Sweden: Cultivate myself better to save all sentient beings in my area

Greetings to our Great Master and all fellow practitioners!

I started to practice in 1998 when I was a teenager. I wish to share some of my experiences and insights from more recent times. The purpose of my experience sharing article is not to report something that I have achieved, but to share what insights I have got recently.

During my cultivation journey, I have experienced so many things and have often heard from other practitioners about different phenomena such as the attachment to doing things. But when you really experience them yourself, it is another thing than to just hear about it.

I have experienced recently how important it is to take a step back and sometimes quietly observe how I cultivate and walk the path in my daily life. For me, it has been easy to sometimes fall into a routine that the things I do for Dafa and to save sentient beings become like work; and it feels that I have fallen into the wrong path that, at the end, may stray from the Fa and doesn’t achieve the real effect to save sentient beings.

In Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading, it is stated: “Only by first cultivating yourself well can you fulfill your historic mission”. In many greetings from Master to different Fahui, I also see that Master has written about the importance to cultivate yourself well and to study the Fa.

I have had many different roles in Dafa related work and I always think that I have a lot of things to do. I have often thought about why I so easily fall into the wrong path to do only work for Dafa without cultivating myself well and studying the Fa with a calm mind. The old forces don’t want us to succeed so it is quite easy to fall into the wrong path. On the contrary, so many times I have experienced how everything becomes so much easier when I prioritize Fa study and exercises. For me it is because of laziness and human thinking and that I have the wrong attitude.

To participate in work to promote Shen Yun in Sweden

In Sweden we had Shen Yun shows just right before the pandemic started in the year of 2020 and this year in May.

Every day I received sales statistics on tickets, and it brought up feelings that varied from worry, happiness, excitement to frustration. I resisted them by reminding myself what is stated in Zhuan Falun lecture 4, “If you always keep a compassionate heart, and a peaceful state of mind, when you run into problems, you’ll handle them well because it will give you space as a buffer.” With joint efforts from all practitioners the ticket sales have gone well.

I experienced quite a lot of pressure during a period with a lot to do to support Shen Yun promotion activities. I felt that I also had a lot to do at my ordinary work too, and then I got news that my father who was abroad was sick and required surgery. I took that very emotionally and it was overwhelming at the same time.

Everything that I experienced felt like an external pressure. It also felt like things came to interfere. I used to recite for myself what was stated in Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day 2003, “I’m Li Hongzhi’s disciple, I don’t want other arrangements or acknowledge them.” Things went well in the end and my father had a surgery that went well and is fine to this day.

It felt that things were so hard at the time but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was exactly as stated in Falun Gong, “Sometimes, when calamity befalls us, it seems just huge—it’s so overwhelming there seems to be no way out. And perhaps it stays around for quite a few days. But then a path suddenly appears, and things start to take a big turn. In fact, that is because we improved our character and the problem naturally disappeared.”

I participated in different promotion activities for Shen Yun, for example distributing materials in mailboxes, helping create materials and working on the web. My understanding is it’s most important to always cultivate my Xinxing in the process and not fall into doing it as ordinary work. I spent a lot of time in front of the computer and did work on the webpage and with social media. On the surface it could appear as ordinary work but I felt how important it was to always maintain righteous thoughts. I have always felt an enormous happiness when I have done something for Shen Yun and never felt tired. It always feels as if I have got energy.

The righteous behaviour of a Dafa diciple

I have also reminded myself to behave righteously when I work with other projects.

In Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa (Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington D.C. Metro Area) it is stated: “I also wanted to set an example for other projects, and have you see how Shen Yun does things—so you have something to reference.”

A practitioner reminded me about this when we held a truth clarification workshop together during an event in Sweden, “Think that people who see it should be as they watch a Shen Yun performance. That they just think Wow.” I have been both in the security and backstage during the Shen Yun performance and everything is handled with perfection. I always remind myself about that when I fall into doing something routine or halfheartedly.

I have also been involved in the webinars for Falun Gong and have supported the process with tools and promotion. We started to do it during the pandemic, and there was great interest. I think it is a wonderful opportunity that is given to us to introduce Dafa on such a large scale with the help of technology. Some people register but do not attend, but they are given reminders and further opportunities to join. It is also great to see all the positive comments from those who have attended the webinar, and up until today more than 500 have participated.

It is always a great feeling when I see people starting to log in to the webinars. Sometimes I have the same feeling before a Shen Yun show starts. Together as a team, I think we overcame many challenges before we started to hold the webinars.

I was quite pleased with myself that as long as I paid focus on doing Dafa work everything was fine, which made me not prioritize other things, for example to keep it clean and tidy at home. I also did not pay attention to what food I eat and how much I sleep which surely caused unnecessary loss in neglecting important tasks. I may have had somewhat extreme thoughts. I now think since we are still in the human dimension, we need to pay attention to those things. I have enlightened that whatever we do is something that we leave for the future. It is important to walk our path correctly, and care for the image that we as Dafa practitioners give to ordinary people. I will do better going forward.

Lately, when I have read the Jingwen, “Wake Up” I got the insight on how I sometimes have looked at different questions with the completely wrong perspective. For example, the question about the vaccine. I have also listened to other’s understandings without really listening to and handling it from my understanding of the Fa. This was also something that caused unnecessary losses and misunderstandings.

I have, between longer periods, experienced sickness karma. On the latest occasion, it has targeted the left leg. For me, it became a wakeup call that I need to pay more attention to my own cultivation.

In the lecture, Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day Given at the 2014 New York Fa Conference it is stated: “Another thing is, many people have not behaved decently, and have not taken their own cultivation seriously. This will bring you trouble, hardship, even pain, or even the loss of your life.” I am grateful to our great compassionate Master for all hints and wake up calls that I have got.

I have, for a long time, struggled with the attachment to smartphones. It was not only about the attachment to look at social media and news on the smartphone, but also to have the latest and most exclusive smartphone, which is connected to the attachment of showing off and reputation.

One day when I was out taking a walk, I was playing with my almost new smartphone. I lost the grip of my smartphone, and it flew away and landed on the road that was filled with small stones. The screen was cracked. I was a bit shocked at first. Anyway, it has screen protection, so it was cheap to repair. But I think it was really a hint not to waste time on my smartphone.

To treasure the cultivation environment and fellow practitioners

I had the great opportunity to start to cultivate as a teenager in the year 1998 without my parents also practicing. There were also not many other practitioners my age during that time. I have always felt the support from many other practitioners, and I think that it is important that we help and support each other in this time. Sometimes, I have failed with that and not had righteous thoughts about other fellow practitioners. In the end, it has often been about me when I have seen the shortcomings of other practitioners, it has just been a mirror of my own shortcomings.

During a certain period, I felt great resistance to participate in group Fa study. It was difficult to describe but it was only a feeling. I thought that it was thought karma and interference. Now I always go to group Fa study regardless of feelings and I always feel that it is a good support to my cultivation.

To set higher requirements on myself

I was very touched when I read the three latest articles that were published as Minghui Editorials. I thought about what Master had said about Minghui: “It is not that Minghui Net does not make mistakes, however, on important matters, practitioners must pay attention to the attitude of Minghui Net.” I had also the great opportunity to experience the cultivation environment before the persecution started in 1999. I was very young at that time, but I experienced how pure the environment was and that everyone really strived to cultivate and raise Xinxing. I was stricter with myself. I can only learn from this and do better going forward.

It is also mentioned in one of the articles that “In the process of counteracting the persecution and clarifying the facts, the cultivation environment outside of China has been greatly impacted”. Here I feel that I can only start with myself and pay more focus on cultivating my Xinxing and pay attention to my thoughts and speech to fellow practitioners. I can only start from myself with creating a good environment.

I am a member of the Sweden FXH and when I read the articles, I felt concerned about the responsibility you have as a veteran practitioner and in FXH. Even if you do Dafa work it is no excuse not to take it seriously and raise Xinxing, which is the basic for all. It is also stated in one of the articles that, “Only then can practitioners put more emphasis on cultivating themselves and elevating their Xinxing and achieve more positive effects in the things they do to save people.”

Master says in Zhuan Falun Lecture Two: “That’s why we have to stress character, and make a point of improving your whole self, of elevating your whole self. When your character improves, other things rise along with it.”

It is also mentioned in the article “Can We Distribute Master’s New Articles Among Non-Practitioners?” from Minghui editorial that there is a large portion of practitioners who persist in Fa study and study a lot, but they haven’t truly put in the effort to improve their xinxing. But in Dafa cultivation, the key is to cultivate our hearts, as Dafa directly targets the human heart. It was a wake-up call for me to really pay attention to this in daily life.

Now I feel that every day passes so quickly and that we have such important responsibilities in Europe to save the sentient being in our area. I look forward to cultivating better so that I can have a stronger impact to save all sentient beings in my area!

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

(Selected article for the European Fa-conference 2023 in Paris)