(Minghui.org)
Greetings, respected Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I have gained a new understanding with respect to my cultivation over the last several years after recently studying Master's lecture “Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference.” I made some breakthroughs in denying the financial persecution arranged by the old forces. Here I would like to report to Master and share with fellow practitioners about the progress I have made. Please correct me if there is anything inappropriate.
I became a Falun Dafa practitioner in 1997 when I was a student in junior high school. All of my family members are practitioners who benefited from practicing Falun Gong. As a local volunteer assistant, my father went to Beijing several times to seek justice after the persecution began and thus became a target for the local police and CCP. Our home was ransacked repeatedly and we had money extorted from us. My father remained firm in his belief until he was persecuted to death when I was in college. My family's financial situation became ever worse.
I returned home after graduating from college. As a result of the persecution, our local source for truth clarification materials had been disrupted. A large number of practitioners were arrested and detained. Some of them were sentenced or put in forced labor camps. There were no more printed supplies for truth clarification in the area.
I joined a group of practitioners to set up new printout points. At first we faced a lot of challenges, including technical difficulties, supplying consumables, and other issues. On top of that, I felt distressed and depressed due to pressure caused by interference from other dimensions and recent news about the arrest and fatal persecution of some fellow practitioners.
Because there were no supplies in the county where I lived, we had to purchase the consumables in the city, dozens of kilometers away. Because of security issues and a tight budget, we did not drive there. I either rode my bike or went by motorcycle with a fellow practitioner. The bike was always overloaded with consumables when we returned.
One winter night, a fellow practitioner and I were coming back home on a motorcycle. We were going fast and I was in the back when we hit a big brick in the road. The motorcycle went out of control and flipped. I was thrown off and the other practitioner was pinned under the bike. There was no one else around. I stood up right away, brushed off the dirt from my clothes, and helped the other practitioner out from under the motorcycle. Thanks to Master, neither of us suffered serious injuries, although there was blood all over the other practitioner's face. We washed up when we got home. The incident did not impact us at all; we went to work as usual the next day.
Regardless how hard it was, we remained firm in our belief in Dafa and continued to move forward with righteous thoughts. We developed our local points for printouts from scratch, starting with single pages and pamphlets to Dafa books, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party books, and a variety of CDs. Soon we were capable of producing all the printed materials needed in our area for Dafa and saving sentient beings. We were also able to assist the practitioners in the surrounding areas by providing materials and technical support.
Due to my shallow understanding of Dafa, I took hardship and tribulations as an essential factor to improving myself during cultivation. I thought that it did not matter whether I was poor or life was hard as long as I could improve myself and accumulate virtue. I did not clearly understand that what I had suffered was persecution imposed by the old forces, an extension of the CCP policy “Ruin their reputations, bankrupt them, and destroy them physically.” In fact, the reason we were able to make it through the arrangement by old forces can be attributed entirely to Master's protection, Fa study, and collaboration among practitioners. Without the persecution, there would be no such hardships. Dafa disciples should still be able to complete cultivation in Dafa by following the path arranged by Master.
Master taught us,
“Most fundamentally, you all still need to establish your great mighty virtue in the process of shattering the old forces’ persecution, and return to your highest positions. So this isn’t a matter of reaching Consummation in ordinary realms, nor is it achievable in ordinary Consummation.” (“Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
We don't become more mature simply because of hardships. We establish our mighty virtue as gods in the process of breaking through hardships or tribulations arranged by the old forces. We cannot treasure those hardships. Master does not acknowledge the persecution or the arrangement by the old forces. Why should we regard suffering as a requirement for our improvement? If we acknowledge hardships, aren't we asking for them? Sometimes I felt complacent with hardship, thinking it was difficult to improve without the suffering imposed by the old forces.
I got married in 2007. My wife was also a practitioner. Prior to getting married, she had suffered ongoing persecution. In college, she was forced to drop out due to her firm belief in Dafa. She was detained many times, and, most recently, she was detained in a forced labor camp for three years.
Because both of us are Dafa practitioners and our lives have been tough, we take cultivation as our top priority. We do not have a high standard of living, nor do we care for material things, as long as we can afford groceries and our basic living expenses. Actually the loopholes in our minds admitted the arrangement by the old forces. When I was working at a company, my salary just met our family's basic needs.
In 2009, I started my own business. My idea was simple: to have more time and flexibility to be involved in truth clarification. I did not think about how much money I should make and was satisfied if my income covered our living expenses. I did not have a long-term plan, so my business was not going very well. Sometimes it was even difficult for my family to make ends meet. This was actually a result of my attachment to time in Fa rectification. What happened later made me question whether my initial understanding was correct from the perspective of the Fa.
After my wife was forced to drop out of college, her family was often harassed and their houses were raided by the police. Many of her relatives, neighbors, and friends did not understand what was going on and blamed her for practicing Dafa. They thought that she had ruined her own future by her belief, so they did not want to listen to us tell them the truth about Falun Gong. The situation did not change until I bought a car.
I bought a car for my business in 2010. When my wife's relatives in her hometown were at the temple, we drove over to meet them in an attempt to save them. After we had our own car, many of her relatives started to listen to us. It became much easier for us to speak to them about Falun Gong, which was almost impossible in the past. Many of her relatives withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, including those who were stubborn and impatient when we spoke about Falun Gong before we purchased the car.
I thought of several factors that caused her relatives to change. For one thing, the number of evil beings has decreased significantly with the progress of the Fa rectification and their ability to manipulate people had weakened. Thus it became easier for people to understand the truth about Falun Gong. Also, our righteous thoughts had become stronger with improvement in our cultivation, and our human attachments had diminished. The purity of our words enhanced the effectiveness of saving people. Finally, once people believed that we were well-off, they stopped looking down on us. Although I found such behavior distasteful, they treated us differently by listening to us.
I later realized I had not understood this issue from the perspective of the Fa. People have their own ideas. As Dafa disciples, our mission is to save them--we cannot expect them to reach a high standard. Master came all the way to the human world to save sentient beings because they had deviated from certain standards. Dafa disciples need to save them regardless of their behavior.
Only a small portion of people with relatively good inborn quality who value morality would evaluate us based upon our virtue rather than our financial status. Most people judge others based on their own views. They think that rich people are more capable and deserve respect. Poisoned by the CCP propaganda, my wife's relatives did not think that the difficulties we faced in our lives were caused by the persecution. They believed that we found trouble because we were losers looking for a way out. Because they had a negative opinion about us, it was difficult for them to accept what we told them.
The purpose of the old forces is to destroy sentient beings by using an excuse to test us. This is why we do not shatter the old forces' arrangement and persecution. The old forces test us with the previous standard established for cultivators. They use our karma as an excuse to make us suffer. They will acknowledge us if we manage to survive their arrangement or eliminate us if we fail. The sentient beings will be eliminated whether we succeed or not, because most people cannot see any hope or satisfaction in being Dafa Disciples. What they observed was that we lived in poverty and had a hard life. Consequently, they were stuck and could not break away from the slander against Dafa and Dafa disciples.
Our previous thought was built based on ourselves. Our cultivation was somehow linked to the situations for practitioners in the past: We improved ourselves through cultivation and we didn't care what other people thought about us; we would leave once we completed our cultivation and those that could not be saved would be eliminated. We did not open our hearts to embrace all people with compassion in order to save them. If we want to save as many people as possible, we need to take their perspectives into account. We should show Dafa disciples' demeanor, bringing hope, good fortune, and blessings to people so as to save more of them.
As Master said:
“I’ll be happy when your businesses grow even bigger and you have ever greater wealth. My only concern is that you won’t achieve this. If you all had great financial means, wouldn’t you have greater strength to draw upon for these things that Dafa disciples do to validate the Fa? Wouldn’t that be outstanding? I have never told you to be like those mountain-dwelling cultivators, who’d rather go penniless. That’s because you cannot be like that when your cultivation is carried out in ordinary human society.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”)
Master said:
"By leading you all in doing Shen Yun, Master is in fact giving you a model. I have made Shen Yun the best show in the world. At the very least, in the performing arts, in the field of the arts, it’s playing the lead role. So how about our other projects, then? When what you do has just a little bit of success, you’re so pleased with yourselves. But are you playing the lead role [in your field]? You haven’t even managed to play a supporting role, and some are playing the role of a clown! Is that what Dafa disciples should be doing? Is that what Master has asked you to do? Some of us are saying, 'We don’t have sufficient funds, so we can’t get the project going.' But that is because you haven’t done a good job on it. You didn’t treat it as something that Dafa disciples really need to do, as a real enterprise to run." (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference”)
After I studied this Fa, I thought about my business. I had always taken it as a job to meet the basic financial needs of my family. I did not even try to be successful, nor did I treat it as an opportunity to meet different people to talk about Falun Gong, although I gave truth clarification materials to my customers. I treated my business as a short-term job, because I thought that cultivation would soon come to an end and my time and effort with my business would have been in vain.
I then realized that I was being selfish, focusing on my own consummation. I did not really think about my business from the perspective of sentient beings in order to save them. It became clear to me that I had let my business stagnate because I did not think about playing a lead role so that others could see that Dafa disciples have hope and a bright future. From now on, I should make a significant improvement and use my business to meet more people and clarify the truth about Falun Gong.
Enlightened from the Fa, I began to shatter the arrangement and tribulations from the old forces, particularly in the business area, in order to save more sentient beings. I became determined to play a lead role and succeed in my business so I could make connections with more people, especially those in the upper class. It is relatively difficult to save people in the upper class because they live so comfortably. I decided to connect with the upper class and let them see the bright side of Dafa disciples to get rid of the poison instilled in them by the CCP propaganda. They will be saved once they know more about Falun Gong and Dafa disciples.
After gaining a new understanding, my business started to improve significantly. Orders have flooded in. There are sentient beings to be saved behind each order. This is a good start, but there is still a long way to go. I have to do a better job and live up to the expectations of sentient beings in order to save more of them.
I hope all Dafa disciples can play a leading role in human society so that sentient beings can see not only the persecution, but be inspired with hope from us. In order to save more sentient beings, why don't we all play leading roles in a positive way?
Dafa disciples in all fields should leave a positive way for people to follow: Dafa disciples who are farmers should grow the best crops; those who are entrepreneurs must be honest and trustworthy and have successful businesses; scientists should be more diligent with greater scientific findings; those who are government officials and represent their constituents need to be decent and have high standards.
If we all play leading roles, people will be able to observe the auspicious side of Dafa disciples and the mighty Dafa in the human world. This way, we can shatter the evil and save more sentient beings.