An Old Professor’s Cultivation Story

By a European practitioner.

It was late 1999, after Falun Gong have been persecuted in China, when I met an old professor who had come to Seattle so that she could attend the Falun Dafa conference and also visit her relatives. In a mini-experience sharing meeting, we had listened to her experience of Fa-rectification. She told us that she went to Tiananmen Square on the 22nd July 1999, and she was arrested once she arrived back home from Tiananmen Square. Since then, she was blacklisted by the local police, and when a sensitive date [Referring to dates such as when the persecution first began, which are often marked with appeals] was approaching, there were always police who were nearby, watching her. She was so buoyant whilst she was sharing these experiences, that as a result she was unable to tell us about the persecution that she had suffered and the perilous environment in mainland China. At that moment, I was deeply touched, as I truly saw this Dafa disciple’s selflessness and intrepidity cultivated from Dafa.

She went back to China three months later, and I also went back to join together with the mainland Dafa disciple’s in April 2000. As we contacted each other regularly, I came to know her more and more. Before she practised Falun Gong, she had suffered from severe heart disease, and she had to sleep on a wooden bed that was angled, otherwise she would feel breathless. She also had suffered from severe cataracts which stopped her from been able to read. But after she began practising Falun Gong, she has been free of illnesses, her physical body looks distinctively younger and she has regained her menstrual period as well. That’s why she said she believes in Dafa solidly, as what Teacher Li has taught in Zhuan Falun [The main text of Falun Gong] about the changes towards practitioners’ mind and body have been manifested through her.

She is a professor of Arts, and basically she knew nothing about computers, but she bought a modern desktop so that she would be able to promote Dafa more effectively. She has learnt how to access and use the internet and can download articles from Minghui.net [Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net] from other fellow practitioners, and distribute truth-clarifying materials to the people and pass Teacher Li’s new articles to surrounding Dafa disciples who have extremely harsh conditions.

After Falun Gong was banned in China, a lot of Falun Gong practitioners had to practise the exercises and study the Fa [Law and principles of Falun Gong] at home, and minimise the volume of the CD player. But I often went to her home for Fa study and I found that she always kept the volume high. At the beginning, I still wanted to remind her to be careful, but I also thought that she has always been doing things like this, and that I must have some attachments that created this thought. I thought about this carefully: she had been blacklisted by local police, but Teacher Li’s lecture is constantly been played in her husband’s room (Because her husband was severely ill. After he listened to Teacher Li’s lecture, he could be fed using a spoon, and could understand and recognise his daughter’s greetings which had been taped and brought from the USA.) If anyone ever came to the door she never turned off the player, as she was not afraid, the factor that would cause her to be afraid ceased to exist.

At the end of the year 2000, she went to Tiananmen Square again to protest against the persecution, and was detained in a police station located on 'X' county’s outskirts. She resisted the persecution solidly and told the police the truth about Falun Dafa for the whole time, later on their superintendent also came to listen. On the evening of the next day, she was released. Just before she left, the police pointed towards her and the other two practitioners, and said, "This person is not afraid of death, and neither are the other two." In this way, they stepped out of the police station in an upright and dignified manner. On the way home, when the police checked the bus to see if there were any Dafa practitioners on it to get into Beijing, she was sitting right under the police’s noses, but she successfully returned to carry on with her Fa-rectification as if the police could not detect her.

In May 2001, she had to become destitute and homeless because she was wanted by the police. She was originally able to go to the USA and visit her relatives, however, she was unable to go to USA because her passport would expire soon and she could not go to police station to renew it. In July, just before I left China, I went to see her, at that moment, she lived in a small room with two other Dafa disciples, but they still insisted on practising the exercises, studying the Fa, telling the truth about Falun Dafa, and sending forth righteous thoughts together, whilst still been happy.

After I arrived in Europe, I still think about her all the time, and I often hear some information about her, which is that at the beginning, the small room that she was staying in was informed to the police and she left, afterwards her wage was stopped and the situation for her life was very difficult. But the latest news is that she is still homeless, but she persists in doing the three things taught by Teacher Li as a Dafa disciple during the period of Fa-rectification: study the Fa well, clarifying the truth, and send forth righteous thoughts. I would like to wish her to go all the way to her remote place. Finally, let us encourage each other by reading Teacher Li’s poem “Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Action”.

Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions

A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship
Having forged an adamantine will
And with no attachment to living or dying
He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly