(Clearwisdom.net)
Teacher walking into the Fa-lecturing hall in Sydney
Teacher answering practitioners’ questions when expounding the Fa for the second time in Australia
On November 26, 1996, Teacher came to Sydney, Australia to teach the Fa for the second time. Some precious memories of the time are presented below.
Being Firm in Not Taking a Penny From Practitioners
When Teacher just arrived, he needed to exchange money into Australian dollars to take care of accommodations and other expenses, but this could not be done because all of the banks had already closed. However, Teacher still insisted on not taking even a penny from practitioners. I passed some Australian dollars to one of the staff working with Teacher and said that I was lending money to him, but he too refused.
Long after this event, I shared experiences with a practitioner from Beijing and was inspired and enlightened to understand some principles. In order not to foster attachments in practitioners, Teacher scales everything from the perspective of the practitioners’ upgrading in their cultivation and practice, without any consideration for any hardships of his own undertaking.
Going to See the Practitioners at the Practice Site
One morning after his arrival in Sydney, Teacher asked a practitioner, "Is there a practice site nearby? Is it far?" The practitioner answered, "Yes, there is one not so far away." Teacher said, "Let’s go!" The practitioner hadn’t even finished answering but Teacher was already several meters away. Teacher strode forward in easy paces, but several of us couldn’t catch up even though we hurried all the way.
We reached the practice site at Darling Harbour and saw 26 practitioners doing the sitting exercise with their eyes closed on the lawn in a grove, their backs to the clear seawater. A practitioner who was with us intended to call a stop and announce Teacher’s arrival, but Teacher stopped him. We saw Teacher looking over the 26 practitioners until the end of the music with a gratified, gracious gaze.
Then a practitioner called out, "Teacher has come, please gather here." Some practitioners looked around in amazement, doubting their ears. A veteran practitioner recalled that right when she opened her eyes and saw Teacher sitting on the chair and looking at all of them in a peaceful manner, she thought that she was seeing Teacher’s law body.
When they all became aware of the real situation and understood that Teacher had really come, they all quickly gathered around Teacher in a pleasantly surprised mood, and then listened carefully and respectfully to the Fa taught by benevolent Teacher for one hour. The scene at that moment was so marvelous and heavenly that it became an unforgettable memory for all the practitioners there.
Earnest Teaching
Before Teacher set off from Sydney to Canberra, he was accompanied at the hotel by several practitioners waiting to see him off. Right then, Teacher looked around at all those practitioners and said, "After you descended into the world, you went through tribulations during all your lives, and now in this life time you obtain the Fa. Why don’t you get diligent?"
The several practitioners there all felt their hearts shake at that moment, and then understood Teacher’s earnest teaching. However I didn’t fully perceive the profound meaning in that speech from the perspective of the Fa at that time, and it leaves a deep regret in my heart.
We enjoyed radiant and enchanting sunshine all the way while accompanying Teacher to Canberra. Suddenly a practitioner said, "Oh, it is raining ahead." All of us then looked ahead and found the road flooded and the grass beside the road submerged under water; we also saw waves after waves on the water surface flowing to the sides of the road. However when we looked around and saw no rain at all but a sunny day instead, we wondered, what on earth was going on? Only when Teacher explained that it was the water in another dimension did we realize that we had caught visions of scenes in another dimension.
When we reached the big lawn in front of the Congress building in Canberra and rested there, we found Teacher quietly observing two big seabirds tussling. Then we practitioners involuntarily fixated upon this scene: two big seabirds were in a desperate fight, each fiercely pecking the other’s feathers, tumbling and rolling around; suddenly one was held by the neck in the other’s beak and got thrown back and forth, and then lied down right off with two legs upturned, unable to move any more. Then we heard Teacher remark, "Just like human beings." Upon hearing Teacher’s remark, I felt my heart tremble and it occurred to me that I still had different kinds of strong attachments in everyday life, among which attachment for competition was especially serious. At that moment I felt as if Teacher was talking about me. I realized that Teacher’s benevolent heart is always concerned about upgrading the students’ cultivation and practice at every moment.
When recalling the precious memories during Teacher’s Fa-teaching tour in Australia, everything is as vivid as if it had just happened yesterday. Teacher’s gracious teaching and benevolent concern still move those of us who experienced these things in person to tears when they recall them today.
