MY CULTIVATION PATH
By Vietnam practitioner Nhat Tam (一心)
Greetings to our revered Master!
Greetings to all fellow practitioners!
My name is Nhat Tam, a Falun Dafa practitioner from northern Vietnam. I am 73 years old, and I began cultivating in Dafa in 2014. Today, I am honored to participate in the Malaysia Fa Conference and to share my insights and experiences from my cultivation journey with fellow practitioners. I would like to now read my sharing.
1) My Predestined Path to Attaining the Fa
Before cultivating in Dafa, I had practiced Buddhism as a lay practitioner for nearly 20 years. My family has a strong religious background, with relatives who are both monks and priests, all of whom guide people toward kindness. However, my childhood was spent far from home, away from my parents since the age of five, in a place where I witnessed that life was not purely virtuous—good and bad were mixed, truth and falsehood intertwined. Life’s complexity and deeper causes made me constantly seek a place of true peace.
Later in life, when facing tribulations, I traveled extensively to seek guidance from masters, eventually spending nearly 300 million VND of my life savings to build a meditation hut at a monastery, intending to ordain as a nun. While preparing to take residence in the hut according to the scheduled plan, I was admitted to a hospital in Hanoi with sudden hearing loss, which people often refer to as “localized stroke.” After treatment, my hearing only recovered by 50%. The doctors recommended surgery, saying that while consistent medication might reduce the need for surgery, I would still have to live with this condition. At the time, I didn’t dwell much on it, focusing only on returning to the monastery and fulfilling my aspiration to ordain.
After my discharge from the hospital, just before returning home, a friend in Hanoi called and invited me to visit her. (My friend and I were both on the committee for a major temple in the province.) During my visit, she introduced me to the book *Zhuan Falun*. I began reading the opening section out of curiosity, and upon reading *Lunyu*, I was struck by its profound content and deep insights. I couldn’t help but exclaim, “The author is incredibly knowledgeable; this is beautifully written.” Looking back, I realize I had no understanding of the vastness and depth of what I was encountering. My friend simply smiled and said, “Why don’t you keep reading?”
For the reasons I didn’t fully understand, I immediately wanted to buy the book, and I took it home and read it in just two days. I was truly moved and felt that this was exactly what I had been searching for! It turns out my friend had attained the Fa a few months earlier and was looking for an opportunity to introduce Dafa to me.
I decided to go back and tell my friend, “I will follow this path.” She immediately called another practitioner to come and guide me through the exercises. Early the next morning, I went with her to the practice site in the park, and that evening, I attended the opening session of the nine-day Fa study class, where I listened to Master’s nine lectures and watched his exercise instruction videos at a fellow practitioner’s home.
Master said “A lot of people want to cultivate toward high levels. This is now provided right before you, and you may still be unaware of it. You have been everywhere looking for a teacher and have spent a fortune, yet you have found nothing. Today, it is offered to you at your doorstep, and maybe you have not realized it! This is an issue of whether you can become enlightened to it and whether you can be saved” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun).
From then, I became a Falun Dafa practitioner – a disciple of the Great Fa!
2) Letting Go of Attachments, Strengthening My Will to Cultivate, and Safeguarding Dafa Locally
Reflecting on those early days of attaining the Fa still brings me great emotion. I feel incredibly fortunate.
After receiving guidance from fellow practitioners in Hanoi on studying the Fa, practising the exercises, and understanding the responsibilities of a cultivator, I immediately took to the streets to clarify the truth.
I started with collecting petition signatures for the Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), to submit to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for an immediate end to the forced organ harvesting of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.
During my time in Hanoi, as a new practitioner with limited understanding of the Fa, I could only say simple words, explaining how Dafa is Buddha Law that teaches people to be good according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. I shared how human lives should be respected and protected, and I asked people to join us in opposing these crimes to help put a stop to them. Some people were uninterested, saying, “That’s in China, it has nothing to do with us,” and even scolded me, calling me meddlesome. At times, I felt discouraged, but my determination remained strong. Many people, however, empathized and shared their support. Although I was speaking to strangers and had no experience in truth clarification, I was able to collect many signatures each day. Later, I realized that it was Master’s encouragement and strength that guided me.
After a month, I had to leave Hanoi and return home. I made a crucial decision in my life: I donated the hut I had built at the monastery, worth nearly 300 million VND (a significant asset for me at that time), to fully let go of my past in Zen Buddhism. Very few people, including my sister, believed I could let go of it so easily. My older sister, now nearly 80, is a nun at the monastery where I built the hut. When I decided to cultivate in Dafa, I spoke to her about the practice and urged her, “Leave everything behind and join me!” But she couldn’t. I also couldn’t say anything more.
When I went back to bid farewell to the monks I had known, they did everything to persuade me to stay, and some even insulted me severely. I remember visiting a monk at the temple where I used to practice. He immediately opposed my decision, harshly criticizing and insulting me. Somehow, I simply stood in front of him with my hands folded in respect, listening in silence. In the end, I only shared my choice of path and then left. Only when I reached home did I break down in tears, feeling deeply hurt and frustrated, wondering why I hadn’t said anything. I had always been straightforward and quick-tempered! Later, I realized that it was Master’s Law Bodies helping me uphold my xinxing, as I could not have managed so well on my own.
Master teaches, “My fashen know everything—they know everything on your mind, and they can do anything. If you do not cultivate, they will not take care of you. If you do cultivate, they will help you all the way to the end.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun).
I have unwaveringly chosen my path of cultivation. My daughter didn’t object, but seeing me put on my hat and go out every day to clarify the truth, she said, “At your age, you should be traveling, spending time with friends. You’ve dedicated your whole life, and now, past 60, you still want to work that hard?” I explained it to her, and she fully respected my decision, supporting my cultivation.
However, my biggest challenge was letting go of the reputation, interests, and relationships I had built in ordinary society. Letting go of these attachments felt as painful as cutting through bone and flesh. Master teaches, “This is because it is very difficult to relinquish something in the face of practical gain. The benefits are right here, so how can you abandon these attachments? It is actually because of this that one will find it difficult.(*Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun*). I truly had to work bit by bit, gradually letting it go. I couldn’t miss this opportunity that I had spent my entire life seeking!
In my area, there were very few practitioners at that time, only a handful. When fellow practitioners suggested setting up a Fa-study and exercise site, I initially only joined the Fa-study sessions and didn’t participate in the practice site. A fellow practitioner told me, “There are only a few of us here. Without a practice and study site, how will people know that Dafa is good? How can we help Master in Fa-rectification and fulfill our vows?”
The fellow practitioner knew that I hesitated to join the practice site because of pressures from various directions—family, organizations I was involved with, friends, and colleagues, especially those I had worked with in local government management roles. At best, they would visit to try to persuade me or call to give me advice.
Although they couldn’t present strong arguments against Dafa, they cited the government’s disapproval and diplomatic issues. Some even called me “crazy” or said I was “bringing shame to the family” and “putting my children at a disadvantage” because of my involvement in Falun Dafa. I found these criticisms unreasonable, though I couldn’t say much to counter them. However, I realized that I couldn’t let these qing ties keep swaying me – I had to walk my own path.
Master teaches, “Did you know that in order to save you the Buddha once begged for food among everyday people? Today, I once again make the door wide open, and teach this Dafa to save you. I have never felt bitter for the numerous hardships I have suffered. Then what do you have that still can’t be abandoned? Can you bring to heaven the things deep down inside that you cannot let go of? ” (True Cultivation – *Essentials for Further Advancement*).
With that, I let go of my attachments and, together with fellow practitioners, stepped forward to establish and safeguard the exercise site, the Fa-study site at home, and uphold Dafa in our community. Since then, I’ve naturally taken on Dafa work, and I understand this is truly Master’s arrangement.
Over time, our local practice sites and Fa-study sites gradually formed and developed rapidly. Although there was significant interference initially, we maintained strong righteous thoughts, clarified the truth, and ensured our daily practice schedule continued. Now, everything is stable and peaceful. One person passed it on to another, one heart inspired another, and our numbers grew from just a few practitioners to now over 2,000. We now have practice and Fa-study sites throughout our community.
I frequently share experiences and encourage practitioners to organize nine-day Fa-study sessions to listen to Master’s lectures and exercise instructions, as we continuously welcome new practitioners. Some former colleagues have said, “Seeing your health and spirit, I can tell this practice is excellent; I want to learn too.” Some of these individuals, once prominent figures in society, have also joined in learning the practice.
Currently, I help support local assistant practitioners in study groups, sharing experiences to strengthen our righteous thoughts in maintaining these Fa-study and practice sites. Every year, we organize a sharing conference in our community with many practitioners participating. However, since 2018, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have scaled down our sharing events to smaller groups to best accommodate the public health situation.
We have followed Master’s guidance to “Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with compassion—this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being.” (Rationally- Essentials for Further Advancement II). With strong righteous thoughts and determination, we have overcome many challenges. As a result, more people in our community now understand the truth about Dafa, and many have begun their journey of cultivation.
As one of the communities where practitioners began cultivating later than others nationwide, we know we must strive greatly to keep pace with fellow practitioners in other regions and countries, especially to keep up with Master’s Fa-rectification process. Therefore, each of us must continue to be diligent to steadily walk this path of returning home.
3) Diligently Cultivating and Fulfilling the Third Task.
Master has taught, “Dafa disciples are Gods who have descended to the human world with the responsibility to assist Master in saving sentient beings, shouldering the responsibility of saving sentient beings in the lower realms. You may think it does not matter if you personally do not cultivate well, as if it were like the forms of cultivation in the past. So some people are not too diligent, cultivating but not really cultivating. But have you thought about it? You once signed a contract with me when you came to this world, vowing to save those sentient beings. You could then become a Dafa disciple, and you could then do this thing. But you did not fulfill it. You did not completely fulfill your vow, and you cannot even save those beings allotted to you, those you undertook to save, behind whom are countless sentient beings and gigantic groups of beings. What is that?! Is that simply just a matter of not cultivating diligently? That is an extremely serious crime! An unparalleled crime! You say that you will just call out to Master when the time comes and say, “Master, I did not cultivate well.” Is that the end of this? Who can let you pass? Will those old forces let you pass? How serious a matter is this?!” (Fa Teaching Given at the 2016 New York Fa Conference).
Understanding Master’s words and recognizing what fellow practitioners and I need to do to be worthy of the title of Dafa disciples, I realized that initially, my lack of diligence had held me back. I was still attached to my age, entangled in ordinary matters, and overly lax. I wasn’t fully committed to fulfilling my mission. Only after hearing the stories of other practitioners who had steadfastly clarified the truth through various media channels and made phone calls daily for years—especially those in mainland China—did I feel deeply moved and shaken.
I couldn’t remain complacent; I needed to become more diligent. So I decided to join my fellow practitioners in directly clarifying the truth face-to-face in rural areas, at markets, in neighborhoods, and factories. We confidently distributed truth-clarification materials, and although we encountered obstacles, we addressed them with kindness and overcame them. Once, when fellow practitioners were interrupted while clarifying the truth by the policemen, I stepped in and clarified the truth for nearly three hours, ultimately helping the authorities release our fellow practitioners and return our materials, only keeping one set to review. I knew that with strong righteous thoughts, Master would always protect us.
In order to join the project of clarifying the truth to save Chinese people, I travelled with fellow practitioners to various tourist spots, some thousands of kilometers away, to learn from others’ experiences. With Master’s protection, I travelled over 70 kilometers by motorcycle each day for a week with a fellow practitioner, and even at nearly 70 years old, my health remained stable. After returning, my fellow practitioners and I started a new project—clarifying the truth to save Chinese people—which we continue to this day. The results have been encouraging, with thousands of people coming to understand the truth, withdrawing from the Party, and embracing the “Nine True Words.”
We constantly remind each other to be diligent in our cultivation so we can save people, and whenever we face interference, we look within to correct ourselves. Currently, my fellow practitioners and I are also studying Chinese to improve our speaking and listening skills, making our truth-clarification work smoother. Although I had never formally studied Chinese in school, with the enthusiastic help of fellow practitioners, I have learned some basics and can now read the Fa in Chinese, make truth-clarification calls, and help people withdraw from the Party using online tools. Every time a sentient being understands the truth or withdraws from the Party, we feel incredibly moved, and the joy is indescribable. We know Master is always by our side.
Master’s compassion is boundless, yet the standards for Dafa disciples are extremely high; whether a life can be saved or not also holds very strict standards. In this final phase of Fa-rectification as it reaches the Human World, I cannot repeatedly slack off in my cultivation and thereby weaken my capacity to save people. I have realized that Master has opened every door for His disciples to fulfill their vows! So, I must move forward with my fellow practitioners to act!
Let’s work to save people in every way possible, enabling the world to hear the truth through our media platform, GJW, so they can free themselves from confusion and escape the harmful influence of negative news. Every day, as I step outside, I carry GJW cards and lotus flowers bearing wishes of peace and blessings. We also spread Shen Yun to awaken the traditional culture that humanity ought to embrace.
Master teaches, “The Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period all have a mission to assist Master in saving people. As such, the Dafa disciples of each region have become the hope of salvation for the people there. ” (To the Italy Fa Conference 2013).
Alongside fellow practitioners in my area, I have organized a Shen Yun promotion group, holding screenings that have been very effective. Time waits for no one, so I must rectify myself, let go of more attachments, and cultivate diligently, so that together with local practitioners, we can save even more sentient beings, fulfill our vows, and return home with Master!
This concludes my sharing.
Due to limited time and my personal cultivation level still being quite shallow, I kindly ask fellow practitioners to compassionately point out any aspects that may not align with the Fa.
Thank you, fellow practitioners, for listening!
I sincerely thank Master!
Heshi