(Minghui.org) I have encountered a fair amount of hardships and tribulations during the past few years working as a coordinator of our local Dafa projects. I managed to pull through the tests with righteous thoughts, knowing that I must negate the old forces' arrangements and maintain firm faith in Master.
It is also my understanding that only by cultivating ourselves solidly can we improve as a whole body and walk well on the Fa-rectification path. Below I share a few anecdotes of how I resisted the old forces' persecution with righteous thoughts and how I improved together with our local practitioners.
Rising Above Family Deaths and Scandal
My husband suddenly passed away while I was in the thick of a project hiring legal counsel for a detained practitioner. One month later, my mother also died.
As if that were not enough, a woman who had an affair with my husband came to my house and even to his funeral to humiliate me in front of everyone. I was so traumatized that I fainted at the funeral.
My daughter reminded me that I have Master and am a Dafa disciple. I soon came to see that what transpired in my family was indeed the old forces' arrangement aimed at ruining my cultivation. How could I be moved by such an illusion? I remembered what Master said:
“Remove your human thoughtsand evil will naturally die out”(“Don’t Be Sad” from Hong Yin Volume II)
I gradually calmed down. All my grief and pain melted in Master's benevolence, and my heart was filled with gratitude and warmth.
The town gossip about my family no longer bothered me. I simply did whatever I needed to do as a Dafa disciple. The situation quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Maintaining Righteous Thoughts
I resumed coordinating the Dafa projects soon after my husband and mother passed away. At the time, a lot of practitioners needed my help with software upgrades. I also undertook a new project that required a lot of technical expertise. I often didn't have time to eat or sleep. My Fa study and meditation were impacted as well.
However, the liaison for the newly developed project was soon arrested, and so were many others involved in the project. Several practitioners came to remind me to be safety conscious because my home was a popular gathering place for fellow practitioners.
I realized that evil beings in other dimensions wanted to stop us from undertaking this new project to save more people. I remained calm and said to my local practitioners, “Our mission is to save sentient beings. Master doesn't acknowledge the persecution, nor do I. I'll carry on despite what happened.”
We all kept our righteous thoughts and exposed the persecution, and the arrested practitioners soon returned home.
We have encountered many incidents like this. I have always listened to Master and denied arrangements made by the old forces. As Dafa disciples, we need to truly believe in Master, look inward, and cultivate our every single thought based on the Fa.
Looking Within to Find My Fundamental Problem
I was swamped with housework and other family matters after my husband's passing, but I still had to coordinate various Dafa projects. My cultivation was affected accordingly. I fell asleep during group Fa study, and my palm wasn't straight whenever I sent righteous thoughts.
I realized how serious it was and decided to focus more on Fa study.
However, it was not easy to get downtime for myself. Some of my local practitioners would look for me when I least wanted to be bothered. Gradually my patience ran out. Why did they always have to ask me for help with everything? Why couldn't they learn how to do certain things themselves and become independent? I felt they were being selfish by troubling me all the time.
Because of the tone of my voice, they became unhappy and uncooperative. The gap between us directly impacted the Dafa projects.
That really got my attention, and I started to look inward. I found a lot of attachments, such as to getting things done, pursuing an easy life, looking down on others, selfishness, a competitive mentality, self protection, and jealousy.
Regarding selfishness, I was worried I couldn't save enough people who had predestined relationships with me. Though I provided technical support to a lot of fellow practitioners, I did poorly in telling people about Falun Gong face-to-face. It made me anxious when I noticed how other practitioners had saved so many people by talking to them directly. What about those who had predestined relationships with me? When would I have time to save them?
I did realize that, as Dafa disciples, we were supposed to work as a group, with each of us responsible for specific tasks. But I grew tired of having to help others with technical problems, leaving no time for me to save sentient beings with predestined relationships to me.
I tried sending righteous thoughts to eliminate my unrighteous thoughts, but it didn't work that well. Then I came across something Master said:
“Cultivation practice must take place through tribulations so as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of human sentimentality and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble.” (Zhuan Falun)
Right away I realized that the root of my problem was my attachments to human emotions, which led to my selfishness. I was only enthusiastic about doing things that benefited me, but stayed away from projects that seemed irrelevant. Wasn't this the old forces' thinking? I saw that I was behaving just like the old forces and didn't meet the requirements of Dafa at all.
I said to myself, “I must make fundamental changes based on Dafa.” I realized that I had to measure every action and every thought of mine with the Fa principles. As a coordinator, whatever Dafa needs is what is required of me.
Improving as a Whole
Since we increased our group Fa-study time in 2013, a lot of us have made great improvements. We gained a better understanding of the Fa and learned to look within when a conflict arose.
Two practitioners in the group were able to catch up with the Fa ratification process, even though they had stopped practicing Falun Gong for more than 10 years. Another practitioner, who had been cultivating alone, improved significantly within a year and loved to join the group Fa study. When sending righteous thoughts, she observed extraordinary flowers in another dimension.
There were a mother and a daughter in the group. The daughter was initially interfered with by evil beings in other dimensions. I encouraged her to believe in Master and find her true self. She became confident after the issue with her xinxing was identified. She is doing very well now.
Taking Corrective Measures in a Timely Fashion
Whenever we note problems among ourselves, we point them out and remind each other to pay attention. For instance, when we got together with practitioners in a neighboring city, we realized they were neglecting safety in some of their projects. They were producing Shen Yun Performing Arts DVDs in an open workshop and transporting them in a large truck.
They didn't heed our advice to pay attention to safety, but it served to remind us to be careful with every project that we undertake. We beefed up security measures. When quite a few practitioners in the neighboring city were arrested, we were not affected.
We also pointed out the problem right away when we noted that some senior practitioners were obsessed with gauging Dafa projects with what they saw with their Celestial Eye. I wrote a letter to them when our in-person conversation did not go well. They became receptive and realized their mistake when they read my letter. Now they also know to measure everything with the Fa.
Final Remarks
Above are some of my experiences in my cultivation and the coordination of Dafa projects to improve as one body. I know I still have a long way to go, particularly with respect to my xinxing improvement.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our benevolent Master and fellow practitioners.
Category: Improving Oneself
