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Be a Dafa Disciple Rather Than a Technician

December 02, 2010 |   By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Yantai City

(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, great, compassionate Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

During these years of Fa-rectification cultivation, I mainly was in charge of technical computer work and provided technical support to the production sites. In this article, I'd like to share my cultivation experiences in this area with everyone, especially with those who also are in charge of technical work.

1. "Take a Step Back" to Solve Technical Problems

When I encountered a technical problem, I often thought it was only about the technical aspects, rather than relating it to my cultivation and upgrading my xinxing. As a result, I was unable to tap into Dafa's boundless power, and I regularly encountered technical problems and equipment troubles that were hard to solve.

Once I was installing encryption software for a practitioner. Although I tried several times, I still failed. Finally, when I restarted the computer, it suddenly shut down with a big rip. After careful examination, I found that the hard drive had crashed. The fellow practitioner cried, saying that all the truth-clarification materials from over the years had been lost. I was also very dispirited and wondered how such at hing could possibly have happened because, from a technical angle, it shouldn't have.

After I calmed down and looked within, I found many attachments. First, I didn't print out the installation guide and follow it to install the software, step by step. Instead, I just took a rough look at the guide and then installed the system according to my knowledge. This revealed my mentality of showing off and how I had a high opinion of myself and regarded myself as infallible. In addition, I didn't backup the important documents in advance. I didn't think of others first; instead, I disliked taking the time to backup the hard drive and was just attached to my own success. I didn't think of validating Dafa. Furthermore, after I first failed to install the software, I recklessly tried again and again. This revealed my problem of looking outside (looking for the computer's problem) rather than looking within to cultivate myself. My loophole was taken advantage of and the fellow practitioner's documents were destroyed.

The other practitioner didn't speak to me right after that, making me feel really bad. I thought, "It was for your safety that I tried to install the encryption software for you. Why can't you understand that? Wasn't it for you that I worked so hard? I just made one mistake, and now you treat me like this." I became resentful because of it.

Afterwards, I saw Master's teachings:

"When you encounter something, the best approach is not to charge forward and contend with others, push your way to the front, and rush forward to chase down the solution. Let go of your attachment, take a step back, and then resolve it." ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital" in 2006)

"If you can conduct yourself in that manner with whatever you encounter, at a minimum you will find a way to resolve the problem. Otherwise how could you resolve it? When a person charges forward and is contentious, the more he wants to resolve it, the less he is able to. In that scenario you still haven't in fact let go of that attachment and you are pushing your way to the front, and you insist on figuring out who's right and who's wrong; even though you've made mistakes, you insist on figuring out others' mistakes. When that's the approach, you won't be able to resolve the problem." ("Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital")

When I encountered technical problems again, I started to look within. Even though the problem seemed to be a technical one, I also looked inside to see whether I was irritable or afraid of trouble, and whether I was attached to just doing things. After I started to handle things by looking within, I successfully solved every technical problem quickly.

2. Techniques Are But Petty Means; "The Great Fa Must Be the Basis of Everything."

For quite a long time, I held a wrong opinion, thinking that technical work had nothing or little to do with cultivating xinxing. However, I came to realize that this is not so.

Master said in Zhuan Falun, "In fact, let me tell everyone that matter and mind are one thing." (Lecture One)

When there was equipment trouble, it was always because of a problem in my heart: it was a reflection of my xinxing or it was because I had some attachment that needed to be removed. However, I often thought only about the technical aspects and ignored upgrading my xinxing. I didn't pay attention to the importance of sending forth righteous thoughts. At times I even didn't believe that sending forth righteous thoughts could solve technical problems.

Once I repaired a laptop for another practitioner. The dynatron of the main board was old and chipped. I went to a lot of trouble to repair it, and it worked properly after being connected to the power source. Then, as soon as I put the laptop back together, I heard two voices in another space. One said, "This person is so smart; he can even fix the broken things in our space." The other one said, "Let me have a try. I can make another difficulty for him." After I finished assembling the laptop, it wouldn't work. I enlightened that it was interference by the evil factors in another space. After that, when I did maintenance work, I knew that I must first send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors in other spaces. Only powerful righteous thoughts can solve thorny technical problems.

Master said, "Supernatural skills are but petty means, The Great Fa must be the basis of everything." ("Seeking the Righteous Fa" in Hong Yin)

Techniques are just things of ordinary people. We should not consider mastering a technique to be practicing cultivation. Actually, studying the Fa, cultivating xinxing, and validating Dafa are our basic things. It is to validate the Fa and save sentient beings that we learn computer skills. We should not be attached to skills or techniques; otherwise, we won't be able to use techniques well to validate the Fa. Only after we upgrade our xinxing will our expertise naturally improve because "One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing level;" it is the same with techniques.

3. Aquire the Necessary Skills Quickly to Meet the Overall Need

There were problems with many of the printers at the production sites last May, and they wouldn't work. I decided to learn to do printer maintenance. I thought that if I could repair these printers, it would save a lot of money for the production sites. These printers ran at a high speed and produced high quality copies, and fellow practitioners were familiar their operation.

I downloaded the tutorial from the forum and studied it carefully. I worked during the day and learned printer maintenance at night. Disassembly and assembly of a printer takes quite a long time; I often worked until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

The pickup roller on the printer's tractor is one of the parts that wears out. After printing for a length of time, the pickup roller often stops working. I tried to replace it but failed every time. My family lived in one bedroom. When I worked during the night, I had the light on and often made noise, which disturbed the sleep of my wife and child. After working like this for days, my child often cried in the deep of night; my wife also complained about it, although she is also a practitioner. I felt very bad during that period, and I wanted to give it up several times. In the end, I carefully considered it again and still thought that I should do it because it was required for validating the Fa, and so I must do it well. I finally asked Master for help, "Master, I must do this work, and I need to solve this problem. Please help me!" After that, the pickup roller I replaced worked normally. How appreciative I was to Master! Thank you, honorable Master!

From this matter, I enlightened that it is only when we have a heart for Dafa that Master can help us and that Master is near us at every moment. Afterwards, I succeeded in repairing several broken printers, which all played an important role at the production sites.

I spent almost all my spare time repairing printers, and I gradually had less and less time to study the Fa and clarify the truth about Falun Gong. Day by day, I became more tired and exhausted. At the same time, some practitioners had gradually become dependent on me for printer maintenance. I was busy and confused every day, and I couldn't calm down to study the Fa, feeling very bitter in my heart.

Later, there were more and more printer problems; I encountered more and more conflicts. It often happened that, as soon as I had repaired one printer well and planned to take a rest, another practitioner sent me another broken printer, making me quite bored and unable to calm down to study the Fa. Several times I planned to quit the work of printer maintenance.

Afterwards when I studied Zhuan Falun, I read what Master said:

"It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality." (Lecture Four)

Master also taught us in "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,"

"Whether it's seeking sponsorships or getting ads, all of that behind-the-scenes work done to get capital for the media companies is the same as that of those who act as the public face of the company--the mighty virtue is exactly the same. It couldn't possibly be that someone's mighty virtue is greater just because he writes articles, acts as an editor, serves as a translator, often appears in or on that media, or because he has some select assignment. All of you who participate in that media entity are, as Dafa disciples, the same, regardless of what task you do."

After studying Master's teaching, I understood that I should do the printer maintenance work; it was necessary. The key was how I could arrange everything better. From the Fa principle, I understood the relationship between cultivating myself well and doing well on projects to clarify the truth. Since then, I have make it a point to study the Fa in a group, do the exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts every day to arrange to do the three things well.

4. Getting Rid of Selfishness and Sharing Technical Skills with Each Production Site

Master has told us many times that we should elevate as one whole body. Thinking of this, I helped fellow practitioners that were also in charge of technical work to master computer skills well so that we could provide better support to our production sites.

Before the universal ghost mounting system was released, I always used my old method to install an operating system. In order to help other practitioners master this skill, I spent more than three months making a detailed installation guide. Some practitioners quickly mastered it by using this guide, while others felt it was difficult and had trouble with the guide. Although I taught them again and again, they still didn't master it. Afterwards, an Internet forum released a universal ghost mounting system. I wondered whether I should continue to use my former guide or move to use the ghost mounting system? Thinking that the new system had its own distinctive method, I finally decided to popularize this new method.

After testing it for a while, I found that this universal ghost mounting system also had some shortcomings. Therefore, I redesigned the installation guide for this new mounting system and explained every step in detail, making the new method perfect.

I enlightened from this matter that once another practitioner had a good method, we should not criticize or oppose him; instead, we should quietly coordinate with him and improve his method so that the greater power of Dafa will be demonstrated!

Concluding Remarks

Through these years of cultivation as I have provided technical support to production sites, I deeply realized that Dafa disciples in Fa-rectification have important responsibilities. Only by studying the Fa well can we have strong righteous thoughts, and then we can work well in our technical support work. When there was a problem, it was because I didn't strive forward and didn't firmly believe in Master and Dafa; it was because I was attached to ordinary people's techniques or because I had an attitude problem. I deeply enlightened that only by studying the Fa well, getting rid of attachments, and upgrading xinxing can we have pure hearts and do well in validating the Fa and saving sentient beings.

Again, thank you, great compassionate Master for salvation!