(Minghui.org)
Greetings, respected Master!Greetings, fellow practitioners!
This is my fifth year at Northern Academy. I am in 11th grade this year. I wanted to share how I gained the Fa and started genuinely cultivating about two years ago. I also wanted to share some of my recent experiences, understandings, and breakthroughs.
My mom practiced Falun Dafa and she introduced it to my brother and I when we were little. We studied and memorized Hong Yin together. She sometimes took me along with her to go to group Fa study and exercises, and I also attended various summer camps run by practitioners. However, I regret not cherishing the opportunity to study the Fa and cultivate when I was little.
I started to play video games instead of going with my mom to a weekly group Fa study. After my grandpa gifted my brother a video game console, my brother and I played video games really often. I started to dream about the video game characters. Playing games and using the internet eventually led to both of us developing tics, which is a medical condition that made our eyes and faces twitch. My mom found out and sold the console, but we still used the computer to play games. My brother has kept playing games, while I stopped playing games about two years ago. My tics went away after I came to New York, since my Mom did not allow me to play games or use the internet for too long.
Ever since I was little, I knew that Dafa was good and that I needed to do the right thing. Master said,
“Lao Zi said, “When a wise person hears the Tao, this person will practice it diligently. When an average person hears it, this person will practice it on and off. When a foolish person hears it, this person will laugh at it loudly. If this person doesn’t laugh at it loudly, it’s not the Tao.”” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
I was like the average person who practiced on and off, sometimes treating myself as a practitioner, while at other times thinking of myself as a non-practitioner.
When I came to Northern Academy for the 7th grade, the environment had a big impact on me. Almost everyone around me was a practitioner, and there was group Fa study and exercises every day. Although I did not always attend group Fa study and exercises, the environment had a positive effect on me because everyone was pure compared to the people in public schools, they reminded me to go to Fa study and exercises, and we had school Fa conferences. Those all served as reminders about cultivation for me. I started to think about cultivation more and sometimes treated myself as a practitioner when I encountered conflicts.
I was exposed to horrible things on the internet when I was little, and things took a turn for the worse when I entered 8th grade. The internet problem got really serious. I had gotten my own laptop and basically lived for it. Outside of school, I only thought of playing games, watching shows, and going online. I stayed up very late every day because of that. I started to neglect practicing dance, doing Fa study, sending forth righteous thoughts, and doing the exercises. At one point I stopped going to group Fa study at school so that I could go home earlier to use the laptop. At other times, when my mom asked me if I did Fa study and exercises, I lied and said yes even if I didn’t do it or didn’t plan to do it at all. My mind was full of the horrible things I watched and read online, which included killing, violence, and swearing, as well as other bad things.
I later moved to my friend’s house, where I was able to use electronic devices as much as I wanted. I was a little happy about that, but I also felt like there was no meaning in anything that I did. One time, I complained about that to my friend, and even though she said that there were a lot of things I could do, I still felt like they were meaningless. I was looking for a guide in my life that could bring me something higher than what was in the world. Looking back, I was actually looking for Dafa.
Master said,
“A lot of people want to cultivate toward high levels. This is now provided right before you, and you may still be unaware of it. You have been everywhere looking for a teacher and have spent a fortune, yet you have found nothing. Today, it is offered to you at your doorstep, and maybe you have not realized it! This is an issue of whether you can become enlightened to it and whether you can be saved.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
My situation was exactly like what Master described.
When I later moved to one woman’s house, she made me put my laptop in her room after she found out that I was behaving suspiciously by hiding my screen from her. She told me that I should not watch things I was not supposed to watch. She also told me that if I wanted to use it, I would have to use it in her room under her supervision. As a result, I stopped using the internet for a while. It was painful, but I knew deep in my heart that it was a good thing and I purposely refrained from asking her to use the laptop. I knew that it was bad for me and I wanted to do what was right.
I was finally able to start genuinely cultivating after that happened. Many factors were involved, such as the positive influence of being around Dafa disciples, not using the internet, and listening to Minghui sharings.
In the past, I got misled by people who said negative things about Dafa online and in person, which resulted in me having some doubts about Dafa. It also stopped me from realizing what Dafa really was. As a result, I started to doubt what my mom said, which made me reject her when she told me to do Fa study and exercises, or when she told me to not look at bad things on the internet. Being around practitioners who said positive things about Dafa helped me eliminate many of the negative notions and thoughts I had formed about Falun Dafa.
Something that helped me a lot was listening to a sharing on Minghui Radio. The sharing talked about a person who looked at many bad things online in the past. After gaining the Fa, he persisted in doing the exercises and Fa study every day and could feel the bad things in his mind and body getting eliminated. It motivated me to do the exercises because I knew that I had also looked at many bad things and that I had a lot of bad things in my mind as a result of that. A while after I listened to the sharing, I decided to do the second exercise. Later, I joined the group exercises in the park with my mom.
I eventually moved back with my mom, and she persuaded me to go to the group exercises that were right outside our house. After we finished doing the exercises, I read Zhuan Falun. I remember really clearly that after I read Lunyu, my world changed completely. Master said,
“And any cultivator who is able to become one with Dafa is an enlightened one—divine.” (Lun Yu, Zhuan Falun)
After I read this, it seemed like my mind was suddenly opened up. It felt magical. I was clear about why people came to the world, and I knew that I had a path. I would cultivate and become a divine being like Master said. I had found the guide that I was looking for.
As I kept reading Zhuan Falun, the principles felt very high, and I was very excited. Master told us how to elevate our levels, which was very fascinating to me. I was also shocked that I never realized what cultivation was about until then. I felt like nobody had ever told me about this, and I wished that someone had told me sooner. I also thought that since I had read the book so many times in the past, how come I only understood it now? I truly felt like my mom had brought my family a blessing by bringing Dafa to us.
Master has told us, “Your Main Consciousness Should Dominate.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
However, I became interfered with by thought karma and demonic interference for quite a while. Many thoughts would pop up into my head that made me fearful and unable to focus during Fa study, exercises, and when I sent forth righteous thoughts, the thoughts were trying to disguise themselves as me so that I could not eliminate them.
One day a few months ago, I decided to completely focus when I sent forth righteous thoughts. I decided to have strong righteous thoughts and to block out any interference. I felt like a layer around my head melted as I sent forth righteous thoughts. The next day, I found out that I grew about one centimeter taller.
Since then, I have been eliminating more and more of the thought interference. One weekend, I decided to completely focus and have a strong main consciousness when I did anything. At the end of the day, after I had studied one lecture of Zhuan Falun and sent forth righteous thoughts, I realized that my mind had become a lot more empty and calm. I was amazed and realized that it was true that the thought karma and messy thoughts were not me. I think that doing Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts with a clear mind helped me to eliminate a lot of the thought karma. Believing in Master and in Dafa’s power is also really important to be able to have righteous thoughts that can eliminate evil.
I hope that fellow cultivators will cherish the opportunity to cultivate and be able to cultivate with the heart they had in the beginning. I hope fellow students here can wake up and cherish this opportunity to gain the Fa if they have not realized it yet.
If anything in my sharing is not in line with the Fa, please kindly let me know.
Thank you Master,Thank you Fellow Practitioners.
(Shared at the Northern Academy of the Arts Experience Sharing Conference)