Cultivate Myself in Conflicts and Treat All Beings with Kindness

(Minghui.org) My mother started practicing Falun Dafa before the persecution started. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated the persecution of Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999, as a result of being implicated with my mother, I suffered indifference, ridicule, and slander. However, when I saw the sincere smiles and gentle eyes among our Dafa practitioners, I felt I had found a safe harbor. Then in 2004, I began to practice Dafa cultivation, carrying with me a fundamental attachment to fame and a longing for kindness. Although the persecution was still rampant at that time, many practitioners in my village who had started practicing Dafa before 1999 had remained steadfast in their belief, so I didn’t feel much pressure. Especially since I was not yet married, and my mother was a veteran practitioner, much of the pressure from society was blocked before reaching me.

For nearly two years before I married, I cultivated in a relatively peaceful environment. Although I did experience the hardship of letting go of attachments and tried hard under some pressure to do what a Dafa disciple should do, everything during that time was much simpler compared to what I encountered after marriage.

After I married, I moved to my husband’s village, which is where I live now. There were no Dafa practitioners in that village. Other practitioners said I would be the hope for sentient beings there. I thought the same, as I wanted to save the people there. Looking back, I was like a newborn calf, unaware of danger and boldly stumbling forward. It was with that bold spirit and guidance from Dafa that I managed to walk forward step by step.

During the first few years, almost all the tribulations came through my mother-in-law. People talk about the conflicts with mothers-in-law and unreasonable husbands. Those were just the basics in my home. Adding in material interests, she would be calculating even in everyday matters, then she would say that I was foolish behind my back. She didn’t care about my two children at all. Even when a child fell down right in front of her, she pretended not to see it and walked away.

When she scolded me, I often did not even know the reason for it. After it happened many times, I realized it was my elder sister-in-law who had made things difficult for her. Not daring to talk back to my elder sister-in-law, she turned her anger on me. Her cunning behavior made me feel that she was just so wicked! Especially when I first told her the truth about Dafa, she burst into uncontrollable laughter, as if I had said something ridiculous. Her reaction reminded me of Master’s teaching: “... When a foolish person hears it, this person will laugh at it loudly. If this person doesn’t laugh at it loudly, it’s not the Tao.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

Fortunately, I didn’t slack off in studying the Fa. Through all kinds of conflicts, I became better at cultivating myself. When she said hurtful things to me, I would examine why I felt hurt. What attachment did I have? Why did I feel so upset?I looked within and eliminated those attachments. Of course, I only had to have the determination to let it go, then Master would help eliminate those attachments for me. I kept digging deeper. If it hadn’t been my mother-in-law but someone else saying those things, would I still have reacted the same way? Why did I resent her so much? During the years when my children were young, these kinds of experiences kept surfacing again and again.

When I felt I had probably passed all the tests, she came to an understanding and cautiously said to me that she was afraid I might hold a grudge against her for how she had treated me. I told her to let bygones be bygones. Gradually, I came to understand that the reason she bullied me so much at the beginning of my marriage was because she wanted me to divorce her son. Her father had been a school principal during the Cultural Revolution and was persecuted, so perhaps her fear of persecution by the CCP ran deep. She was afraid that my practicing Dafa would bring trouble and implicate her whole family.

When I clarified the truth to her, she never listened, but there was always a new truth-clarification calendar on her table each year. They weren’t from me, and were likely given to her by other practitioners she met at the market. Over all these years, she must have heard and accepted the truth. I could tell from how her attitude toward me changed. Her change was not only the result of my own cultivation, but also the result of many practitioners clarifying the truth to her. Now my mother-in-law has become much more sincere in her interactions with others. I came to realize that all her past behaviors were actually to help me cultivate. Now that I have improved, she has also changed for the better.

Some time ago, I worked at a factory. We were divided into groups of four, and two of the workers in my group often bullied a tall coworker. The tall coworker also fought back in various ways. The atmosphere made me feel upset and very disappointed in their behavior. One day while working, I was thinking about an article I recently read on Minghui.org, written by an everyday person. I had been deeply moved by the author’s peaceful tone. Even when he described being humiliated and mistreated by others, there wasn’t a trace of resentment in his words. For an ordinary person to reach that level meant he had already risen above common human standards. If even a non-practitioner could endure such injustice without hatred, how could I, a Dafa disciple, feel upset just by witnessing other people’s conflicts?

These people weren’t divine beings who came to this world for the sake of saving lives in their own realms, coming here with firm faith in Dafa despite how harsh this world is? How could I look down on them? Master said that when divine beings reincarnated into the human world, they often had to take on animal traits to survive here. For a divine being who knows the truth, it is such humiliation to do so, yet they still came without hesitation. How could I not feel admiration for these beings who came down to be humans? Why was I still caught up in their surface-level behavior?

Just as I was thinking this, the tall coworker spoke to me in a strange and off-putting way. I felt a wave of displeasure rising within me, but this time I didn’t act on it. I told myself to have compassion, and I smiled and responded kindly. After that, I noticed their tones became less harsh. Perhaps, after I improved myself in this environment, they would also change for the better.

I have been cultivating for over 20 years. I know only a handful of practitioners around me, yet I feel as if I’m in an environment surrounded by Dafa disciples, because we have Minghui.org and Zhengjian.org. I’m deeply grateful for the sincere experience-sharing articles by other practitioners. I’ve never seen Master in person, but I feel as though I’m right beside him. I read Master’s teachings every day and feel incredibly fortunate to be a Dafa disciple. Only by cultivating myself well can I fulfill my vow to Master, who cherishes us more than we cherish ourselves, and to the sentient beings who place infinite hope in us.

This is my personal understanding. Please kindly point out anything improper. Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.