Recent Understandings on Engaging Our Hearts

By a Falun Dafa practitioner from New York

(Clearwisdom.net) Recently, many of us handing out flyers for the Holiday Wonders show in New York have heard people say, "I've seen this show's ad everywhere. I know all about it." In the last few years, the practitioners have been everywhere on the street to hand out flyers and sell tickets. In Manhattan, almost everyone knows about the show. However, why are the ticket sales still so slow? In other dimensions, New York is under a lot of pressure, but from the perspective of Fa principles, the situation does not seem right.

Recently I ran into something at work that made me think more deeply. I have been looking for a job. Because I was busy, I delayed sending a packet of materials by nearly a month. Later, I sent it via express mail, so that the recipient could get it the next day. However, one week later, the person still had not uploaded it into the computer. I finally lost my patience and called. In today's society, people generally have the thought that if they paid a fee, they could expect a professional level of service. Those who complain louder often receive better treatment. Yet when I called, the other person's response was, "You are not the only one with things to upload. Everyone has to wait in line. Are you only thinking of cutting in line without considering others' interests?" I immediately understood that I was only looking at others' faults and neglected to unconditionally look inward. I was the one who turned in the file late, but after I sent it, I thought I had fulfilled my responsibility, therefore I felt that I was not at fault and could thus order others around. I did not look at the overall picture. At critical times, I was primarily concerned about my own timeline. This is an attachment that I should have eliminated during the period of personal cultivation. Why is it exposed again? I realized that I have not been diligent in my cultivation, and have not met the requirement of being a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. I have not fully engaged myself in the current Fa-rectification and have not paid enough attention to saving people. Instead, I only treat it as routine work. I have only a shallow understanding of it but have not truly grasped it from the Fa or tried to live up to it in my daily life. Although it may appear that I was doing a lot and endured much hardship, actually I have not been motivated to save people. Sometimes I even use the excuse that I have endured hardships as proof that I have participated in Fa-rectification, therefore convincing myself that I can relax a bit and not feel that I was a part of the problem.

Shortly, the second test began. After my resume was posted online, I watched my emails and mail closely. However, two months later, I still did not have a single interview. At first I only thought that I should let go of my attachment to fame and gain, and tried to convince myself that everything has been arranged for us. However, I still felt uncomfortable, and felt that my thoughts weren't dignified and righteous. Then I suddenly realized that what I faced was merely a small moment of confusion in ordinary human society, yet I felt so lost in the waiting. However, the true lives of sentient beings have come here for the Fa after waiting for millions of years and countless lifetimes. Today, Master has come and the Fa-rectification has begun. In the last few years, so many sentient beings have barely missed Dafa practitioners; they are still waiting for their moment of salvation. How anxious and painful must they feel! It must be many times worse than how I am feeling now.

Then, in my situation, how do I rationally and fully use the resources around me to promote ticket sales? After sharing with my family members (who are also practitioners), my mind changed and I felt that everything was suddenly clear. Nothing is coincidental. I was given an interview for a job at this time. I thought I would use the interview to promote the show to the top executives at this company. My family members and I prepared a greeting letter to accompany the nice flyers. We used the finest paper and printed out all the labels. In drafting the letter, I tried to refine it several times. On the first draft, my family members pointed out that I emphasized myself too much, and because of this, the message behind the letter could not move people. On the second draft, they told me that I didn't explain clearly the characteristics of Divine Performing Arts. On the third draft, they told me that I did not state why I recommended the show. After all the revisions, when I mailed it at the post office, I felt the energy field was very strong, and I felt very assured. A peaceful joy emerged from my heart. I didn't know how many people ended up buying the tickets, but during this process, my heart was engaged. I was willing to honestly face the situation and address my shortcomings. I tried my best to eliminate my notions and put myself in others' shoes when explaining the benefits of the show. As I was promoting the show, I also gained more understanding about traditional, divinely-imparted Chinese culture myself.

I am on an email list and receive email every day about how many tickets were sold and how many remain that day. It was treated as a quota. Through actually promoting the tickets, I understood that it was an activity that assists Master in the Fa-rectification and can save sentient beings. Promoting the tickets also includes a component of clarifying the facts. Yet clarifying the facts is not the goal--the ultimate goal is saving sentient beings. That is the responsibility and mission of a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. We are not promoting the tickets for the sake of promoting them. We are not struggling because we are afraid of losing money. We are not doing it to validate ourselves or for our vanity. It is just like a student cannot only pay attention to grades without solid studies. How could he get good grades and attend a good school without making an effort to improve his actual understanding?

Today, I visited many people in my work place and introduced them to the Spectacular. Some of them were professors, others were managers. Before, I had the fear that I hadn't performed well as an employee, and had reservations in clarifying the facts to them directly. This time, I first sent forth righteous thoughts, and then had a very strong thought that I was there to save them. The result was excellent. Right after they took the flyers, they inquired about how to buy a ticket. They seemed very interested. The peacefulness on the human surface is a manifestation of people's awakening, which is a result of righteous thoughts in other dimensions and the field of Dafa. I also found that when we clarified the facts and acted with dignity to save people, the people don't have the ability to have strange thoughts in their heads. Cultivators can affect ordinary people. Some people even complimented me on my job in ordinary human society. This was just the opposite of my concerns. I realized that the surface form was not important. When Dafa practitioners' true thoughts are engaged, their effect is tremendous.

Being engaged is not only demonstrated in our actions. It's not just a matter of how many streets we walked and how many flyers we distributed. We should always remind ourselves, when we are promoting the tickets, to think of saving the person. We should tell his knowing side, "Wake up! Thousands of years of waiting was just for this moment! Falun Dafa is great. Take your seat at the Spectacular!" We should use our compassion, which could melt steel, to care for him. To his human side, we should explain the situation clearly. Also, we must not hold on to our notions when we are working with other practitioners; we must not think that we are outside of the problem. To save every being, we should not be concerned about how many tickets remain to be sold, how many days are left, how others have not cooperated with the group, what a great job we have done promoting the tickets, or whether all the tickets will be sold out miraculously at the last minute. Instead, we should worry about how many beings are yet to be saved. We cannot just watch a high-level being losing this once-in-10,000-years opportunity. When this high-level being came down from the heavens, he certainly had the faith that he would be saved. As a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, how much of ourselves can we give up? How many notions that were formed in the ordinary human society can we remove, including the Communist Party culture? How many attachments can we eliminate to more purely merge into the Fa? When working with the group, let's maximally use our abilities to assist Master in the journey of Fa-rectification in the human world.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/12/16/168488.html

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