PureInsight | December 9, 2002
Hello, Respected Master! Hello, my fellow practitioners.
I am a practitioner from New Jersey. My Name Is Weiyong Zhu. I am very glad to have this precious opportunity to share some of my recent cultivation experiences.
1. Getting rid of the fundamental attachments in the test
I started to practice Falun Dafa in Maryland in May, 1997. Before that, I already had a Ph.D. degree in a biomedical field and always thought that I had a good understanding about living beings, disease, and life and death. But at the same time, I also realized the limitation of modern medical science. I still had many questions about the real meaning of life and the real reasons behind disease and the life cycle. At the beginning of studying the Fa, I felt that Master's great Fa gave me complete and fundamental answers to all those wonderings and questions. I just could not find the right words to express my happiness at knowing Dafa. But at that time, I only had a shallow understanding of Dafa. Besides realizing that Dafa is very good, I also thought that it would be very nice if Master could protect us and eliminate karma for us. I really did not understand the unlimited meaning of Dafa from a deep level. Therefore, I actually did not cultivate diligently at that time. It did not seem easy for me to give up my many attachments. Because it had not been very long since I had arrived in U.S. at that time, I had many concerns about my future regarding my visa status, job and family. I just hoped that I could keep a state of cultivation while still not giving up pursuing my personal things. Sometimes, I even tried to justify my attachments using Master's saying that Dafa disciples should conform to the state of everyday people's society to the greatest extent. This lasted until June of 2000, when I saw Master's Jinwen "Towards Consummation". Master clearly pointed to us in that article, "Studying the Fa with attachments is not true cultivation. Yet during the course of cultivation a person may gradually become aware of his fundamental attachments, rid himself of them, and thus meet the standard for a cultivator." After I saw Master's article, I felt that I had real long way to reach the standard of a cultivator. But I still felt it was difficult to figure out how I could get rid of my fundamental attachments. At the beginning of 2001, I moved to New Jersey and started to work in a new company. Although I devoted myself more to Dafa work, but I still spent time designing my family's future life.
In February of this year, my wife lost her job. I pushed her to quickly find another job. But I felt safe in my own job, because my company was in good shape and the group I worked for seemed important to the company. I never expected I would lose my job in the near future. But in the middle of March, my company suddenly announced a reorganization of the company's structure and eliminated our whole group. Everyone in our group was laid off. After hearing this news, I immediately felt some evil forces' interference with my family and thought I should not acknowledge it. But every word in Master's article "Fa-Rectification and Cultivation" made me wake up. Master said, "During the Fa-rectification, Dafa disciples have a different situation from when personal cultivation was done in the past. In the face of the groundless harming, in the face of the persecution of Dafa, and in the face of the injustice forced upon us, we cannot handle things or categorically accept things as before in personal cultivation, because Dafa disciples are now in the Fa-rectification period. If a problem isn't caused by our own attachments or mistakes, then it must be that the evil is interfering or doing bad things." (…) "Yet we are still cultivating and still have some last ordinary human attachments. When a problem arises, we have to examine ourselves first to see whether things are right or wrong on our part." (from "Fa-Rectification and Cultivation"). Just because of my attachments deep in my heart, the old forces could make use of my loophole. After cultivating for several years in the past, I felt that I had taken fame and fortune lightly. Previously our life was stable even though our salary was not very high. Talking about getting rid of attachments to fame and fortune was just like talking about attachments to life and death in a very easy environment. Now that both my wife and I lost our jobs at the same time, our life seemed suddenly to lose the assured source. Although, as a practitioner, I can treat it comparatively calmly and understand the path of our cultivation was arranged by Master, some thoughts still came to my mind: "What will happen if we can not find jobs in the future? Is my Ph.D. still useful?" And so on. At that time, besides studying Fa more diligently, I also dug out my attachments to fame and fortune from the bottom of my mind. Just like Master said in the "Towards Consummation", "Human beings acquire many notions in this world and are, as a consequence, driven by these notions to pursue what they yearn for. But when a person comes to this world, it is karmic arrangements that determine his course of life and what will be gained and lost in it. How could a person's notions determine each stage of his life? So those so-called "beautiful dreams and wishes" become pursuits that can never be realized, despite painful attachments." I finally further understood from the Fa standpoint that my fundamental attachments, which did not originally belong to me, had become most serious obstructions in my cultivation path. In the recent several months, I am still seriously looking for a job. But I already clearly understand from my heart that every day in our present life is set for Fa rectification and our income is not for arranging our personal life. We should make better use of our precious time to save sentient beings and do better jobs of all we need to do without reservation.
2. Clarifying the truth and eliminating evil in the Chinese community
Since the Jiang Zemin's evil regime started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, practitioners inside and outside mainland China started to step out to validate the Fa and safeguard the Fa in various ways. Practitioners participated in different projects for Fa rectification and made great efforts. I also participated in several projects. Two years ago, I came to New Jersey. There are over one hundred thousand Chinese people there. But these Chinese people live far apart from each other. I found that we did not do enough truth clarifying work in an effective way in the local Chinese community. Other practitioners are also busy with other Fa rectification work, so I thought maybe I could do something in this field. One practitioner suggested to me that I work as a part time reporter for a local Chinese newspaper and use this format as an indirect way to clarify truth. Before I started to practice Falun Dafa, I had an introverted character and did not like work involving social interactions at all. I never thought about becoming a news reporter who would deal with many different people in the local Chinese community. But I still wanted to try it, because I thought that, as a Dafa disciple, I should not pick up only the Dafa work that was based on my own interests and specialties. Besides giving full play to our own specialties and skills in society, as Dafa disciples we need to contribute all our efforts to the greatest extent based on the needs of the Fa rectification process. The activities in the local Chinese community are kind of everyday people's stuff. Sometimes I spend a half-day or even a longer time on these kinds of activities and have some uncomfortable feelings. Also, there are a total of six free Chinese newspapers in New Jersey. To be a reporter on a local Chinese newspaper, I need to help improve the quality of reporting from the view of everyday people. I also need to indirectly clarify the truth and eliminate evil in the local Chinese community. Actually the requirement is relatively high. In the past one year, I have received some recognition and acknowledgements from some Chinese communities through staying in contact with these communities and sincerely providing some services for everyday Chinese people on the weekends. Several leaders of these Chinese communities become my good friends, which has laid a good foundation for me to further clarify the truth to them in the future. Sometimes, I also grasped opportunities to clarify the truth, directly or indirectly, to the leaders in the Chinese communities, other reporters, and delegates from mainland China. Over the past year, keep in contact with local Chinese communities as a reporter has become an important part of my cultivation. I hope that I can do better in this field together with other practitioners.
While contacting the local Chinese communities as a reporter, sometimes I also had opportunities to eliminate evils. In the end of 2001, I participated in an annual meeting of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in New Jersey. The organizer of that meeting invited the deputy general consul of the Chinese general consulate in New York. Since several practitioners participated in that meeting, I decided to participate not as a reporter but as a scientific professional. At that meeting, the deputy general consul of the Chinese general consulate started to attack Falun Gong. After he spoke out one sentence about Falun Gong to the large audience, I immediately pointed out to him that it was not proper for him to criticize Falun Gong in that meeting. My reasonable action quickly received support from the audience. The deputy general consul had to stop and embarrassedly concluded his prepared speech. Since there are many Chinese people and Chinese local communities in New Jersey, the officials from Chinese general consulate in New York often participated in these kinds of events, sometimes they also spread slandering words about Falun Gong. Each time I went to this kind of event, I generally kept up my righteous thoughts to eliminate evils. Once I went to New York to participate in a welcome dinner party for a government delegation from mainland China organized by more than a dozen local Chinese communities. Some Chinese representatives to the United Nations, the deputy general consulate of the Chinese general consulate, and several well-known anti-Falun Gong community leaders all participated in that meeting. There were no other practitioners present in the meeting. I felt a lot of evil surrounding the whole field. Because I was invited as a reporter, I did not have a clear plan how to properly handle it if evil persons started to attack Dafa. Later, I calmed down and believed I must be able to inhibit and eliminate evil if my righteous thoughts are strong enough. I kept very strong righteous thoughts throughout the whole meeting. None of those people spread any anti-Falun Gong words to poison the participants.
3. Some understandings for upgrading as a whole body
Since I participated in reporting and some other Dafa-related work, I already felt busy every day. It seemed to me that I did not have any more energy or time to care about or participate in other Fa rectification work. In February of this year, my wife lost her job and started to do some work for a newly established project during the daytime. At that time, I did not realize the importance of the whole picture of Fa rectification. After seeing her spending lots of time each day on that project, sometimes affecting my own Dafa work, I started to have some negative thoughts towards that project. I sometimes thought that that project absorbed too much practitioners' effort and its effects in clarifying the truth were limited. Sometimes I even argued about this issue with my wife, to say not to pay so much attention to that project. This situation lasted for several months. Then, at the end of July my wife found a new job. So, for the time being, I had to take over all her previous work for that project during the day time. In the past several months, every day I spend about 6 hours just for that project. During that time, I also deeply felt that the other practitioners working on this project have devoted their greatest effort. I have also realized the effect this project has achieved on the process of Fa rectification, as well as its great potential. Master told us in DC recent lecture, "In these situations your conduct should always show Dafa disciples' tolerance, kindness, and niceness. The next person's things are your things, and your things are his things. We don't talk about the "unity" everyday people do, which is a forced, superficial thing. You are cultivators, and your realms are higher. So in your many projects your actions should reflect an understanding of others, an ability to listen to people's opinions, and an ability to gauge what's right and what's wrong by using Dafa." ("Teaching the Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference," 2002). Although, during this period of time, I have more time to spend on multiple Dafa projects, actually more importantly, this experience has allowed me to understand better that disciples working on different projects should support each other and do better jobs in validating Fa and clarifying truth. Maybe I won't be able to handle several projects at the same time like I do now after I go to new work, but I already understand the importance of doing better jobs as a whole body. I will continue to do all the Dafa work I can, and provide help to other Dafa projects on my own initiative. Together we can do a better job in clarifying truth and saving sentient beings. All Dafa particles should be connected. We are supposed to be connected as a whole body, which will allow us to form a very strong Fa rectification force.
Recently, some practitioners have already shared their understanding about the importance of upgrading our self as a whole. As pointed out by some practitioners, the key to ensuring upgrading as a whole body is upgrading understanding of the Fa. Studying the Fa well and exchanging experiences on the Fa is very important. Once one practitioner understands something, he/she can help the others in that region understand this. Once practitioners in one region understand something, they can help the practitioners in whole country understand this. Once the practitioners in one country understand something, they can help the others in the whole world understand this. Understanding the Fa clearly will ensure our doing better jobs in clarifying truth and other Dafa work. I think that as a local group contact person or an assistant, my role may not be able to help affect the whole process of Fa rectification. But each practice site, each Fa study group, or each small project of clarifying truth actually is a small whole body. Therefore, besides studying the Fa well and participating in more Fa rectification efforts himself/herself, if the contact person or the assistant can encourage more practitioners to step forward through experience sharing on the Fa, the overall effect will be greater than done by few practitioners. Before the activity in July 20th of this year in Washington DC, the practitioner coordinating the government project in New Jersey asked all practitioners working on the government project to contact all congressmen, and ask the congressmen to vote for resolution 188 and come to join our assembly in front of Capital Hill. Previously I personally did not do much government work and we have a practitioner taking care of our congressman. In the past, after receiving a notice to call our congressman from the coordinator, most of the practitioners did not pay serious attention. I was usually reluctant to make this kind of call, because I thought that it did not belong to my own Dafa work and I had something else to do. Previously the congressman of our district had not made a clear stand for Dafa even though the practitioner working on him had made a big effort. Some local Chinese community leaders seemed to have some influence on him. This congressman also visited China early this year with his congressional colleagues. We were really not sure whether Jiang Zemin's government had tried hard to influence him. After we exchanged our understanding and experience, many practitioners in our group realized that we should focus on further clarifying the truth to this congressman and should not pursue anything. Meanwhile, I felt that if we got more practitioners' involvement at this special time, practitioners might be able to clarifying the truth from different angles and the overall result would be stronger. During the time of July 20th, the practitioner working with this congressman happened to be on a business trip. Therefore, besides making phone calls and visiting the DC office of this congressman by myself, I also exchanged understanding and experience regarding upgrading as a whole body and the special importance of clarifying the truth to the government officials with every practitioner in our local group. For some practitioners, I spent more time on this kind of discussion and helped to get rid of some notions and barriers that had prevented them from providing help to government work, e.g., that their English is not good enough, and so on. Although my English is not very good, I felt I should do my best to help other practitioners to participate in this effort, so sometimes I helped other practitioners find better sentences to express their ideas over the phone. Finally almost every practitioner in our group clarified truth to this congressman using different methods and expressed our hope of his supporting to Falun Gong. Although I had already delivered the invitation to his assistant in person, their office still did not notify us whether the congressman would come to join our Rally. Finally, this congressman surprisingly arrived at our Rally event in front of the Capital Hill and delivered a strong speech supporting Falun Gong and condemning the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Later on, this congressman wrote reply letters to several local practitioners. In his letter to one practitioner, he mentioned in his own handwriting that he kept the beautiful lotus flower in his office. He said the flower will remind him of Falun Gong practitioners whenever he sees it. Now this congressman has become one of the strongest supporters of Falun Gong among New Jersey congressmen. The great change in this congressman's attitude towards Falun Gong in a short time is not only the result of hard work done by one practitioner. It also made me feel more about the importance of forming a whole body as practitioners. Especially in this special period of time, letting all practitioners get involved is very important for the success of any specific Dafa work.
These are some experiences in my recent cultivation. I really hope that I can upgrade together with other practitioners, and do better jobs in the three things Master asked us to do: studying Fa, clarifying truth and sending forth righteous thoughts. We should be qualified for the title of "Fa-Rectification Period Dafa Disciples".
