(Minghui.org) Greetings, venerable Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I was born and raised in mainland China, and I was fortunate to obtain the Fa when I was very young. Unlike many other young Dafa practitioners, neither of my parents practices cultivation. I began practicing Falun Dafa with my uncle when I was in elementary school.

When I was little, I always felt that I did not have a cultivation environment because my parents did not practice. When I read the experience-sharing articles by young practitioners on Minghui.org, I was always envious of those who had been born into practitioners’ families. I asked my parents several times why they did not practice cultivation. Their answer was always that there were still things in ordinary society that they needed to take care of, and so on.

From childhood through my university years, I was able to keep studying the Fa, although sometimes I studied very little and I wasn’t always diligent. Fortunately, Master has always watched over me. I never left Dafa. I also wasn’t led astray by the colorful and temptation-filled ordinary human society. Although my parents did not practice cultivation, they recognized and supported Dafa. It was under these circumstances that I completed my university education.

I began practicing diligently after I came to the United States to pursue my Ph.D.

Cultivating Myself in My Studies and Work

For a long period of my life, studying occupied most of my time. As a result, the school environment became my cultivation environment. Pursuing good grades and a successful career was one of my major attachments. I would like to share several experiences of how I gradually let go of this attachment.

Three years ago, I came to the United States and began my Ph.D. studies. At that time, both my cultivation and my studies were in a poor state. As soon as I entered the program, I faced a major difficulty: finding an advisor. Because of the system in our department, it was not guaranteed that every student would have an advisor. If I could not find one, I might face the harsh possibility of being dismissed from the program. I felt extremely stressed and troubled.

It was then that I remembered Dafa. Didn’t I come overseas so I could have a better cultivation environment? Why, after coming abroad, had I instead become deeply immersed in a career and forgotten that I needed to integrate myself into the environment of group cultivation? So, almost two months after I arrived in the United States, I finally contacted local practitioners and began attending group Fa study.

The large group Fa study was quite far away, and I had to drive two hours to get there. After attending my first large group Fa study, I told my mother about it. When she learned that going to the large group Fa study took four or five hours altogether, she asked me, “Aren’t there many young people there? Are they all elderly people?” I was speechless because that was indeed the case. I had hardly seen a practitioner my age. She also told me that I should spend my time studying rather than on these things. I was filled with mixed emotions. My mother had never urged me to study hard. She usually only told me to get enough rest and to eat and sleep well. Yet, compared with studying the Fa, she actually wanted me to spend my time studying. In that moment, I truly understood what the saying means: “People come here in droves with an eye to benefits; people go there in a bustle with an eye to benefits.”

At school, every reasonably good advisor had students crowding around them. Yet at the large group Fa study, I could not see a single young person, because in the eyes of ordinary people, there was no benefit to be gained from it. I knew in my heart that I was a cultivator and could not measure things by ordinary people’s standards. For a living being, obtaining Dafa is what is truly precious. Ordinary people, on the other hand, overlook the most important thing. Therefore, no matter how demanding my studies were, I continued attending the small and large group Fa studies.

During the final exam period of my first semester, I encountered a xinxing test. One of my courses allowed us to take the final exam at home. We could complete the exam during any two-hour window within a designated day. A week before the exam, I ran into a classmate, Student A, who was taking the same course. He invited me to join an “exam team” with him and another student, Student B. Their plan was to first log in using B’s account. After seeing the exam questions, Students A and B would work on the questions together and submit the answers they worked out. Once they obtained all the correct answers, Student A would then log in using his own account and submit the answers.

Student A invited me to join them as well. At first, I did not really want to agree. He seemed unable to understand me at all and felt there was absolutely no risk or loss for me in doing this, only benefits. I said that although university exams in the United States were not proctored, American universities had an honor code. He scoffed at this and said that, in reality, there was no American college student who did not cheat. A close friend of mine was also there at the time. She was not taking this course, but she agreed completely with Student A. She thought it was unbelievable that I would hesitate about something that seemed so obviously beneficial to me.

After I returned home, I seriously reflected on the matter. I was under tremendous pressure to find an advisor. If I did not need to spend time reviewing for the exam, I could save many hours to devote to research, just as Student A was doing. I hadn’t done well on the midterm, so the pressure of the final exam was even greater. Tempted by all these benefits, I was very much shaken for a while. Fortunately, my righteous thoughts eventually prevailed. I thought, “The first character in Truthfulness-Compassion- Forbearance is Truthfulness. If I cheat on an exam, in what way am I being truthful? Is this something a cultivator would do?”

So I made up my mind firmly: I would listen to Master and be truthful. I would take the exam myself. Even if I did very poorly, and even if studying for the exam took up a great deal of my research time, I would accept it. Therefore, I did not join them. In the end, I received a perfect score on the final exam. The moment I saw the score, I knew that I made the right choice. I knew Master was encouraging me. After that, I found my current advisor and I also completed my first research project.

Following Falun Dafa’s Principles While Looking for Work

As a cultivator, tests will appear repeatedly. At the beginning of this year, I started looking for a summer internship. Because I started too late, most companies had already finished recruiting interns. At that point, I thought of a Chinese company, Company B. Before this, I had looked down on Chinese companies operating in the United States because their products serve the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and are tools for the CCP to conduct censorship and brainwash the Chinese people. However, Company B was financially strong, and its compensation had been extremely generous over the previous two years. Faced with the difficulty of not being able to find an internship and the temptation of material benefits, I became shaken and I began thinking that perhaps there would be nothing wrong with doing an internship there.

I shared this thought with my uncle, who is a fellow practitioner. He did not agree. He pointed out that it would be difficult for me to know whether I was actually serving the CCP. He said that even if an equivalent American company offered me somewhat less compensation, that would not matter. His words reminded me that this was an opportunity to let go of my attachment to personal gain and my attachment to career. It was a question of how to choose when facing matters of right and wrong as well as personal interests. Therefore, I did not apply to the Chinese company.

Later, I found an internship opportunity at a major American company. Before sending a message to the advisor, I first had AI revise my draft. The AI said that my tone sounded too “desperate,” meaning that I was showing a very strong desire to get the position. Something stirred in my heart, and I realized that this was Master’s hint. I began looking within and found that I had a very strong attachment to fame and gain. I was pursuing what I considered a good career and future. Seeing that all the students around me had internship opportunities at good companies, I developed jealousy and a competitive mentality.

At the same time, I was participating in Shen Yun promotion in the Greater New York area. Almost every week, I spent two days selling tickets at shopping malls. Deep in my heart, I had the thought that promoting Shen Yun was taking up my time. This was a manifestation of selfishness. I began studying the Fa more, sending forth righteous thoughts, and paying attention to my every thought and notion. Whenever I had the thought of finding a good job or earning a high salary, I rejected and denied it, telling myself that it was not my true self. After doing this, my heart became lighter. When I read papers and studied, my mind became much purer, and all my anxiety disappeared. Sometimes I even felt inexplicably joyful.

My circumstances also changed almost immediately. A senior student told me that her company was recruiting interns and that the position was a very good match for my field of study. Just one week earlier, she said that there was a good chance they would not be hiring. I subsequently interned at this company and also came to the Bay Area for the summer. During my internship, I received very good guidance and gained a great deal. Looking back, I realized that everything had actually been arranged by Master. The major American company I applied to had rejected me. Only later did I discover that the advisor who would have supervised me there was actually the founder of a Chinese high-tech company, Company S, which specializes in providing facial-recognition technology and services to the CCP and has caused great harm to people.

It was compassionate Master who protected me and prevented me from becoming involved in that. As for Company B, I later learned that it was cutting back its U.S. team and moving its focus back to China. Had I gone there, I might have ended up marginalized. My colleagues described it as “a matter of choosing sides in geopolitics.” I realized that Dafa actually gave me the answer long ago: standing on the side of Dafa is the truly correct side to choose. Thank you, Master, for your painstaking arrangements along the way and for protecting me.

Stepping Forward to Validate Dafa and Fulfill My Vows

Master said,

“Clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings are what you need to accomplish. There is nothing else for you to accomplish. There is nothing else in this world that you need to accomplish.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XIII)

This February, I participated in Shen Yun’s in-person promotion at a shopping mall for the first time, and I sold tickets. The day before I was scheduled to sell tickets, there was a blizzard warning in New Jersey. I asked the coordinating practitioner whether we were still going the next day. She told me to check the weather the following morning and go if it wasn’t snowing.

That night, I checked the weather forecast several times and noticed that the predicted start time for the snowfall kept being pushed later and later. The next morning, when I was about to leave, the sky was overcast, and the predicted start of the snow had been pushed back to 2:00 p.m. We were scheduled to sell tickets from noon to 6:00 p.m. So I prepared to go and sent a message to the coordinating practitioner to let her know.

However, she told me that the other two practitioners who had originally been scheduled to go were no longer going. I would be the only one there that day. As soon as I heard this, I didn’t want to go. I told the coordinator, and she said that was fine.

After putting down my phone, I thought: If this had happened in mainland China, would I still go? Dafa disciples in China often have to face not only harsh environmental conditions but also brutal persecution. I came overseas where I live in a free and relaxed environment. Would I then demand that I be comfortable and not do what a practitioner should do? I had also heard fellow practitioners say that practitioners who live overseas aren’t as diligent as mainland practitioners. On the other hand, we should avoid the Party culture of mainland China and avoid going to extremes in doing things. As for the situation at hand, the weather outside was actually not bad. It was merely overcast and had not reached the point where it was impossible to go outside. So I thought, “Let me use this as an experiment and see how many people will still be at the mall in this kind of weather. If there really aren’t many people, it can at least provide experience for next time.” So, I went to the mall.

When I arrived, there were fewer people than on a regular Sunday, but there were still about as many people as on a normal Friday. It was nowhere near as empty as I had imagined. Not long after I arrived, another practitioner came, which greatly strengthened my confidence. A young couple came with a newborn baby girl. They sat on the sofa in front of our booth to rest. After they told me that Shen Yun tickets were too expensive, the other practitioner spoke with them several times. In the end, they happily purchased tickets.

This was the first time I had personally witnessed a ticket being sold. If we hadn’t come because of the blizzard warning, we might truly have missed these predestined people. I knew Master was encouraging me. Thank you, Master.

The process of selling Shen Yun tickets is somewhat like traveling from place to place. We encounter many people’s rejection and indifference. Some people even listen to negative things spread by certain mainstream media and say negative things to us. Yet this is also an excellent opportunity for us to cultivate ourselves.

I try my best to face people with kindness, smiling as I hand them a Shen Yun flyer, without paying attention to whether they have a negative reaction.

There are also many warm moments during this process. Many people who have seen Shen Yun praise it. I have seen the side of sentient beings that understands after being saved, and I am truly happy for them from the bottom of my heart.

Shen Yun Is Amazing

I would also like to share my experience of inviting friends to see Shen Yun.

The year before last, I watched the performance for the first time. I was deeply moved and thought Shen Yun was so beautiful. At that time, I thought, “It would be wonderful if I could bring my classmates and friends to see Shen Yun.”

Last year, when there were still two or three months before the performances, I really wanted to invite my roommates. They were both Chinese. I previously clarified the truth to them. Roommate A agreed to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, while Roommate B did not. I was very conflicted because I was afraid they would think I had another motive if I invited them.

Before I knew it, less than a month remained before the performance. I thought, “If I don’t tell them now, they will graduate from their Master’s program this year, and I really won’t have another opportunity.” So I gathered my courage and told them about Shen Yun.

Roommate A opened the ticketing page and found that almost all the seats had already been sold. She said to me, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” After hearing that, I laughed. I knew that my previous worries had simply been obstacles created by my human notions. There were still many tickets available for the New York performances, so she and I booked tickets for a New York show.

Roommate A is normally a very frugal person and rarely spends money unnecessarily. Roommate B, on the other hand, likes to spend money and normally spends several hundred dollars whenever we go out to eat. Yet when Roommate B saw the Shen Yun ticket prices, she said they were too expensive and ultimately did not go. Roommate A, on the other hand, said the tickets were not expensive. Afterward, I thought that perhaps it was because Roommate A had withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. That life had been saved, and it was her knowing side that understood the preciousness of Shen Yun.

The process of watching Shen Yun with my roommate was not smooth either. Because our performance started at 7:00 p.m., we had already spent the entire day sightseeing in New York. During the second half, my roommate began to doze off. After the performance, she said that the singing and dancing were very good, but she could not understand the content involving gods, and Buddhas. In particular, the lyrics saying that “atheism and evolution are lies” were a major shock to someone who had grown up in mainland China. She could not accept this. I felt very discouraged at the time.

This year, when I invited another friend to see Shen Yun, I deliberately learned from last year’s “lesson.” I told her that Shen Yun included content about opposing the persecution and that, because ancient Chinese culture was divinely inspired, there was also a great deal of content concerning gods and Buddhas. I gave her a “heads-up” in advance, and she said she could accept it all. Taking last year’s experience into consideration, I deliberately booked a 2:00 p.m. performance. The result was very disappointing. This friend also fell asleep during the performance, and when I talked to her about withdrawing from the CCP and its affiliated organizations afterward, she refused.

After two consecutive years of experiences watching Shen Yun with friends, I felt tremendously frustrated and confused. I began looking within. I discovered that my attitude toward Shen Yun had not been sufficiently serious or respectful. This showed itself in the fact that when I watched it for the second or third time, I no longer had the same sense of awe and beauty that I experienced the first time. I was not in the best state to receive Shen Yun. I even subconsciously kept thinking about how ordinary people might view the program and whether they would find it uninteresting. With my mind filled with human notions and concerns, hadn’t I become an ordinary person myself? My notions also affected my friends and hindered them from being better saved. Our attitude toward Shen Yun must be sufficiently serious and respectful. Only then can people truly be saved while watching Shen Yun.

Collecting Signatures on Petitions

In the Bay Area, I participated in two petition-signing events. I would like to share some of my experiences. The first time, we were at Costco, approaching people in the parking lot and asking them to sign a petition. At first, I felt very embarrassed. I thought that at least when we sold Shen Yun tickets, we had a booth, so people knew what we were doing. Here, we were stopping people in a parking lot, and I felt very uncomfortable. For a long time, I could not take the first step.

At that moment, I saw an elderly fellow practitioner in her 80s who was with us. She had already approached people and obtained signatures. I felt greatly encouraged, but at the same time I felt ashamed. An elderly practitioner was working so hard and putting in so much effort, while I, a young person, still could not bring myself to open my mouth. I went over and learned from her how to start a conversation. I also began asking people to sign.

After I got the first person to sign, I discovered that it was not actually that difficult. Many times, all I needed to do was explain a little, and people were willing to sign. During this process, I discovered that I had a mentality of discrimination. Whenever I encountered Chinese people, they often had indifferent expressions, avoided eye contact, or even whispered to each other about us. As a result, I became reluctant to ask Chinese people to sign and I only wanted to approach Westerners.

There was a young woman whom I thought was European when I saw her from a distance. When I walked closer, I realized she was Chinese. But I felt awkward turning around at that point, so I started talking to her. Unexpectedly, she immediately agreed to sign. I thought, if I had seen from a distance that she was Chinese and therefore hadn’t approached her, wouldn’t this life have missed an opportunity to be saved?

Master said,

“Saving people is just that, saving people, and to pick and choose would not be merciful (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume IX)

I looked within and found that I had been treating saving people as if I were completing a task. I thought that if I asked 100 people, more Westerners than Chinese people would be willing to sign, and therefore I could get more signatures. I did not want to “waste time.” That was picking and choosing. It showed that I lacked compassion.

The next time I went to San Francisco to collect signatures, I constantly reminded myself not to discriminate. There was a young woman dressed in unusual clothing who appeared to have been heavily influenced by modern, distorted culture. I approached her with a compassionate and peaceful heart and told her about the petition. She immediately signed it. Our cultivation state affects the effectiveness of clarifying the truth.

Every time we collect signatures, there are many people who are in a hurry and therefore do not have the opportunity to listen to everything I say. Looking at these people hurrying past, I truly feel that every opportunity to clarify the truth is extremely precious. For some sentient beings, missing that opportunity may mean missing it forever.

Stepping forward to clarify the truth is also an opportunity to interact with society and understand what people are really thinking. This is also greatly beneficial for us young practitioners.ConclusionLooking back, I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for more than ten years. There have been many twists and turns along the way. Sometimes I wasn’t diligent at all and became mixed in with ordinary people, causing Master to worry about me.

Thank you, Master, for never giving up on me, even though I haven’t lived up to your expectations. I am very grateful for Master’s compassionate and painstaking salvation.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

(Presented at the 2026 San Francisco Fa Conference)