(Clearwisdom.net) I attained the Fa in 1998, and have been a local Dafa coordinator for over ten years. Doing Dafa coordination work is the form of my cultivation. While involved in coordination work, I have removed my attachments to fear and selfishness. Moreover, I have cultivated a mindset of being responsible and cultivated the righteous thought of melding myself into the one-body of Dafa practitioners.
1. Cultivating Away My Selfishness While Doing Coordination Work
During the more than ten years of Dafa coordination work, I gradually eliminated my selfishness and began to become a particle of the Fa. Doing coordination work well is the mission that Dafa has given me. Doing coordination requires hard work. One needs to go everywhere, which can be a challenge both mentally and physically. When something happens, the coordinator can be misunderstood by others. It is basically the case that regardless of how large a local area is, a coordinator is responsible for it. I have taken coordination work as a part of my cultivation. Regardless of the difficulties I encountered, I always take Dafa work as a priority. After the persecution against Dafa began, I needed to consider safety. At that time, I thought it would be safest if I just went alone to give out informational materials about Falun Dafa. However, I realized that this was a selfish thought where I considered only myself, while disregarding fellow practitioners. Because Dafa needs me to be a coordinator, I should consider fellow practitioners and their cultivation.
To enable fellow practitioners to have an undisturbed cultivation environment, we have adopted a single contact approach among the practitioners. Even the coordinators of various local areas do not know each other. Regarding some matters, even the non-practitioner family members are unaware. We have never called the coordinators in our region together; all the coordination work is done through a single point of contact. This is, of course, a little tedious. Oftentimes, to accomplish one task, the coordinator may need to make several trips, which can be a little tiring. However, this only incurs trouble and hardship for one person, which in turn, facilitates safety for the one body of Dafa practitioners, so it is worthwhile.
Master has told us,
“…some people may develop selfishness and gradually their level will be lowered. If they cannot stay at this level, they must drop down further. At that level, however, they may again become not so good and not be able to stay there, either. They will continue to descend further until, in the end, they reach this level of human beings.” (Zhuan Falun)
If the beings in low realms want to return to high realms, they have to cultivate away their selfishness.
Doing coordination work is a little tiring and requires one to do a lot of legwork. The coordinators in our region are very low key; even fellow practitioners do not know who has done what. A coordinator is just an unnoticed and very ordinary practitioner. We have not taken coordination as a job; instead, it is a part of our lives, and it is the path we need to cultivate on. With the elimination of selfishness, the capacity of my heart has expanded. I no longer have the mentality of not tolerating others who have said bad things about me or who have done better than I. When I encounter problems, I can always view them in a positive way. I always look at the strong points of others.
2. Cultivating Away the Attachment of Fear While Doing Coordination Work
On July 20, 1999 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the most brutal persecution in history. At that time, I felt at a loss. I walked along the path of assisting Master in rectifying the Fa simply with the mindset of being grateful to Master. I remember that after I came back from going to Beijing to appeal on July 20, the police in the local police station threatened me, “An arrest warrant for you has already been issued. Why did you go to Beijing?” I replied, “My Master was wronged. So why is it wrong for me to go to say some words of justice?” With just these simple words, they let me go home.
As the Fa-rectification progressed, Dafa practitioners started to give out truth-clarification flyers. The issue became deciding who should do the coordination work. At that time, I felt that I started my cultivation late, so I did not plan to step up to take on the task. I discovered that this mentality was due to my attachment of fear. I am the one who has benefited so much from Dafa. If I didn't do it, whom else would I depend on? My doing the coordination work is also a process of my becoming mature. As I matured, I also started to share with fellow practitioners how to do the coordination work with wisdom.
People generally hold the view that doing coordination work is rather risky. I looked at the issue according to the Fa. If I am not afraid, there naturally would be no loophole to be taken advantage of. In the period of over ten years of cultivation, whenever I go out, Master’s voice, which is most powerful in the universe, comes to mind,
“Though you may find one that has practiced cultivation for nearly one thousand years, a tiny finger will be more than enough to crush it.” (Zhuan Falun)
Whenever I go out, Master encourages me this way; that is, I should not be afraid of anything and should do whatever I am supposed do. Once, when I had some Dafa-related materials, I encountered the associate director of the police station, face to face. The materials were right in the basket of my motorcycle. However, he did not notice it. There was also a time when I brought materials to the home of a fellow practitioner. Once I entered her home, I saw the practitioner’s house in a mess and there were things scattered everywhere on the floor. I asked what had happened. She told me that the police had just left. In fact, it was Master who was protecting me. In every dangerous situation, Master has kept me safe. During my cultivation of over ten years, I have realized that one is safest when one is amidst the Fa, when one acts with righteous thoughts, and when one believes in Master and the Fa. We should be able to do well whatever Master has asked us to do. We have done Fa-rectification work very steadily and smoothly.
3. Cultivating a Responsible Mindset While Doing Coordination Work
Master told us,
“So think about it everyone, what’s your duty when you, an assistant, organize a group of people to practice? In monastic cultivation you would be an abbot in a monastery. Think about it, shouldn’t we do this job well? As a cultivator, you have to cultivate, and you also need to help others cultivate.” (“Suggestions Given at the Beijing Falun Dafa Assistants Meeting” in Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
A Dafa coordinator’s responsibility includes his or her being responsible for the Fa, for fellow practitioners, and for him or herself. Let us talk about being responsible for the Fa. Perhaps some may question whether a practitioner has the capacity to shoulder responsibility for the Fa. Indeed, there is an enlightening process regarding this issue, and the realm of one's understanding is a factor. Being responsible for the Fa means that we have the heart of respecting Master and safeguarding the Fa, and do not spread hearsay or what is not part of Dafa's teachings. We just help fellow practitioners diligently cultivate and improve themselves in the Fa. When the persecution of Falun Dafa first started, some practitioners, including myself, were indeed misled by fake articles that the evil wrote. I gradually developed the mindset of being responsible for the Fa. Now, regardless of what I hear and who says it, I always judge it according the Fa. We follow the Fa rather than individuals, and this enables us to cultivate in the Fa.
After the persecution started, many practitioners stepped forward to validate the Fa. Some practitioners had never traveled far from their homes. Some had never even seen a train, but they still wanted to go to Beijing to speak out for Dafa. To help a practitioner have this opportunity, I contacted other practitioners who traveled frequently to go together with a practitioner who did not travel. I brought her to meet them with my motorcycle. For every practitioner whom I had contact with, I always fully considered the issue of safety during our interactions.
Being responsible for the Fa and fellow practitioners is the same as my being responsible for myself, because this is my cultivation path.
4. Cultivating Righteous Thoughts and Melding into the Whole Body of Dafa Practitioners While Doing Coordination Work
Master told us,
“Today, those who study the human body have discovered that our human mind activities or human thoughts can generate a substance. At a very high level, we have found that it is indeed a substance, but this substance is not in the form of the brain waves as we have discovered in research today. Instead, it is in the form of a complete human brain. Typically, when an everyday person thinks about something, what he or she generates is something in the form of the brain. Because it does not have energy, it will disperse shortly afterwards. A practitioner’s energy, on the other hand, can be preserved much longer." (Zhuan Falun)
It is my personal understanding that what our minds have thought of are real elements in other dimensions. That is, whether our thoughts are righteous or not is critically important. In my daily interactions with fellow practitioners, I try to understand their words and actions in a positive way. Likewise, when we do Fa-validation work, I do not think about their negative side. In my actions, I just require myself to act righteously and not acknowledge the existence of the old forces. I hold the thought that I will not be persecuted and no one can dare to persecute me. In 2001, the evil CCP arrested Falun Gong practitioners and sent them to brainwashing centers. On that day before dawn, we were sending righteous thoughts when we heard the sound of police vehicles. I said to my wife that we should not panic, and we continued sending righteous thoughts. We then heard knocking at the door. We were not moved by it and did not open the door. We went to open the door after we finished the fifteen minutes of sending righteous thoughts. I did not allow them to come into the house. I just told them, on the street, about the changes that I experienced after I started my cultivation. They had over ten people with them, and They all listened to my words. There were also many fellow citizens gathering there on the street. The police remained in the street, and none of them arrested anyone.
In 2001, when I was away from home, the township secretary of the Political and Judicial Committee led the local police station director to my home and took away my Dafa books. After I came home and discovered the situation, I felt very bad, as the books are my life, and I could not let them ruin the books. I had the thought that I should ask for the books back. I then went to the secretary of the township's Political and Judicial Committee and asked him, “Why did you take away my books?” He said that it was the police station that had taken away my books. I asked, “Would the police station have done anything had you not given them the order?” He said that he would have his driver bring the books to me in the evening. I said that it was better to let me bring them back, so I went out and bought a bag, and then brought the books home.
A coordinator’s righteous thought can determine if the thoughts and energy fields within what is covered in his coordination work are righteous or not. Master cautioned us,
“Though it’s convenient, at the same time, it means that it is really hard for people to look to others as a reference, except for in matters of diligence.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” 2006)
It is my personal understanding that Master wants us to follow the Fa rather than individuals, so as to let Dafa disciples walk well their own paths of cultivation. Each Dafa practitioner has his or her own cultivation path. We all should follow our own unique cultivation paths. However, as Dafa coordinators, we should require ourselves to follow even higher standards. We first need to be Dafa cultivators who have learned the Fa well. Only in this way can we avoid misleading others.
This is the path that I have taken in my cultivation of more than ten years. Please point out any understanding that is incorrect.