(Minghui.org) Ever since my mother and I began practicing Falun Dafa in late 2004 and early 2005 respectively, we have been walking our cultivation path hand in hand. The two of us are a team that studies the Fa, practices the exercises and sends forth righteous thoughts together. We also cooperate with each other in doing truth-clarification projects. My mother often says, “We are a small one-body.” Since we are latecomers in terms of cultivation, we both cherish the preciousness of Dafa and feel the urgency of time. As such, we work hard, along with fellow practitioners’ help, to do everything we can to help save sentient beings. Below I share some of our cultivation experiences.
Feeling the Urgency to Work Well Together to Save Sentient Beings
When we first started doing truth-clarification projects, I simply went to a fellow practitioner’s place to pick up ready-to-distribute materials and then went out at night with my mother to pass them out.
One day my mother commented that the supply of truth-clarification materials was running low, and I suddenly had the idea of making materials myself. My mother was very supportive, yet neither of us knew who to turn to for help to get the whole thing going. We thus put off implementing my idea for quite some time, though the thought kept popping up in my mind from time to time.
Then one day we met a practitioner at a group Fa study who was a computer technician. Upon learning that I had a computer at home, he asked if I wanted to learn how to access the Minghui website; I said yes without hesitation. In the year that followed, with this practitioner’s guidance, I gradually became familiar with many technical skills, which I also taught to my mother.
I knew that Master had long arranged everything for me, seeing that I had the pure heart to make truth-clarification materials myself. As a matter of fact, I was pretty sure that the computer my husband bought for me two years ago was part of Master’s arrangement. Both my mother and I experienced great improvement in our xinxing after we began to read Minghui articles every day.
Starting in November 2007, I began to make truth-clarification materials independently at my home. My mother would come to my place to help with housework while I burned numerous CDs every day. In the meantime, I also taught her how to operate the computer and burn CDs. Even though she was close to 70, she managed to master some basic computer skills.
I expanded my responsibilities and began to download flyers and brochures as well. Seeing that I had more and more on my plate, my mother gave me some money to buy her a computer, and soon she started a materials-production site at her home as well. The two of us are now responsible for making all the truth-clarification materials needed in our local area.
In addition to making truth-clarification materials, my mother and I worked together on other projects as well. We sent out letters to clarify the truth and distributed copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. We were also elated to receive encouragement from Master: On July 15, 2008, we discovered an Udumbara flower blooming on my windowpane!
Identifying and Getting Rid of Our Attachments While Working Together
Anything Dafa disciples do involves cultivation of xinxing. While working together, my mother and I often run into conflicts with each other. With persistent Fa-study, we are able to look within the moment any conflict arises. We truly feel that looking within is our best tool to improve ourselves.
When I first started teaching my mother to use the computer, I had to switch roles with her: She went to sit in front of the computer while I became the one busy with housework. At the beginning, I felt very uneasy thinking that she, an elderly lady, should feel content just helping me around the house. I didn’t get why she had to learn all the computer stuff herself. Through Fa-study and looking within, I realized it was my jealousy at play. So I sent forth-righteous thoughts to remove this attachment and even wrote an experience-sharing article about it. When my mother saw my article published on Minghui, she got very angry upon seeing that her daughter even felt jealous of her. I failed to maintain my cool and began to argue with her. But soon I realized that it was my competitive mentality that had just reared its ugly head. I then began to send forth righteous thoughts to get rid of my jealousy and competitive mentality. When I was done, my mother also calmed down.
My mother, on the other hand, tended to rely on me to solve any technical problems she ran into. She’d call me frequently urging me to rush over to help fix her computer. Every time I saw her, I just kept complaining that she was wasting my time, which I could have used to study the Fa. When she questioned if the practitioner who taught me computer skills behaved the same way as I did, I was speechless. After studying the Fa together, we both found our attachments. Mother realized she was too dependent on me while I saw how impatient I was. She has since learned how to download and print contents from the Minghui website all by herself. She was actually amazed at her own capabilities and knew it was Master who bestowed her with the wisdom to learn computer skills.
The neighbor one floor above my mother’s apartment began to have a leaking bathroom last December. When my mother went upstairs to inform the neighbor of the leak, the neighbor flatly denied there was a problem. The leaking thus lasted more than one month, and my mother was very anxious to get it fixed. When she complained to me about this, I became inpatient, feeling that it had nothing to do with me. Then one day when she brought up the subject again, I suddenly realized that anything cultivators encounter is not accidental. I reminded both her and myself to look within. After a little while, my mother said the problem must be related to her attachment to her brother, who was recently diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer. She had always been very close to my uncle and just couldn’t let go of concern for his health problem. As for myself, I realized I was indifferent to my mother’s needs and behaved selfishly during the whole process. We next sent forth righteous thoughts together to eliminate our respective attachments.
I felt that I should help my mother solve this problem, so I called a plumber who told me that they probably would have to open up the ceiling to get to the leaking pipe upstairs, which could easily cost 3,000 yuan. Well, it was my responsibility to help my mother so I was prepared to pay to get the leak fixed.
The next morning, however, my mother called me saying the leak had stopped (even before any plumbing work)! We were both in awe of the power of looking within. We knew that Master helped us resolve this issue after we got rid of our attachments in the first place. Thus we didn’t need to spend a penny for a repair! What was even better was that my uncle also began to practice Dafa after my mother removed her attachment to him. A miracle soon ensued and my uncle’s cancer completely vanished.
The Fa-rectification process has come to its final stage. As a Dafa disciple, I should be more diligent in the limited time remaining, yet I am still plagued by my attachment to comfort and have slacked off recently. My mother, meanwhile, is still as diligent as when she first started cultivation; offering salvation to sentient beings is always her first priority. She often reminds me to not drop my guard, and I concur with her. Master said, “That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference”) I understand that by remaining diligent I can accomplish my historic mission.
I hope my mother and I both cultivate diligently and fulfill our vows! We will not let Master down and we will be worthy of Master’s painstaking salvation of us!