(Minghui.org) I obtained the Fa in 2001. As I've walked the path of cultivation, I've experienced the magnificent power of Dafa.
1. Being a good coordinator
Many years ago, there were only a few practitioners in our city. At one time, there were only two practitioners doing Dafa activities. However, Master was looking after our area. When I was the only one doing truth clarification in our area, Master arranged for a practitioner from another city to come to Winnipeg so that we could work together. When there were only a few practitioners, we did not need much coordination. Whenever practitioners passed through our city, we cooperated well with them. We also made use of the media to report our activities, so that local residents could better understand the facts about the persecution in China.
When we use righteous thoughts to do Dafa work, Master helps us achieve good results. For example, in 2006, a few practitioners from another city came to our area to clarify the truth. We went to the municipal government, talked to the city councilor, and raised concern about organ harvesting from Falun Dafa practitioners in China. The councilor was very moved and decided to make a motion, which requested that the federal government condemn the Chinese regime for its crimes of harvesting organs and that the provincial government look into changing legislation concerning organ transplants in order to prevent organ trafficking. The city council passed this motion unanimously, and the mayor wrote a letter to his counterpart in Chengdu (capital of Sichuan Province, China) to express concern over organ harvesting from Falun Dafa practitioners.
In recent years, more practitioners moved to our city, and I became the coordinator. Compared to some veteran practitioners from China, I had cultivated for a relatively short time. Sometimes, I felt that I was not able to do the job well. I thought that some of my exercise postures may not be correct, because no one had corrected me before, and I also felt that my understanding of the Fa was not as in-depth as that of my fellow practitioners.
I followed what Master taught us in “How to Provide Assistance” from Essentials for Further Advancement. I do not consider myself to be better than fellow practitioners. I just have a heart for serving others, and listen to fellow practitioners’ views.
2. Coordinating Shen Yun is part of cultivation
When our city hosted Shen Yun in 2010, it was a real test for me as coordinator. This was the first time our city organized Shen Yun. Other practitioners and I did not have experience in this area. We did not have marketing expertise and simply learned things as we did them. We knew that Master was guiding this project to save sentient beings, so we felt that we must do it. I did not have any other thoughts and mortgaged my house so that we could resolve our cash flow issue.
In the beginning, I worked well with another practitioner. I had some very good people's skills, while the other practitioner had very strong righteous thoughts. Thus, we were able to contract a hotel quite efficiently at a low cost. But this cooperation did not last long. We both worked as teachers, and when classes started in September, our jobs became very busy. Therefore, we could only do preparation work for Shen Yun separately. I went on a business trip for over a month and had to put all responsibilities onto this fellow practitioner. Later, I found out that this had put a lot of pressure on him. However, I neither noticed nor paid attention to the practitioner’s feelings. I just worked as usual after I returned. When the fellow practitioner displayed some discontent, I did not blame him but just did what I could. However, I felt misunderstood. From then on, a gap formed between us.
Master said in “What is Forbearance (Ren)?” in Essentials for Further Advancement:
“Forbearance is the key to improving one’s xinxing. To endure with anger, grievance, or tears is the forbearance of an everyday person who is attached to his concerns. To endure completely without anger or grievance is the forbearance of a cultivator.”
Therefore, I actually did not forbear because I had grievance inside and had not looked inside at all. I missed the chance that Master had given me to raise my xinxing.
During the five months of promoting Shen Yun, I dealt with many tasks on my own, including communicating with the theater, obtaining advertisements, and inviting VIPs. In order to handle the various demands, I had to reduce hours of sleep. I was able to study the Fa every day, but had no time to do the exercises. When the climax of the promotion came about six weeks before the show, the majority of the practitioners helped as much as they could. By then I was very tired and did not have enough physical strength. In the last week, I felt my energy fading.
Seeing that I was not energetic, some practitioners told me that I did not have a sense of urgency. I did not know what to say at that time. On the surface, I acknowledged that I had not cultivated well. However, inside I felt that the other practitioners did not understand how hard I had worked. In addition, I failed to examine my heart from the perspective of the Fa. This was actually a test to see how solid my cultivation was. I realized later that although I had done a lot, this was my cultivation environment. Fellow practitioners had good intentions when they reminded me to be responsible for Dafa and sentient beings.
Master said in “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”:
“Working hard is part of your cultivation. You need to think of ways to find the people that you are meant to save. All of these are things that Dafa disciples should do.”
Reflecting on working on promoting Shen Yun, every effort paid off. Our first attempt did not bring a full house. However, quite a lot of VIPs and government officials attended. Many wrote support letters. At the invitation of a friend from the Chinese community, the former governor of our province attended the show. Members of the board of the local Chinese association attended the performance also. However, I still felt that we had not done well and had not followed Master’s expectation to be one body.
As I swayed, interference followed. A reporter from the largest local newspaper wanted to interview us. However, the reporter then collected comments from other media and wrote an article that misrepresented Shen Yun. I felt very guilty and later realized that I probably needed to stumble in order to see the truth.
Half a year after we finished promoting Shen Yun, Master gave us another chance to validate the Fa. Through raising awareness about the facts surrounding a “Bodies Exhibition,” which displayed dead bodies from China, we experienced the great benevolence of Master. Based on the information we collected, the bodies were from police departments in China. Falun Dafa practitioners who were students at a university took the lead to raise public awareness about the human rights violations against Falun Dafa in China.
We all had strong righteous thoughts. In a few weeks, we collected over 1,000 signatures from the public to oppose this exhibition. Interestingly, the reporter who revealed the evil behind the “Bodies Exhibition” in the local newspaper was the same reporter who had previously written irresponsibly about Shen Yun. Because practitioners had thoroughly clarified the truth to her, she wrote an excellent report linking the exhibition to the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. It had a great impact on the whole community, and other media also joined in to scrutinize the exhibition.
This effort aroused a lot of discussion in the city and helped people understand the true nature of the Chinese regime. David Matas, the lawyer who had investigated the regime's crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Dafa practitioners, took the American owner of the exhibition to court. The day before the court hearing, the company announced that it decided to stop the tour.
Last month, the local newspaper that had first exposed the evil behind the exhibition was doing a special feature on the Chinese community. They remembered our effort two years earlier and sent a reporter to interview me. The reporter asked my daughter, who is a practitioner, to write an article on why she had done the petition two years earlier to oppose the “Bodies Exhibition.” This favorable report in the special feature of the newspaper further helped people in the Chinese community to understand the truth about Falun Dafa.
From this experience, I realized that I should no longer focus on how much practitioners do. Calculating that is an ordinary people’s standard. Buddhas and Gods only look at one’s heart. Why should I be attached to such calculations?
3. Studying the Fa is the foundation of doing Dafa work
Right after we finished hosting Shen Yun, practitioners’ cultivation state in our city was at a low level. Many practitioners were immersed in their busy lives. A few times, only I and an elderly practitioner attended the weekly Fa practice and study. However, we did not give up. No matter how many people showed up, we persisted in studying the Fa and were determined to do it well.
For a period of time, our group studied the Fa whenever we could, no matter if there were only two or three people. Sometimes I had three or four Fa studies during the week. It helped me a lot when we studied the Fa more. From then on, our cultivation environment started to change. New people joined the group. The cultivation field also changed. Now, we have Fa study twice a week. We have about 10 practitioners at our Sunday practice. An elderly practitioner told me she felt that in our cultivation environment, we can help each other improve in cultivation, and we can also compare in studying and cultivating.
Master said in “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”:
“A while back, some Dafa disciples had not yet stepped forward, so we had to wait and do our best to have them come forth. But the time for this is running out. When I saw students who came out of China, I urged them to tell the students who haven’t stepped forward to quickly do so—to have them quickly find those lost students and spell the facts out for them, for what they otherwise face is a most tragic of ends.”
A number of us felt the urgency and we tried to involve practitioners who had not come out yet. Being a coordinator, I arranged our practice and Fa study at different places, so as to encourage those practitioners to study the Fa. Recently, we noticed improvement in those practitioners.
Last Christmas we took part in the largest float parade in our city. It was the first time we participated. Fellow practitioners spent over 30 hours to bring the float there. We were greatly moved. Afterward, we decided to build a float of our own. Now, whenever we have Dafa activities and projects, practitioners are actively involved, and I do not need to push anymore. I learned to see the strengths of fellow practitioners and not think about their shortcomings. Being a coordinator, I need to look for practitioners’ assets and find opportunities to facilitate an environment that is conducive to solid cultivation.
I hope that together with fellow practitioners, we can do our best and be responsible to Dafa and to sentient beings who are waiting for us to be saved, which in return is be responsible to ourselves. I also hope that we can avoid interruptions in our cultivation so that we will have few regrets.
Please correct any misunderstandings I may have.
(Article from the 2012 Toronto Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)