|
A Young Practitioner: Becoming Mature
(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Gong in l998, when I was in
second grade. I was quite young and followed my parents to the exercise site.
When the grownups read Zhuan Falun, we children just
listened; when they did exercises, we followed along. Later I learned to read, but I did not apply the principles as Teacher asked
and wasted many years. I started to study seriously when I was in the eighth
grade. At the beginning, my understanding of the Fa was shallow,
therefore I did not clarify the truth to my classmates well,
particularly when I went to extremes. After the publication of the Nine
Commentaries on the Communist Party, I talked irrationally and did not
properly expose the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and my
classmates thought I was emotionally out of balance. One of my classmates who
had read the book gave up Dafa because of me. When it was arranged that I was to
sit next to him, I knew that was Teacher's compassion to save every one of us.
On the one hand, I should wake my classmate up, and on the other, it was
encouragement for me to do better. That is in the past, and my understanding is that whether I did well or not,
I should not be attached to it. I should not make any judgment about myself,
since there is a cause and effect of everything. Only if we take every
opportunity and be a genuine Falun Dafa practitioner have we truly followed what
Teacher requested. 1. Establishing a Truth-clarification Materials Production Center I bought a computer and started to produce truth-clarification materials. I
learned a lot because of my attachments. Once I helped someone fix his computer,
and I thought, "Why should I risk trouble to myself with my technical
skills?" Of course that thought was not righteous, and when I got home my
computer was infected with a virus. That was the first time my computer had ever
had a virus. I got rid of it, but my loss in time and materials was great. I was so concerned about it that I cried. After I calmed down and thought
about it, I knew that I needed to look within. I took technical skills too
seriously. I knew many practitioners who did not have many technical skills
except getting on and off the Internet, downloading files, and making copies of
them, were doing a fine job of producing truth-clarifying materials. They did
not run into problems, and they did not even have a firewall--they had only
Teacher's protection. Of course, it is better to have technical protection for
our computers in this dimension, however, it is more important to study the Fa
and have righteous thoughts. I often ran into problems and could not get on the
Internet. After I stopped to study the Fa for a while, everything would go back
to normal. 2. Getting Rid of the Mentality of Doing "Work" I gave up my attachment of considering truth-clarification as work. For a
while, my printer would not print. I became very anxious day after day because I
could not produce any materials, and I could not afford to buy a new one.
Actually the cause was within me: I just wanted to do the work and did not have
Dafa in my heart. My motivation for producing truth-clarification materials
resulted from my human notions. That truly exposed my omission. Wasn't that a
good reason to give up my "work" mentality? Dafa practitioners
clarifying the truth to people is not an ordinary thing that people do; it is
the most glorious mission. How can it be motivated by our attachments? 3. Superior Elderly Practitioners I know an elderly practitioner who is over 50, and she sleeps only a few
hours a night but is very energetic. When we started to work together, she
always had--and maintained--her righteous thoughts, no matter what we said. I
did not quite understand and thought that she was going to extremes. Up to the
present, we all have elevated our levels, and never had any conflict because of
that. I was quite moved, watching her walk up to the fifth floor without
stopping, carrying five bags in one hand and a lot of vegetables and a printer
in the other. Five bags alone would be plenty for me, and I am a young man. That
is righteous thoughts, and she said later that she was not tired because Teacher
was helping her. Dafa practitioners are truly superior. A few days ago, she went
up to the fifth floor again with a huge paper cutter and a bunch of other stuff;
I am ashamed! How come I cannot do the same, and how come I don't have that kind
of sacrificing spirit? 4. Treating People with Compassion Something happened a few days ago that left a profound impression on me. We
got a truth-clarifying CD, and I spent a lot of time and finally added video to
it. Within a few days, I had made 50 copies. When my mother took out a CD she
found that there was no video on it. I had done everything according to the
instructions, but nothing worked, and 50 CDs were wasted. What a shame! This
really disclosed my mentality of just doing "work," looking for
quantity but not quality. If this had happened to other practitioners, I would
have complained about it. In the past I complained about an older practitioner who, whenever she tried
to print something, wasted a lot of paper. I talked to her about it many times,
saying that she should be more careful. When I talked to her, I harbored
resentment and could not quite forgive her. Now, I had made a similar mistake
and realized how hard it is to be perfect. We are all Dafa practitioners; who
wants to make mistakes intentionally? Teacher said in "To the Chicago Conference:" "Whatever you experience during your cultivation--whether good or
bad--is good, for it comes about only because you are cultivating." This time I remained calm and recognized my problem, and I know that I can
correct it. During the past few years, I hesitated or fell behind sometimes, but I
finally elevated and became a Dafa practitioner. I am also more mature. Now I
use the Fa to measure everything I do. I know that I am falling short and do not
quite meet the requirement of the Fa. I also know for sure that I can do better
and become more mature as time goes by. The above are little things that I wanted to share with fellow practitioners.
|