Greetings Master!
Greetings fellow practitioners!
I am a 22 years old practitioner. On 12th April 1996 I attained the Fa at my grandma’s place with my mum when I was 100 days old. over the last 22 years, I have seen my classmates and friends become confused and corrupted and I realise how beautiful Dafa is. Thanks to the compassionate care of Master, I am able to get out of the big dye vat of everyday society. Three years ago, I came to Melbourne and enjoyed the free cultivation environment. I also reminded myself not to slack off in this comfortable environment. I must constantly look within and cultivate myself. Let me talk about my cultivation story since I came overseas. Please correct anything inappropriate.
Master’s Arrangement is the Best.
In October 2016, I applied for a dental assistant’s job. My English was not good when I first came to Australia, and I didn’t have any work experience. At that time, the person who introduced me said that, although I had no experience, and my English skills were limited, I was diligent, smart, and pleasant as well as being a Falun Dafa practitioner. As a result, my application was successful. I knew that it was Master’s arrangement. I quickly adapted to the work environment in Western society and I learned how to use the equipment for which I didn’t even know the Chinese name. I knew this is the wisdom that Dafa gave me. Master has always cared for me. Because of a shortage of staff, the owner asked me to be on call and I could not take time off. At that time, we were promoting Shen Yun and I used to participate in the shopping mall booths as well as helping with the distribution of flyers, but I was unable to participate this time. I was anxious; I didn’t know how to arrange my time. The promotion of Shen Yun was very important, but at the same time I didn’t wasn’t to lose such a good job opportunity.
Master says in 2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.: “I’ve always said that this entire society is in fact a setting for our Dafa disciples to cultivate in.”
Maybe Master saw that I have the heart to save people. During the training my employer felt that my English was bad so he constantly created opportunities for me and encouraged me to chat with patients. It seemed that I could speak fluent English only when I clarified the truth or introduced Shen Yun so I started to talk to patients about Shen Yun. Sometimes I felt tired after doing this a few times. I wanted to slack off and told myself that if I missed this patient I could clarify the facts to the next one. However, the dentist didn’t want to let it go, so he told the patient: “Esmeralda is from China and she knows about an authentic traditional Chinese performance: let her tell you something about it…”
When I got home and told my mum what happened, mum said: “See, Master always arranges the best for you as long as you want to save people. Master will bring them to you.”
Because my employer is very well known in the dental field, many of his patients are TV stars, AFL players, TV hosts – some even from other countries – and I will always find a chance to clarify the facts or introduce Shen Yun to them. Last year, I was very impressed by one of the patients from Bendigo. I told him Shen Yun would be performing in Bendigo this year and gave him a flyer. He was very pleased. I asked him why and he told me his friend introduced Shen Yun to him the year before and he bought tickets. However, he had toothache a few days before the show and couldn’t get an appointment with our dentist so he went to see a dentist in Bendigo and missed Shen Yun. I told him that this is what we Chinese call “predestination”. Then, I explained to him about traditional Chinese culture and how it has been warped by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He agreed with me and said he would definitely go to see Shen Yun this time! He also joked that he might have toothache every time Shen Yun came. I recalled that Master said in his 2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.: “I have always said that those who come to see Shen Yun’s performances are special; not everyone qualifies to get in. Those who enter the theater can do so because they have already had the groundwork laid and been chosen and given the opportunity to come, out of all the people out there.”
I have introduced Shen Yun to my work colleagues as well. There was a retired dental nurse who recently came back to work as a receptionist. She loves traditional Chinese culture. After my strong recommendation of Shen Yun, she brought more than ten members of her family to watch the performance. She was very touched and became a very loyal fan of Shen Yun.
That lady is very nice and always cares about me. When she heard of the story of the Communist Party persecuting Dafa disciples, she was shocked and couldn’t believe it. She is vegetarian. She said in Australia, in order to protect animals, some people became vegetarians and even held rallies in support of that. She couldn’t believe that in China there is so little respect for human life. How could things like this happen in the 21st Century!? At that time the documentary Harvested Alive was being screened in Melbourne so I invited her to watch it. When a fellow practitioner interviewed her after the film, she was shocked and speechless. The fellow practitioner told her she could learn more from our website and support us. Next day when I met her at work, she told me that she and her husband had done research about what was described in the documentary. They were very angry about what the CCP had done and admired the courage of Dafa Disciples. She wrote letters to the Australian government and departments of the CCP hoping help stop the CCP’s persecution.
I told her that ShenYun would have ten Melbourne shows in 2019. She was very happy and said she wouldn’t need to worry about her family’s Christmas presents now because she could just give them Shen Yun tickets. I was very delighted because sentient beings were saved. When I first started in the clinic, I found the owner had been advertising with lots of Chinese newspaper but not Epoch Times. When I clarified the facts with him I also introduced Epoch Times to him. I told him that Epoch Times is one of the three largest Chinese language papers in the world and ranks number one in Australia. The owner decided to have a trial of six months. The advertisements did bring in lots of Chinese speaking customers, and 90% came because of the Epoch Times advertisements. The owner was very happy and trusted my opinions even more. I told him one day, when people were no longer controlled by the CCP, they would all stand on the side of justice.
Overcoming an Inferiority Complex and Clarifying the Facts to VIP’s
One of my colleagues thought it would be helpful to me if they could help improve my English expertise, so she taught me English and Australian etiquette at lunch time every day. The other dentists started to join her and help me integrate into the mainstream society of Australia. They hold an “Esmeralda English training session” at lunch time for me every day. I know it is meant to be. In Teaching the Fa at the Conference in New Zealand, Master said: “Since it’s cultivation, nothing on our path of cultivation is coincidental.”
Soon after that, one day before I finished work, the owner showed me the profile of a patient who would come next day and said: “This patient is a talk show host from the UK. He is coming tomorrow and you should prepare how to talk to him!’ This was Master using the owner’s words to enlighten me!
The next day, the patient came as expected. While talking, he was praising the skills of the owner and how lucky I was to have the chance to learn from him. I told him I was a Falun Dafa disciple . I then told him about traditional Chinese culture and cultivation and how beautiful Falun Dafa was. He was very interested and hoped to learn more. I then told him this high level Buddha School practice was brutally suppressed and persecuted by the CCP in China and explained about the horrific organ harvesting. He felt it was incredible and unacceptable that my grandfather and grandmother, who are in their 80’s, were being monitored and harassed by the police. He asked me for a lot of details so I answered his questions one by one. I also constantly sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind him and asked Master to help me. I felt a powerful energy field and I constantly felt wisdom coming to me. I knew he was a talk show host and must be very intelligent. However, I was not intimidated and clarified the facts to him in English and he accepted what I said. . “Cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master.” (Zhuan Falun).
He said goodbye to me and I thanked him and said I hoped he would help us sending the truth out. He told me in a serious way: “Esmeralda, thank you for giving me so much information, I will continue to pay attention to and support you. Thank you for giving me such a good theme for a future program.”
Not long after, I heard that the TV station reported on the CCP’s live organ harvesting. This is the power of Dafa disciples clarifying the facts.
When I first came to Melbourne, I participated in the Falun Dafa Day rally. Since I always felt that my English was not good, I was nervous about speaking. A fellow practitioner said to me: “Your English is fine, you are just too shy. It will be fine if you practice a few times first.” I thought the practitioner was just trying to encourage me. After I had clarified the facts to the talk show host, I felt that my English was okay. It was my feeling of inferiority that limited me. As long as I do the three things well, Master will look after me. Now when I encounter similar situations, I am no longer timid.
A few days later, there was an AFL player who came to have his teeth checked. He was very proud of his performance in the last game but I was expressionless and unresponsive. He was quite upset and exclaimed: “There is no one in Melbourne who doesn’t know me!” The owner quickly explained: “Esmeralda just came to Melbourne from China and hasn’t watched many AFL games.” Then the AFL player said: “I will give you an autograph – then you must remember me”. I told him: “I am a practitioner of Falun Dafa. Because Dafa is persecuted in China, I was deprived of my childhood and was not as happy as the children here. Because we were monitored, my mother never even took me to a movie. I couldn’t go to a park, I couldn’t travel, and I didn’t even think about going to games and concerts. Right now there are still many Dafa disciples’ children in mainland China who suffer under the same restrictions. I saw his eyes go red. He looked at me with distress. He didn’t know how to comfort me. He asked me what he could do. I told him that he could go to the international website to learn more – support us, tell the truth to his friends, and help us end the persecution as soon as possible.
“On the surface, we’re seeking support for Dafa from the world’s people. This is the thinking of the worldly human side, manifest in this human place. Yet it’s reversed on the other side. Whoever supports Dafa or advocates for Dafa is establishing for himself his being’s existence in the future and is laying a foundation for obtaining the Fa in the future.’ (Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. Fa Conference in Guiding the Voyage)
A few months later, he brought a medal which he had just won and took a picture with us. He said he was going to post that on Facebook to let more people know the truth.
Find out your human attachments – Increase Patience and Energy
During the past two years of work I have constantly felt that Master has arranged everything for me to cultivate and improve.
Master said: “You are cultivating out in the world, and not off in a religious setting, so whatever job or trade you are in serves as a setting for your cultivation, doesn’t it?” (2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.)
Master is always by my side. When my attachments come out, he often uses people around me to remind me. Every time I feel that I have been obsessed with fame and fortune, I eliminate them by studying the Fa. But even when I improve I can still see my hidden attachment to fame and fortune manifesting from a deeper level. Here are a few examples.
Once I had a conflict in my workplace. Colleague A did not arrange full-time working hours for me, so I was not happy with her. I thought that I was a full-time employee and by law she should give me full-time hours, but she didn’t and I thought it was not fair. At this time, my colleague B also began to complain to me every day that colleague A was unreasonable and eccentric. Colleague B stood by my side and made me feel very happy. I didn’t realize that it was actually my human attachment.
After returning home, I was still smugly telling my mother what happened in the clinic. After hearing my story, mum’s face was very serious and said: “I am going to study the Fa.” I was surprised and asked myself what went wrong. Why was I angry and why was I happy? I calmed down and started thinking about the source of the problem?
“In cultivation, the difference between humanness and godhood is just the difference of one thought.” (Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York) Master’s words suddenly hit my mind. Looking at my cultivation status; because I was bothered by this, I was obsessed with what happened at work and I couldn’t concentrate when studying the Fa. I am a Dafa disciple: how could I fight with an ordinary person? They are all sentient beings that I need to save. I have to follow Dafa disciplines and then they can see how I am different and feel the compassion of Dafa disciples.
I calmed down and looked within carefully. I uncovered several of my attachments. When I was laughing at a colleague bothering about 1-2 less hours, was I also worried about it? I also found I had some jealousy, enjoyed watching A and B having conflicts, I forgot how serious cultivation is and I didn’t have the compassion which I should have had as a practitioner.
Master is very compassionate and always using things happening around me to remind me. Therefore, I am no longer fighting for hours and just concentrate on my work. After I eliminated my attachment to financial gain, my employer increased my salary three months ahead of time and gave me extra hours on weekends. Master said: “If something is yours, nobody will take it away, and if something isn’t yours, you won’t be able to get it even by fighting for it.” (Zhuan Falun)
I am very grateful that Master has arranged for me to have this job. In this ordinary people’s society, circumstances make me look within from time to time, keep the righteous thoughts of a practitioner and eliminate my attachments.
I am grateful that Master brought people for me to talk with so I could make a living while doing the three things. I will try to be more diligent on my path of cultivation and save more sentient beings!
Thank you Master!
Thank you fellow practitioners!