(Minghui.org) Respectful greetings to Master. Greetings, fellow practitioners.
I was fortunate to obtain Zhuan Falun and other Falun Dafa books in early 1999. However, for me, truly obtaining the Fa and learning how to cultivate took a long time.
I would like to share some of my cultivation experiences from three perspectives, report to Master, and share my insights with fellow practitioners. If anything doesn’t align with the Fa, I sincerely ask that you compassionately point it out.
I gradually identified my fundamental attachments. At first, I believed my fundamental attachment was the pursuit of healing and physical fitness, because my health was poor when a friend gave me the Dafa books. After only a few months of reading, my body underwent tremendous changes.
Master said:
“After cultivating for a period of time, are your thoughts still the same? Are you continuing on the path because of those human attachments? If so, you cannot be counted as my disciple. It means that you have not discarded your fundamental attachments and have failed to understand the Fa from the Fa. Those who have been weeded out during the evil tests that Dafa has encountered in China are all persons who hadn’t abandoned those attachments. It should also be said that they have negatively affected Dafa.” (“Towards Consummation,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
I asked myself: Was I here only because I wanted a healthy body? No. Once I understood from the Fa the root cause of illness and the true meaning of life, I was able to let go of my attachment to pursuing good health.
One day, I read an article on Minghui.org in which a practitioner mentioned that the part of Zhuan Falun that made the deepest impression and resonated most strongly during the first reading might actually reveal one’s fundamental attachment. This made me think back to my first reading of the book. The part that touched me most deeply was Master’s discussion on prehistoric civilizations. At the time, I felt very excited, as though this book had given me the most perfect and thorough answer.
During my university years, I was deeply interested in prehistoric cultures and often reflected on the origin and meaning of life. Wasn’t this exactly what Master meant when he wrote, “Some people thought that Dafa is in keeping with their own conception of science ...”? (“Towards Consummation,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
I believed what Master said because I had first identified with that scientific viewpoint. It seemed that my attachment to science was, in fact, my fundamental attachment! Over the years, this attachment has permeated every aspect of my cultivation. When my eyesight declined, I immediately thought of scientific explanations. When I had diarrhea, I first recalled what I had eaten that day. Even my atheistic way of thinking and my inability to believe one hundred percent in Master and the Fa were closely tied to this attachment to science.
However, recognizing this fundamental attachment was only the first step. The key is, through continuous Fa study and cultivation, to work harder on clearly distinguishing and eliminating these notions—to separate the scientific factors from my true self, purify myself, and thereby steadily return to my original, true nature.
One day, my husband, who does not cultivate, asked me: “When it comes to major issues, you seem so optimistic and confident about the future. But when it comes to the difficulties right in front of you—like adapting to a new environment, language barriers, and so on—you act as though they’re an enormous problem. Are these things really harder than becoming a Buddha?” His words shocked me. How could someone who does not cultivate say something like that? This was clearly Master using his mouth to enlighten me. I knew his words had touched something fundamental in my cultivation. Why do I cultivate? Why am I afraid of hardship?
What was I longing for? During my student years, I had many experiences that made me feel that striving in life was meaningless. I grew tired of people’s fame-seeking and competition, and even before cultivating, I wanted a quiet, simple, and carefree life. When I started working, I was unwilling to participate in teaching competitions and too lazy to exhaust myself over professional rankings and promotions. After cultivating, I felt even more that I was right to be indifferent to fame and gain, after all. Yet behind this apparent detachment lay my fundamental attachment: using cultivation to escape worldly troubles and to seek the simplicity and ease I wanted. In truth, my thoughts had never transcended the human realm. Fundamentally, my cultivation was to free myself; it was based on self-interest.
Because I was attached to seeking my ideal life through Dafa, my cultivation often looked like this: when the external environment suited me, I cultivated diligently and positively; when it didn’t, I became anxious and depressed. When facing difficulties, I feared hardship and exhaustion and lacked the calmness and steadfastness a cultivator should have. Seeking an earthly paradise in Dafa was in fact my biggest and most fundamental attachment! Seeing this fundamental attachment clearly, I reminded myself that I must eliminate an attachment rooted in self. Dafa disciples cultivate themselves well in order to assist Master in saving people. Only by removing the attachment to self can one truly cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
In 2011, while facing constant harassment from CCP agents, my husband sent our child—who had just started middle school—and me to another country. My son and I spent 13 years as refugees while my husband remained in China. Feeling untethered in a foreign land, along with our long-term companionship as mother and son, deepened my emotional attachment to and dependence on him. My son has a gentle temperament and was fairly understanding of our situation, without the usual adolescent rebellion.
Unknowingly, my desire to control his life intensified. From cultivation to academics, from work to friendships, I wanted to be involved. Yet at the time, I was completely unaware of this attachment and sentimentality, and even felt it was simply a mother’s responsibility. I took it for granted that, since we were adrift abroad, our futures should remain tightly bound, and I regarded these wishes as natural.
A practitioner once joked, “Your son is your strongest crutch.” I was quite happy to hear that and completely failed to realize the practitioner was reminding me that, as a cultivator, my dependence on my child was far too strong.
Eventually, our refugee resettlement took a big turn when my son moved to Australia and I relocated to Canada.
Since the CCP began persecuting Falun Dafa, many practitioners in Malaysia have applied to the United Nations for refugee status. Most families eventually settle in the same country. But my son and I ended up in different countries—something extremely rare—separated by thousands of miles.
For a long time, it felt as though my heart had been torn apart. I couldn’t accept the situation. I suffered, resenting my husband for forcing me to leave China through force and persuasion, and blaming my son for not making good use of the opportunity. Sometimes I didn’t want to do anything at all, only to bury my head and sleep. I struggled with those unbearable emotions for a long time before I slowly managed to pick myself up and move forward.
Reason told me that all of this was inseparable from my cultivation. On the surface, it seemed that certain decisions or timing had caused this unexpected outcome. But as a cultivator, I knew nothing is accidental. Only when things reached this point did I seem to wake up in the midst of pain and look back at my problems as if watching a film. One thing was beyond doubt: I had held my son in excessively high regard.
I wanted him to never leave me; I wanted him to remain my “crutch.” Because of this attachment, I encountered countless xinxing tests and I wasted a great deal of time that should have been spent saving people. After bouts of physical and emotional exhaustion, I said to Master in my heart: “Master, I do not want to be controlled by sentiment anymore. I want to go home with you. Please strengthen your disciple to eliminate the attachment to my child.”
Each time I asked Master, the distress would lessen. But before long, it would return. So why was it so hard to eradicate? Because the starting point for removing the attachment was selfish. Amidst suffering, I wanted only to free myself, and everything came from the perspective of protecting my own interests.
A practitioner shared that when facing challenges, if we don’t base our decisions on Fa-rectification cultivation and instead try to remove an attachment just to remove it, we unconsciously fall into personal cultivation. If the foundation is selfish, the old forces have an excuse to create tribulations for us. Finally, I saw it. For all these years, wasn’t my issue with my son centered entirely on myself? My son; how I wanted him to be; how I wanted him to fulfill my wishes; how I wanted to eliminate my attachment to him—all of it began with “me”!
But what is my true identity? Am I first a mother? No. I am first a Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification period. I asked myself: when you are so disturbed by the attachment to your child that you cannot study the Fa, when sending righteous thoughts feels like waves crashing inside you, and when you no longer want to clarify the truth, how would Master, who is enduring hardships to save you, feel? And what will happen to those lives who placed great hope in you? Whenever my mind was clear, I asked myself these questions again and again, and said to myself in my heart: “You are a Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification period. You are a Dafa disciple of the Fa-rectification period.” I then recited Master’s words continuously:
“Clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings are what you need to accomplish. There is nothing else for you to accomplish. There is nothing else in this world that you need to accomplish.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)
Gradually, the heavy pull of sentimentality began to weaken. Each time I thought of my son, the bitterness I felt lessened. In my heart, I understood that whenever I questioned myself, it was my true self seeing clearly the false self wrapped in sentimentality. I wanted to reject it—not accept it, and Master was helping me. With each round of peeling it away, it weakened a little more. Now, looking back, I can see my role more clearly, and I understand more distinctly that the foundation for removing attachments is not for my own sake, but for the salvation of sentient beings.
Master taught us,
“Don’t mistakenly think that when you have helped to raise awareness about Dafa and the persecution, joined in Dafa activities, or participated in Dafa projects, you have done something for Dafa or for me. That is my providing you with ways to save and help one another, to rescue people together, and at the same time save yourselves; so during these latter days, beings are able to help save one another.” (“Stay Out of Danger”)
Next, I would like to share a few shorter stories and my personal understanding of this section of the Fa.
What is there that cannot be said?
Once while I was in China, while in a taxi I noticed a Dafa amulet hanging from the driver’s rearview mirror. This was around 2006, when the persecution was severe. I asked him, “You dare to hang that up?”
Unexpectedly, he declaimed: “A relative in my family practices this. He had severe myopia, but after practicing for just a few days, he no longer needed his glasses. This is beyond science—you can’t help but believe it!” I praised him for his courage and for daring to say such things. But he answered calmly: “I’m just telling the truth. If it’s the truth, what is there that cannot be said? I will tell anyone I meet.”
This experience deeply moved me. The driver’s logic was simple: he was speaking about something that had truly happened. If one speaks the truth, why should there be fear? At the time, I was still timid and nervous about clarifying the truth. Master arranged for me to see the fearlessness of this ordinary person, urging me to cultivate away my fear and human notions.
My husband was also deeply shaken. After we got out of the taxi, he walked without saying a word. Before that, if he heard me talking to others about Falun Dafa, he would get angry. The driver’s righteous energy helped dissolve his fear of the evil Party.
Master repeatedly arranged opportunities for my husband and me to hear positive comments about Falun Dafa from everyday people, including police officers. All of this encouraged me and inspired me to walk more openly and uprightly on my cultivation path. As for my husband, after each of these experiences, he changed a little. Previously refusing to hear the truth, he became willing to accompany me in explaining to our child’s teacher why he would not be joining the Young Pioneers.
Back in university, he was the first CCP member in his class. He went from actively joining the evil Party to later withdrawing from it, all under the compassionate arrangements of our great Master, with everyday people passing the truth to him one after another like a relay. Thank you, Master. And thank you to those precious people.
I Will Follow In Your Footsteps
Living outside China, I clarify the truth by phone to people in China. One day, a man thanked me during a call. I said, “You have a good predestined foundation for understanding that we are doing this for your benefit.” He became emotional and said: “Not only do I know that you are doing this for our good, but I also want to learn from you. Everything you are doing is not for yourselves—it is for this country, for this nation. Your efforts will awaken many people, and they will follow you.”
I thanked him for his understanding. He said, “You are lights guiding the way. I will follow behind you and walk in your footsteps.” He added, “You have already awakened many people. Don’t resent those who don’t understand you. Your persistence will awaken them. I believe our nation will have hope, because you are leading the way.”
We talked for over an hour. I was deeply moved by the righteousness and selflessness of this ordinary Chinese man after he awakened to the truth. Throughout the conversation, he never mentioned himself or complained about society. Even when speaking of the evil Party’s lies and crimes, he showed no anger; his tone remained calm. He was thinking about his country and his fellow citizens who had not yet awakened. His words were full of understanding and care for them.
I felt emotional and sighed: I wasn’t just telling people about Falun Dafa and the persecution; instead, Master was using their words to enlighten me. The truth that truly touches people isn’t spoken aloud—it comes naturally from cultivating pure kindness and reaching a realm of selflessness for others. In my daily life, I often showed impatience and dissatisfaction. Master arranged for me to identify what I still needed to let go of. At the same time, the praise and expectations people have for Dafa disciples also inspire me to remember my mission.
Former Practitioners See the Truth Again
At tourist sites, from time to time we occasionally encounter people who used to practice Falun Dafa. When they see our display, their expressions vary—some are shocked, some excited, some confused. Some slip away from the tour group to talk to us. For various reasons, they stopped cultivating, but deep in their hearts the roots of Dafa had been planted. Some stare at the truth-clarification display boards, biting their lips to keep from crying. Seeing their feelings is something I will never forget. These encounters remind me to cherish the rare opportunity to cultivate freely outside China.
One woman told me that she and her mother had practiced Dafa before 1999, but after the persecution began, they no longer dared to continue. They lived in a remote area and hadn’t seen other practitioners again, so they believed Falun Dafa had been eradicated. As she looked at the materials in my hands, her eyes filled with tears. She asked me how to find practitioners in China. Eventually, a man came and pulled her away. She followed him, but her head was turned toward us, her gaze fixed on us. Even when she was far away, I could still see the tears in her eyes.
At that moment, I thought: “Perhaps Master had arranged for these practitioners to come to another country to see Dafa disciples talking about Falun Dafa at tourist sites, paving the way for them to return to cultivation.” The longing in their eyes as they saw the truth of Dafa, and their desire to return to the cultivation path, also strengthened my resolve to keep going to the tourist sites.
I have witnessed many more touching scenes: tour bus drivers who forced drinks into my hands; family members of practitioners in China who held my hand and wept; Chinese tourists whose mothers pushed me away, but whose sons quietly returned to find me and withdraw from the Party. Every vivid image is etched in my memory and in my heart, becoming the driving force that keeps me moving forward on my cultivation path.
In lazy moments, when I cannot pass a xinxing test and feel like doing nothing, I am fully aware that my disinterest may interfere with Master’s arrangements, and that I may lose one precious person meant to be cherished. Many times, after struggling inwardly over whether to go to the site, I think about that one encounter and push myself out the door.
What is truly remarkable is that when I visit tourist sites in this state—even sometimes on the way there—I often encounter predestined sentient beings. They may have never heard the truth about Dafa before, or they may say they have wanted to understand it. Some even say they came specifically to hear me talk about these things. These chance meetings seem to tell me that if I hadn’t gone out that day, I would have missed my predestined connection with them. Such experiences are extraordinary and intense.
I know clearly that there are no coincidences. It is Master who, seeing me entangled in human attachments and trapped in the small circle of self-interest and gain, arranges these lives, at critical moments, to awaken me.
These scenes helped me regain my sense of responsibility and pushed me forward for eight years at tourist sites under the blazing Malaysian sun.
Without Dafa’s guidance, I could not have persevered for so long. Without the joy of seeing lives saved, it would have been very difficult for someone like me, who tends to fear hardship, to persist day after day, year after year.
While studying Master’s article “Stay Out of Danger,” I came to understand his point that beings can help save one another: as we inform people about the truth, they also help us in countless ways. Even those who oppose us contribute to our growth and fulfillment. Our gain in cultivation greatly surpass what we give.
Master uses all of this to help disciples establish mighty virtue and to provide us with opportunities to cultivate. Dafa disciples and ordinary people are in a relationship of mutual salvation and support. Therefore, I remind myself that there is no reason to feel the slightest satisfaction for anything I have done, much less to look down on anyone.
As a disciple, all I feel is gratitude to Master for paving this cultivation path for me and to everyone who has helped along the way so that Dafa disciples can fulfill their vows.
Thank you, Master.Thank you, fellow practitioners.Heshi.
(Presented at the 2026 Vancouver Fa Conference)