(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners held a countrywide cultivation experience sharing conference at the Sheraton Center Toronto Hotel on July 16, 2023. More than 1400 practitioners from different parts of Canada as well as the U.S. attended. Practitioners from western Canada also joined online, and the speeches were simultaneously translated into Chinese, English, French, Vietnamese, and Persian (Farsi).
The moderator opened the event by saying, “Dafa cultivators change their notions, eliminate karma, ascend in realm, and purify themselves by cultivating solidly. Master [Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] has revealed the sacred predestined relationship forged through tens of thousands of years, Dafa disciples gave up their past noble home in heaven and bravely descended to earth for their sacred vows, establishing the ladder to heaven.”
Twenty-four practitioners spoke on how they cultivated in different environments and while working on different truth clarification projects.
The 2023 Canada Falun Dafa Experience Sharing was held on July 16.
Practitioners read their cultivation experience papers.
Eliminating Attachments While Reporting on Shen Yun
Ms. He from Ottawa talked about how she eliminated her jealousy while reporting on Shen Yun. She developed a grudge against an outspoken practitioner and, as a result, decided to either replace her interviews or not use them at all.
As she continued to work with the practitioner, she got to know her better. She observed that the practitioner continued to produce outstanding reports due to her diligence. Her jealousy and dislike changed to respect.
Her hard feelings dissolved as she learned to see her problem from the perspective of the project and her responsibility. She said, “I felt happy for the practitioner when I saw her shining points. At the same time, it was clear to me where I needed to work harder to improve. I invited her to Ottawa to help report on Shen Yun and she gladly accepted.”
Ms. Yang from Calgary spoke of the changes she went through while selling Shen Yun tickets. She went from thinking she was more skilled and wasn’t willing to work with other practitioners to learning to cooperate. Ticket sales improved as a result.
She said, “The home show exhibition was packed, but because we had a small booth. I had to stand behind two practitioners.” She observed that they did not sell any tickets after talking to people for a long time, and she began to have negative thoughts. A practitioner knew she was upset and offered to switch places with her. However, as Ms. Yang recalled, “It was Saturday, the busiest day, but we sold the fewest tickets that day.”
After chatting with other practitioners, she realized her notions were causing the problem. The next day, she tried to work with her teammates and gave up the urge to stand in front. “Although not as many people passed our booth, people came to us one after the other and bought tickets to the show.”
Ms. Liu from Quebec talked about how she learned to let go of self and cooperate with other practitioners while promoting Shen Yun in her area.
She was responsible for organizing practitioners to put up posters. An elderly practitioner who did not speak English wanted to help but Ms. Liu thought the practitioner would not be of much help and did not want to go to the trouble of getting another practitioner to work with her.
She discovered her resentment led to her impatience and lack of kindness and tolerance for other practitioners. She felt it was unfair when she had to do more. After realizing her problem, she stopped pursuing results and learned to be considerate of others.
When it got closer to the show, Ms. Liu’s friend told her he saw Shen Yun posters in many restaurants on a certain street. “The street he mentioned was the one the elderly practitioner and a Western practitioner worked together to cover. The posters stayed on those shop windows for several months and had a great effect.”
Cultivating While Working on Ganjing World
Mr. Zhu from Toronto was responsible for training and evaluating Ganjing World promotions on social media. He trained over 200 practitioners and the workload was enormous.
He observed that he became anxious and depressed and looked down on practitioners when they didn’t cooperate with him, asked him to resolve things big and small, or spoke to him in a tone that made him feel uncomfortable.
He began to look within. “When my attitude was correct, although I was extremely busy, everything went smoothly without any issues. The key was my cultivation state.”
Teresa, a young practitioner in Toronto, previously suffered from severe spinal disc problems before she began to practice Falun Dafa. After she started to participate in an editing project full time, her symptoms came back and she had to quit. She consequently developed a mental block towards editing work.
When she saw the need for practitioners to help edit community events videos for Ganjing World, she hesitated. On the one hand, she was afraid her spinal problem would come back, while on the other hand, she did not want her physical condition to hold back the progress of the project.
Torn between considering herself first or the project, Teresa chose to let go of her attachment to self. She said, “I made use of bits of free time and quickly edited the video for the event. I received encouraging feedback as well and the video gained quite a lot of traffic on the platform. I think Master was encouraging me to continue with my editing job.”
Telling People about the Persecution in a Small Town
Ms. Chen, a Vietnamese practitioner, lives in Shelburne, a small town in Nova Scotia. She began to practice Falun Dafa in 2018 and is the only practitioner there. She owns a restaurant and tells customers from all walks of life and from different cities and countries about the persecution in China.
She said, “I display information about Falun Dafa. I also put up Shen Yun posters and beautiful lotus flowers in a spot where customers can easily see them. I make sure everyone who comes to my restaurant know what Falun Dafa is.”
At first, her employees did not understand why she did this, but as time passed, they witnessed how amazing Dafa is. She said, “Later, when I'm not around, they even hand out Dafa materials to customers.”
Making Phone Calls to People in China
Ms. Jiang who lives in Vancouver has been calling people in China to explain the facts about the persecution for eight years. She spent a year summarizing information and gathering experience in order to find a way to answer questions and get people to agree with what she said.
One day, she suddenly felt bored and tired after making phones for over four years and thought of giving up. Then the pandemic broke out, and local truth clarification projects downsized. She felt the urgency of saving people. Due to the panic caused by the pandemic, more people took her phone calls and listened for over half an hour.
She said, “While making phone calls or talking to people face to face, I realized we should have a heart as big as the ocean in order to save more people. In particular, when we come across people from China who are cold and rude, unless we have great forbearance, we might easily dismiss the person and think they are not savable.”
Cultivating in the Media Environment
Sherry from Toronto is a young practitioner who began working for the English language Epoch Times last year. At the beginning of this year, her supervisor asked her to increase advertising sales by 10 times in one month. She thought it would be hard to meet the goal.
She was severely tested in the process. When her cultivation was not steady, she had difficulty securing advertisements. The situation improved when she changed her mindset.
Yet, for a period of time, she was not able to sign more advertisers. She was puzzled and did not know what to do. After attending a whole day group Fa study and sharing for those who work in the media, Sherry suddenly realized, “This interference doesn't exist. We are doing the most righteous thing and the team is trying their best to work together. We cannot allow the evil in other dimensions to stop people from being saved.
“When I had this strong conviction, our ad sales the following week peaked.”
The conference ended successfully at 6:10 p.m. Attendees said they benefited from the sharings and hoped to make progress in cultivation and be more diligent in the future!
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