Click on the below-mentioned, numbered subjects:
- Welcome
- What’s Happening?
- I experienced the results of strong righteous thoughts
- Learning to Say Kind Words
- Living Beings Should Naturally Be Good
- Thoughts about Westerners and Chinese
- Falun Dafa Made Me a Better Teacher
- Cultivation Insights: Kind Thoughts
- 1. Welcome
Welcome to the October 2008 Falun Dafa India Newsletter.
Although, they managed to keep the persecution and the Human rights violations under wraps during the Beijing Olympics a lot of people went back with the feeling that something was amiss. The world Media is now exposing the adulterated milk powder scandal which has claimed the lives of thousands of children.
This issue has a compilation of experience-sharing Articles gleaned from Clearwisdom that always shine through because of their insights and fine quality of sharing. It is important to read the Clearwisdom, Pureinsight and other Dafa sites. We make an effort to select Articles from the Archives which people don’t go back to and are relevant even today. Contributions are welcome from practitioners.
Heshi! Hope, you like the selection of Articles and gain some new insights!
Note: "All the contents in this newsletter - except for quotations and excerpts of writings of the founder Mr. Li Hongzhi - are only ideas and experiences of practitioners and do not represent Falun Dafa in itself."
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- 2. What’s Happening?
Practitioners in Bangalore have been working hard to organize the participation of the Divine Land Marching Band in the Dussera procession in Mysore.
Practitioners from Nagpur have also been trying to get the Band to perform in Nagpur.
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- 3. I experienced the results of strong righteous thoughts
By an Indian practitioner
I am an Indian housewife who has started Dafa cultivation a short while ago. Like I stated in my previous posting I continue to experience the many miracles of Dafa!
We have our first child who is nine years old. Recently, she often expressed feeling very lonely when other kids of her age bracket had brothers and sisters and were getting the companionship. She often would ask " Mommy, why don’t I have a brother or a sister? " which we could not easily answer! I had a miscarriage four years ago and that had left me in great pain and trauma. Also, my medical condition at that time mainly the pre-diabetic state and the insulin injections that I had to take scared me from trying to conceive a second child. Also, at that time I did not practice Dafa. Later, since last year I started cultivating Dafa and we decided to plan for our second child, and with Master's immense grace and mercy my pregnancy test came out to be positive!
Routine tests during this period came out normal. However, recently a routine screening test called Trisonomy21 (used to detect abnormalities in fetus) came out to be "high risk" or positive! I was still using the human mindset and was very upset and cried a lot. I was asking Master Li in my mind as to why was I facing this situation and what wrong I had done. Also, I promised him that I would further be careful and strict with my xinxing improvement effort. Our gynaec asked us to repeat the test at a different facility (before recommending doing an invasive amnio to confirm the screening test) whose results would take 2-3 days to come.
Meanwhile my husband who is also a Dafa practitioner tried to console me and asked me to have righteous thoughts all the time. At the same time, he also saw an article on the clearwisdom website about a practitioner's experience of sending righteous thoughts to clear out the evil interference. Practitioners postings on the Clearwisdom website (http://www.clearwisdom.net) are known for their great insight and fine quality of sharing.
He too sent out the righteous thoughts repeatedly during those 2-3 days. We were holding in our mind the following powerful thought.
"We are Dafa disciples and our children too are Dafa disciples who have come to obtain the Fa this precious time when the Master is rectifying the Fa. Old forces absolutely cannot interfere and cause damage! Let all the vicious old forces and all their evil arrangements surrounding Dafa disciples disintegrate! And let everything be assimilated to Zhen-Shan-Ren! "
Also meanwhile we had let go the attachment to the results of the test and were focusing on following the Fa.
Miraculously enough the results of the test came out to be negative! Also, the anomaly scan results came out to be negative or normal! We realized that Master cares for us more than we do! Our thoughts on Dafa and strong righteous thoughts can subdue hundred evil and guide us on our cultivation path. Also, if we have strong righteous thoughts Master can turn the tide in favor of us. He says that in his poem in HongYin Vol IIThe Master-Disciple Bond
Four years has the wild evil surged
A steady helm has assured the right course
The Disciples of Fa have gone through evil trials
And though great the pressure, their wills are unbowed
There is no affect between master and disciple
The Buddha’s grace remolds Heaven and Earth
When disciples have ample righteous thoughts
Master has the power to turn back the tide
Master Li
February 1, 2004 This is my recent experience. Since I have a limited understanding at my level, please point out anything that is improper.
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- 4. Learning to Say Kind Words
By a teacher at Minghui Dou Dou Kindergarten in Taiwan
(PureInsight.org) Note: Dou Dou means "little sprouting beans" in Chinese, a common metaphor for small children. For more information about Minghui Dou Dou Kindergarten, please read "PureInsight.org: Minghui Dou Dou Kindergarten Is Established in Taiwan."
In today's world, people say uncharitable things about each other all the time. It is rare to find someone who chooses to say kind things about other people. If we fail to say kind things about other people, how do we expect our children to learn to say kind things about other people?
At Minghui Dou Dou Kindergarten, we usually wrap up each day by reviewing the day's activities with the children. One day, I decided to change the routine and end the day by prompting the children to say kind things about other people. "Class, can anyone think of a classmate who behaved well today?" This was supposed to be a simple question, but the class suddenly became silent and still, as if I had given them a challenge. After two long, silent minutes, a kid raised her hand and answered seriously, "Teacher, C poked at me today." Other kids looked at me, anticipating my reply. It was not until then that I realized that they did not even know what "kind words" meant. I explained to the little girl, "These are not kind words. Saying kind words is saying the virtues or good things about other people. For example, I saw Bobo and Hanghang from the third grade helping little girls out in the first grade today. I would call Bobo and Hanghang thoughtful. Calling people 'thoughtful' is saying kind words." After hearing my explanation, the children looked at each other and looked confused. Before I called it a day, I told them, "Tomorrow I expect you to start saying kind words about other kids. Therefore, I hope that you will start observing other kids tomorrow."
A few days later, the children gradually learned to find other kids' virtues. At breaks, many of them were eager to tell me that they saw good things in other kids. At first, the merit they found in other kids was usually about being able to concentrate on practicing the Falun Gong exercises, completing the practice of the Falun Standing Stance without taking any breaks, or completing the practice of Strengthening Divine Powers without putting down the legs (At Minghui Dou Dou Kindergarten, we practice the Falun Gong exercises every day). Gradually, older kids learned to appreciate other kids' merits at a deeper level. "Teacher, Jingyun showed better table manners today!" "Teacher, Dingding pointed at each Chinese character when he studied the Fa today. He studied the Fa well today!" I also reminded the praised kids to thank the children who paid them compliments.
After a few weeks, I began to ask the children to observe their parents and pay them compliments. I hope that they will prompt their families to have more kind thoughts.
I think I have benefited the most from the exercise. In the first few days when the kids were not very enthusiastic about participating in the exercise, I had to give them many examples of good words, such as "gentle," "considerate," "thoughtful." I was surprised that I had to think for a long time to come up with good words. It means that I rarely used these words in my daily life! It is an alarming sign for me. How do I prompt the students to say kind things about others when I don't even remember many kind words?
Nowadays the children sometimes come up to me to tell me good things about other kids. I ask them to pay those kids direct compliments. Before the end of each day, I ask the kids to tell each other their observed good behavior. Sometimes the kids would come whispering in my ear, "I think you did very well today, teacher!" My heart would melt each time I heard such compliments.
It gives me great pleasure to hear the kids praising each other's good behavior. When a kid hears a compliment from his peers, he will feel very welcome, included and confident!
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- 5. Living Beings Should Naturally Be Good
By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
When I first started cultivation in Falun Dafa, my goal was to obtain the Tao and reach consummation. While I was striving toward this goal, nothing could stop me from cultivating, not even the suffering I experienced during karma elimination and getting rid of all kinds of attachments. I was determined in my righteous thoughts and in giving up the attachment to life and death. Even though it was not perfect and sometimes I fumbled through the tests, eventually, I made it through.
In due course, I found out that the goal I had at the beginning of my cultivation was also a deeply hidden and an easy to overlook fundamental attachment. In order to reach my goal of consummation, I was willing to give up all I had in this human world, even my life. My xinxing (1) indeed was improved. However, would I still have been able to do the same without this goal? Would I still have been able to put down the attachment to life and death just for the positive elements in the universe and the salvation of other beings without thinking about my own salvation? Could I still do things for others regardless of the personal price and in any situation? When I discovered the fundamental selfishness hiding in my initial goal, I put down that goal.
In the beginning, when I first abandoned the goal of self-cultivation, I often reminded myself that as a living being I should be good by nature because I am a life created by Dafa whose nature was originally assimilated to the characteristic of the universe. Therefore, my basic nature was good from the beginning. Since it had turned bad over the course of countless lifetimes, now I should become good again without any conditions. Even though my original goal was to join Fa-rectification cultivation, actually I was still doing it for selfish reasons and had not really given up selfishness. My cultivation was still from a basis of attachment.
When I finally let go of this fundamental attachment, I no longer had the mentality that I had before. I started my cultivation over in a different state. In this condition, I felt that the Fa (2) had higher requirements for me than before. Those notions that I had developed during my cultivation in earlier years kept reappearing and I had to identify and eliminate them one by one. While cultivating without selfish goals, I still needed to improve my xinxing. Some other human notions that I had initially suppressed with force also often re-emerged and they also needed to be cleaned out. Under such a condition, I was able to look at my own dimensions with righteous thoughts and distinguish and eliminate all kinds of human notions without being affected or overwhelmed. I felt my true self starting to become more revealed and my mind becoming clearer.
Before that, when I encountered issues, I would remind myself that I was a practitioner and that I should do this and that. Now, when I encounter problems, I no longer use the human way of thinking. I just use the Fa to evaluate those human notions occurring in my own dimensions and I'm not affected by them. I just negate their existence and maintain my own pure righteous thoughts. Once I was able to do this, it seemed like I was always able to understand some principle from the Fa. Perhaps it was the natural manifestation of the Fa when my xinxing met the requirements of the Fa at different levels. After a while, when the human notions in my own dimension became less and less, my true self started to become strong and I gradually understood that the previous thoughts in my mind were actually all human notions. Then, when I read Teacher's lectures, my heart was pure and I had a feeling that worldly things could no longer affect me. It was as though I kept liberating myself from human notions.
Looking at our fellow practitioners illegally detained in China, some of them are dying due to the persecution. Are those practitioners not firm? They are very firm practitioners. But why does the evil still dare to persecute them? Is it because one's fundamental attachment has not been recognized and the situation has become a deadlock? Here, I am not questioning those practitioners' firm hearts toward Teacher and Dafa. But, if we could put down the fundamental attachment to ourselves, could the evil still find excuses to persecute us? Would the persecution still exist?
A living being should naturally be good. To do good with a human objective, one can never reach the realm of Gods and Buddhas because that still has a selfish goal. It would be best if we could put down the fundamental attachment of doing things for ourselves, correctly position the relation between Fa-rectification and self-cultivation, and always have the goal of perfecting everything for Fa-rectification while continuously upgrading our own xinxing standard. It's not right to only focus on self-cultivation and to disregard our responsibilities in this Fa-rectification period. It's also wrong to ignore the fundamental xinxing improvement in one's individual cultivation.
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- 6. Thoughts about Westerners and Chinese
By a Western practitioner
(Clearwisdom.net)
When I began my cultivation I had the wish to learn Chinese for three reasons:
1. I want to be able to listen to and better understand our Master.
2. To be able to clarify the facts directly to Chinese-speaking people.
3. To be able to communicate with my fellow disciples who do not speak English.
For a long time I could only understand a very few number of Chinese words. I could only communicate the very basics of hello, thank you, etc. I eventually began to be involved with a Dafa project. When I went, many practitioners said I couldn't help because I couldn't understand Chinese.
It is very troublesome not knowing what everyone is talking about around you. Then during the Chicago 2003 experience sharing conference, a practitioner gave me an MP3 player with Master's lectures in Chinese, without translation. I began to listen to them frequently. When I returned to the Dafa project about a week later, I found that I could speak very simple sentences and could help some practitioners with certain technical problems. After about 3-6 months, I found that I could hold conversations with Chinese practitioners and could understand about 60-70% of Master's lectures. It was truly that Master had given me this to use during this time because I could let go of certain things, "No loss, no gain" (Zhuan Falun).
Throughout my cultivation I have found that I don't feel like either a westerner or a Chinese. I just feel like a particle of Dafa. When we carry notions about ourselves as Chinese or Westerner we often put up a large barrier that stops us from doing things that a Dafa disciple should do. We are stopping ourselves from completely melting into the Fa.
Both Chinese and Westerners have good parts, and both have bad parts. Master talks about the differences between Westerners and Chinese in Zhuan Falun. The Fa was not taught for knowledge or to be used to justify our actions. The Fa is taught for us to cultivate; cultivate away this notion of separation between Western and Chinese. Only then can we truly harmonize as one body. Why did Master tell us that when we came here we were first Chinese?
The way I see it, the good parts of the westerner and the good parts of the Chinese don't specifically belong to any race of people. The reason that the westerner and Chinese are like this is just the different cultivation paths that need to be taken.
Also I would like to add that I don't think the negative aspects of either western or Chinese are a part of their culture. As I understand it, cultures are from different heavenly kingdoms. Any bad parts are a result of the different attachments and notions that have developed in the human world while in the cultural environments. The reason why certain attachments and notions are stronger in different cultures of people is because each cultural environment is different, and the notions developed in each are a reflection of their uniqueness. The resultant separation that has been displayed among Dafa disciples has been constantly used during the Fa-rectification by the old forces to persecute us.
I understand that the separation of communication by creating so many languages in the world is part of the so-called "test" the old forces arranged. I think that if Master had done the Fa-rectification in one part, the old forces would have arranged for the entire world to speak a common language.
Let's rid ourselves of the different notions we have towards the Chinese or Western practitioners and look inside ourselves to get rid of every last thing of the old cosmos, so that we may more fully assimilate to the Fa. Then we will naturally be one body.
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- 7. Falun Dafa Made Me a Better Teacher
By a practitioner from China
(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa has changed me, making me an excellent teacher.
In doing my work, when I was able to put down my attachment to myself, my attachments to showing off, to reputation and personal gain, I become able to think of things from a higher perspective. What on the earth do I work for? What can I do for the students? The level of my teaching has also become higher and higher for the same reason. After listening to my class lecture, our supervisor said, "You completely understand the new concepts in education reform and carry them through your teaching practice. You are an excellent teacher." As a matter of fact, this change has come about solely through my practice of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." In the process of my practicing Dafa, I have become more and more reasonable and clear-minded, able to see the essential parts of the problems better and better. Then, better methods came up in my class teaching, which looked and sounded "new" to others.
I was once vexed at why some kids could not succeed in higher grades since I taught them exactly the same way as I did to students with good grades. Later in my cultivation of Dafa, I suddenly realized that any child's grades, high or low, are not absolutely related to his intelligence, but instead it was related to other personal factors like their attentiveness and patience. Furthermore, I came to understand that the state of mind of students is very similar to that of cultivators. Students who appeared to pay particular attention to study rarely attracted outside interference since their mentalities are relatively stable.
Within two months I had realized the above truth. However, it took a foreign educator fifty years to realize this truth, having done many experiments. Now, I have a more peaceful and more benevolent mentality with which to teach kids how to be good people. In this, I am being responsible for their future, and not just paying attention to my personal success and gain, like I did before.
I used the principles which I had realized in studying Falun Dafa, to inspire students, telling them: there are two little persons in your body. One of them is light and bright, very kind and tolerant, and loves people very much around you; another one is dark, loves fighting and cursing people. However, you should remember, only that light little person is truly yourself, while the dark one is not. Then, when someone is bullying you, that dark little person makes you angry, telling you "beat him up"! If you follow this, won't it be a mistake? Make sure that you remember to reject it. Gradually, several kids in my class who fought and cursed their schoolmates changed a lot and their grades also went up. The atmosphere in my class is also better. Even if a problem does come up, I can solve it more reasonably.
Our principal said that I am an excellent teacher. But this "excellence" appeared only after I started practicing Falun Dafa. Before then, I treated kids in a rude way, which makes me feel shocked and ashamed whenever I recall it. I know that if I had not practiced Falun Dafa I might have made a group of kids live in a negative state, teaching them to complain all the time and be depressed.
I have visited some psychology websites. A psychotherapist talked about the joys and sorrows in his profession. Experience made him finally realize that a psychotherapist must be peaceful and friendly, and help patients with a peaceful and friendly mentality. Having read his research articles, I felt a little sad. After nine years of hard research, he came to understand the above truth, which I realized in reading Zhuan Falun two years into my cultivation. Furthermore, what I learned is something more profound. I learned that medicine is not needed at all to cure psychological diseases, and that a more direct method is available to find the root of a psychological disease. It is my knowledge of psychology that I have used to clarify the truth to one of my colleagues.
I have a student who transferred to my class recently. When I clarified the truth to him, he rejected it. However, I have been patient and gradually influenced him by example. I thought that I must have some problems since otherwise he would not have rejected the truth. Later, he wrote a composition with the title of "My good teacher." One paragraph was added to the end: Teacher, September 10 is our Teachers' Day and I will give you a sentence. "You are the great sea and I am only a small boat, which can never go out of this vast sea." I was really moved then because this reminded me of our Teacher.
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- 8. Cultivation Insights: Kind Thoughts
By a Dafa disciple outside of China
[PureInsight.org] Today, I participated in a Falun Dafa truth-clarification activity and in the process came to some new understandings on cultivation.
When I saw the stream of people racing by, many of them (especially Chinese people) not taking our materials, I was very worried. I thought in my mind: “What is happening today is what you have been waiting for one lifetime after another. Can’t you slow your pace and pay a little attention to the most important thing in your whole life?”
Gradually, all complaints and notions disappeared from my mind. What was left was only compassion and righteous thoughts. I thought: “I come here purely for you. No matter what your preconceived notions or how you look at me, I just want to help you break through any of the elements that block you. I am bringing a bright future for your eternal life...”
Slowly, the situation became better, and many people started to pay attention and ask questions.
From this, I also realized that the state of my mind is critical. When I had this or that kind of everyday thoughts, how could my words and actions have the effect of saving sentient beings?
During that time, I also thought about how I did in my daily life and at my job. I saw that I often used a human mind to evaluate or judge other people or things. Sometimes, I even complained or whined. In fact, all lives came here for Dafa. The truth is far from what people can see with human notions. When we do not do well, we truly waste opportunities one after another.
Thinking of this, I made up my mind to do even better from now on.
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