July 28, 2003

Master's lecture and the experience sharing of fellow practitioners are what gave me the deepest impression during this Washington DC Fa Conference. Besides these, I had witnessed many things during the few days I stayed in DC. They can be put into stories and they touched my heart, and made me feel how truly precious and sacred cultivation is. Below are a few such stories:

I used to live in another state where it was quite difficult to start any Fa-clarification activities. This was because the number of practitioners there was so few. I met up with some practitioners from that state and learned that they had recently obtained more proclamations from the local government, and had participated in several parades. I saw a picture of them in the July 4^th parade. In the picture I saw their float, which had been done very well even though there were so few practitioners present to help. I was very touched to see how they did so well with so few people.

On Monday, while sending forth righteous thoughts at the Chinese embassy, I met an elderly lady. I learned that no matter whether it rained or shined she would come to the embassy to send righteous thoughts. Some of her family are non-practitioners, so it is sometimes difficult for her to come, but she always manages to handle it very well. For the conference this time, she could have gone to the main conference hall since she did not speak English, however she chose to go to the secondary conference hall instead because she wanted to save her space for practitioners from out of state. I was very moved.

Practitioners came and went to the embassy quite frequently. This lady always said hello or waved good-bye, and everyone was so friendly. We spent most of our time studying Fa, doing exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts, with a few short breaks in between and some brief moments for experience sharing. By being there I witnessed a very harmonious unity, and realized my own deficiencies in several aspects.

3. How shall one view the conflicts between practitioners?

During an afternoon I attended a project meeting. Everyone in the meeting talked with modesty, as if his each one's effort was so trivial that it was not worth mentioning. Seeing the calm manner, righteous thoughts, and selflessness in their speeches, I sensed my own deficiencies.

Due to lack of communicating, I used to think practitioners around me have this attachment or that deficiency. In reality, I might not have known the seen the good aspects of fellow practitioners. When I was shown their deficiencies, it was actually an opportunity for me to look inward and improve myself. How could I seek out and magnify fellow practitioners' deficiencies?

During the public rally on Tuesday, a practitioner and I unfurled a very long banner on one side of the rally. The banner displayed in large English and Chinese characters: "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance," but it was too long for two people to handle. A practitioner came to help us, so the three of us stood there and held the banner up until the rally was over, nearly four hours. Several times during the rally, some practitioners came up and asked us if we needed to switch with them to take a break. The woman who had come to join us always replied with a smile: "No, thanks. It is my pleasure to do this."

No matter where I was, practitioners' righteous thoughts and righteous actions always touched me. It allowed me to feel the power of Dafa and encouraged me to do better.