Let Go of Self and Cooperate Well to Save Sentient Beings

By a practitioner in Heilongjiang Province

(Clearwisdom.net) In the past nine years of Fa-Rectification cultivation, Falun Dafa practitioners all around the world have formed one-body to assist our Master in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings. This is Master's boundless mercy and the mighty virtue of Dafa. By letting go of self, Dafa practitioners work together to save people. The meaning of the Fa is limitless. As practitioners, we are all particles in the Fa, and Master expects us to integrate into the one body, let go of self, and save sentient beings as our first priority so that we can fulfill our missions. I would like to share a few cultivation stories and my experiences of saving sentient beings.

Many of the projects aimed at saving sentient beings need practitioners to cooperate with each other. In local practitioners' sharing meetings, I proposed plans based on my own understanding of the Fa. Some of them were accepted, and others weren't. I was pleased when my proposals were accepted, thinking others were cooperating, but I was upset when they were rejected and would start to complain about fellow practitioners. Due to my attachments and interference from the old forces, misunderstandings occurred among practitioners, negatively affecting our cooperative effort. Thus, we wasted our resources and our work to saving sentient beings was stalled.

Master said:

"It's not like Gods see that your idea worked and then they raise your level. Instead, they only raise your level when they see that your understanding of it has improved. This is a truth in the Righteous Fa. If you're thinking, 'I'll have XYZ happen to me if I've gained such and such amount of merit,' well, yes, that's how it works for an ordinary person, and it might be what's looked at as far as certain facets of the cosmos's Fa-truths go or in a particular situation. But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.")

I moved to a new area two years ago and noticed that there were fewer material production sites than Master encouraged us to have. The idea of creating these sites seemed irrelevant to many practitioners. Some practitioners didn't think about producing informational materials even if they had a computer to do it or the chance to learn to use a computer. When I saw this, I felt obligated to discuss with fellow practitioners how things were in the area I came from. Almost every practitioner in the area that I was from had a material site of his/her own as they knew how to use computers. I encouraged the practitioners in the new area to learn to use computers, too. They tried to avoid the topic, and some of them said that their financial situations could not support the building of more material sites, while others said that they were not short of materials. A few practitioners even thought that I was trying to find out where the local material site was with the intention of destroying it, so they started to keep an eye on me.

My heart wasn't moved by this situation, however, and I chose to let go of my original proposal and stopped expecting fellow practitioners to do certain things. Instead of talking about creating new material sites, I offered to help raise funds for the existing material site. Local practitioners got to know me after some time, and one of them asked me to teach him computer skills. I helped him purchase the necessary equipment and find a fellow practitioner with excellent skills to teach him. The practitioners working at the material site also came to me and shared their experiences. Eventually we understood each other and started working as a one-body. Fellow practitioners also obtained some new understandings on the Fa. For example, one practitioner bought a new computer and built another material site with my assistance. Now we can talk freely about the use of computers and creating new sites. Lately, one more practitioner has learned to use a computer.

If I had insisted on my promoting my original plan, fellow practitioners would have been resistant, and in turn, the conflict would affect the work of sentient beings. I enlightened to the fact that I need to respect every fellow practitioner's choice. It is important that I maintain my righteous thoughts. I should not complain and be attached to other practitioners' shortcomings. What I let go of were my own attachments; in return, I gained an elevation of my xinxing.

The private company where I was working needed a technician. I recommended the friend of a fellow practitioner's husband's to apply for the job. The friend was a nice person and always happy to see me. He not only understood the truth about Dafa himself, but also helped to tell other people the truth about Dafa and the persecution. He learned more about Dafa, and in turn, benefited more from Dafa. The fellow practitioner's husband was happy for his friend and grateful to me for giving him the recommendation. Every time he dropped by at my workplace, the practitioner's husband greeted me, and I would tell him more about Dafa and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, hoping he would be more supportive of his wife's cultivation. He was quite positive in all our conversations. His wife later gave him a copy of the Nine Commentaries in my name so that he could learn more about the nature of the Communist Party. His wife and I have thus been cooperating in clarifying the truth about Dafa and the persecution to him.

Later the husband invited me to visit their home and join them for dinner. Seeing he was in a good mood, I said, "May I come to your home to study the Fa with your wife?" He said, "No problem." Naturally, we started a Fa study group at their home. When I go to their home, I usually bring several printed articles on Dafa and the persecution from general websites to him to keep him updated.

Our Fa study is on Wednesday evenings. In the beginning, the wife (our fellow practitioner) wouldn't dare to turn on the lights at home when we arrived and left, due to fear of being seen by the neighbors. If there were cars parked on the street, she worried that they might be police cars coming to arrest us. Someone from her workplace passed on a rumor to her that the police had arranged for her neighbors to watch her. Through our studying the Fa and sharing, she realized that these were all her own attachments and fears, and that she was her own obstacle to bringing fellow practitioners to her home for Fa study.

When the police came to her home before the Olympics in Beijing, the practitioner and her husband tried to clarify the truth about Dafa to them. During the Olympics, our Fa study group didn't stop doing the three things. Later other practitioners joined our group to conduct small-scale experience sharing conferences twice and a sharing on improving the exercise movements. We corrected each other's movements according to Master's teaching video and shared our understandings on the Fa. Practitioners who had not paid enough attention to doing the exercises now gained new enlightenment from the exercises based on the Fa. If our movements are not correct, our bodies won't be able to transform, which will in turn affect our work of validating the Fa and clarifying the truth. Practice is also part of cultivation. We all feel that we have made progress as a one-body and have improved our cultivation environment with the collaboration of fellow practitioners.

Another practitioner is working at my company, too. Her husband and son have been supportive of her work and thankful to me for helping her but not very happy about her practicing Dafa. The company happened to have an opening a while ago, so I encouraged the son of the practitioner to apply for it, and he was offered the job. I said to him afterwards, "Do you know why the hiring committee chose you over other applicants? It was because we trusted the son of a Dafa practitioner and good person, your mother." Upon hearing this, he started to feel glad that his mom practices Dafa, and has been respectful to fellow practitioners.

The practitioner and I not only work together, but also share our cultivation experiences because we have some time together. We try to look within and improve ourselves. She has become more caring to her husband and son rather than dealing with them with everyday people's methods.

As her family and I have become more familiar, her husband and son are willing to learn more about Dafa and the persecution. The good reputation and respect that Dafa practitioners at my workplace have also helped to change their minds. For example, her husband reminded the practitioner to bring some dumplings (a special food for the Chinese Spring Festival) to me during the Chinese Spring Festival. He also said nice things about me, and his wife told him that it was all because of my cultivating Falun Dafa. The husband trusted me to buy a new computer for their family. Afterwards, he wanted to thank me for being so devoted to helping others.

I was invited to a dinner at their home, during which I talked a lot about Dafa and the persecution to the husband and son. Now they have changed so much. The husband had actually wanted to divorce his wife three times because she practiced Dafa, and she never dared to talk to him about anything related to Dafa. This time when I needed to go to their home to prepare the article for the experience sharing conference, he showed great hospitality. Moreover, he asked that we provide some Dafa books for him to read. Her cultivation environment at home is getting better and better.

What I have mentioned above are but a few things on our cultivation paths. Although not magnificent, they are arranged carefully by Master to improve our levels. My attitude is to be peaceful and not attached to myself. Fellow practitioners and sentient beings are before me. Only when we cooperate well can we save more people in the world.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners.

November 4, 2008

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