(Minghui.org) Greetings, Revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I started to practice Falun Dafa when I was a high school senior in Taoyuan over ten years ago. Recalling everything on my cultivation path, I could see and feel Master’s painstaking and detailed arrangements. Here I would like to share my personal experiences.
Becoming a Practitioner
In the eyes of others, I am a quiet girl. But as I child, I was actually very interested in martial arts. Sometimes I even imagined practicing at Shaolin Temple. So, when I heard that my mother, at a friend’s recommendation, was going to attend a Falun Dafa seminar to watch videos of Master Li’s lectures, I was very curious and decided to go with her. I still remember that Master was very kind and approachable in the video. What Master covered in the lectures was very profound and impressive. Especially when I heard that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the most fundamental characteristic of the universe, I felt a sense of security and determination in my heart. I decided not to worry about drifting like others in the declining society and made up my mind to be a better person by following these principles.
My grandmother used to go to a park to practice a kind of qigong almost every morning. After I told her Falun Dafa was a great practice and wanted to teach her, she worked hard to learn the five exercises. Once she knew how to practice Falun Dafa, she made sure to set aside time to do the exercises and listen to Master’s lectures every day. Grandma is now 87, but she is still quite healthy and active. She often says Master Li is helping her and caring for her.
At the beginning of this year, my father joined us. When my parents went to Kaohsiung to visit Grandma, she would always get my father to do the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts with her when the time came. This motivated everyone to remain diligent. Whenever we gathered together to study the Dafa teachings and do the exercises, I would feel so happy. Not only do we become healthier, we can also remind each other to do well on our cultivation journey and catch up with the momentum of Fa-rectification.
Human Notions Versus Righteous Thoughts
I am a data analyst in a bank. After work, I participate in NTDTV projects, from compiling and writing manuscripts to practicing dubbing and even hosting a TV program—something unimaginable for me in the past. That was because I tended to be pessimistic and introverted and had low self-esteem. But the fellow practitioner who trained me happened to be confident and assertive, two traits that I lacked. She was always very patient while mentoring me. There were times when I wanted to give up, but she kept encouraging me to persevere with positive words. Even now, my parents can still hardly believe a shy person like me could be a TV presenter in front of a camera. Looking back, I know it was all Master’s painstaking arrangements that made all these things possible. As a practitioner, I will work harder to accomplish my mission.
In the past, I was worried that my friends would recognize me as the newscaster in the videos circulated on the Internet, because I knew my performance was not professional enough. Plus, I was uncomfortable in front of the camera. In addition, wearing a very unaccustomed dress made me physically stiff. However, I found that when I adjusted my cultivation state to be more stable, my inner self became stronger, because I understand that our mission as Dafa disciples is to help sentient beings. It is a powerful force to be considerate of others, just like when I was actively participating in truth clarification projects on a college campus in Taichung. I used to be quite introverted, but after practicing Dafa, I became very brave. Not only did I dare to go to different classes to introduce Dafa activities to professors during class time, but I also put up display boards with Dafa information on the lawn of the campus and meditated next to them after class. Whenever people learned the facts about Dafa and understood the benefits, I was always very moved.
Master has said,
“One’s Buddha-nature is Shan, and it manifests itself as compassion, thinking of others before acting, and the ability to endure suffering. One’s demon-nature is viciousness, and it manifests as killing, stealing and robbing, selfishness, wicked thoughts, sowing discord, stirring up troubles by spreading rumors, jealousy, wickedness, anger, laziness, incest and so on.” (“Buddha-Nature and Demon-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I used to think it was quite natural to want to rest when I felt tired, so I wasted a lot of my free time. I later realized the importance of righteous thoughts and decided not to be held back by my attachment to comfort. Very often I had to go to the television station to do make-up and present news after work. It was usually midnight when the broadcast was over, and it took me 40 minutes on my bike get home. Even at red lights, I often thought of closing my eyes for a nap. I was too tired and did not want to do the exercises. Without doing the exercises, however, I easily got tired and found it hard to be clear-minded when sending forth righteous thoughts. I even dozed off when studying the Fa.
I knew I couldn’t let the fatigue drag me down and wanted to break out of this negative cycle. The righteous thoughts in my heart reminded me that doing the exercises would be the best rest. No matter how busy I was, I should still keep sending forth righteous thoughts, doing the exercises, and studying the Fa. I decided to do the first exercise to clear my mind. To keep from getting sleepy when I studied the Fa, I made an appointment with my mother to study the Fa together until it was time to send forth righteous thoughts. That way, at least I wouldn’t fall asleep before getting anything done. Although I was really tired at first, I no longer felt that way after a while and my mind became clear after I kept doing the exercises and studying the Fa. I was able to study the Fa and do the exercises with great energy. Even when sending forth righteous thoughts, I was able to get into a state of concentration. I have a deep understanding of how precious it is to persevere through hardships.
I asked my family to study the Fa with me together every day. The added righteous thoughts from the Fa helped me do a better job as a Dafa disciple. I gradually let go of the unnecessary worries and stopped thinking about what others thought of me. When I faced the camera, my performance was more natural. Later, when someone recognized me and asked, “Are you the one who hosts ‘The Amazing World?’” I was no longer embarrassed. I was very happy to learn that they were watching the show. And I was pleased that the work everyone put so much effort into has indeed received more and more attention.
Learning to Look Inward
At work, several of my colleagues liked to argue, and this disturbed me. One of them was particularly picky about the shortcomings of others. I was picked on a few times while working with him. I got so angry at him that I almost exploded after he criticized me again. I wanted to reason with him but decided to go outside and calm down first. As I was thinking about how to contradict him, a thought came to my mind: “Isn’t this the attachment to competitiveness? You are full of arguments. Your attachment to competitiveness might be even stronger than his!” I felt quite ashamed. Then I realized that I hadn’t looked inward as a genuine cultivator.
When I attempted to point out his shortcomings, it was precisely because my heart was affected. I was shocked that, as a cultivator, I didn’t even realize this. By then, he no longer annoyed me—after all, only through cultivation can one become a better person. How fortunate for us that we have become practitioners! How can we still be angry with everyday people!
While studying the Fa with my family, I was distracted and annoyed when they misread or skipped words. But after I corrected them a few times and they still made the same mistakes, I started to wonder if there was a problem with me. I realized that when I studied the Fa, I didn’t take it to my heart. When I looked at the words, I could be thinking about something else. And it was usually at that time that somebody made a mistake. I realized that it was my own state that affected the entire Fa-study field.
Master has said,
“Dafa is in perfect harmony: If one separates the three characters of “Zhen-Shan-Ren,” each still fully contains Zhen-Shan-Ren. This is because matter is composed of microscopic matter, which is in turn made up of even more microscopic matter—this goes on and on until the end. Therefore, Zhen consists of Zhen-Shan-Ren, Shan consists of Zhen-Shan-Ren, and Ren also consists of Zhen-Shan-Ren.” (“A Brief Explanation of Shan,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
Because I still had grievances, my ren (forbearance) was not only lacking kindness but was also not sincere. I realized that if I truly wanted to be forbearing, I must also be truthful and compassionate. I needed to appreciate the other party’s perspective and cherish their strengths. This way, I would be able to have true forbearance.
I realized that, although my family members made mistakes when reading the Fa, they had been very active about studying the Fa. Every time I invited them to study the Fa, they were always very cooperative. I should harmonize this field. After thinking about it this way, my heart was no longer affected when I heard any mistakes. I silently hoped they could eliminate the interference. I myself also tried to stay focused on the Fa. My Fa-study has improved significantly since then.
My Understanding of Enlightenment
Recently, my supervisor at work gave me several emotional shocks. At first I thought he was being very unfair because he yelled at me when it was not my fault. I felt that he was being unreasonable. I also worried about what my colleagues would think of me. Later, I remembered Master’s teaching on the transformation of karma and the enhancement of character in Zhuan Falun. I calmed down and thought, “Let him vent. I really don’t need to worry about what others think because they change their minds so quickly anyway.” At the moment of conflict, it was merely a momentary anger, which does not reflect his eternal state. Practitioners must be able to maintain their own kindness and not resort to evil means to counter evil.
Master has said,
“The enlightenment that I talk about refers to whether you’re able to handle everything with righteous thoughts during your cultivation. The sentence I just said precisely describes the kind of enlightening that’s to take place during cultivation in Dafa.” (Teachings at the Conference in the Eastern U.S.)
I had never thought enlightenment had such connotations. But when I read this paragraph of the Fa, I felt different. I could understand it better as a cultivator—everything is a good thing and the improvement of one’s character is the key. Whenever something disturbing happens, can we realize that we are cultivators and treat it with righteous thoughts? If we can, we will enlighten in our cultivation. Now I am able to face others’ emotions more calmly. I am no longer pessimistic about things or put myself down. Other people’s emotional problems now have little effect on me.
Not Missing Any Opportunity to Save Sentient Beings
I know that it is difficult to maintain righteous thoughts at all times. I have also regretted missing a few good opportunities to clarify the truth due to my attachment to fear. For example, sometimes the things my colleagues talked about would have made it easy for me to clarify the truth to them at that time. However, I hesitated and worried about not being able to do it well and ended up saying nothing. Afterwards, to make up for it, I thought of using a social media profile picture update as a lead to share the positive changes to my body and mind after I started practicing Dafa so that my colleagues could see it.
I still remember that my hands were shaking when I posted my updated profile photo and added a brief self-introduction, because I didn’t know what kind of reaction it would evoke. I didn’t dare to turn on the phone to read it for several hours. Fortunately, the effect was good in the end. Many friends left positive responses. A colleague I usually didn’t have much contact with wrote, “After reading it very carefully, the simpler the statement of fact, the more touching! I admire your persistence and practice.”
After some colleagues learned that I meditate in my practice of Falun Dafa, the information was passed on to my vice president. The VP then asked me to share my experience of meditation in one of our meetings. In front of so many people, I panicked and my mind went blank. So I ended it hastily, without seizing the opportunity.
While I was still so angry at myself for not telling everyone about Dafa, the VP called on me again to share more. He said that his impression of me was different from other young people. He could sense how calm and peaceful I was and he wanted to understand where that was coming from. The person sitting directly across from me mouthed the words “Falun Gong” and seemed to encourage me not to be afraid and to speak out.
I knew this was another opportunity Master was giving me to spread the Fa to my colleagues. I gathered my courage and introduced Falun Gong and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I talked briefly about my own changes after I practiced Dafa. Afterwards, my colleagues told me that, although I was very nervous, it was rare to see me speak so much. Everyone listened very attentively. I was very happy that I did it. Even though I did not speak perfectly, at least it was effective.
Master has said,
“It’s just like how, when you used to work with each other on projects, there were different opinions on whose ideas were better, and people were thinking that such-and-such wouldn’t work, or something else wouldn’t work, and the things that needed to be done were affected because of this. It’s very hard for someone to actually do something to everyone’s satisfaction. Of course it’s good to do things better, but even if something is not done that well, don’t hold it up from being completed.” (Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference)
This has encouraged me a great deal and helped me overcome my fears. I learned that we should not stall when it comes to an opportunity to save people just because our presentation might not be perfect. We should do whatever we can to not leave any regrets. I often go to a small restaurant to grab some dinner on my way home after hosting my show. Recently, the restaurant owner asked me where I worked. At first I only mentioned my day job. However, I still had the make-up on and I always showed up at around the same time. He said he thought I was working as a sales associate in a department store nearby. I thought that I should tell him about my other job at NTDTV. I finally mustered up the courage and told him about it. Later, I gave him a copy of the NTD quarterly magazine. I also recommended several programs covered in the magazine to him.
I am very grateful for every opportunity to step out of my comfort zone along the way. Although sometimes I’ve stayed in one place for a long time, our compassionate Master has never given up on me. Master always takes care of me and gives me hints. I am also grateful for the help and encouragement of many fellow practitioners. I hope we can cherish our predestined relationships and live up to the title of Dafa disciple during the Fa-rectification period.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2021 Falun Dafa Experience Conference in Taiwan)
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