Towards Maturity in Fa-Rectification

By a Dafa Practitioner in the U.S.

Greetings Master, Greetings fellow practitioners!?

It has been 3 years since I obtained the Fa. That was in July 1999. Today I would like to share my experience during these 3 years of Fa-rectification cultivation.

In the earlier stage, I learned the term of "Fa-rectification cultivation" by studying the Fa and sharing experience with fellow practitioners. Due to my shallow understanding of the significance of Fa-rectification and too many personal concerns, I did not vigorously participate or take an active role in the activities of Fa-rectification. I also often times used a lot of excuses to cover up my human notions. By continuously joining group Fa studies, all at once I understood deeply what Fa-rectification and cultivation are about. I then started to actively participate in group activities to spread Dafa. However, because of a lack of rationally understanding the Fa, I only joined the group activities of spreading Dafa and I never thought that I also could do Fa-rectification by myself every day. I did not consciously sense that I held human notions when I was doing the work for Fa-rectification and clarifying the truth.

Safeguarding Dafa with purely righteous thoughts

In November 1999, I attended the Seattle experience-sharing conference. Ding Yan's article, "Let Life Glorify in the Fa-rectification" encouraged me, and I had a wish to go back to China and safeguard Dafa. In mid-December that year, several practitioners and I did go back to China. However at that time, I had a shallow understanding of the significance of Fa-rectification. Master said, "This Dafa of the universe that I'm teaching today is also the greatest opportunity mankind has been given, since practicing cultivation with such an immense Fa was certainly unimaginable in the past. Accordingly, you are able to obtain the Fa now, are able to listen to me teaching you the Fa in person, and moreover, are linked to this matter of Fa-rectification -- you haven't yet realized the significance of this!" [Falun Buddha Law--Lecture at the Western United States Fa Conference, unofficial translation] At that time, I still focused more on personal cultivation and only considered that my cultivation progress would move more rapidly if it was related to the Fa-rectification. I thought that the best way to improve my personal cultivation would be if I went back to China and joined the Fa-rectification. The thought of going back to China and safeguarding Dafa was still based on selfishness since I was safeguarding Dafa for my personal cultivation. I only wanted to bear hardships and improve myself and achieve consummation more rapidly.

At the same time I was also afraid. When I shared experiences with practitioners in China, I could not distinguish whether their words were based on the Fa. Instead, I felt complacent in my heart and, thinking that I took the shortcut in cultivation. Since I studied the Fa diligently during that period, I gradually became clear-headed and soon I was able to recognize whether other practitioners' words were based on the Fa. Then I would discuss with other practitioners to remove incorrect understandings. My understanding of Fa was improved by constantly studying the Fa and sharing with other practitioners.

One day when I read Zhuan Falun, I was suddenly enlightened by Master's words, "As a practitioner, if you always think that it is an illness, you are actually asking for it. If you ask for an illness, it will come inside your body. As a practitioner, your xinxing level should be high." I understood that it is incorrect either to be fearful or to have the wish of bearing hardships. I should get rid of all attachments and simply safeguard Dafa with a pure heart.

At that time, there was a show trial of several practitioners. Our whole family planned to go as visitors, including our two-and-a-half year old son. But that day, before we could visit, the police detained several hundred practitioners at the Shijingshan Stadium in Beijing. Beijing police asked liaison offices of various provinces to take practitioners back to their own provinces. Due to insufficient understanding of the Fa, I thought that I should return to my hometown. But our benevolent Master gave us another hint. No liaison offices from my husband's or my own hometown provinces appeared. That night we walked out of the Chaoyang District Police Department and were free. After several days our whole family went to Linglong Tower Park and practiced Falun Gong exercises. I had only one wish: to let visitors see Falun Gong. When I was practicing, I heard heavy footsteps passing slowly in front of me. My heart began to beat loudly. At the same time, I clear-headedly told myself, "Do not be afraid." Then the footsteps gradually diminished. After our practice, when we walked to the gate of the park, a policeman heading toward the Park stared at me. I also looked at him without a sense of fear. My pure heart was the true manifestation of Buddha-hood that I cultivated from Dafa.?

By constantly cultivating and studying the Fa, my understanding of Fa-rectification was also deepening. The sense of safeguarding Dafa and of saving all sentient beings was becoming stronger. Master said in the article "Cautionary Advice," "If every one of you can understand the Fa from the depths of your mind, that will truly be the manifestation of the Fa whose power knows no boundary-the reappearance of the mighty Buddha Fa in the human world!" In March 2001, two consuls from the Chicago Chinese Consulate went to the University of Colorado at Boulder. They wanted to brainwash the students by showing the video of Tiananmen "self-immolation" that had been concocted by Jiang Zemin's regime. Local practitioners understood that we should suffocate the evil. We decided to display posters revealing the truth about Jiang Zemin's persecution of Dafa disciples in China. We also distributed flyers about the truth of the staged immolation incident. Later, the chair of the Chinese Student and Scholar's Association (CSSA), who was in charge of the event, called the police. I had only one thought: I wanted to prevent the student's minds from being poisoned. We decided we would leave only after all the students had gone, but two policemen came and asked us to leave. I told them that we had done nothing wrong. My husband and I were both members of the CSSA and had paid the membership fees. It was our right to attend activities hosted by CSSA. A policeman said three times that he would arrest me. I said to him three times that we should not be driven away. At that moment I felt that my body was towering high. My heart was very peaceful and my mind was totally empty and serene. As it turned out, the policeman felt it was unreasonable merely to ask practitioners to leave, so they asked everyone including the two consuls to leave. The policemen then asked for Dafa materials and wanted to learn more about Dafa. I believe that Dafa manifested its mighty power and dignity before all who were present. In Zhuan Falun, Master said, "If you are a true practitioner, our Falun will safeguard you. I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." I enlightened to the fact that nobody can shake us if our righteous thought are strong. The filthy, low-level evil beings are nothing whatsoever. We can better use the wisdom that Dafa gives us at our levels to offer salvation to people.?

In May 2001, I attended the 2001 Canada Experience-Sharing Conference. In the conference, Master said: "So, as Dafa disciples, you have been bestowed with a great, historic mission. This is different, then, from strictly personal cultivation. You need to safeguard the Fa, you need to validate the Fa, and when the Fa is persecuted you expose the evil and do better embodying Dafa--this is what you should do." "The various correct states that you are displaying at this time in each and every regard, and how you handle things in all kinds of situations, are all being left for history. So they're both serious and crucial."("Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference") I was enlightened that as a Dafa disciple who shoulders historical missions we need to be more serious to cultivation practice because whatever we do in various correct states are all being left for the later generation. Therefore we should follow the principles of Dafa and using higher standard to discipline ourselves.

At this moment, the impression of group activities of Fa-rectification came to my mind. I actively participated in various group activities of Fa-rectification. But when I thought about whether I actively did any Fa-rectification by myself everyday, in addition to joining group activities, I was shocked. At this point, I realized that in the past I did not take myself as an active Dafa particle or do what a Dafa particle needs to do or completely perform the function of a Dafa particle. Many of my Fa-rectification deeds were still out of my personal consideration for self-improvement. Additionally, I did not view things from the standpoint of Dafa and did not have Dafa as my top priority.

After realizing what I should do, the human notions that I had insufficient proficiency in English and wasn't familiar with roads emerged. However, my righteous thoughts appeared. How can a Dafa disciple be controlled by human notions? I told myself, "I can make it!" I started to actively promote Dafa and clarified the truth to the government and media. The good results I got while spreading Dafa is evidence of the power of the Fa. Moreover, as the process of Fa-rectification progressed, I also broke through personal human concepts and was able to look at these things clearly from a cultivator's standpoint.

"The stage was being set for the Fa"

This March my family moved to the state of Indiana. In July, when we participated in a weekend group study with fellow practitioners in Chicago, a practitioner from Chicago asked me if I wanted to handle Ms. Zhang Cuiying's painting exhibition on July 4^th and 5^th in the state of Indiana. If I had the motivation, the exhibit that was scheduled for Chicago could be switched to the state of Indiana on these two days. Even though there was only 10 days left before July 4^th my immediate thought was "When it's impossible to do, it can be done." One month prior I learned that Ms. Zhang was currently traveling with her exhibitions and I realized that it is a good way to promote Dafa. However, it is difficult to get a chance to have an extra exhibition and it would have caused an inconvenience for Ms. Zhang since her schedule was full for the next few months. There was no event planned for July 4 and 5, so I believe that Master arranged this opportunity for the state of Indiana.

After discussing this with fellow practitioners in Indiana, we decided to take this opportunity to promote Dafa and tell the truth to 150 of Indiana's state senators and representatives. We planned to hold one exhibition on July 4^th in West Lafayette and one on July 5^th in the state capitol of Indianapolis. In order to arrange a place for the exhibition, the practitioners in Indianapolis went to the city hall to reserve the rotunda of the state capitol, but we were told that we should have applied for permission a month before the exhibition and the place was already reserved for a wedding ceremony on July 5th. We also contacted some other institutions to look for a place including a newly opened museum but all the answers we got were "No." In West Lafayette, a practitioner made a lot of phone calls to ask for a place for the exhibition. All the replies that were given were "No." They told us that they would be closed on July 4^th, the Independence Day.

At this point, I asked myself, "What we are doing is sacred and righteous, so why are we encountering so much resistance? Mutual generation and mutual inhibition are principles from the old universe but how come that we cannot overcome this at all?" Afterwards, I had a discussion with one practitioner in order to find a place at Purdue University. The University did have the main activity hall available at the student center on July 4^th, but the rent was very expensive even after a discount. We decided to talk to the person in charge to see if we could get the room for free. When we went to talk to them next day we were informed that the main activity hall had been reserved by someone else but there was another room that was still available and that we should talk to the people who were in charge of this. However, as soon as we told this person our idea and schedule, she immediately told us, without a second thought, "That's impossible. July 4^th is in the next week." (It was 6 days before July 4^th, including weekends) At this moment, I looked at her calmly and I had a firm thought in my mind that Master can arrange everything and have control of everything. Then I said to her, that the artist was from Australia and we would have come to apply for the place earlier, but we just got the information a few days ago. I expressed how deeply grateful I would be if she could offer us this room.

After listening to my statement she turned around to ask for further information and came back to tell us that this room was still available and they could offer this room to us for free! We experienced the Fa manifesting its great power. However, after checking the size of the room we found that it was not big enough to accommodate all paintings. The fellow practitioner who witnessed the power of righteous thoughts once again talked to the person in charge and asked for another room that was larger. In fact, this larger room was already reserved by a student club on July 4th. With the help of our righteous thoughts the person in charge made a phone call to the student club to ask if they could switch the room with us. It turned out that the club was willing to do so.

After this, this fellow practitioner shared experiences with me and we realized that Dafa creates everything and everything exists for Fa. "The stage was being set for the Fa." We then decided to make a phone call to the person who was in charge of the state capital building to reapply for a place there. The result was that we were allowed to use the rotunda on July 5^th. It turned out that the wedding ceremony would be held after our scheduled art exhibition. This is exactly what we wanted and everything was going smoothly and following the correct path.

July 4^th is the Independence Day, so there were a lot of activities that needed to be reported, and there were fewer reporters on duty than on other days. Due to fellow practitioners' efforts and hard work the major local television station, newspapers, and radio stations all sent out reporters to the exhibition site. There were positive news reports on the exhibition and Falun Dafa. At this moment, I had a new understanding for the Fa-rectification. In the past, I was only enlightened that we should resist the interference of the old evil forces. After a while, I found that there was still a lot of interference and I became passive. Now, I have changed my way of thinking and I firmly believe that Master arranges everything and controls everything. Once my way of thinking changed, I found the reasons why I had been passive for such a long time in the past. The reason lay in the fact that my thoughts were not righteous enough. Although I used righteous thoughts to resist the interference of the old evil forces, I still acknowledged their existence and interference in my mind. I did not examine the problems from the whole scale of Fa-rectification, and meanwhile, I did not totally negate them. After realizing this point, I currently do not have any slight thought of evils' existence. I better understand that superficially it looks like we are doing this or that thing in the human world, yet in fact, Master's law bodies are systematically arranging everything. All we need to do is just rectify ourselves in doing this or that and to assimilate ourselves to the principles of "Zhen-Shan-Ren." By doing so, we strengthen our righteous belief in Master and the Fa. Meanwhile, it also manifests however diligent we are when we are doing Dafa work. "Master can do everything for you when you do things righteously." (Touring North America to Teach the Fa, 2002, Unofficial Translation)

"Eliminating all selfish elements (notions) in Fa-rectification cultivation"

I primarily use the chat room on the Internet to clarify the truth. Since I began to use the Internet to clarify the truth to the precious Chinese, generally speaking, right from the very beginning I could easily start a conversation about Falun Gong and I felt comfortable controlling the conversation to keep it within the topic of Falun Gong and enjoyed this way of clarifying the truth. However, when I learned that there were some new techniques which are more effective to facilitate the process of clarifying truth online, I held my human notions and insisted on the old method and was not willing to combine the new method with old one because of my insufficient computer skills. Master said, "As a matter of fact, for cultivators in the past to say: "I'm doing such and such," "I want to do such and such," "I want to obtain such and such," "I am practicing cultivation," "I want to become a Buddha," or "I wish to attain such and such," none of these diverged from selfishness. But what I want you to be able to do is to truly, purely, and unselfishly reach Consummation with the genuinely righteous Fa and righteous Enlightenment--only then can you achieve eternal non-extinction." (Lecture at the Conference in Switzerland)

I have seen my selfishness and egotism. As a Dafa disciple in the Fa-rectification period I should be responsible for Dafa, sentient beings and view things from the standpoint of overall Fa-rectification process. I should eradicate all selfish elements and reach a realm of unselfishness and altruism.

We are cultivating the same Fa as a whole body regardless of areas and countries we are from. All we do is to fulfill our duty as Dafa disciples. Master said in the article "Digging Out the Roots," " Let me tell everyone: This Fa is inconceivably enormous, and you will never completely know or understand its laws and principles."

The above is my personal experience at the current level, I wrote them for mutual improvement. Please kindly point out any mistakes.

Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/8/5/34021.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version