PureInsight | July 19, 2004
[PureInsight.org] Bobby told me that she began to do her sitting meditation, but she could not tell me anything specific about her meditation practice, because her master told her to keep the secret from outsiders. However, soon she came to ask me, "What should I do if I see bad things and scenes during the sitting meditation?"
"What did your master tell you to do?" I asked.
"My master is sick," she answered worriedly.
"My teacher told us not to respond to them at all. Do not think about them. Just ignore their existence and keep your mind calm yet focused," I replied.
Later, Bobby told me that her master has passed away and reincarnated as another man. Before he passed away, he told them that he would reincarnate as someone between 30 to 50 years of age. So far 2 to 3 people have claimed to be their reincarnated master . The disciples were all very confused. It seemed every one who had made such a claim had one or two convincing pieces of evidence, but there can only be one genuine master, so they didn't know who the real one was.
Seeing Bobby painfully confused, I handed her a copy of Zhuan Falun, Falun Dafa's main study text. She accepted it respectfully. I told her that she is welcome to keep the book and discuss with me any questions she might have.
Many days passed in a flash. In China, Jiang's regime escalated its brutal persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners, so I began to fly around the world, hoping to raise the awareness and to end the persecution immediately. One day I was awfully busy collecting signatures from congressmen in Washington D.C. and the next day I was clarifying the truth at the United Nations in Geneva. Bobby would occasionally ask me, "You are not going to give up medicine to become a lobbyist, are you?"
I explained to her facts about the brutal persecution, including the illegal imprisonment and brutal torture of Falun Dafa practitioners in China. I told her about how our fellow Dafa practitioners in China have lost their freedom and even their lives, but never lost their spiritual belief. I explained to her that I needed to visit the governments all over the world, non-government organizations and international organizations to ask for their help to end the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. Falun Dafa practitioners had zero interest in politics. We had to reach the governments because we needed their help to save lives. When she learned our cause, she said to me, "you are truly admirable."
While I was busy with anti-persecution activities, Bobby adopted a sick dog. Soon the dog started to make a strain on her life. The dog suffered from diabetes and then kidney failure. The dog needed dialysis treatment once a week and insulin injections every day. Taking the dog to the veterinarian became Bobby's daily routine. One day, Bobby would go get medicine for the dog, and the next day she would take the dog to have a blood test. Both her energy and bank savings were being quickly exhausted by this dog. Since there was no medical insurance for pets, the balance of her bank savings account took a nosedive.
Sometimes, I would advise her not to be too emotionally attached to the dog. Anyway, the dog was an animal. Besides, when the dog's life span here is finished, it could be reborn again. It might not be a bad thing to let it go earlier. If you insisted on prolonging its life with expensive medicine, you might delay its next incarnation. I said to Bobby half-teasingly, that the dog might even resent you.
One day Bobby's dog died. She grieved deeply for several days. In the past few years, Bobby spent all her savings on the dog's medical bills. It seemed as if the dog was her debt collector.
Those side and small cultivation schools have never been able to give clear explanations about mere worldly possessions in their doctrines. I saw Bobby cultivating so hard, but after a long time of cultivation practice, she still did not know the purpose of life and what the purpose of cultivation was. She adhered to the superficial forms of cultivation practice, but in her heart, she was quite at a loss.
One time I had to go out of town for business, and I got a voice mail on my cell phone. It was from a coworker from the clinic to inform me that Bobby had had a heart attack and was sent to the emergency room by ambulance.
I hurried to the hospital straight from the airport, but they wouldn't let anyone see her because she was in the intensive care unit. After Bobby's condition had stabilized, I was able to see her and we had the following conversation:
"Tell me, how am I any different from a non-practitioner or someone who has never had any cultivation practice ?" Bobby asked me.
"Of course there is a difference."
"What is it? You do know that I had to be taken in by an ambulance!"
"You have a self-reflecting heart! You always search inward to improve yourself," I said as I tried to comfort her.
"I am a vegetarian. I practice sitting meditation. I adopted an abandoned animal. I respect my master. But why do I feel that I haven't even entered the door of cultivation?"
"To cultivate is to cultivate your heart. Only when you genuinely try to let go of your attachments will you be truly cultivating," I told her this but I felt as if I was reminding myself as well.
"You know that I always envy you. I find that you are always calm and relaxed in anything you do. You are calm and relaxed when you see patients. You are calm and relaxed when you practice sitting meditation. You never have jet lag although you fly all over the place. You are healthy and relaxed. I feel so ashamed of myself. At first I thought you would stop your cultivation practice soon because you are not a vegetarian, but you transcended this issue easily. It was unbelievable." She confessed, enviously and somewhat embarrassed.
I didn't know what to say, and just listened to her quietly.
"I never read the book Zhuan Falun you gave me, because when I opened the book the first thing I saw was the Falun emblem. I was frightened [because the Falun emblem resembles the Nazi symbol.] I closed the book and never touched it again. When I get home today, I will read it seriously," she added.
"Ah, forgive my lack of foresight. I should have explained the Falun emblem when I gave you the book. That is the Wan symbol (Swastika) from the Buddha School. It has existed for several thousands of years in our human history, long before the Nazi party was created." Before I finished my explanation, Bobby excitingly told me that, when she was having the heart attack and thought that was the end of her life, she saw golden Falun's flying all over in the air. At first she thought it was because she was passing out and seeing stars. But then she started to hear music and see beautiful Falun emblems that kept changing sizes while flying across her eyes. They were real, three-dimensional and colorful. She sighed wistfully that it's impossible to explain with words.
My eyes widened. I pushed my glasses up a bit. I was so touched that I didn't know what to say except: "Teacher, you finally led this predestined person back to the path of cultivation!"
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/6/22/27788.html
