(Minghui.org) About 1200 Falun Gong practitioners attended an experience sharing conference in the Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto on July 17, 2015. Twenty-one Chinese and Western practitioners shared their experiences and understandings about cultivation and saving people.
Picture 1-3: 2015 Canada Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference held at the University of Toronto on July 17.
Picture 4-8: Falun Gong practitioners share their experiences and understandings of cultivation and offering salvation to sentient beings.
Seizing Every Second to Save People
Ms. Liu from Toronto talked about how she used the limited time she had each day to make truth-clarification phone calls to legal professionals in China. She said there were many kindhearted Chinese people longing to hear about Falun Gong. She feels it is her mission to reach out to them and help them quit the Communist organizations.
In order to be in the best cultivation state before making phone calls, Ms. Liu studies the Fa at 3:55 a.m., does 3 sets of exercises at 5:20 a.m., sends forth righteous thoughts at 5:55 a.m., finishes the other two sets of exercises, and starts making phone calls before 8 a.m. After calling for over an hour, Ms. Liu leaves for work. She also goes to the airport to clarify the facts to Chinese people every weekend. Even though it takes her two hours to travel each way, she always finds Chinese people to talk to on the way.
Ms. Liu once met a family of eight on her way back from the airport. She and her fellow practitioners talked to them and helped them quit the Communist organizations. The family was very grateful. With Master's compassionate arrangement, she was able to help one Chinese quit the CCP almost instantly.
Ms. Zhang is a senior practitioner who started cultivating in 1996. While doing the three things, she deeply feels solid self-cultivation is the prerequisite for saving people.
Ms. Zhang makes phone calls to China, and talks to people about Falun Gong in her local community and tourist spots. She said, “I spend at least four or five days a week talking to people at tourist spots in the summer. Time is so short and precious. I also participate in the Divine Land Marching Band on weekends, take care of my grandson, and do housework. I do the exercises in the morning, and study the Fa in the evening. During the week I go to tourist spots, and go to parades and band practice on weekends.
“Even though my days are filled, my human thoughts always want to sleep more. I often wish for rain, so that I could take a break. Because of drought, we didn't have any rain for two months. Sometimes rain drops started falling in the morning, but as soon as I sat down and turned on my computer, I noticed it cleared and all the dark clouds disappeared. So I picked up my banners and headed out.
After this happened a couple of times, I realized it was a test for me because of my not-so-righteous thoughts. So I made up my mind I would go to tourist spots, rain or shine.”
Eliminating Bad Thoughts about Others
Canadian practitioner Joel Chipkar shared how he eliminated bad thoughts about others while cooperating with fellow practitioners on the project to block the Confucius Institute in Toronto.
Joel hesitated when he was asked to serve as the coordinator. He always preferred to do things by himself instead of working in a group project, because he had not eliminated his grievances about some fellow practitioners.
When Joel looked inward, he found his laziness was the root of his complaint. When others asked him to help with anything, he always felt uncomfortable, and found things to criticize. He realized his laziness made him unwilling to do anything, and it was why he had negative thoughts about many things and grievances about fellow practitioners.
Joel also found that jealousy was part of his mental struggle was part of the reason for his grievance. Going back to his sense of insecurity in childhood, Joel realized he was jealous of others for no apparent reason. These attachments must have been taken advantage of by the old forces to stop him from participating in group projects.
He decided to make a breakthrough. He viewed the Confucius Institute project as a precious opportunity Master had given him to cultivate himself and learn how to coordinate with others. Through his work with fellow practitioners, he learned how to trust others, and take their suggestions.
He found that no matter how nervous and afraid he was, the evil was nothing when fellow practitioners supported him. Most of all, he understood that when negative thoughts came to his mind during conflicts, as long as fellow practitioners follow Master's teaching and cooperate with each other with righteous thoughts, they would be able to succeed and get rid of their fear.
Young Practitioner's Experience
Young practitioner Zhou Meiman started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, when he was nine years old. He came to Canada from China in 2014. In the new environment, the biggest problem he faced was eliminating the “party culture” mentality he had grown up in. As he put it, “The only way to eliminate party culture was to improve my heart nature.”
Meiman thought he had very little party culture, compared to others living in China. However, he found many differences between his own mentality and those living in a normal society. He said, “When I introduced myself to fellow practitioners, I used an English name. When fellow practitioners asked me questions about my life, I always quickly evaluated each question, and gave the safest answer.”
Meiman met many young fellow practitioners during a nine-day workshop for young practitioners. By interacting with them, Meimen realized he was not open to others, his thoughts were complicated, and he had a tendency to look down on others.
Meiman tried to change his way of thinking, but realized his willpower didn't match his ambition. He didn't give up. He continued to work on it, and found the power of Dafa improved his heart nature, and eliminated his party culture as a result. When a fellow practitioner corrected his exercise movement, Meiman wasn't upset as he would have been before. He was happy instead. He was happy his movement was corrected, and that he had changed.
Participants of the experience sharing conference felt they learned a lot from the sharing. They are determined to be diligent in their cultivation, and to do their best to save more people.
