My Experience Sharing

Experience sharing at the 2009 Los Angeles Fa Conference

[PureInsight.org]

Greetings to Revered Master!
Greetings to Fellow Practitioners!

Thank you Master, thank you practitioners for the opportunity to share with you some of the cultivation experiences I have gained over the past five years. Please kindly point out anything that is inappropriate.

I had been a Christian for 17 years before I began cultivating Dafa. I had begun to question my religious belief after I encountered a significant setback in my life. At my lowest moment, I went to a doctor to seek psychological help and this doctor later became my husband. Because of him, I had the opportunity to hear about Dafa and read the heavenly book, Zhuan Falun, with the deepest respect. In October 2003, after I finished reading all of Master’s lectures, I decided to cultivate Dafa. I clearly remember the day when Master planted a Falun in me. I could feel and touch it. It was as big as a basin, round, and it felt resilient. It had a special fragrance, one that I recognized because I had often been surrounded by such a fragrance when I was a child. Very soon my celestial eye opened, and I was able to see other dimensions. I then felt assured that Dafa is the true law.

For a long time I thought I had faith in Master and in Dafa, as I never had any doubt in Master’s lectures. However, I was not able to follow Master’s instructions one hundred percent. In all of Master’s lectures, he told us again and again to study the Fa. Although I knew it was very important to study the Fa, I didn’t have a deep understanding as to why. In other words, my karma had separated me from the Fa. For a long time, I didn’t study the Fa with a calm mind and wasn’t persistent in studying the Fa every day. Thus, I had a shallow understanding of cultivation. When I saw that many projects wasted resources and manpower, I felt anxious. When I tried to offer suggestions, ones that I thought were good and easy to implement, other practitioners involved in the projects did not always agree with me. Even if my ideas were used, there was not necessarily an improvement.

Over time, I because short-tempered and heavily imbued with demon-nature. I felt bad about myself and also had a hard time with my family. Every person in my family seemed to be an obstacle in my cultivation because I had to look after them and was thus was not able to put my talents to use. I was hiding an attachment to showing off my capabilities in the name of being diligent. When my son didn’t study the Fa, I immediately criticized him, saying it was because I wanted him to improve. In fact, I wanted him to cultivate well so I wouldn’t be bothered by him. When my parents made inappropriate comments about Dafa, I immediately argued back, with the excuse that I was safeguarding Dafa. However, I was really hiding my strong attachment to competitiveness. I used harsh words to point out fellow practitioners’ attachments and thought that I was cultivating truthfulness. However, I was neither compassionate nor tolerant, and didn’t care whether the practitioner could withstand my harsh criticism.

Failing to studying the Fa solidly, I was not able to do other things well either, and my relationship with my family turned sour. I even thought, “How come I don’t have compassion? I might just be an ordinary person helping with Dafa projects.” I knew it was not right, but I didn’t know what went wrong. I struggled for a long time. Every time I looked within I was able to find many attachments. However, I was not able to make any breakthroughs. Master kept giving me hints, as I heard story after story of other practitioners studying the Fa. Once a veteran practitioner shared with me that she would not dare sleep if she had not studied the Fa that day. I was shocked and felt ashamed. I felt I was too far from Master’s requirements for a Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period. I decided to join another practitioner to study the Fa every morning at 5:00a.m. and read all Master’s lectures in order. This two-month Fa-study greatly helped me. Master’s teachings often came to my mind. The other practitioner told me that she sensed a change in my voice during Fa-study, saying that some bad substances had been removed. I could also see that the other practitioner who studied with me had improved.

Indeed, “It would be effortless for an immense Fa such as ours to assimilate a person like you, to eliminate your karma, to remove your improper thoughts, and so forth” (“Lecture at the First Conference in North America”).

At first, I was only able to see my attachments when I later examined my words and actions. As time went on, I was able to recognize my attachments as I was saying or doing something. Now, I am able to catch my attachments the moment they emerge. Cultivation is indeed about genuinely cultivating oneself and not merely going through the formalities.

Master said in the “Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A.”:

“Then think about it: could the human society, and everything that we can see, exist by chance? Even each Dafa disciple's every move, every action, every word, and even the questions you ponder, none of it is that simple. In the future you'll see that everything was very carefully arranged. But it's not me who arranged this, it's the old forces who did.”

Master also said:

"If you, as a student [of Dafa], do not follow Master's requirements, it is definitely no simple thing. The old forces have arranged for all Dafa disciples a set of their things, so if a Dafa disciple doesn't follow Master's requirements, he must be following the old forces' arrangements. The old forces are in essence gigantic trials and tribulations that accompany you at all times, focused on whether in Fa-rectification Dafa disciples are able to step forward." ("Be Clearheaded")
 

Many of our thoughts today, even some thoughts and actions that sound and look like assisting Master in Fa-rectification, may have been arranged by the old forces. Now I have a deeper understanding as to why Master always tells us to study the Fa, study the Fa, and study the Fa often. Only by studying the Fa can we maintain a firm faith in Master, negate the old forces’ arrangements, and truly assist Master in Fa-rectification. Only by studying the Fa can we truly validate Dafa and not create problems by validating ourselves. Only by studying the Fa can we unconditionally harmonize with Master’s requirements, instead of bargaining with Master at our level of understanding. Only by studying the Fa can we have access to the mighty power of the Fa, enabling us to return to our true, compassionate state and have the great compassion necessary to save sentient beings. Only by studying the Fa can we understand the Fa from the Fa and keep up with the progress of Fa-rectification, which moves forward a thousand miles a day.

We have just held several Divine Performing Arts shows on the U.S. West Coast. Thanks to Master’s compassion, we will have another opportunity to host the Divine Performing Arts in May, giving us further opportunities to use the form of performing arts, as chosen by Master, to save more sentient beings. I feel that I deeply understand the urgency of saving people and the significance of our responsibility.

I would like to share with you my personal understanding of the Divine Performing Arts performances.

Master has chosen performing arts as the form of Fa-rectification to save people and the Divine Performing Arts were chosen to do Fa-rectification. The Divine Performing Arts shows undertake the arduous responsibility of saving the kings of the cosmos at different levels. In other dimensions, the power of the Divine Performing Arts extends indefinitely. Our success in promoting the Divine Performing Arts shows is determined by how we do it: with our human thoughts or our boundless divine power. Master has taught the Fa about the Divine Performing Arts and has published “Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art” and “Teaching the Fa at the Meeting on Writing Music.” The projects that the Assistants help to organize are Divine Performing Arts performances and the Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition.

Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art”:

“Fine art is very important to mankind. Like other forms of human culture, it can play a guiding role with respect to people's concepts in human society, influencing mankind's aesthetic values. The concepts of ‘what is aesthetic’ and ‘what is the appropriate sense of beauty that people should have’ are closely related to mankind's moral foundation and standards. When people find unaesthetic things aesthetic, then people's moral values are gone.”

Master also told us in “Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art”: “Let me tell you, everything that Dafa disciples are doing during this present historic time is of utmost importance. Just yesterday I was saying that whatever Dafa disciples do, human society will emulate it in the not-too-distant future.”

At the end of “Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art,” Master emphasized again, “…everything you do today is of utmost importance. If you do well, mankind will emulate it; if you don't do well, mankind will emulate that as well. So Dafa disciples have to do well.”

I also have a deeper understanding as to why Master wants us to invite people from the literary and art circles to attend the show. They have their own network. When they learn from the Divine Performing Arts and emulate them in their artwork, society’s moral decline will slow down and artists will follow Divine Performing Arts in returning to humankind’s authentic culture. This reminds me of the importance of the various competitions NTDTV hosts every year: to look for more talent for the Divine Performing Arts to form more Divine Performing Arts performing troupes, to have enough funds to maintain the operation of Divine Performing Arts troupes, and to successfully host upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows on the West Coast in May. It’s important to not only have a full house to save sentient beings, but also to make a profit with the Divine Performing Arts shows we have hosted. In fact, Master has laid out for us every step. We can do well if we do our best, and fully follow Master’s instructions.

Master is rectifying the Fa with the Divine Performing Arts. The Divine Performing Arts’ grand and mighty virtue unites the various projects that Dafa practitioners have established to validate Dafa. During the course of preparing for the shows, our coordination improves, eventually allowing us to achieve the highest state of a cultivated body – a state with no energy channels and no acupuncture points. I thank Master for giving me the opportunity to help promote the Divine Performing Arts performances, and for the opportunity to expose my deeply hidden attachments. Now I have learned how to get rid of those attachments, layer by layer, by studying the Fa. Three months ago, I wasn’t able to do this. Thank you Master for your compassionate salvation, and thank you Master for the grand and magnificent Dafa.

Thank you, Master!
Thank you, fellow practitioners!