(Minghui.org) Greetings Greatest Master, Greetings Fellow Practitioners,
Since I obtained the Fa, I always thought I had faith in Master, faith in the Fa and faith in gods, especially during the current moment, when Master is leading us Dafa disciples in saving people and fulfilling our prehistoric wishes, of course I believe in Master, Dafa and gods.
However when working on some projects recently, I realized that deep in my mind I still have the impact of atheism. These atheistic thoughts were unknowingly reflected in the articles I wrote, in my speech when clarifying the truth or talking to people. With the Fa-rectification moving forward rapidly, if I don't pay attention and improve my level, the effects of my Fa-rectification activities will not be as powerful and could have a negative impact on others.
Master told us in Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference,
"The evil ideas that the wicked CCP has indoctrinated people with are considered normal now in the minds of mainland Chinese. Some young people have been indoctrinated in that way since birth, so to them that warped, evil culture is natural, and when they see what’s normal they instead find it ridiculous or can’t understand it."
My generation grew up in such a culture. We were brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Party culture, evolution theory and atheism ever since we were little. Our minds were deeply indoctrinated.
In order to save people by eliminating the impact of Party culture, evolution theory and atheism, I participated in projects helping people renew the divinely-inspired cultural heritage of humanity. These projects required me to study some historical figures' realm of thoughts, behaviors and moral levels in order to showcase the life norms and human sentiments divine beings left for humans, and the standard of conduct these historical figure left behind. In this process, I saw how the Party culture's impact in my mind became a barrier for me to accomplish these projects well.
In ancient times, people believed in gods and respected gods, they took their promise and wishes seriously; they could give up fame, wealth and even their own lives to keep the promise. Because of their faith in gods, ancient people are not as greedy and afraid of death as modern people imagine. They just calmly accepted their fate arranged by gods, following the path set by gods and are happy for what they had. If they were arranged to be an emperor, they would try to be a good emperor and do good for the people and society, and continue their next lives arranged by gods when they died. If arranged to be an ordinary person, they would work hard and believe in gods, accumulating their blessing so that they could continue to be human beings and wait for the ultimate savior from gods.
We often heard stories that ancient people were not afraid to die in order to keep their own words and promises. That was because they knew they made the promise in front of gods, and this was the conduct a human being should have. However, under the brainwashing of atheism and Party culture, modern people imagine ancient people's behavior from an atheistic standpoint and draw a series of wrong conclusions. Today's people think ancient people were naïve to sacrifice their own life in order to keep their promises. I did not understand it when I read the story about a person in the Spring and Autumn Period who threw tons of gold into the water in order to show appreciation to the people who saved his life. I did not see that ancient people were actually being responsible in front of gods, They believed gods were watching their words and behavior. This was one of the main reasons why people had a high moral standard in ancient times.
In the book Records of the Grand Historian and other ancient books, there were stories about those great historic men searching for gods and divine medicines in the mountains. I started measuring them from an atheistic standpoint and thinking they were searching for ways to live forever because they were afraid to die. I later felt ashamed when I realized that I had not understood the real causes and agreed with modern people's criticism of those great men.
When I did not cultivate well and could not eliminate the impact of Party culture, evolution theory and atheism from my mind, I could not see the truth in our historical records, and could not write true stories about our history, and thus could not save people well. Fellow practitioners helped me to recognize and eliminate the impact of Party culture from my mind. When I changed my mind and eliminated those evil impacts, my thoughts became purer, I saw the greatness in the ancient people. I saw how Party culture, evolution theory and atheism distorted history and poisoned people today.
Under the influence of Party culture, evolution theory and atheism, I could not truly reveal the divinely-inspired cultural heritage, the great virtue of the historic figures and how great these great emperors were to my readers. This is a lesson I learned.
This lesson also reminds me that I may have similar issues with other projects. If we did not set our starting point right, that is for saving sentient beings, we would write articles exposing the persecution in similar tones from Party culture, evolution theory and atheism. Our language would be too harsh and lack compassion. People would think we are fighting against CCP. They would not understand that our real purpose is to save them by clarifying the truth and exposing the evil.
Because of company restructuring, I am the only one practicing the exercises at work. When others who are familiar with Falun Dafa asked me why I insisted doing the exercises all by myself, I told them I am not doing it for other people, I am doing it to keep my promise to divines. Ancient people can keep their promises, we should be able to do so too. Unless for work reasons, I never stopped doing the weekly group exercises at work. Our practice site at the park continued for almost twenty years by now, and we practiced under eaves when it rained. In the winter time we would rent a college classroom to continue the practice site as long as the room was available.
When promoting Shen Yun to mainstream society, we stopped offering discounts and started contacting corporate executives, lawyers, doctors, professors and other mainstream high class people. These people have a different philosophy and manners.
We know that people's blessing came from the virtue they accumulated in previous lives. The status, wealth and fine education these mainstream people enjoyed came for a reason. Yet their status, wealth and education increased the difficulties for us to clarify the truth to them. They seldom participate in public activities and are harder to meet. They worry people would offer something to them for personal agenda; they pay more attention to manners and behavior. At first I never considered their situation when clarifying the facts to them, as long as I could hand them the truth-clarification materials, I never thought about how effective it was. I never paid attention to my own manners either. As a result, they ignored me most of the time, and I felt it was hard to contact them.
Now looking back, when clarifying the truth to high class people or government officials, I always worried that this might be the only chance to meet with them, so I rushed and was often too aggressive, and scared them away as a result. Once a high class gentleman I contacted criticized me indirectly with a proverb, "A man may well bring a horse to the water, but he cannot make him drink." He was trying to tell me if I rushed too much, I would scare them away. For government officials, I rarely contacted them unless I need their immediate attention.
With Master's teaching, fellow practitioners' help and other people's suggestions, I realized I needed to improve myself. If I do not reach the level they acknowledge, it is hard to save them. I not only need to improve my understanding of the Fa, but also need to pay attention to my manners and behavior in ordinary society, especially when practicing in public, promoting Shen Yun and clarifying the truth to mainstream people. We must show people that our Dafa disciples are saving them, not asking them for any favor like other people. The old forces would halt them from being saved if we do not meet the standard; thus we must do well in ordinary society so that old forces would not have any excuses.
Now I maintain good relationships with government officials and send them greetings on the holidays. Since our relationship changed, they do not avoid us anymore. Often they will contact us for new development about Falun Gong. It is much easier to make appointments with them. The congressman from our district was a co-sponsor for the House Resolution 281 last year. I informed him of the new House Resolution 343, and requested he be co-sponsor this one as well. Working together as one-body, especially after our VIP group visited his office in DC, very soon he co-sponsored H.Res. 343. We are glad he continues his efforts to support the righteous and stop evil.
These are some recent understandings in my cultivation. I am still working on eliminating my attachments of showing-off and competitive mentality. When I speak for showing off, I feel deep regret afterwards. But later the attachments to showing off would return and are very hard to eliminate. Recently when promoting Shen Yun at an art fair, I encountered a person believes in another religion. When he tried to convert me, I could not control my competitive mentality and argued with him. Later when I controlled my competitive mentality, wisdom from Dafa and Master’s teaching naturally guided me to introduce Shen Yun and clarify the truth to other religious people with ease.
I know that I still have a lot of other attachments. Some are really hard to be eliminated or are hidden deeply. I sometimes even tried to cover them up thinking nobody knows, not a big deal, I can get rid of them later on without letting others know. I will continue to diligently cultivate according to the Fa, pay attention to every word and behavior, and improve myself to lessen Master's burden.
Thank you Master, thank you fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2015 Mid-US Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
