By a Dafa practitioner from San Diego

(Clearwisdom.net)

Greetings to Master, Greetings to Fellow Practitioners!

I obtained the Fa in 2004. Through Master's compassion and protection, I was quickly involved in Fa-validation activities for saving sentient beings. Though I am still attached to the time factor and wonder if I have enough time for cultivation or not, with two years of cultivation, my understanding of the Fa has deepened gradually. The Fa becomes bigger and bigger, but I just become smaller and smaller. I found out that I was just one of the tiny particles of Dafa. What can't I let go of?

Master said,

"Having heard the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening" in "Melt in Fa" in Essentials for Further Advancements.

So my worry slowly faded. I believe that with righteous thoughts we can walk to the end.

When I first obtained the Fa, I was very busy with my doctoral dissertation. In addition, I also have a heavy workload. Therefore, there was not much spare time left. I realized that participating in group Fa-validation activities is important for new practitioners to keep up with the Fa-rectification. I cherished every chance to do that. Hence, whenever there is a parade or street fair on the weekends, I send forth righteous thoughts: I am a Fa-rectification Dafa disciple. Nothing can prevent me from participating in Fa-validation activities. Therefore, whenever we have activities on the weekend, my professor won't ask me to work overtime and I don't need to. I have participated in most of the activities to validate the Fa. I kept up with my school work and got my PhD degree smoothly. But the other students of my advisor had to work overtime in order to get their degree on time. I am very grateful for Master's benevolence.

Master said,

"My Law bodies are aware of everything. Whatever you think about, they're aware of it, and they can do anything. If you don't cultivate they won't look after you, but if you do cultivate, they'll help you all the way to the end." (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

I believe that as long as you have righteous thoughts, Master will help you. I remember there was a Saturday that my wife and I needed to go to Los Angeles to participate in a group Fa-validation activity. About an hour before we set off, the power windows in my car quit working. We had to take the car to a repair shop, but the most important thing to us was that we might miss the LA activity. My wife agreed with me that this was interference. We were keeping sending forth righteous thoughts on the way to the repair shop: Eliminate the interference of the old forces and we must be able to make it to Los Angeles. Miraculously, we were given a lift and arrived home with no trouble. Eventually we made to Los Angeles on time.

For new practitioners who obtained the Fa in the Fa-rectification period, our personal cultivation and Fa-rectification are combined. Therefore, we cannot forget to cultivate ourselves while participating in Fa-validation activities. When we encounter troubles or feel unhappy, we can find and thus get rid of our attachments by looking inward. Only by doing well in cultivating ourselves can we do well in Fa-validation activities.

Master said,

"Cultivation consists of step-by-step improvement, and it's not realistic to expect you to soar to a high level all at once and be like veteran students, since they, too, got to where they are through cultivating and improving step by step." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")

Master also said,

"There's no shortcut in cultivation for any student, and that holds for new students too. Just cultivate steadily and solidly, and do well the three things that Dafa disciples should do." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")

When I studied "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles," I came to the understanding that the beings of those distant cosmic systems will be saved if Dafa disciples do well in their own fields. I thought further that I needed to achieve something in my field so as to save those sentient beings in my academic field. In the following weeks, my advisor asked me to discuss how my work was progressing at 9 a.m. on Mondays, so I had to work overtime on Sundays to prepare. Sometimes I even had to work late into the night and therefore missed all the group Fa-validation activities on those days. "What's happening?" I wondered. "Don't I do things based on the Fa?" One Sunday I worked late again. Some time after 11:00 p.m., it suddenly occurred to me: "Wait, isn't this the old forces persecuting me? They arranged this so I couldn't take part in weekend Dafa activities." I looked inward. What kind of attachments did I have that the old forces could take advantage of? I had a strong attachment to pursue fame. I wanted to achieve something in the ordinary world. I wanted recognition. My attachments found, I tried to let go of them as I sent forth righteous thoughts: "No matter what kind of attachments I have, I will only follow Master's arrangement and negate the old forces completely." Ever since then, my advisor hasn't set up appointments for me on Mondays. I have been able to participate in Fa-validation activities as usual on weekends. So besides cultivating ourselves, we should have righteous thoughts all the time. Then we won't be taken advantage of by the old forces or be interfered with by our ordinary jobs when doing Dafa work.

Master has always asked us to study the Fa well. Only by studying the Fa well can you stay in the Fa, maintain righteous thoughts, deal with conflicts calmly, and actively communicate and coordinate well with fellow practitioners. Last year, San Diego hosted the Chinese New Year Global Gala, and I was involved in selling tickets. As the show date approached, the pressure of selling tickets intensified. The conflicts and frictions between practitioners became deeper. Because of a tight schedule, I had less time to study the Fa, so I dealt with the conflicts like an ordinary person. I didn't use a cultivator's righteous thoughts to look at conflicts and started to find faults in other practitioners. I forgot to cultivate myself among conflicts and began to complain a lot. Though the Gala was successful, I still had grudges. In the following three weeks, I studied the Fa calmly and intensively in all my spare time. I read all the new lectures Master taught after 1999. After reading them, I was very relaxed and the grudges in my heart simply melted away by themselves. When I looked back at the conflicts, they were nothing. I also understood the reason why I had not dealt well with the conflicts: it was because I did not study the Fa regularly.

Master said,

"...As long as you study the Fa earnestly, answers found within the Fa can solve any hard-to-untie knots in your heart, or any hang-ups. This Fa encompasses how to be a human being as well as how to be a heavenly being. I'm also telling you how to be a Buddha, Dao, God, and even a god in still higher realms. How could the Fa fail to eliminate your hang-ups? How could the Fa not open your mind? How could the Fa not resolve your problems? It can do all of this. " (Lecture at the First Conference in North America)

Recently, I also worked on a project to spread the Nine Commentaries to China. I was the tech support. Because some practitioners on this project were not good at computers, they always asked some simple, repetitive questions. I was short of patience when I had to answer the same question again and again.

In Master's lecture, he said,

"For a cultivator, all the frustrations he comes across among everyday people are trials, and all the compliments he receives are tests." ("A Cultivator is Naturally Part of It" in Essentials For Further Advancement)

Later, I realized this was arranged for me to upgrade my xinxing and increase tolerance. So, I tried to get rid of the fear of troubles and support other practitioners better in the project of spreading the Nine Commentaries to China. Let every Fa instrument utilize its powers. Only when Dafa disciples coordinate well will the power of the whole body be the greatest.

For over a year, San Diego practitioners maintained an anti-torture photo exhibit at a tourist spot on weekends. I also shouldered the responsibility to coordinate this project. I gradually realized the importance of this truth-clarifying project during my involvement. I think this exhibit at a tourist site is just like those in other parts of the world. These truth clarification sites expose, in different places of the world, the CCP's organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. This is what the evil fears most. Through this exhibit, local residents and tourists from all over the world found out about the truth of Dafa. Some people with predestined relationships obtained the Fa.

I had been involved in this project for a long time. I eventually developed the heart of doing things and laziness. One weekend I wanted to have a day off and just relax, but a practitioner who hadn't participated in this activity before called me. He was already waiting in the park, so I had to pack up and go. When I arrived, the other practitioner had already left. Two weeks later, I was again thinking of not going to the park when that same practitioner called and told me that he was waiting there in the park. Now I knew: Master was giving me a hint that this truth clarification exhibition site has to continue. I enlightened that saving sentient beings is the mission of Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period. We cannot let sentient beings miss any chance of being saved just because we have human attachments.

Finally, let me finish with Master's words:

"So as a cultivator, what is truly remarkable is when you can be steadfast and have righteous thoughts so firm that nothing can sway you. Be solid and firm like diamond, or granite, and then nothing can affect you--evil will be afraid at the mere sight of you. If upon encountering trying circumstances your thinking can be truly righteous, then, when faced with the evil's persecution and when faced with interference, just one sentence of yours fortified with steadfast righteous thoughts can instantly make the evil disintegrate (applause), and it will make those who are being used by the evil turn and flee, it will make the evil's persecution of you dissolve, and it will make the evil's interfering with you disappear without a trace. One thought born of righteous faith is all it takes. And whoever can hold firm that righteous thought and go the distance will become a magnificent god forged by Dafa." ("Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference")

Thank you, Master! Thank, you fellow practitioners!

Posting date: 1/11/2007
Original article date: 1/11/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/28/141143.html

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