(Clearwisdom.net) This year marks the tenth year of my cultivation. Today I want to summarize my cultivation experiences over the past five years. The two points below are what I would like to report to Teacher and fellow practitioners.
1. Persisting with outdoor exercises for ten years, cultivating mind and body, and reaping enormous benefits
The mind and body cultivation way that Teacher has taught us is something seen not even once in a million years. It requires us to do both mental cultivation and physical refinement. I have found that as the number of Dafa projects I am involved in and the workload keep mounting, I have often had thoughts of easing up. This is especially so in regards to doing the exercise at a set time. Recently some fellow practitioners have manifested sickness karma; their bodies have aged, and some have even passed away, all of which have alerted me. I have come to see that mental cultivation and physical refinement are inseparable. Only by diligently cultivating our minds, doing the exercises, and keeping up on a long-term basis without interruption, can we eventually achieve consummation. When I reflect on my persistence in doing the exercises outdoors for the past ten years, I can see that mental cultivation and physical refinement are fused together and cannot be separated. I have often felt a wondrousness that words fail to express.
Practitioners who live in the New Jersey and New York areas have experienced the bitter cold winter weather. It is not easy to do the second exercise, the Falun Standing Stance, for half an hour without hat or gloves in the freezing cold wind, much less stay outdoors for a full one or even two hours every day. You endure a lot doing the exercises outdoors, especially when there is a cold front hitting your area. One time, in the early morning, the bitter cold and the gusting wind turned my hands completely numb, and the icy wind blew in my face so that tears streaked down my cheeks leaving white icy marks. My core body temperature dropped, and it was so cold that even our "little bee" music player froze up and stopped producing sound. Where I practiced was only a few steps away from my house, where I could go and warm up. The thought went through my mind that it would probably be okay to do the exercises indoors this time. But in the end, I chose not to go inside, and finished the rest of the exercises outdoors. I came to understand that doing the exercises is not merely doing the exercises, but also cultivating our minds and elevating our xinxing. It's a two-for-one deal, and something simply wonderful!
Over the past ten years, I have persisted in doing an hour of standing exercises or meditation outside, and do the meditation for a while indoors before I go to sleep. I stick to this schedule unless circumstances are unique. When at times I have not been in a good cultivation state or lacking in righteous thoughts, the time I would spend on the exercise decreased unwittingly, and my physical state would, correspondingly, drop downwards. Whenever I became aware that this was happening, I would do more of the exercises so as to make up for it. My understanding is that practicing diligently is a reflection of our cultivation state and of whether we can be diligent about improving our xinxing.
Doing the exercises outdoors also provides passers-by and neighbors with a chance to get to know Dafa. Over these ten years I've met many people this way, and quite a few have learned the exercises from me. Some persons, that is, the ones with a better predestined affinity, have even taken up cultivation. Being outdoors in the fresh morning air, in peaceful natural surroundings, and with serene and soothing exercise music, gives me a feeling of getting closer to my destiny.
I have gradually arrived at a way that allows me to keep up Fa-study and the exercises while still managing to do Dafa truth-clarification projects. One component is memorizing the Fa. Memorizing the Fa is, among other things, a way to deepen one's understanding of the Fa and immerse oneself in it. I do not get hung up on the number of pages I read, which is something that happens when I read the Fa normally. The second component involves making use of every tiny window of time to recite the Fa you have memorized. Thus, when I eat my meal, I recite the Fa; when I'm walking down the street, I recite the Fa; and when I am at rest, I recite the Fa. If time is sufficient, I recite more paragraphs. If time is limited, I'll recite just a sentence. I even take the opportunity to recite the Fa as I work on Dafa projects. For example, when we were doing the truth-clarification effort in Manhattan, I would recite the Fa as I drove the big truck. It is similar to doing the exercises: I do more exercise when I have more time, and do less when I have less time. But, whatever the case, it is something I have to do.
Doing the exercises outdoors over the past ten years has demanded of me that I elevate my xinxing standard. My mind and body have met with various ordeals during the process of striving to cultivate steadily over the years. With the elevation of my xinxing, my body has continually been purified. I seldom experience any sickness karma, and every indicator of health, such as blood pressure, heartbeat, cholesterol, and weight, has equaled or even surpassed the level of a young athlete. The ability to endure extraordinary privations, such as going without food or drink for long periods, enduring harsh weather, or enduring grueling physical labor--these aren't easy, and some even exceed what a normal human being can take. However, many Dafa disciples have experienced such things, and in every case it is the result of cultivation of both mind and body. Neither can be neglected.
Alongside my own practice of the exercises, I have also made a routine of participating in a group exercise for one hour every Tuesday. For the past two years, the practitioners in my Fa-study group have done one hour of exercises together, which is then followed by weekly Fa study. We've all come to feel that doing the exercises and Fa-study together goes hand in hand, and these work well together. When we read Zhuan Falun and share our experiences after having done the serene and peaceful exercises, we can sense that a certain purity and power have enriched the setting. A group cultivation environment is a precious opportunity for new and veteran persons alike, for with it we can improve in our cultivation together; this is especially so when everyone is so busy that they can't keep up with the exercises. It is very precious.
2. Bringing China's semi-divine culture to predestined people via a Chinese education program at a community college
Through what seemed like happenstance, I accepted a second job teaching Chinese language in the Adult Education Program at a community college. The students in my class come from different backgrounds, with most of them being Americans who have a strong interest in Chinese culture.
I did not have prior teaching experience in Chinese, and this was the first time that I taught in a college setting. But with the wisdom provided by Dafa, I was able to introduce China's semi- divine culture into the classroom in a natural way. This way, in each student's heart I was able to plant the seeds of Truthfulness, Benevolence, Tolerance.
Course Materials
To teach Chinese, I first needed to prepare teaching materials that suited the students' learning levels. I choose materials that have to do with traditional Chinese values. I also select some classical Chinese prose as supplementary texts, as I wish to help students understand true, traditional Chinese culture. We study one paragraph of classical prose in each class, and I teach about traditional Chinese values such as benevolence, loyalty, propriety, wisdom, honesty, and so on. I also explain how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has deprived several generations of people, myself included, of the right to learn traditional Chinese values, leading many young people to be ignorant of how their forefathers were duped by the CCP, and causing them to lead a confused life. The students in the class were not only deeply impressed by China's profound culture, they were also alarmed by the communist party's deceitful nature. It was thus only natural that one student asked me, "Who nowadays is the true, genuine inheritor of China's traditional culture?"
Wasn't what they were asking the very same question persons of keen insight had been pondering for so many years? Indeed, people have been searching for thousands of years--searching for the truth--and now the answer is right before us.
Chinese Traditional Culture
Although the teaching materials I used employed the simplified form of Chinese characters and Pinyin, which makes learning easier for beginners, when you teach Chinese you cannot do it without the context of traditional Chinese culture. So, wherever appropriate I would talk about the traditional form of the Chinese characters, and explain the deeper meanings they posses. This helped students understand how the simplified words [which came about under communist rule], were deviant. They could also thus understand the impact of the communists' script reform upon Chinese culture. New Tang Dynasty Television's broadcasting, via its programs on traditional Chinese culture, provides limitless resources for teaching Chinese. In each class I would teach one Chinese idiom, such as the "Eight immortals cross the sea," "grinding an iron rod into a needle," "serve the country with unabashed loyalty," and "what goes around comes around." These classical idioms and the stories behind them helped students understand the conduct and etiquette of China's traditional heroes. As a result, students are more enthused about studying traditional Chinese culture.
New Tang Dynasty TV's New Year Spectacular naturally became a topic in each class. Students couldn't wait to see the show. When February finally came, my students together with the students and teachers of other Chinese classes at the college--over 50 people in all--gleefully took the school bus to Radio City Music Hall and watched the grand display of pure goodness and beauty by Divine Performing Arts. It was this way, with this precious opportunity, that each student got to learn who the real inheritor of traditional Chinese culture is.
In a nutshell, while teaching the Chinese language, I was able to help students understand more about traditional Chinese culture as well as the evils of communism. Although my teaching experience is limited, with wisdom furnished by Dafa, the opportunities to meet predestined people have been abundant.
Thank you Teacher. Thank you everyone.