(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master and fellow practitioners!
After retiring from active military service, I gradually strayed farther away from Dafa due to my lack of discipline in cultivation, and various pressures I faced as I adjusted to my new reality. I spent three years muddling along in this corrupted environment until I saw Master’s new article, “Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference.” When I received news of this article, I suddenly had a thought, “I want to study the Fa, and I want to read Master’s new article.”
But, whenever I tried to read it, different human notions and evil beings would interfere, and this lasted for more than two weeks. Maybe it’s because I still had this wish in my heart, Master arranged for a fellow practitioner to get in touch with me, and tell me that they were organizing a Fa study group to read the new article. Even though I was hesitant, I remembered that I did want to read this new article. Therefore, I made up my mind to attend. This helped me to gradually return to cultivation.
Master said,
“Perhaps everyone has heard this statement in Buddhism: “When one’s Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake ‘the world of ten directions.’ Whoever sees it will come to give a hand and help this person out unconditionally. In providing salvation to humankind, the Buddha School does not attach any condition or seek returns, and it will help unconditionally. Accordingly, we can do many things for practitioners.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
This made me realize that every time Master releases new articles, the purpose could be to try to help those lost practitioners regain their righteous thoughts, and want to study the Fa again. Thank you, Master.
Eliminating Attachment to Lust and Desire
During my time away from Dafa, I accumulated a lot of thoughts and habits related to lust and desire, which interfered with me from time to time. After helping with the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra promotion, I realized that I needed to be clean and pure in order to save sentient beings. I then made a decision to eliminate this attachment of lust and desire.
In the beginning, I tried to spend more time on Fa study. This helped for a period of time, but the bad thoughts and habits of lust and desire reappeared. One time I heard an article from Minghui Radio (“Cultivate the Mind and Let Go of Attachments – Let Go of Lust and Desire Part One and Part Two”). I realized that lust and desire come from the demon of lust, and they are not me. I also began to focus more on sending forth righteous thoughts to clear my dimension of any thoughts of lust and desire, as well as the demon notion of lust.
During this time, a friend whom I had known for over 10 years began to suffer from dysautonomia, panic disorder, and mild depression because of some relationship issues. She often wanted someone to talk with and take walks with, so she asked me to help. This unknowingly became a big test for me, because I found her very attractive. When I first started keeping her company, I had many thoughts of lust and desire. I often wanted to have more intimate interactions with her, and I also thought that maybe there was a chance to progress our relationship further.
Master said,
“Of course, you will not be informed of a tribulation or conflict ahead of time. How can you practice cultivation if you are told everything? It will not serve any use. They usually occur unexpectedly so that they can test one’s xinxing and make one’s xinxing truly improve. Only then can it be seen whether one can maintain one’s xinxing. Therefore, when a conflict arises, it does not occur accidentally.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that this situation was created to help me cultivate and not for me to pursue the sentimentality of this human world. I began to value our interactions and talk with her more, and I would tell her about the goodness of Dafa, clarify the truth to her, and teach her to recite the powerful words “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good”. During that time, I would immediately send forth righteous thoughts whenever I had thoughts of lust and desire. I am now no longer swayed by these thoughts. I still keep my righteous thoughts and a pure heart, and her illnesses have also gotten better through this process. I realized there are no coincidences in cultivation – if it happened, then there is a chance to cultivate. When you seize the opportunity to improve in cultivation, everything will get better, including your environment.
Breaking Through the Attachment of Comfort
When speaking with this friend, she expressed interest in learning yoga several times, but she never went. I did not realize that it was meant for me to teach her the five exercises until she asked me about how to do mindfulness meditation one time. I suddenly realized I needed to teach her the five exercises. I immediately told her that I didn’t know mindfulness meditation, but I could teach her the five meditation exercises of Falun Dafa, as one set of exercises was a sitting meditation, and was better than mindfulness meditation. She quickly agreed at the time, but then later said that she would see if she wanted to learn. I realized that I rarely did the exercises myself, and I often used different excuses of being “too busy” to do them. If I don’t even value doing the exercises, how can I teach sentient beings the five sets of exercises? From that moment on, I persisted in doing the exercises every day. Instead of taking my daily afternoon nap, I would do the exercises. At night, I would also do the exercises, and this allowed me to break through my attachment to comfort.
After elevating my xinxing through this situation, I was determined to proactively teach her about the Fa and exercises. During one of our outings, we were resting at an observation deck. I said that I was going to do the exercises, and she could watch me. As I was doing the first exercise, suddenly there was interference. A bee began to fly around my friend, and she was really afraid of bugs. When I finished, I told her she could join me, and I could teach her the third exercise. She agreed, but the bee was still distracting her, and she kept trying to run away from it. I began chasing the bee away, and I begged Master in my mind, “She wants to learn the exercises, please help me, Master.” The bee then flew away, and I was able to teach her the third exercise. We finished the third exercise together, and the bee came back. I kept demonstrating the five sets of exercises to her, and I introduced them to her one by one. When I finished introducing them to her, the bee flew away.
Afterwards, I thought that the bee might have been there to test her determination in learning the exercises, so I continued to teach her and shared my understandings on the Fa. I told her that there would be many forms of interference when a person is trying to cultivate. However, if you really cultivate, Master and other deities will help you.
I also shared Master’s teaching,
“"When one’s Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake ‘the world of ten directions.’" Whoever sees it will come to give a hand and help this person out unconditionally.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
She felt this as well, because when she was doing the exercises, the bee would fly away. But, when she wanted to learn new exercises, the bee would come back.
This allowed her to experience the power and goodness of Dafa. Even though I only taught her the third exercise, I was able to show her all five exercises and helped her truly understand that Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.
Undertaking a Truth Clarification Project
Because of the CCP virus (coronavirus) pandemic, it is even more important to make phone calls to mainland China to clarify the truth. I undertook the truth-clarification project in my local region and started to help practitioners install the software on their cell phones for online phone calls to China. I also helped practitioners make breakthroughs in the difficulties of making truth-clarification phone calls.
When we first began organizing the phone call truth-clarification group Fa study and experience sharing, many practitioners were beginners who had just started making phone calls to Mainland China. Our objective was to help them get rid of their attachment to fear. Because I wanted to help other practitioners, I also shared my experience on how I stopped being afraid when making phone calls. However, I realized my attitude during calls focused too much on myself, as when I made calls, I mostly focused on following the script and on how to just speak smoothly and clearly. I put saving people at a secondary position, which led to large interference during my phone calls.
I realized this and began to share this point with other practitioners, as I hoped to form a righteous field for saving sentient beings within our group. Slowly, practitioners who joined the project began to straighten out their thoughts too, and we truly created a righteous field for saving people. Our phone calls had less interference, and our conversations became smoother. During one of our group call sessions, through the combined efforts of practitioners clarifying the truth, we helped a person withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organizations right away when we called. I realized that it was Master’s encouragement. Thank you, Master and fellow practitioners.
Conclusion
Recently I have been trying to memorize “Truly Taking You to Greater Spiritual Heights” in Zhuan Falun. During this process, I understood what it means to cultivate as if you were just starting as well as Master’s words,
“"When one’s Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake ‘the world of ten directions.’" Whoever sees it will come to give a hand and help this person out unconditionally. In providing salvation to humankind, the Buddha School does not attach any condition or seek returns, and it will help unconditionally. Accordingly, we can do many things for practitioners.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that, under any circumstances, no matter what we encounter, we need to remember that we are practitioners, and that is when our divinity shines through. This is when Master will help us and enlighten us, and this is when He will remind Dafa disciples of the Fa principles. As long as we treat ourselves as cultivators, this divinity can shine through, we can remain diligent, and we can continue to elevate ourselves all the way through.
To end, I want to share this part of Fa with everyone,
“Accordingly, genuine cultivation practice has a higher xinxing requirement for practitioners. Everyone sits here to learn this Dafa, so you must here conduct yourselves as true practitioners, and you must give up attachments. If you come to learn the practice and this Dafa with various pursuits, you will not learn anything. To tell you the truth, the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Thank you, Master and fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2020 International Falun Dafa Young Practitioners’ Online Fa Conference)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
