(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in China. Today I am the chief technology officer of a national research institute and make over 20,000 yuan a month. I feel all that I have is given to me by my teacher (Li Hongzhi). The following is my cultivation story.
My hometown is in central China. We were very poor when I was growing up, and I experienced many tribulations, some even life-threatening. My parents saved up and spent all they had so I could attend a two-year college.
I had just entered college when I learned about Falun Dafa from my classmates. I borrowed Dafa books and a schoolmate taught me the five exercises. I began to practice and felt a happiness that I had never experienced before.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Dafa two years later. Just before I graduated, I went to Beijing with my classmates to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa. We took informational materials to distribute as we told people the truth about Dafa.
Soon after I graduated, I felt the need to stay away from home for safety reasons. However, I was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. I felt I had not studied the Fa enough.
The prison conspired with the local government to have me admitted to a brainwashing center as soon as I was released, but I escaped. I had no money and seemed to have forgotten everything I’d learned in college after being in prison for so long.
I finally found a job and worked hard, and every day, I did the three things that a practitioner should do. At my job, I began at the lowest level, learning and developing technical skills. I improved quickly and was able to solve more difficult issues. In time, I was promoted, and my salary increased.
Over the years, I had many jobs. Whether I began at the bottom or not, the work I did always benefited the company. I was promoted often and my salary continued to increase quickly. I understood that I needed to thank Teacher and Dafa for everything.
I typically read two lectures of Zhuan Falun every morning. I stay focused all day at work and follow Dafa's standards when it comes to my conduct and thoughts. When faced with a problem, I calm myself and then look within.
The institute where I was employed was given a project to develop a new product. All the group leaders with either a Master's or Ph.D. degree hesitated to take on such a project when the professor introduced it. In the end, he assigned it to me.
I searched the literature, both domestic and international; selected the test methods; acquired the necessary equipment; and prepared sample materials. Each subgroup worked hard and repeated the experiments several times to verify the results. We met all our goals in three months.
Since I practiced Dafa, I knew I needed to be responsible to the institute and to my colleagues. I did my best and did not worry about the results. I did a good job, in spite of the fact that I did not have an advanced degree.
Something similar occurred in the R&D division of a large government institute. I got the job through a friend. Without an advanced degree or equivalent work experience, no one thought much of my qualifications.
I was assigned to work on an important project. The annual sales of the product involved was over 100 million U.S. dollars. But our production yield was low, only about 50%. Also, the turnaround time was long—over two weeks.
A professor and their deputy CTO had worked together on it for over six months, with no results. A professor from the Academy of Agricultural Science and I worked on it for a month, trying different methods and conditions, but we had no luck, either.
Then I stumbled across an article in German the following month. That lab had a very high success rate—over 80% for smaller quantities. No one in China had been able to reproduce that.
With Teacher's help and numerous tests and experiments, we succeeded with a yield of over 80%, sometimes even 90%. The turnaround time was also reduced to one week. The results generated an uproar in the institute. Headquarters sent specialists over to meet with us. The vice president even ordered the institute to give me an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation.
The company now had a good impression of me, so I was assigned another project. It was the company’s most important project. The annual revenue involved was several billion.
When I started out, my financial situation was not good because I had been persecuted by the CCP. I realized that this should not be the case. A Dafa disciple should have good fortune. It takes money to validate Dafa and to take care of the many other things in our lives. So I often added a thought when I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate whatever interfered with practitioners' financial situations. I willingly accepted the raises that my bosses gave me, but I did not become attached to fame or other self-interests.
In my daily life, I follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to evaluate my conduct and thoughts. The research institute hired many new workers with Master’s degrees. Several female employees approached me, saying they would do anything for me. One even offered me a massage.
I told them that all I wanted was for them to do their jobs well, that everyone benefits if we all work hard and well together. A former high school classmate asked me to meet her for lunch. At the restaurant, she said she wanted to go out with me. I told her that I was married and that I was a practitioner and that I would never do something like that.
It is difficult for an ordinary person to maintain his or her integrity when the moral standards have fallen so low. Fortunately, I cultivate Dafa. If not for Teacher and the Fa, I could easily stumble. I cherish Dafa and will cultivate myself well!
