(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners from various parts of Florida met at the Sheraton Conference Center in Orlando on September 2, 2023 for an experience sharing conference.
Practitioners spoke of the understandings they’ve gained through following the teachings of Dafa in their daily lives, participating in hosting and promoting Shen Yun, and working in Dafa practitioner-run media and other truth-clarification projects.
In the morning, practitioners read recent articles published by Falun Dafa’s founder, Master Li including, “Cultivation in Dafa Is Serious,” “Stay Far Away From Peril,” “Why Save Sentient Beings” and “How Humankind Came To Be.” The experience sharing conference began at 1:00 p.m. Thirteen practitioners read papers about their cultivation experiences.
The 2023 Florida Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference was held at the Sheraton Conference Center in Orlando on September 2, 2023.
Cultivating While Working in a Media Project
Daisy from Bulgaria who now lives in South Florida spoke of her cultivation experiences while participating in a media project to expose the truth about the persecution. She began to practice Falun Dafa in 2013. She felt that every practitioner should participate in practitioner-run media projects as they are powerful tools to spread the beauty of the practice and tell people about the persecution in China. Therefore, about a year after she began practicing, she began to write as well as translate articles for the Bulgaria Falun Dafa Information Center. She had some experience doing translation work for movies in Bulgaria and she liked to write.
A new chief editor joined the project. He had more than eight years’ experience writing for a U.S. media outlet and the skills to manage a media company. Daisy was confident in her writing skills so she hoped that everything she wrote would be published. However, not long after the new editor came on board, he started to criticize her articles. Daisy felt disappointed initially and even thought of leaving the project. She later calmed down and decided to regard this from the perspective of a cultivator.
She discovered she was wrong. She did not have any real experience when she joined the team, and relied on her natural writing ability. She never thought of how much time and effort editors spent editing her articles. She decided to change her attitude. She put more effort into her articles and checked what she wrote thoroughly.
Things changed after she reflected on her shortcomings. Soon after, editors told Daisy her writing had improved and they didn’t need to spend as much time editing them. After another team took over the Bulgaria Falun Dafa Information Center, the editor started a new media project and invited Daisy to join. She was given the freedom to write anything she considered appropriate. By then, her writing skills had improved so much that her articles hardly required any editing.
Now, Daisy often shares her experiences with new team members and reminds them: We are not here to prove our capabilities but to save sentient beings. If we cannot reach the high standards of a professional and a practitioner, we will not be able to save people.
Making Progress in Cultivation While Promoting Shen Yun
Professor Yang began practicing Falun Dafa in 1995 when he was a student. Not long after he started to practice, he always saw the characters, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” in the corner of his right eye. When he cannot see the characters clearly, he takes it as a hint from Master he has not done something in accordance with the teachings. He examines himself, find his attachments, and eliminates them.
Professor Yang always clearly saw the characters “Compassion” and “Forbearance.” Occasionally, the character “Forbearance” appears vague, prompting him to pay attention to cultivating tolerance. In the early years of his cultivation, the character “Truthfulness” often looked vague. He realized he had the habit of finding excuses for himself. He decided to pay attention to the way he behaved in everyday life. Whenever he had untruthful thoughts, he reminded himself not to lie for the sake of gaining benefits. Gradually, the character “Truthfulness” became clearer.
Soon after he graduated, Professor Yang was offered a permanent position at a university in the U.S. In 2009, he accepted a position at a university in Florida. At that time, only two or three cities in Florida had Shen Yun shows and they were organized by local practitioners instead of a centralized management. In 2012, he took on the responsibility of promoting Shen Yun in Tampa. This year, ticket prices increased for the first time. Many practitioners were worried that the new prices would affect ticket sales but Professor Yang was confident that the shows would be a success. He did some research into various marketing methods including television, newspaper, mailings, posters, shopping centers and so on. He tried his best to promote the shows using these different platforms while keeping it within budget. In the end, more than 6,000 tickets were sold. A month later, two shows were added in a neighboring city. The additional 3,000 tickets were all sold as well, breaking sales records and making a profit for the first time.
Faith in Master and Dafa
Jack, a young Western practitioner, began to practice cultivation in 2015. On his 18th birthday, he made a wish while blowing out the candles on his cake – to become a Falun Dafa disciple. He has been involved in various media projects since he began practicing. He spoke of the issue of believing in Master and Dafa.
He recently attended a training for a new program at NTDTV. A coworker in the New York office was also asked to audition and asked to read the script that Jack had written. Jack immediately thought that he was going to be replaced. But he quickly saw his jealousy and his attachment to being better than others. He thought: “I should be humble and try my best to do whatever Master wants me to.” He shared, “I told my coworker, ‘We must have faith in Master and do whatever Master tells us to. This is what Master wants.’”
He realized that although Master is not watching or telling us what to do directly, he is still arranging things for us and ensuring the best outcome. As practitioners, our responsibility is to try our very best to do what Master has entrusted to us.
The conference concluded at 5:30 p.m. A new practitioner who recently came to the U.S. from Northeast China excitedly shared with everyone the changes he went through after practicing cultivation for a short time. He lamented that he started to practice so late but said that Master did not forget about him. A few days after he began to practice, Master purified his body. He is determined to practice wholeheartedly.
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