(Clearwisdom.net) I obtained Dafa in 1998. While I was still trying to figure out how to cultivate, the evil persecution started. Today, I would like to share my experiences of cultivating myself and cooperating with other practitioners.
Searching Within, Eliminating Human Notions while Cooperating with One Another
Master says, “When it comes to the things of Dafa disciples, you should always cooperate with each other and work well together.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference”) It was in 2007 that I truly started cooperating with other practitioners in doing Dafa work. At that time, my mind was pure and simple. I felt that I did not cultivate well, and therefore, I did whatever practitioners asked me to do in validating Dafa.
As time went on, after interacting more often with fellow practitioners, conflicts started surfacing. Eventually it became worse. I had to start paying attention to it, so I tried to search within. My attachments such as the attachment to fame, mentality of showing off, zealotry, validating self, jealousy, lust and desire were exposed. While cooperating with fellow practitioners, I tried to continuously eliminate these human notions.
Exposing the Evil While Cooperating with One Another
Later, I joined a large group Fa study and had the opportunity to interact with some coordinators. At the beginning of one year, the coordinator wanted to push our local practitioners to join an effort to expose the evil. Due to the attachment of fear, some practitioners did not participate. Plus, some coordinators did not handle things from the Fa's perspective, which caused the project to come to a halt. At that time, I showed my support to the coordinator and shared my thoughts during the group Fa study: exposing the evil persecution is what Master asks us to do. Exposing the evil is to eliminate the evil and saving sentient beings.
I started cooperating with another area's coordinator to collect persecution facts of the 610 Office in that area during the past decade. During this process, another practitioner in the suburban area agreed with this approach of exposing the evil. About six months later, she had collected all the materials for more than ten townships and over 30 practitioners' persecution cases. I was moved, so I spent a few nights summarizing the related materials and put together a complete package of the persecution facts by the local 610 Office over the past decade. Afterward, I handed it to the coordinator for review. Several days later, it was published on the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net).
The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong started investigating the responsible person for this case and the evil became scared of the righteous power. This made us feel that the practitioners from Mainland China and overseas are one body. What the overseas practitioners do alleviates the severity of the persecution for practitioners in China.
During another group Fa-study, I shared this experience of writing the article exposing the evil and my personal understanding. Fellow practitioners felt encouraged, and a coordinator practitioner from the city area said, “I have not done well in the past. My lack of understanding should not prevent us from exposing the evil. I will share this with fellow practitioners in my area.”
Soon after that, a coordinator from the city area approached me and asked me to help them gather and organize some materials. There are many practitioners in that area and the persecution was severe, as well. They realized the importance of exposing the evil, so they put together written materials about the persecution that they experienced. Therefore, the materials were complete and rich in content. After several rounds of reviewing and editing, it was sent to the Minghui website.
With this opportunity, the coordinators in the entire area had an in-depth sharing regarding exposing the evil persecution. One coordinator said, “We were all touched by today's sharing. When I return, I will share this with the rest of the practitioners.” In an area with severe persecution, there were many persecution cases reported on the Minghui website. As soon as those articles were published, the evil was significantly suppressed.
I realized that as long as we do things following the Fa, things get accomplished. We should let go of self and do things based on Dafa's needs.
Identifying My Own Shortcomings while Cooperating with Others
In the past several years, I have also been working with fellow practitioners in gathering and compiling local statistics and sending them to Minghui. One practitioner was responsible for delivering the information, but due to him being occupied by other projects, I had to take over the entire project, including making the deliveries. In this process, I learned to understand and think for others. The capacity of my heart has broadened.
There was a period of time when I was trying to organize the materials collected by a fellow practitioner. I found out that some of the details were missing, so I wanted to talk to that practitioner in person, but it was either due to the practitioner's fear that he did not want to meet with me or we did not have time to meet, so the meeting never took place.
I did not have any breakthroughs from the Fa's perspective. My human notions slowed down the progress of this project. When I heard the news that five high-ranking Chinese officials had been indicted in Spain for genocide and the torture of Falun Gong practitioners, I felt that the Fa-rectification had advanced so rapidly. I felt that I was bearing great responsibilities and regretted that I did not fully utilize the time to accomplish what I was supposed to do. I still need to improve my xinxing and I did not realize the importance of collecting and compiling the data in the overall validation of the Fa.
In the past several years, while cooperating with others, I have had opportunities to identify areas where I need to improve in my cultivation. For example, when I found out that I still had the attachment to fear, I actively and continuously eliminated it. My xinxing level has been raised. The capacity of my heart is being broadened.
I studied Master's new lectures and realized that the Fa requirements on cooperating well with one another is higher. “Whatever Master says, that’s what we’ll do,” and, “Whatever Master wants, that’s what we’ll do.” (“Be More Diligent”)
I realize that we need to be more diligent as we get closer to the end. As long as we cultivate well and cooperate well, we will save more sentient beings.
Please point out anything inappropriate in my understanding.
Category: Improving Oneself
