(Minghui.org) Last weekend I was hiking the hills not far from my home, listening to Master’s Fa lectures on audio. It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold. The forest was green, the air was clear. Suddenly, a swarm of flies started to circle me, numbering one or two hundred. They kept flying around me and would not leave, whether I stood still or ran, tried to shoo them away or kept my arms close.
It was too odd to be a coincidence, so I tried to look within and to have righteous thoughts. I realized that if my state of mind declined because of some flies, it meant my willpower was weak. There was no reason to let it affect me. I also asked myself whether I had karma to remove or some attachments I haven’t yet noticed or taken seriously.
Later I saw a family walking ahead of me at a slower pace. I decided to slow my pace so the flies wouldn't decide to move to them if we got too close. It also might have seemed strange to them to see a person walking in the midst of a cloud of flies.
A bit later, I noticed something: though there were many dozens of flies circling me in the air and even on my clothes, none ever sat on my face or the skin of my arms. None even got close to my face. So I decided to maintain and send forth righteous thoughts and just keep walking with my spirits up.
After about 30 minutes, I passed through a few bushes, and when I came out on the other side, the flies were all gone.
Later I tried to figure out what the message was. It took me a few days, and then a realization came: it was a metaphor for cultivation in Fa-rectification. No matter the hardship or how it feels, with righteous thoughts it cannot really damage the true me. When it has served its purpose, it passes.
It is as Master describes in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun:
“A water faucet was turned on so that he could hear water dripping, and he thus thought that it was his blood that was dripping. The man died shortly afterwards. In fact, he was not cut and bleeding—it was running water that was dripping. His psychological factors caused his death.”
When I know the truth, these things cannot truly hurt me. I have the Fa to evaluate things with, and I am a particle of Dafa. I felt that Master was encouraging me to see how things really are, keep my thoughts righteous and my face smiling, and keep walking the path all the way home.
A couple of days later, Master’s new poem was published:
The cosmos clear and bright, the communist demon wreaking chaosA nation great and powerful, beset by fraudSociety has been manipulated, leaving people disheartenedWhen will righteousness and conscience return(“The Presidential Election”)
I realized that my experience was also a metaphor for the first sentence. Reading fellow practitioners’ experience-sharing articles on Minghui, I realized that unlike ordinary people who are beset by these events, we have the Fa. We do know the end result, no matter the hardships in the process. We take the leading role in saving sentient beings and safeguarding the cosmos.
I live in a Western country but not the United States. Just a couple of days after the U.S. election, at an extended family dinner, people asked me for my thoughts about China, my country, and the U.S. election. I gave my understanding. Later that night, some in my extended family told me, “You have to get it across to politicians [the dangers of working with the evil CCP and its collaborators]. You can make a real impact on the country.” I felt that it was Master giving me a pretty direct hint on my role and the true impact a Dafa disciple can have.
As always, we have to do our work with wisdom. Cultivators do not participate in ordinary people’s politics. But “with wisdom” cannot be an excuse for cowardice in facing our mission and the continued battle between good and evil.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
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Category: Improving Oneself
