(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings to Master and fellow practitioners!
I am a new practitioner who began to cultivate eight months ago. I am glad to have an opportunity to report to Master and share my cultivation experience with fellow practitioners.
Having my wisdom emerge and awakening from the rush for gold in China
I had a tentative brush with the Fa in 2005. At that time I was offered a good job by a Fortune 500 company that was responsible for acquisitions and direct investments. I had to move to Shanghai from Taipei. Just before I left for Shanghai, two of my friends made an appointment with me and shared with me their Falun Gong cultivation experiences.
I graduated from Taiwan University and earned a Master's degree from Stanford University in the US. Even though I was educated at a first-class university, I still find my knowledge to be narrow. At work, I was fortunate to gain recognition from my supervisor and rose step by step. Close friends admired me. But I was unhappy, and the more success that came my way in my pursuit of recognition, the less happy I felt. From my childhood, I somewhat believed that gods and Buddhas did exist and the people might reincarnate more than once. I was full of questions about life and often thought if I had a next life, could I endure the hardships of being a human being?
I had an elementary understanding of Falun Gong and learned from my two good friends that the CCP was persecuting Falun Gong in China. I rushed out to buy a copy of Zhuan Falun at a bookstore. Master tells us the deepest meaning using the plainest and simplest language, and I finished the first reading quickly. However, my desire to join the "gold rush" in China drove me to go to work there. I took the book with me to Shanghai and felt at ease, having Zhuan Falun beside me.
My new job required me to travel by air constantly, and I went back and forth between Mainland China and major cities in Asia. But the degenerated social environment in China caused me to have mental conflicts. People there do not open up to each other and have a difficult time trusting each other. The methods of profit-making there deviate from the principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and are even quite inferior. If you did business ethically, you were regarded as a fool.
The struggle for profit is most intense in business acquisitions, the work that I was doing. I had not expected that even in a Fortune 500 enterprise it would be commonplace for people to disregard work ethics. Because we were in Mainland China, we were expected to follow the "Chinese style" to do business. After working in Shanghai for a while, I realized clearly that China's so-called economic miracle came at the price of deception and fraud. It made foreign investors mad in pursuit of profits, and if one was unsuccessful, another one stepped into the breach. If we analyze it from the standpoint of common people, China's economic development is not merely a bubble, but a bomb that will detonate at any time and threaten all levels of society. Every time I looked out at the nighttime scene of Shanghai offshore, I had the feeling that everything could disappear, like an illusion, at any moment.
Seeing pictures of Falun made me step onto the cultivation path
This January I traveled to Tokyo. As I took pictures at a New Year's Eve party at a Buddhist temple, I noticed many inexplicable light dots on the screen of my digital camera. I looked at them closely and recognized that they are the pictures of Falun my friends had shown me before. How miraculous, and how could I have taken it? Then I took pictures randomly, to see whether I could still take pictures of Falun. I apparently couldn't see any Falun with my naked eye, but I found more and more Faluns in the pictures I took. Thousands of them filled the entire space. It was really a great shock--countless Faluns exhibiting themselves before me through the camera. It seemed I was being knocked heavily on the head with a stick, "Do you still not believe it? Let's have you see more Faluns and see whether you can enlighten to something." I kept on asking myself, "If all is true, does this mean that we have more important things to do than pursue fame and gain?" This made me read Zhuan Falun again one year later after I first read it.
"One should return to one's original, true self; this is the real purpose of being human." (Lecture One in Zhuan Falun)
I decided to cultivate in Dafa. I had no hesitation asking my boss to send me back to Taiwan. I had missed Dafa once and couldn't miss this historic, fortunate opportunity again, no matter how good working conditions and promotions might be. I knew now that they were too trivial.
I took part in a nine-day Falun Dafa class at once after I returned to Taiwan. After the second day of class, I felt tingling from my head to my hands and feet as if electric waves were going through me. A heat current went throughout my body. I knew that Master was adjusting my body, and I was happy about that. After the nine-day class, I went to an exercise site at a park to do the exercises and was surrounded by strong energy, feeling my body being purified. I felt very good. I had never had such supernatural experiences before. From the beginning, I couldn't even adjust myself to those changes in me. Master simply pulled me up and sent me forward. Dafa is so good. I introduced the Fa to my two younger brothers. They, too, soon stepped into Dafa cultivation.
After the first two months of cultivation, it seemed that I caught a severe cold, with a headache, coughing the whole day, and finding it difficult to sleep. I even felt too ill to get up for two or three days. But I knew that it was a test to see whether I could handle myself like a Dafa practitioner. I would get up at the correct times to send forth righteous thoughts. The amazing thing was that once I got up to send righteous thoughts, I no longer had a headache and didn't cough at all, as if I never fell ill. After sending righteous thoughts, the illness symptoms re-appeared. This made me realize that having illness symptoms doesn't necessarily mean that we are really ill. It is actually karma, which returns to the surface of our body. A genuine Dafa practitioner will be never ill. I didn't pay much attention to my symptoms, and after two weeks I recovered.
Cherishing the cultivation environment and studying the Fa well
Master has repeatedly stressed the importance of studying the Fa. As a new practitioner I must study the Fa more and well. At first, my mind easily wandered or I felt sleepy. But I insisted on studying the Fa, no matter how busy I was. I might study Zhuan Falun and Master's lectures in pairs. With my deeper understanding of the Fa, I let go more and more of my attachments and felt at peace after being purified. When I studied the Fa, I clearly felt that my body, from the most microcosmic particles to the surface particles, melted into the Fa, and particles in all dimensions changed quickly. Buddhas, Daos, and gods are behind every word of Master's books, and I am a particle ready to assimilate into "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." I had a true insight that Master told us that cultivation during the Fa-rectification period is not only to cultivate ourselves but also is to offer salvation to sentient beings.
Whether or not we can cultivate well concerns all lives in all dimensions associated with us. We are undertaking such heavy, universal responsibilities, living during the Fa-rectification period, and have had such honor bestowed upon us, which cannot be compared with any other cultivation ways throughout history. Whenever my desire for a life of ease arises, or I behave less diligently, I remind myself repeatedly that I can't let Master's hopes and those of lives in the universe down.
In addition, I especially cherish the cultivation environment in Taiwan. Had I remained in Mainland China longer, I would not have known how happy we are to have a relaxed cultivation environment compared with that in China. We study the "Fa" and share our experiences weekly, and I can find the gaps between me and other practitioners. This helps me greatly. The happiest time for me during the day is the morning time in the park, when we practice Falun Gong exercises and introduce the Fa to others there.
Improving my xinxing and explaining the facts at work
I have lots of opportunities to improve my xinxing in my work. Due to the nature of my work, I encounter many conflicts involving personal gain. In the process of negotiations I need to work with lawyers and accountants. Especially at the beginning of my cultivation, many work-related conflicts occurred suddenly, and they could touch something at the bottom of my heart. I even wondered whether I should give up acquisition-related work. After careful consideration, I realized that all conflicts arise for a reason. I couldn't escape them and must deal with them with righteous thoughts. Is this not a good thing and a good opportunity to improve myself?
I previously often had selfish motives at work and always thought of what benefits I could get. But now I know that I should base my judgments on the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance," try not to be influenced by personal gain, and keep things in the proper perspective. Because I was taught from my childhood that I should to get ahead in society, I frequently compared myself with others and wanted to prove that I was better than they were. This attachment is exposed frequently and becomes a hindrance in Fa-rectification. Although I made light of recognition and gain, I still had the deeply hidden attachment to validate myself. Since I have realized that it is a hindrance to cultivation, I will restrain and clear it away from my mind.
I never forget to clarify the facts and introduce the Fa to people I meet at work. Some colleagues even learned the five exercises from me. I knew that they were predestined people and had a good impression of Dafa. In truth clarification, I have also met some Taiwanese businessmen and young people who are, just like I used to be, full of expectations for China. They have some illusions about the Communist regime and want to go to Mainland China "to develop themselves." Many Taiwanese people working in China are unconsciously contaminated by Communist Party culture.
In my short period of cultivation I had many things to share. I feel it is difficult to express myself with human language. I am so fortunate to have become a Dafa practitioner during the last period of Fa-rectification, and my life is full of hope with Master's compassionate care and salvation. I appreciate that beyond words. I can only cultivate diligently, do well the three things, follow up with the process of Fa-rectification, and be a genuine Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification period.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners.
