(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

With the progress of the Fa rectification, the requirement for cooperation among practitioners has become higher and higher. In this historical drama, every practitioner is playing a role arranged by Master. How can we form a seamless team? I'd like to share my own experience.

1. Interference-Free Truth-Clarification Materials Production Site

Practitioner A and I have been maintaining a materials production site together for more than ten years during the persecution. It has run smoothly and played an important role during the Fa-rectification, and is still playing important role in our local area. We have accumulated a lot of precious experience and learned many lessons.

Practitioner A needs to coordinate many things, so he does not have extra time to study techniques. Usually when we need certain skills, I am in charge of researching them. Due to security issues, I keep a low profile, and other than teaching practitioners at other sites, I usually do not get in touch with other practitioners.

When small materials sites were starting up around our area three years ago, we encountered severe persecution. Several small sites were destroyed. Even now, there is still a limited number of small materials sites. To meet the needs of our area, our site must be maintained. With Master strengthening us, Practitioner A and I firmly stick to our path with our faith in Master and Fa.

We had no income to start out, but Master helped us solve our financial problem. We got some money from our family property. To be righteous, we separated our personal finances from the money for the materials site, and are careful to never mix them. Although we do not have much money, it is enough to maintain our simple life at the materials site. That is why, for so many years, without paying jobs, we could fully focus on the Fa-rectification.

The long-term operation of this materials site has provided strong support to our local truth-clarification efforts, blocked and disintegrated evil forces, and reduced the losses that we suffered as one body.

2. Eliminating Interference and Finding Righteous Thoughts

While cooperating with fellow practitioners, I experienced painful tests of my xinxing. Sometimes I could not see much hope, but still had to maintain our cultivation environment. Facing all kinds of distractions in the world, whether we can firmly stick to our path is always a difficult test. With Master's careful arrangement and protection, we were able to overcome difficulties again and again. We finally saw hope and realized our roles and responsibilities during the Fa rectification.

After living a simple life for so long, sometimes my vanity and greed emerged, and this kind of life seemed unbearable to me. It tested my xinxing again and again. My non-practitioner family members did not want me to suffer, so they always tried to find me a good job. However, realizing that it would affect our coordination as one body, and thinking about my responsibility, I declined to take any of the jobs. Fortunately some of my practitioner family members understood and truly supported me. They made things convenient for me, so that I could move forward. Actually, these were also compassionate arrangements by Master.

In recent years, I found from reading the Minghui website that many practitioners who work on materials sites have found good jobs. I asked why we couldn't find suitable jobs. I had many complaints about Practitioner A. I complained that he did not pay enough attention to this. These attachments were sometimes strengthened by the evil, and I forgot that practitioners should be compassionate.

At critical moments, especially when practitioners in our area were suffering severe persecution, Practitioner A did not worry about his own safety and wholeheartedly supported the group. He remembered every practitioner, and shared with them from the perspective of the Fa again and again. At the same time, he collected persecution facts and exposed the evil. Sometimes he came back very tired. No matter how busy he was, Practitioner A never neglected his Fa study and cultivation. This is his most precious characteristic, and it is why he is qualified for his job in Dafa. Sometimes when our materials site faced danger, or when the police came to check residents, Practitioner A would let me leave and he took the responsibility alone. Over the years, he especially cared for the cultivation status of those practitioners who handled techniques or worked at materials sites, and tried his best to protect their security, demonstrating his sincerity, compassion, and responsibility. He treated local and non-local practitioners equally. Sometimes my cultivation status became poor because of my human attachments, and I caused interference for him. With Fa study, sincere sharing from the Fa, and compassionate hints from Master, I was always able to restore my righteous thoughts, and eliminate all kinds of human attachments. Our materials site became more and more mature.

Master said,

"I have said that there are no role models, no examples, and that at most one can draw upon others’ experiences and see how they handled things while having righteous thoughts. If you try to do things by mimicking what they did, or blindly do whatever they did, then you are wrong. Each person is traveling his own path, and each is gaining enlightenment from Dafa as to what will one day be his own Fa.” (“2012 International Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital”)

Through Fa study, we realized that the old forces had made some arrangements for every practitioner. If we do not solidly cultivate ourselves or follow Master's arrangements, we will step into the old forces' arrangement, and even be used to interfere with our group.

Practitioner A is on the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) black list as the main target in our city (although, of course, we do not accept this arrangement). Because of this, there would be risks if he tried to find a local job. If he went to another city to work, he would have to leave this group and close down our materials site. This would bring losses to himself and our group. Practitioner A's responsibilities require a lot of time and effort, making it difficult for him to look for a job. He often considered looking for a job, at least something that would not interfere with his responsibilities at the materials site. Actually, if he did look for a job, Master would definitely help us, and he would be able to find it naturally, so what is the use of being attached to it? When I became attached, I forgot all of these things, and forgot what was most important. I did not consider Practitioner A's difficulties, nor understand his responsibility. Instead, I was used by the evil to create trouble and prevent us from moving forward.

Compassionate Master used every means to remind me. I read an article on Minghui: “With 100,000 yuan, ride a crane to Yangzhou City.” It was about four friends talking about their dreams. The first one said he wanted to have 100,000 yuan; the second one said he wanted to become immortal and fly to heaven on a crane; the third one said he wanted to visit Yangzhou City; the fourth one said he wanted all of these things: "With 100,000 yuan in my wallet, I want to ride a crane to visit Yangzhou City.”

This story made me realize my attachment to greed. This was the fundamental problem, and I made many excuses for myself. Master helped us solve the financial problem so that we could take this path, which is already a maximum convenience. I should not have these unrealistic dreams.

Later, after much Fa study, I finally realized that only by totally giving my fate to Master and Dafa could I eliminate all the barriers and stay on the path arranged by Master.

3. Being a Loyal Practitioner with a Sense of Justice

In “Touring North America to Teach the Fa,” Master talked about “justice” in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “loyalty” of Yue Fei and Nansong Dynasty, and enlightened practitioners with these concepts from the divine culture of China. When I later shared with Practitioner A, he said that practitioners should have more “loyalty” and “justice” than everyday people. At that time I did not agree with him, thinking that these were just human things. Practitioner A said that what Master taught was Fa, and he would not mention anything not related to cultivation. However, I was very poisoned by the CCP culture, and thought that Master was just telling practitioners about traditional Chinese culture. I did not associate it with my own cultivation and did not understand the deeper meaning of the Fa. At that time quite a few practitioners did not agree with Practitioner A, because we did not understand the Fa that Master taught.

I later realized that my not tolerating or forgiving other practitioners' attachments was related to the distorted mentality caused by the CCP culture. When reading about “loyalty” and “justice” mentioned by Master in “What is a Dafa Disciple,” I finally realized that Master was describing for practitioners the correct, traditional mentality. This is what is accepted by the Fa.

Master discussed “loyalty” and “justice” in two of his lectures. How can we ignore them? The divine beings arranged one dynasty to demonstrate “justice,” and another dynasty to demonstrate “loyalty.” “Loyalty” and “justice” are so important in human history. People have sacrificed their lives to become noble. Then it is even more meaningful for practitioners during the Fa rectification. In this evil persecution, Dafa requires us to maintain our righteous belief no matter what we encounter. If we can be loyal, then, even facing death, we will never betray Master or Dafa. If we can be just, we will not sell out other practitioners to protect ourselves, nor will we have conflicts when working together. There will not be any obstacles among practitioners preventing us from working and improving together during the Fa rectification.

An everyday person can stick to loyalty and justice to become a noble person remembered in history. Practitioners who stick to loyalty and justice will continuously improve in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, eventually becoming great diving beings.

Master said,

"Another cause is the attachments that come from one’s human mindset. Especially notable are the notions that one forms, or habits of thought that one forms, which make it very hard for a person to recognize when human thinking is unconsciously at work. And if one can’t recognize it, how is one to get rid of it? This is particularly challenging in the setting of China, where the evil Party has destroyed traditional Chinese culture and rigged up its own evil Party stuff instead—what we refer to as 'the culture of the Party.' It’s indeed going to be hard to recognize the Truth of the cosmos when one uses the habits of thought bred by that culture. And one won’t even be able to recognize that certain bad thinking and behavior are at odds with universal values. If one can’t recognize bad thinking for what it is, then what can be done? There is no other way but to act according to Dafa.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)

If practitioners cannot even be “loyal” to Master and Dafa, how can we be called practitioners? If practitioners cannot be “just” when they work together, how distant are we from Master's requirements? How can we fulfill our mission to help Master in the Fa-rectification?

When Practitioner A and I were able to work like one person with strong righteous thoughts, Master encouraged us again. Practitioner A saw in his dream two vines twisted together and attached to a big tree. “Tree” in our area is pronounced as “father.” The two vines grew quickly towards heaven and nothing could stop them. We realized that if practitioners can work together as one body, we will be able to make quick progress, and Master will move us up directly.

4. Knowing One's Place, and Playing the Role Arranged by Master

Practitioner A later took over a Fa-rectification project. This required an even more stable environment and more time and effort. We finally realized how important it was to maintain such an environment throughout our cultivation.

This project required that I look up information for A and provide technical support. I knew how important this was for saving sentient beings, and reminded myself that I must unconditionally cooperate with A.

After I gave all the information I had collected to A, he started to work on it, but my brain did not stop working at all. I kept having “good ideas,” and even sat in front of my computer and started to work on the project. I was thinking that both of us could work on it, and whoever did better would win.

Since I was very “dedicated” to it and continuously asked Master to give me wisdom, I felt very good about my work.

A couple of days later, A brought his results to me and asked for my advice. I saw that we had totally different approaches. Since I was very attached to my approach, my advice to A was very negative. I suggested that he use my work, but he did not want to. I didn't realize that I should let go of my attachment to myself, unconditionally cooperate with A, and not leave loopholes for the evil, so my words were quite harsh. Practitioner A scolded me, "Do not forget who leads this project. If you keep doing this we will fail!”

I immediately became quiet. It was impossible to cover up my impure heart and I was full of emotion. I knew that the evil would use my attachment to create interference and cause this project to fail. Master already mentioned multiple times how to cooperate with other practitioners, and I have done it many times. I kept cleaning up my bad thoughts, so that I could control my behavior.

Later I calmed down and asked myself, "Why do I feel that I can write better? Why do I not like Practitioner A's article? I will compare the two articles without any prejudice.”

But after I turned on my computer, I was shocked to see that everything I had collected and the article I had written had disappeared. Other files not related to the project were all fine. Practitioner A's flash drive still contained his article and the files I copied for him. None of his files were lost.

I knew this was a serious problem, and I realized that I should not do such a comparison. Wasn't it because I could not let go of myself? Even if my article was better than the one written by A, I should still let go of this attachment.

I disliked Practitioner A's article and preferred my own, which was already very wrong, and I was attached to my own ideas. I was more and more attached to them. Wasn't this a reflection of breeding demons in my own mind? Actually the dislike and preference was not myself. My attachment caused the illusion, and I was very deceived by the illusion.

But I felt this was not the fundamental problem. During so many years of cooperating with Practitioner A, I had tried multiple times to improve myself in this area. What was my fundamental problem?

Thinking again, "My article is lost, so my effort was wasted. I even lost the original files, so I cannot write the article again… Does it mean that Master did not want me to do it?" I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my role! In this project, Master chose Practitioner A, not me. I should have unconditionally cooperated with A. That was what Master wanted, but I didn't want to play this supporting role. I was full of my own ideas and wanted to have a leading role. I even wanted to compete. I didn't fulfill my task, and instead caused interference for A. This was truly dangerous.

Digging deeper, there was a very bad human notion. I didn't want to be left behind when there was something good. This was caused by my not believing in Master and the Fa. Master arranged everything with reasons. He let me do this, but I wanted to do something better. This was deviation.

Master said,

"The reality is, in the end, if anything that has been saved or re-formed is not what I want or does not reach my standard, it will have been for naught since it will have to be destroyed.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)

Later when working with Practitioner A, I always tried my best to play my role, and I felt that things were going well. I gave honest suggestions for A's articles. Some were taken, some were not. I was not attached to the result at all. I lost files one more time, when I forgot my role again. When A and I later worked on this project, our tactics became better and better, and we became more and more efficient. In our different roles, we both felt that we kept improving. I also learned that I was not only cooperating with A, I also playing my own role while helping with Master's Fa rectification and saving sentient beings.

Looking back, I am amazed that all of Master's arrangements are always the best for the cultivation of each individual practitioner. Playing this supporting role is very helpful for me to correct my show-off mentality. After understanding this, my gratitude towards Master was beyond expression.

5. Not Fearing Hardship and Continuously Studying the Fa

I've spent more effort on Fa study in recent years. I treated Fa study more seriously, especially after Master published “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference.” I can now stay focused while studying the Fa.

I now see that if I hadn't studied the Fa well, the xinxing tests would have been very difficult for me. Whenever I was having difficulty, I was always able to recall the Fa that Master taught. Sometimes I remembered many aspects of Master's teaching on the same problem. I then immediately became clear-minded, and full of confidence and strength. Even if the problem could not be solved right away, I always felt confident that Dafa would help me through the difficulties.

Master said,

"Things here in this world are illusory, however, and the way in which one cultivates has you cultivate precisely amidst faith and doubt.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)

There is no coincidence in anything that practitioners encounter. Master arranged everything for each practitioner. The old forces also arranged everything they wanted. Living in the human world, we do not appear much different from ordinary people. However, our lives are on a path of cultivation and there are no blank spaces. Any "trusting to luck" mentality is dangerous for practitioners. So Master reminds us again and again that we should study the Fe well. Actually we should not be afraid of hardship while studying the Fa. The hardship is not physical, but mental. It is painful when our human attachments to happiness and curiosity are not fulfilled. But these are not our true selves at all. If we are blocked by these, we will not be able to study the Fa. If we can break through, every time we clean up some of this stuff, we actually eliminate some human attachments. We will be able to assimilate to Dafa and cherish the Fa very much.

Whether we can consistently study the Fa well is a serious test for all of us at the last moment. In this world full of desires, whether we can stick to our belief in Master and Dafa, also determines whether we can fulfill our task and successfully finish the path arranged by Master.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!