Reaching Maturity in Cultivation

I started practicing Falun Dafa when I was in middle school. On weekends, my father and I participated in group exercise and Fa study. As my workload from school was pretty heavy, I did not have much contact with or share experiences with fellow practitioners. In the fall of 1999, I went to another city to attend college and I didn't run into any other practitioners there. Thus, I had no connection with fellow practitioners other than my father after the persecution started on July 20, 1999.

In college, I did not realize that I should step out to safeguard and validate Dafa because I didn't study the Fa enough. Therefore, when my classmates commented on Falun Gong, I was silent most of the time, but would argue with them occasionally. I did not feel happy during most of that time because I knew that Falun Gong was being framed and slandered. However, due to pressure from various sources, my attachment of fear dominated and I missed many good opportunities to validate the Fa during my college years.

In my senior year of college, I used to receive lots of emails about Falun Gong. This made me really want to read the Fa. By clicking the links provided in those emails, I was able to get on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom) in the Internet cafes. After reading master's Fa, I came to realize that Dafa disciples should go out to safeguard and validate the Fa. After that realization, I went out and bought some thick, coloured-ink pens and wrote some facts about Falun Gong on extra large paper, which I then posted in the hallways of residential buildings. However, I was still not doing any face-to-face truth clarification. I could feel that my environment was not friendly, and I had to go to the Internet cafe to study the Fa.

By the time I got to graduate school, I knew how to subscribe to the Minghui articles and receive them in my mailbox. I carefully studied the Fa. I realized the importance of clarifying the facts about the goodness of Falun Gong and started to talk to people around me. However, due to my strong attachment of fear, most people did not accept my views when I tried to tell them the facts.

When I started to post articles about Falun Gong on the school website, the local police department noticed my activities. Some faculty members at my school and local police officers approached me about my postings. They also learned that my father was a practitioner. They coerced me into writing a letter in which I guaranteed that I would not talk about my practice of Falun Gong at school. However, I did not say that I would not continue to practice Falun Gong.

I knew that I had tainted the path of my cultivation. Afterwards, I noticed that many people were surreptitiously following me. One time I approached one of the people following me and asked why I was being followed. The person fled without saying a word. After that, I started to tell my fellow classmates about the government surveillance. Also, the officials sometimes followed me while I was with my classmates. This really showed my classmates that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong practitioners was real and tangible. Although during that period of time I felt tremendous pressure, I did not have any doubt in my mind about what I should do.

After graduation, I returned to my hometown, because I knew my family and relatives were waiting for me to save them. I started to talk to people face-to-face about Falun Gong and to persuade them to quit the CCP and its associations. Although the number of people that quit the CCP due to my efforts was not large, each person I talked to got to know the truth. One thing made me realize that the environment had become more friendly and that it was very critical to maintain a righteous state of mind. In the past, when people tried to introduce me to friends of the opposite sex, my practice of Falun Gong used to cause trouble and misunderstandings. So when my family introduced me to my current husband, I did not tell him that I was a practitioner. Gradually, through my persistent efforts, my husband and mother-in-law agreed to quit the CCP. I tried to maintain a natural state of mind while talking about Falun Gong to my mother-in-law and other relatives on my husband's side of the family. They also had no resistance to the fact that I am a practitioner of Falun Gong. Previously, I would not dare to even dream about mentioning Falun Gong, but now I am less fearful.

Along with the progress of Fa-rectification, our external environment is also becoming better and better. I hope those practitioners who had the attachment of fear and did not step out to validate the Fa in the past will seize the precious time left to go out and clarify the truth. Just as Master has taught us, "Lose no time and save them, hurry up and tell them." (Hurry Up And Tell Them, official translation from http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/8/22/25635.html).