." I reminded myself that I am a practitioner, so those factors could not restrain me. Finally, with help from Teacher, I learnt the basic computer skills needed for copying files, typesetting, and printing in three days.

After that, the practitioner who taught me left, and I worked by myself on the computer for the first week. I finished the typesetting work without any difficulty, but I still had a lot to learn. I continued to learn how to download files, repair printers, and use common software. The more I learnt, the more difficult the tasks ahead appeared. As I learnt how to do all this, the practitioner who taught me would at times get impatient with me. Sometimes he criticised me sternly. I felt pretty sad and thought I was being treated unfairly. At times the idea of quitting came to mind, but I immediately realised that this idea was wrong, and I should look inward. This practitioner came from far away to teach me in order to serve the needs of Fa-rectification.

Actually, anything we do during Fa-rectification is related to our own cultivation and for the improvement of our characters. Bigger responsibilities come with the higher requirements of our character, and nothing happens accidentally. I needed to clearly differentiate personal cultivation from Fa-rectification cultivation. In the Fa-rectification period, Teacher does not arrange any tribulations for us. All the "tribulations" and interference we meet are obstacles in our path of clarifying the truth about Falun Gong and saving sentient beings. I should not passively tolerate it or think I was being "tested." In fact, the old forces arranged everything we've encountered a long time ago. The purpose of their "tests" was to create the "mighty virtue" for us. I need to negate their arrangements and follow the path arranged for us by Teacher, doing the three things well and validating Dafa righteously, because the paths Teacher arranged for us are wide and golden paths. Our cultivation is following the mechanisms that Teacher arranged for us.

I calmed down and analysed all the problems I ran into. I asked myself why, in spite of my great effort, is it still so difficult? I concluded that it was caused by the interference of the old forces. Clearly recognising the interference based on the principles of Dafa, I was able to firmly negate them. Suddenly my mind became crystal clear, with all the knowledge and computers skills I was unable to learn before flashing into my brain. I understood them clearly and quickly. I smiled and said in my mind to the old forces, "Your arrangements are empty now. You have failed." Slowly, I became familiar with computers and mastered the necessary skills required for what I needed to do. With the help of Teacher's law body and my fellow practitioners, I was able to struggle through the process of "going from a hoe to a computer mouse."

After I had learnt the basic computer skills, I started to teach others. I deeply understand the importance of having computer skills for validating Dafa, as well as the great difficulty practitioners face when no one in the area has them. In my area, I helped several practitioners learn how to use computers. As the Fa-rectification has progressed, several of these practitioners have founded material production sites in their local areas. As a result, that form of validating Dafa in our area is taking flight.

Our Internet browsing site has been working reliably for nearly two years without any major interference. My notion that "the Internet browsing site will not last a year before being destroyed" was ridiculous. As long as we do the three things well according to Teacher's requirements and negate the old forces' arrangements with clear and rational minds, we can do anything successfully.

I have been teaching other practitioners computer skills ever since. When I teach others, I understood the difficulties of the practitioners who taught me. Their sense of responsibility for Dafa truly moves me: everything they did was not for themselves but to meet the requirements of Dafa, otherwise it's meaningless. I suggest to practitioners who still have the mentality I had when I first started to learn computer skills to let go of all attachments and protect Dafa firmly. Put the Fa first and do not create too many obstacles for yourselves. When validating Dafa, practitioners are deities, and for deities, nothing is impossible.

Thank you everyone.