(Minghui.org) I have not experienced severe persecution; however, the xinxing tests I have passed were quite difficult. Fortunately I am able to study the Fa more and look inward while encountering any issue. Therefore, I am able to turn the tribulations into good things.
After I started practicing Falun Gong in 1997, I was fond of studying the Fa. Since I obtained the book Zhuan Falun, I have cherished it very much. I finished reading it in one day. I have experienced the process of the Fa purifying my body, healing my illnesses, and keeping me fit. In the Spring of 2007, after I had the chance to read Master’s recent articles, I realized I had fallen far behind, so I tried to study the Fa and catch up with the process of Fa-rectification. During the period of personal cultivation, I formed a habit: while encountering a conflict, I looked within. If I was unable to find the reason, then I studied the Fa with a calm mind. Then I could solve any problems. If we do not understand the Fa principles and try to look within, the conflicts will escalate. Sometimes when I came across tribulations and my life became difficult, I did not think about it anymore. I just studied the Fa, then I became happy. I came to understand everything and knew that the Fa was pointing out my problem.
Regardless of what kind of tribulations I encountered during these years, I never took a detour; instead, I faced them. With Master and the Fa, no matter what kind of human thoughts I have, once I realize it, I will not miss it. I often think: “Master is around me and watching over me, and I will be able to pass the tests that Master has arranged for me.” I repeatedly made it through the tests and experienced the power of Dafa, which is all-powerful.
Part 1
When my daughter was in the second grade of junior high school, she had a homeroom teacher who did not like children. My daughter's temperament changed dramatically: she became irritable, and easily got angry. Later she transferred from a key high school to a common school. Her grades quickly dropped. My workplace is about 30 miles from her school. My daughter’s dramatic changes were hard to take. Colleagues often asked me how my daughter was and I felt like I was losing face because of my daughter's school work. It was so hard for me to get rid of the attachment to reputation. The more I did not want to mention it, the more they asked. After more than one year of this tribulation, I gradually eliminated this attachment.
I had strong sentiment towards my daughter. The more sentiment we have, the more ruthless the pain is. Even in a public place and in front of a lot of people, she was abusive towards me, pointing her finger at my nose. When I was in tears, she ran away. Later I learned she went to internet cafes. I told myself to eliminate the sentimentality. Then I focused on things to validate Dafa. Later I thought it was not right not to educate her. I studied the Fa and understood that if I educated her rationally according to Master’s teachings, I could educate her well. In this way, little by little I have been getting along with her well.
When Dafa’s beauty is reflected in me, she believes in Dafa from her heart. Although she did not seriously learn the curriculum in high school, she received over 300 points on the college entrance exam. She said that during the exam she recited: "Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." As soon as the test scores came out, she immediately burned incense to Master. I realized that while she said nothing when I taught her, she did keep it in mind.
Although my husband did not support what I was doing at first, he knew that Dafa is good. Now he also has started practicing Falun Gong. I understand the far-reaching significance of the Fa principles about conforming with everyday society as much as possible. It is to save people fundamentally. We should not cultivate only the surface, but really improve our xinxing.
Part 2
In the Spring of 2008, I met one practitioner who had just come back home after being persecuted for five years. She had lost her job and wanted to run her own clothing store. She wanted to borrow 5,000 yuan to purchase clothing to sell. When I previously lent someone money, it was not returned in a timely manner; so my husband told me: “No matter who asks to borrow money, do not lend it.” I felt puzzled. This practitioner lost her job due to the persecution; if we do not help her, who will help her? This matter repeatedly emerged in my mind. Finally I decided to lend her the money. The practitioner said she would pay back the money in two or three months. After my husband came back, I told him about the situation. He had no big reaction. However, when she was supposed to pay back the money, she said she had no money to pay back. My husband was very upset and said a lot of bad words about this practitioner. At this time regardless of who blamed me, I could remain calm, but if one spoke bad words about Dafa disciples, I was unable to forbear and blamed him for being too stingy. But after all, I understood that he was an ordinary person, and we are cultivators and should look within. I found my attachment of self-interest, a competitive mentality, and sentimentality. I realized I should eliminate them.
Finally I gave up this attachment. However, another thing happened to me. The practitioner and I decided to meet somewhere, and then she would introduce me to a new fellow practitioner to coordinate with for Dafa materials. However, I did not see her after waiting for a few hours. I made a phone call to her and realized she did not come at all. I felt very upset. Finally I thought of Master’s teaching and realized that Master arranged these things to improve my xinxing and expand my thinking. I immediately felt very happy and came back home to continue making truth-clarification materials.
Part 3
My husband saw other people doing similar business quite successfully; he hoped I would give it a try. I thought that what happened was not accidental. If I run a shop employing fellow practitioners, I could help solve fellow practitioners’ job problems. On the other hand, I could make money and use it to validate the Fa. Furthermore, I could contact fellow practitioners in a timely manner. I successfully found a fellow practitioner to run the shop.
But things were not simple as I imagined. I thought I had given up the attachment to self interest and other attachments, but in fact I was poor in these aspects. At that time these attachments were exposed. I found a few times that the clerk was not in the shop for quite a long period of time, and sometimes several fellow practitioners sat together chatting. This shop not only did not make money, but it was losing money. A fellow practitioner told me that when she ran a shop for several years, she lost money. When I faced the situation that I had no money to replenish the merchandise, I reached the limit of my endurance.
That day the clerk was not in a good state, so I asked her to go home and take a day off. I saw a photo album on the table, so I picked it up to look at it. Some photos were pictures of her in her 20s, so pure and simple. A few pictures were taken after she was persecuted; her expression in these photos was full of melancholy. At that time, she no longer cultivated, but she never could not give up Dafa in her inner heart. I admired her going to Tiananmen Square and holding banners and shouting, “Falun Dafa is good” with pure faith in Dafa and Master. While thinking about this, I was in tears. It was Master’s arrangement that this practitioner found me, and then she came back to continue cultivating Dafa. However, she encountered difficulties and also had debts to pay, as well as having to support her children to attend school. I thought I should help her. Maybe if I got rid of my attachments, she certainly would look within. If we positioned our foundation well and cooperated with each other well and regarded this as the window for saving sentient beings, the current difficulty is just an illusion. After thinking this way, I felt that the cosmic body became transparent and the bad substances disappeared.
The next day, she got up early. After one day’s Fa study and looking within, she made it through. We both exchanged our thoughts about which aspect we should improve, and soon we reached a consensus. The fellow practitioners could understand our purpose. Regardless of who said what, we kept our minds undisturbed. We knew that if our minds were disturbed, we must have some attachments to eliminate. In this process, we relinquished our attachments to self interest, a competitive mentality, jealousy, zealotry, etc. while clarifying the truth to save people.
This shop has played a very important role for communications among the fellow practitioners. Our business was becoming a thriving one. I often mentioned to her that we should do things with one mind and trust each other regardless of the situation we encounter. We both looked within and cultivated ourselves well, forming a very righteous environment. I knew that fellow practitioners could improve upon coming here. We helped some practitioners who did not know how to cultivate and were not diligent. We especially cared about those isolated practitioners. There are quite a few of these kinds of practitioners around us. Upon feeling their pure hearts of believing in Dafa and Master, I did not give up on them. It is not easy for them to practice Dafa, and Master does not want any disciple to fall behind. We should help them. I met a lot of difficulties in helping them. I made much effort to help them, but they did not appreciate me and even blamed me. I realized that our own hearts' capacity was not enough. Since they came to us, they must have a predestined relationship with us. The best way is to encourage them to study the Fa more.
Part 4
There is a male fellow practitioner, who had made mistakes with respect to lust. I heard that he had strong belief in the Fa when he was detained at the labor camp; however, for a long time, he was unable to study the Fa and cultivate himself, so he was in a dangerous situation. Master enlightened me to help him, but the resistence from the fellow practitioners was quite large. Almost all the practitioners who knew him did not want me to help him. I first rented an apartment to let him live there, and then I found a few familiar fellow practitioners to study the Fa together with him in the evenings. Only two practitioners persisted in studying the Fa with him for half a month. The practitioner who rented the room to me asked me to drive him away, but I did not listen to him.
After coming back home and studying the Fa with a clean mind, I understood it was a test. No matter what displeasing things I heard, I would not be moved. Later the facts proved that I did right. Although it was only a short-term group Fa study, he finally made it through. I told him: “Believe me, as long as Master has not given up you, I will not give up on you; do not let Master down. You are not even afraid of death, what else could stop you from making it through?” When he called me, he said, “I finally have made it through.” At that moment, I was in tears. Later he told me that when he thought of Master and my encouragement to him in that difficult situation, he made up his mind that he must make it through. The tribulation passed. I am very glad that I did not miss the opportunity that Master arranged for me to improve my xinxing.
There is also a fellow practitioner who became my business partner. She earned a lot of money. However, one day she told me that what she earned had nothing to do with me. It was so hard for me to take it, and I really studied the Fa hard and finally gave up the attachment. I thought that I must have owed something to her, otherwise Master would not let things happen like that if it had nothing to do with my cultivation. To me it meant: Just see if you can give up this attachment.
Later under Master’s enlightenment, this practitioner came to understand. She told me in tears: “You are so broad-minded. If you need me anytime just let me know.” Later she came to trust me very much and helped me several times.
I found, after some tribulations that I had battled through. These people who always made tribulations for me finally became my most reliable fellow practitioners. They played a key role in some important things, and nobody could replace them. I understand the connotation that Master had said that every Dafa disciple is very important. What one person should do in a certain period has been arranged. If one practitioner cannot make it through, then how can we do the things that were supposed to be his responsibility? Thus I feel that we really should cherish fellow practitioners and not look at other people's shortcomings. I really appreciate fellow practitioners who we think of in a poor cultivation status or people who interfere with me. They really help me improve. If I cannot make it through, it means that my level does not reach the standard and needs to be upgraded.
As long as we study the Fa well and look within, we can make it through. Regardless of what we encounter, the first thought must be to look within ourselves and not worry about how others are behaving. Maybe his performance is for you. If you change he will not act like that.
I hope all fellow practitioners can achieve the best cultivation status to be more diligent in the last leg of Fa-rectification! Above is my personal cultivation experience and sharing. If anything is inappropriate, please kindly point it out.
Category: Improving Oneself
