(Minghui.org) Greetings Master, and fellow practitioners:
The topic of my sharing is: May yellow flowers bloom everywhere. I would like to talk of practitioners’ experience of doing Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, workshops last year, my cultivation in this project, and Master’s compassionate care.
The workshops started in March 2018. We held 12 exercise-instruction classes in total. We also held a 9-day lecture series. Most of the classes were held in the local public library, while one was held in city hall. The significance of these workshops is the attendance of young people and professionals. Many were computer engineers working in Silicon Valley, as well as architects, therapists, doctors, investment analysts, company managers, executives, and so on.
To inform the public, and clarify he truth about Falun Dafa, introduce Dafa, and promote the teaching class face to face, I distributed Dafa informational fliers. It provided the basic schedule for each class, and the basic facts about Dafa. Once people accept the fliers, even if they don’t attend the class, they still have a chance to hear the facts about Dafa. Usually I distribute the fliers at the library, farmer’s market, sometimes restaurants, shopping malls, parks, and subway stations, schools, temples, wherever there are crowds of people. I distribute more than 1,000 ~ 2,000 copies for practically every workshop. When my cultivation state is good, the fliers are handed out very quickly, and there are more people interested in them. When my cultivation state is not so good, people are not so willing to take them.
In the process of running this workshop, Master’s teaching has always appeared in my mind: “We should look not only at the tools’ appearance, but also at their effectiveness.” ( Lecture 7, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that Master is teaching me how to clarify the truth. When I hand out the fliers, I talk to the people who receive them. I usually explain the benefits from practicing Falun Dafa, talk about the guiding principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, and tell them facts about Dafa. Sometimes some people would be moved to tears. Many people expressed their gratitude. Some of them would come up and hug me, express excitement of hearing about Dafa, and some said that they would bring their entire family to the workshop. One woman said that she was looking for this her whole life. There are schools, companies, and even prisons who want us to run the Dafa workshop for them. The long-awaited expectation of these beings has been awakened. It is the mighty virtue of Dafa.
In the process of running the workshop, I realized that the effect of saving people is related to my cultivation, and a process of improving my xinxing. Almost every time before class starts, I encounter things that test my xinxing. Sometimes I pass them easily, and other times I had a hard time. There are quite a few people who attend the workshop due to the blessings of Master. I noticed that if I pass the tests well, and guard my xinxing, more people will attend the class. I remembered that when I passed the test with a clear mind, there were more people in that class even if we had not done any additional promotion: All of the seats were occupied, some people sat on the floor or even in the doorway. I realized that I can reach more people with the improvement of my xinxing.
In the process of running this project, I realized that “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun) Everything is done by Master, and I also realized how urgent it is to help sentient beings get to hear about Dafa.
When I planned to hold my first class, I went to a local English language newspaper office and hoped that they would help with free advertisement, but the answer was no. I was a little embarrassed to look at the advertising costs that are not cheap, because I don’t work and have two children. I could not pay for it every time. I returned to my car and sat in the car for half an hour, and I decided to pay it out of my pocket. I took the credit card with me and returned to their office to pay the advertisement fee.
At this point, the boss of the newspaper company came out and asked me why I would like to do this. I said that I had benefited from Falun Dafa, and I hope that more people will benefit from it. She smiled and looked at me and said: “Do you know? You are doing a good thing.” She said she would like to give me a free advertisement. I was very happy that she could support me. I know that Master helped me. Master has seen my heart, wanting to save sentient beings. I let go of the attachment of benefit, and I have reached the standard at this level. Master then helped me on this issue.
When I promote the workshop, I need a big banner that introduces Falun Dafa. I wanted one that is very light, a banner that I can carry by myself. I went to many different shops, but I couldn’t find anything similar to what I had in mind. I wanted to make it by myself, but I didn’t know how and what kind of material I should use, and where I could buy this material. I had been thinking about it for a few days. One day, I walked down the street and noticed a man walking toward me. He carried two big pieces of cardboard under his arms. The big cardboard was facing me. I saw clearly the inside of the cardboard. I was shocked, isn’t this the material I want? I was touched, this must have been arranged for me by Master! Master knows everything. Coincidentally, there were two pieces of the same cardboard in my house, so I quickly made two large banners after I got home, and used it for advertising each workshop.
Later on, a new elderly practitioner came and helped me deliver the brochures. I taught her a few words in English, and we went to the library together. One day she said: “Why are there so many foreigners put before us – a lot of them.” After saying that a few times, she said: “Weird, how are these foreigners held up in line and pushed in front of us.” At this time, I realized that it might be that her celestial eye was open. I told her with my own understanding that those people may have been sent by Master, and needed to hear the truth about Dafa. We just hand out the brochures, and everything is arranged and done by Master.
Another time, because I couldn’t book the conference room in the library, we went to the library to send righteous thoughts. The elderly practitioner said that she is a new practitioner, and had no righteous thoughts. I told her: Master said that “Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts’ are Powerful.” (Title, Essentials for Future Advancement II) You are a Dafa practitioner. Let’s send righteous thoughts together.”
After she finished sending righteous thoughts, she told me that she saw that the place where the righteous thoughts went and there was even burning on the ground, black and burnt. My feelings of sending righteous thoughts were relatively slow, and I don’t feel much. I didn’t know the righteous thoughts to be that powerful! The words of this new practitioner also gave me a lot of encouragement.
Another time the practitioner had to take care of her grandson and couldn’t come, but I had already printed enough fliers for two people to hand out. Thus, there was a lot of stress for just one person to finish handing out these fliers. And I was also very tired. At this time, I was interfered with. I saw two red circles at night. I knew that it was the interference of the communist evil spirits. One was for my child, and the other for me. But I was too tired to send righteous thoughts to eliminate them. As a result of falling asleep, the next morning, my child became ill and could not go to school, and was coughing. I also started feeling ill: coughing, dizziness, lack of strength, and other symptoms. I thought that I couldn’t go to the library that afternoon.
After lying down, I saw myself getting up in my dream, standing in front of the window and practicing, watching the sunny blue sky and white clouds, and I felt very happy. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that there was no sunshine. In the daytime, the whole world became darker and darker. Like darkest midnight, I had a very ominous, scared feeling. There was a kind of silent darkness. Terrible things were going to happen, I felt that something that could swallow and destroy everything was near... I suddenly realized that the catastrophe was coming! I desperately rushed to the child’s room and shouted: Run! Run! The catastrophe is coming! I shouted desperately, but I couldn’t make a sound. At the same time, I knew that it was useless to go anywhere, because it’s all from the micro dimension, but the instinct to survive still drove me to run. I wanted to save myself. Finally, I woke up from this chilling fear and unforgettable despair, and found myself lying in bed in shock. I thought: “Fortunately, the catastrophe had not really come.”
At this point, a fellow practitioner called me. I picked up the phone and a very serious and harsh voice came from the phone: “It’s all like this already! You still don’t go save people!!” I was shocked and jumped to say: “I am going, I am going, I will go now!” At this moment, all the incorrect states on my body disappeared!
That afternoon, I handed out a lot of fliers outside the library, and there were many people who were interested in them. Later on, the fellow practitioner told me that the words were not from her. She did not say that. I realized that when we plan to save people, Master arranges the people who have the predestined relationship to come. If I didn’t go that day, these people would have missed the opportunity, and that would disturb Master’s arrangement, so Master used this ‘stick warning’ approach to warn me.
This year, I contacted an everyday people media, a 24-hour Indian TV station, in order to reach out to more people. I originally planned to make an appointment with the reporter, introduce Dafa to him first, and then ask them to introduce Dafa on TV and promote the teaching class. However, beyond my expectation, after explaining the intention on the phone, the reporter transferred the call to his boss directly. The boss asked me to pass the content to her. I sent the Dafa website to her and introduced the workshop. About 10 minutes later, the reporter told me: What you just sent is on live streaming. I was shocked, I had not expected that this would happen.
After the weekend, early Monday morning, the boss called again and asked me to give her a video about Dafa. She would like to give us a free advertisement on TV. I originally planned to ask our own media to make an advertisement video and ask them to play it, so I asked them to give me a few days to prepare the video. However, they quickly made the TV advertisement and it was very beautiful. Additionally, they also put the advertisement on Facebook and their TV app – it all happened within an hour. I sat there thinking about what was happening. I felt guilty in my heart since I wanted to contact them last year, but didn’t.
When I had slacked off before, Master showed me my vows and told me the serious consequences of not fulfilling these vows. The performance of these sentient beings made me see their eagerness to be saved.
The process of saving people is also the process of my true cultivation. When I first handed out the information in front of the library, I always wanted to hand out more. Don’t miss a person. I was a little pushy at first, giving people a feeling of being rushed. The people in the library were somewhat unhappy. I felt that this may have disturbed others. A fellow practitioner also pointed out this problem.
I saw that this was a very bad manifestation of the indoctrination by the Party. The mentality of being impatient and tending go to the extreme are also the manifestation of demon-nature, which need to be eliminated by the cultivator. I told myself to relax, to be peaceful, to go with the flow, to be like a cultivator, all in all, to have a mentality of a cultivator. I should believe that if it is really a good person, Master will not let that person not be missed.
I don’t necessarily have to hand it to everyone. When I was talking to people about Falun Gong outside the library, I remind myself time and time again, and corrected myself again and again. Slowly, the impatience in my heart was getting weaker and weaker, I can express myself better, and have a more peaceful mind. My speech is also more and more peaceful. I found that I am less likely to get tired if I hand out fliers with this peaceful mentality, and the effect is equally good.
I have the attachment of complaining. So, I set a rule for myself – When a fellow practitioner does not understand me, accuses, or criticizes me, I told myself not to explain why I did or said something. I always follow this. This will not only help me to guard my xinxing, but I can also put more energy into clarifying the truth. So, in the course of running the workshop for more than a year, most of the time I keep a happy mindset. If I think of a good idea, then I will just do it, no matter if the other practitioner understands it or not. Occasionally I hear or encounter something that affects my heart, I treat it with indifference. And I am not attached to whether anyone will come to the workshop; I just try my best according to my own situation. Although it is difficult, there is not much pressure in my heart.
After the promotion of Shen Yun started in the second half of last year, the practitioner who helped me hand out the materials decided to work on the Shen Yun promotion. When I was too busy, I asked another practitioner to help. When I found the people with predestined relations, I would ask several other practitioners to help run the class. This helped me how to work and communicate better with practitioners. I have always reminded myself that no matter what happens, I can’t complain – it is my choice, it is my own work, it is a very meaningful thing. With such a state of mind, I found that although the number of fliers handed out by myself is halved without the other person’s help, there are still many people who come to study. The number of people who come, and the amount of fliers handed out, are not absolutely proportional. The key is the mentality.
With the completion of one class after another, I feel that sentient beings can accept Dafa better. Maybe in the near future, all sentient beings will come to study Dafa. If this workshop is a small flower in many projects of saving sentient beings. I would like to have such a small flower bloom everywhere.
(Presented at the 2019 San Francisco Fa Conference)