A New Understanding of “Overcoming Myself”

(Minghui.org) I took some college-level self-study courses about 30 years ago. In one course, I wrote an article titled “Overcoming Myself,” which received positive feedback from my advisor. The content of the article was that one must overcome his laziness and weakness in order to be successful in a professional career. 

I failed to get into college after I graduated from high school in 1979, so I returned home and became a farmer. But I became depressed because I didn’t want to be a farmer forever. They are often tired, dirty, and poor from working in the field. With such a gloomy future, I started to practice writing and attended college-level self-study agricultural courses. I felt that was my only hope. 

With that hope in mind, whether I was at home or in a dark, messy factory building, no matter how extreme the weather was, or having to endure mosquito bites, I persisted in writing and studying. My efforts were not wasted as five years later, I was selected to be a teacher in a rural school, and my writings were published. 

The reason I wrote this article is because I practice Falun Dafa, and I face a similar problem of overcoming myself. Although I have different goals compared to what I had 30 years ago. Back then overcoming myself was to achieve personal gain. Overcoming myself today is to validate the greatness of Dafa, to fulfill my historical mission, and to help offer salvation to more people.

For the past five years, I persisted in practicing the exercises at the unified global time. When the alarm clock rang, I woke up from my dreams. And after washing my face with cold water, I became energetic. 

When I wanted to go back to sleep, I had to force myself to stay up. I could persist at this when I wasn't a practitioner. Why couldn’t I do the same as a practitioner who was helping Master Li rectify the Fa? 

During the meditation, I would not put my legs down before the music finished, even though they were hurting. I thought that if I put them down once, it would happen a second time, and I shouldn't indulge myself.

My wife had asthma for more than 30 years. There were not many good days for her in a year. She could pass out when she had an asthma attack. After practicing Dafa, her illness did not go away because she could not let go of her ordinary human attachments. Since participating in the global unified morning Dafa exercises, however, her asthma was completely cured.

I had inexplicable foot pain one day, and then leg pain, back pain, or a headache on another day. I knew those tribulations were arranged by Master to test my xinxing. With a firm heart, the illness symptoms went away without my realizing it. 

When my personal interests were lost, I knew that it was caused by my karma and was done to repay others. I remained calm and let it go. When my relatives accused me of something and got angry at me, I knew that it was also a test meant to improve my xinxing. 

I feel blessed to practice Dafa, which had never been seen in this historical period. There is no reason for me to slack off and no reason for me to not be able to return home. If we cannot overcome ourselves, we will have regrets forever. I cannot let this happen to me!