Cherish

[Pureinsight.org]

Greetings to revered Master! Greetings to fellow practitioners!

I want to share some thoughts on the term “Cherish”:

Master taught us in What is a Dafa Disciple (Collected Fa Teachings, Vol.XI), “I hope that you all cherish yourselves, cherish others, and cherish this environment that you have. Cherishing the path that you travel is cherishing yourselves”. I was enlightened that the most important thing in Master’s eyes is our advancement in cultivation. For us, saving sentient beings and fulfilling vows are the most important. Even though the power of evil force has been dramatically declined, we as Dafa disciples still need to cultivate ourselves and save more people, which requires us to understand the word, “cherish”.

1). Cherish all the people we meet and save them
From Fa, we know that people in the earth were all descended from high levels. Each represents his or her own world. Everyone suffered while waiting for Dafa and salvation by the creator. Nonetheless, because of the long waiting, some of them got lost in ordinary world and behave badly. However, they all need to be cherished because of their origins.

This year, I encountered an incident: I work in a supermarket. Most of the employees are Latin Americans who speak Spanish. Because I don't know their language, I hardly talk to them. One night, after most of my coworkers got off from work, I worked alone behind a register. Suddenly, a young man came in and walked to me. He picked up a knife from the shelf and pointed to me by the tip of the knife. Initially I thought he was joking. However, his facial expression told me he was not. I had a notion that he did not dare to do anything to me. I looked at him and said, “No! No!” He then put down the knife and left. I felt very scared when recalling the whole incident. Why did such thing happen to me? I looked within and found out that I sometimes looked down upon my coworkers. I thought my coworkers were lazy and untidy. I regarded them as undereducated barbarians. I never thought them once too were the kings in different heavens. They came down to the earth to establish a karmic relationship with Dafa disciples. Nonetheless, I did not cherish them. Instead, I looked down upon them. Old force saw this attachment, so they created the tribulation.

Later, I took the initiatives to greet them and help them. I got to know that one of my co-worker came from Honduras three years ago through translating app. In the past, I was afraid that I could not communicate well with them so I never told them the truth of Dafa. One day, while I was listening to Dafa music using earphones, my coworker came to me and asked me what I was listening to. I handed my earphone to him. After listening for a while, he smiled and gave me a thumb up. I told him that those were Dafa music, which came from heaven. He pressed his hands together in front of the chest (Heshi) immediately. He also asked me some questions like “What’s the difference between Falun Dafa and Christianity?” I answered his questions despite language difference. Later I gave him a lotus flower bookmark. I taught him how to say “Falun Dafa is good” in both Chinese and English. After he memorized it, he told several other co-workers who were his friends. Now they all know how to say “Falun Dafa is good” in Chinese. Sometimes they came to me, smiled, and just said “Falun Dafa is good”. This may be the only Chinese sentence they know how to say. But I can see their pure joy from the bottom of their heart. Their knowing sides know that they were saved. Now, I suddenly realize that they are all very precious.

When I made truth-clarification phone calls, sometimes I encountered people with very bad attitude. But I tried not to be moved by them under any situation. I have a feeling that they are all precious. I hope they will all be saved. I am sure that their knowing sides will feel the same way. There are a lot of such examples. I have a new understanding on “Traveling all domains, his Great Dao was unmatched” (Tai-chi, Hong Yin): Dafa great compassion can correct anything incorrect. Dafa disciples has no enemies (The original Chinese words can mean both “no enemies” and “unmatched”). Even though Dafa disciples are still minority, we are the strongest and most powerful group. Because we have no enemies, our paths of saving people are straight, direct and clear.

2). Cherish the predestined relationship between fellow practitioners and eliminate any conflicts
Dafa disciples followed Master coming down to the earth. In the past, we all had karmic relationships with Master by playing different roles. Our paths from ancient time to today are very precious. Nonetheless, because of attachments that we haven’t fully gotten rid of, we sometimes have conflicts with fellow practitioners. If we can treat ourselves as true cultivators, look within and cherish the predestined relationships between fellow practitioners and us, we can resolve the conflicts among fellow practitioners, and hence be united.

In the past, I hardly had conflicts with fellow practitioners. Nonetheless, cultivation is serious. Cultivators need to be tested on everything. Master said in Zhuan Falun, “Of course, you will not be informed of a tribulation or conflict ahead of time. How can you practice cultivation if you are told everything? It will not serve any use. They usually occur unexpectedly so that they can test one’s xinxing and make one’s xinxing truly improve. Only then can it be seen whether one can maintain one’s xinxing. Therefore, when a conflict arises, it does not occur accidentally”.

Recently, one fellow practitioner who promoted Shen Yun together with me suddenly became angry and did not want to talk to me anymore. Thereafter, we could not promote Shen Yun together. Fortunately, with another fellow practitioner’s assistance, we completed Shen Yun promotion tasks. I did not want to have conflicts with fellow practitioners. Therefore, I tried very hard to find a time to talk to the fellow practitioner who was mad at me. Nonetheless, she never gave me such chance. For instance, when Shen Yun came to my city, we two happened to meet in a restaurant, and nobody else was there. As soon as she saw me, she left the restaurant. During Chinese New Year, I texted her to wish her happy new year. She replied: “Please stop bugging me. I will delete you from my contact”. Later, I encountered her for several times. I apologized to her whenever I saw her, “I am so sorry. Please stop being mad at me. Please take my apology”. Nevertheless, she still did not talk to me. I thought I already tried whatever I could. I felt I did not wrong her at all. If she really did not want to talk to me, I would stop apologizing. After several months, the situation did not change at all. I knew it was a test for me. Nonetheless, I did not know what to do. Neither did I know what I did wrong. I looked within very hard and still had no idea what was wrong. I felt very upset.

One day, when I shared my experiences on RTC platform, a fellow practitioner asked me, “Where is your compassion?” And then, she stopped my sharing and changed the topic. Initially, I felt very wronged. I always thought I was very compassionate. How could it be a problem related to compassion? But because the fellow practitioner pointed this out, I guess it was Master who tried to remind me. Therefore, I looked within. I found that I tended to rely on other people. When I did Dafa projects, I asked fellow practitioners to help me without thinking further. I never thought from other people’s perspectives. I never took other people’s difficulty into consideration. Even though I was doing good things- saving people, some of my behaviors were actually influenced by the communist party’s wicked culture. I arbitrarily imposed my views on other people, which was not compassion at all. As time went by, other people definitely could not bear that. When I looked within further, I found another incident where I did not have enough compassion. During the New York Fa conference last year, one fellow practitioner brought another fellow practitioner who was more than 80 years old to the experience sharing conference. When I saw the old fellow practitioner move slowly, I told the fellow practitioner who brought the old fellow practitioner not to bring her again next year. I was afraid that the old fellow practitioner would affect other people. How uncompassionate was I? The old fellow practitioner wanted to come to the experience sharing conference. We should all help her. How could I say something like that? Even though several months passed, I did not realize my problem. Because I disliked the old Dafa practitioner, someone else in return disliked me. I realized my selfishness. After understanding this, I immediately corrected my thoughts. I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate bad thoughts in my personal field, cherished the predestined relationship among fellow practitioners. Now, the conflicts between the fellow practitioner and me was resolved. She started to talk to me like normal.

Through this incident, I have a deeper understanding in Master’s Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe, “Whenever you encounter problems you should each look inward to search for the cause within, regardless of whether you’re to blame or not. Remember my words: Regardless of whether the problem is your fault or not, you should look inside yourself, and you will find a problem. If the matter has absolutely nothing to do with you or doesn’t involve any of the attachments you should break, then that thing would rarely happen to you. If you didn’t have an attachment the problem wouldn’t have come about. I have to be responsible for your cultivation. Any problem that happens to you, around you, or among you is most likely related to you, and there is something for you to get rid of. No matter whether it’s your fault or not, when my Law Bodies are having you remove your attachment, they don’t care whether it’s your fault or another person’s. As long as you have an attachment, they will try everything to have you run into problems and have you recognize the attachment that makes you fall short. Yet you’re still looking around, ‘This isn’t my fault,’ or you’re still thinking, ‘I’m protecting the Fa.’ Meanwhile, the other person is thinking, ‘I’m protecting the Fa.’ In fact, the conflict occurs because you probably each have faults of your own.” Thanks for Master’s hints. I advanced in my cultivation.

3). Cherish the cultivation environment on RTC platform and cooperate with fellow practitioners
The RTC platform is a good cultivation environment for Dafa disciples to study Fa and save people. I have been participating in the experience sharing and dialing truth-clarification phone calls through RTC platforms for 5 years. I cherish the environment very much. Initially, I only listened to the phone calls made by other practitioners and their experience sharing. I hardly talk myself. Nonetheless, cultivation is a serious issue. Cultivating without pressures and tribulations is not true cultivation, and cultivators cannot advance their levels in peace.

Later, I tried to make truth-clarification phone calls myself. I did not dare to make phone calls on RTC platform. After the secondary online broadcast studio was formed, I started to make truth-clarification calls at the secondary studio on a small scale. One day, RTC platform coordinator found me and asked me to go to the large scale primary online broadcast studio because the primary studio needs more people. Even though I was not confident in my abilities, I still said yes because it’s related to the normal operations of RTC platform. Saying yes was easy but doing actual work was hard. In winter, I needed to get up at 3:55 am to send forth righteous thoughts and study Fa. I made truth-clarification phone calls between 5:30 am and then participated in the online sharing, which ended at 8:30am. When I finally logged off the RTC platform, I needed to rush to my workplace. In the afternoon, I needed to leave my work earlier in order to make it to my shift on the RTC primary online broadcast studio. I did not have enough time to study the Fa and do the exercises. There was a period when I really wanted to ask the coordinator to change my shift. Nonetheless, I did not dare to tell the coordinator because I knew it was my responsibility and I understood the coordinator’s difficulty. Therefore, I have been doing the shift for more than one year. Later the coordinator asked me to take two more shifts. I agreed. Therefore, I have four shifts every week. Even though I am busy, I do not feel tired at all when thinking of the precious people saved by us.

I once considered to switch to another platform. One night, when I was about to leave RTC platform, my laptop was suddenly not responding. I felt very strange because my laptop did not have similar problems before. I looked within. Not moving! Not moving! (In Chinese, not moving can mean not responding). I was suddenly enlightened. Master hinted me to not leave RTC platform. Therefore, I spoke to Master in my heart, “Sorry Master. I am wrong. I will stay in RTC platform to save people”. Soon after, my laptop became normal again. This incident left a deep impression in my heart. At this critical moment, every Dafa disciple has his or her own responsibilities. We could not do whatever we want. We could not be laid back either. It was like a battle: every soldier has his or her own spot according to general’s arrangement. How could you go to other people’s spot and let your spot by empty? Therefore, I decided to stay in RTC platform.  

The test was not over yet. Recently, the RTC platform changed its management and asked me to lead a team in a specific time. I felt very anxious. First of all, I had no experiences. There were a lot of practitioners who could clarify the truth better than me. Why did the coordinator pick me as the team leader? Second, not many practitioners could make truth-clarification phone calls at this specific time. I was afraid that I could not organize everything well. I felt it was such a challenge to be the team leader. Therefore, I refused the task and did not want to shoulder such responsibility. Nonetheless, the coordinator insisted that I should do it. It seemed that I could not even say no. I was enlightened that on the surface it was a task assigned by the coordinator, but it was actually a task Master gave me in order to make me advance in my cultivation. I could not stay in the same cultivation state forever. I needed to face challenges. Therefore, I agreed. In the first week, under fellow practitioners’ cooperation, everything went smoothly. For the second week, I scheduled five practitioners to come to the RTC platform at the specific time to dial truth-clarification phone calls. Nonetheless, one day before I was informed that a fellow practitioner’s working schedule changed so that he could no longer come to make truth-clarification calls. Several minutes before the specific time, another practitioner told me he could not come either. Finally, only three fellow practitioners came to the platform. I thought that everything was still ok because we at least had three people. Nonetheless, after the first call, one fellow practitioner said her laptop was broken. She logged off. Another practitioner who just joined the RTC and I were the only two people there. I told myself, I needed to make truth-clarification phone calls to save people even if I was the only person. Evil forces could not prevent me from saving people. Master said in Teaching the Fa at 2002 Fa Conference in Boston (Collected Fa Teaching, Vol.II), “The old forces don't dare to oppose our clarifying the truth or saving sentient beings. What's key is to not let them take advantage of the gaps in your state of mind when you do things”. Soon after, several fellow practitioners logged in to RTC platform to help me. Everything went normal again. Gradually, some new Dafa practitioners joined me. Now our team has a lot of Dafa practitioners with strong righteous mind to make truth-clarification calls. I was enlightened that making truth-clarification phone calls is the most righteous thing. If we have a righteous mind, all interferences will be eliminated because we have our benevolent great Master. I was also enlightened that RTC platform is a cultivation environment created by Master. We could fulfill our vows here so we need to cherish the environment. Moreover, we also have the responsibility to cooperate with each other to run the RTC platform well. We could not just ask things from RTC platform. We also needed to contribute to the platform. Cooperation is the key. Everything you encounter is a part of your cultivation.

Above are just my experiences. If I said anything wrong, please correct me. Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners. Heshi!

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/247618