(Minghui.org) Greetings, revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I have been cultivating for 28 years. I remember writing only one cultivation experience before, as I’ve always felt that my cultivation was quite plain and ordinary, with nothing remarkable to share. However, I have now realized that it is also necessary to harmonize with the whole body, so I am very happy to share some bits of my cultivation experiences in projects and family life.
I am a housewife. I came to New Zealand with my child for schooling. Upon arriving in this beautiful and free country, I felt endless gratitude to Master. I immediately searched online for a practice site and contacted fellow practitioners.
I arrived in New Zealand in January 2014. When Shen Yun came in April, there was a shortage of people delivering flyers to mailboxes. Hearing that some practitioners worked during the day and still delivered flyers at night deeply moved me, so I started driving and taking a fellow practitioner along to distribute flyers every day. Because my family was well-off and I did not need to work, I eagerly participated in various Dafa projects out of gratitude. Unknowingly, however, a strong attachment to showing off was growing within me.
I took my child to attend a school in North America in January 2019. I worked in the school cafeteria, and since cooking was my specialty, I felt very comfortable and happy, filled with gratitude to be able to contribute my small skills to a Dafa project. But as time went on, I failed to cultivate my xinxing in time, and my attachment to showing off became increasingly strong. Jealousy also surfaced. One day, while driving with a fellow practitioner to a Tian Guo Marching Band rehearsal, she shared that she had a show-off mentality. Only then did I realize that I also had a strong attachment to showing off—thinking myself clever, capable, and full of righteous thoughts.
I was exactly that kind of person—unaware that I had jealousy, even thinking I was cultivating well, equating “doing things” with cultivation. Once, the chef asked a Canadian practitioner to make dumplings for guests and didn’t ask me to help, and she even refused others’ help, saying she was worried that the dumplings wouldn’t look nice. This made me unhappy. When I later learned that the dumplings didn’t taste good, I actually felt pleased inside—wasn’t that jealousy? Another time, the chef asked for help, and though I said, “It’s fine, it’s just a small task,” I was thinking, “Since they didn’t ask me before, I won’t help now.” What an unkind thought that was! I secretly made up my mind to remove this bad attachment.
When The Epoch Times coordinated the Shen Yun promotion in 2023, I participated in the exhibition setup and logistics management for the first time. With Master’s strengthening and fellow practitioners’ encouragement, I successfully did the supporting work. Several practitioners helped manage the storage warehouse. They all had day jobs, so they would go to the warehouse after work to organize things, and return home very late. For various reasons, the warehouse had to be relocated several times, yet no one complained—everyone quietly cooperated.
During the Shen Yun promotion in 2025, I again only helped with exhibition setup. There were several times each week when items were checked in or out of the warehouse. Each time I noticed some coordination issues, and initially voiced my concerns, and complained that others hadn’t done things well. I later realized that pointing out problems like that was wrong—everyone has a different perspective, and my idea was not necessarily right. I began focusing on cultivating away my attachment to showing off—seeing others’ strengths instead. When problems arose, I silently helped harmonize things, rather than speaking up. I learned to think of others first. Seeing fellow practitioners using their spare time to organize the warehouse, neatly filled me with genuine admiration. Every practitioner has their own strengths from which I can learn. Finding my shortcomings helped me improve my xinxing.
At the same time, the Epoch Times coordinator asked me to help with some advertising input tasks. Since I had no prior computer experience, this opportunity greatly improved my attentiveness and patience. When others misunderstood me, I no longer took it personally but learned to handle it with kindness.
New Zealand is a special country, with a pleasant climate, spring all year round. With no financial or work pressure, it’s easy to become relaxed and slack in cultivation. The most obvious manifestation was sleepiness. When I first obtained the Fa, I was sleepy during morning exercises. After breaking through that, I would get sleepy while sending righteous thoughts at midnight, and often fell asleep at around 11:30 p.m. After moving to New Zealand, the interference from sleepiness became severe—even during Fa study or driving.
One year during Shen Yun, the coordinator arranged group Fa study online in the mornings. Because we read aloud one word at a time, everyone had to stay focused, or we’d misread. This concentrated Fa study helped me improve significantly. We read one lecture every morning, then again in smaller groups—thus extending our Fa study time.
I made my schedule full to give myself no chance to slack off. I also joined the group sending righteous thoughts three times daily near the Chinese consulate, and I felt my energy field become much clearer. Once at a U.S. Fa conference, a practitioner shared how she broke through by sleeping only 3 to 4 hours per day. I was deeply moved and resolved to overcome this. Now I can sleep just 4 to 4 and one half hours and feel fine—sleeping more even feels uncomfortable.
Another form where the attachment of comfort manifests is lateness—being late for Fa study, exercises, group practice, or rehearsals. The worst part was that my behavior influenced my child, who also became slow and unhurried. I watched the movie Once We Were Divine three times, and it touched me deeply. In the film, the phoenix was late for the Heavenly Ceremony and thus descended to the human world. After obtaining the Fa, her cultivation was disturbed—her main consciousness was weak, her Fa study was interfered with, her emotions were affected, and even her efforts to validate the Fa were disrupted. Another being, a great god who had once participated in the nine-thousand-day-and-night divine battle, also descended to the human world but did not obtain the Fa because he was late. Lateness was extremely serious. There are no small matters in cultivation. I made up my mind to get rid of my bad habit of being late and to avoid being late for anything from now on.
There are no small matters in cultivation. In the past, I thought I was kind and liked to help others, which I believed was good. But now, from the perspective of higher-level Fa principles, I have enlightened that it may not necessarily be right. A cultivator must hold themselves to higher standards.
I now try to be more considerate of others. For example, when everyone is organizing a group performance, I may feel like staying home to rest and not joining. At that moment, I ask myself, “Am I doing this for myself or for others? If it’s for others, then I must participate and harmonize the whole.” When attending group Fa study, instead of thinking about what’s convenient for myself, I think about what’s convenient for others. If I arrive early, I will park my car farther away and leave the closer spots for practitioners who come later.
When coordinators arrange group activities, I just do whatever they ask and try to cooperate fully. When I see some practitioners prefer to do Tuidang (quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its youth organizations) or collecting signatures, but don’t like holding flags, I take the initiative to hold flags. While holding the flag, I recite the Fa or send righteous thoughts to help sentient beings understand the truth. I have enlightened that harmonizing as one body in overseas projects is most important.
I am a housewife. My husband doesn’t practice cultivation, and my family relationships have never been smooth. Our compassionate and great Master helps disciples eliminate part of their karma, while leaving some karma for us to improve our xinxing at different levels.
However, when conflicts arise in daily life, I often forget that I am a cultivator and fail to handle the situation with an open and calm heart. I often cannot maintain my xinxing when conflicts come. In human society, we are husband and wife, but from the perspective of Fa principles, we understand that people live in this world not to enjoy a human life but to fulfill their mission of assisting Master in saving sentient beings.
Sometimes I fail to pass a test because I see myself as an ordinary person—wanting my husband’s care and a comfortable life. This shows that my understanding of the Fa is not clear enough, so complaints arise. On the surface, my husband has many shortcomings and different values, but from a higher-level Fa principle, human logic is opposite to divine reasoning. In fact, he is helping me cultivate.
I went from enduring with tears, to muttering complaints while enduring, to finally being able to endure only when reciting the Fa silently—but I still have not truly transformed myself at the root. When my child went to Shen Yun, my husband strongly opposed it. But through this process, he was actually helping me strengthen my righteous faith in Master and Dafa. As long as I firmly believe in Master, miracles will happen. Thinking back, I should thank my husband. He has come to help me cultivate and improve.
This June, when my child came home for eleven days during the school holidays, my xinxing improvement process was very difficult. If the holiday had been any longer, I felt I might have collapsed—my mental pressure was at the limit. The child’s flight arrived at 5 a.m. My husband had friends over playing cards until past 11 p.m. and couldn’t get up to go to the airport. He said he would go, but stayed in bed. When the other parents messaged that their kids had already exited the arrival gate, we still hadn’t left home. I ended up speeding to the airport by myself to pick up my child.
Our family went on a three-day trip during the holiday, to the South Island. On the second day, my husband was fined $300 for two traffic violations. I realized this was because my xinxing wasn’t in place. While driving, we encountered a one-way tunnel and waited for the green light. A young woman’s car overtook us from behind. I said, “Young people these days are so rude. She shouldn’t have overtaken us, and now she’s driving so slowly.” My husband said, “You’re a cultivator. How can you think like that? You’re unhappy now.” I denied it, saying, “No, I’m not.” I wanted to overtake her, but my husband stopped me. I got upset and said, “Then you drive yourself,” and gave up driving. I just wanted him to agree with me and say something nice. In the afternoon, we got fined by the police.
I prepared food on the morning of the day our child was leaving, and toasted a bottle of pine nuts for the child to take along. My husband came into the kitchen and said it didn’t smell fragrant, then took a spatula and said he’d fry it again. I suppressed my displeasure, and said, “You fry half then.” In the end, he fried all of them and they looked burnt.
I studied the Fa, and after a while my heart calmed down and no longer churned. Looking back, I realized that my attachment to affection for my child was too strong. On the surface, my husband seemed wrong, but in fact, he was helping me eliminate sentimentality. During those ten days, a miracle also occurred—under Master’s blessing, my child’s passport was successfully renewed to return to school on time.
I try to prepare breakfast for my husband and accompany him to visit friends. I think he may feel embarrassed to mention that his wife practices Falun Gong, and when his friends ask about our child’s school, he doesn’t dare to say which university our child attends. He must also feel a lot of pressure. Since he doesn’t cultivate, he cannot fully understand us. I should be more understanding toward him.
My gratitude goes to Master. I am deeply grateful to Master for arranging my cultivation path. Everything around me—good or bad—is all good, all arranged to help me improve.
Becoming a Dafa disciple is an immense blessing, and I am infinitely grateful for Master’s compassionate salvation. From now on, in my daily life, I will always regard myself as a cultivator, rectify my every thought, remember Master’s teachings, and whenever conflicts arise, look within to see where I haven’t done well and what attachment caused it. I will work on improving my heart and walk well on the final path of cultivation.
If there is anything not aligned with the Fa, please kindly point it out.
(Selected article presented at the 2025 New Zealand Fa Conference)