PureInsight | March 23, 2017
[PureInsight.org]
Greetings benevolent Master and fellow practitioners,
My first visit from Mainland China to attend the U.S. Experience Sharing Conference was an experience for me to let go of my fear on the 10th anniversary of my cultivation, May 2013. At the time, I had a strong desire to meet Master. My child was a graduate student pursuing Master’s degree in Boston. I obtained my visa to the U.S. as a visiting relatives so that I could attend the New York Experience Sharing Conference. I arrived a few days earlier and participated in the group exercises, an event of the celebration of World Falun Dafa Day on May 13 in Boston.
Because I obtained the Fa in 2003, I had never observed nor participated in any outdoor group exercises prior to my visit to the United States. It was my first time seeing a group of Dafa disciples doing exercises at a park in the U.S., and I wanted to join the group exercises. Due to fear of spies taking photos and for being arrested at the airport and other concerns, I hesitated and had not participated. I asked the coordinator, “Are there any spies around here at this event?” The coordinator (practitioner) answered, “There might be and might not. I do not know.” If you do not wish to reside in the U.S., then please remain reserved, be cautious for your own safety, and you could send forth righteous thoughts nearby. The coordinator also asked, “Would you like to see Shen Yun?” This is the last performance of the year. I told her I must go and see the performance. The practitioner then ordered a bus ticket and arranged a practitioner to drop me off at the bus station and picked me up to see the performance. Because I do not understand English, the level of effort and care of the coordinator has significantly touched my heart. After the arrangements, I ate at McDonald’s and started to send forth righteous thoughts. Practitioners had already departed after doing the last group exercise when I walked out of McDonald’s, I then realized I had lost my last opportunity to join the group exercises to clarify the truth.
Our benevolent Master stated in Digging Out the Roots from Essential for FurtherAdvancement, “At the crucial moment when I ask you to break way from humanness, you do not follow me. Each opportunity will not occur again.” I deeply understood and felt that there is no small thing in cultivation, and there is no such thing as accidental coincidence in cultivation. What appears as a norm is actually a test. In Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore, Master stated, “Our students will come across all kinds of tests. Will you fail to Consummate because you missed the opportunity? There might be another chance, but I think another opportunity is really hard to come by since an opportunity of this sort is only possible when a combination of multiple factors is in place. In other words, what I mean is that no matter how hard you cultivate, the fact remains that at the crucial moment you aren’t up to it. It’s not like I’m just saying you’re not up to it—it’s that you aren’t up to it. Some people think, ‘Teacher, I can make it through any ordeal. Just bring ‘em on, so I can cultivate up sooner.’ But when the critical moment arrives, you still can’t make it. Lip service won’t do; what we have to see is how you conduct yourself during actual cultivation.”
On May 17, I car-pooled with a western practitioner and his daughter to attend the New York parade. His daughter, aged 6, points at a photo of a man meditating in the front row at the May 13 Celebration of World Falun Dafa Day event on the Epoch Times newspaper to me and calls the man in the photo “Dad”. The person in the photo is his dad, Mike. I retrieved the newspaper to take a careful look at the photo, it is a historical moment of the Boston practitioners attending the 2013 Celebration of World Falun Dafa Day. It is the honor of all Falun Dafa practitioners in attendance, but I was left out. I had the opportunity to be a part of the one-body to validate the greatness of Dafa. Due to my fear and concerns, I have lost a precious opportunity that can never be recuperated nor regained. There will be another chance or next opportunity, but this opportunity is forever lost. All I needed at that moment was to step forward and join the group to participate in this solemn and dignified World Falun Dafa Day event.
The day prior to the New York Experience Sharing Conference on May 18, more than 7,000 Falun Gong practitioners from more than 50 regions and countries around the world had joined together for the parade in Manhattan Chinatown. The purpose of the parade was to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Falun Dafa; exhibit the greatness of Falun Dafa; calling for justice and morale conscience support. This mighty parade was a spectacle to watch that had touched the audience, both Westerners and Chinese.
I wore a “Falun Dafa” t-shirt, held and marched solemnly along with eight other practitioners behind a long banner. I attended the grand parade with pride to have such an opportunity. The banner had a white background with eye-catching blue words “SOS: Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China”. The word SOS was in red. I later received a photo of myself and eight other practitioners marching in the parade, as reported and published by Epoch Times news media.
The grand march concluded and a series of mini truth clarification experience sharing conferences targeting Chinese ordinary people had begun. I attended the meeting. As soon as I arrived in the lobby of the conference venue, I felt that a spy, a man in his 40’s wearing an old “Dafa” t-shirt, had targeted me. His fierce eyes bulging and followed wherever I went, even to the restroom. At this instant, all of my fear and concerns were accelerated to the highest level and my right thoughts had diminished completely. I felt as if I will be arrested immediately. I told the female driver (practitioner), I have been targeted, what shall I do?
The practitioner told me that she would drive me to the hotel immediately. We rushed ourselves to the hotel. At the hotel, I still felt as if I was surrounded by the fear substances. I told the incident to a fellow practitioner in her 20’s. She smiled at me and said, “You are now facing tribulations of life or death; need to get rid of your fear; these are all illusions.” I feel like Master is utilizing her to alarm me. I let go of my fear, and Master had removed the fear substances for me. Master said in Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s) from Essentials for Further Advancement II, “If a cultivator can let go of the thought of life and death under any circumstance, evil is sure to be afraid of him. If every student is able to do this, evil will of itself no longer exist. All of you are already aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go of it.”
I then successfully attended my first Experience Sharing Conference. I was able to listen to our benevolent Master’s Fa on-site, and all activities without regret. I successfully completed 10 days of my trip in the United States. Master had told us in Path from Essentials for Further Advancement II, “The path a Dafa disciple takes is a glorious history, and this history has to be created by his own enlightening.”
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/154635
