[Fa-conference Sharing] Fulfilling Our Mutual Vows

(Minghui.org) Greetings to esteemed Master and fellow practitioners!

It has been 17 years since I started doing translation work, and there is a lot that I would like to share with you, although I don’t know most of you, even though we might have met online almost every day during our Fa studies. Because of the requirements of this project, we always keep it low key and never share what we have achieved with others. I am so thankful to Master for arranging this project for us. By doing this unique project, I can temper my xinxing, not through conflicts, but through learning from others (authors, our coordinators, and polishers). Especially when writers look within in the articles I translate, I find myself looking within as well: as if a candle had been lit, the darkness disappears, and I know where to go, what to do, and why I am wrong.

A Western Practitioner Sent Me a Picture of Master

A Western fellow practitioner, whom I have never met but was on the same team as me for a while, sent me a painting of Master. In the picture, Master was descending with lights shining from all directions. But what surprised me the most was the word “vow” in Chinese. I realized we have the same given duty: to work on this project.

I checked all the documents that I had translated on my computer. I pondered, “My duty is to translate but how have I been doing? Did I work hard and put my heart into it? Or did I simply just do the work, to simply check off that I had finished the task and reached the minimum monthly quota?” I looked at the folders and files that I had created. My translation work was lousy, because I thought it was solely our polishers’ job to make it read better. However, it is still important for us to do our work well.

I just read a Minghui article about “the gravity of breaking our vows.” I know our vow is to work for Minghui and I should fulfill my duty.

I Like/I Don’t Like

There is a project coordinator in our area who has many excuses for why she can’t attend group Fa study. I have tried my best to encourage her to join our study group, because she seldom joins unless there is something she wants to tell us to do, so it was hard for practitioners to participate in the project she led. Now she has sickness karma. When I heard that, my first thought was, “Why didn’t you ever listen to me? Don’t you think you are too attached to comfort?” I later realized that my first thoughts were very bad, and were thoughts that a fellow practitioner shouldn’t have. We should always have positive thoughts for fellow practitioners.

She previously said, “I don’t like …” and when she asked a fellow practitioner to participate in her project, the fellow practitioner said, “I don’t like doing this project, nor does my husband…”

I happened to hear the conversation, I thought, “How could a practitioner be picky about their project? Aren’t these projects arranged by Master?

Master says,

“The future professional practitioners in temples will need to, in their cultivation practice, wander around among everyday people.”(Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)

Wandering around is very difficult—do you think they will have the chance to pick something they like or they don’t like?

After I did some translation work, some practitioners’ articles help me look within. Master said,

“I often tell you about situations like this: When two people have a conflict both should look for the causes within themselves, asking, ‘what problem do I have here?’ Each should search for his own problem. If a third person witnesses the conflict between the two, I would say that it’s not accidental for that third person to see it, and he too should think it over: ‘Why did I see their conflict? Is it because I still have some shortcomings?’ Only in this way can it be good.” (Teachings at the Conference in the Western U.S.)

So when I hear people say something not based on the Fa, it is a good time for me to check whether I have this or that attachment. Do I always think “like” or “don’t like?” I thought about a previous experience.

I was recently invited to participate on a media project. I suggested that they should write an article about the “overuse of cell phones in children,” but for some reason, it didn’t go in that direction, even after I waited a long time. I was unhappy about it. They later invited me to review an article on radiation and cell phones, I said, “The content is not consistent with the title. There is a lot of room for improvement in the structure and the flow. I would feel angry as a reader.” Later I started wondering where my anger had come from.

It was before 6 p.m. and I saw the editor had messaged me to see if I’d reviewed the article. Before I sent forth righteous thoughts, I was frustrated about why I was invited to review this article that I disliked. After I sent forth righteous thoughts, I realized that I am just a reviewer/adviser, and I need to be very cooperative. I haven’t done research on readers and don’t have the big picture; it would be better if I could just cooperate unconditionally and provide advice without any notions in my mind. I checked the article again and the title had been changed, the content had been updated, and it looked good.

When a Fellow Practitioner Experiences Sickness Karma

I mentioned above a practitioner who had sickness karma and my first response was “Why didn’t she listen to me?” The more articles I have translated, the more I have felt that I shouldn’t hold those thoughts.

I should have positive thoughts. I once saw a practitioner was holding something far away so he could read it. I laughed at him: “Why do you need to do that?” He said that a few years before, he was laughing at another fellow practitioner who was doing that. He then added, “If a person needs reading glasses, it will manifest at 48 years old, which is a critical age.” When I was 48 years old, I also had to hold objects far away and started using reading glasses. I realized that was my problem: to laugh at others’ pain.

A practitioner shared her experiences with me. She saw a fellow practitioner who had something like eczema on her neck and she had some negative thoughts about the fellow practitioner. She later developed something similar on her skin. It took her quite a long time before finally the skin problem disappeared. It was very uncomfortable and itchy and she had to be very tolerant. Therefore, if there are any problems, it is very important for us to see if our minds are right.

Cultivation is serious, and when a practitioner has sickness karma, we should be more supportive, rather than criticize them or laugh. We can’t have negative thoughts. I recently also realized there could be another issue: if a practitioner or their family is considered a model family, or other practitioners rely on them too much, the old forces might use that as an excuse to persecute them, because, in our cultivation, we shouldn’t have any role models. I also see fellow practitioners who got along very well, but then one of them passed away. There is an attachment to sentimental feelings (qing).

This also helped me better understand the qing we might have developed while doing any Dafa projects. We should be very supportive, in harmony, to fulfill our mutual vows, but we should let go of qing. Many have stumbled and even gone in the wrong direction during cultivation because of qing, so we should always be alert. For this project, we are not like other teams that can meet. Most of the time, I have had to figure out many things that no one else on the team could help me with. I like to interact with people, so this project helps me cultivate, letting go of my attachment to showing off.

(Presented at the 2022 Minghui Team’s Experience Sharing Conference)