每一道難關，都是向上提高的階梯 (QM 2nd sharing)
FM. G.
尊敬的師父好！
各位同修好！
我是一名青年同修，因為父母都修煉，我自幼得法。雖然在修煉的家庭中長大，但直到上初中那年我才開始對自己的修煉負起責任。每當回顧那段修煉歷程，我都為其中安排之周密而感到感恩，也想起師父在經文《再棒喝》中開示：
「修煉的嚴謹，一環扣一環，即使每一刻、每一步都不能被干擾。」
舉個例子，2024年是我第一年參與向政府講真相。我是前一年在西澳的大學畢業後才搬到坎培拉的。回想起來，我過去參與過的所有大法項目，都為我打下了基礎，也讓我具備了向政府講好真相所需的技能。
高中期間，我經常在珀斯市中心的大法真相展位向路人講清真相。由於大多數路人只會匆匆停留片刻，我學會了快速傳達重點。這項重要的技能，如今在與時間緊迫的政客交談時派上了用場。
疫情期間，我與美國的青年同修合作，組織了一場以四種語言舉行的線上國際青年弟子交流會。這讓我在與其他同修合作和協調大法項目方面累積了寶貴的經驗。
後來，我們這個青年弟子小組還開始了一個面向大學生的社交媒體帳號，發布資訊圖表和動畫。為了幫忙，我學了平面設計，這項技能在我為國會活動設計各種簡報資料和邀請函時也正好派上用場。
這不僅是學會新技能的過程，也讓我在與人溝通中逐漸突破自己。我從小就比姐姐內向，也不善交際；過去一直是、現在仍然是家裡安靜的那一個。但有趣的是，也許是因為講真相需要溝通，我自然而然變得更自信，也更能言善辯了。
上學時，我一直不擅長寫作。母親說寫作不是我的強項，我也最後在大學上了統計專業。但在接觸國會議員的過程中，寫作是不可避免的，現在我撰寫了我們大部分的簡報資料。
我也要感謝我父母，讓我能流利地使用中文和英文。我還承襲了他們冷靜、理性的性格。這對我成為更好的協調人和配合者幫助很大。
這一切都像是巧妙的安排。講真相所需的許多技能正是我一直以為自己很欠缺的。直到回顧自己一路走來的歷程，我才意識到師父為我能走上這條路做了多少安排。
我所經歷的每一次磨難，都像是為下一步的提高所必需準備的階梯。下面我想分享這些年來一些比較難忘的修煉考驗與體悟。
第一部分：在向政府講清真相中無條件配合
做政府工作一直是個磨練的過程。但我認識到，雖然做事的方式很重要，更應該著重的是我們如何配合，以及自身的修煉。
舉個例子，過去幾年我們去坎培拉的大部分行程，準備工作都是匆忙進行的。今年第一次的行程，我們很早就做好規劃，也更早發出了會面請求和活動邀請。我們以為給了對方更多時間，就會有更多人回覆出席。
然而，好幾個星期過去，國會活動和會面的回覆都來得很慢。核心小組的每個人仍在忙其他項目。一切都顯得緩慢而沈重，感覺我們還沒有形成整體。
我當時感到焦慮，擔心進展不順，就和另一位協調人交流了這件事。我們反思到，需要向內找、提高自己，才能扭轉局面。
我悟到，關鍵在於用什麼心態去對待関難。我需要改變自己對事情的看法，也就是用正念來看待事情。修煉中的困難其實是好事，我們應該把它看作是要過的關，而不是無法跨越的障礙。我也認識到自己已經有一段時間在發正念上鬆懈了，便立刻下決心糾正。
令人驚訝的是，在下一次協調會上，我們能夠把不同的意見和看法協調一致，達成共識，形成整體。此後事情持續朝好的方向轉變。雖然有好幾次出現意外情況考驗我們的心性，但只要用正念去看待，在師父的幫助下，一切都水到渠成。
考驗仍在繼續出現。那時我的工作變得忙碌許多。幾位經驗豐富的同事離職跳槽去了其他公司，我的團隊人手不足，我得加班學習、提升技能來填補空缺。而隨著前往坎培拉的日期臨近，準備工作也加緊了。需要有人與其他協調人配合、聯絡加入我們代表團的法學教授、起草會面簡報和議程、設計早餐會的演示文稿，還有一大堆其他事務。
我已經感到不堪重負，對是否還要承擔更多，心裏有些猶豫。我知道其他人也已經滿負荷，但其中有些任務，我是最合適的人選。在策劃會上，我記得自己心裏還在為手上已有的事情發愁，但到了分配誰負責什麼的時候，就在一瞬間我放下了對安逸的執著，主動承擔了那些我最適合做的任務。我意識到，自己也需要放下自私的想法，才能與大家更好地配合。一旦放下為自己著想的顧慮，我發現很多任務解決得比預期順利得多。
在設計早餐活動的演示文稿時，我與另一位學員對應該涵蓋哪些內容有不同看法。我主張內容精簡一些，而那位學員覺得應該包含某些細節。那時壓力很大，我們在最後一週才趕製，而我還要在其他籌備工作之外設計演示文稿。起初我感到沮喪，但我意識到堅持己見是不對的。我問自己：即使我的想法沒有被採納，我還會不會全心全意支持這個演示嗎？會的。我下定決心絕不讓自己的執著妨礙救度眾生。
師父在《二零一六年紐約法會講法》中開示：
「做甚麼事情就把它做好。做的過程中看的是你的人心，而不是看你成功的本身。你做的過程中就把人救了！你做的過程中是你修煉提高的過程，同時就在起著救度眾生的作用！不是說你把那件事情做成了才能起到救度眾生的作用。」
雖然只是少數幾位學員在與國會議員交談，但在我看來，取得的任何成果都不是個人的功勞，而是學員整體修煉、無私地互相支持的結果。在整個過程中，我看到原本有很強觀念的同修放下了自我，看到學員們無條件地配合，也看到澳洲學員形成了整體。
第二部分：修煉中遇到的一切都是好事
我曾短暫當過坎培拉輔導站的輔導員。作為輔導員，我需要瞭解學員們遇到的困難，並與大家共同努力，形成整體。於是我們開始拜訪學員，徵求他們的意見。
我們拜訪的一位學員剛從中國大陸搬來不久。談話一開始，我們問他覺得坎培拉有什麼需要改變的。出乎意料的是，他轉過身指著我說，要改變就得從我開始。接著，他開始一一說出對我的不滿，但其中不少指責都缺乏道理。例如，他責備我習慣性地雙臂交叉，要求我改成像師父那樣抱臂，因為那才是覺者的象徵。
當時我立刻感到血往頭上湧。我覺得很委屈，強烈地想為自己辯解。可笑的是，他批評我的同時，我還得把他的批評翻譯給不會中文的同修聽，對方也完全搞不清楚為什麼會發生這種事。
我記得我試著向那位學員解釋他的一些批評只是對情況的誤解。當這位學員不接受我的解釋時，我想起了師父在《轉法輪》第四講中開示：
「遇到這種矛盾的時候，我們首先應該冷靜，不應該和他同樣去對待。當然我們可以善意的去解釋，把事情說清楚都沒有關係，可是你太執著了也不行。」
還好，那位學員批評我的時間有限，因為我得提早離開。但在開車回家的路上，我腦海裡有一場激烈的交戰。
一方面，我覺得自己被冤枉得很，思緒全集中在他的批評多麼不合邏輯、他如何冤枉了我。另一方面，我努力保持冷靜，超越情緒上的衝擊，找出自己仍然可以提高之處，不論這些批評在邏輯上是否站得住腳。
當我反問自己：「我不能被批評的嗎？不。我能謙卑地接受任何批評嗎？能。」我內心受到衝擊的是好強的心，以及丟了面子之後對自己所謂名聲的執著。我真的覺得自己在跟內心的矛盾較勁，直到正念戰勝了人的觀念。
最終就是要放下自尊心，保持謙卑。我逐漸認識到，自己確實有可以做得更好的地方。關於雙臂交叉這一點，雖然我並無不敬之意，但我在想，自己當了輔導員之後，是否在潛意識中變得更傲慢了？於是我把這個批評當作提示，去修自己的謙卑。
「聞過則喜」這句成語浮現在我的腦海，我真的為自己又找到一處可以提高的地方而高興。這也是一次令人難忘的考驗，讓我體會到，要無條件向內找、努力把握每一個提高的機會。
但是，怎麼知道自己是否完全過了一關心性考驗呢？我有一次回珀斯，在與一位同修朋友交流時，才對這個問題有了新的體會。我向這位朋友講述了在坎培拉協調政府工作時遇到的各種困難，在我心裏，我所講述的那些心性考驗，自己已經過了。但奇怪的是，在我分享的時候，他一直給我提建議，告訴我該怎樣才能過這些關。
我心想：「這些關我已經過了，他為什麼還在幫我過？」接著我問自己：「我怎麼知道自己是否真的過了關？」我正想著，朋友接著分享他最近經歷的一些磨難。他提到其中一關難得像攀登一座高山，心理上很難完全放下。我意識到，這是給我的提示。
我想，有些関我們能夠熬過，但心裏仍然停留在當時的情境中。就像終於走出了一條險峻的山路，卻依然被它的危險所困擾。我悟到，也許判斷自己是否徹底過了一關的真正標誌之一，是你是否對經歷過它心存感恩。我的理解是，這份感恩，部分源於我真正體會到了從這場考驗中獲得的教益是多麼珍貴。沒有它，你就無法提高。畢竟，提高在修煉中是最重要的。就像師父在《轉法輪》第四講中開示：
「你好我也好，一團和氣坐那兒就長功，哪有那個事啊？正因為他給你製造了這樣一個矛盾，產生了這樣一個提高心性的機會，你從中能夠提高自己的心性，你這個心性不就提高上來了？三得。你是個煉功人，你心性上來你功不就上來了嗎？一舉四得。你怎麼不應該感謝人家？你心裏真得好好謝謝人家的，確實是這樣的。」
我突然想到一個類比：即使大部分心性考驗我都過了，但如果每一次考驗我都只過了百分之九十，最終我的修煉也只有百分之九十，到頭來仍達不到圓滿的標準。修煉的要求是嚴格的。
我認為感恩之所以重要也是因為它是化解怨恨的解藥，而怨恨會使修煉人的正念變得脆弱。忍耐容易，寬恕難，而心存感恩更難。
我一直在思考師父在二零零七年對澳洲學員講法時的開示，思考我能否真的把修煉中碰到的一切事情當作好事。但真正做到這一點並不容易。
尤其是，光是過關本身就已經夠難了。我認為看問題的心態，也就是帶有正念，非常重要，因為修煉本來就是個艱辛的過程。我時常要提醒自己，每一次磨難都是一個階梯，困難越大，提高越大。
以上是我有限的認識，不當之處，請慈悲指正。
謝謝師父！
謝謝同修！
English Translation:
Every Tribulation is a Stepping Stone
D. G
Greetings revered Master,
Greetings fellow practitioners,
I’m a young practitioner who obtained the Fa at birth as my parents were practitioners. Even though I grew up in a family of practitioners, it was only during my first year of high school that I began taking responsibility for my cultivation. Every time I reflect on my cultivation journey since then, I am humbled by how designed it feels, and reminded of what Master said in Another Stern Warning:
A person’s cultivation is a rigorous process, with every aspect closely linked
To give an example, 2024 was my first year contributing to clarifying the truth to the government. I had only moved to Canberra the year before after graduating from university in WA. Thinking back, all the Dafa projects I had worked on in the past laid a foundation and helped me gain the skills necessary to clarify the truth well to the government.
Throughout my time in high school, I frequently clarified the truth to pedestrians at our stall in the Perth CBD. Since most pedestrians would only stop very quickly, I learned to get the key points across quickly, an important skill I use when speaking with politicians who are tight on time.
During Covid, I collaborated with young practitioners in the U.S. to organise an online international young practitioner sharing conference that was held in four languages. This gave me great experience in working with other practitioners and coordinating Dafa projects.
We, as part of this young practitioner group, later ran a social media account with informational graphics and animations targeting university students. To help out, I learned graphic design, and it’s a skill that has come in handy when I’ve had to design various briefing materials and invites for our events in parliament.
It wasn’t only the process of picking up new skills. Growing up I’ve always been socially awkward and introverted compared to my older sister; I always was, and still am, the quiet one at home. But interestingly – maybe due to the need to communicate when clarifying the truth – I naturally became a more confident and eloquent speaker.
In school, I always struggled with writing. My mother said writing was not my forte, and I ended up studying statistics in university. But in our outreach to parliamentarians, writing is unavoidable, and I now write most of our briefing materials.
I have my parents to thank for my fluency in Chinese and English. Their calm and clinical disposition is something that I’ve taken after, and has helped me immensely in being a better coordinator and co-operator.
It feels serendipitous. So much of clarifying the truth requires skills I had always thought I was weak at. It’s only when I reflect on how far I’ve come that I realised how much Master has done to enable me to walk this path.
Every tribulation I’ve passed felt like a necessary stepping stone for the next. I’d like to share some of the more memorable cultivation tests and enlightenments from these past years.
1. Unconditional cooperation while clarifying the truth to the government
Government work has been and still is a tempering process. But I’ve realised that while how we go about it is important, and greater emphasis has to be placed on how we work together and cultivation.
To give an example, for most of the trips we’ve made to Canberra in previous years, preparations were hastily made. For our first trip this year we planned well in advance and sent our meeting requests and event invites much earlier. We thought giving them more time would mean we would get more RSVPs.
However, for weeks, the RSVPs for both our event in parliament and our meetings were slow to come. Everyone on the core team was still working on other projects. Everything felt slow and heavy and it didn’t feel like we were one-body yet.
I was feeling anxious and concerned about the lack of progress, and shared this with another coordinator. We reflected on how we needed to look within and improve to turn around the situation.
I enlightened that everything was a matter of perspective, and that I needed to change mine – in other words view things with righteous thoughts. Difficulties in cultivation were a good thing, and we needed to view this as a test to pass and not as an insurmountable obstacle. I recognised that I had been slacking off on my righteous thoughts for some time, and immediately resolved to rectify that.
Surprisingly at our next coordination meeting, we were able to harmonise different opinions and viewpoints to come to a consensus and form one-body. Things continued to shift in a positive direction thereafter, and while there were several times where something unexpected would test our reaction, as long as we viewed it with righteous thoughts, all the pieces fell into place with Master’s help.
Tests continued to come. At the time, I’d become a lot busier with work. A few highly experienced colleagues had left for other opportunities, leaving my team short-staffed, and I was putting in extra hours to skill up and cover the gap. But as our Canberra dates approached, preparations intensified. Someone had to work with other coordinators, liaise with the legal scholar joining our delegation, draft meeting briefs and agendas, design our breakfast presentation slides, and handle a slew of other tasks.
Already feeling overwhelmed, I was hesitant to take on more. But I knew that others were also at capacity, and that for some of these tasks, I was best placed to help. In our planning meeting, I remember mentally stressing about what was already on my plate. But when it came to deciding who would take on what, in a split second, I put aside my attachment to comfort, and volunteered for whichever tasks I was best placed to do. Everyone was united in purpose so I had to put aside my selfish thoughts to cooperate with everyone. Once I put aside my concerns for myself, I found that many of these tasks were resolved far more smoothly than I had expected.
When designing the presentation for our breakfast event, I had a difference of opinion with another practitioner on what should be covered. I was in favour of less content, while the other practitioner felt certain details should be included. It was a time of high stress; we were putting it together in the final week, and I was designing the slides on top of other preparatory work. At first I felt frustrated, but I realised that insisting on my opinions was not right. I asked myself: would I still wholeheartedly support the presentation even if my ideas were not taken to fruition? Yes, I would. I was determined not to let my attachments get in the way of saving sentient beings.
Master said in the Fa Teaching Given at the 2016 New York Fa Conference:
“Do a good job with whatever it is you do. And as you go about doing it, it will be your heart and mind, rather than your success, that count. And as you work on it, you are saving people! The process of doing those things is also a process of improving yourself in cultivation, and at the same time you are helping to save a multitude of beings! It’s not as if only when you’ve accomplished your task or initiative will you have helped to save beings.”
While it’s only a few practitioners speaking to parliamentarians, in my view, any success achieved is not the result of the individual, but the result of the whole practitioner community cultivating and selflessly supporting one another. Throughout the process I saw practitioners who once had strong notions put them down, I saw practitioners cooperating unconditionally, and I saw Australian disciples form one-body.
2. Everything encountered in cultivation is a good thing
I was part of the Canberra assistance centre for a short period of time. Being an assistant meant working with practitioners to understand their problems so we could form one-body. So we started visiting practitioners and seeking their feedback.
One of the practitioners we visited had just moved from mainland China not long ago. We began the conversation by asking him what he thought needed to change in Canberra. To our surprise, he turned and pointed to me saying that we needed to begin by changing me. He then began to list out all the things he was dissatisfied with about me, a lot of which did not make sense. For example, he scolded me for habitually crossing my arms, and instructed me to instead fold my arms like Master, as that was the sign of an enlightened one.
He made other accusations which I won’t list out, but in the moment I immediately felt blood rushing to my head. I felt wronged and had the strong urge to defend myself. But comically, as he was criticising me, I still had to translate his criticisms to the practitioner who didn’t speak Chinese, who was very confused as to why this was happening.
I remember trying to explain to this practitioner that some of his criticisms were simply misunderstandings of the circumstances. When this practitioner didn’t accept my explanations I recalled Master’s words:
When we get into a disagreement we should first of all stay calm and not act like others. Of course, it’s fine to try to explain things with good intent; there’s nothing wrong with trying to clear things up. But if you do it with too much attachment it won’t work out. The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun
Unfortunately, for this practitioner, his chance to criticise me was cut short as I had to leave early. But as I was driving home, I felt a battle raging inside my mind.
On one side, I felt very unfairly treated. My mind became focused on how illogical all his criticisms were and how he had wronged me. On the other side, I was trying to be clinical and see beyond the emotional attacks and identify where I could still improve, regardless of whether the criticisms were logically sound.
I remember asking myself rhetorically: “Am I above criticism? No. Can I humbly accept any criticism? Yes.” At the centre of my internal conflict was pride and the attachment to my perceived reputation after being made to lose face. I truly felt like I was wrestling with myself until my human notions were dominated by righteous thoughts.
The panacea was both letting go of my pride and embracing humility, and I came to realise that there were indeed areas I could do better. With the point on crossing my arms, even though I meant no disrespect, I had been wondering if I had subconsciously become more arrogant after becoming an assistant, and so I took the criticism as a sign to work on my humility.
The Chinese idiom, “to be glad to have one’s errors pointed out” came to mind, and I truly felt happy to have found another area for improvement. This was also a memorable test of unconditionally looking within, and striving to find any opportunity to improve.
But how do you know when you’ve completely passed a xinxing test? This was a question I enlightened to when I returned home to Perth once, and was sharing with a practitioner-friend. I shared with this friend the various difficulties I encountered while coordinating government work in Canberra, and in my mind, I felt I had already passed the xinxing tests I was recounting to him. But oddly enough, as I was sharing, he kept providing me advice and suggestions on how to pass these tests.
I thought to myself: “I’ve already passed these tribulations, why is he still trying to help me pass them?” I then asked myself: “How do I know if I’ve really passed a test?” As I was thinking about it, my friend continued by sharing recent tribulations he’d been going through. As he was talking, he mentioned a tribulation that felt as difficult as scaling a tall mountain, and was psychologically hard let go. I realised this was a hint for me.
I think sometimes we can endure through a tribulation, but mentally still be caught up in the moment. Imagine finally hiking through a treacherous mountain pass, but still being haunted by its dangers. I enlightened that perhaps the real marker for whether you’ve completely passed a tribulation is if you feel grateful for having experienced it. My understanding is that part of the gratitude comes from truly understanding the preciousness of the lesson learned in the trial, without which you would not be able to improve. After all, improvement is paramount in cultivation. It’s like what Master said in Zhuan Falun, The Fourth Talk:
“We couldn’t expect our energy to increase if everyone got along well and just meditated away as one happy family. It was in fact due to the situation that the person created that you had an occasion to work on your character and grow. And assuming you did, then that’s a third benefit. And since you are a practitioner, your energy is going to grow whenever your character does. That makes it a four-for-one deal. What’s not to feel thankful for, then? You really should feel thankful towards that person, and I mean it.”
It dawned on me, as an analogy, that while I’d passed most of the xinxing test, if I only completed 90% of every xinxing test, at the end I would only be 90% complete in my cultivation, and alas fall short of the standard for spiritual perfection. The requirements for cultivation are strict.
I think gratitude is also important because it is the antidote to any resentment that can derail a cultivator’s righteous thoughts. It’s easy to endure, it’s hard to forgive, but it’s even harder to have gratitude.
I’ve been thinking about what Master said in the 2007 Lecture to Australian Practitioners, not his exact words, that the principle of “viewing anything encountered in cultivation as a good thing” is an absolute truth. But how many people can truly understand, and genuinely do it?
Especially when it can be hard enough as it is just to pass a test. I think perspective, in other words righteous thoughts, is important, because cultivation is trying. From time to time I have to remind myself that every tribulation is a stepping stone, and the greater the difficulty, the further you can go.
Above is my limited understanding, please point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you Master,
Thank you fellow practitioners