Arrangements (Photos)

My sharing today is titled "Arrangements." I would like to share my letting go of shortcomings through Master's arrangements and my cultivation journey during a return trip from Greece to Australia. There is a root cause in everything we do and it is so difficult sometimes to discern that root cause, whether it is covered by an attachment or shortcoming or if it's coming from a righteous place. Most of my life I have been traveling either with work or experiencing the world. I wanted to see and experience as much of the world as possible. Traveling was one of my shortcomings I thought I had eliminated through cultivating. I was using the excuse of traveling and combining Hongfa (introducing Falun Dafa). Yes my heart was in the right place wanting to save sentient beings, but the shortcoming was still hidden and was not totally eliminated. Of course it was at another level, but still the negative root needed to be weeded out.

Another of my understandings through this journey of cultivation is that whatever decisions we make, whether they be right or wrong, there is always a more righteous one. Even though the decision may not be the most righteous, Master will still make arrangements for us to save sentient beings and cultivate ourselves through it all. At the end of the day it's all good as long as we are upgrading.

From a previous experience sharing conference in Israel, I had stacks of flyers in Arabic. We don't have many, if any Arabic practitioners and felt an urgency that they needed to be saved as well.

My first stop after leaving Greece was Morocco and I had planned 15 days of pretty much being on the road. I boarded the train at the airport and my journey started. Before I reached Casablanca I needed to change trains and I got off at the wrong stop. There was another train about an hour away, and as I was starting to feel frustrated that I made a mistake, I remembered previous experiences and that everything happens for a reason. I needed to just have faith. I bought tea from the canteen and passed on a flyer. They did not speak English and I had no knowledge of Arabic or French which are the two main languages spoken there. It was a bit like the Chinese practitioners that speak no English but still hand out flyers. As I was waiting, a Korean man arrived and looked at the badge on my bag which read "SOS Urgent call to rescue Falun Gong practitioners in China." I saw him reading it. That was my opportunity, so I said hello, introduced myself and started talking. He was a dentist working and living in Morocco for many years. I asked him if he knew of Falun Gong and said he knew a little but not a lot and did not understand why it was being persecuted. I clarified the truth and also gave him a Korean flyer as I always carried flyers in many languages due to working with many foreigners and due to travel.

Back on the train I realized how it was all arranged and that whatever my choices, there will always be constant arrangements. Before I reached Casablanca, two black French speaking students sat next to me. I gave them two French flyers and they smiled and thanked me. The journey had just begun. Many people I came across received a flyer whether it was on the street, in a shop, in a train or bus station, on a transportation vehicle, or in a hotel. How wonderful. I was clarifying the truth and simultaneously cultivating, having faith and knowing that I will be guided, letting go of fear of the unknown, taking things lightly, experiencing hardship and tribulations in many ways and forms, whether it was lack of comfort, the dirty environment or the poverty surrounding me. I was cheated by many people on my journey but with tolerance and always remembering "Zhen-Shan-Ren" I just tried to take it all lightly. I still gave them a flyer and the opportunity to be saved. Many children would run up to me and take flyers, and pass them on to their families.

After I clarified the truth to a guide I met on one of the trips to the desert, he requested a flyer in every language I had available to pass on to tourists he came across. The Arabic flyers at this point were running low and I was concerned that I didn't have enough for the rest of the journey, so I divided the flyers up so that a certain amount would be available for each city or village I visited. It was miraculous. One flyer would reach many. For example I would give a flyer to a shopkeeper and by the time I had bought a bus ticket for my next destination, I looked back and saw that the people from the other stores were reading it as well. One flyer would reach three to six or even more people. The arrangement was amazing. I felt tears well up in my eyes. This happened many times throughout my journey. Teachers' compassion is immense. The truth clarification from one flyer was miraculously multiplied by many times. The limited number of flyers was reaching a vast number of people.

While I was staying in a hotel by the desert, I met a well-known English journalist who had been sent there accidentally, and was supposed to be staying somewhere else. Through her I also met a camera man from the BBC and his wife, and was able to clarify the truth to them as well. A local guide wanted me to show him the first exercise and give him information. The next day I was going to camel trek through the desert and sleep in a Bedouin camp overnight, then have lunch in a village basically in the middle of nowhere. As I tried to get on the camel I was thrown into the air and before I knew it I was on the ground hearing my body go crack, crack, crack. My first thought was its all good and I'm fine. Just get up. The pain was intense and I couldn't walk or stretch my legs as it seemed like a muscle had been pulled in my inner thigh area. I said I was OK and got on the camel and started the trek. I kept on thinking... why did this happen? Was it just dissolving karma or was there more to it? I also remembered that when we do good, save sentient beings and cultivate well we will go through some suffering. It's just part of the process but I was sure there was more to it. Was it to let go of my attachments to being a tourist and an adventurer? But I'm still doing Hongfa when the thoughts were trying to creep in. Deep down I knew the truth of the matter. It was a process.

The last few trips to the Middle East were with a non-practitioner friend of many years, and who is very supportive of Dafa, perhaps a future practitioner, so it was easy to still hand out flyers, clarify the truth, and just follow the course of nature based on her travel adventures and wants. But this time I was on my own, and it was different. I couldn't hide behind any excuses. After the long painful trek to the camp I noticed other tourists coming to the same tent for a group dinner. There was an English couple, two American girls and their Moroccan taxi driver. After dinner we started talking and I clarified the truth to them. They knew nothing about Dafa. The Moroccan taxi driver took a flyer and showed a lot of interest. The next morning, the English couple asked me to show them the first exercise, as they said they had seen me showing the exercise to the guide back at the hotel and wanted to get the feel of it. Once that was done and I explained more to them we exchanged emails and I was off again on the next trek to a village. In the village, the Bedouin families of course spoke no Arabic, just their dialect. I had no flyer but still gave one to the father and he looked at it for a while, and the guide said a few words to him. He looked at me and said very good in his dialect with his thumb up. Deep down he knew. On the way back I was pondering about how all these people in third world countries with no television, electricity or hot water, living in houses made of mud and rock, with no form of media or newspapers were going to find out about the Fa? Then I recalled Master saying something along the lines of, as I understood it, that all the good people will be saved for the future so they will attain the Fa. On my bus trip to Marakesh the bus inspector sat in the back next to me and I gave him a flyer, and with great difficulty communicating, including using hand signs, I found out that he and the other inspector were the owners of the bus. They invited me to stay at their house for the night, and I accepted. Upon finally arriving at their apartment there were another three or four people living there too. They offered me hashish to smoke with them, and wine to drink, as it is a common thing to smoke and drink in Morocco. I thanked them and declined. I gave flyers to everyone and explained as much as I could about the Fa and the persecution. Joseph, one of the owners of the bus said to me "In our culture we have to be hospitable when we come across a stranger as they may be a messenger from God in disguise." That night once again I realized the huge importance of every Dafa disciple's mission, and that everyone is waiting on us.

In Marakesh I bumped into the American girls with the taxi driver from the desert. He said to me that he had visited the Falun Dafa website already and had showed his wife. We organized to go to Essouira on the Atlantic coast together for the day before they left for the States, and I left for my next destination, India. In Essouira the girls went out and the taxi driver stayed back and said he would have an early night but asked me if I would teach him the exercises. When the time came to do so, he was falling asleep and I did not want to push it, so I asked him respectfully if he was still in the mood. Of course he said, "If you don't teach me now, when will I ever get the chance again?" I felt tears well up again.

Using the Internet cafes was another great way of introducing Dafa and clarifying the truth, as they would always be full of locals using them. As soon as I would finish looking at my e-mails before leaving I would give a flyer to each person using a computer. In that way it gave them the opportunity to visit the website then and there.

On my way to India I thought things should be a lot easier, but little did I know that Morocco was just a stepping stone in preparing me for the next bombardment of tribulations and tests. The first couple of nights I stayed with a practitioner in Delhi before I embarked on my journey through Northern India. Those first days were so tough for me, as I had never experienced or seen such poverty, chaos, filth and people who were literally starving and sleeping on the streets. I did not want to be there. My human side just wanted to leave and get back to civilized Australia. The thought of another 20 days in India was overwhelming. It was all too much. Giving out flyers to people was not that easy in Delhi or Agra. The response was not the same as Morocco or other places I had visited on previous trips. In Sri Lanka a couple of years prior, thousands of flyers would disappear within a half an hour, and people would run from across the street to grab a flyer. Here it was different. Was it the karma of this country? Was it me? What was I doing wrong? Weren't my thoughts righteous enough? Even though of course people would take flyers and I was able to clarify the truth to some Muslim university students, it wasn't enough. When I mentioned this to the practitioner I was staying with he said to me "But you have come as a tourist for a holiday, you are not here for Hongfa!" This moved me. I reacted slightly and tolerated it, but I did not agree with him and really had to look within. I realized that there was a reason I was hearing this. I looked within and realized that I had to completely let go of the show off mentality, the notions of validating self instead of the Fa by having thoughts like "See, this is what I've done for Dafa, I've given out so many flyers here and so many flyers there or I did this and that, along with the desires and human notions of traveling and seeing the world. My heart was always in a good place but it was hard to see the hidden rubbish buried further within. At that moment I said to myself solidly once again, accept this environment, accept this situation and the suffering around me, and ask myself why am I really here.

And so my journey began. I took lots of posters and flyers and made my way to Rajasthan. Everything magically changed. The response was very different this time around. On the train I sat and talked to a man, and by the end of our conversation he said to me that I was very convincing and that he would definitely be finding out more about the practice. In every city I visited I asked shop keepers to put up posters. I walked the streets handing out flyers and putting up posters. One poster would go up and immediately many would gather around to read it. Many asked me if someone would come and teach them. One little boy said, "This is really good and it's free, my parents follow a Guru but I will show this to them and maybe we can all start to practice."

At the tourist locations I visited, whether they were palaces or museums, everyone who worked there, including security, waiters, policemen, and reception staff received a flyer. It was wonderful. I felt like the root deep down had changed. My purpose of traveling felt even purer. At one tourist location I met two women who worked at Victoria University. One was a teacher and the other worked in administration. I really wanted to clarify the truth but just wasn't sure how. They left and I was disappointed with myself. I met them again at another tourist location in another city and again I had a block and could not find myself to tell them. I thought I had missed out on the opportunity and I became very concerned. In another city I bumped into them again in a palace museum. I knew that Master was giving me this opportunity. Will I break through this or not? So I told them that I practice Falun Dafa. They both knew about it but one responded by saying, "But I don't understand why it is being persecuted, there must be something wrong." That was why I had to clarify the truth. There was interference there and it had to be cleared up. After that I never saw them again.

At a train station I met an English man and again I didn't know how to bring Falun Dafa into the conversation. Even though our meeting was brief, I thought that since I have faith, hopefully if I am meant to see him, I shall again. In another city I bumped into him once again with his daughters, and he invited me into a shop for a sweet. His wife arrived a few minutes later and I was able to tell them about Dafa and the persecution. He said he had been to India seven times seeking a spiritual practice, and said that this could be it. She previously practiced yoga and said she liked what Dafa was about, so I gave them flyers and off I went. Tears welled up once again.

The last six days of my journey I had organized with a local practitioner to travel north to Kulu and Manali up in the Himalayan plains to Hongfa together. It was great that I would be traveling with someone who spoke Hindi. When we arrived in Manali, after giving out flyers to some shops we decided to go to see the local school. We walked in and spoke to the principle about Dafa, and the next thing we knew she was gathering all 600 students so that we could show them the exercises and introduce the practice. It was incredible. She gave us the school's address and asked if we would send the school a copy of Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun.

After that experience we decided to hire a driver and travel south, on the way stopping at every school we came across. One Buddhist monastery we visited had information on the persecution of the Tibetans on the outside wall. The monk we saw could not speak English but knew about Master Li and the persecution of Falun Gong. He allowed us to post truth clarification materials on the wall as well and told many other monks about it who came to have a look. Most of the schools we visited let us teach the exercises and introduce the Fa.

At one point we stopped for tea after a long drive, and the first person we met there was the principle of a school. He told us who to go and see. Basically one thing led to the next. It was magical.

At the next school the high school was going on a field trip day so the principal sent us next door to the primary school. After we finished showing the exercises the principal said that what we were doing was wonderful and she hoped we would return another time to teach the older students as well. A teacher who liked what we did asked if we wanted to speak to some other teachers. Sure, we said. She took us to a school where 40 teachers, each representing a different school, gather once a month. We walked in, introduced ourselves, and introduced Dafa as a higher science. I spoke in English and told them my experiences, and the other practitioner explained the water molecule experiment. I then showed them the exercises and they all took a poster to put up in their schools. They also were very happy that we offered to send to them books for each school.

Showing exercises to teachers

During my last two days before leaving India, I was supposed to go on an elephant trek in the jungle reserve. It was very testing, as it was that final root. My human side did not want to let go, and I really wanted to do it. I asked myself, "Should I spend this amount of money for this expensive experience or should I use the money for books to be sent to all the schools we just visited? The answer was clear. I spent the last two days in a cheap hotel room. I studied, did my exercises and gave the money to the local practitioners. I did what I was meant to do. No loss no gain. I sacrificed my attachment for a greater good. I thanked Master sincerely.

Another interesting experience I had was seeing that many practitioners did their exercises incorrectly. I thought this only happened in Australia and some other countries where a lot of the veteran practitioners, especially Chinese, performed the exercises incorrectly. In India, whoever I corrected would thank me sincerely, and practitioners asked me if they were doing their exercises correctly and to point out anything not correct. Also on a superficial/surface level it was interesting to see the difference between the areas where Hindi and Muslims lived and the areas where Buddhists lived. The contrast was huge. The Hindi and Muslim areas were chaotic, dirty, and polluted. The Buddhist areas on the other hand were peaceful, very green, very clean and all the monks smiled peacefully.

I was now returning to Australia. What an amazing experience. As soon as I arrived I felt that now I was finally on holiday. What a different environment. And yet as I sighed in the back of my mind, I just knew that this was another chapter and another level of cultivation. One of battling comfort, complacency, and laziness.

Thank you Master and thank you all.