Do Well What We Are Supposed To Do

By a Dafa Practitioner in USA

(Clearwisdom.net) U.S. Dafa practitioners have for quite a while now mentioned that Dafa practitioners in Canada have done very well. At some experience-sharing meetings, there has been a lot of interest in listening to Canadian practitioners relating their experiences. We also often hear, in informal circumstances, the "criticism" toward U.S. practitioners. However, I feel that, while we can benefit from hearing about the successful experiences of practitioners in other regions, we should not criticize the local practitioners for their being unable to do as well in some aspects as those in the other regions. Different regions have different circumstances. Besides that, as Dafa disciples, we should be paying attention to the process, rather than attaching to the outcome.

I remember that a practitioner once mentioned his experience collecting signatures. Although this practitioner stayed in an area for a whole day he had collected only a few signatures, while practitioners in other regions had greater success. The practitioner wondered if he had not done well. Other practitioners offered many suggestions to him. But wasn't he also very great, as he had persevered to the end under such a difficult situation?

About a year ago, there was an art festival in our area. Because we filed our application too late, we could not participate in the festival. We did not let go of this opportunity, though. After getting proper approval, we went to the exit area with one or two practitioners practicing the exercises and another giving out flyers. Since visitors were mainly interested in the small artifacts, there were not many interested in our materials and exercise demonstration. But our thoughts were very pure and our hearts were unaffected. As time went by, some impure thoughts occasionally came up, but they were eliminated right away. Over the two days, although many people noticed us, we gave out only a few flyers, and there were not many people coming to talk to us. Even so, we all felt very satisfied. When we became tired and hot, especially under the sun, getting refused by one after another did not shake the thought of saving people from our hearts; on the contrary, our hearts became even more compassionate and pure. Several months later, a South Korean person who had taken our flyers came to look for us to learn the practice. After another several months, a teacher who had seen us practicing came to invite us to teach his students a lesson about Falun Gong. Because of the class, the residents from a small town invited us to go to teach them the practice. There had already been several people in the town who wanted to learn the practice as much as a year ago, but they did not know where to go to learn it.

Our experience-sharing is to enable us to do better the things we are suppose to do; besides this, all other thoughts are unnecessary. If the practitioners from one region have various impure thoughts because their efforts failed to generate the noticed effectiveness while the practitioners in other regions have done very well, does this mean that there exists a loophole? Furthermore, we are one body, and we cannot divide the practitioners into "you and us" according to regions. Will the old forces, because of this, make even bigger obstacles for us? Teacher told us,

"It's not a big deal if one person thinks that way, and it's not a big deal if two people think that way -- that's just their personal cultivation issue. But if everybody thinks that way, then what kind of situation will there be among the larger group of Dafa disciples? It'll be a major disruption, a strong attachment, and that can't be allowed. I saw it, and the old forces saw it, too. The old forces thought, 'Wait a minute, what's this?'" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

This is my own understanding at my own limited level. Please point out anything improper.

March 10, 2003

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