(Minghui.org) I started practicing Dafa in 1999. It’s been a rough nineteen years, during which Master has purified my body inside and out. Practitioners can best repay Master for his protection and sacrifice through diligent practice.
We have a greenhouse where we grow grapes, but since grapes don't need a lot of work, I usually spend my mornings taking care of them and then go out with fellow practitioners in the afternoon to talk to people about Falun Dafa. I read the Fa with practitioners in the evenings.
It rained a lot in the summer of 2017, and the greenhouse cover was torn, which allowed some water to get in and damage many of the grapevines. That winter, only half of the vines grew flower buds, and they were quite small. Experienced grape growers would expect the yield to be poor because of the number of damaged vines.
I was quite worried. The greenhouse was a large investment, and I had just paid it off with the income earned from selling the grapes. Also, I had just invested 30,000 yuan on a cotton crop. If the greenhouse didn't bring in any money this year, we would be in financial trouble.
While our son had some money, he was already 24 and should be looking for a wife. I didn’t have the chance to buy him a house or a car in preparation for his wedding, and I didn't want to give him additional stress.
If my husband went elsewhere to find work, I would have had to take care of the greenhouse by myself and would therefore have less time to offer salvation to people. I’ve heard that some other families' grapevines were also damaged by the rain, and they had switched to growing gourds. But growing gourds is even more labor-intensive than grapes and would interfere with my Dafa work as well, which I decided was my top priority.
I spoke with my husband, who does not practice Dafa but supports my faith. I told him that the present time exists because of Master’s sacrifices in order to save more sentient beings. If we used this time to make money at home instead of saving sentient beings, it would be like committing a crime. My husband agreed with what I said. Even though I said this, I still felt upset that our grape harvest might not be profitable.
I grew up in a well-off family. When I got married, I still wanted to be well-off, so I spent a lot of time trying to make money. To me, money was happiness. I was upset but knew that my displeasure stemmed from my attachment to personal gain, an attachment I wanted to be free from.
Every afternoon I still went out to clarify the truth and helped people to quit their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At night I read the Fa. I still felt uneasy, however, and sometimes couldn’t fall asleep. I went to the greenhouse and just paced back and forth. I then remembered something Master said:
“Thus, our practitioners should be like this even less so, as a practitioner should follow the course of nature. If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation)
I felt lighter after remembering this, but my attachment to material gain still remained a problem.
One morning after breakfast, I told my attachment to go and die, that I wanted to save more sentient beings as Master had instructed. As I was saying this, I turned around and saw Master’s Law Body smiling. As the Law Body smiled, I smiled too. The smile came from my heart, and I felt truly happy. From then on, I never felt upset again. Master removed all impure things from my body.
Gradually, the grapes then began to bud. Although the blossoms were small, all of the vines bloomed. My husband and I did not think about how much money the grapes could make—we just did our best to take care of them.
Master has taught us that plants are also living beings, so we should be kind to them. So sometimes I talked to them; I told them that I was a practitioner, that my mission was to save sentient beings, and that if they grew well, they would also play a role in my mission.
One day it was cloudy, windy, and snowing. It was quite cold, and I knew that no one would be outside in weather like that. However, I just couldn’t stay home, so I decided to go and talk to people anyway. Every person saved counts. Practitioners and I drove to a nearby village to find the streets empty. We talked among ourselves and hoped people would soon come out of their homes.
We drove further into the village and soon saw some people. We explained the facts about Falun Dafa to them. When we found open doors, some practitioners would enter the houses to clarify the truth.
On our way back home, we saw seven or eight people standing in the middle of the road. I wondered why they would just stand there on such a cold day. Another practitioner said that it must be because Master had arranged for them to chat with us. So we drove over and gave each of them a flyer. Most of them quit the CCP and went home happily. Interestingly, they all lived quite far apart. Some were heading north, others south, east, or west. None lived around the area. This really happened because of Master.
In the spring of 2018, some other practitioners wanted to join our small team and go to surrounding towns to talk with people. However, there wasn't room for them in our car. After some discussion, we decided to pitch in and buy another car. It would cost 5,000 yuan. I agreed but wasn’t quite comfortable with the plan. I was still unsure how much we would earn from this year's grape harvest. Then I realized that saving people was more important than having money.
I talked to my husband, and he said that we could afford to buy the car ourselves, without contributions from other practitioners. The practitioners, however, refused to let us do that on our own. In the end, the practitioners pitched in 2,000 yuan, and I paid the rest so we would finally have a new car and work on our sacred duties together.
The new car was faster and could travel longer distances. It was great. Since we had a lot of practitioners in this area, we used the car to travel to villages farther away where there were fewer practitioners. Some afternoons, we helped forty or more people quit the CCP. Even if they didn’t quit, they received a flyer they could read later.
Ever since we bought the car, our grapes have done great and grown really quickly. Other villagers came to see our grapes and said they were amazed. Even the person who routinely came by to check on the plants was awestruck. The grapes in 2018 were large and had a nice texture and appearance.
In our little greenhouse we grew 11,000 yuan worth of grapes.
Nowadays I don’t concern myself with material goods. If I can do the three things a Dafa practitioner should do, then I am the happiest.
Thank you, Master!
