(Clearwisdom.net) I have been practicing Falun Gong for thirteen years. Many people don't understand why practitioners persist in their practice, despite the cruel persecution by the communist regime.
From elementary school to high school, I was always the best student, and I was admitted to a famous university. After I began to work, I quickly advanced into a leadership position. My friends and family members thought that I was a successful person. However, when I was relaxed and all by myself, I always thought about how short and bitter life was, and the feeling of emptiness always haunted me. Since I was young, I have pursued my personal vested interests all the time. If I got it, I was ecstatic; but if I lost it, I my spirits would plummet. I remember one experience I had when another person, who started working at the same time I did, was promoted ahead of me. I felt so depressed about it that I couldn't even breathe, and I almost quit my job at that time.
However, a small "coincidence" changed my life. One day in 1997, I visited one of my coworkers and noticed the book Zhuan Falun on his desk. He told me he was practicing Falun Gong and his serious tuberculosis was cured not long after he started the practice. So I borrowed the book from him. After I read the book the first time, I didn't quite understand what the book was talking about. Then I read it again, and my impression then was that the book talks about how to be a good person and some issues related to cultivation. After I read it a third time, I began to understand some of the deep Fa principles in the book, and after that I couldn't put it down. I found the answers to all the questions that had bothered me. I was delighted to have found my life's destination, and I finally truly understand the meaning of my life.
1. Cultivation Allowed Me to Overcome My Attachment to Self-interest
I remember that not long after I started cultivation, I found a gold necklace that was worth about 3,000 yuan. I took it back home and said to my wife, "I have started cultivation, and I should follow Master's teachings. We cannot keep this necklace. The owner must be very worried right now." She also read Zhuan Falun; so she said, "Let's give it to the police." Then we went to the police station and told the police officers: "We are practicing Falun Gong." Those officers looked at us as if they were very confused, but they accepted the necklace. If this had occurred before I started cultivating, there is no way I would have done this.
I was in a leadership position at work. During the holidays, the subordinate departments and my coworkers typically gave me cash gifts or other presents. Before cultivation, I accepted all of them. However, with the improvement of my cultivation level, I gradually realized that I shouldn't do this. So I told them, "I am practicing Falun Gong, and I can't take your money or gifts." Just after the communist regime launched the persecution, one of my superiors asked me, "What's the benefit of practicing Falun Gong?" And I said, "Let me give the simplest example. I stopped taking bribes after I started practicing Falun Gong." He told the other people present, "After so many years of education, our party officials still take bribes. But practicing Falun Gong can make a person honest."
Once they had the annual official assessment, and a cadre spoke to me. He asked me, "Tell me the truth, what is Falun Gong all about? I don't ask you as a Party official, I really want to know about it at a personal level. And I will keep the secret for you." I knew what he was thinking, so I told him, "Falun Gong is really wonderful." Later, I heard that they wanted to investigate me secretly. So I took all the cash gifts that I had recently been given, but hadn't returned, and I told them, "These are the bribes I received recently, and I couldn't return them. You can take care of them yourselves."
I wasn't planning to let them know that I don't take bribes, but this time I wanted to show them that our Dafa disciples are really good and righteous. They stopped investigating me afterwards.
When our organization changed, it was arranged for me to take charge of a newly formed department. In the process of assigning laptops, I gave away the new laptops worth 10,000 yuan to my staff members, and I didn't even keep any of the old computers for myself. I gave them to people who needed them. For myself, I brought the old computer from my previous workplace. Being the head of the department, I could use the new computers, and no one knew I brought the old computer from my previous workplace. Through cultivation, I overcame my attachment to personal interests, so I did all these things naturally.
2.Cultivating Away My Attachment to Fame
As I grew up, I developed the attachment of pursuing fame. Every time I was transferred to a new group, I always wanted to be the leader who attracted the most attention. After I started cultivation, I realized that this is a really bad state of mind. By doing so, I may compete for things that originally don't belong to me and thus obtain karma.
When I first started practicing Falun Gong, my supervisor occasionally told me that they would promote me. However, after a few days, they would tell me that there was something wrong. I would initially be happy, and then become worried. This process lasted for about one year. Later I realized that Master was helping me to get rid of my attachment to fame. By continuous Fa-study, I was determined to remove this attachment. However, when I heard it was hopeless for me to be promoted, I was still very depressed and could not sleep at night.
Master also gave me wisdom at work. Sometimes when I was working, I felt that I was helped to the point that I could finish numerous tasks at a stretch and do them well. I remember once when our leader wasn't able to hand in the work to the higher-level officials. After he came back, he yelled at me and scolded me for not thinking of those things in advance. After he finished, he slammed the door and left. I thought about this from his perspective; he was concerned about saving face, and he was in a difficult position. I sat down and spent about two hours to complete the work. After he came back, he saw my work and apologized to me in his own way.
Since I could discipline myself according to the teachings of Dafa and did an excellent job at work, people praised me for being selfless. My boss promoted me several times, and important jobs were assigned to me. None of the important things were missed. However, this was all the result of my improvement in cultivation.
3. Achieving Compassion Through Cultivation
In everyday life, I also disciplined myself by the standards of Dafa, and I converted my sentimentality into compassion. Sometimes I could really treat strangers as family members, which I would never have done in the past.
At the beginning, I made some truth-clarification fliers myself and handed out about 200 copies one night. Later, I began to clarify the truth to people around me and persuaded them to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. Since I had good relationships with my coworkers and was well respected, I didn't have much difficulty in persuading people to quit the CCP. When I went to inspect the subordinate departments, I also took the opportunity to clarify the truth to them. There was one company manager who, after I told him the facts, kept thanking me. He told me that his wife is also a practitioner, and that she had clarified the truth to him several times, but he didn't believe it. This time, he really believed it.
After I overcame my attachments to fame, personal interests, and jealousy, my body and mind become more and more pure and selfless, and I stopped being a slave to those attachments.
Someone once asked me, "Is there anything you have done that you will never regret?" Now I can answer him without any hesitation, "Practicing Falun Gong, and cultivating to be a better and better person." Indeed, I sincerely wish that more people will read the book Zhuan Falun.
