Putting Others and Our Responsibilities First in Our Cultivation

(Minghui.org) Every Tuesday, the practitioners in my area send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil forces in other dimensions that seek to persecute Dafa. I have persisted in this effort for over two years. 

I realized that sending righteous thoughts for the local area can lessen the persecution and help the local disciples form one body. It also helps me to maintain my own righteous thoughts so that the old forces can’t interfere with me. 

At a certain level, this perspective wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I later identified some selfishness in my motive. 

One Tuesday afternoon, I was sending righteous thoughts for half an hour straight. After I finished, I recalled a recent Minghui.org article which reported that the persecution in my province was quite severe compared to other regions in the country. 

At a time when our entire province was suffering, sending righteous thoughts for just our local area didn’t feel right. So I sent more righteous thoughts to clear all the evil factors in our provincial capital and the other cities in our province. 

My thoughts were clear, focused, and very righteous. When I changed from the “one palm erect” to the “lotus hand position,” I felt a very soft and gentle energy field around me. A circle of teal light appeared on my right hand, spreading evenly outward, farther and farther, gradually fading from teal to white. I was so excited; I knew I was doing the right thing. 

For a long time, I had told myself that I’d get rid of my selfishness and ego, hoping to “attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement) as Master said. Although what I did may not seem that significant, it was an important moment of enlightenment for me.

Over the past two years, I have continued to memorize and read Zhuan Falun and study Master’s new lectures. Doing this helped me better understand the Fa and improve my xinxing. 

Lately, I find that I’m often deeply moved when studying Dafa’s teachings. Sometimes, I’m even moved to tears, for reasons I can’t explain.

Over a couple of days, I read several of Master’s lectures given after 1999. I had read them before, but I didn’t enlighten to anything deeper. I especially struggled to understand the structure of the universe. This time, when I read them again, I could see the meaning of the layer of Fa at my level, and understand why Master taught us such a high-level Fa. It’s because every Dafa disciple comes from a very high celestial body in our universe or other universes, and we must enlighten to such a high-level Fa in order to return to our respective heavenly paradises.

One day, whilst studying the Fa, I couldn’t stop crying. It occurred to me that every Dafa disciple who comes to earth has suffered a lot, and everything on earth, besides cultivation, has nothing to do with us. I now feel more and more like an outsider in this world. There is only one thing that matters to us here—cultivation. It is only this fulfillment of our historical responsibility that is relevant to us. 

My mind is filled with the word “responsibility.” Through Master’s reminders, I remembered that we have gone through thousands of years of reincarnation and suffered a lot to fulfill our initial vow. Whether we do the three things well or not depends on how diligent we are. 

When we do well, the beings in our heavenly paradises will cheer us on and look up to us. If we don’t do well, they will become anxious, restlessly waiting for us to do well and return home. 

The three things are the responsibility of every Dafa disciple, and we are measured by how well we accomplish them, for Dafa disciples are the kings and lords of all sentient beings.

Through Fa study, I realized that the life of a Dafa disciple is entirely “for others” and we dedicate our lives for the truth of the universe. We are lives created by Dafa and we are born to be selfless. It’s just that after we dropped to the level of ordinary people, our innate nature was buried and we became selfish. It is our responsibility to return to our innate nature through cultivation. Otherwise, we aren’t qualified to be a particle of the new universe. I am grateful to Master for choosing me as one of the Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, and receiving Master’s salvation has made me one of the happiest people in the world.

I have practiced Dafa for over twenty years, and am immensely thankful to Master for raising me up from a polluted abyss and purifying me both physically and mentally. I have become a broad-minded, kind-hearted person who is able to tolerate and endure setbacks. I cherish the opportunity to cultivate and always treat myself as a cultivator whenever I have conflicts between my family, fellow practitioners and others. Over the years, I have overcome both major and minor tribulations and consider myself relatively diligent.

For some time, a fellow practitioner with whom I had frequent contact suddenly ignored me. For over half a year, I could not enter her house and she never reached out to me. I struggled to uncover what I had done wrong even after looking within. In the end, the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. The conflicts I had with this practitioner in the past also resurfaced. 

For a while, I felt that the attachments of aggression, resentment, saving face, and indifference to the fellow practitioner had all come out. I felt I wasn’t behaving like a practitioner at all. 

I understood that I had to calm down, no matter who was right or wrong. Master said to look inward, so I recited over and over again the sentence “He’s right, And I’m wrong,” (“Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong,” Hong Yin III) from Hong Yin. My heart slowly calmed down. 

Since I couldn’t talk to the fellow practitioner in person, I apologized to her knowing side in another dimension: “I’m sorry. I am the one who is wrong. Don’t be upset, let’s cultivate well together.” Sometimes the feelings of annoyance at her would return; they showed me that I hadn’t completely let go, and I still need to improve.

I continued to memorize the Fa and study Master’s teachings from all over the world. I realized that we are Dafa disciples who are assisting Master with Fa-rectification—what a sacred opportunity and honor! But at the same time, the Fa has high requirements for us as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples. 

I used to be too narrow-minded, with poor enlightenment quality. My cultivation was too superficial, and many attachments went untouched. I was really ashamed: “Master, I was wrong. I can’t keep meandering around at one level. I have to remove all the layers of bad substances that are not in line with the Fa, uproot them, improve my xinxing, and truly cultivate.”

When studying the Fa, I continuously saw Master’s words: 

“I tell you that you cannot Consummate if you do not love your enemies. (Applause) The evil beings that damage Dafa are an exception.” (Teaching at the Conference in Canada)

I realized that I have to become someone with great forbearance and compassion.

Recently, with a little improvement in xinxing and enlightenment, my mind has calmed down. 

One day while meditating, I thought, “Have I really let go of the conflict with that fellow practitioner? Will it bother me again?” After meditating for a while, my mind was still calm and my body felt very comfortable. I felt that I have completely let go of my complaints against that fellow practitioner and the feeling that I had been wronged.

I am grateful for Master’s compassion and teachings along my journey. I will be sure to require myself to act according to Dafa’s standards in earnest, do the three things well, and return home with Master.

If there is anything inappropriate in the above sharing, please kindly point it out.