(Minghui.org) I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep this morning and had a dream: Several girls were preparing for a water competition. Before they got into the water, the coach reminded them to row against the water to move forward. I thought they were going to be rowing a boat, but there was no boat. The girls sank to the bottom as soon as they got into the water, with only their hair floating on the surface.
They struggled hard but it was difficult for them to move forward. I was very worried about them. I hailed them to encourage them but that was of no help, so I jumped into the water with a stick. The first girl grabbed it and crawled out of the water. I kept looking until I found all of the girls and pulled them out of the water.
When I woke up from the dream, I was very clear that Master had given me a hint to seize the time. I was very worried when I saw local practitioners busy preparing for their New Year holidays and slacking off in cultivation. Some didn't take it seriously when I tried to warn them. I had been thinking of writing a sharing article about it, but I told myself I was too busy. This dream made me realize that Master was worried about us, so I didn't dare slack off anymore. Here is my sharing. If you find anything inappropriate, please point it out compassionately.
During the Chinese New Year holidays, diligent practitioners were all busy saving people, but some practitioners, especially women, were busy preparing food for the holidays and enjoyed the season with their children. They cooked traditional food and even killed fish. They dignified what they were doing as “aligning with the state of ordinary society,” totally forgetting what they came here for. They also forgot that it was Master's immense suffering that made this current time possible so that Dafa practitioners could save people. My personal understanding is that whoever wastes time is committing a crime.
One local practitioner in her 70s had had eye surgery and had poor hearing before she started to practice Falun Dafa. Both her eyes and ears improved after she began to cultivate. However, she was afraid of pain and always admired the easy and comfortable life of an ordinary person. She organized a Fa study group in her home, but every year, about 10 days before the Chinese New Year, she canceled the group and started preparing for the holidays.
On the first day of one Chinese New Year, she thought, “I am not going to do the exercises or study the Fa today. I want to be an ordinary person and relax for one day.”
The following day she couldn't hear, and it was hard for her to see, too. Local practitioners talked to her from the perspective of the Fa and encouraged her to recognize her incorrect thinking. She was remorseful and promised Master that she would do better. Local practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts for her. Gradually, her eyesight and hearing recovered somewhat.
She recovered her hearing completely after she filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin in 2015, for his role in initiating the persecution of Falun Dafa. However, when asked how she had regained her hearing, she replied, “It's because my son-in-law (who was imprisoned for a crime involving money) was released and returned home. I was so happy that my hearing recovered.”
She couldn't hear anything after she said that. She then realized that her thoughts were incorrect and said, “It's because I cultivate Falun Dafa. Master healed my hearing.”
This practitioner later moved to an apartment building, but when she went downstairs and outside, she couldn't find her way home. As a consequence, her son refused to let her go out alone. Gradually, her cultivation state went downhill.
Local practitioners studied the Fa and shared cultivation experiences with her, but the results were not good. One day she decided that the old forces would not persecute her if she quit cultivating.
Local practitioners went to talk with her when they found out about her decision, but it was too late. Her son and daughter-in-law, who had been very supportive of her practicing Falun Dafa, stopped her from studying the Fa. They said she would “suffer from internal heat if she couldn't hear or see the words clearly when she studied.” They also stopped local practitioners from coming to their home to study the Fa. Now this practitioner is no longer able to take care of herself.
One local practitioner was very active in talking to people about Falun Dafa. She often went out with other practitioners to distribute copies of the Minghui Weekly and put up stickers about Falun Dafa. However, one day, she talked to local practitioners and said, “We keep on doing these things every day, but when can we quit?”
In the spring of 2017, she suddenly had a stroke and was taken to an emergency room. Thanks to Master's strengthening and local practitioner's righteous thoughts, she lived but she is still not able to take care of herself. That was not a good example for our local community.
Her family also blamed her and said, “You kept on going out every day, and where did it get you?”
She once had symptoms of a stroke and was in the hospital during a period of time when she cultivated on and off. After she checked out of the hospital, she started doing the three things diligently. She told her children, “None of you should interfere with my cultivation. If you do, it will be your fault if I get sick.”
I am not talking about fellow practitioners' experiences to blame them. These phenomena were all caused by the old forces. I am wondering how can we break through the interference from the old forces and save as many people as possible in the limited time left.
As seen from the two cases above, the elderly practitioner returned to the state of an ordinary person as soon as she wanted to be like other ordinary people, and while the other practitioner looked very diligent, her diligence was not based on saving people but on securing her own health. She took doing the three things as a deal with Master, which is why she could think, “when can we quit?” Her loopholes gave the old forces an excuse to persecute her and to cast a bad light on Dafa.
Master said:
“Master was a little hard on you today. It was meant to help you become more vigilant and alert. When you seek to save the world’s people, you try to get them to awaken so that you can save them. Well, you too need to get clear, to wake up. It’s a problem if you forget about your cultivation because of doing too many things. You are cultivators. I’m not talking about your past, what you once were, or what you display on the surface. I am talking about your core and the meaning of your life, the responsibility you shoulder, and your historic mission. Only thus are you truly a Dafa disciple.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference XI)
Genuine practitioners can feel Master's protection at all times. When we want to save people from the bottom of our hearts and forget all about our own, we are already walking the path that Master has paved for us. Master can do everything for us.
I recently read an article on the Minghui website in which a practitioner shared her experience of going out to save people on Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. She forgot the time and got home late, at 7:00 p.m., the time for her family's New Year eve dinner. She started preparing dinner immediately, because her children had promised to come home to celebrate. It took her only half an hour to cook seven dishes. She said she could really sense Master's strengthening. As soon as dinner was ready, her children arrived. They all praised her good cooking.
That made me think of my own experience. The day before one Chinese New Year's Eve, I went out to tell people the facts about Falun Dafa in the morning. When I got home, it was already noon. I suddenly realized I had not yet put up a couplet on my door. (A local tradition that's done on the morning of Chinese New Year's Eve.) I was reluctant to use the couplet with ordinary people's words. As I was thinking about it, a fellow practitioner came to visit me. I saw a piece of red paper (couplets for the new year are always red) on her bicycle handle. When she entered my courtyard, she said, “I have no idea who was preparing to write a couplet on this piece of red paper. I just saw it on the ground. It looked very clean, so I picked it up.”
I smiled and said, “Master knows that I didn't prepare a couplet for my door, so Master had you deliver red paper to me. Master is so compassionate.”
I later asked my neighbor, a practitioner, to write a couplet for me. My elder sister came to visit me and brought some meat, steamed bread, and cake, which I'd had no time to prepare for the new year.
Some practitioners never let themselves suffer and place a major emphasis on taking care of themselves and their family. However, this care and attention is limited if he is immersed in human things, no matter how considerate he is. In this situation, it's difficult for a practitioner to sense that Master is protecting him.
What I would like to share is that the significance of a Dafa practitioner's life is to save people. If we spend all our time on our families, aren't we wasting our own lives? Meanwhile, we have our family create karma by doing that. Is that compassion if we treat them this way?
Just recently on a Minghui radio program, I heard a practitioner from Guizhou Province recall that, during the 1994 Chinese New Year, a practice site was closed for three days to celebrate the holidays. However, nothing could get past Master. Soon, the practitioner responsible for the Guizhou Falun Dafa Association got a phone call from Master, who said, “Your local Falun Gong practitioners are taking days off to celebrate the Chinese New Year?”
Twenty years have passed in a flash. Today's Dafa practitioners should be mature so that Master doesn't have to worry about us. We should all know that there are no vacation days when it comes to cultivation!
My sharing is also to encourage myself to become more diligent. I always got up late to do the exercises in the morning; otherwise I wouldn't have had that dream.
I hope that we can cultivate diligently together and be worthy of Master's expectations of us. Let's walk the path well for the rest of our journey.
Thank you, Master.Thank you, fellow practitioners.
Heshi.