(Minghui.org) (Continue from Part 3)
In this project to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, I found that many practitioners did not want to learn technology because of their own mental barriers—“I don't know foreign languages, I lack basic computer skills, I'm too old to learn.”
But what I've realized is that these barriers exist for other reasons. Many practitioners simply lack patience and fear difficulty. They give up when they encounter setbacks and cannot persevere in their project work.
Master taught us:
“When you know what to do, just go ahead and do it, and while you do it your wisdom will continually come forth, because at that time the side of you that's been successfully cultivated will fuse together with the side of you here. That's a God, who's omnipotent! So of course a small issue will be resolved in no time, and your wisdom will come forth--it's different then! And if you get stuck Master will give you wisdom.” (Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference)
I realized that we should not be afraid since we have Master. When dealing with real difficulties, we should not back down but instead power through. Only then will Master grant us the wisdom to complete many seemingly impossible tasks and build up our mighty virtue.
We are Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period who have a great Master. In fact, it is Master who is fulfilling everything. Nonetheless, we should not casually ask Master for help when we encounter trivial problems, as we have to face many difficulties ourselves. Here are a few examples.
Reviving an Unreadable Hard Drive
I came across a fellow practitioner whose hard drive was completely damaged. However, this hard drive contained a list of people who had agreed to quit the CCP. I worked on it and managed to recover the information. I wrote a sharing about this titled “Retrieving Important Data from an 'Unreadable' Hard Drive.”
A year ago, the owner of the hard drive told me, “The hard drive you repaired is so amazing. It has been used for so long now without any problems. I can’t find the hard drive on any computer when I install it, but that doesn’t affect it from working properly. After encryption, everything works just like normal—going on the Internet, printing things—this is more powerful than any encrypted computer. Can you make a few more hard drives like this?”
I smiled. It was as if I saw this hard drive telling its beings the story of his past and his infinite gratitude to Master in a new cosmos, and all were bathed in brilliant light.
Master Granted Me Wisdom
A few years ago, some microelectronic circuit connection diagrams were needed in a project. But I was an amateur and didn't know anything about electronic circuits, and there was no relevant information on the Tiandixing Technical Forum. So I found some books on microelectronics and learned some basic knowledge about resistors, capacitors, diodes, and so on.
After studying for a week or so, I figured out some basic components. But I still had no clue as to how to modify and connect this circuit. Nevertheless, I did not give up and tried welding the circuits together over and over again. A few days later, I was lying on my bed after I finished sending righteous thoughts at midnight. Suddenly, a circuit diagram appeared in my celestial vision. I got up immediately, sketched out the diagram, and immediately took out my welding tools. After I was done welding, I tested the circuit and it worked! My heart was full of gratitude. Thank you, great Master!
Persevere and Never Give Up
In the process of maintening computers, printers, and so on, I found that the tutorials and materials online are comprehensive, so learning how to maintain equipment is relatively easy. What was most difficult for me is when things began to involve other fields, like electrical engineering. Because I was an amateur without any formal engineering training, I had to start from scratch.
For example, there are no tutorials on the welding of microcircuits on the Tiandixing forum, but maintaining mobile phones, printer motherboards, and routers requires such knowledge and skill. I could only figure it out on my own. I couldn't find key information about such repairs in detail online.
I bought my own soldering station and heat gun, and began to practice on some old memory sticks. I'd practice welding with a hair-thin needle and failed many times. But I persisted. Finally, about two weeks later, under Master's guidance, I mastered some micro-welding techniques and successfully completed our project.
A fellow practitioner, who is an ophthalmologist, saw me soldering a microcircuit once. He exclaimed that my refinement of this technique was really something. To him, this was a more delicate operation than eye surgery.
Throughout the Fa-rectification and our projects for validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, I feel that Master is watching over us at all times and granting us strength and wisdom. Fellow practitioners, I hope that we can all be more diligent and not give up when we encounter problems in the future so that we can be worthy of being called Fa-rectification Dafa disciples.
When it comes to personal cultivation, I noticed some common situations among fellow practitioners in mainland China that manifest as bottlenecks in cultivation. From a purely technical point of view, I think there are four situations.
Phase 1: Waiting for and Counting on Others
Practitioners like this may be able to come up with various reasons why they have not heeded Master's request to set up small-scale material production sites everywhere. In my view, such practitioners still fail to understand the preciousness of our role as practitioners.
They know Dafa is good and do not want to leave, but they have too many human attachments, so they just want to mess around and not take things seriously. There are even some fellow coordinators who never go online. I don't know how such practitioners can coordinate if they never visit Minghui for the latest information. If a new practitioner can come out to validate Dafa, why can't you?
What is the ultimate goal of cultivation? The ultimate goal is to return to heaven with Master, and at that time, all will be made clear. A divine being in the process of validating the Fa is asking other divine beings to give them all the tools and relying on others for everything—think about it, how could that work?! So please, fellow practitioners, hurry and walk your own path!
As fellow practitioners who provide things to those who are waiting on us and relying on us year-round, we should also look within ourselves. Are we doing good things or bad things? If we cannot communicate well with these practitioners and let them walk their own path to validate Dafa—and if these practitioners regret this the future, aren’t we responsible for them?
Phase 2: After Material Sites Are Set up
Master told us a story about Shakyamuni,
“He was also constantly improving himself during the forty-nine years of his Dharma teaching. Whenever he improved his level, he looked back and realized that the Dharma he had just taught was all wrong. When he improved again, he discovered that the Dharma he had just taught was wrong again. After he made further progress, he realized again that the Dharma he had just taught was wrong. He constantly ascended in this way during his entire forty-nine years.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Such fellow practitioners have taken the first step on the path toward the divine, according to Master's request, and established their own material production sites. But if they've been relying on technical practitioners for repair jobs for years and years, they may need to improve on this issue.
Imagine on the day that we follow Master and return to our heavenly worlds, we find that all our Fa implements were repaired by others. That would not work. Furthermore, when we rely too much on technical practitioners, they get targeted for persecution by the evil forces, and some even lose their lives. Or they get so busy that they have no time to study the Fa and no time to exercise and are targeted by the old forces. We cannot let that happen.
Of course, there could be all kinds of reasons, and one may say that it is too hard to learn technology. However, learning the techniques could be part of your cultivation. What we need to do is to get rid of the attachment to relying on technical practitioners. It is possible that even if we learn the technology, we won't master all the skills. But we have to at least take the initiative to learn, walk our own path, and fulfill our mission.
Now, let’s talk about the technology. Some practitioners may encourage others to wait and rely on them for technical support. But truly helping a practitioner may not be in superficially repairing machines; it could be in encouraging others to walk their own paths toward divinity. When the machine is repaired and we are happy with the results, we still need to remember to help those who own the broken machine to look within and improve. We need to look within ourselves as well.
Like what the fellow practitioner said in his article “Reminders for Practitioners Involved in Technology Support,” when we are “busy doing things, and neglect Fa study, the exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts,” and we “treat doing things as cultivation,” we could easily fall into the trap that the old forces arranged.
Once, I discussed this with another technical practitioner. We may see that fellow practitioners rely on us long-term and are quite happy and pleased. But when the final stage comes, they might turn around and accuse us of ruining them in the long run. This is not what we want, and we need to change our mindset and walk our own cultivation paths well.
Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)
(To be continued)