Experience or Lesson?

Several days ago I went downtown for some business. I took the opportunity to attend a small experience sharing meeting with six fellow Falun Gong practitioners. At the meeting, a fellow practitioner with whom I am very familiar talked about various tribulations he had experienced when he was wandering about in our area homeless and destitute [due to the persecution], and talked about his experience of overcoming obstacles with righteous thoughts and with firm belief in Master and Falun Dafa. I am familiar with many of his experiences and we had even faced many obstacles together. These experiences are very touching and they are very helpful for practitioners who do not have a clear understanding about the principles of the Fa (Law taught in Falun Gong). But several days later I suddenly came to realise that the difference between "experience" and "lesson" must not be obscured!

For example: The first thing he talked about occurred on May 12th, 2001. There was a Fa conference planned for the next day, but he and my second eldest sister were arrested by police from the nearby police station for posting truth clarification flyers. This arrest resulted in many fellow practitioners living nearby my sister’s home not attending the Fa conference, and those who attended the Fa conference felt tremendous pressure.

The second thing he talked about occurred last summer. The residence he rented had exceeded the term of the lease and he did not get in touch with the landlord in time. Several days later, the landlord pried open the door to the residence, finding Falun Dafa books, CDs and other materials in the room. The landlord tidied up these items and stored them in his own home. When the practitioner came back, with his righteous thoughts and with other fellow practitioners’ righteous thoughts, the landlord returned the items. But two days later, many police and armed police showed up at the building. They searched the residential area door by door to investigate whether there were people from other areas living there. This caused panic among many practitioners in this area. Even today there are still practitioners who say that this practitioner is a "special agent" and he purposely exposed practitioners in the area. (Many practitioners living in this area were homeless and destitute due to the persecution.) This created significant barriers among the practitioners.

I noticed that often when we talk about our experiences, we talk about how we faced the evil authorities and didn’t cooperate with them, how we finally broke through the tribulations and obstacles, and how we firmly believed in Falun Dafa and Master, but we rarely emphasise how to move forward in a more steadfast and rational manner, how to clearheadedly protect our cultivation environment from being disturbed, and how to diligently strive forward together and improve together.

From one aspect, this is the fundamental difference between the cultivation way of the old universe and the cultivation way of the new universe. In the cultivation way of the old universe there manifests the factor of being "self centred," and selfishness. For example, we take as "experiences" how we walk a Dafa practitioner’s path and we take this as "evidence" of our firm belief in Master and Dafa Great Law). But we are lives who must achieve the standard of the new universe. Not to mention that such a mentality acknowledges in a disguised way the existence of the old forces and its persecution. Moreover, if not corrected, this mentality can bring about significant difficulties to oneself, and bring about interference to fellow practitioners. It can even result in losses to the local environment that cannot be made up for.

Many times, one telephone call or one rational action can completely avoid all potential troubles. No matter how small an action, a harmonious mentality is the true manifestation of a life’s cultivation level achieved in Dafa. Selflessness and sincerely considering others, saving lives with a completely merciful mentality, and facing everything with a clear mind -- only this way can we meet the requirements of Dafa!

There are things that we may think are trivial. But the evil old forces do not look at it that way. They do everything possible to take advantage of our negligence in order to persecute us. There were practitioners who, after arguing with their family members, went out to distribute truth clarification materials with a disturbed mind. They were arrested and illegally sentenced. There were also practitioners who had truth clarification materials stored in exposed places in their homes, so when the police went there, they easily noticed the materials and the practitioners were arrested. These kinds of examples are too numerous to cite individually.

Then viewing from this point, there is no "big thing" or "small thing" in cultivation. A small thing not done well may bring about extremely big losses or even regrets that can never be made up for! Although we have gone through obstacles and tribulations with righteous thoughts and deeds, how do we make up for the resultant losses, including the pressure our fellow practitioners had to suffer, and the unnecessary difficulties caused to our activities to save lives? This is not what our Master wants! These are unnecessary problems created by ourselves and our surroundings because of our negligence. In more explicit words, this is the lesson we should learn!

This "lesson" reminds us to think of others and to think of other practitioners when encountering problems, and reminds us that we should no longer circle around "how to protect myself." If we can cultivate ourselves to the realm of "selflessness," there is no base for the existence of "I." As a matter of fact, this practitioner and I had shared understandings in this aspect: We will be safest only if we "melt into the Fa." In more explicit words, we must cultivate benevolence and wisdom, and even more, we must cultivate indestructible righteous thoughts. We should not comprehend Master’s Fa in an extreme and immature way; and we should cultivate ourselves among people in a way that conforms to society as much as possible. Only when we can do it well in all aspects can we fulfil our great mission of saving lives and validating Dafa!

The above is my personal point of view and is only for reference. Please benevolently point out any mistakes.