The Importance of Guarding One's Speech

(Minghui.org) I became a Falun Dafa practitioner in 1998. After cultivating for many years, I began to realize my behavior and words should be aligned with the Fa's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

I once went to distribute flyers about Falun Dafa and thought about what I should say if someone questioned me. The story I came up with was not true.

In the end, a security officer actually stopped me, and I told him the made-up story and got away safely.

Looking back, I feel ashamed for not telling the truth. A few days after the incident, I felt a malevolent entity pulling on my big tooth when I slept.

I immediately sent righteous thoughts and asked Master Li to help me. I had a toothache on and off for three days and could only drink fluids.

The big tooth became loose, and I could no longer use it to chew anything. It eventually fell out a few years later.

Led by Selfish Intention

A few years ago, a fellow practitioner gave me 6000 yuan to make truth-clarification flyers. I used the funds appropriately.

I later received some retirement money and wanted to use it for Dafa projects. I then decided return the 6000 yuan to the practitioner who had given it, falsely saying that I hadn't needed to use her money.

Afterwards, my teeth started to ache again. It hurt so much that I could not sit still.Sending righteous thoughts didn’t work either, but I felt temporary relief after reciting the phrase “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!”

My media player also acted up and jumped ahead when playing the Dafa exercise music. My husband, a Dafa practitioner, re-downloaded the music, but it did not help.

I finally found the cause of the problem three months later, when memorizing the following passage:

“Buddhists try to cultivate into Buddhas, and Daoists try to cultivate into True Persons.” (Lecture 5, Zhuan Falun)

The word “True” struck me hard. I realized my mistakes of not being truthful.

My toothache disappeared instantly after I found my faults. I then asked my husband to download the Dafa exercise music, and it played normally this time.

In the end, I did the right thing and did not lie to that practitioner. It was wrong for me to think I could gain virtue by refunding the money I was given.

Exposing Others’ Shortcomings

I once exposed other people's shortcomings to my husband. Afterwards, the right side of my face and mouth shifted towards my left eye.

My face and upper lip recovered after I felt Master straightening my face with his fingers when I did the sitting meditation. However, my lower jaw was still somewhat slanted to the left, so it misaligned with the upper jaw.

After this, I realized that I created karma for myself after exposing other people’s shortcomings behind their back.

Giving Trivial Advice

My husband and I went to his eldest niece’s wedding. I heard that the groom’s prior marriage ended up in divorce because his ex-wife did not get along with his family.

I advised the groom not to live with his parents and to also stay away from his ex-wife to avoid arguments with the bride. The groom replied “Hmm,” without further comment.

I also heard the bride’s younger sister was in a long-distance relationship. I expressed my concerns to the bride’s father and urged him to find out more details about the boyfriend.

The father answered that his daughter knew what to do. My tongue began to numb after these conversations, as if I had eaten a lot of peppercorns.

Returning home, I found a few small holes had appeared on the center of my tongue, which caused pain when I ate. I realized I did not guard my speech and, as a consequence, accrued karma.

Insisting On My Own Opinions

Another time, my husband spent more than 100 yuan to buy a pair of pants, but they were too big for him. He then bought another pair of cotton-lined pants online.

They were very warm but too heavy for him to wear. Despite these pants taking up storage space, I felt it was wasteful to throw them away. So I asked my child to take them to a relative, but my husband insisted that it was inappropriate to give away old things.

I wholeheartedly believed they were not very old and could be helpful to the relative, who was on a tight budget.

My husband and I could not reach an agreement so I began to fight with him and exposed his shortcomings.

Afterwards, during meditation, I clearly felt all of my teeth loosening and shifting, which resulted in my upper and lower jaw no longer aligning.

The situation improved after I realized where I fell short and started being truthful. However, I still have more loose teeth than good ones.

I know that I was not truthful and kind to my husband. I didn’t consider his perspective, but only insisted on my opinion due to attachments.

From all of this, I realize that cultivators must guard their speech, not tell lies, and avoid following attachments to do things.

My level is limited so please correct me if I'm wrong. In closing, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Master Li.