(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, venerable Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I would like to share some of my recent cultivation experiences with you.
1. In doing Fa-rectification work, we should cultivate ourselves more and tolerate fellow practitioners
Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students:"
"With the three things being the focal point, you figure out how to do them well and at the same time cultivate yourselves well and save sentient beings--the hardest part is saving sentient beings. Doing things well is actually a matter of coordination. When I say coordination, I'm talking about cooperating and working well together. Validating the Fa is also cultivation, and if you all look within you will be able to cooperate well. Dafa is cultivation, and there's nothing else."
When doing Dafa work for Fa-rectification, practitioners often have different opinions. It is true that everyone has enlightened to different Fa principles, yet a more important factor is that the parts of us that we have not cultivated well can play negative roles.
When we were preparing an activity in early June, among five veteran practitioners, two held one opinion, while the other three of us had a different one. We each tried to discuss the issue according to our own understandings of the Fa. However, because we did not communicate well amongst ourselves, the problem grew larger and manifested in the larger group of practitioners. The preparatory meeting held two days prior to the event ended with practitioners arguing fiercely. Amidst the chaos, I distinctly heard one practitioner say these words, "It's all because those three people talked behind others' backs."
Although my heart was not overly disturbed by her words, since I knew she had said them while upset, her words made me look inward. In truth, we hadn't intended to talk behind others' backs and we didn't mean to form a little clique. The three of us had talked amongst ourselves only because we knew we would have different opinions from the other two, and we wanted to exchange some ideas privately first. But from the perspective of the other two, it was indeed us three talking behind their backs.
Why did I do it that way? After reflection, I found that I indeed hadn't done very well. Why can I pick up the phone to call some practitioners without any hesitation, while with others I cannot? Other than the fact that I knew some practitioners better then others, the main reason was actually because I was afraid of facing different opinions. It's an attachment to not wanting to change myself. Deep in my heart, I didn't want to listen to the things others had to say in case they were true. Master has told us how Gods do things. When Gods have differing opinions, they first listen and see whether or not the other party's approach can reach the goal. Reaching the goal or not is one thing, the willingness to consider others' opinions is what's most crucial.
Master also told us that we can never divide Dafa into any branches, schools, sects, or denominations, at any time, in any place, no excuses. I then wondered if the main reason those cultivators in history ended up having disputes and fights, and creating different factions and schools, was all because they had held firmly to their own ways of thinking, only wanting to be around people sharing similar understandings, and were unwilling and reluctant to listen to those with different thinking.
After realizing that, I began to communicate with all four of the others, suggesting that we do better by communicating more and removing all gaps between the five of us. I shared with them that only by doing things this way can we truly coordinate better locally and help foster a better cultivation environment for everyone. On the surface, the evil interference manifests as practitioners arguing over a certain topic, but actually it is a profound cultivation issue. Once the cultivation issue is resolved, there are no loopholes for the evil to exploit. I understand this as similar to what Master taught regarding sickness: when the evil spirits in other dimensions are removed, the tumor manifested in this dimension would disappear. On the other hand, if, like in Western medicine, only the surface symptoms are treated and the fundamental problem is left untouched, the sickness will later return.
Another thing is, in the first several years after I started cultivation, I didn't like to see the conflicts among practitioners; I only liked to see harmony everywhere. Later as I studied Fa more in depth, I truly understood what Master taught us - it's normal to have conflicts; only by having conflicts can we expose our attachments; the key is how to quickly improve among the conflicts. If we didn't use the conflicts as good opportunities to improve ourselves, but rather, just strengthened the negative feeling towards each other over and over again, then this would become an easy target for the evil to use to interfere with us. Sometimes I could see there were long-accumulated negative feelings existing among certain practitioners that they had held onto for a long time. As soon as practitioner A said some thing very casually, practitioner B would immediately have a strong reaction. The consequence of this situation is that the Fa rectification work cannot be discussed in the usual manner. Sometimes the comments that I have heard from practitioner A were in reference to something practitioner B said or did a few years ago.
I myself experienced similar things. After barely getting through these conflicts, what I find most helpful today is to remind myself to put the Fa first and to tolerate others more. Earlier this year, while preparing for a big activity, one practitioner called to criticize my way of handling something. I couldn't uphold my xinxing and I argued with her. Eventually she said, "Ever since you came to DC, this area just got so messed up." Then the phone cut off. I wasn't sure if she had hung up or if my cell phone had lost its signal. I felt so uncomfortable at that moment. I was thinking, "What have I really done after coming to DC? Was the good environment ruined by me?" I wanted so much to call someone to vent my grievance.
After a while, I calmed down. I realized that she only said this because she was upset at that moment. How could I treat that seriously? Everyone still has ordinary people's attachments during the course of cultivation and therefore must have moments when he or she cannot uphold their xinxing. Should I take it seriously? Didn't Master teach us to be tolerant towards each other? If I allowed some gap to be formed between her and me, wouldn't that make the evil the most happy? If I vented my grievances to my wife and others, wouldn't that cause a big negative energy field in our group? This negative field may even last for a long time and affect the Fa-rectification work in the DC area. This must be the opposite of what Master wants. Trying to harmonize what Master wants is the most benevolent thought a being in this universe could have. Therefore, I ended up not telling anyone about this incident.
Meanwhile, I realized that her words were indeed a wake-up call for me - during the course of more than a year in DC there were indeed things that I could have done better. "Causing a mess" may be an exaggeration, but I do need to constantly remind myself in the future that in DC, such an important place during the Fa-rectification, I should make more positive contributions, not negative ones. Some words from an article published on Clearwisdom.net a few years back have left a deep impression in me. To this day I often recall those words:
"One of the obligations for every practitioner is to "bond," meaning eliminating all the crevices among particles so we can form one indestructible particle group."
2. Keep righteous thoughts at all times and do not give the evil any loopholes
As Fa rectification has reached the point it's at today, the evil is becoming less and less. We send forth righteous thoughts every single day, but what is critical is how to keep up our righteous thoughts constantly to guard against the evil's interference.
For some period of time, my cultivation state was bad and I was not diligent. When I read our own media's website, I sometimes couldn't help but read some of the articles intended for everyday readers, such as those about fashion models and world beauty contests. Of course, that contributed to some of my impure thoughts. One day I came across a short story said to be forbidden in China. Out of curiosity, I started to read it. It was full of descriptions of dirty things. I knew it was not good for me to read it, yet I continued and finished it anyway. After reading it, I suddenly realized - what kind of book is this? It's nothing but a pornographic novel. I felt regretful. In the past, either I had no interest or I could easily control myself when it came to these kinds of stories. Why had I let down my defenses and relaxed in my cultivation, creating an excuse for myself only because this was on our own media?
The next day I traveled to another state to attend an important project meeting. As we neared the destination, I took the wrong exit on the highway and we ended up driving an extra hour. While stopped at a gas station, I was told my tire was leaking. After pumping the air, we arrived at the meeting. The meeting was supposed to be very important, but from time to time my mind drifted, thinking about where to get my car repaired. Later at the repair shop, a two inch long nail was pulled out of the tire. It had pierced the tire from the front. I was really shocked. Even a regular nail causing a flat tire would not have been an accident, not to mention this. This was so abnormal. The longer a nail is, the less likely it is that it can pierce the tire from the front surface. I hadn't run over any flat boards, which may have had long nails in them. If it had been sabotage by some bad people, piercing from the side would have been the easiest. I was awakened - it was the loophole I had in my cultivation those days that the evil had taken advantage of. As long as the evil sees my loopholes, it can use any supernormal means to take me down. The more I thought about it, the more shocked I was.
The next morning after returning home, I used the bathroom, flushed the toilet and went downstairs. After doing Dafa work for over an hour, I went back upstairs only to find the water was still running. I realized the tank's lever had broken, causing the water to leak for more than an hour. It became even clearer to me - the tire leaked air, the toilet leaked water... They were all leaks, severe leaks. It was all because I myself had big leaks. I was truly awakened. No matter how well I had cultivated before, even up to the very moment of consummation, the evil would do everything possible to take down a Fa rectification disciple. It wasn't that just because I did so much important Dafa work I had accumulated capital. Cultivating to a certain level is difficult, but it only takes a split second to be ruined. I also came to deeply understand that when being interfered with, there must be some loophole that the evil is taking advantage of. Denying the old forces' interference includes us filling up that loophole. We all do a lot of work to save sentient beings every day, but if we don't control ourselves well, not only can that affect our Dafa work, it can also possibly take our lives, therefore causing us to lose the opportunity to save more sentient beings. How disheartening that would be to Master and other beings in the universe!
3. Studying Fa
As early as the article "Towards Consummation" published in 2000, Master mentioned some practitioners doing Dafa work can't concentrate when it comes to reading the books. In Fa lectures in recent years, Master often talked about the issue of Fa study. My Fa study state has ups and downs. In a good state, I study the Fa with a calm mind and absorb the Fa well. Yet many times I either doze off over the reading, or things that happened during the day would come up and occupy my mind, or something urgent or a conference call with short notice would disrupt my Fa study. As a cultivator, I felt pained that for a long period of time I could not guarantee the quality and quantity of Fa study. Every time my wife saw me dozing off over the reading, she'd remind me, "You should use your most clearheaded time of the day for Fa study." Nevertheless I did not make a breakthrough regarding this. Whenever I read Master's words on studying the Fa, or when fellow practitioners shared their experiences on Fa study, I knew that I had slacked off. Yet sometimes I found excuses, "I have a job, and there is lots of Dafa work to do, how can I have so much time like some other practitioners?" Sometimes when I did not finish the planned reading, I'd have a thought containing the excuse, "Master has said that even if we can't read a whole lot, maintaining a calm mind while studying is what's most important."
Finally, at one of the project meetings, several practitioners each talked about their state of studying the Fa and doing the exercises and we realized that none of us had been doing very well in these regards. On average, we could not even finish reading one lecture of Zhuan Falun every day. That was really a warning sign to wake us up. One practitioner suggested that we study the Fa together every morning through the Internet so as to supervise and urge ourselves to be diligent.
After several days of morning Fa study, I felt great. My first thing in the morning is Fa study; I am clearheaded, and my mind is not distracted by other things as I haven't started doing things yet. I truly feel that I am studying the Fa. As I read, I comprehend the Fa principles and measure my cultivation accordingly. This is quite different from my previous state of Fa study. I feel as if I have gone back to my earlier years of cultivation before the persecution.
How I regret that I had not started doing this several years ago. I have wasted much of the remaining precious time. Also, I did not pay attention to my wife's advice, and sometimes I was even shamed into anger. Now I have continued my morning Fa study for almost two months. With ensured Fa study, my mind is steady and peaceful. It is easier to keep up my xinxing during the day, and I am closer to Zhen-Shan-Ren.
I have realized from this that when fellow practitioners, especially our spouses, give advice, we should think it over carefully, as it often turns out to be a problem we have neglected or not given enough attention to, like the extremely important issue of Fa study. When we take the opportunity to search inward, it is we who benefit from it. If we cultivate well, we can do better in saving sentient beings, and more beings from our corresponding firmaments will be saved. If we don't seize the opportunity then the results will be just the opposite.
Above are some of my experiences from doing cultivation and Fa-rectification work. Please point out any mistakes.
Thank you Master. Thank you fellow practitioners.