(Minghui.org) Greetings revered Master, and fellow practitioners:
I started to cultivate Falun Dafa with my parents when I was young. However, I didn’t really know how to cherish the opportunity of doing cultivation over the past 22 years, because I obtained the Fa so easily. I used to think that cultivation meant “hardship”. This understanding of “hardship” came from the persecution my family suffered since I was a little child. I didn’t have a firm foundation in cultivation, and thus formed various human notions and attachments.
It was also partly because I didn’t truly “look within” to assimilate myself to the Fa, which would have changed my view of life. For a long time, I didn’t even realize that I mistook doing the three things well for missions to be accomplished before achieving consummation. Eager to make achievements, I actively participated in quite a few projects, and believed that I was doing well on my cultivation path.
After experiencing different forms of tempering my will, I began to look deeply within for issues I encountered over the past year. In this process of eliminating post-natal notions, and returning to my true origin, I experienced time and time again the deep layers of my life being purified by Dafa and embraced by Dafa, and Master Li's enormous benevolence. Master has been caring for every single Dafa practitioner walking on the cultivation path.
When writing this article, I tried my best to let go of my egotism, and present my cultivation experience with a true heart, in the hope that it could be of some help and reference to other practitioners.
Learning to “Cherish” Cultivation When Helping in a Media Project
Last August, I received a call from a media project coordinator. She asked if I could help her with some special reports. She was not able to complete many of her reporting tasks as she was involved in many projects. When I heard this, I thought: this is another door that Master opened for me to save sentient beings. I agreed to help her, although I didn’t have any experience with media work.
For my first special report, I chose a Western couple who often went to tourist spots for truth clarification. They were very cooperative, especially since they knew that I was new in this job. They gave me an article about their cultivation experience that they had written for me to use as a reference. I knew that to save people, I must do my best.
The first difficulty I faced was how to translate their article well. I carefully translated paragraph by paragraph, not missing one single word. I spent a long time on the one-page article, reviewing it over and over again, to make sure that my translation was correct.
To me, each Dafa practitioner’s cultivation story was like an epic. I wanted very much to keep these precious historical records through the form of media articles. I remembered the times I clarified the truth with this couple. I thought of several times at the truth-clarification sites, when the Western lady told me how she was touched by Chinese tourists, who although under pressure in China, were still seeking the truth. Tears welled up in her eyes when she spoke.
And the Western man would firmly hold the banner with “Falun Dafa is good” near the Chinese tourists when the tourist buses were about to leave. He reminded me of fellow practitioners in China who also held similar banners at Tiananmen Square over the years. When there were many tourists, he would use his lunchtime to continue to tell the truth to them.
Remembering this made me more determined to write this article well. I thought I must use my words to present this story of Western fellow practitioners’ efforts to help Chinese tourists understand the truth. I had the wish of writing it well, but it was not that easy when it came to the writing. A good topic, an interesting beginning, a touching story in the middle, an impressive ending, and the whole structure of the report should be cohesive and natural – all this required me to put in a lot of effort.
In the process of drafting, I felt several times that I was not able to carry on with the task. However, every time I told myself: I must carry on – it is my mission no matter how difficult it is. Difficult as it may be I won’t give up and will keep on writing. There will be a way for me to get out of the difficulty, because this is an article to save people, and I can’t give up. With this determination, Master opened up my wisdom. Ideas and inspirations popped into my mind without stopping.
When I came to the article title, I remembered that I had wanted to record the precious moments of Western Dafa disciples saving Chinese people. I recalled that so many Dafa practitioners had been at the forefront clarifying the truth, through the bitter cold in winter, and the scorching heat in summer. Besides, I also thought of all those Dafa practitioners in China who were still facing persecution. I wished that my article could have the power to speak up for Chinese practitioners and to bring them some hope.
I wished that this article would let everyday people know that overseas Dafa practitioners had formed a solid entity without being noticed. All these factors were so important.
In the end, I developed a perfect title for the article. Early in the morning, I finished writing the report and sent it to the fellow practitioner. My body felt very light and my mind purified. I felt really happy from deep inside, and I seemed to have found my mission in this life. With the completion of the report, Master helped me remove many bad substances, strengthened my righteous thoughts, and made me more diligent. Several days later, I saw the article published on the Epoch Times website, polished by the editors. The article has been viewed by over 1,000 readers.
The more articles I have written, the wider my cultivation path has become. Every story I have written touches me deeply. In the process of writing, the cultivation experience and elevation shared by each practitioner has influenced me deeply. One day, when I was tidying up some of the materials, I thought of Master. At that moment, I suddenly came to understand how much care and effort Master has expanded for his practitioners.
Each article is a story of a cultivator. I could truly experience their story while I was working on the article. We had progressed and elevated together, and we were amazed by and grateful for Master’s greatness. In the process of assisting fellow practitioner with reporting, I learned that to cherish other practitioners, and the stories behind all the words was the same as cherishing myself.
Perceiving Life When Writing an Article About Truth Clarification
Shortly before Shen Yun came to my area this year, a local Chinese food delivery company publicly slandered Shen Yun, the Epoch Times, and our truth-clarification site, on the internet, using very bad and vulgar language. Following suggestions from practitioners in the Epoch Times head office, I decided to write a truth-clarification article, telling people the facts of Falun Dafa, the persecution I suffered in China, and the repeated persecution by Chinese institutions that are infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), even when I am outside of China.
When I first started to write the article, I sensed huge interference from other dimensions. I felt very depressed, and was not able to sort out my thoughts. My daughter was not feeling well either during those days. After I put my daughter to bed on the first night, I was exhausted physically and mentally. However, I continued writing the article the next day. I knew clearly that I must break through this state. The bad thoughts were alive.
The process of writing the article was actually one of eliminating the bad thoughts in my dimension. The more difficult it felt, the more determined I should be to overcome them. Things are bound to turn around when they reach an extreme. Once I had these righteous thoughts, I began to search for relevant information. I also recalled bit by bit my cultivation history of the past 20 years – from my very initial stage of cultivation to being persecuted in China.
While doing so, I based my thinking and understanding from the point of view of everyday people. Then, I presented all these things to my readers, one by one.It took three days to finish the first draft. I could feel in this draft a reflection of my not so good cultivation state during the writing process. I knew what was emitted from this article was absolutely not good enough to save people. So, during the next few days, I put in as much effort as possible to revise the article, realizing that I must elevate my cultivation state.
I realized that only after I rectified myself in the Fa and purified my heart would I be able to write a good article. On the second day of revising the article, when I came to the part where I was going to tell readers why I cultivate in Dafa, I asked myself the same question I had been asking for a long time: “Why do I want to cultivate Dafa? How could I demonstrate to readers the beauty of obtaining Dafa?”
I had asked myself this question numerous times, but not once did I come up with words that were able to express the true feeling deep in my heart. I tried to write again and again, while searching for the appropriate words.
All of a sudden, from deep in my heart, came this sentence: “When a person finds the origin of his life, it is just like a memory sealed up for a long time being opened – he owns the power of life thereafter.” Yes, this was the answer I wanted.
My true self, upon descending layer after layer from above, finally connected with the Universal Law. Through cultivation in Dafa, memories buried deep inside me were opened up continuously. The true me wanted to obtain the Universal Law, as my life came here for Dafa, which was the power that supported my life. When my writing came to this point, I felt a warm current penetrating through my whole body from head to toe.
As I continued writing the article, I felt that it was closely connected with my life. During the whole process of writing, I experienced a continuous understanding of the Fa, and elevated. I spent one more night revising the article. At the same time, a professional practitioner helped me add and revise some content. On the night the article was to be finalized, I carefully read the article once more, pondering on and revising it. I adjusted the order of words in each sentence, all for the purpose of presenting the article in the best possible form to help readers understand Dafa practitioners better.
When I was revising the middle part of the article again, I suddenly felt that each word came to life. They were not simply the pure characters as they appeared at the surface level; all the sentences began to shake in front of my eyes. When I was thinking about what would be a more appropriate position for a certain sentence, the sentence shook itself before my eyes.
I felt that the words were making a decision for themselves, telling me where to put them. When I came to the final part of revising the article, I felt deeply moved and grateful to Master from the depths of my heart.
For almost a whole week, I didn’t go to bed until late into the night, my body feeling tired and exhausted. Sitting for long hours on end and even avoiding going to the toilet to save time, my legs and feet became swollen. I knew this was all good, and Master was helping me eliminate karma. I was amazed to discover that I was able to cultivate by writing an article.
When the article was finished, fellow practitioners from the Epoch Times helped me design some artwork, and had it published in the local edition of the newspaper. On the day the newspaper was printed for distribution, I received good feedback from several practitioners. Later, when I read the article again, I found elements of my cultivation in it. After deleting immature parts in the first draft, and then revising it again and again with great patience, I found the words in the article, one by one, came to life, and was full of vigor. For the first time in my life, I knew that words have life. For the first time in my life, I was connected to the spirituality that came from the depth of my life essence.
Over the following days, I experienced more cases of the spiritual life of all things in the world. Two of the mobile phones from which I used to send out truth- clarification messages became very slow in the speed of sending text messages.
Through this experience of writing the article, I felt as if the two mobile phones were like my children. I couldn’t abandon them or put my notions into them. I held them dearly in my palms, and told them from deep in my heart that I would not desert them, no matter the reason.
What exceeded my expectation was the speed of text messaging became much faster after they were turned on again. I came to realize that when I truly regard them as a genuine life and treat them in the state of wuwei [state of non-intention], I was able to get unexpected results.
From Individual Cultivation to Fa-Rectification Cultivation
This year, I finally got my permanent residency in Australia. In order to better assist the media with the truth-clarification project in mainstream media, I decided to resume my school studies. This decision turned my previous stable life into chaos. I wasn’t as attentive to doing the three things as before. I felt very tired every day. Even my three-year-old daughter said to me that she was tired.
One day on the bus back home from school, a practitioner unintentionally mentioned on the phone that everyone was tired. I thought: Other people definitely were not as tired as I was.” After getting back home, I thought carefully about what the practitioner had said. I realized that I had a very strong desire for comfort. During that time, besides my superficial busy routine daily life, I often read things on my mobile phone to relax. Looking back at my state during that period, I found I was in a very dangerous state.
One day my daughter developed a high fever and vomited. Seeing her lying in bed, feeling pain and tired, I knew in my heart that only Master and Dafa could save her. So I read Hong Yin to her. I read on and on. My daughter’s fever disappeared, and she fell asleep. But for me, the more I read Master’s poems from Hong Yin, the more awake I became. This was the first time I had ever read Hong Yin with such attention, although I had memorized the poems when I was little. I realized that Master has put in so much of himself to rectify the colossal firmament and save sentient beings. However, I had not taken the Fa-rectification seriously. I had been attached to the feelings of everyday people, and was not able to let go of my ego.
So many years had passed, during which I appeared to do the three things diligently. Nonetheless, deep in my heart, I cared about my own loss and gain in cultivation much more than saving sentient beings. I asked myself: “Today you have saved your daughter by reading the Fa to her. What about those sentient beings that you should save? Your daughter’s life is important, and so are the lives of sentient beings. But, how much effort have you put into saving sentient beings?”
I thought of the tiredness I found hard to break through for a long time. I thought of doing the three things, and how I felt content with just doing them. But, have I done my best? Have I been selfless? Why did my daughter experience such symptoms? In fact, it was all because I was not catching up with the progress of the Fa-rectification. The levels and layers that I should have broken through have not been broken through. Everything around me was not right because of this.
The time of Fa-rectification is moving forward quickly. As a Dafa practitioner of the Fa-rectification period, I must keep making breakthroughs in the Fa, breaking through different levels. Only with these breakthroughs will I be able to save more lives in the corresponding levels.
I read again Master’s teaching,
“Just moments prior to complete enlightenment, eight-tenths of his gong will be taken down together with his xinxing standard, and this energy will be used to enrich his paradise – a paradise of his own.” (Lecture 4, Zhuan Falun)
Master’s Fa again awoke my original side, and I was deeply shocked. After eons of waiting, Dafa disciples have all come to save sentient beings, which is also my long-cherished wish.
When I was enlightened to this meaning of the Fa at this level of mine, I was able to let go of the deep-rooted attachment to “me” to a certain extent with the help of the Fa. Since then, I have been sailing bravely through the wind and rough waters to save sentient beings – nothing could ever stop me from doing this.
The next day, I got up early in the morning to practice the exercises. I knew that I must break through the little bit of tiredness and hardship in the human world. This is really nothing compared to the wish that I brought to this world.
The principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition tells me that feeling tired or not is all up to my willingness or not to overcome it. When I made a great effort to break through for the sake of sentient beings, I found that tiredness was only a notion I had formed in the human world. When I truly cultivated myself in the Fa, not even the concept of tiredness would be able to exist. I no longer have any concept of what tiredness is, nor will I ever think of it anymore. When I don’t think of it, it extinguishes itself in my dimension.
In my subsequent truth-clarification to save sentient beings, I felt very lucky to be in the Fa, and I felt really sorry for so many sentient beings who do not know the truth, or who have been fooled by the evil CCP’s lies, and are not willing to know the truth. Knowing that most people have come for the Fa, tears welled up in my eyes whenever I saw people hurrying past the truth-clarification site, and I thought of all those people who haven’t been saved yet. With Master’s strengthening, this merciful field would often cause sentient beings with predestined relations to stop.
Once, there was a young girl circling around our truth site on her bike, as if she couldn’t find her way out. I immediately went up to her to clarify the truth, waking up her kind side. I helped her quit the CCP. The moment she came to know the truth and quit the CCP she rode to the other side of the street. When I looked up again, she had already disappeared from sight. Actually, sentient beings are waiting for us to save them. It is us that is willing or not to save them.
During the last phase of the Fa-rectification, every single thought of a cultivatordetermines the life and death of sentient beings. We must continuously breakthrough ourselves, comply with the Fa requirements at each level, believe in Master and the Fa 100%, do the three things well, and save more sentient beings. Only by doing so do we deserve the title of “Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period”. Our life is for the sole purpose of saving sentient beings, and everything lies in this.
Thank you, Master, and fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2019 Australia Fa Conference)
