PureInsight | February 23, 2015
[PureInsight.org]
Greetings, revered Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am from mainland China. In May 1996, when I was three years old, I was diagnosed with viral encephalitis. I was hospitalized but did not get any better. However, I fell asleep while listening to Master’s lecture audiotapes and when I woke up, I became healthy again. My family and I began to cultivate after that.
Master Saw My Wishes and Made Arrangements for Me
In 2011, I was admitted to a university in the U.S. Just before I left, my family kept reminding me that when I arrived, I should remember to contact the local practitioners, do the three things well, and keep up with the progress of the Fa-rectification. Every time when I call my family, they always remind me to study the Fa, do the exercises and participate in truth-clarification activities to save sentient beings. However, I was not familiar with the new environment at that time, and I had a strong attachment to fear. I realize now that it was because I did not have enough faith in Master and the Fa. My roommate was also a first year international student from China. I was afraid that my roommate might see me doing the exercises, thus I rarely exercised or read the Fa, and even barely read Master’s new articles—I only listened to the Fa lectures from my phone. Gradually, I drifted away from the Fa. Then I found the location of a local exercise site online. I went there a few times, but never found any practitioners. Although I found the local contact’s phone number, I never called it. I was afraid that my phone calls might be monitored like they were in China.
In 2012, I transferred to another university in the U.S. Perhaps because I had the wish to join a local study group, Master arranged for me to attend a university where I did not need to go far and could easily find a practice site on campus. Despite having such a great opportunity, I hesitated once again. My heart was full of contradictions and I worried that my family in China would be persecuted if I practiced openly in the U.S.; however, I also knew that, as a Dafa practitioner, it is my mission to save sentient beings. By the end of 2013, my family heard that I did not treasure the extended time given by Master, or use it to save sentient beings in this free country; they felt very sad. With encouragement from my family, I finally found the courage to contact my local practitioners.
Eliminating the Attachment to Fear
Although I decided to practice openly, I still had the attachment to fear. One day, I accidentally played a video clip online; it was a documentary called “The Forever Electronic Wave.” The documentary recounted the story of several practitioners from Changchun that had tapped into the city's cable television network in order to broadcast truth-clarification programs in 2002. Eight of the practitioners involved in the project were persecuted to death. The last sentence from the video made a strong impression on me: “March 5th, 2012 is the 10th anniversary of the television interception in Changchun. For those practitioners who participated in this earth-shaking event, we only had one question: why did you do it? Whether they answered with one or more sentences, the response can be summarized into four words: It is for you.” After I watched their stories, I was shocked by the spirit of selflessness. In order to let Chinese people know the truth, they sacrificed their own lives! How benevolent is that? They are really great! I understood the gap between their levels and mine was huge and I could not hold back my tears.
However, Master said in Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference, “I don't like it when you blame yourselves, it's completely pointless. I'll just repeat what I said: If you've fallen don't just lie there, get up right away!” After realizing that I had strong attachments to fear and comfort I decided that, from now on, I would be more diligent, to make up for the time that I had wasted. Therefore, I joined the local study group every Wednesday and Sunday. I also began to exercise, deliver flyers, and participate in truth-clarification activities at our university every Tuesday.
There are many international students from China at our university. Most of them are here for undergraduate or post-graduate school, and most of them are not familiar with the truth of Dafa. I realized that they are here to be saved, and that we need to save them. I tried to start talking to my classmates and friends. I was very nervous to talk to my friends at first; however, as I started talking to one of my friends about the truth of Dafa, she became very excited. She told me that she knew Falun Dafa is good. Once when she traveled to Korea, one of the local practitioners in Korea helped her learn the truth about Dafa. Then my friend also helped me tell the truth to another friend next to her. They asked me a few questions and after I answered, they were amazed and said, “So that’s what it is.” Sometime later, when I was collecting signatures for a petition to “immediately stop the forced organ harvesting in China,” I met a university student. It was my first day volunteering to help with the petition; I told him that forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners is really happening in China right now. I got too emotional and could not hold back my tears. He was shocked and could not believe that such evil things are still happening in China. He kept saying, “I will sign.”
Through these two interactions, I realized that Master is encouraging me to save sentient beings. In fact, we are just walking up to people and talking with them; it is Master that saves these people. We only need to listen to our master and do what we are supposed to do.
On May 13th, I attended the New York Sharing Conference. It was the first time I saw our Master face to face. I felt so lucky. In mainland China, there are so many fellow practitioners that have never seen Master before, but they are all very diligent; thus, there is no reason why I should lack diligence anymore. In front of Master, I made a decision: “in this brand new environment, I will do the three things well, save sentient beings, not fail to help Master with his benevolent salvation of others, and not let down the sentient beings that are counting on me. I should realize my vows and follow Master back home.”
On May 14th, I joined the parade with all the other practitioners who came to the sharing conference. As I was walking in the parade, I felt enormously proud. I wanted the whole world to know that “Falun Dafa is good!” “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” Everyone in the world with a conscience should recognize the evil of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and help us to immediately stop the persecution.
Cultivation Is a Serious Matter
Due to my attachments to fear, comfort and many other attachments, I drifted further and further away from the Fa in my early years in the USA. I rarely did the three things. Every time I had a test and felt wronged, I did not look within or think about others first; instead, I always tried to make excuses for myself. When I suffered losses, I would be frustrated. I totally forgot that “If something is yours, nobody will take it away, and if something isn’t yours, you won’t be able to get it even by fighting for it.” (Zhuan Falun) Now I realize that we are cultivating ourselves. When we see other people do something wrong, we need to use them as mirrors and check if we did the same thing. Furthermore, we need to question why we were made aware of these wrong doings. Is it because there is something we need to cultivate?
For me, my biggest attachment is to my grades in school. I used to think that as long as I got good grades, I would be able to find a good job, and live a wonderful life. However, that mindset caused me to totally forget my wish before I came abroad, and I did not even realize that it was a huge attachment. My family always told me that, “studying well will get one a good job,” which is what the CCP taught us. Master tells us in Zhuan Falun that “Buddhism talks about karmic retribution, and things are arranged according to your karma, so no matter how capable you are, if you don’t have virtue you might not have anything in this life. You think that somebody isn’t good at anything, but maybe he has a lot of virtue, so he becomes a high-ranking official or gets rich.” Master also said, “People often think that what they want are good things. But in fact, when you look at it from a high level, that’s all just for the instant gratification ordinary people like. Religions have said: no matter how rich you are or how high your rank is, it only lasts for a few dozen years, it can’t be brought with you at birth, and it can’t be taken along at death.”
Master has mentioned many times in his lectures that cultivation is very serious; however, I did not really understand the meaning. In the recently-published articles, the “Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day,” Master stresses this problem again: “You have already made it through the hardest period. I’ll tell you, the Dafa disciples from the early period, those who formed ties of destiny with me during history, or who came here following Master—each and every one of you—if you had wanted to accomplish something in ordinary society, every one of you could have been a billionaire, every one of you could have been famous, and every one of you could have been among society’s elite. But this lifetime you came here to be a Dafa disciple, and you’ve given up all of those things. If you had wanted to be rich, you could have long since been rich. Don’t let your soul’s long-cherished wish be extinguished over a few petty, worldly temptations.” Yes, we are lucky to have become Dafa practitioners. In order to become Dafa practitioners, we have turned down all those things, so why should I have such attachments? I should be determined to do what a Dafa disciple is supposed to do, listen to our Master, and follow the path that Master arranged for me.
As I write this article, I have uncovered many attachments that I thought I had already gotten rid of, for example, being overly happy, showing off, jealousy, competitiveness, etc. After finding these bad attachments, I am sure that I will get rid of them.
I would like to thank Master for allowing me to learn Dafa and become a Fa-rectification-period Dafa disciple; thanks to fellow practitioners for encouraging me while I hesitated, reminding and sharing with me; and thanks to my local fellow practitioners for their support and trust that greatly helped me when I first joined the group. Master has suffered too much for us, we can only be more diligent, so as not to let Master down for his benevolent salvation. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate in my sharing.
Heshi.
