(Minghui.org) I started practicing Dafa in 2015. I was busy writing experience sharing articles in March and April and have felt awe-inspired ever since. I am grateful that Master gave me this precious opportunity to improve.
Prior to the deadline to submit articles to the 2017 Falun Dafa Day experience sharing, a fellow practitioner, Aiyin, asked if I felt comfortable writing articles. When I said I did, the two of us started to work on compiling a fellow practitioner's cultivation stories. After she told us her experiences, I put together the initial draft. The two of them then worked on it by adding missing parts, correcting mistaken details, and deleting unnecessarily emotional parts.
The writing and refining process was indeed a process of cultivation for me. At first, I was unhappy when I saw them editing and modifying my draft, thinking that they disapproved of what I had written. I was irritable and defensive when they asked me to rewrite certain parts. I even held a grudge and said to myself, “If you are so good at it, why didn't you write it in the first place?”
Through the process of editing and rewriting, I gradually came to realize that writing cultivation experience sharing articles to validate the Fa was not a matter of using ordinary people's techniques, such as embellishment, imagination, appealing to human emotions, etc. Being truthful was the best technique. All the gods are watching closely and everything has been recorded in history. Writing it out in the human world is a sacred task and an honor Master granted me. I must do well in order to truly validate the Fa.
The article was accepted and published on the Minghui website as a result of everyone's efforts and collaboration.
I could not restrain my excitement and started to recommend the article to all my fellow practitioners. Although I told them it was our local practitioner's cultivation experience sharing, my unspoken message was: “Look, I was the one who wrote it.” At home I insisted on reading to my parents the part where the practitioner's firm belief in Master and Dafa led to a miraculous result. On the surface, I did it to encourage them and convince them to return to practicing Dafa, which they'd stopped doing after 1999. At heart, I was just showing off: “Look, I wrote this article.”
I was deeply mired in my own sense of self esteem, my pride, and the state of showing off for quite a long time. I knew it was a human attachment but was not able to let go of it. It only subsided over time, which took a long while.
When the call for submissions for the 2018 Falun Dafa Day came out, Aiyin suggested I write an article about Fang's cultivation experiences. I was not so sure about this one. I had heard about Fang and was a little confused. On the one hand, she had been diligent in her cultivation and clarified the truth on a daily basis. On the other hand, two of her family members had passed away after she started practicing Dafa. Master told us,
“...one person practicing, the whole family benefits...”(“Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia”)
Why, then, did members of her family die? Wouldn't it cast a shadow over her experience sharing? Should I still write it? If so, how would I tackle that issue?
With these questions in mind, I met with Fang and spent half a day chatting with her. It was an enlightening conversation. Because Master knew I harbored a certain degree of doubt about cultivation, he arranged for me to spend some time with Fang. She told me about what it was like for her cultivate in the face of her family members' struggles and eventual passing. She did not have a single shred of doubt in Master or Dafa. On the contrary, she was deeply grateful to Master because her family members were cared for until their last days. Her experience enlightened me to Master's teaching:
“You are unable to interfere with the lives of others, and neither can you control others' fates, including those of your wife, sons, daughters, parents, or brothers. Can you decide those things?” (Zhuan Falun)
As I wrote the article about Fang, I got rid of a misunderstanding of mine, namely, seeing practicing Dafa as some sort of insurance against mishaps (while, in fact, down-to-earth cultivation in Dafa is the best way to ensure one's safety). At the same time, thinking about some aged practitioners in my area who'd passed away, I went from being skeptical about Dafa and having human-level sympathy for fellow practitioners to focusing on how to cultivate and be mindful of each and every one of my thoughts, thereby achieving the state of having no loopholes.
After finishing up the article on Fang, articles about practitioners Jiafang and Hongyan were waiting for me already.
Listening to each of their personal stories was an awe-inspiring experience for me. Their steadfast belief in Master and Dafa and their perseverance in the face of the persecution moved me to tears. They talked about being arrested, threatened, forced to undergo brainwashing in the most difficult and darkest days, and how they stumbled but never stopped advancing in their cultivation and saving people in spite of the terrible conditions. At the time, they could not access the Minghui website and truth-clarification materials. They did not have a model to follow. They walked their own paths based on their firm belief in Master and Dafa and their wisdom gained through solid cultivation.
Aiyin and Jiafang also talked about the past local coordinators who were once steadfast and had done a lot to promote Dafa. But since the persecution started, they've gone in their own different ways. Now their states of cultivation vary. We all know that cultivation is indeed serious and difficult and that people fall behind at each level. At the same time, group after group of new practitioners have caught up. They've picked up the practice in spite of the persecution and become enlightened to the meaning of cultivation. They've also talked about how Master does not want to give up on any practitioner and continues to provide guidance in the form of hints and illustrations.
I realized that every practitioner has a treasure trove of experiences. Their many touching stories of the past over 20 years could fill books. As a new practitioner, they left me in awe. With her firm belief, another practitioner, in her 70s, was able to resolve a feud that went back decades, let go of her personal interests, ride a motorbike every day to clarify the truth, take good care of her family, and stick to the principle “...you did not fight back when hit or talk back when cursed at.” (“Fa-Teaching Given at the Conference in Sydney”)
As I wrote these articles, I discovered that many practitioners had never submitted an article before, mostly because they did not know how to write. I also noticed that their calm and peaceful minds were a dramatic contrast to my restlessness and impetuosity. I realized that my cultivation fell short in comparison. I could not even think of an experience to report to Master.
Through this process, Master granted me the opportunity to hear fellow practitioners' stories and come to understand their thoughts in the face of conflicts and tests. I understood that this was how Master intended to uplift me. Master also caught me up on what things were like before I began to practice and made me realize that I ought to cherish my current, relatively easy, and helpful environment. Back then, practitioners were perplexed; they debated, contemplated, explored, stumbled, and detoured. Now, right after I started practicing myself, I had veteran practitioners' advice and help close at hand. If I don't cultivate diligently, how can I live up to Master's thoughtful and meticulous arrangement?
Decades ago Master already gifted me with the ability to write. Now I have finally realized that all that was arranged for me to validate the Fa today. Now I put in my best effort to write, regardless of whether or not my articles are published.
I also want to call on able fellow practitioners to start writing down our countless touching cultivation stories. It would be a shame to miss even one. Let us record these divine deeds for all the world to know, because validating Dafa is the duty of each practitioner. Writing is also an opportunity for us improve our xinxing and compare for ourselves how we have studied the Fa and cultivated ourselves. It is such a worthy and rewarding task!