(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I’m from Germany and I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for more than 20 years. Even though I’ve participated in various activities to introduce Falun Dafa and feel that I’m a Fa-rectification period Falun Dafa practitioner, a recent experience while overcoming a sickness karma tribulation made me deeply realize that I still have many human attachments that I haven’t removed.
I was in charge of the program booklet team during the Shen Yun performances. I stood at the theater entrance selling program booklets for five days, and clarified the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution to audience members. Cold winds gusted into the building and it was freezing cold, but being able to reach the audience was a great opportunity, and the results were good. I felt happy about this and even developed a show-off mentality—thinking that I sold more booklets than the others. However, the next day I felt bloated and nauseous. A red rash appeared across my waist and abdomen, which turned into blisters that were extremely painful. I couldn’t eat, but I gritted my teeth and persisted in completing the five-day task. I later realized this happened because of my attachments to showing off, joy, and competitiveness, which were exploited by the old forces.
I initially thought I was just experiencing symptoms from catching a chill, but later realized it reflected problems in my heart. When I looked inward I discovered I had a strong mentality of comparing myself to others and seeking credit—I felt I did better and contributed more than others. A cultivator should not have these attachments.
While I assisted with Shen Yun in another city, the pain became unbearable and the other practitioners urged me to go home and rest. I went home for a few days, but I went to another country to help out since this was already planned. I worried that my condition would affect our efforts, so I told the coordinator that I was overcoming a sickness tribulation. He insisted that I come. The pain worsened while I ironed clothes—the heat irritated the blisters. At night the pain was so intense I couldn’t sleep. Although the other practitioners did what they could to lighten my load, I was in physical and mental agony. The coordinator didn’t allow me to take a break. I felt wronged, but after I calmed down, I realized that this was a test to see whether I could truly look inward and cooperate without resentment.
This situation allowed me to deeply reflect on my cultivation issues. I found that for many years I often shifted responsibility to others. When something negative happened, my first thought was always to blame someone else. I harbored resentment towards those who hurt me and I wasn’t willing to forgive them. For example, a practitioner once blocked me from joining a project to support Shen Yun and even misled the coordinator into misunderstanding me. I resented her for a long time, and when I saw her, I rejected her efforts to make amends.
When I thought about the poor ticket sales in our area, I said, “Everyone has a share of the responsibility,” but in my heart I thought others didn’t coordinate well. I never truly looked at myself or tried to eliminate my notions, which had formed over years.
It wasn’t until I experienced the tremendous pain of this shingles sickness karma that I finally started to truly look within. When I let go of my resentment toward others and tried to understand fellow practitioners, I recalled a line from the film Once We Were Divine that said, “We descended together with one heart, and will return to Heaven together.” With this thought, in my heart, I felt my notions and resentment dissolve and I gradually relaxed.
My heart expanded and my tolerance emerged. I studied the Fa very earnestly and felt I was truly internalizing the Fa. When I read “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” I realized Master taught us how to cultivate.
Master said:
“So for sure there is a path that you will be able to walk through to completion. It is a path that has to meet the requirements, and only that way will the sentient beings of the cosmos admire you and not be able to interfere; will your path be free of problems; and will your journey go smoothly. Otherwise, if you are carrying all sorts of attachments and human thoughts, you will meet with a great deal of trouble, and that trouble will serve to block your path. When you fail to walk the correct path, one reason for it is karmic causes. Among them is the trouble that accompanies a being in the background; past favors done for others or scores to settle; old promises; all of the different connections one might have with a being, and so on. Another cause is the attachments that come from one’s human mindset. Especially notable are the notions that one forms, or habits of thought that one forms, which make it very hard for a person to recognize when human thinking is unconsciously at work. And if one can’t recognize it, how is one to get rid of it?” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume XI)
I understood that Master teaching us to look inward is not just a saying, but a magic tool for breaking through all human attachments. When I truly let go and changed my notions, my overall health also showed obvious improvement: I could eat again, my weight went back up, and my body felt light. This is the power of Dafa.
I’ve been part of the waist drum team for years and I also coordinated it. We went from initially being short of members to gradually having more practitioners join. When the Vietnamese practitioners joined, it strengthened our whole body. Despite the language barrier, they very proactively learned Chinese, memorized Master’s poems and Lunyu, and even helped us repair drums—they always thought of others. I witnessed everyone’s cooperation and growth. Their drumming technique also steadily improved.
I once went to Athens, Greece to participate in a parade. Because it was the first time I’d taken a waist drum on a plane, uncertainty over luggage restrictions made the process very challenging. Also that day, a practitioner backed out at the last minute. I learned to let go of grievances and view everything with righteous thoughts. In the end, I successfully brought the drum on the plane and we participated in the parade.
The day of the parade, a Vietnamese practitioner suddenly refused to hold a banner, which threw the arrangement into disarray. She said it was a language barrier. This made me feel wronged, and it also hit a sore spot regarding my long-standing weakness with languages.
Master said:
“Maybe you only get upset when it’s a case of someone saying something that really provokes you or hits a sore spot. And maybe the person really did treat you wrongfully. But, those words weren’t necessarily said by that person. Perhaps they were said by me.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume X)
I realized I was lax in improving my ability to communicate for years—I hadn’t proactively worked on it, nor truly regarded this issue from the Fa.
During the two-day event, I drafted suggestions and translated materials to submit to the local coordinator, helping to adjust the parade order so the waist drum team could better display Dafa’s beauty. I also became more appreciative of the practitioners who helped me and accommodated my language shortcomings. They even used Google Translate to convert information into Chinese to communicate with me, which was truly being considerate of others.
Over the course of four parades in two days, the results were excellent. Especially when we passed through a very narrow corridor near a restaurant at the Acropolis, we formed a single-file line, waving our drums to the music as we marched forward. That feeling was so wonderful. The bystanders were very appreciative of our performance. Some gave us a thumbs-up. Seeing sentient beings saved and eliminating the evil specter, I was happy for them and proud of our waist drum team.
I deeply understood that coordinating is not to command others, but to proactively observe, take initiative, resolve conflicts, and uplift the whole—harmonizing the one body. No matter what misunderstandings, language barriers, or sudden incidents arise, as long as we stand on the Fa and view things from the perspective of saving people, we can resolve anything.
From the hardship of sickness karma to the grinding process of coordination, I’ve profoundly realized that looking inward is the starting point of true cultivation, and the watershed that determines whether one can break through trials and act righteously.
Master said:
“As gods see it, for a cultivator to be right or wrong in the human world is not important in the least, whereas eliminating the attachments that come from human thinking is important, and it is precisely your managing to eliminate those attachments rooted in your human thinking as you cultivate that counts as important.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume X)
In the past I always used human notions in my cultivation. I judged other practitioners with human emotions, and I ignored the Fa’s requirements. Going forward, I will truly put into practice the approach that whenever something happens, I will look at myself first, genuinely remove my attachments, and change my notions. I will let the Fa guide everything, help Master save more people, and fulfill the vows I made before I descended to this world.
Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation! Thank you, fellow practitioners, for your support and help!
(Selected article presented at the 2025 Nordic Fa Conference)