(Clearwisdom.net) Flying back from Los Angeles after the Experience Sharing Conference, watching the sea of clouds and the red sun outside my window, my heart was filled with joy. Listening to fellow practitioners' sincere sharing, I let go of my attachments and found where I fell short.
Experience sharing has provided an environment for practitioners to measure each and every thing against the Fa. After coming to Canada from China, I cherished every Falun Dafa experience sharing conference, not only for the opportunity to listen to Teacher's Fa lecture, but also for the chance to experience the kind of joy when calmly listening to fellow practitioners' sharing, without any distracting thoughts and being able to dig out my own shortcomings. We are all very busy with a lot of things in our daily life and have less opportunity to listen to practitioners' sharing with a calm mind. Listening to the sharing, I didn't want to miss a word. I felt that my energy field was empty because I cleared away all the human notions and concepts, so I felt as if I was connected to the experiences being shared. I was able to feel their feelings and waves of psychological conflict when they were passing their test. Many times I was brimming with tears and felt happy for the fellow practitioners who eventually passed their tests.
Hearing the righteous thoughts and righteous action of a practitioner who just came from China, I had only one word to describe it: "Good." Hers were the deeds of a dauntless practitioner. I also came from China not long ago and comparatively speaking, I was lagging far behind this practitioner. I could feel the pressure they felt delivering leaflets from household to household. It was not as easy as talking about our understanding on the Fa principles; it came from their righteous thoughts, which were based on their firm belief in Teacher and the Fa. When you are able to reach a righteous state, the power of the Fa will show you. When I was in China, my belief in Teacher and the Fa was far from enough and the image of a dauntless practitioner was lacking. On hearing that fellow practitioners had protection and support from Teacher when validating the Fa, I had no words to describe my feeling.
Hearing that practitioners outside China were able to put the Fa above anything else in dealing with the tribulations both at work and at home, I once again found the room for improvement. Hearing new practitioners talk about their experiences in dealing with tribulations, in their combination of personal cultivation and Fa validation, it seemed that I became a new practitioner. I haven't had this kind of feeling for a long time. I have been cultivating for ten years and my zealotry, sentimentality and instability began to fade from my memories. I always considered myself as a veteran practitioner, and did not want to listen to the feelings of new practitioners and looked at fellow practitioners with a nit-picky eye. This experience sharing conference really helped me to let go of these attachments.
When fellow practitioners talk about their experiences, it inspires new practitioners and is a process of cleansing for veteran practitioners. I said to myself, no matter how many years I have cultivated, since Dafa is boundless, we continue to enlighten to new concepts. The process of being in cultivation is actually the history of our own cultivation. However, no one can walk through this process by him or herself. We are as small as a drop of water in the sea and integrated with other water droplets. We are able to have our ripples going with the waves. However, without the other water droplets, there would be no sea, and I would dry up instantly. The sea made up of practitioners is cleansed in the Fa. They rely on each other and play their individual roles to form the power of one body. Only then are they able to save sentient beings and eliminate the evil with the momentum of a stormy sea. This will enable us to spread our power.
I was shocked on hearing about a Western practitioner's understanding of the Fa and cultivation as one body. He said every practitioner is like a meridian and only when every meridian widens at the same time would it be possible to reach the opening of all meridians. I had enlighten to this Fa principle a few years ago when I was reciting the Fa, however, it faded out of my memory very quickly. His words really shocked me. I asked myself if I was getting purer or going backward. How long we have cultivated is not what is important. What's important is that our hearts must be purified in the Fa. It took me several years to reach this state. However, some new practitioners reached the state in a few months. Therefore, in cultivation, a veteran practitioner is not decided by how long he/she has cultivated but decided by how well he/she lets go of their attachments.
I know the path of cultivation that I have traveled is most precious. However, this path targeted for me a process, one that would allow me to let go of my attachments. Everyone's path is different and everyone's attachments are different. Therefore, during our cultivation, there is no path that we can copy but only a heart that needs to be gradually purified. If we find our heart is getting heavier, that means the process of our cultivation is going backwards. Then, is there any point in saying how long I have cultivated? During this experience sharing conference, I found that after that many years of cultivation, I enlightened to a lot of Fa principles but lost "Truthfulness." I could not treat other people sincerely and I felt as if I were higher than others. At this point I was going backwards. After finding this attachment, every cell in me was overjoyed, so that they all shed tears.
Before the parade in Los Angeles I had a dream. I was a member of the Celestial Band. In my dream the conductor said that my rhythm was not right before the start of the parade. I said what I did was right but she kept saying that I was not right. Among the members of the Toronto Celestial Band, I am one of the better musicians. After I woke up, I thought maybe Teacher gave me hint, warning me to be careful, since the band's performance for the parade was of a very high level. However, at the rehearsal before the parade, I started to find that the band, which was made up of practitioners from different areas, was not in unison. I began to get a bit frustrated and sighed. Just at that time, I clearly remembered the dream I had the day before and realized that the rhythm of my heart was not right and I had failed to harmonize with others. I had instead focused only on my own resentment. I began to be alarmed. What was I doing? No matter how other practitioners played, we were of one body. I began to send forth the righteous thoughts to clean my thoughts. When the rhythm of my heart was right, I experienced the same power of the band, just like what I had experienced in Toronto. It was like a mighty army sweeping away the evil demons and ghosts. After the parade, the coordinator said I was doing very well. I felt proud of myself, thinking how nice it was that even she noticed that I was playing very well. However, after she passed me she told everyone that he/she did well, especially the one who clearly failed to keep up with the rhythm during the parade. I saw her ask the practitioner to step aside and she talked to him. From this minor act, I found my room for improvement. I was too narrow-hearted and must let go of it.
During the Los Angeles Experience Sharing Conference I found a lot of attachments. I could find where I fell short from fellow practitioners' deeds, even a very minor one. Every Fa experience sharing conference is a pure grand gathering and my heart must be cleansed during the conference. This means that I am on the path arranged by Teacher. On my way to the conference I would cry out silently: "Teacher, I am coming!" and on my way back I would say "Teacher, I know where I fell short, therefore; I have upgraded. Thank you Teacher."
I know my heart must become ever increasingly transparent and purer in the Fa, but not become more worldly-wise. I feel really grateful to the practitioners who made it possible for us to go to Los Angeles to attend this experience sharing conference. I seemingly saw meridians after meridians widening on their respective paths of cultivation. Looking at the splendid views outside the plane window, I thought of our Teacher. Fellow practitioners, let's be diligent together!
This is my personal experience, for anything I did not do well, please feel free to comment and correct.
