(Clearwisdom.net)
I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. The first time I obtained a copy of Zhuan Falun, I read it three times, non-stop. I vowed that I would spend the rest of my life in the cultivation practice of Dafa and that no matter what hardships I encountered, I would continue to practice. Because of my determination, no matter how tough the hardship, I can always endure it by believing in Teacher and believing in the Fa. From Fa study I understand that I can handle everything in my daily life because what I practice is the great law of the cosmos. As a result, I can steadily walk the path of Fa-rectification regardless of the persecution.
Prior to my cultivation practice, I suffered illnesses all year long. After becoming a practitioner, however, I was free of illness and felt full of energy. That was the first major blessing from my cultivation practice.
I knew that it was very important to let go of fame, gain, and emotion. I used to be most attached to my son, then 17 years old, who did not focus on his studies and often drank alcohol and fought with others. I was constantly worried that he would make trouble. He also suffered serious sinusitis which required surgery. Right after I began practicing Falun Dafa, I let go of my attachment to him. Instead, I took him to the Fa-study group with me. Not only did his sinusitis disappear but he started to practice diligently. I was no longer troubled by an attachment to him, and I truly felt relaxed.
At the beginning of my practice I was appointed to be the assistant at my local practice site, but I was replaced by someone else three times. Understanding that these were tests of my attachment to fame, I quickly passed all three of them. In the cultivation practice of Falun Dafa, there is no rank or title. Assistants are only volunteers who help others. Nevertheless, the pursuit of fame and reputation we are so used to in everyday life must be thoroughly gotten rid of, whether we are assistants or not.
In 1999, the persecution began. My employer fired me simply because I refused to write a guarantee statement or turn in my Falun Dafa books. Ironically I became a manager in a company and obtained "fame" in everyday life. In my job as a manager, I experienced several setbacks. From 1999 to 2004, I was promoted to the position of job manager only to be demoted a while later. This happened three times. I knew these were simply my tests. As a result, I improved myself through the hardships.
The first dismissal happened in 2000, when my boss said, "We have a new manager. Now you go do sales." I happily accepted the new position and did the job for a month. Compensated by sales volume and the resulting commissions, I quickly made over 30,000 yuan. I passed the test with ease. Then the boss said, "Why are you doing sales? Forget about sales. Come back to be the manager right away!" The second test lasted a long time, and, because of my laziness, I did not pass it well. During the third test, however, I enlightened that it was not a test, but persecution. I quickly regained my righteous thoughts to eliminate the persecution. Once again, the hardship was quickly over.
Ironically, because I am not attached to fame or gain in my regular job, I received even bigger "fame." Since everybody I used to work with or do business with knew I was a Falun Gong practitioner and I was not attached to fame or gain, I had such a good reputation that it helped me greatly later when I had my own business. A lot of people invested in my business. Not only that, they said that my name was the brand. There were also many companies that wanted to hire me to run their businesses because, as they said, "You are a Falun Gong (practitioner). You are not corrupt and you are reputable."
I also enlightened that Dafa blesses me with wisdom. Since I began practicing, many people have told me, "You're so smart and capable." I then explained to them that I practice Dafa and it is Dafa that opens up my wisdom.
Because of my job, I often have opportunities to reach out to many prominent people. I take the opportunity to clarify the facts to them. "We didn't know Falun Gong is so good. If every Falun Gong practitioner is as good as you are, we believe in Falun Gong rather than the TV (propaganda)," they said. I told them Falun Gong teaches people to be compassionate and that practitioners put strict requirements on themselves.
After letting go of the pursuit to gain, gain comes regardless. When I knew that the more I obtained, the more I would lose, I truly did not purposely pursue gain. Ironically my salary kept going up and up. Since 2000, making truth-clarification materials requires a lot of money. Despite my high salary, it is far from enough to fund the production of truth-clarification materials. To save sentient beings, I took out all of my savings to fund it. By year's end, however, I had received a huge number of bonuses.
After many years of cultivation practice, I have truly experienced that as long as our path is righteous, we know how to cultivate ourselves, and we walk on the path that Teacher has arranged for us instead of the one arranged by the old forces, we will be blessed as we cultivate Dafa.
