Cultivating While Completing Our Mission

(Minghui.org) I am 62 years old this year and had the privilege of starting to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. In recent years, I have been in charge of some coordination among the practitioners in my region. Because there are no Dafa disciples in some villages, fellow practitioners in the cities spontaneously went to the countryside to distribute truth-clarification materials.

I have always believed that my forte is passing out truth-clarification materials. I left footprints in most of the urban areas where I live. Even when I was forced to leave home and became homeless, I passed out many truth-clarification materials to save people. I focused on the area where I lived and expanded outward by walking to nearby places. I rode a bicycle or took a bus to places that were further away. During that period, I acted alone.

A few years ago, when practitioners began to pass out truth-clarification materials in groups, I did not approve of it and did not participate, which hindered the participation of practitioners from my family’s Fa study group. Six years ago, after communicating and being helped by fellow practitioners, the knot in my heart opened. I began to participate. The first time I went out, I saw that the practitioners were very responsible. They were meticulous in saving people, which paved the way for me to coordinate practitioners’ efforts to save people.

Two practitioners who had been responsible for the project stopped participating due to busy work schedules and other reasons, so I took the initiative to coordinate and have persisted until now. It was not as easy as I had imagined. I experienced ups and downs in my mind. There were always tests for me to pass in cultivation. The interference from human notions played out all the time. I peeled them away layer by layer. This process was heart-wrenching.

1. Getting Rid of the Attachment to Oneself While Saving People

Most of the members of our project team are from our Fa-study group. Sometimes when we had a shortage of manpower, practitioners from other Fa-study groups joined us. In the beginning, we mostly selected young people, office workers, and practitioners with experience walking in the countryside at night. I was not familiar with remote rural paths, so I learned to read maps, but the maps were very different from the specific situations on the ground, so I had to go into the field during the day. Although it took up a lot of daylight hours, it was worth it. With practitioners’ joint efforts, the project has gone quite smoothly. Over the past few years, we have not only completed the areas that we are responsible for, but have also shared the tasks of other areas. 

I don’t have a strong sense of direction at night, especially after entering a village, so I’d often miss a household when passing out materials. Sometimes I even sent the driver and fellow practitioners the wrong way. One of my relatives in the project team is a driver. She is two years older than me and often ridicules me, which made me very embarrassed.

In daily life, I often hear praise from customers, colleagues, and family members. I often have the final word when making decisions at work, so I have developed a lot of bad habits. When I heard my relative and fellow practitioners ridiculing me, I felt angry in my heart. Sometimes my heart felt like it was about to explode. I was deeply frustrated and tormented.

Through studying the Fa and looking inward, and being inspired by practitioners’ articles, I realized that it was an attachment to myself, and that I should improve my mind. I am now able to let go of myself, listen to the opinions of others with a humble attitude, especially the different ideas of experienced practitioners. We brainstorm ideas and work together to do a good job of helping Master to save others.

2. Getting Rid of Resentment While Saving People

I once went to a village. As soon as our two groups of practitioners entered the village, a dog barked wildly. My partner and I quickly finished passing out materials and got into the car. The driver saw that two people were missing, so he urged me to go into the village to find them. In fact, the two practitioners had passed the car, but the driver had not seen them. At this time, a villager came out of nowhere at the entrance of the village. He was holding a big stick in his hand and threw stones at the car. The driver drove away, leaving me alone.

I didn’t find the fellow practitioners, so I waited for a while. The dog barked again. I thought to myself, if more villagers come out, it will be troublesome, so I went straight to that villager. The man shouted menacingly, “Stop, what are you doing?” I beckoned, “It’s all right, it’s all right.” I walked past him quickly, and he didn’t stop me. I knew that Master was protecting me.

I felt a little unhappy in my heart and began to complain about the practitioners, because if I hadn’t gotten out of the car I would have avoided this disturbance. Cultivators must not have resentment, and they must cultivate. In order to get rid of my resentment, the same thing happened again.

This time, I partnered with a female practitioner. When I went to the parking lot, the car was no longer in its original location. A man showed up, and we walked away quickly. He followed closely behind us and told us to stop. He was drunk and asked angrily, “What are you doing? I remember the license plate number of the car that parked here just now. If I shout, you won’t get away. You see, I’m wearing a ‘security guard’ badge on my arm. I’m the security officer here!” I said, “You’re so kind that you wouldn’t do such a thing.” He immediately forgot his anger and told me the direction the car went.

We walked back on foot, looking for a car as we walked. We didn’t see the car. The female practitioner was angry. I clearly knew that this incident was for me to cultivate. Although I was tired, I kept my heart positive and thought to myself: the driver must have had an emergency, otherwise he wouldn’t have broken his promise. I comforted the fellow practitioner. After walking a long way, we came across a taxi and took the taxi home.

3. Getting Rid of Jealousy While Saving People

A young practitioner in the group who often goes to rural areas for work is familiar with the roads. He has a strong sense of direction, even in the dark. Every time my relative and practitioners belittle me, they always praise him by contrast. While I was annoyed, I often felt jealous of him. But this jealousy was hidden and not easy for me to see.

Once, in the course of studying the Fa, I learned from the Master, 

“Jealousy is definitely something you must get rid of. It is something formidable and can make you slack off in all aspects of your cultivation and ruin you. You mustn’t harbor jealousy!” (“Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIV) 

I was very shocked in my heart. I realized that it was time for me to get rid of jealousy.

I started studying with this young fellow practitioner, planning to go to the countryside with him and to listen to his opinions. Today, he is an indispensable member of our project team.

4. Getting Rid of Fear While Saving People

One time, we passed out materials in a village. More than a dozen households were covered. When the villagers heard dogs barking, someone came out to check with a flashlight. A female practitioner and I hurriedly walked to another road. But on this road, someone else came out with a flashlight. There happened to be a stack of firewood and grass on the side of the road, so we hid behind it. After about 10 minutes, the people left. We passed through a crop field and found our car on the side of the road.

Later, when the group had a discussion about it, the female practitioner and I looked inward and exposed the negative thinking that we had at that time. She had thought, “I don’t want to get in trouble, otherwise I could miss my son’s wedding.” But she realized that this was negative thinking, because after we sent forth righteous thoughts, the villagers went back in their houses. There was no danger.

In another village, there were surveillance cameras everywhere. The villagers saw in the surveillance footage that someone was carrying a bag and wandering around. They surrounded the practitioners and detained them for half an hour. Only after fellow practitioners’ clarified the truth wisely were the villagers willing to release them. All these things caused the practitioners to have different degrees of negative thinking.

We have had two multiple arrest incidents of practitioners in our town. Three consecutive arrest incidents of practitioners happened last spring brought pressure and negative thinking to practitioners. We had to suspend the project for eight months.

Master said, 

“The old forces don’t dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What’s key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2002 Conference in Boston, U.S.A.,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume II)

Everyone sat down to study the Fa calmly and looked inward. All the practitioners realized that there was a problem in the cultivation of our region. First of all, as the person in charge of the project, I had zealotry and the attachment to showing off. I regarded doing things as cultivation. In the words of my fellow practitioners, I was “too proud of myself” and attached to myself; secondly, there was a gap between fellow practitioners. The tensions were caused by conflicts from many different notions that had accumulated over our years of doing things. We failed to get rid of everyday people’s notions and cultivate ourselves in time; and moreover, I didn’t pay attention to the cultivation status of the participating practitioners. Sometimes, when we were short of manpower, I casually pulled people who were not in a good state into our project. All of these things were exploited by the evil and used as excuses to carry out persecution.

A few days before his arrest, one of these practitioners had thought that if somebody chased him in a car, he would throw his bag into the road as an obstacle for that person. On the day of the arrest, he and the driver really encountered an incident and was chased by a car. Later, the practitioner recalled this incident, and said with deep feelings: “The thrilling chase scene is really what I asked for with that bad thought.”

After several months of Fa-study, the project team was reinstated at the urging of practitioners. Now, all the members of the project are practitioners from our Fa-study group. If someone wants to participate, he or she must join our Fa-study group to study the Fa. We study the Master’s teachings on getting rid of fear and read practitioners’ sharing articles on negative thinking. We try to truly change our notions, regarding this as our responsibility to help Master save people to complete our missions. 

5. Coordinating with Practitioners

Our project team is not only responsible for distributing materials in villages, but also undertakes the distribution tasks for some communities in urban areas. One day, I walked into the home of an elderly fellow practitioner in a rural area with a fellow practitioner. She said humbly, “You are like the vanguard troops on the battlefield, paving the way for us and taking the lead for us to conduct face-to-face truth-clarification and save people.” The practitioner replied, “Then you are the angels who directly carry stretchers onto the battlefield to save people.” 

Master’s new scripture “How Humankind Came to Be” was published, revealing for the first time the heavenly secrets of the universe and human beings to all beings in the world, and opening the prelude to the Fa-Rectification of the human world. The 938th issue of the Chinese edition of Minghui Weekly published the full text of Master’s new scripture. In order for people to see it as soon as possible, we needed to first raise awareness among practitioners who were eager to save people, so we recruited a few coordinators and held several meetings.

At one meeting, a fellow practitioner who had coordination experience said: “We should change our mindsets and stop revolving around our children and grandchildren, and stop living like ordinary people.” He ordered 600 copies of materials for his Fa study group. Some fellow practitioners solved their previous misunderstandings of the Fa through discussion. Others found their attachments to the stubborn ego.

The most gratifying thing was that the practitioners who had not participated in group Fa study for many years have begun to participate in group study. The practitioners who had been slacking off for many years have begun to come out to clarify the truth and save people. Inspired by Master’s article “How Humankind Came to Be” some everyday people have started to read Zhuan Falun and have joined Dafa cultivation.

After the meetings, practitioners all took action, not waiting or relying on others, and each performing his or her own duties. Fellow practitioners have been clarifying the truth face-to-face. They encourage each other to go to the streets and go to the villages together. They have gone to residential buildings to distribute materials. The practitioners in the city and the countryside have coordinated well to avoid omissions and duplicate distributions. After half a year, we have almost covered the whole city and countryside. The feedback from most areas is great.

As a Dafa disciple who assists Master in Fa-rectification, the pace of helping Master to save people can only be accelerated. I cannot stop. As a coordinator in our region, I not only have to cultivate myself, but also cooperate with fellow practitioners, find those who have fallen behind, urge those who are slacking off, encourage those who are diligent, and take care of those who have sickness karma. I want to form a whole body with my fellow practitioners, improve my xinxing, and uplift my realm. We will get rid of all kinds of notions and attachments in the process of fulfilling our missions to save people without slacking off.