Experience Sharing Article (Benelux Fa Conference 2003)

Shared at the First Benelux Falun Dafa Experience Exchange Conference held in Brussels on April 27

Thank you fellow practitioners, thank you Master.

My name is Sarah, I am 23 years old and am an American-Israeli citizen. I first came across Falun Dafa in Israel almost three years ago, but didn’t start practising until August 2001 when I started my university studies in Portland, Oregon. At school, I am majoring in French and a main part of that program is to study in a French-speaking country for a semester, so right now I am living in Strasbourg, France. I arrived in the middle of January and am staying for another month and a half. I would like to share with you some of the experiences I’ve had and the understandings I’ve come to since arriving in France.

Not missing any opportunity to clarify the truth, the competitive mentality and jealousy

When I first arrived in France, I had to take a placement exam to see where I would place in the foreign language institute. The test was to write an essay and the topic was the internet. The first thought that popped into my mind was about how the Chinese government limits people’s access to certain websites so they can’t learn the truth about Dafa and how they try to read people’s e-mails to keep an eye on them. I also thought of the fact that when someone tries to research Falun Gong over the internet, it is hard to tell what is true and what isn’t. But then the attachment of fear creeped in – I was afraid that I wouldn’t be sticking to the topic they had given and I was afraid that my French wasn’t good enough to express these ideas – so I decided not to write about Dafa and instead wrote a very general, ordinary essay. I realised later that my thinking was very selfish and that I had gotten my priorities mixed up, worrying about my own reputation and status instead of using this precious opportunity to clarify the facts of the persecution to the professor(s) reading the essay. I enlightened to the fact that even in the most banal, everyday things that don’t seem to have anything to do with Dafa, we need to persevere in our righteous thoughts and be compassionate to others, embracing every opportunity to clarify the truth and save sentient beings.

The morning we got the results, I saw that I was placed in a pretty low level. I also happened to glance at some of the other lists and saw that the other student from my university placed into a higher level. I was upset and started making excuses to myself about how it ended up that she, whose French wasn’t as fluent as mine, was placed in a higher level than me. Noticing how upset I was, I looked inside and then I remembered the part in lecture 7 of Zhuan Falun, where Master talks about jealousy and the person who feels that he is very capable and does things very well:

“The boss may also say that this person is really capable and can accomplish anything. Coworkers may also express that he is really capable and talented. Nevertheless, there may be another person in the same working group or sharing the same office with him who is quite incapable of doing anything or is good for nothing. Yet one day this incompetent person gets a promotion instead of him and even becomes his supervisor. He will feel in his heart that it is unfair and complain to his boss and coworkers, feeling very upset and quite jealous.”

I saw clearly that my competitive mentality, my attachment of jealousy and also my attachment to what other people think of me were all being exposed. This put the whole situation into perspective and suddenly I didn’t feel so upset anymore, I was thankful to Master for having pointed these attachments out to me. Once I got to my class, I realised that it had been arranged for me to be in that class from the beginning, as there was a Chinese woman there. Slowly but surely I have become pretty good friends with her and her husband, giving them an opportunity to get to know a Falun Dafa practitioner and see that we are good people.

Our righteous thoughts are powerful, we should have confidence in them

The second weekend I was in France, I went to Paris in order to meet some of the French practitioners since there weren’t any in my area. On the way back on the train, I accidentally forgot my cell phone. At the time, I wasn’t too upset about losing the phone itself, but felt bad nonetheless because I had just finished giving the number out to several practitioners in Paris and now they wouldn’t be able to reach me on it. As I was getting on the bus to come home, I thought: “As a practitioner, if I were to find someone else’s cell phone, I would do whatever I could to try and return it to them”. Then I forgot about it and just went home. When I got there and told my host parents that I had lost my cell phone, my host father said: “we know, the man who found it called”.

I realised that the man must have called my host parents right after I had thought about someone finding the phone. I tried to think why the whole episode had happened, and then I remembered that in lecture 4 of Zhuan Falun, Master says: “We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences”. The thought that I had was pure because I was thinking about what I would do in that situation so as to act most in line with the Fa and Zhen-Shan-Ren. This showed me that when our thoughts are pure and righteous, we really can affect change. I also realised that if that was the effect that a minor but pure thought produced, then the effect when we send forth righteous thoughts for minutes at a time must be tremendous.

Regarding sending righteous thoughts, in his lectures, Master has mentioned several times that practitioners need to take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously.

“Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously: the evil in the dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause. So you must take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. No matter whether you think you have the ability or not, you should do it.” (Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, USA)

“I hope you will do well what you’re supposed to do. Of the three things to validate the Fa, one is to study the Fa well, one is to clarify the facts, and another is to take sending righteous thoughts seriously.” (Explaining the Fa during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the US West Fa Conference)

At first I thought this meant that we need to place it higher on our list of priorities and that we need to send righteous thoughts more often. But I don’t think that is the whole picture. In saying that we should take sending righteous thoughts seriously, my understanding is that Master was referring to the quality of our righteous thoughts and not just to the quantity. From time to time I find that I fall into a rut of just going through the motions when sending righteous thoughts and not really putting in much effort to concentrate and focus – I have a lot of stray thoughts in my mind, or I am tired and start to fall asleep. On this issue I’d like to share an experience I had a couple of months ago when I was having a lot of interference with my computer, an experience which forced me to reexamine my mindset while sending forth righteous thoughts.

I was working on putting together packages to take to the various consulates in Strasbourg regarding the upcoming UN Human Rights Commission. For a few days, my computer kept freezing and I would have to restart it, and it kept happening again and again, to the point that it took me 45 minutes to do something that would normally take me 10. I realised that it was serious interference and sent forth righteous thoughts, which helped a bit, but not very much. Then I realised that even though I was sending righteous thoughts I was still afraid that the computer wouldn't work. I realised that my fear was actually because I didn't have enough faith in the strength of my righteous thoughts and that I didn't believe that they could eliminate the evil behind the interference. Then, for the first time in a while I actually thought about what the words in the verse mean "the FA rectifies the cosmos, the evil is COMPLETELY eliminated". I realised that it wasn't me that was eliminating, but the power of the Fa, and how could I not have faith that the Fa and Master could eliminate it? Of course they could. I also realised that in sending forth righteous thoughts, we should not only think and hope that the evil is completely eliminated, but take if for granted that it is, and not even question that. I think that is what Master means when he says that we shouldn’t acknowledge the old forces. I then spent the afternoon sending forth righteous thoughts, focusing on eliminating the computer problems completely, and sure enough, it worked. Moreover, from then on my righteous thoughts have been stronger.

My understanding now of melting into the Fa is that it is completely trusting the Fa and Master and that if we do that when we send righteous thoughts, no evil being can interfere with us. Like Master said in Lecture 1 of Zhuan Falun: “I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe.” But how could the old forces possibly harm the universe, or Master, or the Fa?

One entity

Before I conclude, I would like to thank you, my fellow practitioners, for your help and hospitality during my time here in Europe. Being the only practitioner in Strasbourg has really made me appreciate how precious the time is that we spend together studying the Fa and sharing our experiences. Each time I come back to Strasbourg after spending time with practitioners, be it in Paris or Geneva (or now, in Brussels), I feel that my level has skyrocketed from when I left the city a few days before: my mind is clear, my righteous thoughts are strong, and I know exactly what needs to be done.

In Explaining the Fa during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the US West Fa Conference, Master said:
“For Dafa disciples as one entity, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you’re doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you’re doing is the same kind of thing, and that’s what we mean by one entity.”

I hope that we can continue to cooperate and raise our levels, forming one solid and righteous entity and saving sentient beings together.

The above are just my personal understandings, please compassionately point out anything you find improper.

Thank you.