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My Thoughts after Polishing Articles for an Experience Sharing Conference

November 06, 2008 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Hebei Province

(Clearwisdom.net) To prepare for the Fifth Internet Fa Conference for Mainland China Practitioners, I was responsible for collecting and polishing the articles written by local practitioners. As I read fellow practitioners' articles one by one, I was very moved at the sincerity of what they said to Master and about Dafa. Every article reflected genuine feeling and described what the person had gained from forging ahead in Falun Dafa in the past few years. Some were only a few words, but they showed their hearts of responsibility to Master, to Falun Dafa, and to sentient beings.

The educational level of some practitioners is not high and their characters were not written in the standard form. They found it very difficult to describe their experiences and they didn't express their feelings well. In some of the articles, the writers' ideas were not clear. When I polished these articles, I had to put a great deal of thought into determining what they really meant. I really had to put forth a lot of effort. It would have been such a pity to throw away these articles for they were, after all, what fellow practitioners had written to validate Falun Dafa. But polishing them was quite challenging. On the one hand, I had to keep their own understanding of the Dao, because nobody can cultivate for others or impose his understanding on others and his understanding is not necessarily that of anyone else's. On the other hand, I needed to make some slight modifications where practitioners were not so clear about the Fa principles. The goal was to clarify the writer's crucial points and make the articles helpful for practitioners' improvement. Otherwise, reading the articles to share their experiences would have been meaningless.

I thought of the hardships that our great Master has endured in order to save numerous beings in the boundless universe. When we are puzzled about a Fa principle, Master will point it out for us with wisdom; when we give up on ourselves, Master never tires of encouraging us; when we are persecuted by evil, Master bears it for us. With great cherishing and great caring, Master does not want to leave a single disciple behind. Master keeps our original nature and wants us to uplift ourselves through cultivating well in Falun Dafa. At my current cultivation status, I deeply understand the great care and thought that Master has expended on us.

"Cultivation is your own affair, and nobody else can do it for you. The teacher can only tell you the laws and principles on the surface. It is your own responsibility to cultivate your heart and mind, let go of your desires, attain wisdom, and eliminate confusion."("Determination" from Essentials for Further Advancement")

Master cannot cultivate for us. What Master wants from us is simply that our hearts keep reaching upward. Dafa will definitely finely sculpt the Buddhas, Daos, and Gods of the new universe one after another. The law has already been explained explicitly, what excuse can we give for not being diligent? Do not think any longer that "It is a pity to throw it away, while it feels prickly in the hand." Do not put your troubles on Master. (I want to note here that it is not for us to complain about fellow practitioners' educational level. Making up for fellow practitioners' lack of education is also a chance for those of us with more education to cultivate and improve ourselves. Fellow practitioners, please understand this, and let us together stride forward vigorously!)

I would like to make some observations on local fellow practitioners' cultivation situations. The majority of local practitioners submitted articles. This is an optimistic point. I think that, in other dimensions, this is also a chance to eliminate evil as a whole and purify our own universes. But, in many articles, practitioners stopped at the perceptual understanding of being grateful to Dafa and Master. As for how to treat cultivation during Fa rectification, they seemed to validate Fa with the human sentimentality of "If you treat me well, I will also treat you well," so when they met with difficulty, they would complain and stop moving forward. They stayed at the same level for a long time, slacked off in their cultivation, and even mixed in ordinary people's things instead of unconditionally looking inside according to Dafa. Consequently, they cannot rationally understand the Fa, and in the end, cannot keep from being a human being.

Before July 20, 1999, to quickly equip us with the capabilities to resist the persecution and save numerous beings during the persecution, Master had already pushed us to our highest positions. We are the protectors of the universe during our cultivation process and the only hope of the world's people and numerous beings. But when our righteous thoughts cannot reach such high positions, we do not have that powerful divine ability and the world's people cannot be protected in our energy fields like they should. Misled by evil influences, we slide farther and farther away, and our worlds thus become lackluster. Our local Fa rectification situation will slide backward if it doesn't advance.

The reason Master purifies our bodies, transforms gong for us, and gives us divine capabilities is to have us save numerous beings that have been misled by the evil. So if we use high level things to enjoy ordinary life, keep to ourselves those supernatural things Master gives us, are not able to step forward to save numerous beings, and only gain from Dafa without giving, our character has already departed from the universal characteristics of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Consequently, we will lose all that Dafa has given to us, lower our level, and even become an everyday person. The old forces will take this chance to ruin us. They think that we are not worthy of being saved by Master because they see the great effort that Master has made in order to save us.

Master cherishes our cultivation, purifies us, and lifts us up again and again when we stumble.

This is my understanding to share with fellow practitioners.