Letting Go of Selfishness and Being More Considerate

(Minghui.org) Out of curiosity, I read my mom’s copy of Falun Gong (Revised) in 1995 and could not find anything I disagreed with. I later read Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa, but still didn’t want to commit to the practice even though my mother kept encouraging me to take it up.

On the bus one day, I made up my mind to practice Falun Dafa because I knew it taught people to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

After that, I studied the Fa and did the Dafa exercises with my parents and other practitioners every day. Master Li then started to purify my body. I would get a fever every Friday evening but would be fine by Sunday evening, so I never had to miss work.

Although I had a fever and a headache on the weekends, my mind was still clear. This was not the same type of fever that I'd had before I'd started to cultivate, which made me dizzy and sleepy.

One time during the winter, I had severe menstrual cramps and contemplated not going do the group exercises outdoors. When I eventually decided to go despite the pain, the cramps disappeared immediately. I've never had menstrual cramps since.

Improving Myself

For a long time, I always did things my way, without being considerate of others. After graduating from college, I went to work at a well-known foreign company and became a senior manager in a short time. Having worked there for more than 10 years, I became lax and only did things the way I wanted to.

It was the same in my marriage. My husband let me do as I wished, so I always had my way. Everything in my life went smoothly, and I didn’t see anything wrong with the way I did things. I even went to Beijing alone to appeal for the right to practice Dafa in 1999 and was not afraid.

As I continued to study the principles of the teachings, I came to understand Master's compassion for each life. Master said,

“I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. So from now on, whatever you do or whatever you say, you must consider others—or even future generations—along with Dafa’s eternal stability.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Falun Dafa Essentials For Further Advancement)

I no longer felt comfortable with how lax I was about my cultivation and my way of doing things. On the contrary, I felt embarrassed because I had been so selfish, inconsiderate, and irresponsible.

I knew I needed to improve myself and change my personality. When cooperation was needed to complete a project, I reminded myself to not be selfish, to think of what was needed for the project to succeed, and, to be considerate of others’ perspectives. When I did things this way, I understood what “following the course of nature” meant, and everything would go well.

My relationships with my coworkers improved greatly as I became more considerate. I tried to make it as convenient for them as possible, even if it meant I had to spend more time on a project.

In everyday life, I also tried to think of others first and give them my best. A friend came to visit me, and I treated her like a sister. When I told her about Dafa and to recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” she replied, “I don't believe what others say, but I believe what you say.”

A week later, she called to tell me that she used to suffer from insomnia. She had read many books on how to cure it, but nothing helped. One night, as she was lying in bed, she began repeating, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” and suddenly saw a blue-violet lotus flower. She couldn't believe her eyes, so she repeated the sentences again and saw the same flower. Afterward, her insomnia was gone. She said that she would tell everyone about her experience.

Master said,

“I also found that mankind’s degeneration was caused by matter at very high levels having degenerated. And those warped things are very stubborn.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference”)

After reading this Fa principle, I understood that my selfish way of doing things was actually a kind of degeneration. Thank you, Master, for helping me to understand this principle and helping me remove many of these degenerated substances.