New Practitioner: A Sharing about the Importance of Interacting with Fellow Practitioners and Actively Clarifying the Truth

(Minghui.org) I want to share a new understanding with practitioners who obtained the Fa via the Internet and who have never practiced with other practitioners, or who have had trouble coming forward to do Dafa work with others. This was my situation until recently, but persevering in my decision to meet practitioners and come forward has helped me a lot. I started to take part in Dafa work, and have found that it is very beneficial for my cultivation.

I was very lucky that Shen Yun Performing Arts was coming to my hometown. I decided to go to a Fa study group, where a veteran practitioner shared his understanding that distributing flyers amounts to doing cultivation work. It made me realize that I should at least do that, since I hadn't really participated in any other Dafa activities before.

I want to share what came out of this first experience because it can probably help practitioners who are afraid of going out to talk to people about Falun Dafa or coming forward.

I think that before, I was in this state of mind: My understanding was that since Dafa is boundless, I thought that I could cultivate very well on my own and enlighten to things while cultivating in everyday society. I thought that this was in line with not acknowledging the persecution in my cultivation process. At my level, it certainly made sense. However, since I met with veteran practitioners, shared with them, and looked inward when they told me about their understandings of simple things, a newer understanding emerged. I believe it is more complete than the previous one I held.

In this period of time, it is very important that we are able to clarify the facts well. It is important because in the mind of a lot of Chinese people, Falun Dafa became “political” and then the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attacked them. They don't understand that it's the other way around, and that you can't be a practitioner of Falun Dafa and set yourself on fire or do other types of weird and dramatic things of the sort. The sad part about that is that most of these people actually know in their heart that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good, but are confused and think that practitioners started a “political conflict.”

The reason why I share this simple understanding of the persecution is because I don't think I could really grasp the cultivation state of clarifying the facts before. Sharing and doing Dafa work helped me realize that it is important that our cultivation state matches the necessity of clarifying the facts: I think we have to be clear that we can do so easily.

Perhaps some people can enlighten to that on their own through self study, but in my case, it was not before I made it a point to meet other practitioners that I began to understand that state of mind better. I couldn't understand that doing Dafa work is the easiest way to make progress in cultivation, and that at this stage of history, we really need to give a hand to the people who are currently deceived. Moreover, if we slack off on this point, we are not helping the practitioners in China who are facing this brutal persecution firsthand.

When I was cultivating alone, the reality of clarifying the facts was far removed from my personal, daily experience. I thought it was sufficient to only mind my conduct and my understandings, but I think that I was underestimating the difference in cultivation states between self-cultivation and cultivating while actively clarifying the truth.

If people believe in their hearts that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good and that doing the Falun Gong exercises is good for you, yet also believe that Falun Gong practitioners started a conflict with the CCP, they will certainly not understand what Falun Gong is, and therefore miss this opportunity for true cultivation.

Besides missing this opportunity, if they mistakenly think that the CCP is right in what they do, and believe that Falun Gong practitioners started the conflict, they will certainly not enlighten to all the atrocities the CCP has committed and is still doing. They will wrongly think that the CCP is not what it is, and that Falun Dafa is not what it is.

Before gaining this understanding, I was unsure about meeting practitioners, and unsure about why I would be open about my practice. It just seemed that the entire persecution situation was strange and that Master asked us to do something that I couldn't begin to grasp.

When I read other practitioners' sharing of their experiences and talking about “saving people,” I did not understand that it also referred to a cultivation state of not being affected by the existence of the lies in people's minds, and having true compassion for those that were deceived by the CCP. I think it implies being open about the fact that we cultivate in Dafa because it is truly good, and that we have to clarify the facts because we need to be responsible to society and to ourselves. This is my understanding and I hope it can help you enhance yours.

I would also include in this category of people that have been deceived those that currently work for the CCP just because they need to support their families. I'm certain that some of them don't really want to persecute Dafa, and know in their hearts that they should not do that. Perhaps some of them can still enlighten to the fact that even if one has to be responsible and feed his family, doing this kind of work truly amounts to destroying themselves and betraying those that count on them.

It is up to us Dafa disciples to truly offer a helping hand, and it is up to anybody who has been deceived by the CCP's lies to grab it. It certainly is not that hard to do.

To conclude, I would encourage practitioners who are in the situation I was – studying the Fa on their own, who are scared of coming forward, or who recently obtained the Fa on the Internet – to go and meet practitioners and engage in Dafa work. My persevering in doing that really benefited my whole cultivation process.