We Should Fundamentally Change Our Conventional Thinking

Master¹ clearly warned us in Lunyu:

"In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance."

Master also cautioned us using the story of Zhang Guolao, one of the eight immortals, riding backward on a donkey:

"He discovered that going forward is moving backward, and that humankind has been moving further away from the characteristic of the universe." ( Zhuan Falun)

In the recently published article, "The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be," Master reminded us:

"But in reality, what human society takes to be truths are, from the perspective of the cosmos, inversions of truth."

In the view of everyday people, going through hardship and suffering is a misfortune, suggests that one is lacking in capability, and is completely a bad thing. In cultivation, as Master says:

"Going through hardship and suffering is an outstanding opportunity to remove karma, be cleansed of sin, purify the body, elevate your plane of thought, and rise in level--it's an extraordinarily good thing. This is a correct and upright Fa-truth. ("The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be")

Negating the evil persecution made me even more steadfast

In February of 2000, I was arrested for appealing on Tiananmen Square for a stop to the persecution against Falun Gong, and was locked up illegally in a detention centre. From then on, people from the local police station and street office, and the leaders from my work unit, had many talks with me and tried to brainwash me. They pressured me and persecuted me using the stick and the carrot method. They were trying to convince me that decisions made by the evil party to persecute Falun Gong was legal and reasonable. Even my family members had the same thought for quite some time. I argued with them: I practise to become a better person, for health and fitness. Since I started practising, I have recovered from illnesses that haunted me for many years, including atrium quiver, gastroenteritis, prostatitis, rheumatism arthritis, neck vertebra pain, and lumbar pain. I haven't paid even one penny in medicine bills since I began to practise. So what is wrong with practising Falun Gong?

They were unable to advance any further arguments to justify themselves. What they have done to me was fake, evil, and something totally copied from the communist party. They called me disgraceful names and insulted me repeatedly. They restricted my personal freedom and stopped me from going out.

I took every opportunity to clarify the truth and expose the lies. Whether it was an individual talk, a small meeting, or a convention, even when some officials from higher levels wanted to talk with me, I was not afraid and resisted the persecution.

After repeated disputes during these years, and with the progress of the whole environment of Fa-rectification, the situation in our work unit has changed at a fundamental level. They persecuted me in the past, but now the tide has changed. They keep away from me, and even run away from me. Their rampant arrogance of the past is now gone forever.

My wife changed as a result of the change in my notions toward her

I started my cultivation on January 22nd, 1996. At that time, my wife also read Zhuan Falun and did the set of five Falun Gong exercises together with me. After the persecution began, she not only quit the practice, but also prevented me from practising. Whenever I read the book or practised, she would fight with me and make jokes about me. She hid all my books and audiotapes and broke the audio player into pieces. She called family meetings to denounce me and mobilised our relatives and friends to persuade and intimidate me. She even threatened to put me in a mental hospital. She tightly took charge of me day and night and brought up the issue of divorce many times. She grabbed the kitchen knife and demanded a thorough break with me. At the beginning, I was full of resentment and complained to her and said: "I agree with you to divorce." I had thought of leaving home and living elsewhere in a rented place.

Through studying the Falun Gong teachings and sharing with other practitioners, I gradually recognised that I couldn't fight tit for tat with her. She was acting like that because of the evil control behind her. From then on, I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil as well as to find my own problems. We had been married for nearly forty years and been in a good relationship. Teacher pointed out in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.":

"As I've said, everything that happens today in the ordinary society is the result of Dafa disciples' thoughts."

The ultimate reason that she treated me like that was my fault. In the past we quarrelled with each other, I even beat her, thus I owed her. Now she was asking for the debts to be paid, and I was paying them. In actuality, she was helping me to improve myself. I reminded myself: I must live up to not fighting back when being beaten or swore at. No matter how she treats me, I must endure it all.

As soon as my conception of her changed, the tribulation passed quickly. After that, when I talked with her about the truth, she could listen to me. Recently our work unit leader had talks with me several times, and my wife accompanied me on her own initiative. She stood by my side and defended me according to the truth. She brought about good effects that nobody else could achieve otherwise.

On February 27th, 2005, her sister came to my home and sarcastically rebuked me. I listened to her with a kind and pleasant countenance the entire time. Then I asked my son to serve her tea and bring her medicine. I also wanted to arrange a taxi to take her back home. Because of my compassion and tolerance, she restrained herself. She called me after she rode her bike back home. She told me on the phone that she did not understand why she lost her temper when she was in my home. I told her out of my genuine intention: I only wish that you do not hurt yourself. I wasn't upset with you. Instead, I want to thank you.

What I used to think of as an honour is in fact the exact opposite

I joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 30 years ago and acted as the branch secretary and the general branch secretary. During these years, I accumulated many books about the party. I was evaluated many times as what they called an "excellent party member" and was interviewed by central leaders in the people's grand hall and had pictures taken with them. A big picture of the event almost six feet long hung prominently in my home. It had been my great honour and was praised by many people. After I studied the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," I realised that this was not an honour at all. It actually carried the mark of the evil CCP. I made my decision to get rid of all of them. The books on the evil party filled up five big plastic bags, and I tore them up and threw them into the trash. I also broke and threw away a dozen of my certificates of merit, medals, as well as a related gold coin, and threw them together with the big picture into the garbage. I had written many poems and teaching materials to sing the praises of the evil party, and I found as many as I could and destroyed them.

I handed over my renunciation of the CCP in January 2005. I wrote, "It is the outcome of the party secretary and several other people's persecution of me for several years." They were rendered speechless and didn't harass me from then on.

Finding a purse and being swindled out of money are both tests for me

One day I was taking a walk on the street, and a young man suddenly came over to me. He called me teacher and claimed to be one of my students. He asked for my home address and said he was going to visit me. I gave him my address without much thought. Only a few days later, he came to my house one evening and told me that his son broke his leg while playing in the park. He said he wanted to borrow 500 Yuan from me to take his son to a doctor. He told me that he would return my money the next day. I gave him the money without hesitation. He did come back the next day, but instead of returning the money he borrowed, he asked for another 10,000 Yuan. He said he would send his son to a bigger hospital. I indeed did not have that large amount of money, so I lent him no money. He has not returned since. People who heard this story said he cheated me.

Not long after that, I found a purse in a park. There were 1200 Yuan in the purse. I waited there for over one hour, and asked around if anyone had lost their purse. Nobody said yes. Then I handed the purse to the security department. Someone said to me: "You are really foolish. Someone cheated you out of 500 Yuan, and now you find 1,200 Yuan. Even if you deduct 500 Yuan and turn in 700 Yuan, you'd still be considered a very good man. These days, who else would turn in found money!" I said, "He cheated me, so it was he who lost the merit. I found money and returned it to the owner of the property, so it was me who accumulated virtue. Both are tests for me. I must not do anything that profits me at the cost of others. This is the basic moral character of a practitioner."

My thoughts about my granddaughter's fever, cough, and falling into the water

My granddaughter is four years old this year. On July 1st, 2005, she had a high body temperature of 39.9 degree Celsius. All my family members asked to send her to the hospital as soon as possible. I held her close to me, taught her to say, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good" together with me. Her fever was soon gone.

One day in the middle of August, my granddaughter suddenly had a cough. Again all the members in my family wanted to send her to the hospital. I held her and taught her again to chant the two phrases. She almost had no cough by the next day.

On September 23rd, I took her to play in a park. She wanted to grab the little fish in the pool and while doing so fell into the water. I quickly grabbed her by the belt and lifted her from the water. She was wet from head to foot.

It was only about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit). She was shivering and her face turned pale. I took off my jacket and wrapped her up. I seated her on the back rack of my bike and rode home as fast as I could. During the dozen minutes on the road home, I asked her to repeatedly chant: "Falun Dafa is good," "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good." I asked Teacher to protect her. All the people around me thought she would suffer an illness for a period of time, however nothing unusual happened with her.

Good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought. Only if one has sufficient righteous thoughts, will everything transform into good. Whether it is a big event or just a trifle, a contradiction or a problem, we should be able to deal with it. If one treats it with human thoughts, then the outcome will be the outcome normal people get. We are practitioners. We ought to require ourselves to use the standards of practitioners, all the time, at everything we do and everywhere. If we change our concepts, everything will change along with them. This is the fundamental difference between practitioners and everyday people.

Note:

1. Master/Teacher: Respectfully referring to the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi.