(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner who always tries to live by the Dafa principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I try to think of others first before I say or do anything. Therefore, I can help improve an unpleasant environment.
My mother and sister used to live on the second floor of an old apartment building, which had a restaurant on the lower floor. The restaurant's chimney reached quite high and was just three meters from my mother's window. The ash and smoke was blown into my mother's room, so she could not open the window.
My mother and sister argued with the owner of the restaurant. He told them that there was nothing he could do to change this. Therefore, in their anger, my mother and sister poured dirty water into the restaurant. In turn, the restaurant changed to a poor quality coal, making the smoke even worse. This further soured the relationship between them.
My uncle later bought a new apartment for my mother, and I moved into her apartment.
Since I am a practitioner, my first thought was to change the neighborhood relationship. I visited the owner. The old couple looked very aggressive and there was a chef's knife on the table beside the door. They thought I was going to fight with them and they were ready.
I laughed and they were surprised. I said: “I would like to apologize for my mother and my sister's behavior. Please, let bygones be bygones. They have moved out and I took over the apartment. There will be no problems from my side. I can close my window, so the smoke will not get into my room.”
They took a deep breath, smiled and invited me for tea and fruit. Two days later, they changed from coal to gas.
One day, I forgot to turn off the water after washing my clothes and my room and theirs flooded. As soon as they called, I turned off the water. However there was much damage to their apartment. It cost me 2,400 yuan to fix their place and it looked like a new home. The couple and their family were very touched.
They told everyone “Falun Dafa is great! Falun Dafa is really great!”