(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master. Greetings, fellow Dafa disciples.
Please allow me to summarize some of my experiences in cultivation since 2009 when our benevolent Master mercifully guided me back to Dafa after many years of going astray and being lost in ordinary society. I went astray because I could not let go of my attachments and pursuits.
In retrospect, I realize that Master was always there giving me hints. For example, Master arranged for practitioners to compassionately call me from time-to-time to see how I was doing. In 2009, after visiting the PureInsight website, I heard about Shen Yun and started making plans to see the show. After seeing the show, I called a practitioner that I knew and told him that I was ready to come back to Dafa. That night I attended the large group Fa-study in our area. Today, I am truly thankful for the opportunity to fulfill my vows from prehistory and assist Master in the Fa-rectification.
Looking Inward and Saving Sentient Beings at Work
With the understanding that the people that I work with have predestined relationships with me and are sentient beings that I should save, I have made efforts to do so. However, I have come to realize that without truly upgrading my xinxing, there will be loopholes that the old forces may try to take advantage of and sabotage people’s chances to be saved.
I once purchased holiday cards for every person at my job, wrote a message in each one, included an invitation to see Shen Yun, and left one in each mailbox while everyone was away during the Christmas holiday. Although a few people came up to me and expressed gratitude for receiving the personal invite to see the show, I did not get the impression that anyone where I worked actually went to see the show.
I looked inward superficially and failed to face my fundamental attachment at that time. I eventually had to face the fact that it was my poor cultivation state that allowed the old forces to create obstacles for sentient beings. I realized that selfishness, qing, saving face, zealotry, and a lack of genuine compassion were my main problems. I had not been unconditionally and selflessly putting forth the effort to save my co-workers.
Selfishly focused on my own cultivation, I was not truly kind to those around me, nor did I truly allow them to see the great compassion of a Falun Dafa practitioner. I hardly ever spoke my co-workers and rarely allowed them to get to know me personally. I even sometimes overlooked my responsibilities to them with the excuse that my Dafa-related activities were more important.
In Zhuan Falun, Master said,
“You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems.”
After looking inward I realized that what people at my job think of me not only affects their perception of Dafa practitioners, but also affects their ability to be saved. Looking at myself, I realized how careless and heartless I had been to these sentient beings who perhaps are all waiting for me to save them. I’ve enlightened to the fact that, to save the people I work with, in addition to inviting them to see Shen Yun and clarifying the truth when opportunities arise, I must allow them to see the compassion and true goodness of a Falun Dafa practitioner in everything I say and do on a daily basis.
Cooperating as One Body to Promote Shen Yun
I had to elevate my understanding and realize that, even if I think my individual efforts are good, it is whether I have truly cooperated with the one body that matters and carries the most power for saving sentient beings. In the "20th Anniversary Fa Teaching," Master said:
“I have told you previously that whether or not a Dafa disciple cultivates well determines his power to save sentient beings as well as his ability to be successful in fully cooperating, here in the human world, with the Fa-rectification.”
I decided to promote Shen Yun more specifically among attorneys in the Washington, DC metro area. Without coordinating with anyone else, I sent out hundreds of Shen Yun flyers to attorneys in the area. Thinking that I had done something great and being attached to self validation, I indirectly boasted about what I did to another practitioner. When the practitioner kindly asked, “Did you coordinate the mailing with the coordinators?” I immediately realized I had not harmonized with the one body, that I just did what I wanted to do and did not truly cooperate with my fellow Dafa disciples – as Master has asked us to do. After realizing this, I decided to maintain the heart to save sentient beings, but focus on coordinating with the one body, allowing our collective righteous thoughts to make breakthroughs and to avoid unnecessarily duplicating efforts.
By elevating my understanding on the issue of cooperation, I have been able to work with my fellow Dafa disciples to arrange for Shen Yun presentations in our area in order to introduce the show to the public at a more in-depth level. Once I focused more effort on harmonizing and cooperating with my fellow Dafa disciples, better results quickly followed. Although for the most part, I could only find time to call local clubs and organizations during my hour lunch break during the week, I was able to arrange for multiple Shen Yun presentations throughout our area. After attending a few of the presentations given by fellow disciples and witnessing how effective they were, I gained a better understanding of the power of coordination and cooperation among Dafa disciples.
Eliminating the Attachment of Laziness While Writing Articles for the English Epoch Times
A little over a year ago, Master arranged for me to assist in saving sentient beings by writing short articles for the English Epoch Times. While working with EET for approximately a year, I have had the opportunity to see up close how diligent Dafa disciples in coordinating roles deal with situations with compassion and forbearance.
My writing schedule for EET was pretty demanding for me, since I had to produce articles five days a week in addition to keeping up with my full time ordinary job, family responsibilities, and contributing to other Dafa projects. Even though I knew that many Dafa disciples carry a much heavier workload and have even more responsibilities than I do, I still let up in my cultivation at times and allowed myself to be lazy. By making deadlines at the last minute and sometimes missing deadlines, I was being irresponsible.
However, my manager always dealt with the situation based on the Fa and with a heart of forbearance. She would compassionately correct my mistakes and quietly do the things that a Dafa disciple should do. This strengthened my resolve to do better, eliminate the attachment of laziness, and continue to push forward in making my contribution to the paper while balancing my other responsibilities.
Master said in Zhuan Falun, “Whether you can practice cultivation all depends upon whether you can endure, sacrifice, and suffer.” Although EET no longer publishes the section I wrote for, I can truly say that the path I walked as a part of EET allowed me to improve in my cultivation and assist in saving sentient beings, and I am truly thankful to Master for his perfect arrangements.
Saving Sentient Beings at Home
I saved this part for the end of my experience sharing because it has been a key aspect of my cultivation ever since my returning to Dafa in 2009. For three years, the old forces have viciously tried to use my wife, a non-practitioner, to stop me from cultivating. They’ve also tried to destroy her chances of being saved. Over the years, because of my loopholes in cultivation, the evil old forces would seize every possible opportunity to use my wife for their own ends. I will not repeat here the bad things the evil made my wife do over the years, but I will say that our merciful Master never turned his back on me in my darkest times, and He never gave up on saving my wife.
Once I began to truly and wholeheartedly upgrade my xinxing and show my wife unconditional compassion while diligently eliminating the evil beings behind her with righteous thoughts, great changes began to take place in our family. In Zhuan Falun, Master says, “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.”
When I put forth a sincere effort to eliminate qing, consider my actions from my wife’s perspective, and made a genuine effort help her feel that I had not abandoned our marriage, the situation began to change for the better. In fact, one day not too long ago, I asked her, “Would you like to study the Fa with me?” And to my surprise she said, "Yes." Since that day, we began sitting on the floor in our living room as a family to read Zhuan Falun, and we have been doing so ever since. I try to let her study at her own pace, and we recently completed Lecture Three together. Even more amazingly, she recently attended our small local Fa-study group for the first time.
Thank you, Master! Thank you fellow practitioners!