(Minghui.org) On December 28, 2014, Falun Dafa practitioners from Germany and Austria attended a cultivation experience sharing conference in Bad Kissingen. Thirteen practitioners, both Chinese and Western, gave speeches.
The conference hall
Getting rid of communist party culture
Mr. Ye comes from mainland China. A few months ago, his face got swollen, which caused dramatic pain and pus. He tried to look within for the problems. He found that although he has lived in Germany for a long time, his mind is still somewhat influenced by the communist party culture.
Mr. Ye gave a few examples: He could not forgive people who hurt him until they apologized to him, for instance. He explained that he also tended to hold negative opinions about others, and always tries to protect himself from others.
As he deeply looked inward, and tried to get rid of the party culture, the swelling on his face gradually went away. Dead skin came off layer by layer. A few months later, his face was healed.
Another Chinese practitioner also talked about the party culture in her. One day she tried to convince a Western practitioner to do something. Her tone was tough, and the Westerner asked her: “Are you going to fight me?” This woke her up. She realized that her tone was not compassionate.
Looking inward, she found that she always tries to force others to agree with her, and her tone always sounds like she is in a fight. She also found that she likes to express herself, and often interrupts others. She realized that all of these are the reasons that she cannot communicate with others well.
She said: “The Western practitioners are different. They don't force others to change. When they talk to others, they just want to make their points clearly and only try to tell people their understanding. They don't mind how the other people think.”
Improving xinxing while promoting Shen Yun
Milena began practicing Falun Dafa two years ago. She talked about how she improved her xinxing while promoting Shen Yun.
Once, she purchased 30 yards of material to make a tent to use as a ticket-selling booth. It cost her a fortune. When the time came to use it, however, the practitioner in charge told her that they were unable to set up a tent there. She was unhappy for losing the money. Later, she recalled Master's teaching “We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four in Zhuan Falun). She asked herself: “Did that practitioner do it on purpose? Of course not.”
What about the loss then? She said to herself: “So be it. Just some money. Maybe we can use the material for something else in the future.” When she changed her mindset, her business got better. The following day, she sold a lot of products in her store, and made three times more money than she usually makes on an average day. This experience made her realize that upgrading xinxing is the most important, and one must put down the attachment to money.
Clarifying the truth on a university campus
Robert is a German college student. He heard a talk at a New York Fa conference a few years ago in which an American student shared his experience of setting up an exercise site on a college campus. Robert was encouraged by the speech, and also set up a site on his campus. A few dozen students came to learn the exercises over the course of the first few weeks, and some of them started their journey of cultivation.
Robert said that he got rid of a lot of attachments during this process. He put down a lot of worries, such as “What if nobody comes to the workshop?” He realized that everything that a cultivator does with righteous thoughts will have positive effects, even if the effects do not manifest at the surface level. When a cultivator has worries, he is facing the test whether his belief in Master and Fa is solid.
Cultivating in media work
Three editors from a German media shared their experience. Rosie did not want to deal with the news reports on social events, because they are full of negative stuff. She is sensitive to the negative news, and often connected them to her own life, which brought her worry and fear. She looked inward sand found a lot of attachments behind the fear. She still tightly held her hurtful experiences in the past. She still had hatred, sorrow, and various pursuits. She was still attached to her unpleasant childhood and frustrations in her current life.
She realized that if she can forgive all the people who had hurt her in the past, she would not have fear and anxiety, and would be able to peacefully face the future. The fear exposed in her daily editing work helped her find her attachments and get rid of them.
Renate said in her sharing that she was bothered by reader feedback. She thought that some fellow practitioners overacted to the mistakes in the published articles, and blamed the editors in the feedback. Trying to look inward, she asked herself: “Why does this bother me?” She realized that she held the similar negative opinions towards others and blames others when she edits fellow practitioners' articles.
She found that the negative opinions have bad effects on her editing work, causing her to constantly make mistakes. Moreover, when she blames fellow practitioners for their mistakes, they only make more mistakes. However, when she praises others for the reduction of the mistakes, they make fewer and fewer.
Renate said that one will do better without stresses, and she should think of others in the positive way, and not exert stresses on them with her negative energy.
After the conference, an attendee said that although most of the speeches were about small issues in daily life, they were very touching. “I can see how solid their cultivation is. I have benefited a lot from the sharing,” he said.
