June 2, 2001
[Minghui Net]
During the long weekend of May 27 and 28, practitioners in the Bay Area had a two-day gathering for group study and experience sharing. About 100 practitioners attended. Group study took place in the morning, while later there were group discussions, both in small and large groups. Everyone was actively involved. The topics discussed included how to send forth righteous thoughts, a discussion of miracles that occurred after sending forth righteous thoughts; as well as experiences on how to validate Dafa (Great Law and Principles), clarify the truth, and spread Dafa. The following is a brief summary of some of the discussions.
1. Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
Everyone realized that the recent articles by our Teacher significantly improved our understanding of how to overcome the constraints of everyday people's ideas, and how to function as particles in cultivation during the Fa rectification. During the small group discussions, some practitioners whose third eyes were open talked about some personal experiences of eliminating evil in other dimensions. Practitioners from China shared their experiences of getting out of detention centers by using righteous thoughts. Some practitioners talked about some miraculous stories arising from using righteous thoughts in the Fa rectification during the last two years. Many practitioners felt they had made rapid progress recently in the understanding of cultivation amidst Fa rectification, righteous conviction and righteous thoughts. Following are several examples:
Wonderful Change
A practitioner said that when he and other practitioners gathered to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate bad ideas in their minds, he felt a warm current passing through his whole body. He normally needed to sit for five or ten minutes in half-lotus position (crossing one leg on top of the other) before he could get to full-lotus position (crossing both legs on top of each other). But on this day it was not necessary. After he sent forth righteous thoughts, his lower legs felt very warm. He said, "At that time I thought, 'I am becoming a god, how could I still have difficulty crossing my legs?'" With this thinking, he could cross both his legs right away. A righteous mind is based on upright faith, and upright faith comes from cultivation in Fa-rectification. As a Dafa particle, when melting into the current of the Fa-rectification, I can overcome any obstacles. My experiences showed me that to send forth the pure thoughts, the most important thing is to let go of any feeling of being afraid. One should have a spirit of marching forward boldly, with nothing to fear, even loss of one's own life. After all, my life was created by Dafa, and it should return to Dafa. With this spirit, one can reach a level where there is nothing to be scared of no matter what happens. This is a high level of complete selflessness.
Deter Interference With a Righteous Mind When Spreading the Fa
Much interference and resistance exists during spreading the Fa and clarifying the truth, thus success all depends on whether we have righteous minds. For example, when one practitioner with poor English skills collected signatures, there was a Chinese person standing in front of him saying bad things about Dafa in English to the people there. As a result, many people had a misunderstanding of Dafa and refused to sign. The practitioner thought, "This person has such a bad mind, why can't he just shut up?" With this thought from a righteous mind, that person disappeared.
Another practitioner also went to hand out flyers and collect signatures. Because she could barely speak English, when she met Western people, she just showed both sides of the flyer to them, and said, "Please support Falun Gong practitioners in China by signing this." One day, several Western people gathered around her and asked her about it. They still did not understand after glancing over the flyer, but kept asking, even becoming somewhat impatient. At that point, the practitioner was thinking, "Is there a way that they could understand it?" Then, some of the people began to read the flyer carefully. They understood a little more and explained it to other people. After a while, they all became very supportive and signed it.
2. Discussions on How to Spread Dafa, Especially to the Chinese Community
Some practitioners shared their experiences of spreading Dafa at alumni reunions, local Chinese gatherings, or to groups visiting from China. They also talked about how to fully use all sorts of news media and other ways to clarify the truth with compassion and wisdom.
During the discussion, it was emphasized that we must overcome the attitude of being impatient. Different approaches may be necessary when facing different people under different circumstances. A practitioner said that when he had stepped out to spread Dafa to the Chinese, he used to have the idea that "I want to spread Dafa." As a result, it could easily lead to his talking from his own will, while caring little about whether the audience would accept it.
Many practitioners felt it was a long and hard task to spread Dafa to the Chinese community. It is hard because the Chinese are heavily misled by the distorted propaganda, plus we had more or less ignored certain social relationships with everyday people in the previous part of our cultivation. Thus, the ideas in our mind could make it difficult for us to share thoughts with them. This hardship also caused us to raise our standards for ourselves on how to use our rationality, wisdom and benevolence to spread the Fa and clarify the truth.
A practitioner said that it was true that the Chinese were the most misled people and that they had many issues that interfered with their learning the Fa, but these are also obstacles that we need to overcome. Our teacher said, "Nothing we do is for self-interest," "Since we cultivate the righteous Fa, no matter what we do, we should approach it with goodness (Shan). So, with our good thoughts, everything we've done to validate the Fa and expose the evil has shown our disciples' greatness and compassion." (Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
For those people who were misled and have misunderstandings or even hatred toward Dafa, if we do not try our best to clarify the truth to them, how miserable will their futures be? With pure, righteous minds, and completely selfless compassion, we will naturally let go of all the opinions that interfere with our clarifying the truth to the Chinese community. When we let go of these attachments calmly and naturally, and think totally for others, we will find many opportunities to interact with everyday Chinese people. During free, harmonious interactions with them, what impresses them most is the kind behavior of practitioners, caring for others under any circumstances. "The relationships among one another should remain normal. Of course, you have a very high xinxing level and an upright mind. You will upgrade your own xinxing and your own level; you do not commit wrongdoing and only do good deedsthese are only such a manifestation." (Lecture Eight of Zhuan Falun)
A practitioner said when seen from the perspective of the Fa, clarifying the truth amidst the interactions with Chinese people turned out to be a natural process. After we get rid of bad opinions of ourselves, everyday people treat us as friends who practice Falun Gong. When they really accept us in their minds, they will naturally believe what we say to clarify the truth. One will not necessarily have a better effect by talking a lot.
Right now, more and more practitioners are attending activities and gatherings in the Chinese community, and they are doing better and better. Our teacher said, "I indeed intend to save all worldly people and sentient beings." (not official translation) Let us use our compassion, which comes from our cultivation of Dafa, to assist our Teacher in his journey in this world.
