(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings to our benevolent great Master!
Greetings to all fellow practitioners around the world!
Last night I was browsing the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) and was pleased to see Master's new lecture "Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference." When I read this sentence "Of course, you are not truly their disciples. You are disciples of Dafa, and were merely waiting for this day," I was startled. I could not hold back my tears. This sentence made me think of the lifetimes of hard searching for the meaning of life, and how those layers of mindsets and karma from previous history created a huge obstacle for me to obtain the Fa, and also about my current cultivation; how, again and again, I went astray, and again and again I was vacillated between hope and despair. It made me understand more clearly what hardship Master has suffered for my salvation.
Master once said, "when I hear or see students sharing their experiences, that is when I feel most gratified. "(Teaching the Fa at the Conference in the Midwest-U.S." June 26, 1999, Chicago)
As a Dafa disciple, I don't know what I can present to our Master. I want to use this Internet Fa conference opportunity to submit my last year's experience sharing article as a modest gift to our Master.
1. Remove fundamental attachments and genuinely believe in Master and Dafa
From the time I first obtained the Fa, I listened to Master's words and paid special attention to Fa study and improvement from the Fa standpoint. Because of that I always felt that I had no problem in either Fa study or believing in Master and the Fa. However, over the past year, my cultivation slowed down. There was an invisible barrier holding me back, and I could not break through it no matter how hard I tried. It manifested as a lack of clear understanding on Fa principles. I could not find my answers from Fa study. I was not firm enough in the righteous thoughts I got from the Fa, and I was pretty easily driven by the human mindset. I had a deep-rooted and complicated attachment of pursuit, which was difficult to get rid of. Since I could not overcome this bad cultivation condition, I became unstable. I began to stay away from other practitioners. Fortunately, "looking inward" had become an automatic mechanism in my cultivation, so, even in such an extremely difficult situation, I kept studying the Fa diligently. I tried my best to compare my actions with Fa requirements and tried to find my problem. I would ask Master to help me when things were the most difficult condition. Thus, although I stumbled in my cultivation, I kept walking on the path of cultivation and tried my best to do the three things well.
Once when I was eating, I told my family member, who is also a practitioner, about the problems I was encountering in my cultivation. He told me, "You should not always try to reach a conclusion. It is not for you to do research. Master once said that the only thing you need to do is to follow what He said. If Master has not explained something, you will not be able to find out why, no matter how hard you try with the human mindset."
He said this very calmly, but his word truly shocked me. I suddenly realized I had a big problem in my cultivation: I did not genuinely and wholeheartedly believe in Master and Dafa.
When I first realized this, I was so stunned that I did not know what to do. If someone had said that to me before, I would not have even considered it, no matter what. I asked myself, "What about all those things I did before, such as going to Beijing to validate Dafa at the risk of my own life and validating Dafa for so many years without caring about my personal interests and regardless of personal safety? Were these acts not due to genuine belief in our Master and Dafa?" Calming down, I seriously reflected on my cultivation and gradually had a clearer understanding.
I noticed that I listened to Master's words and spent a lot of time studying the Fa, and I really wanted to do well in my cultivation. But, in fact, I did not absolutely follow Dafa's principles in my life. Whenever I studied the Fa, a certain way of thinking began to automatically take over, which was "examining, reasoning, inducting, and summarizing." This kind of examination, combined both inborn and acquired information, then considered the "actual situation" and then finally reached a so-called "conclusion." I mistakenly thought that such a "conclusion" was Dafa itself and valued it as guidance for my cultivation. I would accept those parts of Dafa that I could understand, agree with, or believe in. If I could not understand, agree with, or believe it, I would keep my doubts or try to set them aside. Those parts that I could not understand, believe in, or agree with puzzled me, and this was a condition that I should really change.
Then, where did this automatic "research" thinking method come from? My understanding was that, on the surface, it came from science. Science uses complicated and wordy formality and calculation and intentionally creates an enigmatic illusion. The deeper you involve yourself in it, the harder it will be for you to totally understand it. It will give you a feeling of a kind of "awe." I, who was born to be simple-minded, therefore worshiped those who had strong logical thinking and were good at reasoning. Intentionally or unintentionally, I tried to develop my so-called "research" ability. This method of thinking gradually started to hold me back. When I was studying the Fa, it began to kick in automatically, which made me unintentionally "research" Dafa instead of "genuinely study" Dafa, or "genuinely believe" in Dafa. Therefore, I could not completely assimilate to Dafa.
Thinking further in depth, this kind of thinking came from the arrangement of the old forces. It was a demonstration of the selfish characteristics of the old universe. What is the purpose of all the arrangements for Dafa disciples by the old universe? In "Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference," Master said,
"The goal they want to reach is that they want to restore the cosmos in Fa-rectification back to the way it was before Fa-rectification, back to that system of theirs--still their mountains, still their water, still their Gods, and still the states they were in before. They did things in that way, so they don't want to make changes. The change they want is to have the surface appearance be better, just like washing a soiled piece of clothing clean. It's still the same piece of old clothing. Well, that's the meaning, but the analogy isn't totally accurate. That's the only way to describe it. They just want to, on the basis of not losing anything they originally had, through their careful arrangements, be able to cleverly dodge this catastrophe. But that will never happen. That's what they wanted. I have denied them from the very beginning; otherwise, even though they didn't mean to destroy all of this they would have."
The old forces wanted to reach such a goal, so the arrangements they made for Dafa disciples are also focused on this purpose. They wanted Dafa disciples to follow their arrangement to cultivate and they hoped that Dafa disciples would become what they wanted, that is "still their mountains, still their water, still their Gods, and still the states they were in before. " ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference") They could not establish their relationship with Dafa, but during the Fa rectification period they still participated and joined in. All of what they have been doing is using Dafa to protect themselves and escape disaster. They do not truly understand Dafa's principles. Neither do they want to genuinely change themselves fundamentally and assimilate to Dafa.
Therefore, if Dafa disciples cannot clearly understand such arrangements, the prominent manifestation is that the goal of studying the Fa is not to change oneself or assimilate to Dafa. Instead, "Their purpose for learning Dafa is to use it to protect things deep down inside that they cannot let go of, things in religion, or God." ("Dafa Cannot be Used," Essentials for Further Advancement) I repeatedly read this sentence and vaguely began to understand the fundamental reason why I could not improve myself even though I tried so hard in Fa study and looked inward. Because I did not break through the arrangement of the old forces and did not totally change from the selfish characteristics of the old universe, I had not truly let go of all attachments, did not genuinely let go of the past. When I was reading the Fa, I was swayed by that thinking, and it seemed that I was wearing a pair of sunglasses. I did not truly see through to the Fa's inner meanings. No matter how hard I practiced, if I followed that way of thinking to cultivate myself, the "conclusion" I got would always be separated by a layer from Dafa's genuine requirements. On the one hand I was trying to learn Dafa; on the other hand I was trying to protect my most fundamental concepts and would not want my fundamental interests to get hurt. I would not give up my fundamental attachment, and that was not genuinely practicing cultivation.
After I found the root cause of my problem, my mind became clear and I began to understand many of the attachments rooted deep in my heart that had puzzled me before. I understood what is called, "studying the Fa with a pure heart." I stopped trying to ponder or research. I also stopped "trying to combine my personal situation" and trying to figure out a more "suitable conclusion for my condition." Instead, I completely believed in Master and the Fa. Just like what Master requires, "If you don't think about anything as you read the Fa, what the Fa tells you will be correct." ("Teaching the Fa at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun") During my cultivation, whenever I encounter something, I now think about what Master has required and then I follow that requirement. For the first time, I feel that cultivation practice is so simple, and for the first time I have learned that I can live life in such a simple way--so simple, so clean, and so easy. Those doubts and concerns that plagued me in the past and those preoccupations are now forever gone. I also came to understand for the first time why "when a person reaches the Arhat level, in his heart he is not concerned about anything. He does not care at all in his heart for any ordinary human matter, and he will always be smiling and in good spirits." (Zhuan Falun) For the first time, I have a comfortable and cheerful state of mind. Therefore I only have Fa in my mind and I am a genuine Dafa disciple.
I know that this important understanding in my cultivation practice was a result of Master's protection and strengthening. It was Master who, after seeing his disciple had a genuine heart for practicing cultivation, helped his disciple get rid of those layers of obstacles and cleaned out the real factor of interference from that layer that was trying to prevent the disciple from obtaining the Fa. That might be the reason why I suddenly could not hold back my tears when I read about what Master said, "you are not truly their disciples. You are disciples of Dafa" ("Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference") I seemed to return to the time when I first obtained the Fa. I recalled the joy of reunion of "I found my Teacher. Teacher has accepted me as his disciple." It was really the happiest moment in my life.
2. Making an all-out effort to save sentient beings
Over the past year, I have been using cell phones to send group text messages and making voice phone calls to save sentient beings. At first, I mainly focused on sending group text messages. I used short text messages designed by fellow practitioners published on the Minghui website. Then I began to design my own text messages. At first I used a very old style cell phone that required sending text messages one by one. Each text message was limited to 60 words. Later I bought a new cell phone that allowed me to write text messages of 100 words. Moreover, I could use group text message software. It took one second to send a message and the quantity of messages I could send was large. The contents of the text messages ranged from the truth about the self-immolation incident to the truth about Dafa, as well as the truth about the persecution to the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the Shen Yun Show, persuading people to quit the Communist Party, etc. I sent a variety of messages. It was painstaking to prepare those text messages. Because of the limits on the characters, I had to figure out how to clarify the truth without being able to use some keywords. After preparing the text messages, I had to repeatedly make edits. I often had to spend over half an hour to finish one text message.
Because I had to work, I used brief periods of time in the morning, at lunchtime, or before dinner to send short text messages. In the morning I tried to leave home early, and, on my way to work, I would stop somewhere for a short while and send from several dozen to one hundred short text messages. For a while, I did go home to have lunch. After work, I would buy two steamed dumplings or a pancake and then find a quiet street. First I turned on my cell phone and began sending group text messages. I then quickly finished eating the steamed dumplings. After that, it was time to send forth righteous thoughts. After work at night, sometimes I would not go straight home. I would buy two steamed dumplings and eat quickly. I rode a bicycle and could send text messages for three to four hours. Sometimes I could see the text messages were continuing to be sent, one after the other, so I could not turn it off and had to wait. The latest I got home was after 11 p.m. It was very dark and quiet, but I was not afraid at all.
Every weekend, I had more spare time for Dafa. I remember one Saturday morning I left home early and spent the whole day outside. I sent a total of 2000 short text messages. That was the day I sent the most text messages. I felt satisfied about what I did that day.
During the process of sending text messages, I received a lot of replies. Some of them had curse words. To those, I kindly replied, "I genuinely wish the best for you." Most of the replies were raising questions, and I patiently answered each one. Some replies agreed to withdrew from the CCP. I then replied and helped them to withdraw with a nickname. At last the other person would reply "Thank you!" I remember one of the replies was, "The CCP gives me money." I replied, "No matter where you work, you will earn money because that is what you should get for what you have done. If you go to the US to work, you will earn more money. If you try to stay at home and do nothing, will it (CCP) give you money?" After a short while, he replied, "I am a city mayor." I replied, "Even though you are a mayor, you still want to have a beautiful future. Now that you have learned the truth, try to be more reasonable. Truly think about your own life!" He did not reply. I then sent him another message, "After you think it over, you can reply with the word 'Good,' which means that you agree to withdraw from the CCP. Divine beings look at people's hearts. Do not miss this golden opportunity!" I thought to myself he might have more concerns in his position. Although he did not reply anymore, I had already told him the facts and also how to save himself. His inner heart has already been touched. Maybe in the future, he will made a wise choice.
At first, I encountered severe blockages on my cell phone cards. I frequently sent forth righteous thoughts. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts while I was sending text messages. I remember one night, my phone card was blocked. I had a firm mind, "Nobody should interfere with my saving sentient beings. Any evil beings or factors that are interfering with my sending truth-clarification text messages must be immediately eliminated. Eliminate all evils that were blocking my phone card." I held the phone card in my hand and silently recited the Fa-rectification verses. I felt that my phone card changed into a huge lotus flower that shone in all directions. After that, I inserted the phone card into the cell phone and turned on the group text messaging software. My cell phone began to work again. Similar things happened many times, which made me truly feel the power of righteous thoughts.
Later, on the Internet, some fellow practitioners recommended a larger storage package for colorful text messages and voice phone messages. I bought a new cell phone that has a feature of speaking standard Chinese and began to send colorful text messages and voice messages. On the Minghui website, fellow practitioners published very beautiful, colorful pictures and voice documents that are very useful for truth clarification. A well-designed, colorful text message is really like a truth-clarification brochure. The benefit of a colorful text message is that it can be sent directly to a person's hand and it can be saved. After one person reads it, it can be forwarded to friends and relatives. The benefit of voice phone messages is huge information storage. If a person can finish listening to the entire message, it truly can save that person. After listening to the message the first time, some people would even listen to it a second time. Seeing this, I used software to connect many voice messages together. Thus, each voice message can last as long as over 20 minutes (this one has already been published on the Minghui website.) When I was making truth-clarification phone calls, I arranged to contact different regions and different groups of people and then selected different voice text messages. The result was pretty good. For instance, for places like the Chongqing, Beijing, and Tianjin areas, I mainly focused on using voice messages starting with "the lawsuit against Jiang" When people heard names like "Bo Xilai" or "Jiang Zemin," they immediately showed interest. To the disaster areas, I mainly focused on voice messages starting with "Saying nine good words to save one's life." Because I had a target audience in mind, the results were very good. Many people listende for over ten minutes and even finished listening to the whole thing. There were quite a few people listened for 30 - 40 minutes. Some even listened for one to two hours.
When I first encountered a person who listened for two hours, I had a a very bad thought in my mind: Is his intent to waste my phone card time? Is he trying to search for my calling location, etc.? Later, I rejected these bad thoughts. I asked myself, "Why did I think about things from a negative perspective? Why didn't I think that he is really listening and wanting to learn more about the truth? Or, after he finished listening, his relatives or friends came over and also wanted to listen? Or maybe the person who answered the phone might be a fellow practitioner who also wanted to use this opportunity to let people around him/her to learn about the truth? Thinking about this, I felt much better. Later, I called a phone number in Chongqing. At that time he was busy doing something and did not answer my call. After a while, he called back. I switched to the voice truth-clarification document with standard Chinese. H listened to the whole thing--49 minutes. As you may know, it was a long distance call. Clearly he knew that it was a long distance call and that it is a very expensive call. Still, he listened quietly for such a long time. After that, I totally changed those bad thoughts I once had. I truly realized that sentient beings are waiting to learn the truth and waiting to be saved. Since then, no matter how long the other side listens, I send forth righteous thoughts and clear the interference from all evil beings and factors behind that person so they can be saved.
When sharing personal experiences, one's own xinxing status has a lot to do with the effect on the other side. Unstable, impure states of mind will directly affect the result of clarifying the truth. Once I was making phone calls with a fellow practitioner. The calls the other practitioner made usually lasted about 10 minutes. However, the calls I made were constantly hung up on. I immediately looked inward and noticed that I had an attachment of jealousy. I wondered why I did not have a good effect while making those phone calls even though I had helped him install that voice file. It must be that people in that region that fellow practitioner was calling had a better understanding about the truth. At that time, I also wanted to call those numbers in that region. How jealous I was! I immediately eliminated it. I thought to myself that, for those regions that did not have a good response in listening to the truth clarification voice files, we should intensify efforts to clarify the truth. I calmed down and let go of my attachment of pursuit and the attachment of showing off and continued making phone calls. I immediately had good results. The one who listened for two hours occurred during that time.
Over the past year, in order to better clarify the truth, I switched to four cell phones. Sometimes I had two cell phones working simultaneously. Every month I used an average of 20 to 30 phone cards. I had seniors to take care of, relatives and colleagues that I had to keep in touch with, my child was in school--all these needed money. Therefore, I tried my best to decrease my living expenses. My personal expenses are around one hundred yuan each month. In our city this amount is pretty low. At home I normally eat noodles with a few vegetables. The vegetable we eat at home the most is Chinese cabbage. It is quite usual for us to eat Chinese cabbage for a whole week.
I hardly bought any new clothes in the past few years. Later I realized that what I was wearing was too different from my colleagues, and they might not understand that, so I selectively bought a few clothes. I tried my best to choose those that were good quality but would not be influenced by fashion trends so I could wear them for a long time. I would not need to spend too much but still could do a lot of things. I felt that neither time nor money belonged to me; instead they belonged to Dafa. It would be like committing a crime if I could not maximize the good use of time and money. Sometimes when I was not in good cultivation condition, it would take me longer time to think, so I had less time to do things, and I would feel really bad.
Master is merciful and used many ways to help me improve my living conditions. This July and August, I used 40 phone cards and spent over 800 yuan. However, in September I got an unexpected bonus of 800 yuan. I experienced many similar things. Therefore, even though I do not have a high salary, I had enough to cover my child's school expenses and regular social events, and I never hesitated to spend money for truth-clarification. Without being aware of it, I saved a lot of money and did not have any worries about our family expenses. Sometimes I wonder how I could have saved all that money.
Now I want to tell about a wonderful event. Based on the calling fee, one phone card can allow me to send six to seven hundred text messages at the most. However, almost every phone card I used exceeded that limit. Most of them allowed me to send over one thousand text messages. Some even allowed me to send over two thousand text messages. One phone card even allowed me to send over eight thousand text messages. Originally I spent over 20 yuan on a phone card. After using it a a few days, I checked the usage and it told me that I still had over one thousand yuan. Ordinary people may thing such a thing unbelievable, but I have personally experienced this.
Over the past year, whatever the weather, I have never stopped validating the Fa. Being baked under the hot sunshine in June or suffering a severe December cold wind, leaving home when the sun just came out, and going home when the moon was hanging in the sky, walking on snowy roads and during rainy days, suffering hunger and insect bites--I passed all these hardships because what I remembered in my heart was the mission of saving sentient beings. To a Dafa disciple, "Let joy be found in hardship." ("Tempering the Will" from Hong Yin) is not a slogan but a real happiness and supreme glory.
3. Silently acting in concert and harmonizing with the whole body
I want to express my appreciation to the Minghui website and those fellow practitioners who publish those truth-clarification short text messages, colorful text messages, and voice files on Minghui. I also want to thank those fellow practitioners who developed cell phone group short text messages and software for assembling phone numbers, etc. I want to express my appreciation to those fellow practitioners who wrote "Practical Technical Manual on SMS Messaging" and the "Technical Manual for Making Truth-clarification Phone Calls." I want to thank those fellow practitioners who worked on "MMS editor tutorial." I also want to thank all fellow practitioners who contributed to the cell phone truth-clarification method, including those who worked on the technical staff, editing content, etc. I want to thank every fellow practitioner who did this before me and timely published their experience on using cell phones in truth-clarification on the Minghui website. Thank you all so much! It was because of your hard work in silence that I could use cell phones with ease to clarify the truth. I truly felt that we Dafa disciples are one whole body. The more we act in concert, the more powerful we will be.
Having benefited from fellow practitioners' selfless help, I also want to share what I have learned. Some practitioners in my area have also bought cell phones. I helped them set up everything. Some practitioners were willing to learn to install different software and how to use them; I also very patiently taught them how to do that. Some practitioners did not want to learn anything about how to use software. They only wanted to learn how to send text messages. I then helped them to set up everything, such as short text messages, colorful text messages, voice files, phone numbers, etc., and then they could use it immediately. My fellow practitioners all did very well. We encouraged each other and worked even harder.
In "Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference," Master said,
"The task of saving sentient beings has to be carried out by you. And not only must it be done, but it must be done well."
I felt that, as a Dafa disciple at this final stage of Fa rectification, we must go all out to save sentient beings. Only by doing that can we live up to Master's merciful salvation and be worthy of the title of "Fa rectification period Dafa disciples."
In my future cultivation practice, I will try my best to have the purest heart in Fa study and cultivate myself well. I will continue to go all out to save sentient beings and fulfill my prehistoric vows.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, my fellow practitioners!