(Clearwisdom.net) Another year has passed quickly and the Fifth Internet Experience Sharing Conference for Practitioners in China is close at hand. I thank Teacher for giving us the opportunity to share and improve together. I also want to take this opportunity to pay my deepest respects to Teacher, who is concerned for each and every sentient being and each and every one of his practitioners.
Clarifying the Truth to Save Sentient Beings
- Creating an environment to save people with predestined relationships
I had moved to a new area where everyone was a stranger. I believed that Teacher arranged this for a reason, so I tried to establish a good environment for truth clarification no matter where I went. I paid attention to my appearance, attempted to be well-organized, and greeted everyone I met politely. I talked to people so they would get to know me. I was considerate and helpful. I tried to be tolerant and created a peaceful environment. People felt comfortable around me, so when I clarified the truth to them, they were very receptive.
There was a retired official who kept to himself. I gave him a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and waited for an opportunity to chat with him. He told me that he understood everything after reading the book but was not comfortable with the idea of quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I talked with him for a while and let him know why it was beneficial to quit the CCP, and he eventually agreed.
Even today, many practitioners guard themselves and hesitate to clarify the truth. They fail to rectify their own environment and thus trouble ensues. I understood that we are predestined to meet with certain people who hope that we will save them. We are selfish if we care only about our own safety and refuse to save them. In fact, if they understand the truth, they will protect you and you will truly be safe. There are cases where this might not always be true, so we need to validate the Fa with wisdom.
- Clarifying the truth anywhere and anytime
Due to my strong human notions, I believed it to be difficult to clarify the truth about the inhuman persecution of Falun Gong face to face. I was afraid that my verbal skills were lacking and so I got nervous when broached with the subject matter. It gave me an unpleasant feeling when people refused to listen, especially strangers. When people were willing to listen I became encouraged. There were times when I was sad or afraid when people thought I was weird or gave me the cold shoulder. I looked within and realized that I treated clarifying the truth as accomplishing a mission instead of saving sentient beings. I was actually being self centered and lacked compassion. When my attitude changed, I calmed down and the effect of my truth clarification improved. When I faced a difficult situation, I asked for Teacher's help. When I had strong righteous thoughts, the results of my truth clarification efforts improved greatly.
As I continued memorizing the Fa, my righteous belief grew stronger and I gained great experience in how best to clarify the truth. I was no longer attached to the results. I clarified the truth wherever I went--on the street, on the bus, at the market, and in shops and bookstores. I kept what I said within the confines of the person's ability to accept it, and I tried to be calm and not badger people. Most of the time, the outcome of my truth clarification improved when the person felt that I cared about them. We need to remember not to panic when the person refuses to listen. We should send righteous thoughts and let the person feel our compassion. In this case there may be other times when we or other practitioners can tell him/her the true facts.
Changing Our Notions and Eliminating Attachments
I was years into the practice before I discovered that I did everything out of selfishness. I thought about my safety, my human notions overpowered my righteous thoughts, I feared another round of arrests when the CCP had a meeting, and around sensitive dates and when practitioners talked about producing truth clarification materials and downloading the latest Falun Dafa information from the Internet, I saw danger. Before and during the Olympics, I wanted to hide in a safe place. I even believed that if I didn't do well I deserved to be persecuted, and in my mind I saw images of approaching danger for practitioners. When a practitioner was arrested, I imagined that he/she would definitely be persecuted. It didn't enter my mind that we needed to negate all of this. When we looked at the problems with human notions and acknowledged the persecution, the persecution intensified. Teacher told us to negate the old forces arrangements, but sometimes our thoughts were controlled by the old forces and we lost our practitioner-abilities to reason.
I acknowledged the persecution many times and my notions gave the evil a way to exploit my gap. Teacher said,
"As the Righteous Fa spreads,
Untold fiends try to impede,
Yet sentient beings do still gain salvation,
And human notions change,
The degenerate things purged,
Brightness now shines forth." ("Born Anew" from Hong Yin)
I enlightened that the evil lives within our notions, so when our notions turn into righteous thoughts, the evil will disintegrate immediately. When we don't do well, it is often because we don't have righteous thoughts. The fewer notions we have, the smoother our path.
I feel that I have analyzed issues based on the Fa over the past year. This was because I studied the Fa diligently and calmly. Be it holidays, sensitive days, the People's Congress session, the Olympics, or any other outside factor--nothing can interfere with my doing the three things. The different factors are illusions and the evil uses them to interfere with us. Teacher asked us to save sentient beings and nothing should interfere with our historic mission.
"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." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston")
From studying the Fa diligently, I changed. I could face problems rationally and not impulsively, and my human notions no longer govern my actions. The Fa eliminated my notions and I could see clearly. I used to cover up my attachments and refused to acknowledge them, and sometimes I even pointed out others' attachments to make myself feel better.
It is of the greatest importance that a practitioner takes eliminating attachments seriously. Teacher said,
"If jealousy is not abolished, everything that you have cultivated will become fragile. There is this rule: If in the course of cultivation practice jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Right Fruit--absolutely not...
Throughout history, or from the perspective of higher dimensions, the issues of one's desire and lust have been very critical in determining whether one can practice cultivation...
Everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation." (Zhuan Falun)
As I looked inward, I saw my attachments of jealousy, lust, zealotry, showing off, fear, desire for fame and personal gain, and wanting comfort. We must examine our every thought, and when we come across a problem, we need to stay calm, step aside mentally, and look at our notions from the outside in. Once we find out which attachment is responsible for a problem, we need to eliminate it immediately.
As I continued studying the Fa, I better understood how attachments manipulate people. Attachments are not our true nature. They attached themselves to us because of our human notions. We need to eliminate them. Cultivation practice does not need to be grand and spectacular, but nothing in this world can truly replace diligent practice of the Fa. If we can't change our hearts, whatever we do is worthless and it will not allow us to achieve our status. This is not what a practitioners wants!
Fellow practitioners, let us improve quickly and not miss this opportunity that comes only once in eternity.
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