(Minghui.org) The 2023 Australia Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held at the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne on October 29, 2023. Over 1200 practitioners from different parts of the country, including New Zealand, and Vietnam attended the annual event. Eighteen practitioners, young and elderly went on stage to speak of their cultivation experiences including how they made progress by looking within and letting go of their attachments in their life, both at work and while participating in truth clarification projects.
The atmosphere was calm, noble, and moving. Several practitioners said they were touched by the honest, sincere cultivation stories and were inspired by exchanges on understanding of the teachings. Through learning from others and making comparisons, they hoped to be more diligent and save more people.
The 2023 Australia Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held in Melbourne on October 29, 2023.
Practitioners discuss how they made progress in cultivation by putting the principles of the teachings into practice in their everyday lives.
New Practitioner Puts Falun Dafa’s Principles Into Practice
Ms. Pham is a Vietnamese practitioner in Melbourne and she began practicing Falun Dafa five years ago. She discovered that putting into practice the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in managing her business can bring about unexpected results.
She said, “I used to lead a music group when I was young. I was a class monitor at the university. I started my own business when I moved to Australia, but I was bad-tempered and domineering. My character improved significantly after I began practicing Falun Dafa. It was a great help to my business especially when we had to deal with disabled customers. From a quick-tempered boss, I became an excellent listener and full of empathy. My coworkers often comment that I am very different from other proprietors because when they want to express their concerns or criticize the company, I never argue. I always explain that I practice Falun Dafa and I manage my company based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. This is mentioned in the public information on my company website.”
Ms. Pham said, “Recently, several clinicians left to work for a multi-national company and a business that has been operating for over 30 years. However, they recently told me they would like to return and work for me because they value our company’s unique entrepreneurial ideas and that this is something they cannot find in other companies.”
Looking Within While Promoting Shen Yun
Ms. Yang from Sydney spoke of how she improved her character while promoting Shen Yun shows. She said that although she lived in Australia for more than three decades, the influence of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) culture occasionally resurfaced. Once, a practitioner who was on good terms with her came to help her sell tickets at a shopping center. While giving out information, they had different ideas and argued. After the practitioner left, she felt the field around her changed. That day neither of them sold any tickets.
She couldn’t forgive the practitioner for a long time. She looked within and found her problem. She was attached to self and insisted on validating herself. So, what she said was not pure, and not only was she unable to convince that practitioner, but what Ms. Yang said angered her. She realized she needed to let go of her notions and sentiments toward the practitioner and regard everything with compassion.
She said, “Holding onto attachments is slacking off in cultivation and not being responsible for one’s cultivation as well as saving people. I was delighted to find my shortcomings. Afterward, I felt as if I got rid of a huge burden.”
Letting Go of the Attachment to Comfort While Promoting Ganjing World
Ms. Chen from Sydney said she hadn’t done the exercises in public for three years due to the pandemic. She became lazy and could not get up in the morning or send righteous thoughts at night. Her back began to hurt. It became so bad she couldn’t bend down and had trouble walking. It was hard to stand up after sitting down and her back hurt unbearably even when she carried a light bag on her shoulder.
A practitioner asked her to go to the market to hand out fliers about Ganjing World, which was something she promised to do earlier. She felt bad and agreed to go. They took a two-hour train ride to a town. Her back continued to hurt but when she got off the train, she forgot about her pain. Both of them carried a heavy bag of fliers and handed them out. They put the remaining several hundred fliers in surrounding cafes, clubs, hotels, and supermarkets. The next day she realized her back stopped hurting. The pain that plagued her for two weeks vanished! She felt lighter and encouraged.
Soon after, she rejoined a practice site and did the exercises every morning. “When I made up my mind to get rid of my attachment to comfort, I was also able to get up at midnight and send righteous thoughts.”
Looking Within While Clarifying the Truth to People
Ya Ming is a young doctor from Indonesia who studied in Australia and then moved to New South Wales. This year, he ran into a bottleneck while helping with a truth-clarification project. He thought it was something he couldn’t resolve alone and felt helpless. “I began to look within—what was it that made me feel uneasy? I finally discovered a fundamental attachment—my attachment to self. I cared too much about my ability and looked down on others. This led to my arrogance and the habit of focusing on other people’s faults. My attachment pushed others away and therefore I could not coordinate with the other practitioners.”
He quickly changed his mindset and reminded himself. “I’m not above others, I must see their good side instead of looking for their negative sides. I suddenly felt unprecedented strength that bound me with everyone tightly. We are all a part of Dafa and I am a particle in it.”
This experience gave him a deeper understanding of cultivation. “Cultivation is eliminating the human mindset and attachments. Looking back, it was foolish of me to focus on people’s shortcomings. I failed to see my fundamental attachment. I was enlightened that these attachments may already have existed before I came to this world. It might be related to the degeneration of the place I came from. These attachments were in my field all along and they were hard to detect because they became second nature. Getting rid of these attachments is important or else they will accumulate like a snowball and become a huge tribulation.”
Richard is 40 years old and is a Western practitioner. This year, he participated in a project to rescue a young practitioner’s family member who was arrested in China for practicing Falun Dafa. He kept running into tests while clarifying the truth to government officials. He was able to remind himself that he is a practitioner and gained a breakthrough in clarifying the truth to VIPs.
He said it was because he reflected on several painful lessons he learned after he began to practice cultivation in 1999. “Many of these losses were because I did not treat conflicts among practitioners correctly. I also realized I could not try and resolve conflicts by emphasizing how correct my views were. I should look for areas where the other party’s ideas are better than mine so that we can continue to work together rather than forcing them to follow my thoughts. This helped to distinguish whether something was arranged by Master or the old forces.”
New Practitioner: How Wonderful It Is to Practice Falun Dafa
Ms. Chen from Queensland said she heard of Dafa at the start of the pandemic. After she began reading Zhuan Falun, she realized that Dafa was what she had been searching for and she began practicing. “My body became light—it felt as if my legs had no weight! It’s an amazing feeling. I no longer feel tired. I am happy every day. It’s as if I’m a totally different person!”
One day, she discovered that three tumors the size of peanuts that had been on her body for over a decade were gone. “Dafa is truly extraordinary. I am so fortunate to have found Dafa!”
She could not stop crying while sharing her cultivation experience, her story of the enthusiasm she had when she first began practicing struck a chord with attendees. Practitioners applauded and several were seen wiping away tears.
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