F. T. X.

Revered and merciful Master, fellow practitioners, since this is our regional Fahui today and every practitioner has the responsibility to participate and contribute, so I would also like to share with you my little bit of cultivation experience during the past couple of years, as an interim report. My sharing has three parts: about Fa study, SFRT, and truth clarification.

Fa Study

For quite some time, I wasn’t very dedicated and attentive enough in Fa study. For a while, I found myself more interested in reading new scriptures than Zhuan Falun, as I was having this erroneous notion that new scriptures have fresher, more novel contents, are things that I forgot more since last reading, so I became more “motivated” to read them. Zhuan Falun, on the other hand, is more familiar to me and when my cultivation stays at the same level for too long, reading Zhuan Falun does not provide me with new understanding and enlightenment, so I wasn’t reading Zhuan Falun as attentive as I should. Later on, I realize from Fa study that this is very wrong, and it’s a result of lack of clear understanding of the Fa and not realizing the importance of Fa study on cultivation. After I changed that notion, I can see, learn, and understand more of the deeper meanings of Zhuan Falun every time I read it.

When school is in session, I drive to another state to teach once every week, with 2-3 hours of driving on interstate highway. I usually study the Fa by listening to a lecture or two of Zhuan Falun. Before, when my Fa study was not quite steadfast, my wife (a practitioner) noticed it and asked me, “Are you treating Fa study as a task that you have to perform?” I thought about it and said yes, I was indeed treating it like a task to accomplish. When I listen to study the Fa while driving on the interstate, sometimes I would finish two lectures, and then I would feel that I have studied enough for two days, averaging one lecture per day, therefore I don’t need to study the next day. So I was indeed treating Fa study as a routine, reluctant task that I just had to finish daily.

During the Fahui in Los Angeles last October, several of us were chatting with each other following group exercise at the beach. I talked about how I arrange my time in Fa study, and one of the practitioners said, how could you do that? You should study the Fa every day! It’s just like washing your face in the morning, you need to wash every day to keep yourself clean. I realized I was wrong, but did not want to admit it, and said I was indeed cleaning myself, I had “deep cleaning” when I studied two lectures on a day, so I would still be clean the next day. Of course I realized this explanation was too absurd, and we all laughed.

Since that day, I maintained to study every day and not trying to use the “surplus” from previous day anymore. Now I’m really treating Fa study as a task, but not a reluctant task that I just feel obligated to complete every day, but a vital, important task that I must fulfil and complete for my life and my cultivation, which I need to complete without any excuse or preconditions. I would now read a lecture of Zhuan Falun every day and then new scriptures at night, with a new attitude, and I am able to obtain and understand new meaning and enlightenment each day.

Through Fa study, I have some preliminary understanding of the relationships among the Falun that Master installed in our lower abdominal area, the installation process, the universe and world we cultivate, and the fruition status. I want to share that with everyone here, please correct any inappropriateness. In my understanding, as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, each of us is entrusted with a cosmic body, this could be the heavenly cosmic body that we came from, or it could be another celestial body that Master assigned to us. Master said that, “All different substances have their forms of existence in those other dimensions where they have very substantial and very complicated processes of evolution and forms of existence. This Falun emblem is the miniature of the universe. It also has its own form of existence and process of evolution in all other dimensions, so I call it a world.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture 5).

For practitioners before, if their masters were not high enough and did not arrange to have fruition status or Fo Wei for the disciples, without the status, the cultivators would not be able to succeed in cultivation and their cultivation, in the end, would be in vain. We are fortunate to be Dafa disciples and Master has installed a Falun on each and every one of us, which is to say, He has given us a world, and also given us a fruition status. We are the ones with fruition status, so we could succeed in cultivation. The Falun Master installed in the dantian area of us will generate the immortal infant and the air bubble (mysterious pass, Xuanguan). As we progress in cultivation, the bubble will grow larger and larger and mysterious pass will change positions several times, and when the bubble grows to be large enough to engulf our body, which would be the world of the practitioner. When we reach maturity in cultivation, the Falun Master installed would evolve as well and will really become the future world and cosmos for cultivator. As the energy from our gong column that is folded down and used to fill the world, a part of the new cosmos is then born. The birth of the new cosmos and world is, in fact, synchronous and related to our cultivation. The Fa is cultivating us, and we are cultivating the Falun in us. In the process of cultivating the Falun and the cosmos, we are participating in the creation of the new cosmos, and will eventually become the lord of our own cosmic system. From this angle, what Master mentioned in the Fa that an ordinary person wanting to buy a Falun for a few dozens of dollars is indeed quite hilarious and very amusing. After we reach consummation, we will become the lords of the cosmos that Master have arranged for us, which is also our fruition status. Therefore, what the astronomists observe today, such as the explosions in the universe, the generation of new celestial bodies, and the creation of the new cosmos, are all having something to do with us, with the Falun in our abdominal area, and with the states of our cultivation. When we send forth righteous thoughts, we are cleaning ourselves and cleansing out the evils in our cosmic area, and at the same time finding and saving those sentient beings we are supposed to save. If we don’t succeed in cultivation, we would then ruin the Falun given to us, destroy the world of ours, and the corresponding future cosmos of ours will no longer exist. If that really happens, our sin and guilt would simply be too great, and we can never excuse ourselves for failing to take our responsibility. Above is what I came to enlighten to, please correct any inappropriateness.

SFRT and cultivation together

I have had my hand tilted sideways when SFRT for quite some time. When my wife, a fellow practitioner pointed out this to me, I did not believe it and refused to acknowledge it. Later on she took a picture and even videotaped it, then I became completely speechless and astonished. From cultivation experience sharing of other practitioners I realized, SFRT with a titled hand or closed palms is no small matter, as this is completely useless and we are laughed at by the evils. Later, I saw about a dozen practitioners having the same problem during large group Fa study, and I wanted to let them know. But at the same time, I was afraid this may make people feel embarrassed so I held on to telling them. As time went by, I found this issue more and more severe in our group, and then I looked within and asked myself, do I really have the good, selfless heart for the wellbeing of fellow practitioners? I thought it through and then told those practitioners, giving them the cell phone pictures I took about their tilted hand or closed palms, and many of them were very grateful.

About a couple of years ago, during a large group sharing session, the lack of mutual understanding cooperation among us was brought up, some talked about other people’s shortcoming while one practitioner said she felt practitioners in Atlanta were all very nice, she really felt so. Upon hearing it, I was wondering, how could she think like that? There are so many of us who are not very compassionate toward each other, having so big of an ego, and not following directions well, how could she feel that everyone is “nice”? My thought at that time was that this practitioner was not too keen on observing, and can’t see the truth below the surface. But by now I realized, it was my thought that was incorrect. What she saw were good, shining points of fellow practitioners, and what I saw were only shortcomings of others, that’s why we had those different opinions. Nowadays, I also feel from the bottom of my heart that all our fellow practitioners are good and nice, everyone is so precious, and it’s so fortunate for us to have the predestined relationships of cultivating in this world together! When a fellow practitioner points out my gap, it is a tremendous help to me; but even when someone does not understand me or has some misconceptions about me, it’s also a big help to me as well, as that would help me think of where those misunderstandings were even occurring the first place. Gods and Buddha would never be misunderstood by others, it must be that there is something wrong with me, which leads to misunderstandings to take place.

Last year when we were promoting Shen Yun, a practitioner from another city arranged for us to give a presentation to a senior citizen center in Buckhead area of Atlanta. I went with two other practitioners to give a presentation, while the out of town practitioner kept reminding all the parties of the event. After the presentation, I felt the overall cooperation and collaboration by all practitioners involved were so great, and the energy field among us was so good, harmonies and pure. It turned out, after the event, the practitioner told us the senior center booked a dozen ticket and would go to the show as a group. We were all very pleased with the outcome.

In the past year, my mom stayed with us in Atlanta. Years ago, in order to persuade her to quit CCP membership, I had to spend several years of time to make it happen. During her visit to America this time, she stayed longer and had the opportunity to observe us the three practitioners, in our daily acts and words. We suggested her to practice for healing and keeping fit, she was reluctant at first, then started to do the exercises. She felt better and better, and in the end, she could even sit in double lotus position for almost an hour, she is 75. Occasionally, she would listen to us and study the Fa from time to time. In the middle of March, just a week before she headed back to China, we had a mini family Fahui in our kitchen, and three of us all looked within for our own gaps in cultivation and also kindly offered suggestions as to how to make improvements for others. In the end, my mom said, “Today, I am really touched and moved by you guys, cultivation practitioners are truly very good. When I return to China, I would tell others what I saw and heard today.”

Truth Clarification among Ordinary People

Throughout our cultivation in the Fa-rectification period, all of us are quite busy doing things we are supposed to do. In 2014, I was on schedule to be up for tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. The promotion and tenue process is critical to ordinary people, as this directly affects whether one can continue to teach at this institution and whether one can get a secured faculty position for the rest of your career. In academia, there were even instances where people who were unhappy with the promotion and tenure decision went so far as to hurting someone with weapons. As a practitioner, Dafa made me capable of viewing it with a calm and peaceful mind. During the semester, all my activities and participation in all the Dafa projects and truth clarification were not at all affected. I prepared my package with supporting documents, two big binders of files, in very short period of time. I turned it in without too much concern, thinking whatever outcome might there be, let it be. Half a year later, my application was approved by the board of trustees of the state. Looking back, I myself found it inconceivable. Of course this is a good thing to happen for truth clarification, but during the semester, in addition to preparing for the application package, I also published a book on Chinese business and economy, went to Taiwan and other countries to travel and speak, taught my regular classes and performed university and school services, acted as chief editor for our local DJY and editors for a national page and a section of New Epoch magazine, and participated in Shen Yun promotion as well. Nothing had been delayed, and everything was completed in time and according to plan, I didn’t know how this could happen and just found it to be incredible. Yet I soon realized, it was all done by Master, we were just following the script and walk the path that’s arranged by Master, and that is it. We are supernormal, as long as we walk our path in a righteous manner, no forces could stop us. In the following year 2015, with Master’s blessing, I was awarded an endowed chair’s position in the School of Business, which is also an honor in ordinary people society. In recent years, the U.S. economy is just recovering from the recession and money on higher education is still tight. But all of a sudden the School had some extra money and a few chaired professorship positions were established. One of them seems to be prepared just for me. The whole process of application, preparation, and approval was amazingly smooth, which must be an encouragement from Master and righteous gods.

Over 10 years ago, Master clearly enlightened me in my dream that my path of validating the Fa was through participating in our media, by writing articles and using my pen to clarify the truth and validate the Fa. In the beginning, I submitted articles to mainstream American media and clarified the truth. Once, a well-known national weekly magazine used my article. But, out of the two pages of the article that I submitted, they only used two sentences, which were not the key points that I wanted to make. I then realized, we can’t rely on ordinary people’s media, they can’t play much of a role, and we must support our own media. Since 2002, I have continually been writing for Chinese Epochtimes, New Epoch magazine, and other media outlets reports, commentaries, and columns every week, with well over 1, 000 articles in total. Once, a practitioner asked me, “Are you still writing? Haven’t you done pouring?” I was a little surprised for a moment, then I realized, true, it has been many years, but even though sometimes it took me some time to think about a suitable topic, I have never been unable to produce. Writing news report or being interviewed is usually easy, but writing original column articles and commentaries are somewhat harder. During the process I found that, the quality of the articles I wrote and the ease or hardship of the writing process has everything to do with my cultivation state. In fact, Master said in Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles that “If what you are creating is on the right path, there will be less difficulties; if it's not on the right path, it will be more difficult. Or, when there's a problem with your understanding of something, there will be more difficulties; and when your understanding is free of problems, it will be less difficult. That's for sure. Dafa disciples have brought about many miracles.”

When my cultivation is in a good state, the thought and ideas would emerge like a spring and the writings would not even need much revision. Many thoughts, ideas, key points and arguments in writing all emerged all of a sudden in my brain right after my Fa study and SFRT. Often times, the good ideas and phrasing appeared so fast that I could not even have time to type or write them down, but having to call myself in my office number and having the answer machine to record them. In Chinese language, there is an idiomatic phrase “writing as if assisted by gods”, it really is so. Often times, I could feel that it was my Assistant Soul that is helping, and that higher level beings are providing the guidance. Sometimes, after an article is published for a while and then I read it again, it looks like somebody else’s writing, it is not badly written, and until I realized that the author was actually myself.

In fact, I have experienced something like the opening of the top of my skull twice, when I was fully awake and clear-minded. Once when I was walking and once driving, I suddenly felt that the top of my skull split into four or five flaps like orange peels, the top part of my head bone was soft and bendable. The top of my skull split open, with each of the flaps flipping and pointing up, then all the flaps would fall back down and close the skull, then it would split open again, repeating a dozen or so times. The whole process was very mysterious, shocking, very magical, truly reflecting the supernatural nature of Dafa cultivation.

In May of 2015, practitioners in Taiwan planned to host a seminar on Chinese economy, and they asked me to recommend some ordinary people experts in the field. One of the experts I recommended to them was Professor X, who taught at Peking University in Beijing before, and is now working for a think tank in Washington DC. According to the original plan, Professor X and I would leave from DC and Atlanta respectively, and we would meet in San Francisco and then board the same flight to Taipei. We were supposed to arrive at San Francisco airport about the same time and will get on a direct flight to Taipei by China Airlines. When I arrived and got off the plane at San Francisco, I texted him and said I had arrived, and I would see you soon. But he called me back in deep frustration and said that he was still at the airport in Washington DC, that he missed the flight! Worse, he repeatedly talked to representatives at the airline, they simply could not find a later flight to San Francisco on that day, and even if he could come to San Francisco on that day, there was no flight to Taipei on that day!

I realized immediately that we made a mistake and had a big loophole. We did not consider the fact that he is an ordinary person and could easily be interfered with. I should have realized this and should have reminded him before hand, and SFRT for him. I tried to calm him down and asked him to find another flight the next day. Doing that, even though he would be arriving at Taipei one day late, but he could still be able to be present on the seminar on Sunday. But, if he could not make it the next day, he would not be able to make it in Taipei for the seminar. The seminar was under preparation for several months and many VIP guests were invited to attend, and it’s impossible to change the date. Professor X inquired through all the airlines and could not find a ticket to Taipei the next day, he then searched online using several travel websites I gave him and still couldn’t find anything. As time passed by he became more and more frustrated. At this moment, the announcement came from China Airlines personnel that boarding started for the flight to Taipei. In desperate, Professor X asked me to give it a try and see if I could find a ticket for him. I sent forth righteous thoughts for him and told him that I would give it a try. I searched online, could not find any ticket either. I kept searching while sending forth righteous thoughts, then a seat became available, from Washington DC to San Francisco and then to Taipei the next day. At this time, the airline was announcing the last call to board, and almost all the passengers were onboard except me at the gate. I begged Master and righteous gods for help and support, and calmly and quickly entered all his information such as legal name, date of birth, passport number, and my credit card number into the system, then hit enter and waited. Success! I then forwarded the confirmation to him, closed my laptop, slipped it into my bag, and dashed to the gate. I was the last person to board, and right after I walked into the jet way, the gate closed behind me. When the airplane took off, I finally felt some relief and realized again the interference from the old forces, the seriousness of the fight between the righteous and the evil, and the mighty power of Dafa and righteous thoughts. In the end, the symposium at the National University of Taiwan was a great success.

After a seminar in Singapore in August of 2015, practitioners from Singapore and Malaysia planned a series of seminars on the Tao of business, business ethics, and Chinese economy in Johor Bauru (across from Singapore) and Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in January of 2016. The seminar in Kuala Lumpur was to be held in a high end, luxury hotel, in order to attract affluent Chinese businessmen in Malaysia. The hotel charge was quite high, and even with the proceeds from the ticket sales, it is still not enough. Local practitioner found a company that was willing to sponsor the event, but they wanted some management consulting work done for them in exchange. Since this is a win-win situation, we agreed to the conditions.

When I asked them about the details of the consulting project and in which areas that they needed it the most, and where the bottle neck was for the managers, I was told that the company, a manufacturer of palm oil processing equipment, employed over 100 workers, from countries such as India, Bangladeshi, Burma, Indonesia, and Thailand. The problem management faced was, these foreign workers were not very disciplined and proactive in their work, that they would slack off, not obey orders from supervisors, and would often drink and fight in workplace and in their dorms. Managers of the company, frustrated and tired, found no better way to encourage and motivate the workers, and the production efficiency was quite low. That’s why they needed the management consulting and training for their low to medium level managers. I told them that I would study the symptoms and analyze the situations, and would then provide them with some recommendations to improve the situation based on the latest management theories and principles.

In the four months following that, I was thinking very hard as to how to provide the consulting for them. Management theories of ordinary people society do provide various tools for motivating, encouraging, rewarding, and punishing employees. But, would this kind of Western theoretical framework work on Malaysian workers? This was not just a business or management issue, but also an ethical and moral issue given that those foreign workers just wanted to get paid, and not willing to perform their duties. How can I really touch their hearts and change their mentality, so as to make them obey the rule and work responsibly?

One day, when I was studying Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun, all of a sudden, like a thunder and lightning that just struck me, I knew exactly how I should perform the consulting for them. Master said that, “In our school of cultivation, these cases are relatively few. Even if there are some, they are not as notable. In terms of xinxing improvement, though, there are many outstanding examples. One practitioner works in a textile factory in a city in Shandong Province. After studying Falun Dafa, he taught other coworkers to practice. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. He used to take home pieces of towels from the textile factory, and so did the rest of the employees. After he started practicing Dafa, instead of taking things home, he brought back to the factory what he had taken home before. When others saw his actions, nobody would take things home anymore. Some employees also returned to the factory what they had previously taken home. This situation occurred throughout the entire factory.” “The director at a city’s Dafa instruction center went to a factory to see how Falun Dafa students were doing with their practice. The factory manager came out to greet him in person, “Since studying Falun Dafa, these workers have been coming to work early and going home late. They work very diligently and will do any assignment their supervisor gives. They also no longer compete for personal gain. By doing so, they’ve made the whole factory take on a new look, and the factory’s financial returns have also improved.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

In January of 2016, I went to Kuala Lumpur as scheduled. During the consulting session, to about 40-50 middle to high level managers of the factory, I first analyzed the issues and symptoms they are faced with, then introduced to them the latest in management theories, and then pointed out to them the limitations of those theories and incapability of the theories in dealing with moral decay in our society today. Following that, I introduced to them the cultivation and meditation practice of Falun Dafa, the truth about Dafa and its being persecuted by the Communist government of China, and provided several examples as to how Dafa uplifted the morality of people and changed people’s hearts. I read to them part of Lecture 4 that I mentioned above, and then offered some recommendations and action plan, which aims at changing the mind and heart of the employees and improving their operation. The audience listened attentively and was deeply touched. In the end, senior management said that they would adopt the recommendation and implement the action plan, would invite Falun Dafa practitioners from Kuala Lumpur to come and host 9-day seminars for their workers during noon break, guide them to learn and practice Falun Gong, and change the mind and improve morality from the bottom of people’s hearts.

Introduce Dafa to university classroom

Over the years and, I have been thinking about ways to introduce Falun Dafa meditation and cultivation to the classrooms, as a formal course in the curriculum. But I have yet to find the most appropriate approach even with years of exploration. On campus in America, as a formal part of the curriculum, a course needs to be associated with a school, a college, and a department. A course on cultivation and Dafa would, most likely, be placed in the departments of philosophy or religion, or even physical education or exercise science. But all of them are not very appropriate for Dafa, and it’s not suitable to have it in the school of business where I teach. As a college course, the instructor would usually give the perspectives from all sides, including those who are for and against it. But that would involve the contents of evil propaganda and slandering, which is the poisonous substance that I would not want to bring in. In addition, the instructor of the course is another issue. It would be ideal for a Dafa practitioner to be the one to introduce Dafa to students, but if a formal course is added, non-practitioners may also be there to serve as instructor, and that may cause some problems. These are some of the reasons that I have not been able to make breakthroughs on this project, even with some repeated efforts.

Then, in the beginning of this academic year, the associate provost of the university asked around in faculty email group as to who would like to offer some short courses in fall semester. There is an Academy for Lifelong Learning in our university, which provides many short courses, ranging in 1 to 2 weeks in length, for adults and local residents in the community. It is not toward a degree program, but only for learning new knowledge and continued education. I realize that this is the opportunity that I have been looking for, that I can offer a short course to introduce Falun Dafa cultivation and meditation in the academy, that I can first tell the students about cultivation culture in the Orient, the characteristics of Falun Gong, the persecution of Falun Gong in China, and then play Master’s lecture video and teach them the exercises. By doing so, we can avoid the hassles of the regular course mentioned above, and can provide the students, faculty, and local community a chance to get to know and learn Dafa. Not only is the course offered to faculty and students on campus, citizens off campus can have access as well. This seems to be the optimum plan that I can think of. At present, this formal short course to introduce Falun Dafa cultivation to college campus has been approved and listed in the course offering, and the course will start in fall, 2016. Deep in my heart, I am genuinely grateful to Master for His immense, benevolent compassion and support of disciples. This is just like what Master said, “When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn back the tide.” (“The Master-Disciple Bond “, Hong Yin, Volume II)

Since the Fa conference in Los Angeles in 2015 and the publication of Master’s new scripture about some practitioners whose only hope is to sprint, I had a dream around the end of last year and beginning of this year. When I woke up in the morning, I remembered the dream very vividly, with everything in the dream, the environment, things I saw and touched, the conversations, all extremely clear and I could recollect all the details. But I didn’t quite understand the meaning of the dream. I told my wife about the dream and she said, you must enlighten on this yourself. So I sat down and reminisced the dream scene by scene, and then understood completely what it meant to me and my cultivation.

The dream goes like this: In it, I came to in front of Master, and Master asked me to check on a tea set and how the tea was about to be made. I then went to the tea preparation room. Over there, there were two large, brass tea kettles on stoves, the stoves were burning and the water in the kettles almost boiling. The boiled water was meant to be poured into a tea set to make the tea. But, the kettles are relatively small, while the tea set that’s used to contain the hot, boiled water is quite big. The odd thing is, the tea set is not the usual round shape, but a huge, long, rectangular container. Because the rectangular tea set is so huge, there is no way that the boiled water will be enough to fulfill it. There is a huge gap in it. That’s is the entire dream.

The words “Tea set” is pronounced “cha ju” in Mandarin Chinese, and the word “gap” is also pronounced as “cha ju”. They sound almost identical. The Chinese characters of “fulfillment” and “consummation” are “yuan man”, with “yuan” meaning round and “man” meaning full, respectively. I came to the enlightenment that, the tea set is rectangular and not round, and the set cannot be fully filled, and it is so far away from being able to be fulfilled. That is to say, I am having a big distance from or a huge gap between the state of “yuan man”, or “consummation” in cultivation. With that distance to run or gap to fill, I must sprint, instead of walk, in my future cultivation. Of course, that is exactly what I will be doing down the road.

Please kindly point out any inappropriateness in my sharing.

Thank you Master, thank you fellow practitioners.
Heshi