(Clearwisdom.net)
Excerpt:
In essence, coordinating Dafa projects is not about validating one's abilities. It's about constantly letting go of one's ego and melting into Dafa. During the process of coordination, the principles of Dafa are revealed, manifesting the power of overall cooperation. It is a cultivation state that we must strive to achieve. It is about proactively coordinating with other practitioners and being coordinated by them.
--By the author
Greetings Master! Greetings Fellow Practitioners!
I would first like to thank Master for giving practitioners in China the opportunity to share their cultivation experiences on the Internet! The Fa conference is a grand and sacred event in the cosmos, and I will cherish it very much. In my mind, those practitioners who go out on the streets every day clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa while saving sentient beings are the truly remarkable ones. I hope they share their amazing experiences. For the past few years, because I was mainly involved in coordinating Dafa projects in my area, my truth-clarification efforts were limited to the people I had contact with in our different environments. I also helped in creating truth-clarification materials such as copying CDs for distribution, and making phone calls, etc. Twenty days after the Minghui Fa Conference called for practitioners' sharings I decided to write about raising one's level through coordinating with fellow practitioners.
In essence, coordinating Dafa projects is not about validating one's abilities. It's about constantly letting go of one's ego and melting into Dafa. During the process of coordination, the principles of Dafa are revealed, manifesting the power of overall cooperation. It is a cultivation state that we must strive to achieve. It is about proactively coordinating with other practitioners and being coordinated by them. What follows are some of the cultivation experiences I've had from coordinating Dafa projects over the past few years. I would like to report to Master and share these experiences with practitioners.
The Fa Conference
Coordinating Dafa projects provides a rich cultivation environment. Being a diligent coordinator helps others to cultivate well too. In late 2004 I was at home taking care of my parents who were disabled and both in wheelchairs. I held Fa study at my house and I was not involved with any coordination projects. A practitioner from another village came to my house and told me that the practitioners in her area were very isolated. She wanted to hold a Fa conference and asked if I could find a few practitioners to help her. I discussed this matter with an elderly practitioner at my practice site and we came to an agreement that we would help her.
After winter had passed and spring arrived she finally called me and said the Fa conference was nearly ready. The elderly practitioner and I tried to find three more practitioners, as coordinators, to help out, but they were not willing to go with us. One of the coordinators told the other one, “I won't go, and neither should you.” The husband of that practitioner, who came from the village, was a communist party official for the village. He was a practitioner before the persecution began on July 20, 1999. After the persecution, however, he stopped practicing. He agreed with the evil and has participated in the persecution. I knew practitioners in the village were waiting for me and wondered what I should do. I realized that the practitioners needed me so I went to help them. The elderly practitioner had concern about who would take care of my parents if I left. I asked one of the practitioners to help while I was away. Two other practitioners, one of whom was elderly, and I decided to go there the next morning on the bus. At about 9:00 a.m., the elderly practitioner came to my house and said she didn't want to go. She told me she had a deep fear of practitioners who had been arrested and she thought it was too dangerous, as we could be arrested too. I told her that I was determined to go with the other practitioner. The next morning, the elderly practitioner suddenly showed up too. She said she didn't get any sleep, and that she had enlightened to denying all the old forces' arrangements. With righteous thoughts the three of us departed for the Fa conference in the village.
When we arrived at the village, we saw about 30 to 40 practitioners waiting for us, and I felt then that we had done the right thing. We held the Fa conference and it was a success. Practitioners were reluctant to leave us after we sent forth-righteous thoughts at noon. Several practitioners walked us to the bus station so we could continue sharing our cultivation experiences as we were walking.
On the bus I recognized a fellow practitioner with whom I was acquainted before the persecution began. He had given up the practice after the persecution began. He asked me if there were any people who were still doing the practice. I told him there were plenty of practitioners, and that genuine practitioners hadn't given up. I clarified the truth to him and helped him quit the communist party. I was sharing with him from the standpoint of Dafa, hoping that he would come back to cultivation. In the end, he agreed to start the practice again. As I was talking to him, the other two practitioners were sending forth-righteous thoughts. Because I talked loudly, everyone on the bus could hear me. We were sitting in the front row. The driver turned his head and gave me an unfriendly glance. I sent forth-righteous thoughts towards the driver. Soon, there was smoke coming out of the bus. The driver went out to fix the problem and I followed, telling him more about what will happen to the CCP in Fa-rectification, and he then became much nicer. I took the practitioner to my house after we got off the bus. I showed him some of the truth-clarification CDs that were made by overseas practitioners. I also gave him some truth-clarification brochures. He felt very light-hearted when he left. He told us that he was determined to catch up with his cultivation. I was very happy for him. I knew it was Master's arrangement.
Harmonizing the Truth-clarification Site
When I saw there were areas that were lacking, I reminded myself of Master's teachings. Master said,
“...you should quietly take whatever it is that you feel is lacking and do it well. That is in fact how a Dafa disciple should handle it...” ("Be More Diligent")
It was 2005, and at that time, I was not yet involved in coordination work. The truth-clarification at our practice site was a one-way communication structure and it operated very smoothly. We had all kinds of truth-clarification materials. One day, a practitioner from the truth-clarification materials site sent me a note that was written by another practitioner from the site. She said that because one of the coordinators had an argument with another practitioner, that coordinator threatened to take away the machine. The coordinator was yelling at the practitioner on her front doorstep, and said if she took away the machine, she would use the money for truth-clarification materials to buy a new one. The atmosphere was very tense, as truth-clarification material sites must remain confidential.
After I read the message, I wanted to find another coordinator to help me, but I didn't want to let too many practitioners get involved in this matter. I understood that nothing happens by accident or chance, so I wrote her a message back, saying that she could take away the machine if she wanted, but our truth-clarification materials site must continue to operate smoothly. I told her that we couldn't use the money for truth-clarification materials to buy a new machine. I offered to use $1,000 yuan from my own pocket to purchase it. When practitioners heard that the $1,000 yuan I gave was in fact the five-month pension, which I was entitled to from my husband's death, they were very touched. We have since cooperated very well and the truth-clarification materials site has operated very smoothly since that incident.
Planting Rice Seedlings
Coordinating Dafa projects is a responsibility. We must always use the Fa as our guide. We must always keep in mind what Master wants and how we should cooperate with other practitioners to form one body in order to better facilitate the saving of sentient beings. During the season of planting rice seedlings last spring, I received a phone call from a practitioner who said that some practitioners in the village were very busy and they couldn't find or hire any helpers to assist them. There was no one to cultivate the rice field for them, and the planting season was almost over. I immediately thought of a practitioner couple that had been arrested and detained in a detention center.
After we finished the Fa study that night, I shared with other practitioners about the difficulties the couple was having. We soon reached a consensus, that we had to help them. I discussed this matter with another coordinator. She also found several practitioners who could voluntarily help them, and soon enough we had about eleven practitioners. We headed to the village the next morning with two vehicles. We brought some buns, salted pickles, cucumbers, and spring water with us, in case we got hungry. We had never learned how to plant rice seedlings before, but all of us learned to do it that day!
We didn't have enough boots for everyone, so one practitioner had to work bare-footed, and her feet were bleeding from the leech bites. Because we were very slow, our feet got stuck in the mud and it was very hard to get out. The muddy water soaked into our boots and we sweated very hard. We were exhausted in the end, but we all felt good because we were helping others. Everyone felt that his or her xinxing had upgraded. Other people from the village came to see us. The practitioner's son told the villagers that we were Falun Dafa practitioners and we came to help him voluntarily. He told them that we even brought our own food. They were amazed by Falun Dafa practitioners' kindness, and felt that practitioners were very good people. News of this incident soon spread around the whole village. Through this incident, we came to the understanding that conducting ourselves according to the teachings of Dafa is a form of truth-clarification in itself. We validated the Fa through manifesting the goodness of Dafa. The effect of saving sentient beings was very good.
Exposing Our Behavior and Attachments for the Good of Our One Body
Coordinating is about opening one's heart, being more understanding and tolerant, and manifesting our great compassion in the face of accusations, blame, misunderstandings, and harsh words from other practitioners. When confronted with conflicts, we have to look within unconditionally, and cultivate ourselves solidly, raising our xinxing without feeling despondent.
One afternoon we were invited to a practitioner's house. When we arrived, there were three practitioners already waiting for us. They had a TV screen set up which had quite a lengthy list of “mistakes” we had made, The list began with “Engaging in regional coordination and bringing hidden dangers to the local area such as...,” “Paying no attention to mobile security,” “Imitating a Party official with a secretary,” followed by quotations from Master's lectures. She threatened to send the film to the Minghui website.
The atmosphere was very heavy and intense. I looked within and tried to match what I did wrong with the list of things that the practitioner was showing me. The practitioner said, “I know this film will hurt some practitioners sitting here. I would like to be more straightforward by pinpointing out Sister Qing and Sister Jing (pseudonyms).” Sister Jing referred to me. Facing such harsh words in front of a dozen other practitioners, I was upset and wanted to explain myself. But I held my mind back and recited what Master said in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
Master said,
“You must get to the point where you are able to take criticism, regardless of who it's from. If there is truth to it you correct yourself, and if not, you are mindful of it. If you can stay unruffled while being criticized or chided, you are improving.”
I tried to recite Master's teaching repeatedly in order to suppress my bad thoughts. I told myself that I would only look at the practitioner's good side. The anger and bad temper was not the true practitioner. Meanwhile, I sent forth righteous thoughts to clear the substances surrounding him. Gradually, the practitioner who was playing the video became more relaxed. I became more at ease, too. I started by saying, “Today, I would like to say that I am very grateful to this practitioner here. He cares about the safety of our whole body. He has spent a lot of time and effort making this video, hoping that we will do better in saving the beings. Regarding the ten things he just pointed out, I will look inward to correct them if I have done them wrongly, and I will pay more attention to them if I have not done them wrongly. My words came from my heart and I saw the practitioner had a smile on his face.
I later went to this practitioner's house and shared more experiences with him. He opened his heart to us, admitting that originally he had some gaps with Sister Qing. He thought that Sister Qing and I were buddies, thus he thought he also had gaps with me. I said to him, “You might think we have gaps, but that's not what I think. If we as practitioners have gaps, the evil is happy, not Master.” We chatted for a long time, and finally he said that the so-called gaps between us had completely disappeared. In the end, he said if there was anything that needed to be coordinated, he would happily offer his help. Since then, we have cooperated well.
Rescuing Fellow Practitioners
Coordinating is about being selfless, treating other practitioners' business as ours, and helping practitioners raise their levels and get out of their tribulations.
Several practitioners went to a town this summer to hand out truth clarification materials, and were unlawfully arrested by the police and detained in a police station. When I received the call from a practitioner I teamed up with several practitioners to go to the police station to ask for the release of our practitioners. After we got there, we saw that several practitioners were detained upstairs. The police were very rude and arrogant. They allowed only one practitioner at a time to go up. Practitioners tried to clarify the truth to the police, but they were yelling at them. Eventually, they would not allow us to go in and started calling officers from the Public Security Bureau of the city to help them contain us. We took photos outside the police station to expose their bad behavior towards us, while we kept sending forward righteous thoughts. Three police cars arrived 30 minutes later. More than a dozen officers jumped out of the cars and rounded us up. They started hitting and handcuffing us. That night, they took us to the Public Security Bureau. When we got there, the officers also cursed and hit us. When they asked for our names we didn't cooperate. The National Security Team leader interrogated us the following morning, and again we did not cooperate. Two officers were standing in front of me and threatened to hit me. I was not scared at all. I told them that we were not violating the law and they couldn't do anything. In the end, they wanted to take a photo of me. When I would not let them they pushed me against the wall and forcibly took a photo. In the afternoon, the police deceived us by saying they would release us, but that was a lie, as they took us directly to a detention center.
When we got to the detention center, we sat down and tried to calm down by looking within. I started to cry unstoppably. I felt I had been negligent, thereby disrupting Master's arrangement. I knew that other practitioners would become very active once they knew of our arrests, and start a rescue effort, thereby bringing huge losses to saving more sentient beings. I felt very sorry for Master. We started sending forward righteous thoughts to deny the evil's persecution, and practiced the exercises and recited the Fa. Meanwhile, practitioners' families and relatives proactively came to rescue us. They went to the Public Security Bureau to ask for the release of their loved ones. Practitioners from the village and the city were all mobilized by this incident. They didn't blame us. Instead, they went looking for the captain and tried to clarify the truth to him. They also went to look for the National Security Team leader to ask him to release all the practitioners. Practitioners surrounded the Public Security Bureau for over four days. Many practitioners from the village came to the Public Security Bureau early in the morning and stayed until afternoon, and still didn't want to leave. The police were scared. Under Master's care and the holistic collaboration of all practitioners, by the third day, most practitioners had been released. We still went back to rescue the rest of the practitioners. By the fifth day, all practitioners had been rescued. During this process, I learned that a collective effort from all practitioners was very important. We were constantly looking within, thus the power of practitioners as one-body manifested.
The above story is my cultivation experience as a coordinator during the past few years. Whether I have done a good job or not, it was all a part of my cultivation process. I know I will do better in the future. I will firmly keep Master's words in my heart, i.e. cultivate myself and do the three things well. I will reassure Master by becoming a more diligent disciple, consummating and returning to heaven with Master.
Thank you Master!
Thank you fellow practitioners!
