After having studied the Fa for more than ten years, I gradually have come to understand how fortunate I am to be able to cultivate this Dafa, to be exposed to the immense compassion of the Fa and become a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple!
Every year, Master provides us with this platform for sharing, in order to give Dafa disciples a chance to share our experiences, to help us catch up with the pace of Fa-rectification, and to gradually improve ourselves. I would like to make use of this opportunity and report my cultivation experiences to Master, and also to share with my fellow practitioners. Please kindly point out anything that is not appropriate.
Having Faith in Master and the Fa is Essential to a Cultivator
As a cultivator, one must be firm with his belief in Master and the Fa. This is most essential and most fundamental.
Master often tells us to study the Fa more and to study the Fa well. Master said,
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Studying the fa is obligatory for a Dafa disciple. Only when we study the Fa well, can we cultivate diligently and steadfastly, do the three things well and catch up with the pace of Fa-rectification.
I have realized that the process of reading Zhuan Falun and Master's new articles, and copying or memorizing the Fa is also cultivation. It is a process of improving xinxing. The process of studying the Fa is a process of eliminating human notions and human attachments. When ones heart is pure and clean, the result of memorizing the Fa will be good, and one will find it much easier to remember the contents. Otherwise, one can easily encounter interference. No matter whether we are clarifying the facts, distributing materials or handling other business, we should study the Fa before we do the actual work. We must treat Dafa as the most important thing in our busy schedules every day.
I remember once when I was trying to find out more details about a child whose parent, a fellow practitioner, was persecuted to death. I knew only that the practitioner had worked at a certain timber mill. I didn't know anything apart from that. But a sense of responsibility made me feel that I must find the child. Master taught us,
"With strong righteous thoughts, everything can in fact be resolved." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference")
So I had one simple thought. As long as I am determined, I will find that child.
One day, a fellow practitioner and I arranged to meet at the timber mill in the afternoon just before the business was to close. After having changed two buses, we took a taxi to the local area. The taxi driver asked us in a friendly way whom we were looking for. We told him that we didn't know the name of the person. The driver also thought that it would be hard to find that person. The driver took us to the timber mill, and we saw a person coming out of the mill carrying a hot water pot. The driver said this person could be a security worker, and that he may know the person we were looking for. We told that person all the details. At first he told us he didn't know any such person, and that he had been working in that place for more than ten years and there was nothing that he didn't know. When we explained further, that person remembered whom we were looking for. He then told us the fellow practitioners name and their work place. We were very happy, "Finally we found the place!" We thanked Master's compassionate help and arrangement!
Cultivating Myself in the "Blossom"
As the Fa-rectification pace continued forward, many materials sites started to spring up and blossom everywhere. Under such celestial phenomenon, our local materials site had also been blossoming continuously for several years. Though the quantity of the materials we produce is not large, we have managed to create all kinds of materials. We basically have met the materials demand in our local area, and we are playing our part in saving sentient beings.
It was quite hard for us at the beginning as we didn't have the relevant skills. Sometimes we had to re-do things several times, and were so worried. But when I remembered Master's words, "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it" (Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version), it has given me confidence to continue the work, and it also calmed me down. At the beginning, each piece took me two or three days to prepare, and it was very inefficient. Then I thought to myself. These truth-clarifying materials are the "implements for saving people." I can't be that slow all the time, I must finish it more quickly and do it well with all my heart. After I gained this righteous thought, with Master's help, my skills got better. After selecting the contents, it usually took me two or three hours to finish an edition. This is not to say how capable I am, it is Master who has opened my wisdom during my cultivation in order to save sentient beings.
After a period of time, I noticed that I was reading much less sharing on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, and spending most of my time thinking about how to create some design, collect materials and paste pictures. Sometimes I was even busy thinking about matters of materials production while I was doing exercises. I discovered myself unconsciously developing a "mentality of doing things." I suddenly remembered that Master warned us "Falun Dafa is for cultivation practice--it is not a job." ("It is not a Job, but Cultivation Practice" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
How could I treat it like a job? I found my "attachment of doing things" and "the mentality of showing off" in my subconscious. When I dug further, I found the attachment of "validating myself." When I found all these attachments that were not in accordance with the Fa, I adjusted myself immediately and rectified my thoughts and behavior. I further understood that everything that I am doing now is for saving sentient beings, and I also have to cultivate myself and eliminate my bad attachments during the process of saving sentient beings.
One time a fellow practitioner brought me some copies of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. There were more copies than he could bring with him. I said without thinking, "You can bring them next week!" After that practitioner left, the more I thought about what I said, the more I felt it was not right. It was not right to gather so many materials in the one place. Master taught us to "...consider others when doing anything." (Zhuan Falun) How could I only consider myself and not think of others? I saw my selfishness. There are many sentient beings in the universe,
"...some people may develop selfishness and gradually their level will be lowered. If they cannot stay at this level, they must drop down further." (Zhuan Falun)
In the end, they dropped down to the human level. If we cultivators want to return to our original true selves, we must eliminate this "selfishness." A characteristic of the new universe is selflessness. As cultivators, we can't take the selfish characteristics of the old universe with us to the new universe. Now, when I come across similar situations, I tell my fellow practitioners to make their own decisions according to their convenience.
Becoming More Diligent in Saving Sentient Beings
During the past several years, apart from clarifying the facts face to face, I have been kept busy sending truth-clarification letters to people. I mail materials to every person whose address I had, regardless of whether I knew them or not. As long as I have strong righteous thoughts that I "must save you," people almost always receive the letters that I send.
One fellow practitioner brought back some contact information after he visited his previous home. He gave me names and addresses of four people, and I often send materials to them. This year when the practitioner went back, he asked two of them to quit the Chinese Communist Party, and the two people quickly agreed. I have also been writing to the guards in a labor camp. One of the guards' child told others, "Someone always sends my dad materials. My father brings them home and our whole family reads them in turn."
Before this Chinese Lunar New Year, I heard that some practitioners had encountered trouble in their local area. One practitioner told me that she no longer need any materials, she only needed a copy for herself. Only one day after that, another practitioner also told me that she needed to pack up some things and stop for a while. I asked myself, "If you are all like this, what am I going to do?" I started looking inward, as I knew that all these things were aiming at me, and it happened because of my attachments. I found myself also having the attachment of fear. I remembered what Master taught us in Hong Yin II, "If thoughts are righteous, evil will collapse" ("What's to Fear?" from Hong Yin II). We must have righteous thoughts at these critical moments. We are cultivators who are walking on a divine path. What can the evil do to a cultivator on a divine path? We often tell ourselves to "totally negate the old forces arrangements," so we must totally negate them at critical moments. Master told us in "Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S.,"
"Under trying circumstances of any type, you must all keep steady in thought. Just by staying unaffected you will be able to handle all situations."
Our hearts must not be moved at that very moment! After several days, those two practitioners never mentioned anything any more, they kept doing what they were supposed to do.
To save sentient beings, we must clarify the facts to them. If a person understands the truth of Falun Dafa, understands that Dafa is good and is being persecuted, that person will be able to see clearly the evil nature of the wicked CCP. He will be able to position himself on the good side. When there is plenty of time, we can talk face to face, and when in a hurry, we can provide the materials and speak briefly. We need to at least tell people of the current great tide of quitting the CCP, and we can explain further why people need to quit the CCP and the procedure of how to quit. We need to lead them to think about this matter. When they meet you or other practitioners again, they will make the sensible choice. One neighbor of mine discovered a student in his class holding the book Zhuan Falun, he skipped though and found "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," and upon seeing these three words, he felt it was good. Later I took more materials including the Nine Commentaries to him. Finally, he learned the true facts and firmly decided to quite the CCP.
One Chinese Lunar New Year, I gave a relative a copy of the Nine Commentaries. I didn't have a chance to see him after that. One day in early September, we had a family gathering. I thought to myself that it was a great opportunity. But there were so many people around, how could I find a chance to persuade him to immediately quit the CCP? At that moment, the person who was sitting next to me got up and left and this relative of mine quickly sat next to me. After exchanging a few word of greetings, I took the opportunity to ask him if he had finished reading the Nine Commentaries. He said he had finished. He also knew that corruption was happening at his work, and he definitely wanted to quit the evil party, but was not successful in his attempt to visit the Epoch Times website. I told him that I could get someone to do it for him as long as he gave me a name. He quickly came up with a name and quit the CCP. The daughter-in-law of a relative was sitting on my other side, I told her this was an important matter. I asked her to tell her husband also to make a wise decision, and not to handle this matter in a casual way.
As the Fa-rectification proceeds forward, the requirement for Dafa practitioners is getting higher and more strict. It is vitally important to keep a good mentality and a correct standpoint in doing Dafa work. Our thoughts, words and behavior must comply with the Fa's requirements and its standard. We must cultivate on the Fa and be diligent within the Fa. Let's catch up with Master's Fa-rectification pace and walk well on the rest of the path of saving sentient beings.