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Growing Up Amidst Master's Care

December 12, 2011 |   By Yuer, a young practitioner from Heilongjiang Province

(Clearwisdom.net)

Greetings to our great and compassionate Master!
Greetings to fellow practitioners!

I am a 16-year-old Dafa disciple. Although I am young, I have already practiced cultivation for 13 years. Thank you Minghui website for giving mainland Chinese practitioners such an opportunity. It has been an honor to have taken part in the experience sharing conference for the past three years. On this occasion, I report to Master my cultivation experience during the past year and share with fellow practitioners.

Master Saved My Life Twice in One Day

One day in March this year, as I crossed a road while on my way to school, a heavy duty truck suddenly stopped very close to where I was. I quickly crossed the road and walked away. In the evening after school in the same spot and facing the same direction, another heavy duty truck similar to the one in the morning nearly touched my school bag and suddenly came to a halt. Again, I quickly walked away. When my parents, who are also practitioners, returned home, I told them about the incident. My mother said, “You should thank Master as he has saved you twice in one day!” I then realized what happened. Master saved me twice in a day. This is what I know, but I don't know how much of my karma Master has borne for me.

Studying the Fa More and Removing the Attachment to Fame and Gain

Master said in Zhuan Falun:

“I have said that in China there are still some things being passed down among people, which Western medicine’s precision instruments cannot match. Let us see whose treatment is better. His matchstick can pull a tooth. If a doctor in Western medicine wants to pull a tooth, the doctor will first inject the patient with anesthetics here and there. Injections are quite painful, and one must wait until the anesthetic works. Then the doctor will pull the tooth with a pair of pliers. After a lot of time and effort, if the doctor is not careful, the root may break inside the tooth bed. Then the doctor will use a hammer and a drill to dig for it, which can make the patient palpitate with fear and anxiety. Later, a precision instrument will be used for the drilling. Some people are in so much pain from the drilling that they almost jump. The tooth will ooze quite a bit of blood, and the patient will spit out blood for a while. Whose treatment would you say is better? Whose is more advanced? We should look not only at the tools’ appearance, but also at their effectiveness. Ancient Chinese medicine was very advanced, and present-day Western medicine will not be able to catch up with it for many years to come.”

I understood that not only is Chinese medicine far better than Western medicine in terms of technique and skill, it surpasses Western medicine in level and realm. Chinese medicine is closer to the characteristic of the universe.

In the past, I always thought that Dafa is extraordinary, but while amongst everyday people we should also work hard. When it comes to examination time, I always burned the midnight oil to study. I was also afraid that my mother would criticize me for being too attached to ordinary human affairs and fearful that I would not obtain good results due to evil taking advantage of my attachments. I had the attachment of pursuit and hoped to get good results through practicing Dafa. Actually, Dafa is extraordinary. We can use principles beyond the human level to accomplish things and not be restricted by the laws of everyday people, but to do this we have to break through human notions and use righteous thoughts. This is a manifestation of righteous faith in Dafa. However, if we downgrade our level to that of an everyday person's and seek to use the means of everyday people or through “efforts” to pursue results, it is similar to following the path of Western medicine in the tooth extraction incident. Consequently, we obtain half the result using twice the effort.

Although I understood the Fa principles, I still needed righteous faith and actual cultivation to realize my understandings. Driven by the pursuit of fame and gain, I still believed that so long as I worked hard, I would definitely get good results. During the last semester, I memorized the entire geography textbook. However, I only scored 60 marks at the end of the semester exams. I was stunned and realized that Master had taught me a deep lesson. I had walked the path of Western medicine style tooth extraction. I exchanged understandings on the Fa with my parents and discovered my attachment of using Dafa to obtain good results in order to satisfy my pursuit of fame and gain. “However, to Buddhas, this mind of pursuit is the dirtiest and the filthiest mind.” (“Lecture in Sydney”) These are attachments we need to get rid of in cultivation, yet I sought to gain these things through cultivation.

I resolved to remove these attachments and asked for Master's help. When these attachments to fame and gain surfaced again, I reinforced my will to remove them again and again. When I sat for the exams this semester, once again, these attachments surfaced. I tried hard to let them go and as a result, I was calmer during the exams. I studied the Fa as usual and sent righteous thoughts. In the end, I came in second. I truly experienced the mighty power of the Buddha Fa.

Following My Change, Classmates and Teachers around Me Changed Too

Master said in “Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”:

“There is a lot of hidden meaning contained in [China’s] semi-divine culture, and that also holds true for the old expression “the appearance stems from the mind.” Because each person covers a certain expanse of his own in the world around him, his emotional state will have a bearing on his affairs. That’s even more the case for Dafa disciples, for they shoulder the mission of saving sentient beings, and their expanse is even greater. The Dafa disciples of the world together encompass the whole earth, with each person having a certain reach. All of what you encounter and meet with owes to factors that are present within your expanse. If you can have sufficient righteous thoughts, you can then be towering and massive within your expanse and suppress any bad things that might exist there.”

When I was very attached to fame, I noticed that my teachers and classmates around me were also very attached to fame. In the past, during the exams, because I was attached to fame, I was extremely nervous and my legs kept shaking. The sound of my teacher's high heeled shoes constantly reverberated in the corridor as she went to every class reminding students to answer the questions seriously. I also noticed that my classmates started to complain incessantly that they had not done well after handing in the papers. On the contrary, during recent exams, because I let go of the attachment to fame and gain, I did not hear my teacher's high heel shoes clicking on the ground. The atmosphere was very peaceful and my classmates never complained that they did poorly.

When the new term commenced recently, I observed that my classmates behaved worse than ever. Some of them had weird hairdos and swore all the time. In the past, I would be strongly averse to them, but this time I did not dislike them. Instead, I was very sad and thought of them as pitiful sentient beings. Because of my fear I was afraid to save them and I have let them down. Tears welled up in my eyes and I decided to use the compassion and righteous thoughts of a Dafa disciple to help them. When I saw things from a different perspective, I discovered that classmates around me began to change. Even my teacher spoke in a kinder tone and the students spoke to one another more amicably.

I understood that in the past, sentient beings appeared to be so attached to fame because I had the same attachment. My notions were partly responsible for their deterioration and this can be changed through Dafa. Master taught that “the appearance stems from the mind” and this is a manifestation of the principles.

Cooperating as One Body and Sending Righteous Thoughts in Close Proximity to the Evil

During the school holidays, I participated in sending righteous thoughts in close proximity to where practitioners are being persecuted. This was organized by practitioners in my local district. Initially, I was reluctant to be involved because I felt that my thoughts were not focused in sending righteous thoughts, and hence it would be a waste of time. Also, I had the attachment to the pursuit of comfort. Later on, through sharing with my mother, I realized that if everyone had the same thoughts as I do, then nobody would participate in this activity. If you are unable to send righteous thoughts, it means that there are evil elements in your dimension. You have attachments you need to get rid of. Master asked us to cooperate as one body. We must rectify ourselves and cooperate with other practitioners unconditionally. After I had a clear understanding on the Fa principles, I decided to go and Master encouraged me. I did well in sending righteous thoughts. Although at the end, I began to have stray thoughts, I tried hard to suppress these thoughts and tried not to have thoughts I should not have. It was just like what Master taught in “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa”:

“Do you realize that with all that being sent out, all around the world it formed into a sticky, glue-like substance, and it took just a very few evil beings to be able to interfere with you. It was not something that you could clear out, and it directly blocked our Dafa disciples’ ticket sales and blocked the Dafa disciples who were sending out true righteous thoughts. It was not something that could be cleared out. When evil tries to cause a mess, your sending of righteous thoughts immediately clears it out and eliminates it, scaring it into turning its tail and fleeing. But in terms of Dafa disciples, well, we certainly can’t eliminate them. What can we do when the person has a momentary slip-up because of an inadequate understanding of this matter? There’s nothing that can be done—even Master can’t do anything, for I must wait for those students of ours who have cultivated well to cultivate even better during this opportunity, and complete this particular path of theirs.”

Clarifying the Truth and Saving Sentient Beings

After I took part in the last Internet experience sharing conference, for half a month, I became more diligent. Especially in saving people, I had a major breakthrough. In those days, whenever I had the opportunity, I would clarify the facts of the persecution to whoever I ran into. Sometimes after school, although it was rather late, I still persisted in saving sentient beings while on the way back home. Once, I met an elderly man on my way home from school. He lived far away and I walked with him. Along the way, I clarified to him the truth about Dafa and the “quit the Communist Party movement.” I also told him to pass on the information to his friends and family. He kept thanking me and I was very touched then. I knew that Master was encouraging me. Despite being a little tired, I thought it was worth the effort. I accompanied him up to the crossing in front of his house. By then, it was already dark and I did not know how to get home. I asked for Master's help in my heart. I was not scared and suddenly, I bumped into my classmate. She knew the way and led me home. I clarified the truth to her, but she was still hesitant about withdrawing from the Communist Party. Thus, I walked a long way with her and finally she agreed to dissociate from the party. Although it was very late by the time I got home, I was very pleased because I saved sentient beings.

There was another time when I clarified the truth to an old lady. She was very supportive of Dafa and was not in any of the organizations of the Communist Party. However, she asked me to help her deceased husband quit his membership in the Party. Regretfully, I did not persist in clarifying the truth. This was mainly because I got caught up with my studies and did not study the Fa enough. For a long time, I did not do much to save people. One day, on my way back from attending a Fa study group, I saw the sentient beings I had saved previously. One after another, they walked past me. I knew that Master was encouraging me. Master said in “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa”: “The lives there are your riches” I understood that I should save more sentient beings. Now that school has started, I must start to work hard in saving people.

I still have many attachments to get rid of on the path of my cultivation. I believe that through making efforts in studying the Fa, I will surely get rid of these attachments.

Thank you Master! Thank you fellow practitioners!