(Clearwisdom.net) Dear Master and Fellow Practitioners:
Each practitioner has his own unique cultivation path, depending on inborn quality, enlightenment quality, historical background, and character. Cultivating along the right path is extremely important. A practitioner's experience is a history book of his cultivation. When we write experience sharing papers we have to open our own books, check every page, including the good stories and the not so good ones. Writing a paper is a process of constantly discovering shortcomings in order to do better in the future. The following is a summary of my own cultivation.
1. Explaining the Truth to Experts and Scholars
Master told us in "Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006:"
"But as you go about truly cultivating yourself in your day-to-day life, the society that you come into contact with is your cultivation environment. The work and family environments that you spend time in are both settings in which you are to cultivate yourselves, are part of the path you must walk."
After the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published, practitioners began to explain the truth to people, encouraging them to quit the Communist Party and save their lives. My job requires me to interact with many technical experts, scholars, and professors. I asked myself: "How do I offer these people salvation? I must be fully prepared when I speak to them of the facts. I should have sufficient material, and I should be rational and logical. If I am not thorough enough they will say I lack accuracy and am not convincing. That would make it much harder to sway them."
First, I read the Nine Commentaries twice. I paid special attention to certain important portions and incidents and memorized some historical facts and numbers. Since these people like statistics, I decided to use numbers and facts to talk to them based on their specific backgrounds. I sent them letters and truth-clarification materials, followed by the Nine Commentaries booklet. Next, I tried to persuade them to cut their affiliation with the Party. This is a key step.
Speaking with a law professor, I told her about Dafa's beauty and the Tiananmen Square Self-immolation hoax and about Lawyer Gao Zhisheng's letter to the Party leaders. Finally I gave her a copy of the Nine Commentaries. After she understood the true situation, she began to agree with Dafa's principles. At that point I told her to quit the Party, but she refused and said, "I want to wait and see." I wondered what she was waiting for. Perhaps I did something wrong or had not done a good enough job explaining the truth. I looked inward and found my impatience and feelings of disappointment. I knew it was time for me to intensify my Fa study and strengthen my righteous thoughts. I also sent righteous thoughts to eliminate all the Communist evil spirits and other evil factors in other dimensions. I vowed I would talk to her again and again until she quit the Party.
One day about a year later, this law professor came to my office and asked me to please help her quit the Party. She finally realized how good Dafa is and also saw the evil nature of the Communist Party. She realized the significance of quitting the Party and made the right choice. She told me, "Thank you for helping me to quit the evil Party." Although it took her one year to quit, I was still inspired by her change.
Master told us in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference:"
"People have different misunderstandings, all of which owe to having been poisoned by groundless lies spread by the wicked CCP. Wherever a person's misunderstanding lies, that is where problems will arise in terms of how he looks at things, and this manifests itself in the form of different viewpoints."
When encouraging people to quit the Party we ought to be able to resolve any doubts they might have if we have perseverance, compassion, and patience. The most important aspect is our own cultivation state, how diligent we are, and if we meet the Fa's requirement.
I gave a professor who specializes in crystal research a web link that introduces experimentation studies with water crystal formations. I told him that a compassionate mind can create beautiful water crystal structures. He was very pleased, saved the link, and said, "This is quite useful for my own research and teaching. How wonderful!" I also told other teachers and some college students of these experiments. I encouraged them to use the experiments to open students' minds and direct them to the right insights. This effort will lay a good foundation for our future truth clarification.
Many professors and scholars often travel to foreign countries. I knew the great work that overseas practitioners were doing. Therefore, before my colleagues left, I told them that Dafa had widely spread outside of China, and how people were openly quitting the Party to secure their own futures. Although some were skeptical, after they went abroad and saw the truth, they became more convinced.
One professor told me, "After I returned from abroad, I realized how confused and laughable we are. What you said was indeed true. All the people in my tour group received copies of The Epoch Times newspaper at tourist attractions sites. The photo of the hidden stone with the characters "The Chinese Communist Party Perishes" is so clear, even more so than what you showed me before."
2. Explaining the Truth to Graduate Students and Encouraging Them to Quit the Party
Master said in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference:"
"I just said, and I have discussed before, that there are Dafa disciples in all professions and in all social strata, and that they are saving sentient beings, validating the Fa, and playing the role of Dafa disciples in all the various professions. And actually, when you manage to, while in the various professions, do well all the things that you ought to do, you are then in fact cultivating."
This is a Dafa principle I should practice in my life. I meet with many graduate students, including PhD and Master's candidates, and also undergraduate students. I know some of them, but not everyone. How can I clarify the truth to all of them and invite them to quit the Party?
I see about a thousand students every day at lunch in the cafeteria. How could I talk to them one on one? They had come to this world for the Fa, but are also lost here. I felt helpless and lonely. Facing the big crowd, I felt a huge pressure, not knowing where to start. I felt terrible.
One day I sat there thinking about how to save these people. Suddenly I thought, "Why don't I send righteous thoughts? All Dafa disciples are part of one body, and one disciple can do what ten or even one hundred people can do." I decided to send righteous thought as I ate lunch. By doing this, I was clearing out the evil elements in other dimensions behind the students, and I was laying a foundation for my future effort to clarify the truth. From that day on I often went there to send righteous thoughts. In order to offer salvation to more people, I collected phone numbers of the students' dorms and students' email addresses. I sent these data to the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, so that overseas practitioners could call them or send them emails and talk to them about the truth. I also sent them some truth-clarification materials by email. I know through feedback that many of the students received these emails and phone calls. This effort is a real demonstration of Dafa disciple's unity and achieved very good results.
3. Even If There Is No Time to Explain the Truth, We Should Leave Them Our Compassion
When I received emails from strangers asking for help I would do my best to help. Although I could not talk too much with them, I still tried to do what Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference:"
"Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don't have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don't lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections."
Once a student wrote me in an email, "I believe you could answer all my questions, that is why I found your email address. I hope a kind person like you can give me a clear answer for my confusion." I replied to her immediately.
She was applying for graduate school at a well-known university. Because of corruption in the admissions office, although she passed the admissions requirements, the school still rejected her application. Feeling helpless she told me in her email, "I want to cry. Now I feel like I am floating in mid air and feel mentally and physically exhausted. I trust you. Can you help me as a friend? I studied law in school. But the law is so powerless in certain circumstances."
I replied, "Let's look at this issue from a different perspective. Living on this earth is not easy. There are too many unfair things. Especially in today's society, people confuse right from wrong, good from evil; good people are punished; people without a conscience will do all kinds of bad things. But I believe in the heavenly principles: good will be rewarded and bad will be punished. You should learn to appreciate [what you have], you should thank your parents for giving you life, thank all the people who help and care about you. You should also thank Mother Nature. Then you will find the world bright and beautiful."
She replied, "Frankly speaking, I was writing to you out of desperation yesterday. I did not expect to receive such a warm and kind response. I was surprised and felt quite touched by your sincere words. I felt like a dying person who saw her last hope. I thank you for the encouragement and understanding. I will think seriously about your advice. Another's valuable words can become gold only after I comprehend the true meaning. I will read your letter often and keep it in my heart forever. In the future, if I become frustrated and depressed again, I will remember the care I received from a total stranger. I will never forget your help. I wish to become someone like you." Because of safety concerns, I did not talk to her about quitting the Party but I am confident I will find some other time to do so. I also feel that our compassion can resolve everything and save people.
Although I have done things a Dafa disciple should do, I am still far from the level of many other practitioners. To walk steadily along the path of cultivation I must have a solid footing based on Fa study. I should keep up my strong righteous thoughts and maintain my compassionate heart and calm mind. Only then can I accomplish all three things that Master told us to do.