(Clearwisdom.net) Yesterday I watched the DVD Traveling Heaven and Earth Through Wind and Rain again with my friend. It has been a year since I saw it for the first time when I was learning about the persecution of Falun Gong. Over the past year, I gained more understanding of Dafa through reading Dafa books, watching the performances of Divine Performing Arts, and genuinely practicing cultivation. Still, I didn't expect to have such intense feelings after watching the video again.
What impressed me most was that after the persecution started, many practitioners went to Tiananmen Square to unfurl banners and clarify the facts without hesitation, even though they knew what the consequences might be. This shows the strong and pure thoughts from the bottom of their hearts--"Falun Dafa is good! Restore Master's reputation!" It's obvious from the video that most of them were common folk. At the time, the entire nation had been poisoned by Jiang's regime and the overwhelming propaganda, and people had many misunderstandings about Falun Gong. For many practitioners that did not have any political background or financial means, all they could do was to get people's attention for even just a short moment. I remember vividly a scene from the video in which a male practitioner around 40 years old was running and shouting, "Falun Dafa is good! Restore Master's reputation!" He held a banner in his hands and several police officers were chasing him. I was deeply moved by his pure, selfless and heartfelt shouting. He was then thrown on the ground and stuffed into the police van. One can only imagine what was going to happen to him.
I cried because I felt sadness. Such a righteous Dafa and such upright practitioners are treated like this in a country with such a glorious history!
In the beginning, my friend had a hard time believing it. However, due to her own experience in China and seeing us overseas holding our banners, clarifying the facts, and introducing Dafa to others for several years in a row, she started to change. In fact, as practitioners, we do everything for Dafa using our own time and savings. We are facing an irrational state machine that is trying to crush us, bringing the entire country's resources to bear. From the point of view of non-practitioners, how can we stand up to the CCP with what we are doing? But we have done it by exploring all possible ways. Little by little, we have gained more and more respect and understanding. Why? Because we are doing the most righteous thing. Falun Dafa is righteous, Master is saving sentient beings, including every person in the world! After all, truth exists in this world. Dafa practitioners are not after fame or personal gain; all that matters to us is having righteous thoughts and touching people's hearts. We cannot let Dafa and Master suffer disgrace, we cannot let sentient beings be poisoned. Whether the world's people can practice Dafa or not depends on their predestined relationship, but at the very least, they all should learn the truth!
For a long time, I had been looking for a source that could give me spiritual strength. Perhaps because of the environment I grew up in, fame and personal gain were truly not important to me. I felt they couldn't last because they had something to do with selfishness. After learning Dafa, I realized that as long as I do things following the standards of Dafa, I will have powerful righteous thoughts because Dafa is the most righteous. Only with such understandings can a practitioner put his or her own safety aside to get people's attention or distribute informational materials several years in a row.
Recently, things have become difficult in our area in terms of organizing and coordinating Dafa activities. Practitioners hold on to their own opinions and have heated discussions. Some of the arguments are caused by different understandings of the Fa. Some are caused by selfishness and personal gain, and some are even caused by people's need to protect their image. Many of these attributes should not exist among practitioners. What is our goal when we hold an an art exhibition or a performance? It is to clarify the facts and clear away people's misunderstandings of Dafa, Master, and practitioners and saving them. Essentially, it is no different than practitioners unfolding banners and shouting "Falun Dafa is good! Restore Master's reputation" in Tiananmen Square. They were trying to wake people up while risking their lives, and what are we doing? Have we asked ourselves, "If the show is promoted well and more people understand the purity and righteousness of Falun Gong, won't we then have more support internationally, and more practitioners in China can be rescued?"
Although we have been distributing materials and protesting the persecution in front of the Chinese embassy, we always fell short in carrying out Dafa projects compared to other areas. Why? Let's ask ourselves, "When we do these things, do we have a steadfast heart and strong righteous thoughts, just like those practitioners who unfolded banners in Tiananmen?" We should not treat it as a routine, as if going to work everyday, or to prove our existence to others. We have actually gotten lax, which will not fool Master or gods! To put it more seriously, we are cheating! How can we achieve consummation if we keep doing it this way? Because of our laziness, many people won't understand Dafa in time, practitioners in China will suffer more, and Master's reputation will remain uncleared longer in China. Let's ask ourselves, "Can we achieve consummation this way? Even if we do achieve consummation, won't we be ashamed of ourselves?" In the everyday world, it takes a long time to get things done. For example, it takes a scientist decades of research to become an authority in his/her field. If one sets consummation as the goal, what would we get in the end when we reach consummation? What we could get is indeed many times better than what everyday people are after. Can we get it if we are diligent part of the time and slack off at other times?
Before I conclude, I would like to say that when we do Dafa projects, if we make our cultivation a priority, many difficulties will be easy to overcome and this is important for us in doing projects or personal cultivation. If we do not want to let go of many things in our hearts and keep ourselves from having righteous thoughts, then, please, let's ask ourselves what will remain and what we will end up with!
This concludes my recent understanding. Please point out anything improper.
