(Minghui.org) I have practiced Falun Dafa for 19 years. I used to be emotional and ignorant, but have become mature and rational.
Since I emigrated from China, I have made phone calls to China on the Real-time Communication (RTC) platform. However, I went to the extreme and rarely worked. I was unable to pay rent and moved into the garage of my friend’s house.
I studied the Fa with the young practitioners from the RTC platform online. The Internet reception was not good in the garage, thus my Fa study did not go well.
It was winter. My bed was inside a van, and the space was just enough for me to lie down. I had to study the Fa and make phone calls in the van. My head touched the roof of the van when I sat and at times it felt claustrophobic.
The Internet did not cooperate one night, and it was noisy outside. I was no longer in a mood to study the Fa. When I looked at my situation, I started to cry. I thought if I were in China, I would have a good job. I came here for a better cultivation environment, but I live miserably. I thought like this until I fell asleep.
When I shared this with fellow practitioners, I realized that my thoughts were not those of a practitioner. Cultivators in ancient times had to bear far more hardships, and their hearts were not moved. I should continue to study the Fa and save sentient beings and not be influenced by the environment. The Internet signal improved as soon as I had this thought.
We made phone calls to lawyers in China. I had prepared, and read my transcript by the light of my laptop to Chinese people. I started to study the Fa and make phone calls to China in the van every night. Though it was a small space, I took every phone call seriously. I enlightened to many Fa principles when I studied the Fa.
Gradually, I realized the advantages of making phone calls in the van. People could hear me better. It was warmer in the van than in the room I previously rented. The Internet signal became stronger when I helped more people renounce their membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or its affiliated organizations.
I no longer live in the van. Whenever I recall my life in the van, I treasure my current environment even more.
When I studied the Fa, practiced the exercises, and sent forth righteous thoughts in my friend's garage, I changed their environment.
My friend couldn't cook and thus his wife could not have good meals after she came home from work. She quarreled with him, so I volunteered to cook for them. I went shopping and cooked delicious meals. This was a great opportunity to tell them about Dafa during dinner and why they should quit the CCP, Youth League, or Young Pioneers. I practiced the exercises in his garden every morning. Their daughter sat on a small stool and watched me. Eventually she dragged her father to the garden to watch me do the exercises.
After sharing with other practitioners on the platform about suing Jiang Zemin, I thought about suing Jiang. At night I heard a voice that told me that I was right to sue Jiang. I mailed the lawsuit one month later.
My friend talked to me that night. I learned that he was persecuted in China because of the Chinese regime's guilt by association policy. His mother practiced Dafa, so he also wanted to sue Jiang, but was afraid that his mother would be affected.
We shared a lot that night. He made a phone call to his family members and friends in China and they supported his suing Jiang.
He wrote the criminal complaint that night and mailed it the next day. He told me he had a dream that night. He saw me and other practitioners during a Fa conference. He saw Master as well. He took the book and asked practitioners some questions, but nobody responded. He asked me, but I was also not very forthcoming. He asked Master, and Master pointed at me and told him to walk slowly behind me. I realized that Master hinted that I should help people around me learn Dafa.
One day his wife had a bad cough. He asked me if she would get better if she practiced Dafa with me. I realized that Master arranged for her to practice with me. So I taught her the first four exercises. She felt very comfortable and was amazed. She didn't cough anymore that night.
She came to practice the exercises with me and joined our group Fa study. She started to improve her xinxing after two weeks of practice. Her husband told me that, after she listened to Master's lectures, she tried to remain calm and didn't lose her temper. She practiced forbearance. He thanked me for bringing Dafa to his family.
Initially, I didn't balance cultivation and everyday life well. I only studied the Fa and clarified the truth to people in my spare time. I did not want to do any housework. It was midnight when I finished Fa study and making phone calls. I often forgot to prepare lunch for the next day. So I had to eat instant noodles and after some time I looked pale and in low spirits. My friend told me that I should take good care of myself, otherwise people would say that practitioners have a problem.
I was surprised at his words. Actually I intentionally took these hardships and thought I would be in a better cultivation state if I ate less and slept less. But why did I look pale and unhealthy? We cultivate in ordinary society and should conform to ordinary society's principles. If I looked healthy and radiant, people would have a good impression of me when I clarified the truth about Dafa. After I enlightened to this, my income increased.
Master said:
“And if you want to do a good job with those projects and make them effective at saving people, then you need to do them better, put more heart into them, and spend more time on them. And that being the case, it may seem as though there’s no time for your own cultivation. But however things may be, you all still need to make time for cultivation and for Fa study.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference”)
I left China almost a year ago. Fa study is my first priority every day. Only with the Fa's guidance, can I walk my cultivation path well. I have to study the Fa more and “melt into the Fa.” (“Melt Into the Fa,” in Essentials for Further Advancement) I have to be strict with myself and make full use of my time to fulfill my prehistoric vows during this last leg of the Fa-rectification and be worthy of being Master's disciple.