I am a Vietnamese Falun Dafa practitioner and I live and work in Finland. I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2019. Although my cultivation state is sometimes good and sometimes not, Master compassionately guides me and gives me hints. I’d like to share my recent cultivation experiences with you.
I asked Master to arrange a job for me after I graduated from university in 2021 so that I would be financially secure enough to do the three things well. I was soon contacted by a large finance and accounting company in Finland and was told I was hired. The salary was good. I thanked Master in my heart. I was previously unemployed for quite some time so I was unable to participate in local activities to introduce Falun Dafa and tell people about the persecution.
I later realized that I had an attachment to showing off and seeking fame and personal interest. I felt that I was remarkable because an Asian girl like me could get a high paid position among the elites in this Northern European country. I felt this was similar to what Master talked about in Zhuan Falun about the story of Shakyamuni’s disciples comparing their golden and jade bowls. I realized that every Falun Dafa practitioner was wandering around in this world like a monk. In a sense, everyone is begging for food via work and labor. This is our cultivation environment.
I finally understood from another perspective that labor work and white-collar work are different forms of “bowls.” Practitioners should not seek a better-looking “bowl.”
I realized that my attachment to fame and personal interest grew when other immigrants expressed their admiration for me for finding a job in an industry where the local people dominate. I asked myself, “Master has arranged this job for me and stabilized my financial situation so that I’m able to do the three things. Have I done the three things well?” There’s a saying, “Taking credit for achievements that are not one’s own” Out of his compassion, Master arranged this job for me. How dare I think I got the job due to my own effort! I was disrespectful to Master. I was shocked when I realized this.
Within a year, my well-paid job displayed its ugly aspect. Whenever I was assigned to a big finance project, I had to work relentlessly for two or three weeks. Sometimes I had to stay up all night to finish an assignment. I even worked while I ate in order to complete the financial reports. I almost didn’t have time to do the three things and I didn’t have time to participate in the local truth-clarification activities on Saturday. I struggled between my work and truth-clarification projects because my assignments at work kept coming in like a tsunami. I couldn’t focus on anything and I felt exhausted. I gradually realized that I was trapped and I felt drained while working 12 to 14 hours a day.
I felt there was something wrong with my situation but I didn’t have ample righteous thoughts to negate what seemed like persecution by the old forces. I thought I was validating the Fa to my colleagues if I did the work well. I grit my teeth to complete what seemed like endless work. Actually I was validating myself but I used the excuse that I was validating the Fa. When I looked within, I found that my starting point was to have my colleagues praise, respect and admire me. This was an attachment to seeking fame and personal interest.
My impure intention naturally resulted in a bad outcome. My manager informed me that I wouldn’t get a bonus for the year. The bonus was large and I was the only one in my team who wouldn’t get it. I was shocked. I needed to give financial support to my family in Vietnam, and look after my mother. My brother was attending university and I helped pay for this. This news stabbed my heart like a sword. But it didn’t stab the real “me” but my fake “me” who was seeking fame and personal interest.
I told myself that everything that happens to practitioners is good. I viewed it in a positive way and thanked Master for the test. Nevertheless I felt heavy-hearted and depressed at work.
I had resentment in my heart and felt that my manager was pushing me to resign because the bonus was the driving force for those employees who work 12 to 14 hours a day. I couldn’t focus when I read the Fa. I realized that my resentment about the bonus allocation was just like the story about the allocation of apartments Master talks about in Zhuan Falun.
I still didn’t have righteous thoughts after I experienced these hardships. I fell into the mindset of analysis and criticism, which was my work habit. I decided to look for a new job. I experienced five difficult months. I was repeatedly rejected after the first interviews. I decided the economy in Finland wasn’t good so foreigners must have difficulty finding jobs.
Master said,
“We have said that good or bad comes from a person’s initial thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
If I thought it was difficult to do, my thought would indeed determine the outcome.
I once again asked Master for help. My current job occupied too much of my time and I hoped to find another job so that I would have more time to do Dafa projects. I thought my starting point was correct, but I didn’t get any good news in the next several months. I failed the last round of interviews with a bank.
After the parade in Athens I told the other practitioners about my situation and as we talked I realized many of my problems. I tried to pinpoint my attachments and get rid of my fundamental one. I found that my heart was less pure than it was than when I previously asked Master for help. I tried to hide my attachment to money. I didn’t want to work at a low income job or do labor work. When I looked within further, I found that I wanted to look for a new job in order to escape my current hardships at work because I felt I was mistreated. I was afraid of failure. I was shocked by my discovery. I wanted to walk my own way just like the old forces do. I was going along with the notions of the old cosmos which was about to be dissolved. I didn’t rectify myself in the Fa.
These are my recent insights on the issue of believing in Master and the Fa. Just as a cultivator shouldn’t be picky about food, I shouldn’t be picky about my job. Because I wanted to make my own arrangements I disrespected Master. I felt deeply regretful and I asked Master to forgive me.
I realized that the old forces wanted to drag me down through my work so that I wouldn’t have a healthy body and mind to participate in Dafa projects. This was a form of persecution. They wanted to steal my time while I passively accepted it and I even thought that I should put up with it.
Ten days after I had these realizations, I received a call from a big company. I got a job with better pay and normal working hours. This was a miracle! The slow and heart-wrenching waiting period was over. This was indeed as Master said, “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
When I resigned, I expressed my sincere thanks to every manager and told them that this well-paid job enabled me to go around the world to speak on behalf of the Falun Dafa practitioners who are being persecuted in China. I told them that I would remember this job forever.
Having gone through this hardship, I felt joyful and I was compassionate to those people who wronged me. This was a demonstration of miracles that I could hardly describe in words, thanks to Master’s compassionate protection and salvation.
I learned this lesson after I went through a big detour. Going forward, I will regard everything that prevents me from doing the three things as persecution. I will negate these arrangements and I will not put up with them passively or think that I must put up with them. I will only walk the path that Master arranged for me. I must believe in Master and the Fa.
Every day, I recited or wrote down at least one sentence in Chinese from Zhuan Falun with other Vietnamese practitioners. The Vietnamese language is similar to Chinese. I had gained a lot of new insights from the Fa when I recite Zhuan Falun in Chinese.
One day while I cut meat with a sharp knife, it cut deeply into my finger. I wasn’t afraid and I didn’t feel any pain. But my husband was terrified. I asked myself if I had any bad thoughts or if I had any cultivation issues—I should immediately rectify them.
I discovered the source of my problem. The sharp knife cut me which reminded me to pass the test of lust and desire. In the Vietnamese language, “Sharpness” and “lust and desire” are the same word. There’s a saying: “Alcohol makes people obsessed with sex; Sex deludes people” and “Sex acts like a steel knife which cuts bones.”
I was shocked but I knew Master reminded me that I should face this issue that I’d been avoiding and didn’t have the courage to overcome.
My parents had affairs when I was a child, and I grew up in the distorted communist society in Vietnam. I longed to escape reality and I wanted beautiful love. I thought a happy marriage would be the pillar of my life. Fame, personal interest and sentimentality are connected. I didn’t want to follow my parents’ path and I tried my best to maintain a happy marriage. I was afraid of being a loser and being looked down on by my family and society.
When I was growing up I read novels and watched many Korean TV series about young girls finding good husbands and having happy ending after experiencing turmoil and hardships. I didn’t realize that all those things were actually harming me until I read Zhuan Falun.
When I cooked I felt the food didn’t taste good if I used less onion, ginger, or garlic. But when I used more of these, I ate more meat. Likewise, anything that was “tasteful” in life is “hun” and should be avoided.
Vietnamese people also use the words “eating meat” and “vegetarian” to indicate the relationship between husband and wife. I wouldn’t have had this deep attachment to a happy marriage if I hadn’t watched those romantic TV soap operas and read novels. Meat itself is not that tasty—it’s the onions, ginger, and garlic that make it appealing. It’s similar to the relationship between husband and wife. This relationship should be light and restrained. But these romantic stories mislead people and they think the emotion between man and woman leads to living happily ever after. The beautiful actresses furthered my attachment to attractive clothes and my desire to purchase more of them. These things are very dangerous. I finally realized the reason the knife cut my finger so deeply that day was because I was deluded for so long. I wouldn’t have seen it clearly if this hadn’t happened.
I hadn’t paid much attention to one Shen Yun performance: “The Story of the Village Boy and the Fairy” because this kind of story was common in Vietnam. But I was impressed by the Queen Mother. Everyday people might think she was bad because she sent heavenly warriors to stop the wedding and retrieve the fairy. But I realized why she did this. She said to the boy seriously but with compassion, “If you want to see her again, you must pass the test, improve yourself and cultivate yourself to that level.”
I saw the performance three times and got the same message. The boy was swallowed by the sea just like the Falun Dafa practitioners who face the brutal persecution. But he was saved by the Creator and walked towards the fairy on the bridge built by celestial magpies. I finally saw the love and compassion of a higher level, much higher than the love between man and woman.
I had another realization from this performance. When the village boy saw the fairy called back to Heaven, it was like the Falun Dafa practitioners who saw their family members who passed away and they stayed in different dimensions. They couldn’t contact each other because human beings and divine beings can’t be together. When I saw the fairy anxiously watch her husband struggle in the huge waves, I understood that although we suffered immense hardships in the human world, our family members in Heaven are worried if we can pass tests and return to our original homes. I also realized that we must have stronger willpower that surpasses fear of losing the good life in human world.
Although the knife cut was very painful, I was very thankful to Master for giving me the hint and enabling me to cultivate diligently.
While I recited Zhuan Falun, one passage touched me deeply. This passage was about the elderly lady who was dragged by the car for more than ten meters. I realized that it was not that simple. I immediately thought of the messy traffic in my hometown. This high speed car was like the desires and lust that can “drag our clothes” and rush forward dragging us and causing us to fall. From the cultivation perspective, the “clothes” are our human bodies. This incident happened on her way to the venue to listen to Master’s lectures.
My back was in pain during that time. I asked myself, “On those days that I didn’t go to Fa study, which “cars” dragged me away? What kind of attachments dragged me away? Is it the attachment to comfort? Laziness? Or is it conflicts among practitioners?
She fell down just like practitioners do when they make mistakes. I understood from this passage what kind of righteous thoughts a practitioner should have. The elderly lady said, “I am all right. You can go.” Her words were so simple but demonstrated her strong righteous thoughts. She even grabbed her husband and they walked to the venue.
It was translated as “relying on husband” in the Vietnamese and English version of Zhuan Falun. In the Chinese version it is “she dragged her husband.” She just experienced the test of life and death. She didn’t complain about the driver, her husband or anyone. She dragged her husband to the Fa lecture venue.
I finally I understood why Master was so happy to hear her story. This was the cultivation state a practitioner should have. Now when I have a xinxing test or I fail a test, I tell myself that I shouldn’t be dragged by “those cars” (my attachments) and just lay on the ground. I should stand up immediately and cultivate myself.
After I started practicing Falun Dafa, I realized that I didn’t do well in cultivating speech. I talked too directly and didn’t consider other people’s feelings. I thought I was “honest” and I said whatever was on my mind.
Master told us the story of Hua Tuo in Zhuan Falun. I understood that Hua Tuo was an outstanding doctor but Cao Cao didn’t believe him. One day I asked myself: there are so many stories from the Three Kingdoms so why did Master only refer to this story in Zhuan Falun.
I realized that Hua Tuo treated Cao Cao for his illness just as we clarify the truth to people to save them. Hua Tuo used his divine power. No matter how capable we are, we must cultivate our speech. Hua Tuo could clearly see the root cause of Cao Cao’s illness, but he didn’t consider whether Cao Cao could accept it if he told him.
I thought I was being frank but I realized that I couldn’t talk casually. If my speech was not in line with the Fa principles, I might hurt sentient beings and myself just as Cao Cao died of the illness and Hua Tuo died in prison. If we don’t cultivate our speech and don’t clarify the truth properly, we might be persecuted. It is very dangerous. We must consider people’s feelings when we talk.
These are my cultivation experiences. Please kindly point out anything that is not in line with the Fa.
Thank you great and compassionate Master!Thank you fellow practitioners for listening!
(Presented at the 2025 Finland Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)