Greetings to Master!
Greetings to fellow practitioners.
I began practising Dafa in 2002. Under the care of Master, I’ve experienced ups and downs with the fellow Melbourne practitioners. As a particle of Dafa, I did what was meant to be done in obscurity. Even if my role was like a “junior monk”, I could always feel the presence of Master around me, and have therefore witnessed the magic of Dafa and Master’s benevolence.
Now I will share a few snippets from my cultivation, if there is anything improper, please point it out.
1. Transporter and cleaner
In 2005, I set up a “quit CCP “truth clarification table in Chinatown with other practitioners. This was to conform to the big wave of “quit CCP” trigged by the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. We did it once a week at the beginning and then later extended it to three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I would cooperate by delivering materials to the spot so long as fellow practitioners were there.
I had my business name printed on my car in order to park in the loading zone. Although I have to pay more insurance, it is very convenient to park in the CBD. Especially in Chinatown, there are only loading zones during week days from Monday to Friday. If you weren’t cautious, you may receive hefty parking fines.
It is a one way street through Chinatown and quite difficult to find parking. If there is no parking available, I would have to drive a long way away and walk back which was really a big waste of time. Normally I would wish for Master to reserve a parking spot for me before departure. Upon arrival, I would think in my mind: “a Dafa disciple is coming; people should leave immediately and give way to me”. As a result, I could always find a parking spot without any difficulty. Sometimes, there were no parking spots available, but someone would leave as soon as I was arriving. My instant thought was: “Thank you, Master!”
Occasionally, there were truck drivers who thought I should not be occupying the loading zone. Once, a middle-eastern looking driver asked me to leave immediately. I told him that my car was a business car and was entitled to park in the loading zone. However, not only did he refuse to listen, but said angrily that he would call the police if I didn’t leave. I thought, “I can park here anyway even if the police come. If I don’t leave, what could you do?” At that moment, I realized that my attachment of competitiveness had emerged. I calmed down by thinking of Master’s teaching: “the driver indeed drove the car too fast, but how could he possibly hit someone on purpose? Didn’t he do it unintentionally?” (Zhuan Falun，Lecture 4). He was possibly in a hurry to unload his truck. He didn’t know that a car with words on it can be parked in a loading zone. As a result, I quickly left. When encountering similar situations afterwards, I dealt with it peacefully.
I bought a small business in Queen Victoria Market in 2013. It operated on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday each week. Therefore, I couldn’t deliver the truth clarification materials to Chinatown anymore. I asked a fellow practitioner to do it. However, it took her at least two hours to complete the trip. I enlightened to the fact that practitioners’ time is also a form of Dafa resource. Therefore, I decided to change my trading day from Friday to Saturday. Accordingly, I applied for a Saturday stall while begging Master to help me realize this arrangement. This way, I could resume the delivery of materials to Chinatown on Friday, and bring the Market truth clarification site materials to my stall on Saturday as well. This would save the time of fellow practitioners. Not long after, my wish was granted. The operation department at the Market allocated a Saturday stall in very good location to me. One trader said: “Did you bribe the manager?” Many traders wanted to have this stall but failed even after applying again and again”. I believed this to be a gift from Master. Thank you, Master!
During a period of 2016, I experienced a lack of strength in my waist. Once, I started crossing a road when the pedestrian light was green but didn’t manage to reach the other side of the road before the light had turned red. I had often complained about pedestrians who crossed the road very slowly when I was driving in the past. At that moment I understood and could relate to them. Some of them may actually find it difficult to walk fast, just like me right now. From this, I learnt that I should be more considerate of others.
Delivering materials during that period was a really big test for me. I couldn’t carry any heavy things, so I put the materials batch by batch into the container and divided the small bean bag weights into two small trays. While lifting the large folding table, I thought: “I’m a Dafa disciple; I’m very powerful and beg Master to give me strength”. I really wanted to find a fellow practitioner to replace me at that time, but I couldn’t find one. In the end, I managed to persist through strong righteous thoughts and my waist eventually went back to normal.
For a period of time I was also responsible for taking away all the Epoch Times newspapers left over at the printing factory. Sometimes all the space in my car was packed with newspapers. Once a fellow practitioner saw it and said to me: “Your car is an ordinary car, not a heavy load car, it will be damaged by such heavy newspapers.” At that moment I remembered a story shared by a fellow practitioner from mainland China. Once, Master asked him to carry two full sacks to a train platform and told him they were very light. He then took a sack in each hand and walked to the platform with ease. He realized they were two sacks of books after he put them down. If he had known they were books beforehand, he would not have been able to carry them for sure. I understood that we shouldn’t have ordinary people’s notions. Later, every time I carried the newspapers, I always told them: you are very light. A fellow practitioner jokingly claimed that my Toyota has already been transformed into a BMW.
Once, the stone ledge under the archway of Chinatown was covered in vomit. A fellow practitioner almost vomited herself when she saw it. Many Chinese visitors pick up the truth clarification materials we place on the stone ledges. We would miss a lot of predestined people if we couldn’t put materials there. I said to the fellow practitioner: we should also eliminate the attachment to filth and therefore I cleaned it up. Actually, I am also a person with a strong fear of filth. The vomit really looked disgusting. I begged Master to switch off the portion of my brain that fears filth while I was cleaning it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t feel anything in the cleaning process; it just seemed like an ordinary cleaning job.
Master says: “In addition to human beings and animals, plants are also lives. In other dimensions any substance can manifest life.” （Zhuan Falun, Lecture 7） Our truth clarification materials also have lives. Therefore, I would communicate with the materials while delivering them. I would say to them: “Hello all you truth clarification materials and display boards, please remember Falun Dafa is great and truthfulness, compassion and forbearance is good. I hope you attract predestined people to learn the truth and be saved through you. Thank you for cooperating with Dafa disciples in assisting Master to save sentient beings.
2. Materials Organizer
Round about 2007, I witnessed a large quantity of truth clarification materials being wasted due to the lack of management. Thus, I took the initiative to take responsibility for the materials. I turned my garage into a materials warehouse. My husband jokingly said that my place had become an anti-CCP base.
This house had been rented by a fellow practitioner back in 2004. I then moved in after she left about two years later. The ‘for lease’ display board for this house had already been up for a few months by that time. Many people had inspected it but none of them leased it. I realized later that it had been kept for Dafa disciples. Everyday people couldn’t take it.
In the first few years, the owner of the house raised the rent every year. I thought it was not reasonable to increase the rent every year for such an old house. So I intended to invite a public agent to have it reviewed. However, I remembered a fellow practitioner’s sharing from the US. The American practitioners rented a house during the period of Shen Yun promotion one year. The owner kept raising the rent. He or she was causing difficulties for the practitioners at the surface level. One fellow practitioner enlightened to the fact that the knowing part of the owner urgently wanted to know the truth and to be saved. Master said: “Clarifying the truth is a universal key”. So I invited the owners to my place (their house) and clarified the truth to them with the help of a fellow practitioner. From then on, the owner has not increased the rent and has watched Shen Yun twice.
My attachment to complaining often emerged during the process of organizing materials. The material containers which we use are those used by post offices, they are narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. When I prepared materials for different truth clarification sites, I always put the small sized materials on the bottom and the large sized ones on the top and stacked them neatly so they would not get creased. Whenever I fold the signature collecting display boards, I always fold the faces with words on the inside to avoid wear and tear and getting dirty. However, the returned material containers were very messy most of the times. The truth clarification materials were just stacked there with no order and no sorting of size. It happened so often that some materials were creased and were unable to be distributed anymore. The printed faces of the signature collecting display boards were also often folded on the outside. Upon seeing this, I would blame fellow practitioners in my mind, thinking: “How come they do things so carelessly. They can’t even do such simple things properly. In particular, after large scale events old and out of date materials would show up – sometimes there was a lot. I couldn’t help complaining about fellow practitioners. From the perspective of the Fa, I knew that these repeated occurrences were to eliminate my attachment to complaining, but I still didn’t let it go. I needed to change my mindset. Fellow practitioners at the truth clarification front line are remarkable; they’ve been working very hard. They may not pay much attention to these trivial things after standing there for many hours. I should have an admirable and grateful heart to cooperate with fellow practitioners and the whole body.
3. “Key” Coordinator
Someone needs to pick up the key to the library every week when we have big group Fa study. In the early stage, it was done by a fellow practitioner who lived close to the library. Later she couldn’t take the responsibility anymore due to her business. At that time, I delivered the Epoch Times newspapers to the library every week. Naturally, I took the initiative and promised to pick up the key in the future. She also transferred the rental donation for the library to me. Since taking the responsibility I was unable to give it away again. Later, I didn’t need to deliver newspapers anymore and the Fa study time and location had also changed. As a result, I didn’t have time to collect the key anymore. However, none of the other fellow practitioners were willing to take over the rental donation. Thus, I became the official “Key” Coordinator.
Once, the fellow practitioner who was responsible for picking up the key forgot to do it due to attending a wedding. We didn’t realise that we didn’t have the key until we finished Fa study and needed to lock the door. We couldn’t lock the door without the key. I then asked my practitioner daughter to find the contact number of the local city council security online. Time was getting late but the security guy didn’t show up. Two other fellow practitioners waited with us. We started to send forth righteous thoughts and begged Master to lock the door. I went to check the door after righteous thoughts and found the door was actually locked. I was very excited. I thanked Master over and over again from the bottom of my heart.
I once hoped that a fellow practitioner could collect the key, as I believed she was the most suited person for the job, but she refused. At that moment I became unhappy and said in a dissatisfied tone: “If you are unwilling then nothing can be done about it, as it has to be voluntary”. What attachment caused me to express such unhappiness? Was it an attachment to fame, fortune, sentimentality? It must be sentimentality. I have always cooperated well with this practitioner, so I just assumed that she would be able to take on the job. When the result did not match my expectations, I was not pleased This was an attachment to having things my own way.
Another time, practitioner A, who regularly collected the key, had something else on so asked practitioner B to collect it. Practitioner B then asked practitioner C to collect it, but in the end practitioner C had forgotten. It took a lot of trouble to get the security to open the door for us. That day I happened to be at work very far away and didn’t go to Fa study. A practitioner sent me a message blaming me for the confusion. I did not explain nor did I blame the practitioner who forgot to collect the key. Since that incident, I always sent messages reminding the practitioner in charge of collecting the key that day to collect it before the library closes. When no one was able to collect the key, I would collect the key myself two days ahead of time on Thursday.
During big group Fa study, practitioners would often leave things behind. I prepared a ‘lost and found’ box and put the forgotten things inside. Practitioners could claim their belongings themselves to avoid taking up Fa study time for lost property announcements. Once, a fellow practitioner said to me: “Maybe it is because of the ‘lost and found’ box that people lose their belongings, perhaps without it practitioners would not forget things. Although I thought what he said had no logic, I didn’t take the box to Fa study for several weeks to see whether it was as he said. But actually, it was to prove my attachment to being right.
I think, if everyone can take on some small tasks, it will bring great convenience to others. I have always been grateful for the fellow practitioners who watch the door downstairs at big group Fa study. Thanks to their efforts, latecomers are able to easily enter and participate in group Fa study. Oftentimes when we gain something, it is because of someone else’s sacrifice, we shouldn’t take anything for granted.
Conclusion
I remember a fellow practitioner once shared a story. There were two people laying bricks at a construction site. When asked, “What are you doing?” one of them answered, “can’t you see I’m laying bricks?” The other person replied proudly, “I am building a church”.
All that I have done seems to be like that bricklayer, but I know that I am playing the role of a junior monk in this big temple on Earth – fulfilling the grand mission through small things; assisting Master in Fa rectification, saving sentient beings, and fulfilling my vows to the Gods.
Thank you Master！
Thank you fellow practitioners.