(Minghui.org) Greetings, esteemed Master and fellow practitioners:
It has been 15 years since I began to practice Falun Dafa. I would like to talk about working with Dajiyuan [the Chinese language version of the Epoch Times] on the Epoch Times Fa-validation project.
Letting Go of Selfishness
For a long time I was confused as to how to find the heart I had when I first began to cultivate. It’s important to study the Fa with that heart, because, being born in the old universe, we are used to being selfish.
Master said:
“The ultimate factor of the old forces is evil toward the Fa-rectification itself, is selfish, and is an enormous tribulation for the cosmos that was planted for the Fa-rectification itself.” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. III)
Fa-rectification practitioners live completely for others and have to break away from all the selfish factors of the old cosmos. We must walk our own paths and never acknowledge anything that was arranged by the old forces.
We study the Fa and do the exercises to better save people instead of to guarantee our own good health and wellbeing. When we face tribulations, the more afraid we are of suffering, the worse we suffer. If we are eager to change our situation because we fear conflict or illness, no matter how hard we try, it won’t work. Because that means we are cultivating to end our suffering, which is based on selfishness.
We should put our minds into saving people, because only then will Master help us improve and eliminate karma. It isn’t up to the old forces to test us or to interfere with us, because they are not worthy of this. They are also beings who are waiting to be rectified.
Whenever there is a test, we should first think about whether we have fulfilled our responsibilities and accomplished our tasks, instead of worrying about our pain or karma. When we ignore our suffering and focus on what we must accomplish, we will quickly make a breakthrough. When I disagreed with other practitioners or had trouble with my family, I immediately thought that I had to do well because I still had to save sentient beings. The tension and problems would then soon disappear.
Master said:
“... I’ve said your Consummation is not a question. What is a question is [your fulfilling] the enormous mission of saving sentient beings. It’s only this question, of your managing to fulfill this mission, that counts as critical. Your own completion is not the goal. You already established that mighty virtue in the past, and it is on those grounds that you are worthy of being a Dafa disciple.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
What does it mean to “...always cultivating as if you were just starting...” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)?
I gave up my status high up in heavens to come to this secular world. I wanted to save the beings in my universe and bring them to Dafa. That was where my heart was—to save people instead of wanting to be happy or worrying about my cultivation.
Dafa Helps Us When We Dedicate Ourselves to Saving People
I’ve been working with Dajiyuan for 12 years now. One day my father was diagnosed with severe illnesses including cancer. At the same time, my older brother’s business was failing and I was losing my hair. Any of the situations spinning out of control could have stopped me from working with Dajiyuan.
At that time Dajiyuan was heading toward the mainstream media, and it was a key moment for opening the market. Everyone was working full tilt. I shouldered a lot of work and responsibility. If I stopped, other practitioners would have to work even harder.
I kept looking within to find my problems, but the situation didn’t improve even though I had discovered many attachments. I was about to lose it.
By studying the Fa, I realized that, because I am a practitioner in the Fa-rectification period, Master has arranged everything for me so that I can improve, and tests like these shouldn’t exist. A strong feeling emerged. I said to Master and all the beings, “I don’t acknowledge any of this, I don’t acknowledge anything that interferes with my saving people. Nothing bad will happen.” I spoke to the knowing sides of my family: “I will keep going no matter what. Please validate the Fa with me. We will eliminate the interference from the old forces, and Master will resolve all issues with compassion. Please trust me and Master.”
I then lived every day like it was my last and seized every opportunity to improve my xinxing. Over the course of one night, my lost hair grew back and covered the bald spot. My father’s follow-up test results showed no sign of cancer. The whole thing was like a hoax. My brother found a better job. Master resolved all the problems and showed me the power of Dafa.
Another time I had a severe cough, so bad that I bled sometimes. I couldn’t really sleep. I didn’t think much of it and was busy trying to get things done to save more people. I spit out the blood, coughed, and endured the pain. As the cough got better, I continued to work and diligently studied the Fa. The cough lasted a month and then went away. The ideas of interference or being sick never occurred to me, because I was so occupied with saving people. Naturally I passed the test.
One morning I woke up finding myself paralyzed. I was shocked. My first thought was that I was too young for this. I quickly corrected that thought, knowing that I was a practitioner and still had many people to save. I closed my eyes to send righteous thoughts and asked Master to help me.
Master said:
“It’s because everything of yours is at your command. Your arms, legs, fingers, and mouth can move whatever way you want them to move.” (Lecture at the First Conference in North America)
I fought to negate this phony appearance of paralysis and tried to move. It was painful, but within half an hour I was able to wiggle. It took a long time before I could get up. It was really painful, and my human notions told me to lay down and get some rest. I lay down and couldn’t get up again, having lost the strength I had like the first time. I looked within, and it occurred to me that I’d said something I shouldn’t have.
The night before I’d sent a practitioner a message with an emoji saying, “I Don’t want to work.” It was meant to be a joke, to let out some of the steam built up from work. By saying that, I now realized, it meant that I didn’t want to save people. I apologized to Master and told myself the old forces were not qualified to test me despite my attachment. With a strong intent to go to work, I was able to get up once again and make it to Dajiyuan. For a week my neck hurt, and I couldn’t turn.
I believe that, through this incident, Master wanted to alert me to walking my path righteously. The path of Fa-rectification is rocky and narrow. One must stay focused and not be distracted, so we can make it to the end. Cultivation is solemn and the Fa requires me to be righteous in my mind and with my words.
Many miraculous incidents have all taught me one lesson. It is as Master said:
“We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
In the face of any test, as long as we keep in mind that we are Dafa practitioners with a mission and responsibility, we can pass it.
Reading the Dajiyuan Editorials
After reading Dajiyuan’s three editorial series—The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World, and The Ultimate Goal of Communism—I know that the goal of communism is to destroy mankind. The old forces have tried to destroy the Fa-rectification and arranged the cultivation paths for practitioners. We must have a clear understanding of what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is all about.
The author of How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World points out that the specter is made of hatred and deteriorated elements from low realms. Knowing this, when I read the Nine Commentaries, I knew that jealousy was the root of many of my attachments and the source of conflicts with other practitioners.
I never was able to grasp the idea of how jealousy could cause Jiang Zemin to single-handedly launch the persecution. Now I know that there is nothing simple about jealousy.
Master said,
“If in the course of cultivation practice jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Right Fruit—absolutely not.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
We might not realize that there is jealousy hidden within us. After reading the editorials, I frequently send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the deteriorated elements in me and to strengthen my understanding of traditional culture. The specter is a manifestation of the old forces. It often uses the deteriorated human notions to create conflict between practitioners and weaken us. All of the evil tricks are listed in the Dajiyuan editorials, and we may find the editorials useful for our personal cultivation.
A practitioner once told me that he always harbored hatred and wanted to get angry for no reason. He had no idea why he always carried the thoughts of jealousy and hatred. Another practitioner mentioned that there were different degrees of jealousy: from complaining to holding a grudge to harboring hatred.
We must knowingly reject jealousy and hatred. The specter survives by absorbing the energy from people’s hatred. If our thoughts conform to these elements, the specter would come to us for the energy and in the end control us.
I used to work in a company where I learned many bad habits. I could only see my attachments when I met with practitioners. In the past years working fulltime at Dajiyuan, where my coworkers are mostly practitioners, I have improves. In recent years, Dajiyuan has grown very fast and so has my improvement. I thank my fellow practitioners for their selfless devotion.
(Presented at the 2019 Taiwan Fa Conference)
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