(Clearwisdom.net) I am a quiet Falun Dafa practitioner. When the Fa-validation projects need me, I coordinate with fellow practitioners. When the Fa-validation projects do not need my coordination, I do the three things well by myself. The style of cultivating the Fa is a great way without form. It is also the same for Dafa disciples to validate the Fa. Together there's a form, and separated there are particles. Each practitioner is the lead role on his/her own stage of Fa validation. At the same time, each practitioner also quietly but steadily cooperates with the whole body in their own environments.
After July 20, 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. Every day I also continuously thought about what I should to do to stop the persecution. In October 1999, I read some experience sharing articles that had been taken from the Minghui website (the Chinese version of Clearwisdom). I decided that I needed to learn how to visit Minghui website. Teacher saw my heart and he arranged everything. In 2000, I learned how to use a proxy server to visit the Minghui website. At that time, Teacher often published new articles. I downloaded the articles and distributed them to other practitioners.
Once a fake article was spread in our local area. The coordinator asked a few practitioners including me to verity it with the Minghui website. The article was confirmed to be a fake one. On big issues we are required to pay attention to the position of the Minghui website, and we have access to the Minghui website in our area. So since then, we only read Teacher's articles and practitioners' experience sharing articles published on the Minghui website. We only downloaded and distributed the truth-clarifying materials published on the Minghui website. The fake articles and materials which undermine the Fa have no chance to spread in our local area anymore.
At the end of 2000, the original method of visiting the Minghui website did not work anymore. At that time, many practitioners were arrested, and we also lost contact with many practitioners. The only practitioner who could give me technical help was a practitioner who worked at a technical training company. He said, "The Internet access to the Minghui website was blocked. We could not even send email to the Minghui website." I was very upset. The practitioner I trusted said it was not possible to access the Minghui website. A very firm coordinator I trusted also said it was not possible. What should I do? Dafa has been persecuted, and the practitioners who were arrested have been tortured. But so many people are unaware of what is happening. I absolutely could not accept this. I must expose the evil, and I can do it. I made up my mind and tried to send an email to the Minghui public email address. It looked like the email failed to be sent out. But I remained unmoved by the illusion, and I firmly believed that it would work. Finally, I got the reply email from Minghui, and I established the individual connection channel with the Minghui website. (I used this channel for about three years, and I truly appreciated the great help and support from the overseas practitioners in the first few years.)
I told this method to the coordinator, and the coordinator promoted this method in our local area. This guaranteed the continuous connection between our area and the Minghui website before the anti-web-blocking software was invented and used. The news of the persecution on Falun Gong practitioners in our local area could always be sent to the Minghui website and posted in a timely manner. Just a few days after the practitioner was arrested, the overseas practitioners called the relevant police and CCP personnel to clarify the truth, which greatly shocked the evil.
This experience also helped me understand that no matter how extraordinary the coordinator is or how technically skilled the practitioner, they are all just practitioners trying to find the right way to validate the Fa. It does not exist that someone is "higher" than others. We need to take the Fa as Teacher. Since then, I followed the principle that no matter how extraordinary the coordinator was or how great the practitioner was, if there was information that was unrelated to them, I would not tell them. I would not be moved by the practitioners. I only evaluated things based on the Fa.
I cooperated very well with the coordinator. We agreed, "As long as one person can finish the job, a second one should not know. As long as two persons can finish the job together, a third person should not know." So the coordinator did not know anything I worked on except the things we worked on together. I also did not know any other things the coordinator worked on.
When I went to a practitioner's home, I usually paused slightly in the living room entrance after I entered the door until the practitioner asked me into a certain room. Even if I was familiar with the practitioner, I did not go directly into his room without his permission. I was not curious about other's doings and never asked. When we shared cultivation experiences, I only shared my understandings based on the Fa. I never talked about other practitioners' work. I saved practitioners' telephone numbers with encryption or remembered them in my heart. I never saved any information if it was not good for other practitioners' safety.
Regarding the cultivation of speech, my understanding is that we should pay attention to our cultivation of speech and each thought we had all the time during everyday life. Only this way can we have a firm foundation of cultivation. Teacher taught us in the Eighth Talk of Zhuan Falun,
"When we open our mouths to speak we should speak in line with a practitioner's character, we don't gossip, and we don't say negative things. You're a cultivator, so to decide whether or not you should say something you should see how you measure up to the standards of the Law." "When we talk about minding speech, it's about the ordinary things like reputation and profit that you can't let go of and that aren't related to a cultivator's actual work in the world; it's about disciples in the same practice talking about pointless things with each other; it's about stuff that's done to show off because of attachments; about spreading rumors heard through the grapevine; and talking about other things in the world with a lot of excitement and interest. I think these are all attachments an ordinary person has, and we should mind our speech when it comes to these things. That's what we mean by minding speech." "What we hold ourselves to are the requirements for a practitioner's character, and it'll be fine as long as you handle well what you should and shouldn't say." (The Eighth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
During everyday life if we like to ask about practitioners' personal information such as their names, where they live, where they work, etc., if we are curious about the projects that the other practitioners are working on, love to chat and gossip with practitioners, and do not maintain the good habit of minding our speech, how can we guarantee that we will not divulge information about fellow practitioners at the critical moment?
On a lighter note, if you know other's secrets and have to keep the secret for him, and at the same time he also worries that you might tell, hasn't this become a burden? So the less things we know about other practitioners, the better.
Regarding the safety issue, I think that although many times we did not have any trouble even when we did not take any safety measures, that was only because of Teacher's compassion and protection. It is not because we were wise. We also cannot use that to prove that it is right to not take safety measures. It is very dangerous to adhere stubbornly to one's own opinions. Teacher told us to consider others first. No matter what we do, we need to consider other practitioners' ability to handle pressure, their feelings, and their safety first. The new universe has the nature of selflessness. Our goal of cultivation is to cultivate ourselves into selfless enlightened beings and always put others first. If we cannot consider others first, then what is the meaning of our cultivation?
During my cooperation with fellow practitioners in the past, I deeply experienced the pain of not being able to explain myself to others. We all had our own difficulties that could not be easily communicated with one another. It was easy to create misunderstanding and disharmony. When it happened, I looked inward to get rid of my thought of changing others. And at the same time I did not waste time on internal friction. When I frankly told fellow practitioners my experience of looking inward, our conflict disappeared. I also found that I did not do well when validating the Fa by myself. In the past I always wondered why the practitioners could not consider others' difficulties. After a long time I finally realized that I depended on the changing of external conditions too much, and I depended on fellow practitioners' cooperation too much. Actually the thing that constrained me was my attachment. During our path of cultivation, Teacher will use all kinds of opportunities to let us see our attachments that we could not realize by ourselves. To validate the Fa is certainly very important. But we should not use this as an excuse to not get rid of our attachments. I got used to being in a supporting role to cooperate with the whole body. But I did not realize that all the practitioners in Mainland China are in leading roles. Everyone needs to have their own path of validating the Fa. I needed to break through myself and walk my path of validating the Fa independently.
Since then I started to quietly but steadily clarify the truth by myself. I frequently thought of all kinds of ways to clarify the truth. Gradually I became able to produce many truth-clarifying materials by myself. I can produce as much as I need and do not waste any. During everyday life, I spent one bill with truth-clarification messages every time I went shopping. Although one bill was not much, I did it nearly each time I went shopping. After a long period of time, the total amount was very considerable. Whenever I went out, I usually brought a few truth-clarifying materials with me and distributed them conveniently while I was out.
Cultivation is to look inward and cultivate our own xinxing. If we look inward, we will comply with the nature of the universe better, and we will validate the Fa more smoothly. If we look outward, we will deviate from the nature of the universe. And obstacles will form either in communicating with other practitioners or cooperating in the Dafa related works. When we are eager to persuade others or point out other's attachment, our behavior itself might already show our attachment to finding others' faults. We often had discussions to confront other practitioners on their issues, but usually the effect was not good. This is because when we say "let other practitioners improve and keep up with the progress of Fa-Rectification," we actually already place our selves higher than others.
Once I saw an article from the Minghui website regarding a method of eliminating the regime's deceitful posters. I wanted to tell this method to other practitioners and eliminate the vicious propaganda in our local area together with them. I thought one of the practitioners was not willing to walk a long way and thought that he absolutely would not go. But then I found out that the posters were already eliminated by the practitioner who I thought would not go. And he used the method I saw on the Minghui website. This practitioner silently did everything firmly. Compared to him, I did not do well. It is not that I should help the other practitioner improve. It is I who should improve. We always say we should form one body. But we wait for others to change, wish others to think the same way as we do and to cooperate with us to become one body without gaps.
But shouldn't we first require ourselves to see others' point of view? If we had the disaffection, prejudice and repelled others in our hearts, if we did not look inward, we could never become one body. Teacher asked us to look inward. Only if we look inward, can we see that it is us who create the gaps and prevent the practitioners from becoming one body. Only if we look inward can we cultivate ourselves and get rid of the impurities and become compassionate. Only compassion will touch others and change people's hearts. Human ways will never change people's hearts. If we look inward, the conflicts and gaps will disappear. We do not need to do anything and we will naturally become a harmonious one body.
October 22, 2008
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
