An Unforgettable Time in My Cultivation

(Minghui.org) I am 75 years old and I started cultivating in Falun Dafa in 1996. That spring I visited my sister, and I saw the main book of Falun Dafa Zhuan Falun on her desk. I was intrigued and picked it up. When I saw the author’s photo, I felt that I had seen him some time ago, but I didn’t know where.

My sister told me there were five sets of exercises, which were easy to learn. Falun Dafa cultivates both mind and body, and the practice requires studying the Fa and doing the exercises. She gave the book to me. I felt a longing to read it and took it with both hands.

After I read Zhuan Falun for the first time, a number of talks given by the Master of Falun Gong remained fresh in my mind, such as “No Loss, No Gain,” as well as “Practicing Only One Cultivation Way,” “Your Main Consciousness Should Dominate,” and “Your Mind Must be Righteous.”

At that time, I was working at a Taiwanese-owned food company. I was a manager of a company branch with nearly a hundred employees. Almost all the employees were recruited from Shandong. They were youngsters in their 20s who had little education, and were far away from their homes. I tried my best to take good care of them.

I collected raw food packaging materials and sold them to waste collectors. Using the money I received, I bought towels for the employees. In summer, their uniforms were too hot, so I used the money from selling waste to buy white T-shirts for the male workers and white T-shirts with flowers printed on them for the girls.

I often told the workers the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and told them that they should do their jobs well, help each other, and be tolerant.

When the boss came to inspect things, he saw that the workers were all wearing T-shirts, and he heard that I had used the money from selling waste to buy them, as well as new towels for everyone every month. The boss thanked me for taking care of the workers, “No one in other branches cares about these things. Some branch managers even deducted the living expenses of employees and provided food of poor quality.”

I used the standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my work. I gained the trust of the boss and praise from the workers.

I was re-assigned as a manager of a new branch near my hometown in September 1997. “It can be difficult,” the boss said, “But I believe you will do well. Give it a try, and if it doesn’t work, we will close the branch and you can return to headquarters.”

When I arrived there, I found that the management was chaotic and the accounting was messy. There were almost no sales, but there were about 20 employees. They had no work, and played cards and chess all day long.

When the workers saw me, they were very happy, “Manager, we have been waiting for you to come!” Since the company policy rotates employees to different branches periodically, they all knew of me. They told me they made very few products for fear that they wouldn’t sell. I instructed them to thoroughly clean the work place and dorms the next day.

The next day, I got busy with local marketing. I visited the managers of local food stores in major shopping malls and hoped that they would cooperate with me.

When I returned, I went to the unisex restroom upstairs. I saw that the floor was dirty, with toilet paper scattered everywhere. I took some plastic bags and collected the scattered toilet paper. I soaked the restroom floor with detergent and water, and scrubbed the floor with a brush. A worker entered the restroom and saw me cleaning the toilet. He cried and pushed me out, saying, “Let us workers do it.” He got several workers and cleaned the restroom including the walls, inside and out.

I said to them kindly, “We should maintain the living environment together. A clean environment will make people happy and they are less likely to get sick.” I asked the branch director to arrange a rotating schedule for cleaning, counting me in. From then on, the workers always did a good job keeping the place clean.

During meal time, I noticed many workers peeling off the steamed buns and throwing the bun skins on the table. I picked up steamed buns and ate them whole. The situation lasted for several days. On the sixth day, the warehouse keeper spoke up: “Our manager is eating steamed buns with skins! Are the lives of the rest of us worth more than the manager?”

I said, “We all grew up in the countryside, and our ancestors were farmers. Do you peel off the steamed buns when you eat at home? This really makes our ancestors cry!” From then on, there were no peeled bun skins on the table.

After I took over the office, market operations and more jobs fell on my shoulders. I followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and the situation gradually improved. Originally this branch relied on headquarters to fund the operations, from raw material purchase, building rental fees, to workers’ wages. Later we paid for everything from our local business' profits and even turned in profits, and expanded production. We also rented a larger factory building for production. Throughout my time there, I always adhered to my belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

The company moved to a new location in the fall of 1998. I recruited Ms. Wang, a Falun Dafa practitioner, to be the cook in the cafeteria.

Every day after dinner, when the workers started to work in the workshop, Ms. Wang cleaned the cafeteria and came to my room. We read Zhuan Falun. Each of us read a paragraph in turn. Every day, the two of us studied the Fa and did the exercises together.

On a spring day in 1999, Ms. Wang came to my office looking quite excited: “Manager, I went to take out the garbage this morning. In the wheat field, there was an older lady reading Zhuan Falun! She said many people in her village practiced Falun Dafa. They read the Fa every evening at 7 p.m. at the village committee compound, and at five o’clock in the morning, they do the group exercises in the village park. She said we can join!”

I immediately went to the wheat field. I did not see an older lady, but a gentleman in his 40s reading Zhuan Falun. I said that there was an older lady here reading a moment ago. He said politely that was his mother and she had just left for lunch. I asked him for the locations for their group Fa study and exercises.

That evening, Ms. Wang and I went there. It was a large room. Some people were cleaning. They were very happy to see us joining them for Dafa practice. At around 8 p.m., almost 80 people had shown up. Everyone sat in lotus position on the pads they brought, and we started to recite Master’s new lectures, including “Lunyu,” “Broad and Immense,” “True Cultivation,” “Enlightenment,” “Realms,” “Determination,” “What is Forbearance (Ren)?”, “A Brief Explanation of Shan,” and “Huge Exposure.”

I was stunned by the scene in front of me. Until that night, I had been basically practicing alone, and sometimes studied the Fa with Ms. Wang at night. This was the first time I was with a large group of Dafa practitioners, and the first time I joined a Fa-group study. The voices of fellow practitioners⸺male, female, elderly, and young students⸺reciting the Fa together—it was truly amazing!

Next, we studied the first lecture in Zhuan Falun as a group, and each person read a paragraph. Due to different levels of literacy, some read fluently, while others read very slowly and stumbled. Everyone listened patiently and read in turn. No one whispered to each other.

During the group study that night, I saw the gap between others and me. I wanted to catch up, I wanted to be diligent, and I wanted to truly practice!

After reading the lecture, the assistant reminded everyone to read more Fa when they have time, and those who were not highly educated should read in advance. He also asked me and Ms. Wang if we had Master’s new lectures and if we knew all the exercises. We said we followed illustrations in the book The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection, but were not yet proficient.

The next morning, I joined the group exercises at 5 a.m. in the small park. There were about 80 people, with men and women divided on two sides, doing morning exercises in uniform with Master’s instructions. The veteran practitioners were correcting the movements of new students from time to time. They were responsible for laying a great foundation for my future cultivation.

After joining the group Fa study, I began to understand what cultivation was and how to cultivate. With a large amount of reading and reciting the Fa, I learned to measure myself with the standard of the Fa in work and daily life. I also obtained a copy of Essentials for Further Advancement and Master’s other new lectures. I eagerly read and memorized Master’s words. Bathing in Dafa every day, I became truly healthy, both mentally and physically.

While studying the Fa and doing the exercises in a group, I also saw how fellow Dafa practitioners behaved⸺they always considered others first. Before morning exercises, every practitioner carried an empty plastic bag and picked up garbage, waste paper, and empty bottles whenever they saw them.

One morning, I got up a little late. I wanted to get there faster by climbing over the fence of the park. When I lifted my leg to climb over, an elderly lady stopped me: “That is not civilized. Let’s go through the main entrance.” She said, “We are Falun Dafa practitioners and we must be good people.”

Since joining the group study and exercises, I gained a new understanding of the Fa. I realized that I should be a good person, but also that I should be better than a good person. I should be completely selfless and consider others first.

At my work, I did my best to take care of the employees. I always told workers about Falun Dafa, about following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. I explained to them the relationship between loss and gain. Meanwhile, I strictly followed Dafa’s principles. Because we were located in a rural area and there were a lot of mosquitoes, I used the remaining food money and the money from selling packaging waste to buy mosquito nets, towels and quilts for the employees in the summer.

The workers said that the food in my branch was the best. When the boss came to the branch to inspect, he asked during meal time, “How did you do this so well?” I told him that I practice Falun Dafa.

I heard that in other branches no one cared about the employees' food. Meals were not cooked well and employees didn’t eat them, and the food ended up in dumpsters outside the cafeteria. At the end of the day, the employees went out to buy instant noodles.

The boss’ nephew was the production director. When it was his turn to come to my branch, he said, “I was looking forward to coming here. You treat employees as human beings. I have been rotated to all five branches of our company. In private we all said that when headquarters gives awards to branch leaders, we will definitely vote for you!”

Falun Dafa made me a better person. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has benefited everything and everyone who learned it. I am so grateful to Master! I miss that period of time in my cultivation, which will last forever in the history of the cosmos.