(Minghui.org) I am a Dafa practitioner in Washington, DC. I began cultivating 13 years ago and feel honored beyond words that I became a Falun Dafa practitioner in this life, able to follow Teacher, promote Shen Yun Performing Arts, and save sentient beings. Perhaps only after enduring numerous hardships and sins through reincarnating over many lifetimes could I have such an opportunity. Every time I see the scenes in Shen Yun of the performing Dafa practitioners reaching consummation and returning to the heavenly gate, I feel a little fear and wonder, am I cultivating well and following Teacher’s Fa requirements? Am I fulfilling my prehistoric vows? Am I finding and clarifying the truth to the people I should save?
The following are some of my cultivation experiences in promoting Shen Yun. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Teacher's Guidance on “Letting Go of Life and Death”
The company I worked for laid off employees in early 2011. Even though I was a senior researcher who once made important contributions to the company, I was laid off, too. Although I did not worry about food and clothing--and the termination benefits were surprisingly good--it was nonetheless a big change in my circumstances.
From school to the workplace, I have always had the desire to excel. I had earned a six-digit salary. I had also collaborated on two inventions. Suddenly letting go of this was really not easy. Interestingly, after a few of my non-practitioner friends found out, every one of them said, "Don't get another job. You should work on your media!" Where did they get such an insight? The words were clearly Teacher's, giving me a hint to eliminate the attachments of personal loss and gain.
That year, Chicago practitioners knew I had time, so they asked me to help them promote Shen Yun. There would be 13 shows at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC, so I though it would be good for me to practice and learn their good ideas. I was a bit hesitant however when I considered that I would have to leave my comfortable home and live in a strange place for a few weeks.
A thought came to me one time when I was doing the sitting meditation, "Cultivation practice just means taking the initiative to overcome inertia," so I decided to “go to Chicago!” Once I had this thought, I immediately felt my whole body surrounded by warm energy. I couldn't hold back my tears.
Indeed, during my six weeks in Chicago, while it appeared on the surface that I was giving, I was in fact obtaining much more in my cultivation practice, including unforgettable breakthroughs in myself.
While I was in Chicago, my former colleagues and even fellow practitioners often called me to ask if I was looking for a new job. I told them that I was in Chicago to help promote Shen Yun and that didn't want another job. After I hung up, I asked myself over and over again, "Can I really eliminate the attachment to my career?" I was not sure about this, but Teacher’s Fashen knew everything in another space. I once drove with other practitioners to the front of the theater to send forth righteous thoughts. At intermission, we studied the Fa. We read “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Canada.” When it was my turn, I read,
“In fact, in your cultivation, whether or not you can achieve Consummation is not determined at the last minute, but is determined during the course of your cultivation. When the person is close to being able to do it, the tests to determine if he will achieve Consummation will begin. So these are very critical. As long as you are a cultivator, you will encounter this for sure. For a human being, this trial is precisely a life and death test. Of course, not everyone will run into a situation where someone will try to kill you or do something to that effect. It won’t necessarily be that way. It’s just like what I described in an example. I said that at critical moments, some people are able to give up their futures, jobs, and careers. If that’s the case, didn’t these people pass this trial? What do human beings live for? Don’t they live for the possibility of having a good future among everyday people and having satisfactory careers so as to fulfill their dreams? They want to accomplish certain things. When these things are placed in front of them, can they step out of them when challenged? If they can walk away from them, haven’t they passed a life and death trial? Don’t human beings live for those things? When they can let go of these, aren’t they able to let go of the attachment to life?”
This paragraph of Fa shook me to the core. Giving up my career was just like letting go of the attachment to life and death! How can a person who can’t pass a life and death test head towards Consummation?! I thanked Teacher for His merciful hint. I said to Teacher in my heart, "I let go of these, and I must pass this test well."
Let Joy Be Found in Hardship, and Quietly Complement Others
I was responsible for coordinating “group tickets” in promoting Shen Yun, so I sat down and thought about where we should start. First, I learned how many tickets we had and what shared resources we had. Thus, when I promoted group tickets, perhaps at the same time I could bring back some opportunities for retail tickets, magazine or newspaper advertisements, introducing Chinese culture in lectures, and so on. All these things demanded that I take the initiative, use my heart, and have the determination to break through to do these things. We have job titles, but don't really distinguish which are yours or his. Because all of our teams were short of hands, many of us handled more than one job.
I found that my fellow practitioners, especially the sales staff from Epoch Times , were not the kind of people forever talking about their experiences, but quietly worked hard. The hardship must be hard to describe. Their efforts may not be seen by others, but they are seen by righteous gods and Teacher’s Fashen, so they often obtain help.
I wanted to demand from myself the things they did, such as being hardworking, talking less, and doing more. Teacher has paved the road for us, and we just need to step forward by ourselves. The Fa requires more practitioners to have talent. We can do anything, and what we do is very good. In order to push Shen Yun into the mainstream society, we have to find the mainstream places, introduce ourselves, and introduce Shen Yun—this isn't really difficult.
We all know that in cultivation practice we need to endure hardship, but being able to enjoy the hardship is really a high-level attribute. In practice, many practitioners have the same feeling. That is, the more they do, the more happiness they realize. People are waiting for the Fa! The more I did, the more I felt how small I was and how great Teacher is. Shen Yun has divine power, so all doors are open for Shen Yun.
My greatest regret is that there are many things I want to do, but time and energy prevent me from doing them all. Every time I encountered a problem in one area, I shared with a practitioner in New York. Almost every time, this practitioner not only told me, without reservations, how they did it, but often shared her understanding from the Fa as well. I learned a lot. In addition, what she shared was often what I lacked or was unsure about. This often touched the depths of my heart. Teacher's Fashen is taking care of everything for practitioners.
For example, she told me that she had broken through a certain thing and did it quite well, but the coordinator asked someone else to take over. She just thought, "I gave up self, cooperated with the coordinator, and also cooperated with that practitioner who took over. I can achieve breakthroughs in a new area." As a result, she did not feel unhappy or complain because a project that she did well was given to someone else. On the contrary, she quietly assisted the new coordinator. At the same time she took the initiative to break through other difficulties. I wondered, "If it had been me, could I have been silent and without complaint or regret in cooperating with others?" I said to Teacher in my heart, "I must also be like that."
The opportunity then came. Several practitioners in DC decorated four cars with posters for Shen Yun promotions. Drivers were needed to drive around in DC from Monday through Friday. It is almost impossible for practitioners who have jobs to do that. At first I felt that would be a man's job. I had so many things at hand and was taking care of ticketing. I felt that I didn't have time to drive a car. As these cars with posters were finished, and we were really short of hands, I asked myself if I could do more. I checked my schedule and agreed to drive one of the cars. I drove it for three weeks, almost every day, from morning to evening, and no one could take over. I originally had a bunch of things at hand that couldn't be delayed. Since I had a smart phone, while I drove I could check email and make calls. I could also make calls to contact groups. While driving, I sold group tickets. If someone called me to book tickets, I quickly parked the vehicle and used my smart phone and iPad to finish the order. In fact, as long as I wanted to, there were ways to do it all, and it didn't take much extra effort.
Driving the vehicle with posters in DC was exciting! Seeing many people turn their heads to read the posters on the car, I often had to suppress the feeling of pride. One Saturday night, I was reluctant to go home, so I drove to the center of Bethesda. After parking the car, I closed my eyes for a little rest. When I opened my eyes, I saw President Barack Obama's eldest daughter in front of the car, so I quickly told her about the Shen Yun shows, and asked her to tell her father about it. She said she would. I know all this was compassionately arranged by Teacher.
Studying the Fa Well and Learning to Cultivate Myself
What is the greatest interference from the old forces? My personal understanding is that they try to prevent us from studying the Fa well. They make us so busy that we don't have time to study the Fa, or we feel sleepy as soon as we pick up the book, or are distracted when we read. In short, they interfere with our studying, not allowing us to assimilate to Dafa. I was very upset when this happened to me while I was studying.
After the New York Fa conference last year, a practitioner and I arranged to study the Fa daily for one hour beginning at 7:00 a.m., by telephone. The time is fixed and permanent. Studying by telephone is very flexible. After studying Zhuan Falun, we study Teacher’s other books and articles for several days, and then we study Zhuan Falun again. If there are exceptional circumstances and we cannot study together, we try our best to find time the same day to make it up. I have the patience and determination to face whatever the day brings after studying the Fa. And I have the feeling that I am melting into the Fa when I do things.
One day a coordinator asked me to share my cultivation experiences in the large group Fa study, but nothing beyond the experiences. At that time I was driving the Shen Yun poster vehicle in DC every day. While driving I considered what experiences I could share. At that time I was playing one of CDs of the Nine Day Lecture series. Teacher just said (not his original words) how some people treat the “cultivation” of cultivation practice as just an adjective, so he just "practices" and practices, and does not pay attention to cultivation. I had often heard this paragraph, but I especially listened to my heart that day. I suddenly became alert.
What must Teacher be giving me a hint about? What attachments do I need to expose? Others think it is very hard to drive the vehicle with posters every day from morning to evening, to find a place to park, to eat, and to use the restroom. In fact these difficulties are easily overcome. I got used to it after a few days. It was not a problem of physical hardship. The hardship is that I ended up thinking of bad ideas and complaints. For example, when I was tired, I just thought, "I am a female doing a job that should be done by a male. Where did the men go?" It uses a tank of gas every two days. When I refueled, I remembered what a practitioner said--"Gas is very expensive"--so he didn't drive the vehicle with posters. I felt a bit annoyed, which happened unconsciously. In fact, many practitioners have made efforts in all areas--I just don't know about them. However, when it touches my personal interests, it exposes my attachment to reputation and benefit. I said to myself, "Don’t you need to let go of life and death? How can you complain and care about these things?! It is me not cultivating solidly." When I realized this, I knew that I must resolutely eliminate these attachments without reservation! Many articles from the Minghui and PureInsight websites talked about how to "unconditionally" look inside, rather than conditionally.
Sometimes when I had a good idea, I sent an email to the large group, but I got almost no response. I just thought, "Is my thinking impure? Does my email have the attachments of showing off and competitiveness?" I then tried to purify myself, and I sent it again, but there were not many responses. Then I had complaints, "Don't you see that these are good suggestions? Or are you too lazy and ignore them?" This kind of complaint and fault-finding flashed through my mind. I quickly grabbed it and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it. I think of Teacher just by my side. I said to Teacher, "This is not my true self, but it is my attachments and notions making trouble." I asked Teacher to help me eliminate them.
Teacher said at the “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,”
“Make efforts to cooperate well together. If you discover that someone hasn’t done something well, or if during your discussion at meetings certain things aren’t handled well or your idea isn’t adopted, yet you feel that it really is how things should be approached, then, if you can manage to quietly see to it that that thing goes well even though your idea wasn’t adopted, that is being a Dafa practitioner.”
If no one responded to my e-mail, I quietly asked a few practitioners to start it first. After the results came out, others can see, so they would help do it together.
One practitioner said, "Let's talk about the good things practitioners in DC did. No one stuck to his or her own views, not many complained about others, many steadfastly cultivated, and many worked hard and didn't blame others. All of us are truly maturing and upgrading our xinxing in genuine cultivation practice."
I feel so lucky that I can live at the same time that Revered Master is in this world, and do such glorious things in assisting Teacher in the Fa-rectification period and saving sentient beings. We are the luckiest people in the universe. I will continue to pay close attention to genuine cultivation practice with the most noble attitude, complete our historical missions with all of you together, and follow Master to return at consummation.
Thank you, Teacher! Thank you, everyone!
