My Cultivation Experience

(Shared at 2001 New York Conference)

Hello everyone. My name is Daniel. I am a practitioner from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. I first learned about Falun Dafa 2 years ago from my older brother Jason. When I first started practicing, I was amazed at the newfound sense of peace in my life. The exercises helped me to relax and the principals of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance made me a much kinder person. Living at home in Maine at the time, both of my parents were curious at the positive changes they saw in me, and my mom read the book Zhuan Falun to see what the practice was all about. After reading it and feeling assured that it wasn't something harmful, she continued to watch my brother and I with our practice. Six months later, at home in our kitchen, she asked if I could teach her the exercises, and she has been practicing it herself ever since then. She has made many improvements, and some people tell me she looks very young and is glowing with health. I feel it is a unique environment having three practitioners in one family, and our relationships have improved tremendously as a result. It makes me think about how amazing it must be in China to have all your family members be Dafa practitioners. Two years ago I never would have dreamed that my mom would be practicing cultivation in Dafa. I thought she would never understand it. Now she does. Show's how much I know. We should let as many people as possible hear about Dafa. In the following paper, I would like to share with you some of my experiences in cultivating Falun Dafa.

Throughout my cultivation practice for the past 2- years, I have noticed that everything around me is very sensitive to how I am doing in cultivation. If I am doing well, things around me are harmonious and people's faces are smiling brightly. If I am doing poorly, things around me turn chaotic, and no one seems to want to even look at me. This makes me think about how much my cultivation is for others benefit. It also encourages me to practice cultivation well, because if I don't, I'm not just letting myself down, but also Teacher, my fellow practitioners, as well as everyone I come into contact with.

This year, a fellow practitioner and I began a practice group at our university outside in the mornings, and we have done a few exercise demonstrations at campus activities. One time as we were doing an exercise demonstration to the beautiful "Pudu" music, more and more students crowed around to see what was going on. The room was so quiet and peaceful that you could hear a pin-drop. It was really nice. Since then, many students have showed interest in learning about Falun Dafa, and a few have stuck with it. In February, with the help of campus groups like Amnesty International, Peace Works, and the Asian Club, we had a journalist named Danny Schechter come and give a talk about his book and documentary on the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. The students said they enjoyed the event and found it very interesting. The local practitioners in Worcester meet every Saturday in a nearby park, and we do the exercises and hand out information for 2 hours. Recently we decided to have a weekly reading group every Sunday. After the first meeting last Sunday, a fellow practitioner said that it was very good and that he wanted to do it every Sunday for the rest of the year.

Before the 10,000 practitioner protest at Zhongnanhai nearly 2 years ago, I had many misunderstandings of the differences between individual cultivation and cultivation during the Fa-rectification. I had a notion that in the future, after all the practitioners had finished their quite cultivations and the Fa-rectification was done, it would all be over, the world would change, and the practitioners would leave. When the Zhongnanhai protest took place, I was shocked. When a fellow student showed me the news article about the protest, I said to her, "I don't know what this is all about, but I definitely don't think Falun Dafa practitioners would conduct themselves this way. Falun Dafa doesn't have anything to do with politics." My understanding of forbearance was confused with passiveness. I was one of those practitioners who Teacher said in the article "Serious Teachings" was "just waiting for something good to fall from the sky." I didn't understand that for the persecution of Falun Dafa in China to end, it would require as many practitioners as possible to step forward to extend their help.

When practitioners started to meet with politicians and government officials about the persecution in China, my first reaction was that we were getting involved in politics. Then I realized that this was actually not political in any way because our hearts were only interested in trying to bring the persecution to an end. When practitioners began to hold press conferences, parades, and collect proclamations from towns and cities, I thought that we were asking for external help. After catching up with this process and reading Teacher's new articles, I realized that we were not really seeking help, but giving people an opportunity to learn more about the truth of Falun Dafa.

Through all of these steps, I have gained a better understanding of what practicing cultivation during Fa-rectification means. I realize now that because we are the ones who practice cultivation here, we should help Teacher rectify the Fa here. When I get a glimpse of how precious and sacred this opportunity is, chills run up and down my back. Who knows how long we have been waiting for this chance. I would like to thank all those practitioners who have taken the lead roles in these endeavors, and who have encouraged myself and other practitioners to step forward as well. Especially for those practitioners in China who have risked their lives to protect Falun Dafa and the human rights of people all over the world, your actions have been the most selfless and compassionate.

Because I was closer to the Boston area this year, I was able to join the Boston group more and help out more. This has provided a lot of good cultivation experiences for me. I find that a lot of my attachments are exposed when I am telling people the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution in China. Each opportunity is a chance to see how much faith I have in the Fa and my ability to be compassionate and unmoved when faced with obstacles. Sometimes I do well, sometimes I don't. What's important is just that I try my best, and never forget the purpose of what I am doing. Blocked by attachments of fear, selfishness, and sentimentality, it is hard sometimes to step forward, but I am constantly given more opportunities. I would like to share with you one of these opportunities that I recently experienced.

A few weeks ago I was collecting student signatures for the human rights of the practitioners in China. After introducing the petition to my Chemistry class and collecting signatures, I received an e-mail from a girl in the class who had recently come to learn about Falun Dafa. She was very upset with me and said I was being completely self-motivated. She said that I was not creating true interest, but just collecting signatures. Because of my actions, she said she no longer had interest in learning about Falun Dafa. Upon hearing this, I panicked. I agreed with a lot of the things she said and could see a lot of my attachments, like selfishness and sentimentality, but then I felt I had done damage to Dafa and that I did not deserve to be a practitioner. This opened the floodgates for loads of thought karma, self-doubt, and negative and pessimistic thoughts to come in; thoughts that were not upright. After sending a reply to her to try and resolve the situation and justify myself, she replied back even harder, saying that my tactics were not going to work and that I was not in accordance with forbearance at all. This time I felt paralyzed. My attachments were being clearly pointed out. I knew that Master was really helping me to give up my attachments and that the only way to give them up was to have faith in myself and in Dafa. With this came a sense of calmness. I could do nothing but to face up to my xinxing and further give up my attachments to selfishness, fame, self-doubt, and sentimentality. This was followed by a karma release in the form of a head cold, watery eyes, and a stuffy nose.

The next few days were like a bad storm. Along with the head cold, a lot of bad thoughts swarmed through my mind to see how much faith I had in myself as a Falun Dafa practitioner and to test my will to practice cultivation. While in this state, I asked a fellow practitioner why he practices Falun Dafa, and he said that he practices just because he wants to improve his mind and his character and is not worried about reaching consummation. I was very touched by this and began to think about my motives for cultivation. For too long I had forgotten that to have the will to practice cultivation is simply to have the pure will to improve one's heart and mind. This will is the Buddha's nature, and with it any attachment can be overcome. I said to myself that no matter what happened, I would hold onto this will. I tried my best to eliminate my attachments while staying calm and not letting wild thoughts and self-doubt control my mind.

Well, the storm soon passed, but it only passed after I let go of my self-doubts and went to go help out with a Falun Dafa workshop in Vermont. With it's passing came a sense of great compassion and forbearance that I hadn't felt in a long time, and a mind that was more cemented in the Fa. When I looked back at the recent tribulation with the girl, my heart was not moved. If I had never bothered to bring up the petition in front of the class, I wouldn't have had this opportunity to have my attachments exposed and have my determination tested. On the bus ride home the day after the workshop, I had just received the English translation of Teacher's Hongyin, and each poem filled my eyes with tears when I read it. I felt very light and in good spirits. I realized that when I feel compassion for others, I do not think about myself or doubt myself. This was one example of how telling people the truth about Falun Dafa and asking for support allowed me to cultivate myself during the process.

These are a few of my thoughts at present in my cultivation practice. They are not much, but thank you for allowing me to share them with you, and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Let us encourage each other to improve even more, and do an even better job at helping Teacher rectify the Fa in this dimension. I would like to end with a poem from Master's Hongyin called "Assisting the Fa." It reads: "Making a wish to save sentient beings, Assisting Teacher in his journey in this world; Aiding me to turn the Fa-wheel, the Fa succeeds and frees heaven and earth." Thank you Teacher for allowing me the opportunity to help. I feel very fortunate to be practicing cultivation in this time period.