(Clearwisdom.net) I was moved and almost cried after reading the experience sharing article on Clearwisdom.net about young practitioners in Heilongjiang Province who attended group Fa study during their summer vacation. I could visualize the maturity and steadfastness toward Falun Dafa of these far-away young practitioners.
Group Fa-study is a cultivation format that Teacher left for us. I am a young practitioner in Europe, and I just graduated from high school this year. When I was younger, I envied the young practitioners in Taiwan and other places for their being able to go to Minghui Schools. But lately, the reports on Clearwisdom.net said that not only in Taiwan, but in many other places, including mainland China, young practitioners are getting together for group Fa study. I myself went to the United States during the summer, and participated in truth-clarification activities for two months with the practitioners' media. During this time I attended group Fa-study with many younger practitioners and had many improvements.
One young practitioner shared that he was a fan of celebrities; so was I. Although I knew these things were not good, I could not give them up completely. When my righteous thoughts were strong, I would not listen to everyday people's music, but when I relaxed, I would do it again. At one point, I was assigned to deliver newspapers in the morning in the United States. At first I did not mind, but I soon became unhappy because I was too busy every day and lacked sleep, and delivering newspapers to eight different places required me to walk for an hour. Right away, a sand particle got into my eye. I enlightened to the fact that Teacher told us that we need to cooperate in doing Fa-validating work. I told myself in my mind that I was wrong. From then on I sang while delivering newspapers and enduring the hot weather. This way I got rid of a lot of my karma, elevated my xinxing, and no longer was interested in everyday people's music. I thank Teacher for giving me an opportunity to improve myself.
It was great to elevate myself along with other young practitioners, but gradually I became attached to this environment. I was almost not sure I would be diligent if I went back to my old environment of being alone. Later there were a few days that things did not go well. Some adult practitioners had big conflicts between themselves; an everyday person called to tell me that my article had mistakes in it; I myself was interfered with by the attachment to affection and could not concentrate during Fa study and truth-clarification work. I felt bad, and did not want to do anything. One day I needed to do a report about the eleventh anniversary of "resisting the persecution". A girl told me that I should send forth righteous thoughts first. I did it right away. As a result, many people visited the website and read the article that I wrote, which I originally thought was not that well written. I also finished the article to expose the evil rather smoothly. I feel as long as a practitioner has a steadfast heart, the evil will then be unable to interfere with him, and he will have the wisdom from Dafa to do Fa-validating work well.
When I studied the Fa again, I read Teacher's lecture in Zhuan Falun:
"A lot of people go to Tibet to learn qigong with an intention: they want to find a master to study Tibetan Tantrism with, so that they can become qigong masters and get rich and famous later on."
"It's such a serious discipline for cultivating Buddhahood, could it be ruined by him just like that for the sake of becoming a qigong master to get rich and famous?" (The Fourth Talk, from Zhuan Falun)
I enlightened to the fact that the purpose of my coming to the United was to save sentient beings and that I cannot be attached to the environment of cultivation. I especially should not behave as though I do the three things diligently so that I can stay in this environment to elevate.
Teacher also said:
"Maybe some people, since they're among ordinary people, think that ordinary people's concrete, tangible benefits right there in front of them are still more practical. In the mighty torrent of ordinary people they aren't able to hold themselves to a high standard." (The Fourth Talk, from Zhuan Falun)
I realized that a steadfast practitioner should be able to concentrate in his cultivation without wavering under any circumstance. I felt that even if I was not cultivating along with other young practitioners, I should be diligent by myself.
Another big deficiency of mine was the attachment of being elated. I was an extroverted person. I would jump up and down when something good happened. In the past few years, practitioners would praise me for being smart when they saw that I participated in Fa-validating events as a youngster. After a while, I developed an attachment of being elated. It often interfered with my validating Dafa. Once I got some first-hand information and wrote an article that I felt proud of. I was so excited that I could not calm down. Later, I realized that I should not behave that way when I was told that the article was actually not written well. As a result of my elation, the valuable information was not utilized well in saving sentient beings.
Teacher said:
"There was this person who put in a ton of effort and finally cultivated into an Arhat. He was about to achieve a True Fruition and become an Arhat--how could he not be happy? He was breaking out of the Three Realms! That happiness was an attachment, though, an attachment of excitement. An Arhat should always be in a state of nonaction, with a mind that's unshakable. But he dropped, and he cultivated in vain." (The Sixth Talk, from Zhuan Falun)
I felt that my excitement was truly bad. It made me unable to focus. Later, whenever I became excited, I would remind myself of the attachment and I found I could focus better.
Getting rid of attachments is truly great. I feel that my understanding of the Fa is more thorough. Now I am not like before when I just cultivated with my parents. My xinxing was not good then and I got happy and upset easily. Now I am more like a true cultivator.
I am very grateful to the young practitioners in Heilongjiang Province for their writing up the cultivation experiences which truly inspired me. Some of them have endured great tribulations during the persecution and they still cultivated steadfastly. I will let go my attachments in the future and form one body with them to expose the evil's persecution from abroad.
Let's be more diligent and do the three things well to fulfill our pre-historic vows of helping Teacher to validate Dafa.
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