Once a week I ride with a fellow practitioner (who will henceforth be called 'A') in her car on a tour to distribute Epoch Times newspapers in our city. In the beginning I treated the task as a burden, something that had to be done because there was no one else to do it, or something that I had to do because I didn't have the heart to refuse and let my fellow practitioners down. But as the weeks passed I found myself growing more and more fond of our weekly tour and even began to look forward to it. I discovered how every situation, however gloomy it might look at first, with righteous thoughts and actions can turn into a priceless opportunity to upgrade xinxing and rise in level. I would like to share my experience with fellow practitioners.
The tribulations began on our first tour together. Only a few seconds after I boarded A's car she began to quarrel with the driver of another car that was blocking our route. I was shocked, did not intervene and remained quiet. But within myself I criticized her: "How could a practitioner act this way? Aren't we supposed to display tolerance in every situation? How far she is from Truth-Compassion-Forbearance!"
A's bad behavior on the road continued in all aspects of her driving: She drove at excessive speeds, criticized and badmouthed other drivers on the road, and even crossed intersections on red lights. All this time I remained silent, bitter, fearful and gloomy, not knowing what to do.
The solution dawned on me a few days later. One day, while studying the Fa, I suddenly realized how difficult it was for me to concentrate. I felt impatient and unable to read the Fa wholeheartedly. Stray thoughts, attachments and desires kept disturbing me. I just wanted to rush on, read quickly, get to the end of the chapter, and complete the "task" of reading one chapter a day. Then it hit me: wasn't my reading just like A's driving -- rushing feverishly on the road, speeding to get home? How far was I from Truth-Compassion-Forbearance!
After realizing my shortcoming, my attitude towards A and her driving changed. Instead of criticizing her I just felt we were both in the same boat: two humans who are trying to cultivate away our attachments and strong worldly behavior. After all, she was a cultivator just like me, who studies the Fa and does her best to do well the three things that Master requires us to do. With these realizations my anger turned into compassion, and from that point on things began to change for the better.
On our next tour, when she crossed an intersection on a red light, I just pointed it out to her quietly and said that there was a police camera on that intersection and her violation had probably been captured on film. She was furious. She said that her license will probably be confiscated, and blamed me for not warning her ahead of time. I remained kind and light-hearted and reminded her with compassion that she was a cultivator and this probably happened to remind her that she was not tolerant enough on the road, and furthermore, it was probably a test designed by Teacher, to help her upgrade her xinxing.
The next time we met at our local Fa study group A greeted me with a big rare smile and thanked me warmly for enlightening her about her driving. She said that following our last tour she suddenly realized that on the road she was nothing but a regular person who forgot all about cultivation and being a Dafa disciple. She said that when I shed light on her behavior she had felt like Teacher's words were coming out of my mouth.
Ever since then A's driving has been continuously improving. I also began to send righteous thoughts in the car, to clear away any interference and evil in our dimensions. The effect has been very strong: on the road, between newspaper drop stations, we share experiences and discuss things from the perspective of the Fa. For me it became not just a task of distributing newspapers for the Epoch Times, which in itself is a holy mission, but a rare opportunity to share, open up to a fellow practitioner, and awaken to meaningful insights.
These are my understandings at my current level. Please point out any shortcomings.
Thank You Teacher, and Dafa