(Shared at 2001 Russia Conference)
Greetings, fellow Dafa disciples!
My name is Alexandra. I started my cultivation practice last October. When I first received the Book, Zhuan Falun, I finished reading it in almost one session and immediately went to the practice site. The second day I experienced a cleansing of my intestines and stomach. In the month that followed, this cleansing went by relatively smoothly. Then a test arose in my dreams, and at the final moment of the test it occurred to me that I am a Dafa disciple.
It is really difficult to see one's deeply buried attachments. For example, I used to panic when there was no meat at home, because I would not know what to cook and how to make entrees for my family. Now my family members and I don't care anymore whether we have meat.
I also discovered my attachments of affection among family members from the troubles a friend of mine had experienced. I used to try to help my children solve their problems, thus depriving them of their own rights of decision-making. In this area, I often had conflicts with my children. When I realized my attachments, problems that were previously unsolvable, were solved, and trust filled my entire family.
In the summer, we started doing exercises in the city's central park. Although I enjoyed doing the exercises, I had not overcome my inhibition of promoting the Fa to strangers. Once during the exercises, I was standing in front of a board displaying the truth of the Chinese Government's suppression [of Falun Gong]. Two young men, who were a little drunk, came over and started threatening us. I tried to explain the truth to them as calmly as I could. Later I realized that I was really upset in my heart, so I started to eliminate the evil around me by sending forth righteous thoughts. The two young men left with a threat that they would be back again. It was then that I realized that elimination of the evil was indeed very effective. When we first started eliminating the evil, it was hard to maintain righteous thoughts, and in front of our eyes was always the darkness. Later, images of demons appeared frequently. I then actively engaged myself in eliminating the evil with various supernormal capabilities including using Falun.
I also realized that I had been upset in my heart because I hadn't let go of the attachment to personal cultivation, and hadn't transcended the limitations of personal cultivation. This August, we held a peaceful demonstration for the purpose of promoting the Fa and clarifying the truth, inviting reporters from TV stations. However, one local TV station broadcasted the self-immolation incident and described Falun Dafa practitioners as a "[slanderous word]" that engages in suicide activities. I think that our fundamental attachments, which had been quite deeply hidden, were being exposed. Master said in his article "Towards Consummation" published in June 2000: "...even if you say that Dafa isn't involved in politics, they have wicked human beings spread lies that Dafa and Li Hongzhi have foreign political forces behind them, and so forth; if you say that Dafa collects no fees, they say that Master has sought to accumulate wealth through dishonest means. Whatever you're attached to, they have evil elements concoct lies in that regard." I completely disagree with the way the media labeled us as followers of certain "[slanderous word]" or as religious fanatics. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. I gave it some serious thought: What are the attachments that this is ultimately trying to point out to me? My attachments are in showing-off and being afraid of the damage their negative reports would cause to spreading the Truth of the Fa.
Starting on September 15, 2001, we held an exhibition of photographs. We know that the benevolence that Buddhas display is for all sentient beings. Master says in Zhuan Falun: "Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality... Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality... If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person's mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble."
The next day I stepped forward with a pure heart, and found that others were very friendly toward us, asking our opinions on the terrorist attack on the United States. We patiently explained that this is a manifestation of evil, and these evils should not be allowed to exist, especially among our Dafa practitioners. We have to realize that Dafa disciples in China have let go of the concern for their own life and death in order to validate Dafa on the surface of this earth. What has been displayed is exactly the nature of Dafa disciples; Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truth-Compassion-Tolerance).
As a Dafa disciple, I should not merely validate Dafa with those whom I know, but I should also validate Dafa with those I don't know, in order to clarify the truth and spread the Fa to them.
Thank you all.
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