(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in October 2006. I was desperate because I suffered from illness and interference from another dimension. This changed when I looked within to save sentient beings more effectively.
With hundreds of millions of people using the Internet in China, the Internet has become one of the platforms Dafa disciples can use to clarify the truth. While doing so, we can also cultivate ourselves and upgrade our xinxing.
I started talking to people online about Dafa in 2009. Initially, I would manually send out 200 e-mails every day from each of dozens of Gmail email accounts that I had. Whenever I encountered a problem, I would receive support from the technical forum that Dafa disciples established, and this allowed me to continue in this project.
As I accumulated more experience, I joined a project in 2012 and met many diligent practitioners. Two practitioners shared safety advice and techniques when sending out messages on a mass scale. As we did this, many miraculous things happened.
When I used the software that one of the practitioners created to send out truth-clarification messages, in one month I persuaded more than 1,000 people to withdraw their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party. During one 40-minute phone call, 13 people quit.
Many of the electronic materials that I created with assistance and support from practitioners were also published on Minghui.org and Zhengjian.org.
Master said,
“But time waits for no one, nor do circumstances. Whatever the case, Dafa disciples now must cooperate together well. The situation that you are faced with requires that you cooperate well, for only by cooperating well can you fulfill your pledges well.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference X)
As my experience grew and my righteous thoughts strengthened, the effect of clarifying the truth stood out more. I became aware that this was the result of cooperating with others, be it on the technical side, experience sharing, or providing materials.
When Master and righteous divine beings see that our overall righteous thoughts have increased, they will arrange for countless people with predestined relationships and those who can be saved to come to us.
I understood that the maximum possible effect can be achieved if I let go of my attachments and take the initiative to cooperate with others. When I remove attachments and increase my capacity to do more, I am able to face problems rationally and with a stable attitude. I am better able to think about how to do it so as to be beneficial to Dafa and sentient beings, and this allows Dafa resources to be utilized more efficiently.
When conflicts occur and challenge me, it is as Master said: “Wanting to explain just feeds the attachment.” (“Don't Argue” in Hong Yin III)
I felt wronged when I couldn’t handle my xinxing well and wondered why things were the way they were. I thought that problems with others should be resolved when I explain things calmly. However, my heart was already getting carried away at the time, and things became complicated.
I knew that I had to control my emotions. However, I worried each time I exploded like an ordinary person. Even if I didn't do anything wrong, I still would feel uneasy and wanted to seek a defense for my grievances. I also had the attachment of wanting to prove myself.
I knew that it was time to upgrade my xinxing, but I couldn’t control myself at the moment. I became suspicious and felt hopeless—I had read so many Dafa books and understood so many principles but still behaved this way.
I couldn’t find a solution. This was actually a test that I had to overcome. When I looked deep within, I realized that I was affecting the overall cooperation of a project.
I enlightened to the importance of cultivating one’s speech after taking many detours. As cultivators, other than clarifying the truth, we should not talk too much about other things.
When I am misunderstood by others, I should think to negate the old forces’ interference, which creates barriers between practitioners and myself, because we are one body. Only by looking within unconditionally can one's heart remain calm.
Looking at things from another perspective, I should increase my capacity. It is not right for my emotions to affect others.
Master said,
“When you are working together and experience friction, it is because of human attachments. That is part of one’s cultivation state and process, and absolutely not because someone is truly no good. A person’s good side can’t be seen anymore, as it has been separated. What you see will always be the side that has not been cultivated yet. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a compassionate heart, or should look at people in rigid ways. I’ve said again and again that you cannot see a cultivator’s good side. That side is simply terrific, and has met the standard. And what does it mean to “meet the standard”? It is the standard of a god. Whereas the part of him that hasn’t been successfully cultivated yet, that part is going to seem worse as it works its way up and gets closer to the surface. But, maybe that person has cultivated very well. I hope that you all cherish yourselves, cherish others, and cherish this environment that you have. Cherishing the path that you travel is cherishing yourselves.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference XI)
When I let go of attachments, my heart becomes calm and everything happens smoothly. Only by looking within unconditionally and cooperating unconditionally can we become an indestructible whole body and save sentient beings and validate the Fa with maximum efficiency.
I enlightened that many elements of cultivation are embedded in providing technical assistance and other forms of cooperating with practitioners. This is a cultivation environment of helping each other and improving together. This may be also a form of using righteous thoughts to eliminate all interference.
No matter how busy we are or how important it is to clarify the truth, we should not relax in studying the Fa.
Master said,
“That is because the Fa is the foundation; it is what’s fundamental for Dafa disciples; it is what ensures everything.” (“To the Australia Fa Conference” in The Essentials of Diligent Progress Vol. III)
Having cultivated for twelve years, I have recited Zhuan Falun from memory more than ten times. I hand-copied Zhuan Falun eleven times, each of the four Hong Yin books once, and Essentials for Further Advancement and Essentials of Further Advancement II once each. I would focus on memorizing and copying the Fa every day, study Zhuan Falun at group Fa-study, and study the various lectures on weekends.
I started memorizing the Hong Yin books in 2014. Other practitioners and I used our half-hour breaks to memorize Hong Yin III, which took us 80 days. I also did so on my own using the time after sending forth righteous thoughts in the morning, my lunch hour, and other spare time. I can now recite the first three Hong Yin books and am currently memorizing Hong Yin IV. Every night, I would also write on paper what I would memorize the next day.
Memorizing the Fa allows me to use all my spare time—walking, waiting for the bus, or waiting for others—to recite the Fa. It also allows me to immediately recall relevant principles from the Fa whenever I encounter problems. Copying the Fa allows me to be calmer and clearer on the Fa principles.
Practitioners in my area often use paper currency printed with messages to spread awareness of Falun Gong and the persecution. Usually, I would withdraw nearly 10,000 yuan to produce these bills for local practitioners, leaving me with no spending money. With the Chinese New Year approaching, I started to resent other practitioners.
One practitioner told me she urgently needed 20,000 unmarked one-yuan bills, as she wanted to print them herself. I started preparing it for her by consolidating money from my family, friends, and other practitioners. When I was almost done, she told me she needed only 4,000 yuan and that they had to be new bills, not old ones, which were harder to print on correctly. When I said that I had already prepared the old bills, she refused to take them. Eventually, she reluctantly agreed to take 500 yuan. I thought about it and told her to forget it. I left without saying another word.
I complained because I could have prepared the bills using my own money instead of taking them from practitioners and friends. My family and I had also spent a lot of effort to clean them. How would I deal with so much money, and how long would it take for me to return it?
At that moment, my phone rang, and it was from the community association, saying that they wanted to pay me a Chinese New Year visit. I rejected them. (Editor’s note: community associations in China are often tasked with monitoring and harassing practitioners as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong.) After hanging up, I sent forth righteous thoughts and started to look within. I knew that I was wrong, that I should look within myself to find the reason and not complain about practitioners.
Master said,
“Some people are always stressing that they’re right, but even if you are right, even if you’re not wrong, so what? Have you improved on the basis of the Fa? The very act of using human thinking to stress who’s right and who’s wrong is in itself wrong. That’s because you are then using the logic of ordinary people to evaluate yourself, and using that logic to make demands on others.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference X)
Looking back at my actions during this period, I did not treat everything in my daily life as a chance to cultivate, and I did not look at things from the Fa’s perspective.
By not complaining aloud, was I doing this to show off to others? Had my xinxing reached the Fa’s standards? Did I want others to honor me for being capable in resolving issues that others could not? I emphasized myself and thought that I had put in great effort to help the practitioner, yet she did not appreciate it. Did I also look down on a practitioner because she thinks differently than me?
With all these attachments, how do I reach the standards of a cultivator? I have to look within unconditionally when I encounter conflicts. Countless eyes in every dimension are looking at us, and they see how we treat every conflict, person, and thing. What attachments are we still unable to let go of?
Regardless of what we do, we must reach the requirements and standards of Master's Fa-rectification. We must truly look at ourselves and find our shortcomings.
When I truly look within, changes happen. A few practitioners who I had little contact with took the initiative to contact me and asked if I had truth-clarification bills. Even more amazingly, even though the old bills were very old, there were few problems in the printing process.
I knew that Master was encouraging me. Within a month, only 3,000 of the 20,000 bills were left, and the community association did not look for me again.
Master said,
“The only path that lies before you, the disciples of Dafa, is one of real cultivation. There is no other path.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple” in Teaching the Fa at the Conference XI)
This has been my cultivation experience. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.