Cultivation Experiences While Clarifying the Truth in Taiwan and Manhattan
By a practitioner from Taiwan
From the Taiwan North District Experience Sharing Conference (Clearwisdom.net) Best wishes to respected Master! Best wishes to every
fellow practitioner! I am glad to have this opportunity to share my recent cultivation
experiences. Please point out anything improper. Thank you. I am from Banqiao, Taiwan. Since I had attained Dafa in 1998, I thought I was
very diligent in my cultivation. I had successfully passed several tests and
tribulations. The other practitioners kept praising me. Gradually, some of my
attachments became unconsciously magnified, such as fear of doing things wrong,
fear of losing face in front of fellow practitioners, fear of being left behind
in the Fa-rectification, etc. These attachments grew, more and more. Although I
became aware of it, I didn't want to face this directly and so I hid it. From
outward experiences it seemed that I firmly safeguarded Dafa, but, in the depth
of my mind, the desire to protect Dafa was no longer pure. In July 2004, I attended the practice for the Flag and Drum team and was
fortunate to be selected as one of the members. On the afternoon of January 19,
2005, during a performance, while waiting backstage at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial
Hall, the practitioners in the Flag and Drum Team decided to practice the fifth
exercise, "Strengthening Divine Powers" [the sitting meditation]. I
participated in the practice. At the beginning, I had a thought: since many
people were practicing together, it would not look good if my legs slipped down,
and I thought that I must prevent this from happening. With such a thought, I
started to do the exercise. During the one hour of the practice, my legs slipped
down twenty or thirty times. After the exercise, practitioners approached me and
asked if my pants fabric was too slippery; otherwise, how could such a thing
happen to a practitioner who has practiced for so many years? I felt very
embarrassed and kept explaining that my state was not quite right. After the performance some practitioners and I took the big drums back to the
stadium at Taiwan University. On the way there, a practitioner asked me again
why my legs kept slipping down during the practice in the afternoon. I decided
to tell the truth, that I was afraid to lose face during the practice; however,
the more I was afraid, the more often my legs slipped down. I decide to face my
attachments that had been hidden for a long time. In February 2005, the Taiwan Flag and Drum Team came to New York to give a
performance. During an experience sharing conference a fellow practitioner found
out that I took others' opinions of me too seriously. He pointed it out by
saying, "Why are you so afraid of losing face?" My attachment was
brought up before so many practitioners. I felt so relieved. The attachment
hidden deep in my mind was finally exposed and I was now able to get rid of it. 2. Passing Sickness Tribulation On January 20, 2005, the fellow practitioners in the Flag and Drum Team
finished the performance in the New Year's Gala at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in
Taipei and started to prepare for the trip for the New York performance. The
next day, the inside of my mouth started to swell like a bubble. The swelling
became bigger and bigger and eventually occupied one-third of the space in my
oral cavity. My nose also started to run every few minutes. It seemed there was
no end. One day, I was reorganizing things at home. Suddenly, I was a little shocked
to smell something like a dead mouse. It occurred intermittently, with a very
bad odor. I wondered how my home could have any mice. When I discovered that the
smell was coming from my nostrils, I was startled. The physical pain was severe
and it was almost beyond what I could tolerate. Sometimes I even wondered if I
would be able to pass this tribulation. Nevertheless, I firmly kept studying the
Fa and practicing the exercises. My life went on as usual. At the
end of February, everything passed. My nose stopped running after nearly 40
days. I said to my wife, "If I didn't practice Falun Gong, my life in this
world would have ended then." 3. Improving Xinxing through Conflicts After the winter trip to New York, my wife and I had discussed when we would
be able to come to Manhattan to clarify the truth. When we studied
"Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference" we clearly knew
that the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) still insidiously persecuted
practitioners behind the scenes. The majority of the mainstream media in other
countries are not reporting on the persecution of practitioners in China and
keep silent in the face of the evil. Therefore, four members of my family
decided to journey to the USA to clarify the truth in Manhattan, between July 2
and August 2. When we arrived in New York we were assigned to a bedroom on the first floor
of a house being shared by practitioners. There were two bedrooms on the first
floor. Seven female practitioners stayed in the other room. There was only one
shared bathroom. My wife was not used to these circumstances, and many ordinary
people's thoughts came out. She complained much and wondered when we were going
back to Taiwan and how soon August 2 would be here. Such a state of mind could
affect our efforts to clarify the truth. We knew we had to improve our attitude
through Fa study and experience sharing. On the morning of July 11, four of my family members finished distributing
truth-clarifying materials between 59th Street and 8th
Avenue and decided to take a break in Central Park and study the Fa. The
anti-torture exhibitions had then not yet started. That day we picked up our
study in Lecture 4 of Zhuan Falun. When we finished, we
started to share experiences. We thought about what a practitioner had said
during a group study and sharing on Friday for the whole New York region,
"The cultivation process is more important than the final result." Then we realized, if we could not regard ourselves as practitioners, our
journey of clarifying the truth in Manhattan would be one full of complaints; if
we could not look inward, we would squander the month with complaining and
eyeing others' shortcomings. Moreover, it is Master who specifically arranged
this xinxing test for us. It is such a valuable opportunity for us
to improve ourselves among the conflicts. When xinxing is improved, gong will
advance as well. We thus determined to take this opportunity to increase our
mind capacity. We should remember that we are practitioners at all times and put
Dafa at first. 4. Eliminating Selfishness at a Critical Moment Between July 20 and 23, we were in Washington, DC to participate in a Dafa
experience sharing conference. On July 23 when I was going to check us out of
the hotel with the $1,635.00 that our group of fellow practitioners handed to me
(I was in charge of the group), a practitioner said she wanted to exchange the
cash for her travelers checks. She wanted to pay for the rooms with her
travelers checks. I was a little hesitant but eventually agreed. I handed her
$1,635.00; she counted the money and accepted it. She started to check us out of the rooms, one by one, with her travelers
checks. Time passed quickly and it was close to the time for the Fa conference;
however, we were still in the midst of the check-out procedure. When she was
checking out of the last room she told me the amount of money I gave her was not
correct and there was not enough to pay the room. Right there a thought flashed
through my mind, "Why are you using travelers checks to check out? I have
given you all the cash I had. I will not compensate you for the
difference." Then I replied, "Do you know what time is it? Now you
want to mention such a thing to me?" Just after saying these words I immediately doubted that I was a
practitioner. I realized that my self-centeredness at such a critical moment
still manifested. I was trying to protect my own interest; I was not looking
inside but looking to blame others when things happened. After I counted the
money again I realized I was wrong! I had set aside $72.00 for phone charges and
didn't give this to the practitioner together with the other money. I apologized
to her again and again and immediately gave her the rest of the money. I remembered what Master said in Zhuan Falun, "They will often occur suddenly so that they can test one's Xinxing
and make one's Xinxing truly improved. In this way, it can be told
whether one can maintain his Xinxing. Therefore, when a problem comes
up, it does not exist accidentally." I felt frustrated with myself, for not being able to pass this test. At the
critical moment, I didn't get rid of my preoccupation with myself. 5. Exposing the Evil through Anti-Torture Exhibitions For the month I stayed in Manhattan, I mainly supported the anti-torture
exhibition. At the site I always acted the role of an evil police officer.
Initially, when I first acted, I felt a little embarrassed and just stood there
straight, like a security guard. I also wanted to maintain my own image.
Sometimes, I would look at my figure reflected in a store window to see whether
I looked ok. It was really a bad thought, to try to prove myself. Later, through sharing with other practitioners who also played the role of
police officers, and through studying the Fa, I broke through many obstacles of
ordinary people. I began to act from the perspective how to attract people's
attention (people like to see a show that is as realistic as possible). Each
time I had to make a gesture as a police officer attacking a practitioner, I
would recite Lunyu once. In one hour I could recite "Lunyu"
ten times. I would play this role daily for about two or three hours. One day,
because there was no one to replace me, I acted the role of a police officer for
five hours. During this process, I experienced unexpected gain. Because I kept reciting
"Lunyu," many unhealthy thoughts were cleaned up during my reciting
the Fa. Of course, sometimes I might lose my concentration or become drowsy and
had to start reciting again from the beginning. If my righteous thought was not
strong enough when I acted as an evildoing police officer, the old forces would
take advantage of my loophole and impose a false illusion. If I couldn't get rid
of such an illusion, it would be enlarged. If this happened, the sentient beings
that have been isolated would not be able to know the truth and it would prevent
them from signing the petition to show their attitude. When I realized this
principle of the Fa, I told myself to keep my main consciousness strong and to
recite the Fa with a clear mind. At the last anti-torture exhibition I attended before leaving New York, I
concentrated on my role as a policeman and demanded of myself to recite the Fa
with an undisturbed mind. I displayed various pretended moves and gestures, to
demonstrate how the police beat practitioners. At the same time, the
practitioner who acted the victim also manifested unyieldingly will, "No
matter how you beat me, I will not give up the cultivation of Falun Dafa."
The entire anti-torture exhibit, as a whole was very harmonious and displayed
strong energy. Many passers-by stopped walking and came over to watch. Some
signed the petition; some listened to our truth clarifying information and some
read the exhibit materials. At the end of the anti-torture exhibit, when I packed my luggage to say
good-bye to fellow practitioners, an Australian practitioner told me, "Do
you know how many people you have offered salvation to during this one month in
Manhattan?" In fact, it is our benevolent Master who is truly doing the
mission to save sentient beings. It is Master's arrangement for us to come to
Manhattan to assist Master in Fa-rectification. It is a great honor for a
disciple. My gratitude to Master! Thank you, Master; thank you fellow practitioners! August 19, 2005
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/20/108780.html
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