Shared at Washington DC 2002 Conference

Greetings Master and fellow Dafa practitioners! I am a practitioner from Philadelphia and am a recent high school graduate. I have been cultivating for two years now. I would like to take this time to tell you about some of my Fa-rectification Hong-Fa experiences and what I have learned during the past six months.

At my high school we are required to complete some sort of culminating project in order to be able to graduate. I had submitted a proposal to make a documentary on the persecution of Dafa. I felt that this documentary would allow me to fulfill my responsibilities as a Fa-Rectification period cultivator. Master has done so much for me. He has elevated my xinxing, transformed my benti, and given me the opportunity to have the historic responsibility of rectifying the colossal firmament. Now, it was time for me to- truly treat myself as a particle within the immense Dafa and just do what needed to be done.

I found out that the New York Fa Conference was going to take place during the end of January, which was just a month apart from when I submitted my proposal. I felt that this would be a great opportunity to collect some footage for the documentary. There were some implications, though, that I felt that I had to overcome with a righteous mind. Firstly, my parents, who don't cultivate, have never met any practitioners. They would have to give me permission to go to New York City with people that they had never met before. Secondly, the last day of the conference was on a school day. Thirdly, I would need my school's video equipment and get permission to take it to New York City, where there was a significant chance that it could be stolen, etc. As I approached my parents, I was somewhat unsure of how they would answer me, but surprisingly enough, they were completely supportive of the trip. When I went to ask for my school's video equipment, I was again completely successful. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "With your ever-increasing gong potency, the energy scattered from the gong in your body will also be quite powerful. Even if it is not that powerful, an everyday person within your field will still be restrained." I just had a feeling that things would work well from here.

The day finally arrived when I left for the New York Fa Conference. This was my first Fa Conference; I wasn't sure what to expect. I just knew that it was going to be magnificent. As I brought my camera and equipment to the room of the conference, I was somewhat hesitant to whether I would have enough battery power for the camera to last for the whole day. A fellow practitioner told me something along the lines of, "They [the batteries] will work if you don't think that they will run out. They will be powered by your energy." With this statement behind me, I immediately removed any doubt in my mind. Master said in Zhuan Falun, "good or evil comes from a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences." Sure enough, my batteries worked flawlessly. I felt myself melting into the Fa, like I was completely following Master's arrangement of the production of the video. After the first day of the Conference, I interviewed two Western practitioners who went to Tiananmen Square to validate the Fa. As the conference came to an end, I had collected some usable footage. The next stage was to edit the video.

As I began to edit the video at school, my fellow classmates were constantly observing me. By watching me edit this video, they themselves saw the Truth of the persecution. After seeing the peacefulness of our exercises and the composure of the people that I interviewed, the Truth shone forth like a beacon of light. It was just like how Master said in Zhuan Falun, "...the Buddha-light illuminates everywhere and rectifies all abnormalities." In the script, I came to a section where I was going to quote Master from "A Brief Statement of Mine." I wanted to have an Asian male do the voice over for me. I found someone who would help me; it was someone who had just arrived from China. This was his first year in America. He spoke the words beautifully, as he had spent much time learning how to pronounce all of the English words correctly. Never in China would he be able to freely read Masters' words and so easily learn the Truth. I believe that he came to America to attain the Fa. Every day that I edited the video, the more I felt that people were seeing Dafa's solemnity.

The process of making the video didn't go without some setbacks however. As I was talking with my mentor about the actual perspective of the documentary, a critical issue came about. My mentor felt that to leave out the Chinese government's perspective of Dafa would not serve the documentary well. I didn't want my finished product to in any way, sway towards the side of the Chinese government, or even have one bad notion of Dafa in it. However, I felt that ordinary people would better see the Truth of Dafa by contrasting the two sides of the persecution; that of Dafa and the Chinese government. I first thought that I would make the Chinese government look completely awful, and make Dafa look absolutely magnificent, however, after much thought, I came to a different conclusion. A practitioner from my area told me something like, "If you include their lies [the Chinese government's side] about the persecution, then what you will be showing are lies." This directly contradicts the principle of Zhen. If the documentary isn't completely assimilated to Zhen-Shan-Ren to the best of my understanding, then I will be letting Master and Dafa down. In the end, I didn't add much of the Chinese government's perspective. My video then focused on how people from throughout the world have given accolades to Dafa and how the Chinese government is alone in their persecution. In ordinary people documentaries, it is acceptable to clearly show each side of the subject of the documentary. However, a Hong-Fa Dafa documentary cannot be confined to the principles of ordinary people. Master said in "Using At Will" "How could the Fa of the cosmos be standardized by human culture? As long as I can explain the principles of the Fa clearly, I undo the binds of human culture, break those rules and constraints, and use the language at will. In order to express the Dafa clearly, I employ language as I wish."

This video was my link to the Fa-rectification. I believe that every cultivator in this ordinary human society collectively possesses so much valuable knowledge of this society. We may only think that we are knowledgeable in just chemistry or just knowing how to use a camera, but I really believe that we have all of these abilities to use at this crucial time. I think that we should all step forward and use everything that we have learned to help sentient beings position themselves correctly. Otherwise, why would we have our abilities? Nothing in cultivation is a coincidence in my view. Master said in "Validation" that,

"...as a cultivator, you should make use of all feasible conditions to spread Dafa and validate Dafa as a correct and true science, rather than preaching or idealism--this is every cultivator's obligation. Without this enormous Buddha Fa there would be nothing--and this includes everything in the universe, from the most macroscopic to the most microscopic, as well as all of human society's knowledge."

Doing Hong-Fa has been the pinnacle of my cultivation. I have always felt inside that my cultivation wasn't first and foremost. I believe that in cultivation we must do well what Master has instructed, such as studying the Fa well, clarifying the Truth, and sending forth righteous thoughts. I feel that it is one thing for me to reach Consummation, but I honestly feel that I was positioned here to assist Master to save the world's people rather than focusing on my Consummation. Master said in "Congratulatory Statement to the New York Fa Conference"

"...Dafa has bestowed upon you the mission of saving all sentient beings; in history's future, everything of yours that is pure and righteous will be what ensures that the colossal firmament has formation and stasis, but not destruction. Walk your paths well. The beings who are saved are to be your sentient beings. All that you do establishes all that you will consummate."

I feel that we are here now to ensure the stability of the new cosmos, and that this stability is achieved through breaking through the old forces' arrangements with righteous thoughts and righteous actions and clarifying the Truth to the world's people. I believe that only when we have completed our mission can we as a body of disciples reach a grand Consummation. Master said in His "Touring North America Lecture"

"So a Dafa disciple's responsibilities aren't for the sake of personal Consummation, but to save sentient beings while validating the Fa--that is a Dafa disciple's historic mission, and that is why Dafa disciples are truly magnificent."

After having said all of this I do not want to have people think that clarifying the Truth should take priority over our other aspects of cultivation. I think that if we focus on only one of the three major responsibilities of cultivation at the expense of the other two, then our Hong-Fa efforts will suffer greatly. Extremes are never good for our cultivation, however, clarifying the Truth has just been my focus without causing shortcomings in my Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts.

I hope that fellow practitioners are able to increase their determinedness to rectify the Fa. I feel that after this experience of making this documentary, I now feel Dafa manifesting very strongly in the human world; sending forth righteous thoughts are powerful beyond compare, but there aren't necessarily huge changes which occur in this surface dimension. After reading "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful" I now feel that sending forth righteous thoughts aren't the only effective abilities that we have to eliminate the evil. In "Dafa Disciples' Righteous Thoughts Are Powerful" Master said,

"Actually, every Dafa disciple has abilities. It's just that the abilities do not manifest in the surface dimension, so they think that they don't have supernormal abilities. But regardless of whether they can manifest in the surface dimension or not, when a person's True Thoughts come forth they are very powerful. Since we cultivate in a righteous Fa, we should care for and save beings and the people of the world who are good. So we should act with goodness in everything we do. Yet removing the evil beings that manipulate people into damaging humankind is also protecting humankind and sentient beings. Dafa is spreading widely, saving all sentient beings."

I consider it something supernormal if Dafa disciples are able to clarify the Truth to save the world's people. It is something supernormal if we can awaken people from the maze. I would say that everything that we do with a righteous mind is just as powerful as sending forth righteous thoughts. Sending forth righteous thoughts are absolutely crucial in eliminating the evil, however, we mustn't underestimate our abilities in the ordinary human society. I believe that many changes have taken their course and that not everything that we do occurs in other dimensions. Changes are happening right here, right now.

The above was only my limited understanding. Please point out anything incorrect or which isn't from the perspective of the Fa.