(Minghui.org) We have recently advanced our enlightenment quality at our group Fa-study through increasing our sharing with one another. One day at a practitioner's home during Fa-study a family member had been chatting with us for a while and it was obvious he didn't want to leave. When a practitioner encouraged him to leave, I recognized that I also felt agitated in my heart and was thinking, “Go away to take care of your own business, so that we can start our Fa-study.” At that time, I had a strange feeling coming from deep within. Right away, I began to adjust my thoughts. Shouldn't this sentient being understand Falun Dafa more deeply? If a being truly comes to understand the truth of Dafa, he will certainly become a practitioner, as every being in this world exists for the Fa.
I began sending forth righteous thought to eliminate the factors that interfered with him, and in turn I listened to him very carefully. He said that he had read Zhuan Falun, and he felt it was very good. However, I felt that his understanding was only on the surface. Therefore, I spent quite a bit of time sharing with him. In the end, I encouraged him to continuously read Zhuan Falun. I talked to him using plain language, and as a result, his attitude changed and he became more humble. I said that we practitioners had studied the Fa many times, and we were still studying it, as there were so many things that we hadn't yet enlightened to, and I expressed hope that he would read the book when he found the time. He didn't oppose what I said, so I gave him a few Dafa truth-clarification DVDs so that he could watch them. He thanked me and left happily.
After he left, we all shared our attitudes towards him. We all had different opinions at the time. Some wanted to drive him away, some wanted to argue with him, and some ignored him. Through sharing, we all came to realize that we had been ignoring our family members in the past. We were treating the people around us with our human notions, and as a result our family environments had not changed for the better. In our minds we were thinking that it was good enough to keep it that way.
Teacher said in "Expounding on the Fa,"
"For a long period of time the sentient beings in Dafa, especially the disciples, have had a misunderstanding of the Fa at various levels regarding xinxing improvement. Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely with your human side. Evil demons then capitalize on this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving students in long-term tribulations. As a matter of fact, this results from an inadequate understanding of the Fa by your human side. You have humanly restrained your divine side; in other words, you have restrained the parts that have been successfully cultivated and have prevented them from doing Fa-rectification. How can the uncultivated side restrain your main thoughts or the side that has already attained the Fa? Having humanly fostered the evil demons, you allow them to capitalize on the loopholes in the Fa." (Essentials for Further Advancement)
We went to another practitioner's home to do some work in the evening. Five of us worked while sharing our experiences on doing the three things. A practitioner's family member came over and began to peel the leaves off some corncobs. He kept a distance of 5 to 6 meters away from us purposefully. Since we’d shared on this topic just now, we began to change our mindset and way of doing things.
I said to that practitioner's family member with a smile, "Hey, look, five of us are one fist, and you, being one person, are a finger. Why don't you come sit with us?" After a practitioner heard it, she just smiled. I then whispered in this practitioner's ear, "Ask your husband to come join us." His wife called to him right away, and her husband smiled at us and came over to our side.
This practitioner always validates the Fa on the streets, often handing out the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party to others, but she was afraid of clarifying the facts at home to her family members. Her family was not supportive, and none of them had read the Nine Commentaries. Through this opportunity, we got to chat with him. One practitioner said to him, “There is software for breaking through the Internet blockade, and through it you will be able to see the latest news. I can take care of the installation for you in a short while.”
He agreed. I said that he only knew the tip of the iceberg, and offered to give him a Nine Commentaries DVD. I told him that after he watched it carefully, he would know what's really going on. He gladly accepted my proposal. All of us felt that as long as we improve on the Fa, people around us would be changed for the better.
One time we went to a senior practitioner's home to share with them. Their daughter had stumbled in her cultivation and she was also going through some tribulations that she hadn't managed to pass. The husband was still a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member, and was deeply affected by the Party culture, which prevented him from being diligent in cultivation. The wife asked us to share with her daughter, with the hope that her daughter could return to the Fa-rectification, so as to not to miss this precious opportunity.
When we were all sitting together, the practitioner's husband raised his concerns about his cultivation, and then the rest of us took turns sharing our own understandings with him. His state was good. Afterwards his wife was not happy, as she kept telling him to go away to take care of something. When he was reluctant to go, his wife began ordering him. Since we were all practitioners, we pointed out this practitioner's problem. Her daughter also asked her not to worry about anything else and continue to talk with us, which was far more important. In the end, she calmed down, and her husband found the solutions for his concerns. He came to understand that he hadn't studied the Fa well enough, so his understanding towards the evil CCP was not on the Fa. Their daughter enjoyed listening to our conversation, so she began sharing with us. As a result of our sharing that day, she found answers to the many questions that she had and then began thinking about saving people.
We enlightened that we only needed to have the wish to save people. As long as we are on the Fa and measure ourselves with the requirements of the Fa at all times we can effectively harmonize with what Teacher wants. We are Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples shouldering the responsibilities of rectifying everything unrighteous, including our non-practitioner family members and everyday people, as opposed to confining ourselves within a small circle among practitioners.
Let's revisit Teacher's article, “Further Understanding,”
"I couldn’t have explained the matter of Buddha-nature and demon-nature to you any more clearly. The tests for you to pass are in fact meant to remove your demon-nature. Nonetheless, from time to time you have used various excuses or Dafa itself to hide it, and failed to improve your xinxing while missing opportunities again and again.
Do you realize that as long as you’re a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, I will use any troubles or unpleasant things you come across—even if they involve work for Dafa, or no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.
If you are able to succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred." (Essentials for Further Advancement)
I remembered a practitioner who had been persecuted some time ago. This practitioner often validated the Fa outside, handing out Shen Yun DVDs and clarifying the facts. However, she was afraid of her husband, who was a police officer. One day her husband brought a few police officers to their home, saying that someone had reported her, so that’s why the police came to search her home. Before the police officers began their searching, her husband took out the Dafa materials from the drawer and handed them in. The practitioner became so confused in that moment that she handed over the SIM card that had recorded Dafa materials.
When we began sharing we said to her that this was her biggest tribulation and that she should strive to make a breakthrough herself to overcome it. That night she had a long talk with her husband, about how she treated her husband and their family members, and how she treated assets after she became a practitioner, and what she would have been like had she not taken up the practice. After the chat her husband didn't say anything, as he was fully aware of how her behavior had changed for the better over the years. He no longer tried to stop her from practicing, and from then on this practitioner managed to step forward in a righteous way to do the three things well.
Master said,
"When a tribulation arrives, if you, a disciple, can truly maintain an unshakable calm or be determined to meet different requirements at different levels, this should be sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn’t the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?" ("Expounding on the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
For a long time, this practitioner hadn't tried to change her family environment for the better, therefore the evil took advantage of that and she experienced the persecution herself. Only when she was completely in the Fa, using her righteous side to rectify the unrighteousness, did the persecution leave her.
Therefore, many practitioners said that we should take the initiative in harmonizing the Fa and eliminating persecution, and not be forced to look within after persecution.
The above-mentioned are a few things that our group has experienced recently. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
