(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I would like to use this cultivation experience sharing article to reflect on my journey of clarifying the truth at work and the process of cultivating myself in the past few years. Writing this article is also a process for me to look within, eliminate my attachments and rectify myself.
Master said:
“Heaven sets forth strict conditions for the achievement of one’s ultimate rank (zheng-guo), contrary to what people imagine.” (“Teaching the Fa at Lantau Island,” Zhuan Falun Volume II)
At my current level, I realize that when we, Dafa disciples in the Fa-rectification period, remove our selfishness, protect the Buddha-nature of all beings, and truly help all beings understand the truth, then the celestial bodies represented by them will be rectified by Master’s great Fa power.
If many Dafa disciples can meet the standard and truly follow Master’s requirements, we will assimilate to Dafa and be rectified by Master’s great Fa power. At the same time, one by one, the celestial beings who understand the truth will be rectified in a very orderly manner.
Validating Dafa at Work
I started practicing Dafa in 1998, and I teach economics at a university. My school is not a research university; hence faculty are required to focus more on teaching than research, with our university leadership placing great emphasis on the quality of teaching.
How could I validate Dafa and clarify the truth in my working environment? How could I meet the requirement as Master mentioned:
“he should advance Dafa appropriately, as fitting the recipient’s degree of understanding of Dafa and capacity to accept it”? (“Preface,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
First of all, one must study the Fa well. When I couldn’t keep up with my Fa study, I felt overwhelmed in doing things. After I persevered in memorizing the Fa and participating in group Fa studies, I understood how to look within and how to get rid of my attachment. Master’s orderly arrangement would also be revealed to me.
Compared to my counterparts at research universities, I have more teaching duties. I have to teach three courses per semester and each course is four credits. I have fifty minutes of lecture time per day for each course from Monday to Thursday. Sometimes, I also instruct senior students and teach an additional class. With all the classes, I spend more time with students. Over the past few years, I have also tried to incorporate information about Falun Dafa into my teaching on top of imparting my expertise in economics. It has been a process of making mistakes, learning, gaining enlightenment, correcting myself, and revising my approach.
College students are young adults. I realized from the Fa that they are also mostly higher beings coming down from heaven with tremendous courage and faith in the Fa. I tried to tell them about Falun Dafa in a way that they could accept. I must also respect them and inspire their kind thoughts, without allowing negative thoughts in my own energy field to affect their salvation. When different situations arise in the process, they are all good opportunities for me to look within and do better the next time.
Looking back, I understood more what Master taught in the Fa:
“Once a person steps onto the path of cultivation, there will be nothing coincidental in his life from then on. Since your cultivation has been arranged systematically and time isn’t that plentiful, there can’t possibly be anything that’s coincidental. Everything has been tightly arranged. Don’t treat those seemingly accidental and trivial things that you encounter in your daily life as accidental, because there can’t be many strange things happening to you and you can’t go to another dimension to practice cultivation—you wouldn’t be able to improve your heart and mind that way. You are still in a state where you’re amidst the worldly things, your problems are still ordinary human problems, your way of life is still that of an everyday person, and the things that you encounter aren’t much different from before. But if you think about it carefully, they aren’t the same. They all come about to enable you to improve in cultivation.” (“Teaching the Fa at a New York Meeting,” Lectures in the United States)
I gradually understood that I should focus my energy on doing the three things well and letting go of my attachments in order to guide people well. At the same time, I keep in mind to go with the flow and not force my students to listen to me when clarifying the truth.
Most of the students are still innocent enough to understand the truth. Some of them identify with Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Whenever I saw that, I was touched and encouraged them to keep their kind thoughts and share it with more people.
Some students were blocked by their notions and thought karma. When they asked questions, I would find ways to clarify their confusion and try my best to help them, instead of being affected by them. Sometimes when I look at them, I would smile and silently recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” in my heart, thinking,“You are precious, and I have faith in you. You will be able to understand the truth and assimilate to Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.”
There are teaching evaluations at universities, which are often used in conjunction with other performance measures to determine faculty’s promotion, job security, and compensation. Good teaching evaluation scores may well trigger one’s vanity of fame and fortune, and bad scores may make one worry and crave better feedback. I abide by Dafa's principles and teach with my heart. My students often appreciate it and my teaching evaluations have been very good. Under Master’s protection, I have passed several difficult hurdles in academia, including being granted tenure and promoted from assistant professor to associate professor, and eventually full professor.
Before I was promoted to full professor, I had concerns about promotion. After I became a full professor, I had the concern that I would not do well. I thought, “I have to do things in a way that is more acceptable to people in mainstream society, so as not to create obstacles to the salvation of sentient beings.” But in fact, it was still an attachment and human thinking. I reminded myself to do the sacred task of clarifying the truth in an upright way.
Master told us:
“let me tell everyone that matter and mind are one and the same.”
“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
When we do the three things well and solidly cultivate ourselves, we will see that Master already has the best arrangement for everything we do on our cultivation path.
When the CCP virus started spreading in the U.S. in early 2020, my school implemented online teaching in the spring semester. Later, in the new academic year 2020-2021, each professor was given the freedom to choose their teaching modality. I remembered what Master told us: “Human beings are supposed to interact with one another.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”) So I chose in-person teaching over remote teaching.
When students were sick, I would provide online sessions, so that they could attend classes that way.
Master mentioned in the Fa teachings:
“But a pandemic like the current Chinese Communist Virus (or “Wuhan Virus”) comes with a purpose behind it, and it has targets. It is here to weed out members of the Party and those who have sided with it.” (“Stay Rational”)
I realized that making sentient beings understand the truth is the fundamental way to help them survive whatever catastrophes (including the pandemic) humankind faces. When they learn the truth, the celestial body they represent will be rectified by Dafa and they will truly be saved and even pass on the information to more people.
I said to Master in my heart: “Master, I hope to clarify the truth in a practical way so that every student in the class will have the opportunity to understand the truth in-depth and in detail. Please enlighten me.”
There are many ways to save people. I can’t be rigid with a fixed pattern, nor can I stick to only one approach. After some experiences and lessons were learned, I figured it would be better to learn more about the way mainstream society works and do things wisely and sensibly, so that it is more acceptable to the other party.
Below are a few of my approaches.
1. Integrating Films into the Curriculum
The first way is to integrate the truth-clarifying films into the curriculum. During the process, I often get to the classroom early to test the equipment and send forth righteous thoughts, to prevent the malfunction of the machine or other interruptions.
Video Clip of Introduction of Falun Gong
Each professor would introduce himself or herself in the first class. After introducing my academic background, I would tell the students that I was the supervising professor of the Falun Dafa student club, and then, naturally, introduce Dafa. Last year, when the video clip of the introduction of Falun Gong became available, I started showing it to students after the introduction.
I told them, “This is a treasured gift from traditional Chinese culture that brings health and peace of mind. I will provide information for your reference. I hope that you and your family will be safe and sound during the pandemic.”
Truth Documentaries: “Free China-The Courage to Believe,” “Organ Harvesting,” and “Letter From Masanjia”
There are various economics textbooks, but most of them are based on the model of a market economy, without comparing different economic systems in depth. My criteria for choosing a textbook are: (a) the content is more positive and traditional, and (b) it would be better if there is supplementary content suitable for clarifying the truth.
I quickly found a textbook on economics that met the above criteria. When I taught “Principles of Economics,” a colleague recommended one for me. The book was not as hard, so it was more acceptable to the students. I found a chapter in the book that talks about the collapse of the former Soviet Union and analyzes the evils of communism, which is a perfect entry point for truth clarification. Several earlier editions of this book also have an article discussing the organ transplant controversy, which is a suitable opening for showing a film regarding forced organ harvesting. All of these are not by accident.
Over the years, I stuck to the same book and its updated version to teach students. Those who took my class all watched the documentaries.
Different courses have different focuses. For example, the course “Principles of Economics” is a general course in the university, and students come from different departments, so the content of the course should be rich and broad, not too difficult. “Individual Economics” is an intermediate level course with many students from the business school and can be more difficult. And when teaching upper-level professional courses, students are mostly majoring in economics and can be taught more about economic modeling and quantitative analysis. At the same time, I had to design the course content more carefully and take more into account the needs and receptivity of the students, clarifying the truth at the right time and in the right way with different truth films.
Some of the senior students who took my classes before already saw the films. I would ask them before class if it would be alright for me to show the film again, as those who have not seen them yet can watch it. They told me that they did not mind at all and they would like to watch it again.
Sometimes, even choosing the right film, I had a hard time finding an entry point. Then I would calm my mind and ask Master for help.
For example, during a discussion of the health insurance system in my “Economic Development” class, I mentioned the relationship between Confucianism (which advocates preserving the body after death) and China’s organ donation system. I told students that Chinese people, influenced by thousands of years of Confucianism, usually do not want to donate organs. However, the organ transplants increased exponentially after the persecution of Falun Dafa began in 1999.
I was thinking about what I could do to naturally tell the students about the atrocity of live organ harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party, when a student suddenly raised his hand and asked a question. This question “just happened” to create an opportunity for me to answer his question in the next class by showing the “Human Harvest” film, so that the students in this class would have a chance to understand the truth in-depth. Thank you, Master!
One day, a student in my “Labor Economics” class borrowed “Free China: The Courage to Believe” from me. She had seen the film twice and she wanted to show it to the professor and students at her political science class. I delightfully agreed.
Despite having worked with that political science professor for several years, I hadn't found a chance to clarify the truth to him yet. It was great for the student to recommend the film to him, so that he and other students could be informed.
Master told us:
“Dafa disciples are not the only ones who signed a contract with Master upon coming to this world; all people and lives who came to this world and Gods who descended from heavens have contracts with me. The universe is too gigantic and the number of lives too many, the earth is too small to accommodate so many lives. Those chosen beings all made vows at one point to assist me in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings, they could thus be born on Earth. It is just that I have, in history, prearranged for Dafa disciples to carry out the specifics of this undertaking. As for the spreading of the Fa from person to person, everyone has responsibility. This is something for ordinary people.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference”)
I believe that this student is fulfilling her vow as well.
A student in my “Principles of Economics” course said after watching the film “Free China-The Courage to Believe,” “That’s horrible. I had a pair of those Simpsons slippers when I was a kid!”
Another student said, “I remember my grandfather having the exact same pair! I didn’t know before that these slippers were actually made by those detained in labor camps. It’s so awful!”
Many more students said, “These companies that work with the CCP are so shameful. They should be ordered to close or be severely condemned and sanctioned. I never want to buy their products again!”
Showing the Film “When the Plague Comes” During the Pandemic
Before I decided to show the film “When the Plague Comes” in my “International Economics” class last year when the epidemic was in full swing, I had no idea what to expect. Although the students had seen other films and had some understanding of the truth, this new film was about the historical understanding of the plague and its relationship to the evil Chinese Communist Party. I wondered if this would have the effect of saving people.
Master mentioned in the Fa teachings:
“But as you go about things, gods look at your fundamental motive in everything you do.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading”)
Looking at the students who came with masks, I felt every life is precious. Looking at the anxious eyes at the podium, I asked myself, “What can I do to help?” I am here to save people. I was determined.
Here’s what one student wrote in her feedback: “The film is strong. Much of its content is similar to the Free China film we saw in class before. I didn’t expect it to take a sharp turn after the history of the plague to address the heinous atrocities happening in China today. I think the film tries to send a message that the coronavirus is not the only kind of plague spreading in China, but that communism is also a plague, and that it is more harmful and more tragic to human society than the plague that causes disease.”
Seeing this feedback, I was deeply impressed by the depth of her understanding of the evil of communism.
I remembered what Master said:
“The people in this world are of different calibers. There are differences even among the common people you see walking down the street. Some have better morals than others and view things differently than others. And some have even higher morals still, and look at things even more differently. Some people have special powers, and in some cases they have extraordinary abilities. There are large numbers of people like this, and they are of different ranks, even. Those who have the same special powers contact one another, and those with greater powers are in another league of their own, and they have the ability to contact one another, too. The human world is not as simple as people think. Don’t let rigid notions affect how you see the world.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference”)
For many of the students that I have taught over the years, they’ve become lawyers, professors, assistants to the U.S. House of Representatives, city councilors, and so on after graduation. If we can give them the foundation to know the truth in college, they will be able to make the right judgment when they enter society in the future.
These films are really powerful tools for clarifying the truth, and the feedback from the students was very good. Sometimes, watching these films is like watching many practitioners clarifying the truth to all sentient beings with their own lives. It’s like a relay race where they pass on the baton to me to complete our mission together.
(To be continued.)
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