Be More Considerate of New Practitioners

By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Taiwan

(Clearwisdom.net) Something that happened at a recent experience-sharing conference in the North District of Taiwan (Jiantan) provoked some thoughts in me. During the lunch break, as I was eating with my child outside the conference hall, I saw an older woman sitting next to us. She had come up from the south to participate in an event of another group at the Jiantan Recreational Center. I started a conversation with her and told her that I was there to attend a Falun Gong experience-sharing conference.

At that she said coldly, "I'm not interested in this! I saw them passing out flyers in Singapore, too, and I never read them. One of my friends once learned it, and he told me there were too many rituals involved in it." Hearing that, I realized immediately that she had some misperceptions. "I need to clarify the facts to her," I thought.

I began with the topic of family life, telling her how I had changed toward my family after I obtained the Fa. I said, "Our Master taught us that a husband and wife have a profound bond, and that a husband should love and protect his wife, whereas a wife should be understanding and take good care of her husband. I've changed because I followed my Master's words." At this point I saw a smile emerging on the face of this older woman.

So I proceeded to tell her how Falun Gong practitioners were being persecuted in mainland China and that we use peaceful means such as distributing flyers to stop the ongoing persecution. In the end, I noticed that the look on her face became friendly, and I was heartily grateful for Master's arrangement.

What this woman said about us should cause us to think: Is it possible that "rituals" set by ourselves are unconsciously added as we share experiences with new practitioners? When I started out practicing, a veteran practitioner told me that since this practice was so grand, I should do this and that... (They were all the things that practitioners do out of respect.) New practitioners won't have a deep understanding, so naturally they will feel that there are "too many rituals."

Meanwhile, it's important to take new practitioners' state into consideration when we share experiences. Normally new practitioners are welcome to participate in experience-sharing on xinxing improvement; but discussions on Dafa projects may not be suitable for them. One reason for this is because new practitioners who lack sufficient understandings of the Fa-rectification process may convey negative thoughts and misperceptions to their friends and family. So it is important for us to be "... full of great aspirations while minding minor details." ("Sage", Essentials for Further Advancement) We should really be more considerate of new practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/4/10/124852.html

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