To Cultivate in Dafa

My name is Feng Yan.  I was a graduate student in a Master’s program at Northeast University in Shenyang city.  I started to cultivate Falun Dafa in October 1998 and have benefited tremendously from it both mentally and physically during the past year.

Through one year of cultivation, I have gained an in-depth understanding of the extensiveness and profundity of Dafa.  Faun Dafa is everything but superstition, idealism or a sermon.  Dafa exposes the cosmic qualities "Zhen Shan Ren" and illustrates that everything in the universe, from the lowest level to the highest level and from the most macroscopic to the most microscopic, has both the existence of matter and the existence of the characteristic "Zhen Shan Ren."  The living beings in the universe have different existing forms from the lowest level to the highest level because of their different realms of awareness.  Falun Dafa tells us that only through unceasingly upgrading our realms and assimilating the characteristics of the universe can we achieve the transcendence of our lives and become intelligent beings.  Falun Dafa made me understand that the true meaning of life is returning to our original self through cultivation, assimilating the characteristics of the universe and achieving the transcendence of our lives.

After the Chinese government cracked down Falun Gong on July 22 1999, I felt I could never understand why the government did it.  At the same time, I was deeply puzzled by the state media’s untruthful reports.  After one year of cultivation, I was deeply aware of the huge benefits that Falun Dafa has brought to our society.  Through practicing Falun Dafa, practitioners upgrade their morality, which helps to lift the moral standard of the whole society.  This has a beneficial effect to the social stability and our country’s prosperity.  The wrongdoings to Falun Gong and the practitioners would only make people lose confidence in our government, cause social instability and incur unnecessary loss of manpower and capital for our country. 

Based on the difference between my understanding of Falun Gong and the state media’s propaganda, and being responsible to our country and our people, as well as to the legal status of my belief, I went to Beijing to appeal on September 20.

At about 10:30am on September 20, along with another practitioner from our university, I went to the appealing office on Zhengyi Street in Beijing.  The public security officer confiscated our IDs and student IDs right after meeting with us.  After being asked a few simple questions coldly, we were sent to a nearby police station where they recorded a detailed interrogation of us.  Then, we were handcuffed by the police from Shengyang city, sent to their Beijing office and placed in a small room of only about 10 square meters.  There were already 15 practitioners in the room and among them there were workers, farmers, professors and retirees, etc.  After sitting in the room for one day and one night, we were taken back to Shenyang by the heads of our university and several policemen who went all the way to Beijing for this.  Upon returning, we were interrogated for a whole day in the public security office of Northeast University and were sentenced to 15 days of detention for disturbing social stability and for violating the public security department’s decree of not allowing people to appeal for Falun Dafa.  In the cell, there were six Falun Gong practitioners and another 10 people who were detained because of fighting, beating and gambling etc.  We practitioners were strict with ourselves and treated everyone and everything with a compassionate heart.  We did as many things as we could, such as cleaning the toilet, cleaning the floor, serving food and making beds, etc.  Many people in our cell commended us from the bottom of their hearts, “Falun Gong practitioners are all good people.”  We told every one of them warmly how Falun Dafa upgraded our morality.  Several people told us that they would like to learn more about Falun Dafa after their detention was over.  A 19-year-old boy was detained for beating others.  He said although he often fought with people, he did not want to come down like this.  He wanted to be a good person but he did not know what was good and how to be a good person.  Sometimes he had to fight and was forced into such a situation.  He often felt distressed.  During the detention, he was touched by our behaviors and wanted to know more about Falun Dafa from me.  He obtained some understanding of Dafa from my introduction and was deeply moved.  He decided to practice Dafa after his detention was over.  He even asked me in detail how to borrow a copy of Zhuan Falun and indicated he was going to get one as soon as possible.

After my detention was over, I was not set free but sent to the collecting and dispatching post for a 30-day education.  The university was afraid that we would be further “poisoned” from being with other Falun Gong practitioners and transferred us from a room for practitioners to a room for people who did not have the three kinds of permits (ID card, temporary living permit and working permit).  After staying there for four days, we were bailed out by the university for the excuse of further education.  We returned to Northeast University on October 10.

During the detention period, police officers and advisors talked to us several times.  Some of them tried to friendly persuade us to change our minds as soon as possible.  Some denounced us for breaking the law and threatened that if I went to appeal again I would be sent to the labor camp.  I do not want to say whether it was right or wrong that the government detained me.  As a legal citizen practicing Falun Dafa, I think I have the right to use my power entitled by the constitution to appeal to the relevant government departments.  The government should give Falun Gong practitioners a legal environment to practice.  At the same time, I should fulfill my responsibility to report the truth to the government and explain the harm it will do to our country and our people, if the wrongdoings to Falun Gong continue, and the benefits it will bring to our people, if the wrongdoings are corrected. 

After I came back to school, the university heads came to talk to me several times.  They asked me to change my mind and pointed out the harm it would do to my degree, my future and material interests if I did not.  They even told me that my personal action--if I go to Beijing to appeal again--would affect the reputation, political future and material interests of the university and the heads.  In addition, there were suggestions from my supervisor, parents, classmates and friends.  In a word, all of them asked me not to go to Beijing to appeal anymore.  Especially after October 15, the university heads even arranged my classmates to alternatively be with me and keep an eye on me.  Of course, I understood they meant to protect me out of their kindness. 

I think a human being should have his belief and it is a sad thing if a person cannot adhere to his belief.  Falun Dafa is my belief and to practice Falun Dafa is my personal right.  The government may say that my belief is right or wrong, but I can’t consider my belief to be wrong.  To be able to uphold one’s belief is a person’s inborn right.

I do not mean to change the government’s way of doing things, but the constitution entitles me the right to make suggestions to the government.  Now that my suggestions were returned by detention and were not passed, I think I can only use my action--to go to Beijing to appeal again--to prove that I firmly believe that my belief is right: Falun Dafa is not evil.  There is absolutely no way for me to accept their requirement that I am not allowed to appeal or practice Falun Dafa.  If I do not use my action to express my determination, it will be the same as if I acquiesce to their requirement and admit that my belief is wrong, which is a betrayal of my belief.  So I decided to go to Beijing again.  In the meantime, in order to minimize the effects to the interests of the university and the heads, I submitted an application to withdraw from the program and from the communist party.  I left for Beijing for the second time on October 19.

When I went to Beijing to appeal for the first time, I just felt that I should go, but I was not enlightened as to why.  During the detention period and when I was back at school afterwards, I went through the warnings and even reprimands from the police, persuasions from the teachers and the university heads, begging with tears from my father over the phone and the advice from classmates and friends.  In addition, I came to know that some practitioners around me no longer did cultivation under pressure, some were firm in their actual cultivation secretly, and some stood out to appeal.  In particular, after I returned to school, the university told me that as long as I did not go to appeal again, they would forgive my past misdeeds and I could continue to work on my Master’s degree.

At this time, I really felt confused and realized how difficult cultivation is.  Compared to this pain, what I suffered physically in the detention center was nothing.  I did not know how to pass this test in the cultivation.  At this critical moment, it was still through studying the Fa that I found the answer.  I was enlightened to this:  I must stand out firmly.  I shall use my action to prove Dafa and protect Dafa.  Cultivation is serious.  My personal cultivation can never be detached from Dafa.  I must cultivate in Dafa.

Master Li mentioned that we exist for the existing style of the level in which we achieve completion.  Master Li also told us that we should conform to the social state of ordinary human society to the greatest extent, be a good person and perfect the law of this level.  My understanding is that the purpose of our cultivation is to perfect the great law, to perfect the law of the level in which we achieve completion, and to perfect the existing style that the law in that level creates for us.  During our cultivation, our human side should be a good person, perfect the existing style that the law in the human level creates, and perfect the law in the human level.  Master Li mentioned in the scripture “Dig Out the Roots”:  “The Great Law enables the human heart towards good and enables the society to become stable.  Nevertheless, you must be clear that the Great Law is not at all promulgated for all these, but for cultivation.”  My understanding is that just as Master Li promulgated the Great Law to enable us to cultivate, but not to enable the human heart towards good or enable the society to become stable, we cultivate Dafa to perfect the Great Law but not to become good persons.  To perfect Dafa is the fundamental goal, while to be a good person is just a way to perfect Dafa under a specific environment.  Now that this cultivation environment has been changed, does the original way of perfecting Dafa still work?  Shall we use another way to truly perfect Dafa?

Master Li said in the scripture “Dig Out The Roots”:  “You are now a practitioner, and what basic point you should stand on to look at the Great Law is a matter of the root.” Master Li also said in the Toronto conference that: “The Great Law is in the first place.”  I became enlightened to the following: During the course of cultivation, we must stand on the basic point of the Great Law to look at our cultivation and look at our behavior.  To protect and perfect the Great Law is in the first place, while my personal cultivation in the process of protecting and perfecting the Great Law is secondary.

From another point of view, if my personal cultivation cannot protect or perfect the Great Law, can it still be called cultivation?  Master Li mentioned in the Toronto conference that what he worried about was not the time issue but whether we could still cultivate in the Great Law.  Now I have a deeper understanding of it.  If the Great Law did not exist, it would not make sense to talk about the existence of our life.  Therefore our cultivation can never be detached from the Great Law.  If my so-called cultivation cannot perfect the Great Law and is detached from the Great Law, it will no longer be called cultivation.  Master Li will not admit that this state is indeed cultivation.

Now the Great Law in the level of ordinary human society has been seriously damaged.  Under this extreme circumstance, what shall I do to perfect the Great Law?  How shall I cultivate?  This is a serous project placed in front of me.  Of course, no matter what I do, it should conform to the existing style that the Great Law creates for the level of mankind.  However, to be a so-called “good person,” free our parents, supervisors and friends from worrying by writing down the letter of guarantee against our conscience and promise not to cultivate any more, but be firm in actual cultivation secretly, is it OK?  Absolutely not.  Will the Great Law create this kind of existing style for a cultivator? Absolutely not.  Then if we do this, doesn’t it mean that we do not look at our cultivation from the basic point of the Great Law, but from the basic point of humans protecting human society?  In fact, it cannot even be called protecting human society, and it is actually protecting demons.  A cultivator should perfect the Great Law not demon law.

Therefore, under the current environment, I think I should stand out to express my determination in cultivating Falun Dafa openly, to prove that Dafa is absolutely not evil, and to spread Dafa with a compassionate heart.  Only through doing all these, can I really perfect and protect the Great Law and can I really cultivate and transcend myself in Dafa.

Above are some of my experiences during this period of time.  I would like to exchange with you so we will improve together.

Feng Yan
From Mainland China
November 21, 1999