Russia: Cultivation Miracles working on different projects

Greetings, Revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners! 

This month it is 21 years since I learned about Dafa! 

After losing my son in 2000, I was very sad. It was very difficult for me to reconcile such a loss, I could not work and suffered a lot. It was very difficult for my older daughter to be with me, and she went to live abroad. Because of my difficult state of mind, my friends also stopped communicating with me. 

Two years after the tragedy, I met a practitioner not far from my home. He introduced me to Dafa and brought me to the practice site where I was given the Book Zhuan Falun, because I did not have any money to buy it. 

In the sixth lecture of the Book, I found the answer to the question that tormented me: “Human beings live in delusion and just cannot give up these things. Some people cannot let go of their sons and daughters and claim how good they are, and then they pass away. One may speak of how good one’s mother is, but then she also dies. This person grieves so much that he almost wants to follow her for the rest of his life. Why don’t you think about it? Aren’t they here to torment you? They use this form to make you unable to lead a good life.” (Lecture 6, Zhuan Falun) 

I immediately understood with all my heart that this is not a regular school. I watched video exercises, listened to Pudu and Jishi music, tears streamed down my face, but then relief would come, as if the soul was being cleansed.

Having started studying the Fa, I could not let go of the book, and I also read the Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa and Master’s other books and lectures. I wanted to catch up with veteran practitioners in both cultivation and in saving sentient beings.

I went to the subway and distributed newspapers, I cultivated myself, and I understood that I could not give materials to people with such a heavy heart, so I had to let go of selfishness and self-pity. When there was nothing left of the pack with 800 "Falun Dafa" newspapers, my heart felt so light!

At the initial stage, at weekly meetings in the group, I learned about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and although I did not have a clear understanding of why it is necessary to clarify the truth in Russia to Chinese tourists, I realized that this is very important, and immediately agreed to help the truth clarification team at the railway station. I was also inspired by seeing their pure hearts when they did that work, and my understanding on this issue gradually deepened.

Miracles manifested in cultivation through different projects

In 2004, I was lucky to go to the Dafa conference in New York with 10 people, all from St. Petersburg. From the trip in New York, we learned how to clarify the truth to people with the help of other projects: the Epoch Times and the art exhibition. 

I still remember my unforgettable impressions of visiting this exhibition in New York. After this amazing trip, we talked about how the exhibition can be used as a good Fa tool for saving people in Russia. 

I kept thinking about how we could realize our dream to have the art exhibition. A year later, at a European conference in Sweden, a practitioner from Latvia approached me and said the copies had been brought for Russia as a present! I realized that Teacher showed His great Compassion and concern for sentient beings living in Russia! 

Work on this project began with stretching canvas on the stretchers and searching for frames, as well as searching for the exhibition hall. At first there was sometimes a fear: will people understand and give us a venue? Especially when clarifying the truth to officials in district administrations, in committees on culture. There were different reactions. Someone sympathetically said that the topic is serious, but we can not provide you with a room, we have a big queue. Someone was afraid of complications with the Chinese consulate, since they were in the stage of signing lucrative contracts for cultural exchange. Most of all I remember meeting with the director of the hall of the All-Russian Union of Artists. On the phone, he said that he could provide the hall in the near future and that the cost of renting 400 square meters was $5000. This was way beyond our budget, it was clear that we just had to go to meet personally and clarify the truth. 

There were three of us, including a Chinese practitioner. When the director of the hall learned about the repressions, and that the artists themselves went through torture, he said that, of course, we will not be "robbed", and could instead pay the lowest government rates. 

We did not have experience in organizing this kind of exhibition, a staff member even assisted us in hanging paintings. He showed us how they aligned, taking a simple plank and setting the bottom level. In our initial relationship with him, not everything was smooth, He did not have an understanding of why we were so concerned about the problems in China. We explained the truth to him and gave him new materials every day, while always thanking him for his support. All the following time of the exhibition he began to help us, to clarify the truth when visitors came. He greeted guests, and recommended visiting the exhibition to many of his friends. He was amazed that a plant that had been growing in the hall for many years blossomed stronger than ever before and in brighter colors while the exhibition was going on. 

We have gained great experience in holding an exhibition and clarifying the truth in the capital of the Republic of Karelia. One of the Finnish Russian-speaking practitioners, seeing the paintings in our city in St-Petersburg, was interested in holding an exhibition in her hometown of Petrozavodsk, where her parents live. 

Soon she called us and said that she had agreed with the deputy director of the Philharmonic about holding the exhibition. A group of 5 of us went to organize an exhibition.

The timing was very tight. The hall had a complex shape, but local artists helped us, by making easels for our paintings. While we were getting pictures from boxes, the musicians who came to the rehearsal began looking at them, while we explained to them the truth about the persecution. At this time, a woman came, the second deputy director, who was born in China and lived there for a while. She was indignant and asked: "Who gave you approval to have this exhibition?" Our explanation did not soothe her, she said all the time that she already knows everything about this country, she said that she is against showing us pictures of persecution, and that we would have to coordinate all the paintings with the main artist of the city regarding their artistic value. The main artist turned out to be a very good woman. After she heard about the goals and objectives of this exhibition, she expressed her support and said that she was very glad that she met us, she thought that there are no more altruists like us.

We cooperated very well with each other and consistently studied the Fa and did the exercises, searching within ourselves for our shortcomings. We all understood that the situation was very difficult and it is necessary to send forth righteous thoughts constantly.

The next day the exhibition opened. The Director of the philharmonic delivered a speech, a group of reporters arrived, and a correspondent for the local newspaper also came. 

In the evening, before closing time, the director of the philharmonic came. He was very upset and said that the higher authorities ordered him to close the exhibition, threatening him that he might lose his job otherwise. We realized that a local television channel called REN-TV showed a distorted report. One newspaper also published a slanderous article.

After studying the Fa we shared our experiences and came to a common understanding that we first needed to clarify the truth in the city. We decided to look for a commercial exhibition hall and at the same time to clarify the truth. We found the hall immediately. We wrote a letter to REN-TV saying that they violated our rights and must issue a denial. We also went to see the chairman of the committee on culture in The Federal Security Service, public organizations, newspapers, and signed up for an appointment with the head of state of the Republic of Karelia. 

We did not see the head of state of the Republic of Karelia but met with his deputy, who himself for many years was the head of the Republic. He talked with us for an hour, asked a lot of questions. We parted as friends, and he said that we are doing everything from a pure heart. He also regretted that the new head of the republic went to China and concluded several contracts which would make it more difficult for us to explain the truth now. He wished us much patience and success in a difficult but noble cause.

After the art exhibition was over, when we were carrying paintings to the car, suddenly a double rainbow appeared all over the sky. We realized that our efforts were not in vain, and knew it was an encouragement from Master.

Taking part in the NTD project helped me to get rid of my attachment to showing off.

In 2008 I became an employee of NTD. By this time, I had a deep realization of what NTD is, and what a huge responsibility is on everyone's shoulders. In addition to understanding this responsibility, I also understood that it will be necessary to free myself of attachments and do it immediately. To understand it theoretically is one thing, to really do it is another.

For a long time, such attachments as competitiveness, validating myself, selfishness and ego were in the way of my work. Working on television is such a huge test, there are so many opportunities to show off and validate yourself.

Master tells us in Zhuan Falun, Lecture Six: “Because of practicing cultivation among everyday people, a lot of our practitioners cannot release many of their attachments. Many attachments have already become second nature, and these people themselves cannot detect them. This mentality of showing off can manifest in any situation; it can also surface when doing a good deed.”

I saw my mentality of showing off everywhere, even when I was doing Dafa things. I always tried to show myself in a favorable light and justified my wrong thoughts and deeds. I was full of arrogance and self-conceit, did my best to emphasize my merits, while pointing out the shortcomings of others and that was my way to satisfy my vanity. In fact, I even liked to show myself off and was often pleased with myself. I really did not like this state of mine. I had to dig deep inside myself to really understand the seriousness of this teaching. Sometimes I had bad thoughts in my mind, but it was the devil from my own mind who whispered them to me.

For example, I did small things like recording discs: NTD promo, Nine commentaries and Shen Yun promo, then printed beautiful labels on them, then printed labels for boxes and everything turned out very nicely. Of course, first of all I thought  that we should present our TV adequately, in a righteous state, and also thought of many other things that help in saving people. But I saw that even behind such a small thing there was a desire to show myself off. I wanted someone to say how well I did it.

And when I wrote scripts, I also saw this attachment to showing off. I waited for praise. And if I heard criticism, I fell into despair and did not want to do anything else. Then it was difficult to enter into the  righteous state and remember that I do everything not for the sake of validating myself.

Other practitioners also helped me to see the root of this desire to show off – which is selfishness. A strong desire to show oneself off  is expressed in an attachment to Self, when everything should revolve around one's Self: "I am such a capable and talented person, I can do things better than others." There appears many such thoughts in one’s mind.

One day I read the experience sharing of a Chinese practitioner, in which he said that when he sees this attachment, he begins to send forth righteous thoughts. It helped me to understand that I identified the desire to show myself off with my true "Self", because it has become so established, and does not want to separate, I was seeing this substance in my mind as part of myself. 

In Zhuan Falun, Master devoted a whole section to the problem of the desire to show oneself off. And in other lectures it is often said that this is a serious problem. I know that the desire to show oneself off  is a very bad thing, it's very vicious, and I want to get rid of it. Since it is linked to many other attachments, it is not so easy to get rid of it. But if the mind is clear, then you can suppress bad thoughts related to the desire to show off and not let them manipulate you. It is such a wonderful feeling when you are free of that substance, and you become indifferent to worldly fame and profit, and you are filled with good energy. Of course, this process is slow, and you can not get rid of all the bad things immediately, but if you cultivate diligently, you can achieve high standards.

This is my personal understanding at this level. If in my experience sharing there is something that does not comply with the principles of the Fa, please point it out with kindness.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

 

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