(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997 when I was 16 years old. I was imprisoned for almost seven years because of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Dafa. However, my strong determination to cultivate has never wavered.
My husband also practices Dafa. We have improved together in our cultivation and assisting Master to offer salvation to sentient beings. The following is our experience.
Cultivating Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and Eliminating Attachments
I knew my husband for six years before we got married. We had cooperated on Dafa projects together, and both of us had left our hometown to avoid persecution.
We were not supposed to be able to get a marriage certificate without our household registration booklets. We knelt down in front of Master's portrait and asked, “Master, if the two of us have a predestined relationship, we would like to become husband and wife. If we don't have a predestined relationship, please don't let us get married.”
Getting our marriage certificate turned out to be surprisingly easy. After getting the certificate, we invited other practitioners for a simple meal but declined their gifts of money. Practitioners' money is a precious resource for projects that validate the Fa. Our having a simple wedding saved a great deal of money and energy.
My husband owned two small stores before we got married. We continued to run both of them for six months after our marriage. Our income wasn't much after taking out the employees' wages, paying the lease, and buying commodities. We studied the Fa and did the exercises each day, but time was pressing. Fellow practitioners pointed out that we had an attachment to personal interest. We looked within and found that running the stores took too much time and generated little profit, so we decided to sell one of them.
To our surprise, business at the store we kept started to improve. We were able to find plenty of time for our cultivation, and we made enough to pay back the money we had borrowed from fellow practitioners.
As our financial situation improved, I found myself enjoying shopping. Even though I never bought anything expensive, I did spend time browsing shopping websites. I realized I had attachments to comfort and material things.
After I eliminated these attachments, my life got simpler, and my thoughts became clear. I then spent my spare time studying the Fa.
Lustful thoughts often emerged in my mind. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate them, but the bad thoughts returned after some time. I treated them as the old forces’ arrangements and refused to recognize them as part of myself. It worked out very well, as my lustful thoughts and desires were quickly eliminated.
As my husband and I improve in our cultivation, we continue to search for our attachments and completely remove them at the root.
I was half-asleep one day when bad thoughts came into my mind. I immediately recited, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” My whole body then started to reverberate. The strong energy of compassion made me feel enormously tall. The energy was extremely powerful, capable of wiping out anything bad and making the evil quake. The part of my body that had already assimilated to the Fa was going through tremendous changes.
Master said,
“Saying "Dafa hao" is not only effective for ordinary people, but also for Dafa disciples since it clears away the bad things in the mind. When you have every cell in your body saying that Dafa is great, you will find that your entire body feels the reverberations. (Applause) It is the Fa that your mind is invoking, so that's why it is so powerful.” (Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York)
Making Collective Improvements
My home hosts a group Fa-study every evening at 7:00 p.m. Sometimes practitioners stay overnight so we can do the exercises together in the morning.
Master said,
“You must first cultivate yourself well, only then can you fulfill your historic mission. Therefore, in the entire process of saving sentient beings and validating Dafa, you cannot neglect your own cultivation. So in cultivation you must be serious, and that is the most basic guarantee for you as a cultivator.” (“Fa Teaching at the New York Fa Conference on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Dafa’s Introduction to the Public”)
Master's words made me realize that some of my behavior wasn't wholehearted enough, such as studying the Fa or doing the exercises without a calm mind, letting people know about Dafa while holding on to my human attachments, showing off when participating in Dafa projects, etc. My attachments have affected my cooperation with fellow practitioners.
One time, another practitioner voiced security concerns about using a cell phone app that we had installed for our truth-clarification work. I thought that I had followed all the instructions correctly and that this practitioner's concerns must be out of fear. We couldn't agree with each other, and I realized that my emotions had taken the upper hand.
An incident came to mind after I calmed down. My husband had gone out to learn how to repair printers. He had repaired printers before, and this was training for printer upgrades. He came back from the training, saying that he already knew the things taught in the training and that his way of repairing printers actually worked better. I reminded him that being modest was the basis for progress. He happily agreed. The next time he attended a training course, he said that he had learned a lot.
Even though I could point out my husband's problem, I hadn't looked within for my own. I stopped arguing with the other practitioner and asked him to describe the issue in more detail. He did, and we worked on resolving the issue together.
Master said,
“Do you realize that as long as you’re a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, I will use any troubles or unpleasant things you come across—even if they involve work for Dafa, or no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.” (“Further Understanding” from Essentials for Further Advancement)
Our human notions are exposed when we work on Dafa projects. It's only when we eliminate these attachments that we can improve our xinxing and carry out our projects in the most sacred manner. This is what Master wishes to see.
Treasuring Every Opportunity
My husband and I were in financial distress for a period of time. I felt depressed and inferior. One day, I was so depressed that I refused to leave home. My righteous thoughts were gone. I felt lost. However, Master sent a paragraph of the Fa to my mind.
The main idea was for me to treasure every opportunity from the start to the end of my cultivation, until my Consummation. I felt energized right away and regretted having let Master down. I pulled myself together, strengthened my righteous thoughts, and eventually broke through the old forces’ arrangements regarding our financial situation.
I had a dream around the Chinese New Year in which Master came to visit his disciples in his hometown. I thought Master might not notice me since he has so many disciples. At that moment, Master looked at me compassionately and called me by my name. I was so thrilled! I said, “Master, you remember my name?”
The scene in my dream changed to some time later this year. A fellow practitioner asked me, “Master came to see us this year. How come you didn't go? Master asked why you weren't there.” I replied, “I didn't know about it.” I was so frustrated that I almost cried.
I still felt sad after I woke up. Since I had left my hometown to avoid further persecution a few years ago, I was alone during previous Chinese New Year holidays. I ate simple meals by myself and spent my time distributing truth-clarification materials. While others enjoyed the time spent with their families, I enjoyed distributing a large number of flyers and banners. However, I'm ashamed to say that didn't do the same thing this year due to my attachment to comfort.
Master said,
“Right now, the evil in other dimensions has been badly decimated, and its ability to control people has waned. So, for Dafa disciples, things overall have become ever more relaxed and comfortable. But as things get more comfortable, the pressure lessens; and when the pressure is lessened, it's apt to lead to a desire for comfort, to wanting a little more ease, to relaxing a little bit, and to seeking some relief. But the reality is, each Dafa disciple's life has been tightly wed to, like links in a chain, his cultivation. So when you relax yourself, it amounts to relaxing in your cultivation.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference IX)
We ought to treasure every second that Master has extended for us with his tremendous sacrifice. The time is for us to make improvements and save sentient beings. I absolutely can't waste this time! The meaning of our lives lies in doing the three things well and fulfilling our mission of helping Master during Fa rectification.
Master recently wrote,
“In this final hour of the Fa rectification, cultivate yourselves solidly every step of the way and accomplish your mission of saving people.” (“To the Fa Conference in France”)
Let's treasure our only chance and shoulder the responsibility of Dafa disciples in our final hour. We shouldn't let down Master's compassionate salvation. Let's cultivate diligently and return to our true origin with Master!
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