Letting Go of the Pursuit of Self-Interest

(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1998 when I was a manager at a private trading company. Before that, I followed the industry's norm of accepting kickbacks from trading partners, which were ten times more than my salary.

After I began practicing Dafa, I realized that it was wrong to accept bribes. As a practitioner, I should think of others first. I decided to return the bribes to my business partners.

I returned 2000 yuan in person to a company and told them that I would no longer accept kickbacks. They could not understand and thought they had done something wrong.

I told them that I was living by Falun Dafa's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and would no longer seek personal gains from them. I did not get a chance to tell them more about Dafa during my visit, so I took the opportunity to do so when they later visited me in Beijing.

I told them how I had recovered from hyperthyroidism, nephritis, neurasthenia and severe sinusitis after I began practicing Dafa. I also shared how the practice had spread around the world.

They showed their respect and said that they would read Dafa books after they returned home. I told my other two business partners about Dafa and that I would not accept any kickbacks or other gifts from them anymore.

Letting Go of the Attachment to Money

After my husband’s parents passed away, he and his three siblings met to discuss their parent’s will. Before my mother-in-law passed away, she told my husband that her two-bedroom apartment would be given to our son, her only grandson.

In her will, however, the property was divided unevenly between my husband and his siblings. No one was happy with it and everyone felt that they should have been given more. My husband and his siblings met many times to discuss how to allocate the property, but they argued each time without reaching an agreement.

In the end, my husband and his youngest sister received the least percentage of the proceeds of the property, so she threatened to file a complaint with the court if her request to increase her allocation was not met.

I thought my sister-in-law had gone too far since her parents had already bought her an apartment before they passed away. Why was she being so selfish? I became upset and was full of hatred, jealousy and the competitive mentality. I forgot that I was a Dafa practitioner.

Through sharing this issue with other practitioners and studying the Fa, I looked within and let go of my attachments.

Master said,

“We therefore believe in following the course of nature. Sometimes, you think that something should be yours, and others also tell you that it is yours. Actually, it is not. You may believe that it is yours, but in the end it is not yours. Through this, it can be seen whether you can give it up. If you cannot let it go, it is an attachment.” (Zhuan Falun)

I was no longer attached to the proceeds of the property. Nothing happens by accident, and I should follow the course of nature.

Master also said,

“You should always take matters of personal gain lightly and prefer to have peace of mind over gaining more. When it comes to material things you might suffer some losses, but you will gain in terms of virtue and gong.” (Falun Gong)

I then talked to my husband and said, “We should not be too concerned with the allocation of the property. If it is given to us, we will take it, but we should not fight for it. Family members should not fight [about money]. We can give up our share if it makes others happy.”

I encouraged my husband to talk to his siblings again, in a peaceful manner. He was moved and said that he respected Master and Dafa practitioners. He then persuaded his siblings to meet and calmly discuss the issue. Everyone came to an agreement to sell the apartment and get the share that was in the will.

The youngest sister, however, complained that she would get the least money and wanted to renegotiate the deal. In order to settle the problem, I told my husband that we should give her the money from our share. My husband was surprised, but agreed to it.

To help ease the conflicts between my husband and his siblings, I invited them over several times for dinner. I took the opportunity to tell them my experiences with Falun Dafa and how it helped me become more tolerant and thoughtful of others.

My in-laws now have a better understanding of Dafa, and they all admire practitioners. My husband and his siblings now get along well and often get together on holidays.