(Minghui.org) One sentence struck me as I was reading Zhuan Falun. Master (Li Hongzhi) said, “It is precisely because of one’s ill intentions that one brings to oneself bad things.” (Lecture Three, Zhuan Falun)
I recalled an incident from five years ago, and realized why my mother did not follow the Fa principles.
I was about to enter my Senior year in high school. Wei (alias), a fellow Falun Dafa practitioner, called my mother and asked for my birth date. She had done fortune telling for me, and said I was talented in painting and music. So she suggested that my mother sign me up for an art or instrument class, because it would help me get into college as an art student.
We’d heard that Wei used to do fortune telling to profit in the stock market. My mother and I believed that our paths were arranged by Master, and that what Wei was doing was not based on the Fa.
However, when Wei called again, my mother was moved by her words. I was very upset that my mother, a Dafa practitioner, would believe in fortune telling. Wei tried to convince me to learn painting or music. She said there were musical notes in my birth month, and that art was very suitable for me. So my mother suggested that I learn painting.
I told her that fortune telling can’t tell a practitioner's future, as Master taught us in Zhuan Falun.
I suddenly realized that neither my mother nor I looked within ourselves then. Although we knew that what Wei was doing was wrong, why would my mother be moved by her words? How could she forget Master’s words?
I realized that my mother had an attachment – she worried that I wouldn’t be able to get into college.
When I was in middle school and high school, I experienced many temptations, and had terrible grades. My mom was told during the parent-teacher meetings that I had little chance of getting into college. She couldn’t fall asleep that night. She felt hopeful when she heard from Wei that it was easier to get into college as an art student. She didn’t realize that Dafa practitioners’ lives were arranged by Master.
It has been a year since I talked to my mother about the incident. She said that she wasn’t aware how attached she was to my getting into college. She said she once saw an elderly man repairing pots for people on the street. The “grandpa” was smiling and focused, looking very content and enjoying his work. My mother then suddenly put down the attachment of desiring to get me into college.
Master Li said,
“But it’s cultivation—whatever happened to being ‘free of gaps? There are no little things.” (Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference)
I would like to remind myself with this article to pay attention to every small attachment, and to use the Fa to measure my words and deeds.
Category: Improving Oneself
