(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
Over the past year of my cultivation, there are some things that I haven’t done well. Namely, I have enlightened to things, but have not corrected my behavior. And there are some things that I have enlightened to and done well. There are also things that I have enlightened to after stumbling quite a bit. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Once when I was studying the Fa at home, I kept hearing the sound of a ship’s anchor. I realized that it was Master Li (Falun Dafa’s founder) telling me to go out and clarify the truth. I feel it’s not appropriate to call it clarifying the truth because I can only hand out informational materials because I don’t speak English.
Before going out to pass out flyers, my daughter-in-law held one up and pointed to one of the phone numbers and said that it was the contact information for a person in Toronto if people wanted to learn the exercises. Then I was on my way.
I came across a Western lady who accepted the flyer and left. After a while, she caught up with me and said a few words in English, but unfortunately I did not understand. Then she tried a posture from the exercise Falun Standing Stance called Holding the Wheel in Front of the Head. She looked happy and excited and spoke a few more words in English. Although I did not understand, I could tell from her expression that she was still a little confused. I pointed to the exercise teaching website on the pamphlet. Her expression didn’t change, so I flipped the pamphlet over and showed her the local contact number. She looked happy when she saw this and did the heshi gesture to me and thanked me repeatedly.
When I got home and told my daughter-in-law what happened, she mentioned that she showed me the website and phone number on the flyer casually, with no intention.
Master said,
“Once a person steps onto the path of cultivation, there will be nothing coincidental in his life from then on. Since your cultivation has been arranged systematically and time isn’t that plentiful, there can’t possibly be anything that’s coincidental. Everything has been tightly arranged.” (“Fa Teaching Given at a Meeting in New York,” Teachings at Conferences in the United States)
So as long as we follow the standard of a practitioner, Master will place predestined people in front of us.
There was also a time when I saw an elderly gentleman who looked Asian. I greeted him in Chinese and handed him a flyer. He replied in English, “No, thank you,” and walked away. About an hour later, he passed by again, and I greeted him again but this time in English and with a smile, while handing him the flyer with both my hands. This time he did not reject it and immediately started reading it. At the same time, a fellow practitioner clarified the truth to him.
Afterwards, the practitioner said that the gentleman was also looking for a practice that would bring him serenity and peace, and he also said that he would definitely check out the exercise website.
This deepened my understanding of Master’s teaching. No matter who we meet, a total stranger or a familiar face that has rejected us many times, we should smile and greet them. When we hand out flyers with a smile and in a respectful manner, people passing by will usually take it. If we are in a good state, more people will accept the flyers. The opposite is also true; when our cultivation state is poor, more people will ignore us. But as long as they walk past us, they are being given an opportunity by Master. I just do what a practitioner should do; everything else is arranged by Master.
When things go wrong, we should look inward to find where we don’t meet the standard of a practitioner or where we don’t align with the Fa. As long as we look inward, we can always find attachments and notions which cause conflicts. Then, we won’t complain how the other side is so wrong.
I understand that as long as two practitioners have a conflict, it means both sides are not following Fa and both have something to cultivate away; it doesn’t matter who’s right or who’s wrong. When we can look at conflicts this way, the attachments causing the problems will be relinquished and the resentment will be gone, too.
Some conflicts seem to happen out of the blue. Although I did not say anything at the time and pretended not to hear anything, the issue just seemed to pass. But it would still upset me for some time.
When I talked about this with a fellow practitioner, she said, “You used to give me advice: try to understand the other side; there might be a reason that this happened.” I felt better when she said that, but I was still a little upset. So I went to meditate to calm down more.
I realize that she certainly did not mean to agitate me; even if she did, there must be a reason why. When I think about conflicts this way, my heart is instantly relieved.
I feel very fortunate to be involved in Shen Yun promotion work. Since I don’t speak English, I helped carry backpacks and sent forth righteous thoughts to clear away interference from other dimensions. Since I can’t help with anything else, I keep telling myself to send pure righteous thoughts. I tried to cooperate with what practitioners told me to do—not have any negative thoughts or develop gaps with practitioners in other dimensions, and allow our energy fields to form a larger field of righteous thoughts.
In the beginning, I was always distracted when sending righteous thoughts, and I often saw my favorite things that attracted my attention. I soon realized that something was wrong. Then I adjusted my thinking and began to send righteous thoughts without any distractions. Everyone on the team was also in a good state and we cooperated harmoniously.
Another time when I was putting up posters with practitioners, the team leader asked another practitioner to partner with me, saying that I couldn’t speak English but I could carry a backpack. I was carrying fifty to sixty posters and more than two hundred brochures that day. They weighed quite a bit. But my partner said that she was used to working alone. At that time, I didn’t think about it much and in the end she agreed to work with me. The team leader suggested I take the leader’s bag, since it looked nice and handy with a special compartment for brochures. I agreed and casually commented that the bag was so convenient.
We stopped by seven or eight shops, but none of them allowed us to put up a single poster. My partner said, “This is not right, this rarely happens to me.” I got worried, wondering whether it was because my field was not righteous. So, I said that since it’s noon, let’s get something to eat and then we’ll look inward.
When we went in, my partner said she thought her own bag looked good because she always wears plain clothes and this bag is bright and goes with her clothes very well. She said, “It may not look good to you because I put tape on my bag. I did that because I could not just throw it away.”
I realized how unhappy my partner was. I felt guilty and sorry for her, so I tried to correct myself and said, “Everyone has a different idea about what looks good or bad; there is no right or wrong. It’s my fault, I apologize.” I also suggested, “Let me clean up those small pieces of tape on your bag so it looks nice and leaves a good impression of the Shen Yun promotion team.”
After talking for a while, she was in a better mood and we started putting up posters again. Then she said, “You do the talking, I’ll carry the backpack.” I didn’t think much and agreed. When I first started to put up the posters, my daughter-in-law taught me a few words in English, including hello, Shen Yun is here, and can I put this poster up in your store?
I was mostly involved in delivering door-hangers for Shen Yun and hadn’t put up posters for a long time. I don’t speak much English and I speak very slowly. When I got to the first shop, I had just opened a poster and hadn’t finished speaking when the owner said, “Sure, sure, put it on the glass door at the entrance.” I was stunned. It’s this easy? Although I couldn’t quite understand what the owner was saying, I guessed it by looking at her eyes, expression and gestures. My partner was very happy and said while putting up the poster, “Look, I didn’t post a single one, but they let us post it before you finished talking.” I was touched and smiled when I saw her smiling face and the pure heart she had for putting up a Shen Yun poster. She is really pure.
It was like this at the next ten shops. Some businesses don’t allow posters in public areas. Before I could remember how to say the word staff room, one employee said, “Would the staff room work?” My partner answered for me in time and said, “Yes.” Later on we switched our roles back.
During the Shen Yun promotion period, I put up fewer posters and hung more door hangers and broke a sweat every time. When I had strong righteous thoughts, I felt like my body shed a shell after delivering the door hangers. It was a wonderful feeling. My body was relaxed, legs and feet were light, and I didn’t feel tired at all. When I didn’t have enough righteous thoughts, and there were times when I was distracted from sending righteous thoughts, although my body was light, I wouldn’t have that wonderful feeling. Also, when I had strong righteous thoughts, I would rarely encounter mailboxes with stickers saying, “no flyers, no soliciting” and more people would bring in the door hangers right away.
Each Shen Yun program starts and ends with a perfect formation, which is the result of cooperation among the performers to present such a coordinated and beautiful scene to the audience. We should reflect on how we cooperate on our various truth clarification projects. When I was clarifying the truth with practitioners, I handed out flyers, and when someone accepted one, a practitioner immediately came over and clarified the truth and collected their signature to call for an end to the persecution. We cooperated very smoothly almost every time.
One day, a passerby took a flyer and practitioners clarified the truth to them, but they declined to sign the petition. We both looked inward. The other practitioner found a problem with the order she presented the information to people. I also found my own shortcoming. After the passerby accepted the flyer, I felt that I had completed my task and just listened to other practitioners clarifying the truth. I realized that I should have stood by the other practitioner and sent righteous thoughts. When we really did this, the situation changed immediately.
Thank you to all those who have cared for me and helped in word and deed, no matter whether you know me personally or not. It made me truly appreciate that we practitioners are one body. I also hope that we can be more diligent and improve together in our future practice and follow the path that Master has arranged for us.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Heshi
(Presented at the 2022 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)