Letting Go of the Attachment to Money

(Minghui.org) My sister and her husband came to visit me last April. After a simple greeting, her husband became very serious and told me that something was bothering him and he had to get it off his chest. “It’s fine if you don’t return the money, but I just want you to know...” he said. 

I was caught off guard, I couldn’t remember owing him any money, so I asked him what he was referring to. He said that I borrowed 60,000 yuan from him years ago; 30,000 yuan was withdrawn from his checking account, but the other half came from a matured certificate of deposit account. He claimed that when I took the 30,000 yuan principal, I also took the interest. His point was that I should have returned the interest to him at the time, which was 4,000 yuan.

As he was talking, I could see that he was becoming emotional and had to work on controlling his anger. I didn’t want to further anger him and just listened quietly. 

Then I remembered that ten years ago, my daughter needed to buy a house and borrowed 60,000 from her uncle. Her uncle gave her 30,000 in cash and took her to a bank to withdraw the rest of the 30,000 from a certificate of deposit. He gave her the 30,000 principal and said that he’d kept the interest as pocket money. In other words, we only took 60,000 from him, not more. My daughter ended up not needing the money, and returned all of it to her uncle 20 days later. 

I felt uneasy with the situation because we had been close to my sister and her husband. They never told me they had bad feelings towards us. Both my wife and I are Falun Dafa practitioners, and we knew that nothing happened by accident, and there was something here for us to cultivate. 

We looked within, and wondered if it happened because we still had the attachment to personal gain. We didn’t find any such attachment, but knew that we shouldn’t be getting too worked up, and that what happened was a good thing. Besides improving our xinxing, we knew it was also important that we didn’t develop a conflict with them over money or make them have a negative impression about Dafa. My sister and her husband have quit the Chinese Communist Party and knew the facts about Dafa. If we argued and fought with them over the money, it might push them away. 

When I talked to my daughter, she was furious, and insisted on squaring things out with her aunt and uncle. “That’s nonsense,” she said. “I returned the money in full years ago. They are almost 80; maybe they are just confused.” 

I told her that they indeed helped us when we were in need, and we owed them a favor. “We need to be grateful; 60,000 wasn’t a small amount of money for them to commit to. Also, if you argue with and anger them, they could end up falling ill. We might also change their attitude towards Falun Dafa, which is not something to be taken lightly,” I said. 

My daughter, though not a practitioner, understood the principles and the facts of Falun Dafa, and agreed with me. That evening, my wife, daughter and I drove to my sister’s home. They were surprised to see us so late. My daughter gave them the 4,000 yuan, and her uncle said to her, “Your parents and aunt didn’t know that you owed me the interest.” 

Although we gave him the money, from time to time, I still thought about it. That amount almost equals our annual income as farmers. However, I also knew that it was a test for me to pass. I was finally able to give up the attachment to profit. I will abide by and conform to Falun Dafa’s teachings. I felt tremendous power from the Fa and was relieved after removing the attachment.