PureInsight | June 29, 2009
Experience sharing from the 2009 Canada Fa Conference
[PureInsight.org] Greetings, respected Teacher. Greetings, fellow practitioners.
In 2004, someone gave me a Falun Dafa flyer in Toronto Chinatown, and it was then that I obtained the Fa. After I became a practitioner, soon enough, I was able to let go of my interests in fame, gain, and sentimentality. I participated in assisting Teacher in validating the Fa, and became a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. It started about two years ago, when I often thought to myself: How can I save more people?
We have a Lotus Arts Group in Toronto. We have been performing in local communities so we can get to know ordinary people and have them get to know us as well. Besides performing the lion dance, other dances, and playing musical instruments, we also demonstrate the five Falun Gong exercises to them. One time after we finished the exercise demo, about ten people who were watching our performance came up to us and wanted to learn the exercises. From this, I realized that we should be invited to perform by more communities and groups because people who have seen our performances have a chance to be saved.
In order to come up with more performances and to have more variety during our performances, a few of our young and elderly practitioners went to dance schools run by ordinary people and learned how to dance. Initially, I took a private class with the dance teacher, but later the teacher asked me to join his regular class. I figured that it’s better that way because I can learn more, have more exposure, and gain more experience. Of course, the fundamental reason for me to join that class was to get to know them and give them an opportunity to be saved. So, I joined that class.
Last year, I had the same dream over and over again for a while. I was flying along a shallow muddy river with forests on both sides and there was no trace of any humans. I had no clue how far I had flown. One night, my dream finally changed. I kept flying and the river started to be clear, much clearer. I began to see people swimming and more and more of them were swimming. While I was still in the air, I thought to myself: “How come no one was swimming backstroke so that they could see how wonderful I was flying?” Nobody was watching me and I was still flying. If I wanted to fly faster I could do that, and if I wanted to fly more wonderful, I could do that too. So I kept flying. In front of me there was a big bridge and a truck was on it. When the driver saw me, he waved at me. When I came close to him he reached out with his hand. His hand was very long and the gesture he was using was just like that of a traffic police officer. He signaled to me in order to stop me because he didn’t want me to pass. I ignored him and I passed over his hand. I kept flying and a beach appeared in front of me and there were many people swimming. Still, nobody was doing any backstrokes, so nobody saw me. I wanted to fly a little bit faster and more elegantly. However, I couldn’t do it so I slowed down and flew more and more slowly. After I passed the beaches there was an older girl and a younger girl who saw me. I wanted to fly a little bit faster to show them how good I was flying but I ended up flying very slow until I passed them. Then I couldn’t fly anymore and I fell down, finally standing right in front of them. That’s when my dream ended.
I have not shared this dream with anyone because I was afraid. In the dream, I fell down in front of ordinary people, and this was the most scary thing in my cultivation. I wasn’t willing to tell anyone about this, nor did I want to think about it. However, this doesn’t mean that was the end of it. Cultivation means passing tests and getting rid of attachments.
Last summer during an ordinary person’s dance class, we were rehearsing a bamboo stick dance. I was dancing with a group of young girls about 14 to 15 years old. Even though they had different personalities, they were all very innocent, and I really appreciated their gentleness.
One time during our rehearsal, I didn’t concentrate enough and made mistakes and fell, thus loosing face in front of them. Then I became very anxious, made another mistake, and ended up hurting my feet, and they were swollen for a month.
In the fall, I attended another dance class and we rehearsed another Miao ethnic group dance. There were six males and six females; the females were about 20 years old and were from Class One. At the beginning, the males and females were separated but later danced together. At that time I wanted to have a dance partner. It turned out that my wish came true and one of the girls became my partner. I was very excited. One day during rehearsal, I was about to practice the tumbling skills. Before the teacher was going to show it to me, I wanted to show off, and so I practiced it in front of her. But I fell heavily on the ground, hurt my back, and could not dance for an entire month.
During that period, a fellow practitioner told me that I should not mingle with ordinary people and hurt myself time and time again; how come I still had not enlightened to this? Actually, the fact that I got hurt helped me enlighten quite a bit. When practitioners improve their levels, the requirements of the Fa are higher as well. Before, it was alright when we took desires lightly. Now it’s different; we have to completely get rid of our desires. When we have evil thoughts, don’t we create karma? When we create karma we have to eliminate it. The fact that I got hurt was not accidental and that was a lesson for me. Teacher has created for us the form of practicing in an ordinary human society, thus I have to follow it. If I shy away from any tribulation, is it still cultivation? I must face those tribulations and have a clean mind. I must get rid of that attachment to lust, get rid of my strong show-off mentality, and have a humble heart. I felt that I should not run away because if I were to leave that environment, wouldn’t that be the same as locking myself in my home to cultivate? On my path of cultivation, I should face the challenges instead of running away from them. I know that it’s not an issue of me not being able to pass the test; rather, the time has not yet come.
One time after I finished the sitting meditation, I went to bed. Lying there, I was thinking with a muddled head: The human world is like a sea, and ordinary people are all floating within it. Some are floating higher, some lower. The people who have religious beliefs carry a life preserver, but their bodies are still wet. Each practitioner has a boat of light; they sit in the boat and their bodies are dry and clean. When we try to save people, when we clarify the truth to them, we try to get them into the boat, but they don’t always listen to us. However, when we do this, don’t we risk getting wet ourselves? Some are pulled into the boat and get saved. Others don’t want to be pulled in; on the contrary, they want instead to drag us down into the sea—isn’t that terrible? Sometimes I truly felt that I had been dragged down. But with Teacher and the Fa here, it’s not a problem for us to get up when we have fallen down.
We cultivate among ordinary people, and sometimes the supernormal abilities we have developed are still locked. Even if they are not locked I can’t use them to save people. I can’t fly up into the air and save people. In order to save people, I have to come down to the ordinary human world and be an ordinary person; I can’t fly. I understand that it’s dangerous to have interactions with people and that it’s easy for us to be polluted. However, I truly believe that as long as I maintain righteous thoughts, believe in Teacher and Dafa, cultivate my heart, and save people, every danger will melt away!
The above is my personal understanding; please point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you, fellow practitioners.
Thank you, Teacher.
