Treasuring the Opportunity to Cultivate through a Fa-Rectification Project

Venerable Master,
Dear practitioners,

I am a practitioner from Spain. I know I'm not very good at writing, but this effort is part of my cultivation, so today I would like to share with you my cultivation experience with the Zhen Shan Ren art exhibition in Spain.

Overcoming fear of not doing well
When I was asked to attend meetings of Zhen Shan Ren in Europe, I also understood that this was an opportunity to improve in my cultivation, but still, I remember while we were talking about it, there was a part of me that did not want to accept the great commitment and challenge. I never liked attending meetings where I need to talk, even less so in another language. Also, I felt that my level of English was insufficient, and I’m not good at computers. So that part of me was pointing to all the difficulties that I would encounter.

Fortunately part of me remembered Master's words in the ninth lesson of Zhuan Falun: "It’s hard to endure, but you can endure it. It’s hard to do, but you can do it." And that’s really how it is. When you go back you might want to give it a try. When you’re going through an awful tribulation, or maybe a critical juncture, give it a try. When it’s hard to endure, try to endure it. When it seems impossible to do, or just hard to do, give it a try and see just what you can do. And when you can really do it, just like that worn and weary traveller, you’ll see, the shade of willows, the blooms of flowers, a place to rest my head.”.

So, I was encouraged and accepted, albeit with quite a restless heart.

At first I did not like them and had trouble attending meetings, I felt very insecure, and I recognised the concern that I could not understood well, and of not doing well. It took me some time to realise that I needed to look within and see that my shyness was also an attachment and that behind such concern about not doing well, there was still a greater attachment: fear. I've never actually been a fearful person, but this was more subtle and profound: The fear of ego on display.

Then I also understood why I had needed throughout life to do things in a perfect way. That was an unconscious way of trying to avoid criticism. Many times, however good it looked for others, it was not enough for me, I always demanded more and although on the surface it seemed a good thing as I tried to do better, in the background, I think looking good was also selfishness and vanity.

It took me some time to get to these conclusions because I felt bad. I was missing not only knowledge but also discovering more attachments, how was I going to be able to do well, then? But when I started to have doubts Master helped to remind me that the whole way of cultivation is to remove attachments and looking inside is the key to recognising them. Then identifying these hidden attachments is a good thing, because to recognise them is the way to weaken them and the beginning of letting them go. I also noticed that recognising them strengthens my faith and confidence in being more determined to do the things that I had to do.

Attending Euroart meetings was very important for me, as some countries had some experience and could help. I had the opportunity to ask questions, to share to get to know the requirements, and a little guidance of how to start.

I understand that we don’t have to be very skilled or to have great knowledge about how to do this or that. We just need to do it wholeheartedly and with the mindset of a cultivator.

So although sometimes we think that we cannot do it we can try. If we work hard and get rid of the thoughts of an ordinary person, trust Master and our fellow practitioners the projects will progress.

Eliminating interference with strong righteous thoughts
All projects are to save sentient beings, so we meet with a lot of interference, but I think they are also a great opportunity the Master gives us to improve our cultivation together because when we are determined and projects begin to go forward we encounter many obstacles, distractions, conflicts, and tests.

I remember at the time that I needed more time to work on the project, things started happening around me. Various relatives and friends came to spend a few days with us. They had wanted to come and visit for ten years, yet suddenly all of them came around one after the other. Suddenly we had a logistic problem in the house that required significant financial resources and concerns.

At the same time my son, who has a very stable life, suddenly stopped working and became unexpectedly separated from his wife.

One day I heard a neighbour say something totally unfair about my husband. Although it was not important it moved my heart. Another time, a practitioner accused me of cancelling a meeting that I did not even know was due. That also moved my heart.

A few days later I got a call from a fellow practitioner accusing me of something similar and of lying. I felt a profound and deep pain in my chest and in that very moment I realised what it was and an immense calm inside me followed. I recognised a strong notion and attachment to the concept of justice I had, yet had never seen it as an attachment to let go of before.

One night while sleeping, I woke up suddenly trembling with cold and with a very unsettling feeling. I got up to drink something hot and immersed my feet in almost boiling water but did not react. The thought that came to me was that I was about to die. For a moment I was scared, but I thought of Master and the Fa and I said, to myself it is ok if I have to go.

But almost immediately another very strong thought came denying this. It cannot be! We are striving to work on a project that would help save many sentient beings, and is progressing well. At this point it would affect my team-mates and the project. I thought the old forces were trying to interfere.

The only thought I had in my mind was that cooperating, working and acting together as one body to assist Master in rectifying the Fa is our mission. So while my body was still shivering with cold, I went back to bed very determined and with very strong righteous thoughts that the old forces were not going to achieve their goal. Gradually the shaking of my body started to decrease until I fell asleep. From that moment on everything flowed smoothly.

Working with other practitioners has been more important for my cultivation than I thought. I think it has helped us all (personally it did for me) to temper ourselves. That process of tempering has been crucial in learning how to tackle tribulations.

So when I was in the middle of a tribulation Master's words echoed ever faster in my head. “You can not expect to increase your gong just sitting on the couch drinking tea all day”. (Falun Gong chapter V) These Master's words are always able to change a situation, because they make me laugh, and I say to myself: “What did you expect?”

Cultivating Ren and Shan
I've also noticed something that for a long time I have been trying to change. Sometimes I shared with fellow practitioners about how difficult it was at times to apply tolerance and benevolence to my husband, I suddenly saw myself competing for the last word with him and raising my voice.

This worried me, because despite all the effort I put into controlling myself I still failed to remember what Teacher says in lecture nine:

What is a "heart of great forbearance?" As a practitioner, the first thing you should be able to do is to not fight back when you are beaten or sworn at—you must be tolerant. Otherwise, what kind of practitioner will you be? Someone says: "It’s really hard to be tolerant, and I’ve got a bad temper." If your temper is not good, you should change it, for a practitioner must be tolerant.”

Now, it is not the case that it does not ever happen to me any more but I noticed a change and now these kind of situations do not move my heart and I treat them with more Shan and Ren. Tempering myself gives me more room to look inside before acting.

Cooperating together for so long has also helped us to get to know each other a bit better and be able to share more. I also think it has helped us to value and respect each other as practitioners. We each have our own understandings and act according to these. Therefore it is important not to keep in my heart any negative thoughts or blame others.

Sometimes even though I understand that the level of involvement of each practitioner is a personal decision I found myself having negative thoughts about a fellow practitioner who was complaining such as “How can he complain when he is doing so little yet?” I cannot afford having such negative thoughts. It is not good for the project or me. It's something we shared about. We need to pay close attention to our thoughts.

The power of Zhen, Shan, Ren Exhibition
The first 22 days of the exhibition were extraordinary. Besides daily experiences with people, the feeling that we got after being around the paintings was very profound. I think every one of us feels that way and visitors also did. Many of them commented how peaceful the atmosphere in the room was.

Upon entering, everyone spoke quietly including many children who came. The mood was one of deep respect and even meditation. Some came out crying uncontrollably and asked the same question as in the name of one of the paintings, “why?”

People came from different levels and professions, many painters, educators, health workers, theologians, etc. And they all very moved, not only by the story that most of them did not know about and were surprised to find out, but because of the very high artistic level of the paintings.

In the times when there were no visitors, practitioners took the opportunity to read and share in order to maintain the same atmosphere of tranquility, avoiding talking about things that were not related to our cultivation or the Exhibition. Although there were no visitors we kept speaking in a low tone, not to break the field of harmony and peace created by the paintings.

I think it's good that when we are at the exhibition we remain focused. We can study, watch and learn about the paintings or share in order to keep the pure field that benefits both visitors and us. Some of us experience that the more time we were in the room, instead of feeling tired we felt better.

At the first venue in Barcelona, the organisers were very pleased with the large affluence of people visiting the exhibition. It was very good for them, because many of the visitors did not know the place before and it was the most visited exhibition they ever held.

The same thing happened at the second venue, many people came to see the exhibition and both the shop owners from around the venue as well as the director were also very happy that we were there, so they left the door open for us to return in the future.

The Art of Zhen Shan Ren clarifies the truth in a way that goes directly to people’s hearts, there is really no need for us to explain much, just to give sentient beings a chance to see the paintings. So I encourage all practitioners to get involved in the project and help to have the paintings exhibiting for as long as possible so that more people can be saved.

I want to thank all my fellow practitioners for their contributions and efforts in making this possible. For me it is a great privilege to work on this project, and I deeply appreciate this opportunity.

I'd like to finish my sharing with one of the comments from the visitor's book:
“The most beautiful artistic expression that I have seen in my life.”
Thank you very much for bringing such a divine Exhibition.”

Thank you Master
Thanks to fellow practitioners.