Australian Practitioners Inspired by 18th China Fahui Articles to Become More Diligent in Cultivation

(Minghui.org) The annual online China Fahui for Falun Dafa practitioners in China has provided a platform for practitioners around the world to learn from each other and look within to improve themselves. This year, the 18th China Fahui once again showed how Falun Dafa practitioners in China align with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance while making steady efforts to validate Dafa. 

Touched by these stories, several Australian practitioners discussed how they benefited from such articles and learned to be more diligent in their own cultivation. 

Cultivation Is Fundamental and Saving People Is Our Mission

Joanna, a young English teacher, said she liked reading Minghui articles. The recent China Fahui, in particular, has provided an opportunity for her to compare herself with others and overcome challenges to do better in cultivation. 

Many articles talked about how practitioners were able to maintain a pure mind despite the harsh persecution in China. One example was “Once Lost in Life, a Young Man Awakens to Fulfill His Prehistoric Oath,” written by a 32-year-old practitioner. In spite of the suppression in China, he learned to cultivate solidly and go out every day to debunk the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) defamatory propaganda about Dafa. In crowded marketplaces and bus stations, he was initially attached to comfort and feared that the people he spoke to might not accept what he had to say and he would lose face. But later, from the bottom of his heart, he felt the urgency to save people, and he was able to put steady efforts into clarifying the truth to people face to face. He was almost arrested several times, but he was able to remain calm with righteous thoughts and handled the situations well. 

Because the article was so touching, Joanna read it several times. “I learned that cultivation is fundamental for us, while saving people is our mission,” she explained. As a practitioner outside of China, she realized that, although things in Australia are more relaxed, she did not take advantage of the circumstances here to tell more people about Dafa. Instead, she often found excuses to slack off, especially when she felt her cultivation status was not good. She said she felt ashamed of her attachment to comfort and saving face. “Now, I know where I need to catch up and how to get there,” she added. 

Cultivating Compassion for Family Members

Ms. Li, an accountant, has practiced Falun Dafa for 15 years. After reading the 18^th China Fahui articles, she realized her gaps in cultivation and began to reflect on her family conflicts. 

Ms. Li excelled academically in school and her social circle was made up of primarily intelligent and knowledgeable friends. Her husband, however, turned out to be completely average. He was also a practitioner, but he was not very diligent. Ms. Li was disappointed in him and even resented him until she read the article “Letting Go of Resentment and Fulfilling My Vow.” 

In the article, the author’s husband had an affair and divorced her. He still asked for money from her and threatened her from time to time after the divorce. But Dafa principles taught her to be compassionate and forgiving. While cultivating well and fulfilling her mission, the author was able to let go of resentment and treat her ex-husband well. In the end, both her ex-husband and his relatives understood the facts of Dafa and agreed to quit the CCP organizations. Touched by the selflessness, kindness, and forbearance of the author, Ms. Li realized where she had gone wrong. 

More specifically, Ms. Li came to see that her high expectations for her husband came from her lifelong attachment to vanity. She wanted to be better than others and to have an accomplished husband to show off. She also didn’t want to work hard or take on more responsibilities herself and hoped her husband would make a better living to support them both. On the issue of cultivation, she subconsciously hoped her husband would be more diligent and serve as a role model for her. 

“It is clear to me now that cultivation is serious. We have to walk our own path instead of relying on others. Otherwise, not only will we fail to improve ourselves, but the old forces could also take advantage of our loopholes, causing tribulations for ourselves and other practitioners,” she said. In fact, this boils down to the issue of selfishness. “Master and Falun Dafa require us to be selfless and considerate of others. If we are so attached to self, how can we achieve that and become compassionate?”

Other practitioners can serve as a mirror for us, Ms. Li added. “When I noticed my husband slacking off, I should have looked within to see if I was too attached to comfort. Instead of nagging my husband, I should have done better myself to make him feel my kindness and compassion.” Looking forward, she decided to be more diligent and cultivate away her attachments to self, comfort, and dependency in order to catch up with Master’s Fa-rectification and fulfill her vows. 

Looking Within

Ms. Chen has practiced Falun Dafa for 22 years. Before she retired, she worked as a company secretary. The article “Looking Within to Eliminate Attachments During Conflicts” was particularly beneficial to her and reminded her of the conflicts she had with two practitioners in the past. 

That was shortly after Ms. Chen moved to Australia from China. Because of her negative thoughts and other human notions, she became resentful and looked down on those two practitioners who had conflicts with her. In the end, she had little to do with them. Later on, she realized the conflicts were an opportunity for her to look within and cultivate her own character. She tried and negated some of the thoughts she had earlier, but she wasn’t completely successful. 

When she read that article, Ms. Chen noticed how the author used the Fa as a guide at each step in dealing with her long-running conflict with a local practitioner. By contrast, in conversation, Ms. Chen said she often insisted that her own understandings were correct and had no patience to listen to other people’s opinions. That is, she felt she was right and only wanted to validate herself, which she showed in the lack of compassion in her tone of voice. 

“I noticed my situation was similar to the author’s at first. But the author was able to follow Dafa principles, identify her own shortcomings, and improve,” Ms. Chen explained. “I was unable to do that. And that is the gap I had that kept me from improving.” She had recently realized that she lacked compassion but did not know where she could improve. This article also helped her on this, so she is very thankful for the practitioner’s selfless sharing.

Remaining Diligent

David, an executive director with a private firm, said he learned a lot from the 18^th China Fahui articles. In China where Falun Dafa is severely suppressed, practitioners have encountered all kinds of difficulties and sometimes even tests of life and death. Yet, they were able to let go of selfishness and human notions to assist Master with Fa-rectification openly and aboveboard. Impressed by such compassion and courage, David said he found areas where he could do better and saw how to remain diligent in his cultivation. 

An example is “Remaining Diligent and Overcoming Tribulations While Imprisoned.” Because of her belief, the author was put in jail. Although the environment was not favorable, she was able to examine herself and let go of human notions. With strong righteous thoughts, she was able to obtain a copy of Zhuan Falun (the main teachings of Falun Dafa). She studied and memorized the Fa. This further strengthened her righteous thoughts and she did not feel the pain when guards tortured her. In addition, she was able to call out “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” every day, and many prisoners joined her. 

Because she solidly studied the Fa principles, that practitioner was able to clarify the facts and help others quit the CCP organizations while she was in prison, added David. 

A similar situation was explored in “Letting Go of Resentment and Fulfilling My Vow.” Before practicing Falun Dafa, the author had dealt with major setbacks in her marriage and life. In despair, she lost all hope—until Falun Dafa showed her the connection between karma and suffering. As a result, the author was able to eliminate resentment and treat her ex-husband and his family with compassion. In the end, both her ex-husband and his mother started to practice and help others understand the facts about Dafa. 

David said the requirements for all practitioners are the same, whether they live outside of China where things are relatively more comfortable or in China proper. This highlights the importance of remaining diligent. Knowing how to eliminate the attachment to comfort and resist temptations in everyday society (such as fame, material interests, and sentimentality) can be critical. This requires solid and sufficient study of the teachings. “Practitioners in China are often arrested and tortured for their faith. Sometimes they even risk their lives to tell people the facts about the persecution. How can we in Australia have excuses to slack off?” said David. 

Pure Mind 

Ms. Song also found the article “Remaining Diligent and Overcoming Tribulations While Imprisoned” very helpful. The author was once put in solitary confinement and went on a hunger strike in protest. But as he persisted with a pure mind and she was able to obtain a copy of Zhuan Falun to study the Dafa principles and help the inmates learn the facts and quit the CCP organizations. Ms. Song said it also takes courage for practitioners outside of China to tell people the facts about Dafa during the pandemic without going to extremes. For instance, sometimes she had to go to crowded places, while other times she had to make a decision about whether to spend more time on personal business or Dafa projects. 

In another article, “My Journey of Returning to True Cultivation,” the author talked about how he increased the capacity of his heart and purified his mind by memorizing the Fa. As the author gradually strengthened his righteous thoughts, he was able to leave behind the negative thoughts over mistakes he had made in the past. In addition, he was able to help other practitioners without any barriers. Ms. Song found that her situation improved dramatically when she recently started to memorize the teachings. Sometimes, new ideas related to a Dafa project she was working on just came to her. From this, she witnessed the power of a pure heart. 

But how to remain diligent? The article “Young Practitioner: Overcoming Tribulations and Learning What Cultivation Means” helped her with this. “I realized that Master extended the end time for the Fa-rectification because many Dafa disciples fell behind, and many people were still waiting to be saved,” the author wrote. In fact, Master has made arrangements for practitioners in all different circumstances to play different roles. Also, what practitioners do may differ from one another, but everything they do is critical. 

From this, Ms. Song learned that there is no excuse to ever slack off. In particular, it’s easy to become attached to a certain project. To meet a deadline, it’s tempting to see Fa-study and doing the exercises as less important than the project. Ms. Song said she had always thought she could make up her Fa-study and exercises, but that was seldom the case because it happened so frequently when she was just focused on finishing her project. “Anyway, I learned to let go of my attachment to the project, as well as to competition, jealousy, and my reluctance to hear criticism,” she said. “These are all obstacles in my cultivation practice and I need to eliminate them as soon as possible.”