Austria: Experience Sharing Conference Held in Vienna

The 19th Austrian Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference took place in Vienna on September 11, 2021. Fourteen practitioners talked about how they have constantly improved themselves while studying and following the teachings of Falun Dafa, sharing the goodness of Dafa, and raising awareness of the persecution in China.

Attendees came from all over Austria. Touched by the stories shared by the speakers about their cultivation, those in attendance were very grateful for the compassion of Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa.

The 19th Austrian Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Vienna on September 11, 2021

Being Proactive Toward a Common Goal

Roberto talked about his cultivation practice as a coordinator.

Roberto is a coordinator in his region and cherishes his special assignment. More importantly, he treats this role as an opportunity for cultivation practice. “This is a responsibility on my shoulders that I am willing to take,” he explained.

It took a long time to achieve that, though. Coordinating the team well was not as easy as he had expected. Since practitioners come from various backgrounds and have different personalities, Roberto found that he needed to be considerate of that while reminding everyone to cooperate with each other. For a while, he was unable to maintain the stability of the team and its environment. This made him worried and he forgot about the common goal they shared of achieving effective truth clarification to awaken people.

Continued Fa-study gave him new understandings about the situation. “I used to wait for the proper moment, or a certain arrangement for opportunities for truth-clarification. Now I have learned that, instead of just waiting for things to happen, I should take the initiative and organize more venues to reach out to people with information about Falun Dafa,” Roberto said.

Looking Within and Finding the Attachment to Comfort

Christina learned the importance of patience and good preparation.

Over the past year, Christina joined a team that hosts online workshops in German to introduce Falun Dafa to people. During every other workshop, she would be the moderator of the chatroom. Whenever she was moderator, however, she found that the participants would ask a lot of questions. When other practitioners hosted the workshop, she found that the participants were more willing to listen attentively. Christina became a little upset about this. If the participants could wait a little while and focus on listening, their questions would be answered in a while, she thought.

As a Falun Dafa practitioner, Christina also knew that she should look inward and reflect on why this would happen to her. “Compared to me, I found that the other hosts were more conscientious and patient,” she recalled. “Such efforts made a difference with the participants, who would listen well and wait until the end to ask questions. Apparently, this situation showed the areas where I can do better.”

While on duty in the chatroom, Christina also did the exercise demonstration right in front of the camera. So she always cleaned the room in advance and prepared sufficient lighting for a better video effect. Noticing that the extra lighting generated more heat, she occasionally had the thought that preparing information behind the scenes might be better than appearing in front of the camera. “When I thought about it further, I knew it was the attachment to comfort. Plus, it also showed a lack of responsibility.”

Christina was preparing for a workshop once when the system suddenly crashed. She could see people in the chatroom, but there was nothing she could do. Right as she restarted the system to continue the session, she suddenly had a new understanding. “The Fa-rectification will come to an end someday,” she said. “If we do not do well, when it ends we will only be able to helplessly watch things unfold – just like the system collapse right now.”

This highlighted for her how precious each opportunity is to awaken people. “Taking an assignment that I do not like is something on the surface, working on my attachment to comfort and letting it go could be something more important,” she explained. “That is, while continuing to work on this project, I need to truly cultivate myself.”

Not Being Attached to the Outcome

Maria talked about her experiences regarding contacting government officials.

Maria is a coordinator for contacting government officials about the persecution of Falun Dafa. Her team has been very busy over the past year, with media announcements about issues in Hong Kong and online conferences against forced organ harvesting for profit by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Her team also sent many emails to officials about the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.

Because of her close interactions with the human rights committee in Parliament, Maria often looked up its website. She once saw that a meeting was scheduled with no topic listed. Surprised by this, she wondered why it had happened and connected it with her cultivation. “Through looking within, I realized my interaction with government officials had slowed down since late last year,” she said. “In the past, I might follow up with them immediately. But now I find it difficult to pick up the phone or write an email about it.”

She thought about this further and realized that this was an attachment to the outcome as well as an attachment to fame. “I know I should just go ahead and do things well regardless of the results,” she continued. “In this way, I was going to call officials as usual. I knew my heart had come back to truth-clarification and awakening people.”

A Genuine Practitioner
Ho Minh said her understanding of the Fa used to be very shallow. That is why when she encountered difficulties in her daily life, she still felt pain and sorrow. For a while, she even ceased to study the Fa, which made her situation even worse.

She attentively listened to other practitioners reading the Fa together one day, and that night she slept very well. “After waking up the following morning, I felt full of energy,” she said. “This incident awakened me and helped me go back to Fa-study. I also knew that I had many attachments and that is why I was stuck on this issue for a long time.”

Ho Minh has realized that as a practitioner she has to constantly improve herself. “First of all, I should be careful with my speech, so that I will not harm or hurt others. I also shouldn’t be upset if something comes up. After all, if I did things correctly, there is no need to be upset. If I did things wrong, I should just fix myself instead of blaming others.”

A Lifelong Journey

Ms. Li often calls China to tell people the truth about Falun Dafa to debunk the hate propaganda from the CCP.

During the past 22 years that Falun Dafa has been suppressed in China, the CCP has produced countless lies defaming the practice. To help people break away from the CCP’s lies and brainwashing, many Dafa practitioners have been calling people in China on a regular basis. Ms. Li is one of these practitioners.

While cooperating with other practitioners on this project, Ms. Li said she has learned a lot, including patience, compassion, and the importance of having a pure heart.

In the meantime, she has also identified some of her shortcomings. Sometimes she felt anxious, uncomfortable, or a huge amount of pressure when she was planning to make calls. “When that happened, it was hard for me to do anything. I could only work with other practitioners, study and recite the Fa, and send forth righteous thoughts,” she explained.

These experiences have taught Ms. Li that aligning with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is a lifelong process. That means one should not be attached to time. “This is our mission and we cannot stop in the middle,” she said.