(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I’m a new practitioner who obtained the Fa in May 2009. I’m here to report to our revered Master and share with practitioners some of my cultivation experiences of the past two years.
I have lived in Australia for 11 years. Due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) lies I had stayed away from Falun Gong until two years ago. At the beginning of 2009 I saw a Falun Dafa book in a local library. Curious, I borrowed the book and took it home. Surprisingly, it only took me about three days to finish the book. I thought that Falun Dafa was so good, and I should do something to let more people know about this.
I started the practice by memorizing the Fa, thinking the Fa is so good that I should keep it in my heart/mind. I began with hand-copying the Fa. I would copy one paragraph and then memorize it before moving to the next paragraph. When I finished the 4th section in Lecture One, I could memorize directly from reading. After one-and-a-half lectures I changed to reading the book through. Four months later, when I shared with another practitioner, I was inspired by what she said about the importance of assimilating to the Fa. I understood that Master would like me to keep memorizing the Fa. I started from the beginning again and have not stopped since, beginning with memorizing the first six lectures. I would review the previous ones before venturing to the next lecture; then I gradually memorized lectures seven to nine. It took me a whole year to memorize all of Zhuan Falun.
I now realize that memorizing the Fa shortened the process of changing from an everyday person to a Dafa practitioner. I also experienced the mighty and magical powers of the Fa in the process of memorizing. One needs to keep a calm mind when studying and memorizing the Fa; otherwise one just cannot remember anything. My mind becomes even calmer when memorizing the Fa.
When I first started memorizing the Fa I would be completely in tears only after a few sentences. I also took all possible opportunities to memorize, whether doing housework or looking after the children. When I read for my children, I would read them one of their children's books and then I would recite one paragraph of the Fa. Once I was cooking and reciting the Fa at the same time. I did not make any mistakes in doing either. I memorized the Fa, and the cooking also turned out to be even better than usual. I felt that my mind expanded and was purified in the process of memorizing; there were also fewer bad thoughts. Sometimes a few sentences of the Fa would appear in my mind; I would try to recall which lecture and which sections these sentences belong to, and what the paragraph before and after them was. It felt like a quiz. When I memorized the Fa well and did it a lot I could even feel physical changes.
Later on I read Master’s new articles. Master asked us to do the three things well and told us the importance of saving sentient beings. I thought there were about 200,000 people living in my city and wondered if these people would be eliminated if they were not given a chance to make a choice. My husband is a Westerner and he does not practice Dafa. Although he does not believe in cultivation, he respects my freedom of belief. He does not mind me doing my things on weekdays. And he is happy to support me financially. Therefore, having all these conveniences, I started to give out flyers to childcare centers, schools, police stations, the local court, hospitals and retail shops. I also put flyers on the community notices board - to spread the beauty of Dafa.
Because my parents-in-law did not understand cultivation, they misunderstood Falun Dafa and me in some regards. One weekend, after I finished group activities and went home my husband said that his parents were worried about me being to involved in this group.
I recalled that Master said in “Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006,”
“So everything that you do, be it your balancing well your family relationships while you live among ordinary people, balancing well your relationships in society, how you perform at your workplace, how you conduct yourself in society, etc., none of these are things you can just go through the motions on. All of these are part of your cultivation format, and are serious matters.”
I sent an e-mail to my parents-in-law that same night. My husband read my e-mail and said they should be at ease now. From then on my in-laws were happy to support me. Whenever I needed to go out they would look after the children and help me with the housework.
Last October Master gave me a hint through another practitioner that I should do petitions. I applied for a permit from the local council and set up a table on the side of busy roads and outside the library. I got a petition sign from a fellow practitioner and took it home. My husband saw it and said that since this was the first time that I was showing it to the public, I should use new signs and posters. It was great. He wanted to spend money to support this effort. I designed two posters and took them to a print shop. I used a portable camping table from home and covered it with yellow cloth. I put a petition sign on the table and one on an A-frame stand from my daughters, showing the beauty of Dafa and the facts about the persecution on each side of the poster.
I came across a lot of precious sentient beings in collecting signatures. Some were shocked by the persecution, some showed sympathy, and some helped me with collecting more signatures from people around them.
People and things around us we meet in our daily life provide us with opportunities to rescue more sentient beings. I clarified the facts to school teachers, parents of my children’s classmates, teachers in childcare centers, people working in grocery shops, food shops, tailors, and fashion shops. When I paid for my purchases, I chat with the salesperson. If there were no other customers waiting I would take out a petition and ask them to sign, to support Falun Gong. In most cases they were happy to do so. In fact, Master does it all. We just need to have the willingness to carry it out.
Master said,
“You all can cultivate and save beings. It is just a question of how you align your thinking and what kind of attitude you have toward the Fa.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference”)
As long as you have the heart, you can see sentient beings that can be saved everywhere.
There are also people who hesitate. But if we give them a helping hand, they are able to enter into the future. One day I met a teacher from my daughter’s old childcare center, and we chatted. I showed her my petition folder and asked her to sign. She hesitated and asked me whether this would cause her any trouble. I told her this was not a formal petition. It was to show her voice of support. She signed the petition. They are everyday people. The way they think is based on protecting themselves, but by signing the petition she showed that she disagreed with the persecution, and her life could be saved.
Sometimes I thought that if a sentient being's life was rescued simply through knowing me, even without much more association, isn’t this what we need to do and what we should do? Also, the Western environment is the normal society for human beings.
Master said,
“The people in Western society or those in societies not ruled by the wicked Communist Party live in a human way that is natural, with the differences among people just being cultural. In a natural society such as that, people share a common way of life that values keeping calm, being kind and open-minded, and not putting up your guard around people. That’s normal…” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference”)
So I often take the initiative to speak to people in my daily life. Even though I may not be able to clarify the truth to them at the time, it lays a foundation for the future when I see them again.
Master told us,
“Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy.” (“Rationality”, Essentials for Further Advancement II).
As of the end of last year I got involved in media work, so I had more contact with other practitioners. Doing this kind of work helps expose my own shortcomings when I have contact with others. I understood that Master has made this arrangement for me - to further improve myself in the Fa. I always remind myself and check my words and behavior to see if there is anything that is not in line with the Fa, and always search within and see if my mind is moved. Whenever there is a bad thought I reject it and eliminate it. When I come across xinxing tests I ask myself, “Is there anything that I could not let go of? No, there is nothing that I cannot let go of.” When I think this way I feel I can face everything in a calm and peaceful manner.
Master told us,
“Under the tests that the human mind is put to, a state will come about in a cultivator when understandings born of both divine and human thoughts are present and collide. When human thinking gains the upper hand, that person heads toward humanness; when divine thinking and a person's righteous thoughts gain the upper hand, he heads toward godhood.”(“Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”)
At my current level I understand that in the process of cultivation, as long as we have the Fa in our heart, we can let go of everything, search unconditionally within and improve further.
“Cultivation practice is a long process and a process of gradually giving up one’s attachments. Nonetheless, you must be strict with yourself.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
As long as Fa-rectification is still ongoing, it is still part of our cultivation process, and we should treat every day seriously.
If there is anything improper in my sharing, please kindly point it out.
Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.