Elevating in Dafa

[PureInsight.org] (New England Fahui 2006)
After I started to cultivate Dafa, I felt an indescribable sense of
peace, tranquillity and calmness. Whenever I come across conflicts and
reflect upon myself, I feel very grateful that I have obtained Dafa and
can purify myself while letting go of my attachments. I also feel
amazed about the boundlessness of Dafa, and how I can find my true self
in it.



I would like to share some of my cultivation experience in participating in truth-clarification.



Year before last, the National Democratic Party Conference was held in
Boston. Some practitioners realised that it was a very good opportunity
to clarify the truth to the US politicians. But some other
practitioners were concerned that everyday people might think we were
getting political. I remember Master once said that the old forces do
not dare to oppose us clarifying the truth. What we were doing was
saving people, not for or against any political party. After we
rectified our own thoughts, we started to prepare for truth-clarifying
activities.



Even though we had shared our understandings with fellow practitioners
many times, at the opening of the conference many practitioners still
did not come to join the truth-clarifying activities. I thought, "I
have invited you many times; if you still refuse to participate, I
don't care any more. The only pity is that we won't have as many more
large-scale opportunities to clarify the truth." At the beginning,
practitioners from other places saw only ten odd practitioners from
Boston participating in the activities. A few day later, a practitioner
from Taiwan asked me, "Do you only have such a small number of
practitioners in Boston?" I realised that it was a hint from Master. I
should not use everyday people's logic to treat conflicts among
practitioners. Fellow practitioners refused to come, so there must have
been something that I needed to cultivate. Our compassion towards
sentient beings should be the same. My heart should not be moved
whether fellow practitioners support us or not, and I should carry on
doing what a Dafa disciple should do. So I picked up the phone again
and asked others to help contact those practitioners who did not come
out. By the last day of the conference, almost all of the practitioners
in Boston came out to support the activities. The weather which had
been also been gloomy had turned bright. From that experience I
realised that my thoughts were often influenced by old notions, which I
developed unwittingly in an environment arranged by the old forces. To
cultivate the Buddha Fa is like what Master said in Lunyu, "...
humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking.
Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to
humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary
delimited by their own ignorance." Only by treating the Fa as teacher
in all circumstances, can we detect every single thought of ours that
is not consistent with the Fa and rectify ourselves.



Truth-clarifying activities in New York continued from summer to winter
and the weather became colder and colder. Once, there were only seven
of us doing the anti-torture display, with four practitioners taking
turns to act out the torture scenes, two doing the exercises and one
distributing flyers. We realised that cultivation is a test to see if
we can firmly cultivate in Dafa under any circumstances and how much we
care about validating the Fa. Master said in Teaching in San Francisco,
2005, "No matter what, have righteous thoughts and act righteously, and
there will be no test that you cannot pass." That day, every one of us
did what we could do and cooperated well. By the end of the day, we
felt that we had achieved very good results and we all felt the power
and the magnificence of Dafa.



Last year, I was away from Boston for a period of time. After I came
back I learned that the preparation work for the Chinese New Year Gala
was at a critical stage and we needed to make a breakthrough. But my
first thought was I was already very busy and could only offer limited
help; after that I thought of Master's words in "Teaching the Fa at the
Washington DC Fa Conference 2002," "The next person's things are your
things, and your things are his things." Then I started to feel ashamed
that I always thought of myself first. Am I validating the Fa or
validating myself? But my next thought was defending myself again. I
had thought this way many times. In fact I know very well deep in my
heart that what I find hard to let go is "selfishness", rather than how
to balance various projects or taking care of the family, etc. Master
said in "Lecture at the Conference in Singapore," "...because this was
the biggest obstacle and nobody was willing to find faults in himself
amid problems. When a person feels hurt, or when he encounters
misfortune, it's really difficult for him to still examine himself to
see if he's done something wrong." This is exactly what I'm most
reluctant to face in my cultivation and it is also what I need to get
rid of through cultivation. To cultivate Dafa is to clearly see one's
own shortcomings and relinquish those attachments that do not
fundamentally belong to us through cultivation in the everyday people's
environment. When I realised that I still often hold onto those things
that do not belong to me, I felt I was truly laughable.



At the beginning of this year, many practitioners moved out of Boston.
A practitioner asked me to take care of Fa-study and coordination work.
Again, the thought that "I was already very busy" occurred. When I
realised it, I started to deny it. But I came across other external
interference and some practitioners were also against the idea that I
should take charge of these matters, and the cultivation environment
turned into a rather complex situation for a while. I calmed my mind
and started to look inward and checked where I based myself, why I was
cultivating Dafa, why I participated in Fa-validation, and for whom I
was doing Fa-validation work. I thought very carefully and could not
find any problems. Then I thought about why fellow practitioners
reacted the way they did. Master said in the "Falun Buddha Fa--Lecture
at the Conference in Europe," "Whenever you encounter problems, you
should each look inward to search for the cause within yourself,
regardless of whether you're accountable for the matter or not.
Remember my words: Regardless of whether the matter is your fault or
not, you should look within yourself, and you will find a problem." I
found that I was not considerate of other practitioners and I did not
truly participate in those projects. Instead I communicated with
practitioners in the manner of a coordinator. After I rectified my
mind, I thought "What could I do?" Practitioners were right when they
said that I could not type Chinese characters and I knew nothing about
the three media. Then I reflected upon the cultivation path I have
travelled over the years and thought that we did not know how to carry
out any of the projects before cultivation. Master said in "Teaching
the Fa in the City of Los Angeles," "You are Dafa disciples, so you
should make a point of working with each other better. Even when your
idea is not used, no matter how good the idea is, [you should think,]
"Whatever idea you think is good I'll work with, and I will help do
things, and do them well. And I will try my best to do a good job with
what I'm supposed to do, because I am cultivating." So I decided to
step back and not think about anything. I should try to learn first.



I had no idea how to conduct an interview, so I tried to learn through
practice. As I did not know how to write articles, I learned from those
experienced practitioners and followed the principles of "when, where
and who."  I could not type, so I started to learn how to do it
and asked other practitioners to help me.  I did not know how to
take photos, so I asked other practitioners to help me edit photos and
learned their techniques at the same time. While it took others less
than an hour to compose a short article, it would take me a whole day.
After a few weeks, I realised that I needed to improve. I was very
grateful to Master, as right at that time there was a photography
training class and it offered me an opportunity to learn relevant
skills. Later, the photos I took were also used by editors. About 2 to
3 months later, I tried to type Chinese characters myself. Now I can
already type short articles, and I have also received feedback on my
articles. Master said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in
Philadelphia, U.S.A," "But true improvements come from letting go, not
from gaining." Therefore, I remind myself all the time. Whenever I see
where I'm lacking, I would rectify myself. When I forget, I will
rectify myself again.



Thank you Master for teaching us the Fa. Thank you fellow practitioners
for your kind encouragement. Let us regard the Fa as teacher and
diligently advance together.