(Clearwisdom.net)
Two mornings ago, I read "Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006," in which Teacher said:
"Your Fa conferences need to achieve real results. I listened to the students' speeches earlier. Your conference has been quite spirited, and it's quite good. So I'm pleased."
I realized that Teacher not only acknowledged that particular conference, but also encouraged experience sharing conference for all students, including those in mainland China.
For practitioners in China, the on-line experience sharing conference is especially meaningful under the current circumstances. Teacher said:
"Dafa disciples' Fa conferences are not mere formalities that have to be carried out each year, but rather, they are held for the sake of true, lived cultivation. They are also a setting I have given you, the only setting in which Dafa disciples can gather and learn from each other via discussion on a large scale. So you must bee to it that the goal is truly met, and make them truly conducive to your improvement in cultivation. Only then is a conference meaningful." ("Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006")
I hope that our participation will support the on-line conference and establish a milestone for the new cosmos. This conference is an opportunity for us to review and examine our cultivation in recent years and to improve as one body in accord with Teacher's requirement of "comparing in studying, comparing in cultivation, exam each and every deed, accomplishing is cultivating." ("Solid Cultivation," from Hong Yin)
Conflicts at Work, Attachment to Promotion, and Xinxing Upgrades
I would like to discuss the tribulations that practitioners in China, especially those who are young, with jobs, often encounter. Many practitioners do not have enough time to study the Fa and practice because of work. This is a common problem now. Sometimes these practitioners develop a passive attitude toward work. Also, clarifying the truth to relatives does not always meet expectations, and relatives do not understand practitioners' behaviors. These factors can contribute to a rather discouraging cultivation environment.
I now realize that I did not clearly understand Teacher's words:
"Many students understand only that doing the exercises and studying the Fa are cultivation. Yes, with those you directly engage the Fa. But as you go about truly cultivating yourself in your day-to-day life, the society that you come into contact with is your cultivation environment. The work and family environments that you spend time in are both settings in which you are to cultivate yourselves, are part of the path you must walk, are what you must handle, and handle correctly at that. None of these should be glossed over. When you have made it to the end, [a question would be]: How did you travel the path that Master arranged for you? When all is said and done, these things have to be taken into account. And in the course of your cultivation these things have to be looked at, too. So you shouldn't neglect anything. As far as convenience goes, [in Dafa] a person can cultivate without having to enter a monastery, go to a secluded mountain, or leave the secular world. But from another perspective, all of this adds a layer of difficulty: If you are to make it through, you have to do well with things such as all of the above, and do well in every aspect of your life." ("Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006")
I did not maintain a good balance between cultivation, work, and family, and I was not in harmony with the universe. Because my xinxing did not elevate promptly, some conflicts ensued.
Last year I was promoted to be director of another department. The quality of my work had been always excellent, until I went to the new position and started facing new challenges. Since April 2005, I experienced a series of difficulties. Clients complained to my supervisors because I clarified the truth of Falun Gong to them. The company investigated this issue and my supervisors expressed their distrust. The quality of our service dropped because of personnel changes. A promising project had to be postponed because of our partner's property issues. My planned promotion in September 2006 was put off to next year. Moreover, other companies have offered me better positions. Each of these events was a big test for me, because of my attachments to fear, my company, greed, competition, jealousy, promotion, fame, money, and so on. All of these attachments have emerged in my cultivation in the last year.
Although these attachments affected my work and cultivation, I was able to upgrade my xinxing slowly but steadily by studying the Fa and sharing with fellow practitioners, often through reading the Minghui/Clearwisdom website and talking to practitioners every day. In "comparing in studying, comparing in cultivation", "the Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts" ("Drive out Interference" in Essentials for Further Advancement II) Now I feel so light, and the past is like clouds flying away. Nothing can stop a Dafa practitioner's cultivation.
Powerful Righteous Thoughts: An Unconscious Person Recovers by Reciting "Falun Dafa Is Good" and "Zhen-Shan-Ren Is Good"
On August 20, 2006, my company opened a new sales branch. When I got in the office at about nine in the morning, Michael, our foreign business partner, called me about a serious accident that had just occurred. A man in his 20s, the head of the reception team, had just passed out at work. I ran to the scene, while Michael shouted in a panic, "Get an ambulance!" The dispatcher said that they could not send an ambulance anytime soon. I held my right hand upright and sent forth righteous thoughts as I ran toward the fainted man. I did not care what others might have thought of me. I had no heart of fear, because I thought saving life was most important. I asked Teacher to strengthen my righteous thoughts and save the sentient being, and I whispered to the man, "Recite 'Falun Dafa is Good' and 'Zhen-Shan-Ren is Good!'" The man's body was already cold, his limbs were stiff, and his eyelids were tightly shut. After I had whispered to him about twenty times, the man opened his eyes but still could not move them. I felt that he had heard and understood me. At that moment, the ambulance arrived and the man was lifted into the vehicle."Remember what I just said. Recite it ten, a hundred, or even a thousand times!" I shouted to him through the window.
I called the company person who was in the ambulance with the man to ask how he was doing, and to tell him to recite "Falun Dafa is Good "and "Zhen-Shan-Ren is Good" for him. The man regained consciousness in the ambulance. All the people there witnessed the power of Dafa. With such a good opportunity, I clarified the truth to other directors of the company and told them to remember "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Zhen-Shan-Ren is Good." I returned to Guangzhou a few days later. Michael told me on the phone that he wanted to learn more about "the script" (Falun Dafa is Good) the next time we met. From this incident, I deeply feel that "Mercy can melt heaven and earth into spring, righteous thought can save people of the world." ("Fa Rectifies the Cosmos" from Hong Yin II) Thank you, Teacher! Thank you, Dafa!
Clarify the Truth, Promote the Nine Commentaries, Encourage Withdrawal from the CCP
I read articles on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website every day to find out about Teacher's latest lectures and fellow practitioners' experiences. When I clarify the truth to people, I usually send forth righteous thoughts first and look for proper angles to talk about the truth and withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I feel that I have been wise in this respect, and I have had good results.
Due to the nature of my work, I have traveled to 27 of China's 31 provinces, Europe, South Korea, the Philippines, and other countries. I treated each trip as an opportunity given by Teacher to clarify the truth in cities, in rural areas, on buses, in taxis, on motorcycles, on planes, in hotels, at dinner tables, to relatives, in malls or stores, even at shoeshine booths. With Teacher's help, my truth clarification has been smooth and successful. My audience has included policemen who in the past have turned in practitioners, naive tour guides, stubborn drivers, people who have been brainwashed by the CCP, and those who have heard the truth and have withdrawn from the CCP.
With the enlightenment of Teacher's words in "Rationality," my clarifying the truth has been peaceful and risk-free, like talking about ordinary things. For example, the staff at a hotel in Hunan Province all wore badges of the Youth League (a CCP organization). While sending forth righteous thoughts and clarifying the truth to some of the staff, I told them that the CCP is not good, because it has done so many evil things. I also said that wearing a political symbol in a hotel is not professional, and that foreign guests would not like it. I went to that hotel again in July this year and noticed that no one wore the badge any longer. I was told that some staff members kept losing their badges so the hotel stopped requiring that it be worn. Another example was a driver in Changsha City, Hunan Province, who came to meet me at the airport every time. She was not very eager to talk with me about quitting the CCP in the beginning. However, after I talked with her for three or four times with patience, she and all her relatives withdrew from the CCP.
Another time I was at a site-seeing spot and saw two policemen headed in my direction. After I quickly put my Dafa materials, I noticed that they were transportation police. They were there to hear the truth. I told them about The Book of Changes, The Real Story of Jiang Zemin, the government-sponsored self-immolation, the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," and people quitting the CCP. Later we left together. The policemen had a hard time starting their car and asked for my help. I felt the urgency of saving people and that Teacher has arranged for every person with a predestined relationship to meet Dafa practitioners to be saved, and also for practitioners to straighten ordinary people's concepts and the environment around us. We as practitioners should not miss any chances to save sentient beings, because they are all relatives of Teacher and ourselves. They may even be gods or lords from different celestial bodies who have come to this world to obtain the Fa in spite of hardships. They may have made vows with Teacher--and maybe with fellow practitioners as well--that if anyone has obtained the Fa before others, please enlighten others.
Establishing Truth Clarification Materials Production Sites
I depended on fellow practitioners for truth-clarification materials until 2003. Later I was able to access the Internet myself and started making materials on my own. In early 2006, a veteran practitioner asked me to provide materials for one materials site, and I felt that the responsibility was greater than before and noticed many attachments. Setting up more small materials sites instead of one large site can reduce the burden of the big materials sites and make transporting materials safer and quicker. However, I feel that sometimes I am not doing enough. When my heart is not peaceful, I make careless mistakes in editing or printing. My own materials site needs to be expanded and upgraded.
Sharing with Fellow Practitioners, Building One Body, and Improving the Family Environment for Cultivation
In China, many relatives of practitioners have been threatened or hurt by the persecution. Some people practiced Dafa before but stopped because of family pressure. Sometimes when I tried to clarify the truth to my relatives, I was too attached to sentiments or talked at too high a level, neither of which brings positive results. However, when other practitioners came to my home and shared with my relatives on certain issues, the result was usually good.
Thus, other practitioners came to my home to help my wife better understand Dafa and me. I tried my best to clarify the truth to parents of two other practitioners. Eventually they all came back to the cultivation path and helped do Dafa work.
We understand that the practitioners in China are not alone. We have Teacher, the Fa, and fellow practitioners. As long as we do things in the righteous way "comparing in studying, comparing in cultivating" as a whole body, we should not and do not need to be persecuted financially, physically, or mentally. Practitioners' families will be in harmony and work will be smooth, so that we will have more time to assimilate into the Fa. In the meantime, we, the practitioners in the Fa Rectification period, can also have more time to do the three things well, to cultivate solidly, and to save more people using righteous thoughts.
Thank you, Teacher, for your guidance and protection. Fellow practitioners, please point out anything not in line with the Fa.
September 7, 2006
