PureInsight | May 8, 2019
[PureInsight.org] Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners! I obtained the Fa in July 2009. The first time I heard about Falun Dafa was when I got a flyer on my way home after work. However, my truly obtaining the Fa was during the training courses for teachers. I was a teacher at a public kindergarten. At that time, my workplace was in a mess, I was brave to take up the position of the director of the kindergarten. I once prayed in my heart, asking God to give me wisdom and strength so that I could find the truth and judge what is right and what is wrong. Around that time, I was fortunate to encounter Dafa.
I still remember that soon after I obtained the Fa, I took part in a Dafa parade. Holding a young child and following practitioners with yellow outfits, I arrived at the starting point of the parade. I saw some practitioners talking to each other and some reading Dafa books quietly. When the parade began to depart, I saw a huge lineup of the fairy beauties and the waist-drum team. In my heart, how eagerly I wished to be part of them. Not long after, I knew about a large-scale experience-sharing activity in Northern Taiwan. A practitioner invited me to attend, and kindly let me take a ride with them. I felt quite touched during the event and I wanted to learn more. I did not bring any luggage with me, but I decided to stay overnight, so that I could continue to participate in the evening sharing and practicing exercises next morning. It was amazing! Later I learned that the number of hotel rooms was not sufficient for everyone, and I was fortunate to get a spot. Many Thanks to Master for giving me, a new disciple, an opportunity, and I have since started Dafa cultivation.
As cultivation continues, I realize that Dafa disciples have the mission to clarify the truth and save people. Hence I started to participate in some projects. Here I will share my cultivation experience in a cell phone MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) project, which I joined in the following year after having obtained the Fa.
1. Breaking through psychological barriers, take over coordination work
About two years ago, the coordinator of the Northern MMS group was unable to continue the work for some reason. As one of the regular members in the project, I knew that I should take some responsibility, but I was afraid that I do not have the ability and wisdom to take up the job. A practitioner mentioned a Master’s teaching in Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading, “worlds being created by a god’s single thought,” which changed my notion. Under the guidance of the Fa, under Master’s care, what should I be afraid of? Where are my righteous thoughts? Worrying that I could not do it well, isn’t this human’s thoughts? The project work is like what in Zhuan Falun, “One only needs to worry about putting in the effort of practice, and the rest is in the hands of one’s teacher.” Master sees our heart. If I don’t even have a thought wanting to do it, how can others come to help? With Master and the Fa, Master will help as long as I have a heart to do the job. What we have encountered on the road of cultivation is what we need to work on. Hence I took over the coordination work of the Northern MMS Group.
2. Guided by Fa principles of Master, get involved in coordination work
A few years ago, the MMS group faced a major change – porting (transferring tools) from traditional mobile phones to smart phones. This brought about changes in operations, and even the change of notions. The new operation was different and we needed to replace equipment. In the beginning, the App program had some bugs, and they were gradually fixed as we learned how to use it. We encountered many difficulties and obstacles in the process. When faced with different opinions from fellow practitioners, Master’s Fa is the only guidance.
The MMS group's chief coordinator laid out plans and ideas for the new operation. The use of smart phones is also an inevitable trend. Master said in Be More Diligent, “So, I want to tell you that from this day forth, the main coordinator for each project—the one principal coordinator—is that project’s representative." Based on my own understandings, I work with the chief coordinator to begin promoting the project.
3. Participating in the project and improving myself
At first, I was struggling to promote the MMS project on smart phones. Different from the previous coordinator, I do not drive. It is not so convenient to travel around. I am not a programmer either and my technical ability is not that good. Besides, I had always adhered to my own practicing site. Apart from those in my area and in the MMS group, I did not know many practitioners. How did I promote a new project in Northern Taiwan? Seeing my predicament, Master is compassionate to open up the promotion with the help of other practitioners. In another area, the contact person promoted the project as follows: first holding some training workshops; and then, group ordering smart phones to assist practitioners in replacing the equipment. So I followed this method. I travelled by public transport and carried my own laptop and projector to give training workshops at different locations. Gradually more practitioners joined the project. Master lifted my realm. I did not expect that I would become such a brave and capable person, and could do what I had felt I could not before.
4. Providing an environment of Fa study, sharing, and technical assistance
Based on my limited understanding of Master's Fa, we are cultivators working to save people, unlike ordinary people doing ordinary things. Therefore, Fa study and face-to-face sharing is important. So we maintain a monthly gathering for the Northern MMS group to study the Fa and sharing experiences. To hold such an event, it takes time and energy to book venues, to send messages to inform practitioners, etc. The number of practitioners who came to the monthly gathering is sometimes more and sometimes less, but I remind myself to be persistent. One of the xinxing tests is that my state of cultivation is not good enough, being afraid of others seeing my own shortcomings; fearing that my role as the host is not served well. Some practitioners may feel that there is no advantage in coming to this Fa study, which would affect their willingness to participate next time, and so on. In fact, these are all human thinking. We just provide an environment for everyone to study Fa and share with each other. How can I hinder what to do with my own cultivation status? If I am not in a good state, I should go out and study Fa with everyone. Be honest with my own deficiencies and make improvements more quickly.
In addition to the monthly Fa study, in order to continue promoting the project so that practitioners will not stop saving people because of some technical problems, we also strive to maintain a step-by-step assistance session every Saturday afternoon. It is not easy to maintain this session. Sometimes many practitioners show up and we are too busy to help everyone. Sometimes I am the only one there. What’s more difficult for me is to give up time with family and children to maintain the session. Thinking of Master’s Journeying Via The Way, “Thoughts of fame, feeling, and profit gone — Could any difficulty stop the holy one?” in Hongyin (Volume II), I have to be persistent.
5. Finding out my shortcomings in the process of assisting fellow practitioners
It is also a xinxing test to assist practitioners in solving technical problems, most often, testing my patience. Sometimes practitioners are not familiar with smart phones and I need to repeat the demonstrations over and over again. Sometimes the test is about losing my face. I could not solve some technical problems and some practitioners thought my skill was not that good. They wanted to find someone else to help them. Once I found that I had a strong attachment of self-interest. One practitioner asked me to help solve some problems unrelated to Dafa projects and I felt mad. How could this practitioner abuse Dafa resources? Although on the surface I might still look kind, trying to help, but my heart was annoyed. In fact, I used the interference of Dafa work as an excuse to cover up my inner attachment, and later I was alert to find that I had an attachment of self-interest. Because I needed to give online training to other practitioners overseas during the night, in my heart, I was actually blaming this practitioner for wasting my time. As a cultivator, we should be serving others first. This practitioner was facing difficulties and asking for help. Why was I so narrow-minded not wanting to help others?
Later, I read Master’s Fa in Lecture at the First Conference in North America, "No matter what trouble you encounter, no matter what makes you feel unpleasant inside, and no matter whether on the surface you’re right or wrong, if you are to truly regard yourself as a cultivator you should always examine yourself for causes." Thanks to fellow practitioners for the opportunities to finding my deeply-hidden attachments.
6. Finding out my own shortcomings when teaching others
The MMS group also has a sub-project to clarify the truth to online social communities. Since many Chinese people may not receive the MMS, in order to break through this barrier, a sub-project was developed. I started to do training online for this sub-project.
Once I provided training to some practitioners overseas, and in the process, I also found some of my shortcomings. I had an attachment of opposing others. When people gave their opinions, I could not calmly think about whether it was feasible. My first intuition was rejection; oh, it will be very difficult and cannot be done. There are also attachments of being unconvinced always rejecting the comments put forward by the chief coordinator. Looking inside, it was jealousy that disturbed me. Moreover, I find that sometimes I am poor in adapting to different situations. I am limited to my own notions, and I would use my own ideas and concepts to view things. Instead of using the righteous thoughts of cultivators, I only consider my own interest.
Once there was a project introduction session for coordinators in various regions of overseas countries. According to my convention, it would take one hour and a half, but I was only given 30 minutes. Moreover, I was informed about this on the day before. I had no time to prepare for it and I was mad, blaming others for poor arrangement. Why didn’t they consider the situations of others? Later, after calming down, I thought about Shen Yun. Shen Yun is a showcase project from Master. If the Shen Yun promotion team is given a few minutes to introduce Shen Yun, they would only use a few minutes to highlight Shen Yun. If I am familiar with MMS project, I should also be able to talk about it in 30 minutes. Moreover, it is not easy to find a common time for practitioners overseas. How can we stop the whole thing because of my own feelings? After adjusting my mindset, it took me less than ten minutes to revise the introduction slides. Master said in "ESSENTIALS FOR FURTHER ADVANCEMENT", "Abandon Human Attachments and Continue True Cultivation" that, "Do not bring the human concepts of caste or hierarchy into Dafa." At the introduction session, I adjusted my mindset based on the Fa to introduce the project. I completed the task successfully with help and wisdom given by Master.
7. Improve myself in the project and honor my vows
In the MMS group, very often we hear no feedbacks from sentient beings. How can we continue to work on the project without seeing any effects? I study Master’s Touring North America to Teach the Fa (March 2002) to guide me: “Don't underestimate your sending even one flyer or one booklet to China, making one phone call there, or sending one fax there or sending all sorts of information--the effect is quite significant, and its effect in frightening and eliminating the evil is huge, truly huge.” Our willingness and confidence may sometimes be affected resulting in fellow practitioners being discouraged to continue in the project. As a coordinator, it is often necessary to communicate with them positively. Therefore, we need to strengthen our righteous thoughts by the Fa, and not being disturbed by various phenomena on the surface, and to believe what we do is effective.
Moreover, I have also found my attachment of fear. It is my weakness to communicate with other people. I am always worried that I can't do it, but when my will of saving people becomes stronger, things will change. One time, some practitioners in the telephone group invited me to make phone calls together to clarify the truth. My calls were constantly interrupted, but I didn’t give up, I felt my fears were also eliminated layer by layer in the process. With one strong, righteous thought to save people, I went back home and continued my truth-clarification using MMS. Perhaps having felt my eager heart to save them, those sentient beings agreed to quit CCP. Thank you, Master, for your encouragement.
8. Conclusion: expecting to practice my cultivation wholeheartedly
I have obtained Dafa for nine years now. In the first six years, I had heavy workloads in my administrative jobs. In the last three years, even after I got my administrative duties unloaded, I was still very busy. After finishing work during the daytime, I came home to do the housework and truth-clarification projects in the nights. I mistakenly regarded this as cultivation, but in fact, my Fa-studying, and exercises-practicing were not solid, especially on the aspect of my xinxing improvements. Later on, I often felt tired lacking of energy. I felt sleepy while studying Fa and doing projects. When practicing exercises, my mind was not clear. It would not achieve a good effect. I was unable to make break through. Looking deep inside, I found out my cultivation was not on a solid base. I had a strong attachment of doing things, and mistook that as cultivation. Without improvement of mind-nature, sometimes I faced obstacles in doing projects. Also I found problems of lacking belief in Master and Fa, as well as attachments of being impetuous and eager to seek success.
When coordinating with fellow practitioners, we may have conflicts. I’ve never before been aware that was intended for my cultivation. Later, I learned that I have to look within. I have learned not to impose my own notions upon others, coordinate well, and become one body, to accomplish our mission of saving sentient beings.
Please kindly point out my shortcomings in my experience sharing.
Thank you, Master; thank you, fellow practitioners.
Chinese version: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/248143