Treasuring the Cultivation Environment

My name is Donal, I am 21 years old. In January of this year I first came to the practice site in Dublin. I don't feel I am separate from the people here. During group discussions, after Fa study, I feel melted into the Fa, as often one person will say exactly the same thing that was on my mind. I feel that we are particles of Dafa like atoms or electrons with a very closely knit connection.

The cultivation environment is very important to me, I like to read the Fa together and to practice the exercises in a group. Since I live about 100 miles outside Dublin with no other practitioners close by I spend a lot of my time at weekends on the bus travelling to Dublin. This is a good time for me to do some Fa study so I don't mind travelling at all. As a new disciple I feel I can benefit greatly from this environment.

In the Jingwen "Environment" Master tells us:

"This environment is the best way to change the surface of a person. The lofty conduct that Dafa disciples have established in this environment - including every word and act - can make people realise their own weaknesses and identify their shortcomings; it can move ones heart, refine ones conduct and enable one to make progress more rapidly."

Sometimes the comments practitioners make can help open my mind to a deeper understanding of the Fa. For example as one practitioner was struggling to cross his legs before sending righteous thoughts I asked him if he was OK, he replied: "Yes I'm fine Its just a little karma that doesn't want to be eliminated." These words made me laugh at the time but I could see that this practitioner had made a clear distinction between his true self and the karma that had to be eliminated. He spoke purely from his Buddha nature.

When I was young my father used to tell me to stand up straight and hold a good posture - I never paid much attention to it. While walking with a Chinese practitioner one day I was a bit tired and had a rather slouched posture. He said to me: "Do you know what it means to be 'tang tang zheng zheng'?" I replied that I didn't, and he said: "This means 'tang tang zheng zheng'," and showed me to put my shoulders back and walk with the demeanour of a Dafa disciple. Many people know I practice Falun Dafa and by my demeanour and appearance they will form an opinion about Dafa.

So I understood that as practitioners we should make sure our every thought and action is upright and dignified. Master tells us in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston": "There are so many people who think you're great just by having seen how you act. If we don't pay attention to our own behaviour in our daily lives everyday people will see our actions and, since they can't get to know you at a deep level such as by studying the Fa, they will just look at how you act."

I would like to share my experience in talking with officials from the Chinese embassy in Dublin. A few months ago I went to the embassy on my own with a simple thought that the persecution of Dafa was wrong and should not be tolerated. I read articles on the train to the embassy and tried to keep my thoughts pure and righteous. I sat down and sent righteous thoughts outside the embassy when I arrived. I felt like I was eliminating a lot of evil there.

Then I rang the intercom and asked to make an appointment to speak with the ambassador because I had some questions about human rights in China. A voice told me: "You can't come in here, please don't come in here. Go away." I continued to ring the bell for a while and was just about to leave when an official arrived at the front gate. I asked him if I could go inside and talk to the ambassador, and began to speak to him about Falun Gong.

I took out some materials to clarify the truth and tried to show him pictures of practitioners who had been tortured. He refused to look at them and started to tell me that Falun Gong was dangerous, he said some slanderous words about Dafa I replied:

"Do you think I am dangerous?"

"You are just a boy, what do you know about China?"

"I know about Falun Gong; Falun Gong is good, why are these people being tortured and killed."

He refused to look at the pictures I tried to show him, and went inside - he seemed angry and upset. I called after him. "You should be responsible for you actions." I did not feel calm in my heart as I stood there at the gate of the embassy. I was exposing the evil but I had many omissions. My heart was far from the heart of an enlightened being offering salvation to someone who had been deceived. I was upset for the Chinese practitioners who had given up everything for Dafa and had withstood such persecution. I also noticed a bitterness in my heart towards those humans who I had deemed responsible for this persecution.

We have been taught not to regard this persecution as an ordinary persecution by human beings of human beings. When something goes wrong we should not feel injustice in our hearts. I knew this was not the correct behaviour for a Dafa disciple. These people were unknowingly doing harm to themselves. How could I, a Dafa disciple, feel bitterness towards a deluded human being doing the most reckless of things? The wish to save him arose in my heart.

Posted on Clearwisdom that evening was a practitioner's report of a conversation she had with a Chinese delegate while validating the Fa in Geneva. This moved me to further consider my state of mind at the embassy that day. This practitioner showed real consideration, as when she approached the official, she first asked: "Will it bring you any trouble if I speak with you for a few moments here?" As it turned out the official actually had many questions he wanted to ask about Dafa and they were answered with rationality and above all great compassion.

Towards the end of October this year, practitioners in Ireland had been sending righteous thoughts intensively outside the Chinese Embassy. In all kinds of weather and late into the night we persevered. With Master's new article "Righteous Thoughts" published, I paid more attention to the focus and strength of my sending righteous thoughts. I was not lenient whatsoever with the evil beings in other dimensions, just thoroughly cleaning them out.

I also took every opportunity to clarify the truth to the officials who worked there, keeping in mind what Master told us:

"As Dafa disciples tell people the facts,

It's like sharp swords shooting out together from their mouths,

Shredding apart the rotten demons' lies." (Hurry up and tell them)

Once, as I was walking up the street, I approached a middle-aged Chinese man who worked at the embassy. I greeted him with a calm heart this time and told him that we are not against the Chinese government, he seemed a little incredulous at this but more at ease, and asked me why we were outside the embassy so often.

I replied: "I am here because I practice Falun Dafa and I find it very good. In China people are not allowed to practice and people have even been beaten and tortured to death because they want to practice it." I answered some of his questions and brought up the self-immolation in Tiananmen. He listened very carefully as I told him the facts of the matter. I told him of some of the atrocities committed against practitioners China - he still denied these as I showed him a picture of Ms. Zhao Xin, who had been tortured to death. However he sounded a lot less confident in his denials. I also mentioned Zhao Ming's detention in Tuanhe labour camp. At this point he had little to say, Ming was sitting right outside the embassy. I asked him not to hold any bad thoughts about Dafa as we parted company.

I used to see so much wrong with the world before I started to cultivate and felt helpless to change it. Whatever I did to try and improve the world was like adding more petrol to a fire that was already burning out of control. Now I feel that each attachment I can give up and every time I improve my Xinxing, I am eliminating black karma and rescuing sentient beings who have put infinite faith in my cultivating well. Now I feel I am taking firm steps to help eliminate the evils through purging my own problems and sending righteous thoughts.

From the bottom of my heart I want to tell the Chinese people about the greatness of Falun Dafa. These people came for the Fa but have been fed the most deadly poison - the lies and slander spread by the evil. I have met many gentle, kind-hearted Chinese people who once I mention Falun Gong become afraid to speak to me. I used to find it difficult to talk to Chinese people about Dafa. Now I always remember to send righteous thoughts first to clear away the interference in other dimensions. I keep a light, unaffected heart and tell them sincerely and firmly the facts about Dafa. In the face of the true facts and within the calming energy field of practitioner, it is easy for them to see the truth and turn their thoughts around. Like in Master's poem Tathagata:

"He comes with the Truth, which gives him full control."

I hope we practitioners in Europe can do better and better and keep up with the tide of Fa rectification. Let me finish with Master's words to inspire us:

Dafa disciples
hold the palm erect
eliminate the remaining Evil
summon righteous thoughts
clarify the truth
rescue the sentient beings
thoroughly annihilate the Evil
and sweep the entire cosmos clean

("Cleaning Out," January 23 2002)

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(Shared at the 2002 Ireland Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)