(Minghui.org) Greetings, Great Benevolent Master! Greetings, my fellow practitioners!
Before I obtained the Fa in 2008, I had been seeking solace in religion. Yet I couldn't get the meaning of it and, I didn't truly believe in the existence of gods due to the influence of atheism. I had heard about Falun Gong from the evil propaganda. I didn't know any practitioners then, nor did I have a chance to read the Epoch Times newspaper.
I looked for a Qigong solution in 2007 to improve my poor health. While searching on the Internet, I hit upon Zhuan Falun and found detailed explanations about healing and fitness. I didn't know I was reading a Falun Dafa book until chapter seven.
A thought popped up, “Oh, I am going to get cultivation insanity!” Out of fear, I shut down the computer immediately. After I truly obtained the Fa, I got to know that it was interference from evil factors. In the end I thought, I had nothing to lose. So I spent a day and a night, reading through the whole book of Zhuan Falun. It opened up my mind and answered all my questions about the universe and deities. My first reaction was: “How evil the Chinese Communist Party is! I nearly missed the Great Buddha Law because of its lies.”
My life entered a new chapter upon obtaining the Fa. I read all of Master's books and articles like a thirsty person to water. A miraculous world unveiled itself for me. I witnessed the beauty of Dafa during the process of my celestial eye opening. I learned the five exercises from the Dafa website.
Before practicing, I was able to sit in double lotus meditation position, but after I obtained the Fa, I lost that ability. It was extremely painful even holding the single lotus position. For a week, all the muscles in my body were sore. It felt as if I had a fever or a cold. I knew Master was eliminating karma for me.
The thought of going to the doctor or taking medication never occurred to me. I used to be physically weak since I was small and didn't expect that one day I wouldn't have to go to the frightening hospitals any more.
The first test came from within my family. I used to go to church with my husband every week. After I started practicing Falun Dafa, I stopped going. My family didn't understand it. I was quite determined, yet not kind enough. All I was thinking about was ME, “I want to cultivate.” “I want to practice with a singular mind.” I didn't pay attention to others' feelings. My husband was disappointed at the beginning. He saw later how my health was improving and that I could cheer him up with what I had learned from Falun Dafa when he was down. Gradually he accepted my practice.
When I told my mother I was practicing, she said to me: “I am breaking ties with you.” I saw how deceived she was by the evil Communist Party's poisonous propaganda. I didn't care much about what she said. I continued to take care of her. Because of her predestined relationship, my mother later started practicing as well.
Reading articles on the Minghui web site and PureInsight, I was touched by practitioners' dedication in saving sentient beings and wanted to join them. The first project I took up was working for the Epoch Times.
We don't have many local practitioners. Although we distributed the newspaper in the Chinese community, we didn’t have local Chinese community news or advertisements. Encouraged by practitioners, I started to go to community events, visit local businesses, and sell advertisements.
Some people in the local community still held negative thoughts against Falun Dafa. A community leader even turned down our interview request. I am an introvert and don't enjoy socializing with people. But I couldn't give up on the sentient beings in my area.
With practitioners' help, I learned to use a camera and edited TV news for the local community. With our continuous efforts to clarify the facts, the local Chinese people saw Dafa practitioners' good virtue and changed their minds. They began inviting us to cover their events.
However, selling advertisements wasn't as easy. I enjoy staying at home. But when you want to sell advertisements, you have to go out, canvassing the streets and visiting the businesses. Every time I had to send forth strong righteous thoughts to drag myself out of my house.
I also felt embarrassed, having to sell to people. Some practitioners came up with the idea of having a food column, writing articles for restaurants as a way to promote the Epoch Times to them. The strategy worked for me, as I was good at taking photos, writing articles and tasting good food.
Fellow practitioners made appointments for me and I went over to interview the restaurant owners. It was a way for us to interact with local businesses.
In order to take good pictures for the articles, I took some training and purchased professional equipment. I paid great attention to every detail, showing the dishes in the best way. The owners were moved by our professionalism. With the team work of editors and designers, our food articles were published, enhancing popularity of the newspaper and driving traffic to the restaurants. With Master's guidance and care, we signed our first advertisement with a restaurant.
Working for the Epoch Times is also a constant process of eliminating my attachments. Shortly after I started working on the project, my computer screen stopped working. I complained and thought of getting a new one. Suddenly I realized that this could be a hint from Master.
I was a good student when I was at school and always wanted to be outstanding, unknowingly generating the showing off attachment. For example, I showed off my photography skills when taking pictures and my writing skills with unnecessarily fancy words. Through cultivation, I realized that I should put clients and readers first. Only when I think from their perspective, can I create good work to touch people's hearts. When I identified my show-off mentality, the screen worked properly again.
My social circle is small. People are nice to me, and there are few chances to have conflicts. Yet in developing new advertisers, I ran into all sorts of people and faced many tests. For example, I scheduled an appointment with a client, but when I arrived he said he didn’t have time. I had to pay a visit again and again to get a meeting. Sometimes clients are quite satisfied with our articles, but they just keep on giving excuses not to run ads with us. Some clients signed the contracts but wouldn’t pay the advertisement fees on time.
A restaurant owner from mainland China didn't dare to receive us the first time we met because he was badly affected by the communist party’s propaganda. I patiently clarified the facts with the receptionist and the staff. Gradually I made friends with the owner’s mother. When she was sick, I sent her health magazines and articles about how people recovered from practicing Falun Dafa. I also sent them our newspapers with articles about other restaurants.
They eventually had the courage to be interviewed by the Epoch Times. The published article looked very nice with pictures. I framed the article with the Epoch Times newspaper logo and gave it to them as a gift. They gladly hung it up in the restaurant, breaking away from the fear of the communist party. They now run ads on our newspaper and have become a newspaper distribution site.
We also carried ads from automotive dealers. The local Chinese community is small, so the dealers usually don’t put ads on Chinese newspapers. But we decided to give it a try anyways. A fellow practitioner joined me in visiting the dealers. First we made phone calls at home to schedule appointments, only to find out that it was quite hard to reach the managers. So we visited the dealers. Yet general managers usually do not want to talk to sales people. They just gave us a business card and asked us to call for an appointment. We were taken aback and didn’t know how to make breakthrough.
One morning I got up very early. After studying the Fa, I flipped through the phone book and saw a number that I had never tried. It was a dealer far away from where I live. I dialed the number and asked for the manager. The man said, “Speaking.”
I was pleasantly surprised. I briefly introduced the Epoch Times and the local Chinese market, asking for an appointment. He said, “I have some time. Can you come over now?” I immediately said yes. I later found out that it was one of the largest dealers with the longest history in the area. The manager was also the owner.
At our meeting, he told me frankly that he usually wouldn't meet with sales people. It was because I had called at a pretty early time and the receptionist wasn't there. So he picked up the phone, curious to find out who was such an early bird as he was. He was about to leave for golf and had only 10 minutes for me.
I introduced the Epoch Times newspaper in two minutes and asked him about his company. He started talking about his company history and family for half an hour. I wondered: “Are you going to advertise on the newspaper or not?” I kept sending forth righteous thoughts.
When we finally touched upon the subject of advertisement, he praised our newspaper a little, and suddenly said, “Our sales people don’t like Chinese or Indian customers. They are such price shoppers. We can barely make any money from selling a car to them. Even though I would like to partner with you, do you have anything to convince me?”
I thought for a second and said, “Chinese people are indeed thrifty. It's not easy to do business with them. But they have cash.” He laughed and signed a one-year contract with me right away.
I am still quite green. Oftentimes I don’t know what to say. After this experience, I realized that it’s not about how well you talk, it’s about how well you listen and solve the problem. For a cultivator, as long as we study the Fa well and have a pure heart, Master will bestow us with wisdom and opportunities.
Another project I took up was Shen Yun promotion. The first time I saw Shen Yun was in a city three hours away. I bought the best ticket front and center. The moment the curtains opened, I couldn’t hold back my tears. The scene awakened my memories and aspiration to return home. It elevated my understanding of cultivation to a new level. I was eager to invite Shen Yun to our city to save sentient beings.
There aren't too many practitioners in our city. We have a relatively simple cultivation environment. Soon we reached a consensus on how to promote Shen Yun. The process of our cooperation is also a process of cultivation and elimination of attachments.
I am a perfectionist, strict with myself and with others too sometimes. I am punctual to appointments and dislike it when others are late. A practitioner who sold tickets with me was always late, sometimes even by an hour. I was quite displeased and thought, “You are a veteran practitioner. Seriously? How did you cultivate?”
With this notion, I saw her shortcomings in every way: poor English, improper attire and unclear speech. I was totally unaware that my own sense of complacency was rearing its head.
I realized gradually that she had a unique way of selling tickets, and she was doing it with her mind on saving people. Her words really touched people’s hearts. Many people purchased tickets based on her recommendations.
It was a humbling experience. I came to a better understanding of tolerance. Each and every one of us has strengths and weakness. It’s critical for us to supplement each other’s shortcomings, make the most of each other's strengths, and work as one body in the Fa-rectification. When I realized my attachments and rectified them, the practitioner no longer ran late.
A city near mine hosted Shen Yun later. They have even fewer practitioners. Even the coordinator was from out of town. I was between jobs at that time, so I decided to go there and help out. Practitioners coming from other cities rented a place to live together. Prior to this, I had never lived with so many people.
My parents took good care of me when I was little. My husband and in-laws also indulged me. So I formed some peculiar habits. I sleep lightly, not able to bear noise, wind or smells. During the first night, I stayed awake the whole night due to the snoring, the sound of footsteps, doors opening, people talking, and the smell from the kitchen.
The next day was a weekend. More practitioners came to help. Even after midnight, there were people coming in and out. I was at the verge of breaking down. I went to the living room and saw some practitioners chatting there. With almost in tears in my eyes, I asked them, “I can’t go to sleep. What should I do?” They looked at me with surprise and responded lightheartedly, “If you cannot, then don’t sleep.”
One practitioner told me, when she was persecuted in prison in China, the guard handcuffed her and forced her to stand up with a strong light shining on her face to prevent her from sleeping. But she was not moved and could sleep whenever she felt like it. I came to realize that Master wants me to get rid of the attachment to comfort and the notion of having good sleep. Having let go of that attachment, I wasn’t bothered any more and started studying the Fa.
Law firms, clinics and senior centers were my assigned targets to promote Shen Yun. Many senior citizens in our city are financially sound enough to afford Shen Yun tickets. The event coordinators in the senior centers were willing to work with us. So I brought a big screen TV over there to sell tickets.
I didn't have to say much. The Shen Yun promotional video was so captivating that the seniors just watched it again and again, marveling at it like kids and asking questions. Some asked their children to go with them. Some bought the tickets and persuaded their friends to go together. Some offered me food to thank me because they thought that we were like angels, informing them of such a beautiful show. I was really happy for them.
Living with practitioners turned out to be very helpful to my cultivation. Studying the Fa, doing exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts together, I managed to get rid of many attachments. The coordinator found me a quiet place to sleep. All my roommates kept quiet. One practitioner even slept in the closet, in order to shut her snoring away from me. Practitioners also generously picked me up and drove me with the TV screen to sell tickets.
When I just started practicing, I was full of curiosity and pursuit for knowledge. When reading the Dafa books, I would go “Wow, it’s like that.” After reading the books for many times, I felt I wasn’t able to get further enlightenment. For example, upon reading about the trilobite in Zhuan Falun , I always wanted to find more from it, but only got disappointed.
One day when reading the Fa out loud, I suddenly realized that the Fa principles will not reveal themselves to me if I am thinking with a human mind. On the contrary, it happens when I am not pursuing, but simply focusing on reading the Fa, because then my mind is in a pure state. And of course, cultivation is all about purifying ourselves.
On my cultivation path, there aren’t many big tests or amazing tribulations. During the process of writing this article, I was often overwhelmed by gratitude. I am grateful to Master, who benevolently saves us from this venomous world. I am also grateful to my family’s support. We are fortunate to be Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period.
What I’ve done is far from enough. I’ve made some progress working for the Epoch Times, and practitioners have given me great honor and encouragement. However, I stopped selling advertisements. The cited reason was that we don’t have many Chinese residents and there is limited circulation and clients.
When looking within, I saw my problems. I had always thought that my character didn’t fit that of a sales person. I never like dealing with people. I later realized that my personality was arranged by the old forces.
Before I started my cultivation, I was interested in fortune telling and studied face reading, palm reading, the date of birth and its relation with one's fate. I see that one’s life is destined to a certain extent by one’s personality. Seldom can people be their own boss. As Dafa cultivators, however, our lives are rearranged by Master. There is nothing accidental.
Whether we follow Master’s arrangement or are manipulated by the old forces is a critical issue on our path to godhood. I understand that there is a difference between being enlightened to a principle and actually assimilating to that principle. Only when we study the Fa and lay a solid foundation for cultivation, can we transform from human to divine beings. When we constantly align with the Fa and examine ourselves with Fa principles, we should be able to face tests with ease.
The more I cultivate, the more I am humbled by the profundity of the Fa principles. Sometimes I was enlightened to something, but couldn't find the proper words to express it. As a practitioner, our life is simple and beautiful. As long as we follow Master's instructions, any problems will be solved. It is our attachment that prevents us from doing well.
I'm grateful for this opportunity to share my experience. My sincerest wish for every practitioner's success in cultivation.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2014 New York Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)