(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 1)
Share on the Fa Often. Focus on Training to Help Fellow Practitioners Grow Independently and Improve as One Body.
Looking back on my own cultivation, I started to practice Dafa in 1995. After the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution began on July 20, 1999, my wife—also a practitioner—and I went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. We went to Zhongnanhai and Tiananmen Square.
Upon returning from Beijing, with the help of fellow practitioners from other provinces, I broke through numerous Internet blockades. Through numerous proxy servers, I was finally able to access the Minghui website. After that, I started to learn even more technologies to validate the Fa. We established a printing site for materials in our home. Over the course of many days and nights, I accessed the Minghui website and the Tiandixing technical forum to search for relevant materials. After having overcome many trials and tribulations, I finally became a technical expert.
Our printing site became bigger and bigger. In just half a day, we could produce thousands of CDs at once or hundreds of copies of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. A fellow practitioner who came to help us was very impressed that our site was able to supply our entire city.
One day about ten years ago, my electric meter exploded like fireworks because we had used too much power. Only then did I realize that we were taking the wrong path: we should not have operated at such a large scale. Rather, we should establish a large number of small printing sites everywhere, as required by Master.
After that, we started switching our focus to coaching other practitioners, while producing materials in our spare time. We encouraged all practitioners to take action on their own and helped them build their own path of validating the Fa.
In terms of funding, we never used money from fellow practitioners. When the evil forces were at their peak in 2000, many fellow practitioners were forced to leave their homes due to the persecution. In order to protect these practitioners, my wife and I decided to rent apartments for them. We were not in good a financial situation at the time either, but my wife agreed to sell her gold jewelry that I bought her when we got married. We were then able to rent an apartment to protect those practitioners.
Later I realized that no matter how much money we spent on validating the Fa, Master always found a way to get that money back to us, often giving us much more than what we paid. Therefore, in the past 20 years, our financial situation became better and better. We no longer needed assistance from other practitioners.
During our tech training sessions, we always began by sharing our own experiences to help alleviate the concerns of other practitioners. We also took an interactive teaching approach. For example, in a system installation training session, we would ask our fastest learners to teach others after they demonstrated their grasp of the concepts and process. This would in turn help strengthen their learning as well.
However, I found that most technical practitioners, including some mentioned above and some from other regions, simply went to practitioners’ homes to repair machines without communicating with them. They started to work as soon as they entered the house and left when they finished. Even when there was a brief sharing, it was rather superficial. In the end, it was essentially everyday people doing everyday repairs. There was no improvement in cultivation as one body.
Master said,
“Human beings are supposed to interact with one another. For thousands of years of human societies, with traditional, god-given culture in place, human beings never went without interacting.” “Then what kinds of beings don’t interact with each other? As you may know, there are no emotions over on the planets of alien beings.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)
I noticed that many practitioners did not realize that learning technology is also part of our cultivation. Through sharing and communication, fellow practitioners would break through their notions of not willing to learn technology. Once they break through these notions, they will be able to take the initiative to become more familiar with technology and rectify their cultivation path.
Below are some examples.
[Scenario 1] Technology Is Related to Our Mission of Saving People
One day, a practitioner asked me, “We're still able to reach consummation without learning computer skills, right?”
I knew that this practitioner didn’t realize the importance of learning computer technology.
So I said to him, “Yes, you can achieve consummation without learning a thing about computers, printers, or mobile devices. However, if none of us takes the initiative to learn these skills, who will take on these projects and fulfill the mission of saving sentient beings?”
Since then, this practitioner has become one of the main technical resources in his area.
[Scenario 2] Becoming Independent
Once a fellow practitioner described a common issue. That is, many practitioners always asked others to solve their computer issues instead of learning on their own.
I then told him a story that he could share with other practitioners.
Master has mentioned many times in the Fa that we will return to our heavenly worlds after reaching consummation. Presumably, we'd tell stories about our cultivation journey to our sentient beings. Imagine what you'd say when your sentient beings asked you:
“O Lord, please tell us about your cultivation in the lower realms.”
You might say, “It was really not easy for us at all. We did a lot of projects, under great pressure, to assist the Creator in Fa-rectification and save sentient beings. We made DVDs, books, and pamphlets.”
Then, what if your sentient beings asked, “O Lord, but who maintained your computer, your printer, and your mobile devices?”
And what if you said, “It was Practitioner A who helped me fix my computer, Practitioner B who helped me fix my printer, and Practitioner C who fixed my mobile devices…”
All the practitioners laughed at this point. By then, they had realized the importance of learning technology.
[Scenario 3] Identifying Loopholes
One day, another practitioner asked me, “Is it wrong that I go out every day to help fellow practitioners fix their machines?”
I replied, “If a practitioner’s printer issue was due to improper use, before fixing it, you may want to share with the practitioner first. See if they have any issues in cultivating xinxing recently or loopholes that need to be corrected.”
“In general, the machines we use are connected with our cultivation state. There are even times when the machine automatically becomes better after we eliminate our attachments. We should also remind fellow practitioners to follow along and learn on their own to stop being dependent on others.”
Master said,
“They know Dafa disciples' every single action and every single thought. Everything that Dafa disciples do is clearly displayed before the eyes of higher beings. So be sure to do well and win their admiration.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)
Therefore, it is important to share our understandings with each other. We need to identify the root of the issue from a cultivation standpoint and improve our xinxing. This is what Master wants. Moreover, if other practitioners always rely on a few technical resources for machine issues instead of learning on their own, the old forces would take this to mean that these technical practitioners are blocking their cultivation path. They would then use this as an excuse to persecute the technical practitioners.
[Scenario 4] Becoming Independent
One day, when a practitioner went to help fix an elderly practitioner’s printer, he encouraged her to learn how to fix the printer herself.
She responded, “I’m old, and you're asking me to learn this now? Please hurry up and fix it for me. Otherwise, you'll be keeping me from making Shen Yun DVDs.”
When discussing this, I said that sharing our thoughts from a cultivation perspective is necessary because printer issues could be related to issues in our own cultivation. If we just fix the machine, it would merely be everyday people fixing everyday people’s problems. Even if we rush to fix the printer and make Shen Yun DVDs, the old forces may exploit this loophole and prevent the DVDs from actually saving people. To truly save sentient beings, it is critical that we truly cultivate ourselves and improve our level.
Master said,
“It doesn’t matter how old he is—I don’t look at age. As you may know, Zhang Sanfeng attained the Dao in his seventies, and he lived for one hundred and thirty-some years. He formally started cultivation when he was over seventy. That is to say, cultivation has nothing to do with age. It depends on whether you manage to be diligent.” (“Teachings at the Midwestern U.S. Conference”)
Later, the practitioner shared his thoughts with the elderly practitioner. This time she said, “I understand now. I was wrong. I will learn the skills myself so that I won't have to always depend on others.”
(To be continued)
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Category: Improving Oneself
