J. S.

Master gave us an extremely serious and very stern warning last year at the Fahui in Los Angeles, “If many people indeed have fallen behind, or can’t keep up—and I’m referring to Dafa disciples—then really nothing could be sadder to see…In cultivation there are different realms. I am really anxious about this. The more time passes the more anxious I get.” (Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference)

These words of Master made me feel heavy-hearted, will I become consummated when the Fa-rectification is over? If the Fa-rectification were to end tomorrow, will I become fully consummated? Examining my state of cultivation over the years, I have not made too big a progress. True I am doing something to validate the Fa, but I have yet many human notions to relinquish. I live in a small town and far away from fellow practitioners, and I am surrounded by ordinary people. In order to change my current state, I must look within, and run, instead of walk, to cultivate myself. I would like to report to Master and fellow practitioners about my recent cultivation.

Master said in a Fahui in Switzerland that, “This Fa is immense. During the course of your cultivation, as long as you take yourself to be a cultivator, cultivate steadily and firmly, and keep reading the book, you will continually ascend and improve. Add to that our supplementary method—performing the exercises—and your rate of improvement is very fast. It’s the fastest way to cultivate.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland). I then start to study the Fa very attentively. At present, I participate in the telephone group morning exercises at 4:45 am and do the five sets of exercises, then study one lecture of Zhuan Falun. Every night, I would study the new lectures for an hour. On Sundays, I would study 3 lectures of Zhuan Falun. Even though I have read some lectures several times, but they are still not registered in my mind. Now when I read them again, I am deeply touched by them, realizing further the necessity of Fa study. I want to thank fellow practitioner for setting up a telephone-net Fa study group, which is very beneficial and convenient to those of us who live far away from the metropolis.

In studying the Fa, I pay attention not to make it a formality but look inward to find my own gaps. For example, about the cultivation of speech, whenever I read this chapter I would examine myself, Master said that “We should all speak according to a practitioner’s xinxing rather than create conflicts or say something improper… The cultivation of speech that we teach refers to: that which involves one’s reputation and personal gain that cannot be given up among everyday people, that which has nothing to do with actual work of cultivators in society, the senseless gossiping among cultivators in the same school of cultivation, attachments that cause one to show off, hearsay or circulating rumors, or those discussions on some social issues that one is excited about. I hold that in these areas we should watch what we say – that is the cultivation of speech we refer to.” (Zhuan Falun, Lecture 8)

These paragraphs of Fa gave the guidelines for cultivating our speech. I compare and contrast with my own behavior, and found that I did terribly. I am very fond of talking by nature, and would feel bored if there is nobody to talk to. Whenever I have a chance to talk to fellow practitioners, I would love to chat with them, often about senseless things of others. These would put a lot of karma to my dimensional field. A good cultivator should be, in most times, quiet and calm. It’s really that I have gaps in cultivation than attributing it to my personal nature. I have negative substances in my dimensional field, and I must change myself in order to cultivate to high levels.

I started to gradually change myself and look within whenever I encounter something, and not saying things casually or without thinking. I would rather listen to others’ opinion more often and try to supplement and perfect it when I see anyplace that is not perfect. I have not done well apparently with regard to “Compassion” and “Tolerance”. For example, I would not say things nicely or would blame fellow practitioners or families in my heart when I don’t like what they say or do. That’s not compassionate and tolerant, and are the evil nature of me that I much get rid of. Nowadays, whenever I become unhappy with anything, I would immediately look inward to find where I had fault. In studying the Fa, I am requesting myself to recite Zhuan Falun, instead of just reading Zhuan Falun. Master said in the Fa conference in Switzerland that “Why do you memorize the book? Isn’t it for reaching Consummation? Memorizing Zhuan Falun helps you improve, since both the microscopic part of your body and the human part at the outermost surface are memorizing it together.” (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland).

Two years ago, I recited Zhuan Falun once. In my personal understanding, reciting the Fa is to engrave the Fa to the micro dimension of our life at a certain level, and then, that level of us is assimilated to the Fa. Now I already have the cosmic great Fa in my life, which in itself would speed up my pace in assimilating to the Fa.

Reading Minghui articles daily to find my gap

Minghui is the platform of exchange and sharing for Dafa practitioners worldwide. Those sharing articles are very precious, showcasing how practitioners worldwide are cultivating diligently. Often times, one article or one sentence in the sharing would touch me deeply, I felt they are so good and I wished I read it earlier. For example, in an article entitled “Dafa disciple in the eyes of a deity”, the deity said that “ordinary people can’t see the power of Dafa, if a practitioner truly believes in and trusts Master and Dafa 100%, there would be no problem at all and no obstacle would impede him. Those with problems are all having issues with their belief to a certain degree. Somebody may appear to believe truly, but his diligence in cultivation and firmness in belief were all for showing to others, and his true inner self and his actions will not escape the eyes of the divine.” I think these words are so true and indeed very profound. Diligence in cultivation or not, cannot be seen from the outside or how much the person has done, only the person himself truly knows the answer. So we really have to look within to find our shortcomings, and dare to touch our sore spots.

Over the years, I live on $900 dollars a month of social security retirement income, and I also give some money to my mom and her sister who are in senior care centers in China, so my budget is very tight, let alone moving to Atlanta and buying a house. Of course I could go find a job, as I have a master’s degree in accounting and a certificate of CPA. Yet if I do that, I would not have any time to do many of the Dafa projects on hand. How I allocate my time is up to how I enlighten on this matter. Do I put Dafa project first or my own, personal matter first? Should I put my personal wealth, the fame and profit of my children first, and then only do Dafa projects after those things are taken care of? Or, I should do what Master wants us do eagerly, and put saving sentient beings as the first priority? All gods are watching us, and I must make a decision on this matter in order to cultivate truly. I chose to live a simple life, do well the Dafa projects in our local area. Sometimes, when I saw the big houses of my friends or fellow practitioners, I would tell myself, no need to admire that, everyone has his or her own life, I would feel more at ease if I compare my lifestyle with those inferior to me. I browse Minghui and download articles from the site very often, from which I found many big gaps of mine. I was inspired and encouraged by those articles, and I am determined to learn from them, endure sufferings, and truly cultivate myself. I want to change my state of cultivation.

Assist Master in Fa rectification and save sentient beings

Master said in “Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference” that, “But if you can, as cultivators, steady your minds a bit and do well at what you’re supposed to do, everything will be there for you, in fact. If you can all manage to do the three things well, divine beings will look after you even if you are off in a remote corner of the world, and so will Master’s law bodies.” “What is a Dafa disciple? A disciple of the Great Way (Dafa) of the cosmos. Could it suffice to just attain your own, individual consummation? Who wouldn’t have become a Dafa disciple if that were the case? Dafa’s power to save people is simply enormous; it would have been really easy to achieve that. Dafa disciples have a mission, and it is both a formidable and difficult one.”

In the past, my understanding of “retirement” was to go back to China to accompany my mother, meet with friends, go to tourist destinations, and live leisurely. Now I realize that is the life of ordinary people. As a cultivator, we must share Master’s sense of urgency, and use time wisely to help promote Dafa and clarify the truth to save people. Once, I read an article on Minghui where it says about the scene a fellow practitioner saw with her celestial eye while distributing truth materials in New Zealand, when she put the truth materials into the mailbox of an ordinary person, golden lights emitted from the truth fliers, black qi around the house dissipated, and an angel on the roof was so happy it flew up into the sky.

I came to the enlightenment that this is a very effective way, so I often have some materials in my bag when I go out. Distributing truth materials is one major way. In the meantime, I setup a permanent exercise site in Chattanooga and do exercise or teach exercise every Thursday morning. I also contacted my former employer to play the truth and Dafa videos, one of them is a 7-minute video that I downloaded from Fang Guang Ming, about how Falun Gong is spreading in the West and how practitioners benefiting from the exercise; the other is a 10 minute short film about the persecution of Falun Gong. I played the video at a monthly meeting of AARP in Chattanooga recently, and the result was very good. I also answered some questions. If there is anyone who wants to learn, I would ask them to come to the exercise site on Thursday. If there are many people, I would plan a 9-lecture class. Nowadays I am very busy, involving in some additional Dafa projects.

I understand that being diligent in cultivation is not measured by how many lectures you study every day or how much you can recite, or how much of the work you have performed to validate the Fa. What is more important is the mindset you have when doing those things and your first reactions when encountering certain situations. Whenever I encounter some, I would look within to find where I felt short, and rectify myself. I want to strengthen my righteous thoughts while doing those things. As a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, I am lucky to be in the Fa, be able to understand the true meaning of cultivation, validate Dafa's miracles, save sentient beings, and fulfill myself. This is my greatest honor and unparalleled blessing.
Please kindly correct any inappropriateness in my sharing