(Clearwisdom.net) I wish our great Master a happy birthday! May 13th is a day celebrated in this human world and Heaven, because Master brought new life to lives in the universe on this special day. Dafa disciples in China thank Master for his compassionate and painstaking salvation. No words can express how much we miss Master.
On this special day, I have written down my cultivation experiences to encourage myself to do even better.
I obtained the Fa in 1997. I have taken many detours and done a lot of wrong things. Each time I stumbled, I got up and kept going. I thank Master for giving me the chance to make up for my losses.
I began to learn how to use the computer in 2004. With the wisdom bestowed upon me by Dafa, I soon became tech savvy. In the past several years, I've helped fellow practitioners install operating systems and trained them in computer use. Some of them, in turn, have taught other practitioners to operate a computer and establish information sites. We worked together and shared duties.
However, I didn't go out to distribute the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party or clarify the truth to people face to face in those years. I felt that we already had practitioners doing those things and my job was to focus on computer-related work. Because of these acquired notions, it took me a long time to finally step forward to save sentient beings. When some practitioners pointed this out to me, I thought in my heart, "It was me that taught you how to make truth-clarification materials! How could you claim I didn't step forward to save sentient beings?!" Even after I watched Master's video "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners," I still failed to enlighten to the importance of going out to clarify the truth to people face to face.
Then one night I went out with another practitioner. While he was distributing materials, I sent forth righteous thoughts. I suddenly realized that no one would see us now that it was dark. What was there to be afraid of? I had had fear in the past and didn't want to go out to distribute materials. That night, I came to see that such fear was not me at all. We were doing the most righteous thing in the universe and Master has numerous Fashen protecting us, "Who should actually be afraid of whom?" ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005")
From then on I no longer dreaded handing out truth-clarification materials. Every time I went out, I brought materials with me to distribute whenever there was an opportunity. One time, a fellow practitioner and I went to another city to distribute materials. We stayed in an apartment building. We didn't realize that we had forgotten to bring money with us until we got downstairs. We were not familiar with that area--what would we do if we got lost? We decided not to think about it, but instead pass out materials first. We knew Master would lead us back to the building. I distributed materials while the other practitioner sent forth righteous thoughts behind me. When we had almost finished passing out all the materials, we asked an elderly man how to get back to our place. He had no clue. We decided not to ask anymore. Instead, we distributed the remaining materials. Before we knew it, we had wandered back to the neighborhood where our building was located, but we didn't know which building was ours. We went around an apartment building and saw that all the apartments on the first floor had anti-theft steel doors. We decided to turn around. Suddenly, we saw an old lady running. I figured there must be something wrong. I told the other practitioner to run after her. After going through alleys and by apartment buildings, we lost sight of her. Then we realized we were back at our building. We came out from the front entrance earlier that day, and now we are at the back entrance. It was truly miraculous. We realized that Master had helped us find our way back. We said, "Thank you, Master" in our hearts.
From that point on I always sent forth righteous thoughts first before passing out materials. I asked Master to strengthen me and eliminate all the evil elements on my route as I distributed materials. I also thought to eliminate the bad notions sentient beings have against Dafa. I realized that there would be no interference when we maintain a pure and unselfish mind to save sentient beings. At that moment, I had no fear. I knew Master removed it for me.
However, in order to keep up with the Fa-rectification process, it is not enough to just hand out materials. One must step forward to clarify the truth face to face. Nobody would see me when I passed out materials; however, it was a totally different story when talking to people. I became fearful again. I realized there was still a huge gap between me and those practitioners who clarified the truth face to face. I wanted to be like them, but I couldn't open my mouth when I saw other people. I was very anxious and begged Master to bring people with predestined relationships to me.
One day I was home when I heard someone outside calling a person's name. She knocked on my neighbor's door. When no one answered, I heard her go upstairs and knock on other people's doors. It sounded like an elderly lady. I thought if she knocked on my door later, she must be a person with a predestined relationship to learn the truth. She did come downstairs and knock on my door. She was looking for a person who had bought bamboo sticks from her. Even though I didn't know anyone living in this apartment building, I still offered to look around with her. While talking to her, I asked her to remember, "Truth-Benevolence-Forbearance is good" and "Falun Dafa is good." She thanked me. Finally, we found the person and I helped carry the bamboo sticks inside. They wanted to give me money to express their gratitude. I declined and told them I lived in the same building.
After the bamboo lady left, a woman next door came out to talk to me. I suddenly remembered seeing her several years ago when I lived in the same place. I asked, "I remember your legs were perfectly fine. What happened?" She told me she fell and broke her legs. I realized it was time to clarify the truth to her. I told her I was once persecuted for my belief in Dafa and, as a result of the torture, my hands and feet were broken. But I totally recovered after doing the Falun Gong exercises. To my surprise, she told me she had practiced Falun Gong for some time before the persecution started. She immediately demonstrated the exercises and said she had thought about Master and asked Master to help eliminate her karma. Now her feet feel much better, and she can walk with a cane. She then told me her husband did not allow her to resume cultivation and destroyed her Dafa books. I asked her to not give up and she agreed. When I sent forth righteous thoughts in the days that followed, I thought to eliminate any evil factors that interfered with this former practitioner. For all those that knocked on my door by mistake, I treated them as people who came to me for the truth. I knew Master was encouraging me and arranging for people with predestined relationships to come. From that point on, I was able to talk to people face to face. In the beginning, I only told them Truth-Benevolence-Forbearance is good. Then, I gathered enough courage to say Falun Dafa is good. In the end, I could persuade people to do the three withdrawals (withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers).
My understanding is that we should maintain a righteous mind and try to save people. We shouldn't argue with people who don't accept what we say. We should feel compassion towards those people that we can't save this time around. Every time I failed to convince a person to accept the truth, I looked within to see what had hindered the salvation of that person. I felt I had let down our great and compassionate Master, as well as sentient beings. Every time I encounter sentient beings that can be saved, I thank Master in my heart for His salvation.
Even before the Shen Yun Performing Arts VCD came out, a brochure promoting Shen Yun was published. I knew it was a reminder to us. I told fellow practitioners that we must hurry to get ready to burn the discs once the Shen Yun VCD was available. Finally we received the Shen Yun VCD. We had it copied and made covers. Just after we put everything together and sent the CDs to fellow practitioners, we learned that there was a revised version of the Shen Yun VCD. What should we do? The practitioner who could burn CDs had to work during the day, and I had never done this before. I went to talk to another practitioner and we decided to try it. We asked Master to help us. We kept sending forth righteous thoughts while downloading Shen Yun from the Internet. Later, in the wee hours, I thought to do some of the Falun Gong exercises. I wasn't sure if the servers would disconnect (they disconnected many times), so I kept an eye on the servers while doing the exercises. To my surprise, originally only two servers were available, but it suddenly increased to three. I knew Master was helping me and hinting to me that I could focus on the exercises. This way I finished all the exercises and the servers never disconnected. It took us over 12 hours to download the Shen Yun show. Thank you, Master!
A few days later I found out that the other practitioner who worked with me downloading Shen Yun did not have a security program on his computer. I had always made sure my security program was running well before I did anything on my computer. This time when working on someone else's computer, I took it for granted that he had a security program as well. I knew it must be Master that was watching everything so we didn't have any trouble working on his computer without a security program. Here I'd like to remind everyone to install a security program. Everyone's xinxing is at different levels. Even if a practitioner fails to maintain strong righteous thoughts, a security program can help prevent the evil from causing trouble.
Master led a group of Dafa disciples to put on the Shen Yun shows, the purpose of which is to enable sentient beings to understand the inner meanings of the Chinese culture bestowed by Gods and to know the truth of Falun Dafa, thus securing a bright future. In order for more sentient beings to be saved, I passed out Shen Yun CDs separately from other truth clarification materials.
When passing out Shen Yun CDs, I normally asked Master to strengthen me and then told the recipient that the show was about the 5,000 years of Chinese history. People all gladly accepted it and thanked me. I also thanked them for accepting such a precious gift.
Once, I went to another practitioner's home to give him a Shen Yun CD. As we watched it together, I gradually came to understand why the Minghui editors require that we distribute the CDs separately (note: Minghui is the Chinese version of Clearwisdom). The singers sang much better than I could talk. When people watch the CD, they may not know that the performers are also Dafa disciples. As a result, they do not have any biases and it may be easier for them to be saved. On the other hand, when I clarify the truth, I may still hold my own human notions or even digress from truth clarification. If we distribute Shen Yun CDs along with other truth-clarification materials, people may decline to take them, missing an opportunity to be saved. Master does not want to lose anyone, so Shen Yun is a good way to save them. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for those practitioners who have difficulties in stepping forward to be able to save sentient beings.
Every time I went out, I brought with me dozens of Shen Yun CDs and I distributed them along the way. I had the heart to save sentient beings and the effect was good most of the time. Even when I met someone who declined to take the CD, I wasn't let down and instead looked within. I hoped that person wouldn't refuse again the next time another practitioner offered the CD to them. I really came to understand what Master said in Zhuan Falun,
"Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master. It is good enough if you have this wish. It is the master who actually does this, as you are simply unable to do it."
I'd also like to expose the things I didn't do well so I can alert myself and not make the same mistakes. I hope fellow practitioners can learn from my experiences and not make the same mistakes.
I once changed the covers of the Shen Yun CD and other truth-clarification CDs. When I made Dafa books, I also designed the cover of the Dafa books myself. I casually put Master's photo in Dafa books. I now realize I was undermining Dafa.
I changed the format of the video of the "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners" and turned it into an MP4. The excuse I had was for convenience.
There were also times when I used and spread music made by Dafa disciples for sending forth righteous thoughts, instead of using the official one downloaded from the Minghui website. The reason was that I liked the sounds of the different musical instruments such as the flute.
What pained me the most was my failure to pass the test of lust. I knew this was not only destroying myself, but also damaging Dafa. I felt I let down Master and sentient beings. I hope to correct my mistake and make up the losses.
Once again I wish Master a happy birthday!
Thank you, Master, for your salvation! Thank you, fellow practitioners, that participated in Shen Yun! Thank you, practitioners, that are working for the Minghui website!