Shared at the 2002 Fa Conference in Greater New York Area
Greetings, dear fellow practitioners!
My name is Sandra and I am a practitioner from France. Due to my poor English, I haven't had many occasions to meet with practitioners from other countries and exchange experiences with them. However, no matter whether or not I understand other languages, I, as one of the Dafa particles, am happy to be here with you today. I would like to share two things with you: The first is that our behavior in the ordinary society is very important to our clarifying the truth, and the second is that we should let go of attachments, leaving no loopholes for the evil to take advantage of.
1. Our behavior is very important to our clarifying the truth
Master told us,
"Since you're doing Dafa cultivation, everything should be the most magnificent and the purest. None of the things we do are just about your personal cultivation. We have to also consider the Fa, and we have to consider the new beings of the future, and, at the same time, we have to consider the form of beings in the future. Because you're laying a foundation for them, the path we take has to be righteous. Whatever you do today, the future people will remark, 'That's how Dafa disciples did it back then,' so we can see that many things are major." (Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.)
At present we are doing a lot of work to clarify the truth in different domains, and we can't neglect our behavior even for the smallest things that can sometimes be as significant as the larger tasks we undertake.
One day I was in the subway reading Zhuan Falun. All at once, many people came in, and among them was a woman who looked very tired. My first thought was to give her my seat, but for a short time I hesitated. I rectified my thought at once. She looked really tired, so I gave her my seat and she was very happy about this.
I thus found myself standing among many people but still reading. I noticed a man right beside me, taking glimpses at what I read over my shoulder. I turn my head and as I looked at him in the eyes, he said, "Excuse me, but I'm always wanting to know what people are reading." I then showed him my book and told him that this was Zhuan Falun. I asked, "Have you heard about it?" He shook his head with a smile. I then asked him if he knew about Falun Gong, the cultivation practice that is being persecuted in China. He said, "Yes, I read some stories about Falun Gong in newspapers." Hearing this, I took out a Dafa booklet from my bag to explain the truth to him.
We started an interesting discussion, during which I explained to him how the Chinese government fabricated propaganda to slander Falun Gong. He listened very attentively. I also told him about the principles of Falun Gong and the importance of being a good person in society with high moral standards. I mentioned why I could give my seat to that woman. He told me: "You know, I was willing to talk with you because people who do this kind of things are very rare." I replied: "This is what being a Falun Gong practitioner is all about. Whether it is a small thing or big issue, practitioners always try to think of others before thinking of themselves, and they try to become truly good people." He was very astonished by what I explained to him, because he was not aware Falun Gong practitioners were like this. As I asked him about his job, he said that he was a journalist. He was very friendly. The station where I got off arrived, and we smiled to each other and said goodbye.
My heart was filled with joy because of this experience. I also became aware of the importance for us to live up to the xinxing standards set forth for practitioners.
The above-mentioned story is just one of the many stories that many of us would encounter. Our righteous thoughts lead a person to learn the truth. This person will then tell the truth to people around him, such as his colleagues.
2. Let go of attachments, leaving no loopholes for the evil to take advantage of
Too strong attachments will leave loopholes for the evil to exploit, thus interfering with our cultivation environment and hindering our Dafa work. Last year a practitioner came to join our study group. As soon as I saw her, I could not stand her. At the group study on the same evening, I had to leave because she was present. Once I went back home, I cried, thinking how stupid and dirty my behavior and impure thoughts were. Up until recently, I have had continuous xinxing tests with this practitioner. It has been pretty hard for me to see these attachments appearing. As a practitioner, I always thought that I was not subject to these attachments. But even though I say it is hard, I'm very happy because I could work on myself and remove them. This enormous attachment was jealousy, the jealousy that has to be absolutely removed during the process of our cultivation.
Master said,
"The issue of jealousy is very serious as it directly involves the matter of whether you can complete cultivation practice. If jealousy is not abolished, everything that you have cultivated will become fragile. There is this rule: If in the course of cultivation practice jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Right Fruit--absolutely not. Perhaps you have heard before that Buddha Amitabha spoke of going to a paradise with karma. But that is not going to happen without giving up jealousy. It may be possible that one falls short in some other minor regards and goes to the paradise with karma for further cultivation. But it is absolutely impossible if jealousy is not abandoned. Today I am telling practitioners that you should not keep yourselves in the dark without being enlightened to it. The goal that you intend to achieve is to practice cultivation toward high levels. The attachment of jealousy must be relinquished, so I have singled out the issue in this lecture. " (Zhuan Falun, lecture 7)
The reason why I mention this story today is that this attachment sometimes interfered with Hongfa work. During the sharing of experiences at our group study, I could never talk to this practitioner. I could not even express myself well when she was present. I sometimes hoped that she would not come to such and such meeting. This was really disrupting the harmony in our group, which was important in order for us to do better Hongfa work together. Some practitioners also noticed my problem.
Continually searching inward is really fundamental to seeing the root [of the problems]. Master told us
"Also, you need to pay attention to one issue: you are Dafa disciples, so you should always look within whenever you run into problems--it's guaranteed that many of the problems are your problems, whether you want to look at yourself or not, or whether you think of them or not. In the future, when you see the truth, you'll realize that everything had a reason." (Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.)
Master said many times during the conferences that we should continually search inward. In fact, this attachment was hiding many others. Sometimes when I thought it was in the end removed, it would re-appear. My spirits were a bit low because of this, but I understood that, layer after layer, it would be removed through my efforts.
One day I decided to completely break with this attachment, for I did not want it to exist anymore. It was a barrier in the way of my personal cultivation as well as for Hongfa and Fa-rectification work -- so it was very serious. I decided to spend some time with this practitioner, and we agreed to have dinner together. The very simple fact of having a firm will to eliminate the root of this interference in our cultivation during the Fa-rectification period was sufficient for it to be destroyed. Today I can work much better with this practitioner, with a light heart, because I really understood that we are all linked together. It was an enormous step for me to do this, and from then on, I would not allow evil to take advantage of loopholes and interfere with our environment. Making efforts to harmonize our group is very important. In this Fa-rectification period, it is very important that each one of us makes this effort continuously.
I wish to thank Master for making me go through these tests -- without him I could not have raised my Xinxing, nor could I have gotten closer to the universal characteristic of "Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance)"
Thank you all.