Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference Held in Los Angeles, Master Li Hongzhi Lectures
[Photo Caption: Master Li greets the audience at the 2015 US West Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference in Los Angeles on October 16, 2015.]
(Minghui.org) More than 4500 Falun Dafa practitioners from 36 countries attended the US West Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Los Angeles, California on October 16, 2015. Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, made an appearance at the conference, giving a lecture and answering questions for 1 hour and 50 minutes. Master Li mentioned in particular that many practitioners have long been attached to “looking forward to the end,” and that each and every attachment will make one unable to succeed in cultivation.
After the lecture, many practitioners remarked that Master had very solemnly reminded them of the seriousness and urgency of cultivation, and that they felt the need to be more diligent to walk the last leg of their cultivation path well.
Fourteen practitioners presented experience-sharing articles on cultivating heart and mind and working together to stop the persecution. Many discussed the importance of looking inward and doing projects with dedication to help the world’s people learn about the persecution of Falun Dafa.
Carrying Out Efforts with Dedication
Santa Monica Beach is a well-known tourist destination in Los Angeles. To raise awareness about the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners go there every weekend. They inform people about the persecution in China and help Chinese people to take a stance against the atrocities by renouncing their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
Ms. Xu participated in the effort and shared some of her experiences. She said:
While raising awareness about the persecution, I noticed when I have notions or attachments, fewer people accept flyers or sign our petition. It is easy to lose enthusiasm when doing the same thing day in and day out.
From studying the Fa and looking inward, I found an attachment that was blocking me: It was painful for me to view the persecution cases and torture details, so I intentionally skipped the details of torture and the CCP’s live organ harvesting when collecting such information.
If I do not know the facts in detail, how can my explanation touch others? So I started over to carefully collect information and renewed my enthusiasm to help people understand.
She also reflected on her difficulty talking to Chinese people. Looking inward, she found a prejudice. She said, “I would become resentful if someone showed irreverence to Dafa. How can I save sentient beings without compassion? Realizing this, I changed my attitude. Once I spoke out using a microphone on the beach. A beautiful Chinese girl came forward to ask what Falun Gong is. Within a few exchanges between us, she decided to renounce her membership in the CCP. It was the quickest anyone I talked to had made that decision.”
Letting Go of Selfishness
Ms. Huang, from Los Angeles, shared her experience in resigning from a permanent job and becoming a reporter for New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV). She said, “My friends who don’t practice could not understand why I would resign from a permanent job, but I treasure the opportunity to be a full-time reporter for NTDTV. Treated as cultivation, being a reporter can take hardship and dissolve karma and attachment to comfort. This helps improve xinxing. It is a good thing in cultivation. I hope to meet with predestined people in reporting and inform them about the persecution.”
Improving While Promoting Shen Yun
Ms. Cai started practicing Falun Gong in the end of 2011. She shared her experience in promoting the Shen Yun Performing Arts show. “It is a chance to improve my xinxing,” she said.
She gave an example:
Once I stood for seven or eight hours at a ticket sales booth. I did not sell any tickets though I sincerely promoted the show without any slacking off or taking a break. No matter how hard I tried, nobody bought a ticket. After looking inward, I discovered it was due to an incorrect mindset. I realized that as the Shen Yun show is sacred, we must do the promotion with pure heart. My competitive mentality blocked me from selling any tickets the entire day.
Realizing her shortcoming, she corrected it and continued on with a smile. She then successfully sold tickets by taking different approaches based on customers’ individual backgrounds and interests. She said:
Last year, the number of shows and total number of tickets to be sold were much more than previous years. We knew the whole body needed to do better to meet the goal. When every practitioner cooperated well in doing their part, we not only reached our goal, but four more shows were added. The tickets completely sold out.
After the day-long conference, many attendees said they benefited a lot from the speeches and that they were inspired to be more diligent in following Master Li’s teachings to cultivate well and help save sentient beings.