PureInsight | June 29, 2009
Experience sharing from the 2009 Canada Fa Conference
[PureInsight.org] “I’ll tell you a truth: the whole process of cultivation is a process of constantly getting rid of human attachments” (Zhuan Falun).
Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I was fortunate to walk onto the path of Dafa cultivation in 2004. Words cannot begin to describe the profound changes that I have experienced as a practitioner. In just a few short years, I have changed from a selfish person full of karma into a Fa-rectification practitioner. A few days ago, I went to take a picture for the renewal of my passport. The picture shows a whole new person. Compared with the picture I had from before I obtained the Fa, I look more serene, more pure, and prettier. I didn’t put on any makeup when I went for the photos because I cultivate Dafa. Actually, the biggest transformation is intrinsic—the universal law of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” purified me from the origin of my life, helping me to get rid of karma and attachments so that my true self could emerge. I sincerely thank Master for this precious chance to cultivate in Dafa. Falun Dafa has given me a whole new life. No words can express my gratitude toward our benevolent Teacher.
In the past years, I have participated in various Dafa projects. Here, I wish to share with fellow practitioners my experience doing the Shen Yun promotion.
During the first year of the Shen Yun promotion, I tried to get sponsorships for the show. I contacted a friend who works for a profitable government entity. At the beginning, things went smoothly and we met some important people in the organization, but very soon my attachment of excitement surfaced. As a result, we came to a dead end. I blame myself for the failure, as I realized that I fell because of my attachment. Ever since then, whenever I sense that I have any intention of validating myself, I remind myself of that experience so that I can correct my thoughts and purify my heart.
I was also selling tickets in a shopping center. Because we rented a commercial space, we had to follow the schedule of the mall to open and close. I was by myself to do this as well as taking care of the display details, so after a while, I started to complain in my heart. In fact, I was being selfish, and also had the attachment of vanity and a desire for recognition. I wanted everyone to know that I had done something well. Now my heart is not as weak and my xinxing has improved.
During the promotion, every day the coordinator assigned a different practitioner to help me sell tickets. At first, I insisted on working only with familiar practitioners, telling the coordinator that new ones would require too much time for training. The coordinator realized my attachment, so he still assigned people to me according to his plan. After working with different practitioners, I realized that my human notions were too strong. After a while, I worked well with everyone and together we formed a strong group. Experience does not make a difference. Whoever came to sell tickets was arranged by Master’s Fashen and we could always form a strong group.
It’s not easy to stand for a whole day, so it was a really good environment to test my xinxing. On Friday and Saturday, everyone left to go to Fa study and I was alone. I was all alone and feeling sad . . . However, almost always in this situation, predestined sentient beings came to buy tickets for a large family. I knew that this was Master trying to encourage me. My heart was no longer bitter. From that day on, I was always happy and at peace in my heart no matter how long I had to stand there, with or without anyone by my side. During almost all of these late hours, I waited for predestined people to purchase tickets. I sincerely thank Master for his arrangement and encouragement. As a result, that year I promised myself that from then on I would fully cooperate unconditionally without complaints and only concentrate on selling tickets.
During the second year of Shen Yun promotion, the administrator at the theater granted us the rights to distribute flyers at the door. Montreal has very cold winters, so this no doubt was great news for all of us. Without thinking more thoroughly of the potential consequences, a lot of us went inside and distributed flyers to the before and after show traffic. As the coordinator at the time, I didn’t realize anything bad could happen. Soon, the evil found a loophole to attack us. The theater administrator warned us, telling us that we were blocking traffic and had violated their rules of conduct. Eventually, they took away our privilege and even forbade us from distributing indoors during next year’s promotion. I held myself responsible. How was I not able to see this coming and give the evil an excuse to take advantage of? Looking inward, I realized that I made the following mistakes: 1) The attachment of excitement took over from rational thinking. 2) Not being professional—if we only had a few well-dressed, well-trained practitioners on site, the situation could have been avoided. 3) I did not think through all of the possible consequences from a lack of strategic planning, and I ignored vital details. 4) Most importantly, I did not think of other people, but only concentrated on my own needs. That year, nobody blamed me, and we didn’t blame each other. We learned a lesson and shared about what happened. Everyone looked inward to realize their own shortcomings. That year, we made mistakes as one body, but also learned from the mistakes as one body. We all matured a great deal in our cultivation that year and vowed to do better as one body in the coming year.
“So for the portion of us that cultivates in the setting of ordinary people, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how high your official rank is, or whether you’re self-employed or you have your own business, it doesn’t matter what kind of business you do: do things fairly and act with integrity. All the professions out there should exist, it’s only that people are short of integrity. It’s not about what type of profession you are in. There was a saying in the past, ‘Nine out of ten merchants are crooks.’ That’s what ordinary people say. But I’d say it’s a problem of integrity. If the people have integrity, and people do business fairly, the more effort you put in, the more money you should make. You get that only because you put in effort in this ordinary world—no loss, no gain—it’s gained through effort. You can be a good person in any social class, and there are different kinds of conflicts in different social classes. The upper class has upper class type conflicts, and they can all be handled correctly—whichever social class you’re in, for how to be a good person, you can all let go of different desires and attachments. In different social classes you can all show yourselves to be good people, and all of you can cultivate in your own social classes.” (Zhuan Falun)
I’ll conclude my sharing with Teacher’s words from “Greetings” (2/7/2008): “Fa-rectification is sure to succeed, and Dafa disciples are sure to achieve Consummation. When Heaven dictates change, no one can stop it! The Fa's rectification of the cosmos and the re-creation of heaven and earth are coming to a close. The reformation of the vast firmament is charging forward rapidly and powerfully. What do a handful of wretched creatures above or on the earth amount to? The mighty virtue of Dafa disciples gloriously illuminates the universe. What gods and man alike have awaited and worried over has arrived. Save your sentient beings, fulfill your great prehistoric vows, and make good on the pledges you made!”
Thank you, Teacher. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
