(Clearwisdom.net) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner who has recently come from China to Canada. The Celestial Band of Toronto participated in the Caribbean Carnival Parade awhile back. I was one of the band members. After I returned home, I couldn’t calm down for a long time. The smiling faces at the sides of the road deeply moved me. Nothing makes a Falun Dafa practitioner feel happier than sentient beings being saved.

I left China for Canada four months ago and joined the Celestial Band two months ago. When I was playing the drum in the parade in Montreal, the faces of my fellow practitioners back in China came to my mind. It seemed that they were standing beside me. I couldn’t help shedding tears. It was the first time I had ever participated in a parade. I called my fellow practitioners in China and told them about it. They were so excited and kept repeating, "We are proud of you. You should try your best and cultivate yourself through the process." It’s true. Everything Dafa practitioners do is cultivation. Joining the Celestial Band is cultivation, clarifying the truth is cultivation, and cultivation reflects in all aspects of our lives.

I smiled truly from the heart at the Caribbean parade. I let go of many attachments by joining the Celestial Band. I was even able to let go of my attachment to my fellow practitioners in China. I obtained the Fa in 1998, later than most other practitioners in China. Thus, they took care of me everywhere and worried about me. Seeing that they were so mature and so firm in Dafa, I always felt ashamed of my inferiority. Then I came to this country. The first test I faced was my sentimental attachment to them, and my persistent worry that they would encounter trouble.

I became truly in touch with my fellow practitioners in the West by joining the Celestial Band. I am counted as a veteran practitioner here. I was at a loss as to what to do when I faced so many other practitioners for the first time in my seven years of cultivation. Everybody’s personal environments and experiences were different. I always used my own standard to measure others. The environment in China is completely different from here, and the practitioners in these two environments differ in many respects. I judged everything practitioners here did with a sentimental attachment to my fellow practitioners in China. Fellow practitioners in China told me, "You have to start from the very beginning. We are always beside you. You have to do everything well, since it’s your mission. We are in different circumstances, but our hearts and our missions are the same."

I recall my excitement when I first saw the Celestial Band. I was in China. Tears wet my face at the first sight of the video of the overseas fellow practitioners’ performance. Although it seems as if it happened yesterday, my mental state has changed greatly. Through cultivation in the band, I have come to understand that righteous thoughts are equally important whether we are in China or outside of China. At each parade, if we didn’t send forth enough righteous thoughts or pay close enough attention, the effect seemed to be limited. We wouldn’t feel that we were one body. When I had strong righteous thoughts, I seemed to be in a state of trance and only had a little thought that I was playing a drum. When I saw other practitioners playing wrong, it seemed as if I played wrong and I would say to them in my heart, "It is OK. You will be all right." After one hour of playing, my shoulder was intolerably painful. I inconspicuously supported myself by putting my arms on the stand. But I felt ashamed of myself when I saw no one else move even a bit. I was far away from Forbearance. When I played incorrectly, I was extremely afraid that others would blame me. I knew that my attachment to fame was still serious. When others were praised for their good performance, I felt uncomfortable. I realized that I had a strong attachment to jealousy. The paths practitioners take are different, but all are made for our cultivation. All the projects are good cultivation environments. Cultivation in the Celestial Band enables me to find many attachments so that I can remove them. There are all sorts of forms to save sentient beings. We are using these forms to save sentient beings as well as upgrade ourselves.

I thank Master for his merciful hints and arduous saving. I must do everything well with the strongest righteous thoughts. The paths of fellow practitioners in China and overseas are different, but we are one body. The power of one body is enormous. It is the most impressive feeling I have in the Celestial Band. A group of 180 practitioners can shake the world—how about the body of almost 100 million practitioners?

Posting date: 8/23/2006
Original article date: 8/23/2006
Category: Cultivation in Persecution
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/8/7/135016.html

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