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Walking on the Righteous Path of Cultivation Practice
(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa five years ago. This is
the first time that I've shared my cultivation experiences with fellow
practitioners. First I would like to tell you some of my experiences before I
started to practice cultivation in Falun Dafa. I wanted to leave home to become a cultivator in a temple since I was 13
years old and studied in middle school. When I told my parents my wish, my mom
told me that it wouldn't be too late after I finished middle school. So I had to
go to school with some of my friends every day. We started to imitate some
cultivation methods of monks, such as becoming vegetarians and sitting in
meditation, and we didn't want to live with our families. We often lived in
temples, monasteries and learned from monks. In 1975, our study in school totally stopped due to the Communist Party
taking over South Vietnam. Therefore, some friends and I became professional
practitioners -- monks. We also thought that our cultivation would be successful
in this life because we heard that in ancient times many young practitioners had
finished their cultivation and become Buddhas. Why shouldn't we? However, our
cultivation didn't make too much progress. In order to reach nirvana, a monk in
our group even attempted to cut his throat with a razor blade. Now I understand
that if we want to succeed in cultivation, we need to have Teacher's Fa to guide
us. However, back then, we were so arrogant and thought our cultivation had
reached very high levels. We could no longer continue our cultivation in the temple since the political
climate in Vietnam had changed a lot. So we left the temple, became
non-practitioners and looked for a new life. By then, our xinxing
level had also dropped. Although later I got married and had a family, the kind
thoughts that I had when I was a monk were still within me. I knew that the
purpose of life was to do good deeds instead of bad deeds, and not to compete
and fight with others. Therefore, I often went to temples to do Buddhist rites
and helped to build temples, etc. By 2002, my younger sister started to practice Falun Gong. She asked me
whether I knew about Master Li Hongzhi and Falun Dafa and gave me Zhuan
Falun and the video of the five sets of exercises. I was one of those
people who normally didn't accept other people's things, especially from other
religions and schools of practice. But this time I was very happy to listen to
what she said. I encouraged her to practice and I also immediately started to
practice the five sets of exercises. While doing exercise two, holding the
wheel, I felt Falun rotating so I was very excited and told my sister about it
and she was very happy for me. Just like that, I kept practicing the exercises
every morning and also watched Teacher's movements on the video to correct my
own movements. A miracle happened soon after I started to practice Falun Gong. All my
diseases disappeared and I didn't have to go to doctors any more. One day I ran
into my doctor and he asked me why I had not seen him lately or bought my
prescriptions. I told him that my illnesses disappeared due to practicing Falun
Gong. He was surprised at first, and then was very happy for me because the
medicine he had given me didn't work anyway. I became healthy and didn't have to
bother him any more. My family members had witnessed the miracles that happened
to me, and later they started to practice Falun Gong as well. I still remember that after my children started to practice cultivation, one
day my son came home from school and had a fever. Sometimes he was hot while
other times he was cold. When his mom asked him whether he wanted to see a
doctor, he replied immediately: "Mom, don't you want me to repay the
karma?" after hearing his words I was very delighted and meanwhile realized
that my wife still had the mentality of protecting her children. Another time when my daughter got sick, her first thought was to see a
doctor, but her second thought was that she was a Dafa practitioner, so she
didn't go to see a doctor and soon her so-called sickness went away. Let me talk about my wife and how she overcame her sicknesses hardship. Every
time my wife suffered from her illness, I couldn't sit still. Not only did she
see the doctors but she also argued with the nurses when picking up her
prescriptions. Finally she realized that a Dafa practitioner's physical
suffering is eliminating bad karma and it was not an illness, therefore, she
stopped taking her medicine. After doing so, her sickness symptoms disappeared
quickly. In fact, what happened to her was also a test for my xinxing. Then it was my turn to suffer from sickness. One day when I got up in the
morning, my back felt very painful and I couldn't stand straight. It seemed as
though there was a big stone holding my back down. My back pain lasted for over
a month and it was almost unbearable. Later my sister called me and encouraged
me to spend more time to study Teacher's Fa so that I could upgrade my xinxing,
eliminate my karma and get well. So I became more diligent in studying the Fa
and listening to Teacher's Lectures. Soon Teacher helped me remove my sickness
karma. At that time my whole body felt very light. Studying the Fa often was the
key to answering all my questions. A great energy let me understand where the
original life is coming from. Cultivation is not too high to reach. Zhuan
Falun was written in simple words by Teacher and people can easily
understand it, but its deep meaning is very profound and can solve all the
issues of life and death. I understood the meaning of Dafa and why Teacher is
saving us. I changed my lifestyle of pursuing material things. I became more
diligent in cultivation and my mind and body improved. I told myself: "This
is the last chance for you to truly cultivate your mind and body. You should
walk out from Samsara of death and life." I was determined to diligently
cultivate Falun Dafa so that I could be saved by our compassionate Teacher. From that time on, my whole family and I had totally changed our lifestyle.
We stopped spending weekends with playing and eating or going to the temples. It
was really unthinkable and it seemed that someone helped us to rearrange our
lives. Gradually I was not as busy at work as before. Instead, I had more time
to do Dafa things and clarify the truth. I also often reminded myself to
cultivate better. Especially when I did Dafa work with fellow practitioners, I
often reminded myself: "Remember that Teacher said we are a whole body. So
I should be a good Dafa particle and should pay more attention to each word and
action and do everything according to the standards of Dafa, otherwise, I would
bring negative effects to Dafa when clarifying the truth." Therefore,
before I did Dafa work, I always sent forth righteous thoughts and asked Teacher
to strengthen me. I tried to not miss any opportunity to clarify the truth, to
save people and to establish my mighty virtue. There were two good experiences
during the parades in 2005 and 2006. We participated in the Huntington Beach Parade on July 4, 2005. Our float was
the biggest one. Moreover, our float was driven backwards. After driving five
miles on a very crowded street, we safely reached the destination. Even now when
I think about this it still seems unbelievable. This was all because of Dafa's
mighty power and Teacher's protection. During the 2006 parade, our float had five wheels but four of them were
broken. Two of the tires went flat due to the friction and overheating. Even
though this occurred, we still safely reached the destination. Thank you Teacher
for protecting us all the time on our cultivation paths. I am determined to do
the three things well that Teacher asks of us which is studying the Fa,
clarifying the truth and sending forth righteous thoughts. Let us never
disappoint Master's benevolent salvation and accomplish our responsibilities as
practitioners of the Fa-rectification period. I am hoping that each one of my fellow practitioners becomes more diligent! |