(Minghui.org) I used to think I was smart—I thought I understood what life was about, and that no one could fool me. A friend offered to show me how to practice Falun Dafa. I said, “I don’t believe in anything. I only believe in money.”
Another friend gave me a ticket to watch Master’s video lectures. I went there unwillingly because I didn’t want lose face. I was overwhelmed after I began watching the videos of Master’s lectures. They were eye-opening, I started practicing, and my life fundamentally changed. I came to understand what gain and loss are from practicing Falun Dafa.
I wouldn’t know how terrible I had become if I didn’t practice Falun Dafa. I resorted to any means to outdo my competition. I was jealous of other people, and back stabbed those I didn’t respect. I anonymously reported my competitors to the Inspection Brigade for selling fake goods. One day a client said that a certain shop purchased a batch of products and asked me if I also had them. I asked if the goods were authentic. She said, “They are fake but sell quickly. I thought you also had such products.” I didn’t say anything but reported the shop to the Inspection Brigade. When I walked past the shop I saw the officers collecting the goods and taking them to their truck. I heard that the shop went bankrupt due to a huge fine.
I bribed the officers from the Inspection Brigade who were in charge of my local area and sent gifts to them on Chinese New Year and other important days. As time passed, we became good friends. This method worked perfectly. The officers would send me message before they made inspections so that I could hide any fake goods.
This way I could sell fake goods openly, and no one monitored me. When the officers from the Inspection Brigade came to my shop, I was very generous and told them to take whatever they wanted. Sometimes they asked if my goods were genuine. I told them that I didn’t have any fake products.
One day an officer from the Inspection Brigade came and took a lot things. He felt he should compensate me, so he gave me a book of product confiscation receipts. He asked me not to use the receipts too often. I was so happy that I didn’t listen to him. I filled out every single receipt and sent them to the manufacturers. I told them that the goods I received from them were fake and were confiscated. This was the confiscation receipt. Because of this I didn’t need to pay for their goods.
I met businessmen from all over the country. When we got familiar with each other, we sent goods to one another. As we kept doing business, I learned some tricks and so I used them. I didn’t pay cash for the goods I purchased. Instead I sent them the goods from other suppliers who gave me 50% discount in exchange of their goods and I gave them a 20% discount. This way I made a huge profit. If they weren’t happy, I generously told them that I would buy back the goods that they couldn’t sell. But they never returned the goods.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I understood the Fa principles. Master’s Fa is simple and easy to understand. I regretted my past behavior, and I understood that I had committed huge sins in the way I was doing business. Sure, I made some money but my health began declining. Falun Dafa let me see the light and I found my direction in life and my business. Falun Dafa explained the principles of retribution and reward, gain and loss, reincarnation, how human beings can cultivate into godhood, heaven and hell, virtue and karma, macro and micro of life, the root cause of gaining fortune or experiencing tragedies.
I feel that Zhuan Falun is a heavenly book. I began cultivating myself and improving my character according to the Fa after I started practicing Falun Dafa.
What’s Yours is Not Lost
I comply with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my daily life. I decided to run my business with honesty and become a righteous businessman.
I’d like to give an example of how I gained after losing.
One day, one of my shop assistants followed a tricycle full of goods to deliver them to the client. The assistant returned late. He cried and said, “The tricycle went too far ahead of me. I couldn’t keep up with it. The goods were lost. I will pay for the loss.”
My first thought was that I wouldn’t let him pay even if the goods were really lost. The goods cost 2100 yuan. I said, “No need to pay. If they are lost, let it be.”
I remembered Master’s Fa:
“If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa I would have scolded the shop assistant. But this time I took it easy. I said, “Let’s go out and look for the tricycle.”
We followed the original route of the tricycle and went back and forth twice, but didn’t see it. I told him to go home. But he wanted to wait.
Just before he decided to leave the tricycle came back. The driver said he took a detour and got lost.
Return the Money
My tenant moved out before the agreement expired. I calculated the days, and it turned out that I should return 800 yuan to him. Although the refund was not stipulated in the agreement, I felt I should behave according to Dafa’s principles. The agreement was to restrict people, while Dafa rectifies human hearts.
Master said:
“...as you should trade fairly and maintain a righteous mind” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I should not take advantage of others, so I returned the 800 yuan.
He was surprised and said, “I moved out voluntarily. It has nothing to do with you. I won’t accept the money.”
I said, “I won’t feel easy if you don’t accept the refund. You must take it.” He said, “I am willing to bear the loss. I cannot take it.”
I said, “If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t have returned the money to you. Our Master told us to consider others first and be selfless. If you don’t take it, it means that I haven’t cultivated myself well.” I had clarified the truth to him before, and he quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He exclaimed, “It’s hard to find good people like you! I truly respect you.”
He rang me two months later and asked if my apartment had been rented yet. I told him it hadn’t. He asked me not to rent it because he wanted to move back. He said that the new landlord was fussy and he didn’t want to live there.
I didn’t expect this. The rent I charged him was not high, and I was thinking I would increase the rent by 2000 yuan, to the market price. But, he asked that I reduce the rent by 2000 a month. I felt uncomfortable. I returned 800 yuan to him, yet he was asking for more. If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I would have taken this opportunity to increase the rent by 2000 because he was eager to rent my apartment.
I wasn’t really willing to reduce the rent, but I said, “Okay, I accept your price.” I didn’t want to damage our relationship due to a petty profit.
When he moved in the second time, he gave me his key to the apartment. He said, “Please take care of my home while I’m away.”
I said, “There are so many things at your home. Won’t you worry if I have your key?” I refused to take it.
He said, “If I don’t trust you, who can I trust?”
He and his wife repeatedly said, “You are a good person. We have benefited from knowing you. Our business goes smoothly.”
Thinking of Others in an Accident
I started taking things lightly after I began practicing Falun Dafa. When I suffer loss, I still think of others first. One day, a person rang me and said that he damaged my car and asked me to come out and take a look.
Nowadays people are selfish. But this person rang me after he hit my car. He wasn’t an average person, he had good morals.
I had a look and found that the front bumper had been hit and there was a hole in it. It needed to be replaced. When I asked what happened he said his scooter hit the bumper.
I learned that he was a university student and attended school in another city, and was home on school holiday. He was nervous because he didn’t know how much I would charge him.
I asked him how he would pay. He said hesitantly, “I will compensate you…100 or 200 yuan? I cannot afford more.” He was hoping I would be kind.
I laughed and said, “If you hadn’t rung me I wouldn’t know who hit my car. You are a good young man with good morals. I don’t want any compensation. I’ll have it repaired.”
He was surprised and said repeatedly, “Please charge me something.”
I said, “Morality is priceless. I practice Falun Dafa. Please remember ‘Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’. Our Master told us to think of other people first and not be selfish. If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I would have charged you 500 or 800 yuan. Right?”
He nodded his head and said, “Yes, yes.”
Then I told him about Falun Dafa, how millions of Chinese have already withdrawn from the CCP, about the staged incident of Self-Immolation Incident in Beijing, and how Falun Dafa is practiced around the world. I said, “Young man, you are lucky. If you say Falun Dafa is good, you will be blessed! Please tell your parents and classmates that ‘Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’, so they can be blessed as well.”
He said, “Yes, I will remember it.”
I spent 400 yuan to get my car repaired. The repairman said, “I will only charge you the cost. If it was other person, I would charge more.”
My Apartment is Not for Rent to People Who Run Mahjong Parlors
I have a rental property by the street. One person called me after I posted the advertisement. She said she wanted to rent it and planned to turn it into a Mahjong parlor. I refused. Many people called me that day. They all wanted to run a Mahjong parlor business. Some offered 25,000 yuan and others 30,000 yuan. I told them that I didn’t like Mahjong and it was not a problem of money.
My wife is not a practitioner. She was angry with me, and said, “People are offering a good price. Why don’t you rent it out? Have you become a fool now that you practice Falun Dafa?”
I said, “Mahjong parlors are a gambling business. It is not righteous. I don’t want to rent it to those people.”
She said, “There are so many Mahjong parlors, and they aren’t illegal. Why are you being so stubborn?”
I said, “Although it’s not illegal, you’re providing a place for gambling, so it’s as if you are gambling. It is just like drugs. You don’t buy or sell drugs but you provide a place for people to take drugs. Aren’t you part of the gang? We cannot make money this way. We need to accumulate virtue for our child.”
She became silent as soon as I mentioned our child.
One of my friends also called me and asked to rent the property. She wanted to use it for a Mahjong parlor.
We had been friends for more than 30 years. She gave a gift for my child’s wedding and also brought us some specialty products during a Chinese New Year. I owed her something. If I refused her, she would lose face and I would feel guilty. If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I would have rented it to her at a low price. But I practice Falun Dafa so I shouldn’t stay with humanness while cultivating. Even though it was difficult to refuse her, I had to say no. I said, “If you did another business, I would rent it to you at a low price. If you run a mahjong business, please excuse me. I am a man with belief.” She said, “That’s okay. I understand.”
The property was eventually rented out for 15,000 yuan per annum, 10,000 yuan less in price. But I felt ease in my heart and mind.
When the property became vacant for a second time, people called me to rent it as a mahjong parlor. I refused them. Nowadays the economy is not good. The advertisement for my property for rent has run for half year. It is yet to be rented.
My wife became anxious and said, “How about I rent it out for a mahjong parlor. It has nothing to do with you.”
I had a good discussion with her and explained it in detail. I said, “It is not easy to walk our path steadily in life. It’s even harder to do things righteously so that our children and grandchildren will be blessed. Look at those government officials. Which one is not smart? So why were they charged and put in jail? Because they don’t have the Fa in their hearts. They cannot control their own lives. Also those bosses with lots of money. Who has a low IQ? Why didn’t things turn out well for them? Because they didn’t have the Fa in their hearts. They didn’t know what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. They didn’t know the causal relationship of retribution. There are gods above our heads. You earn money that you shouldn’t earn. Do you dare to spend it? We should never ever do anything that is against heavenly principles.
“I used to be on medication all the time. I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for over 20 years and haven’t taken a pill since then. How much in medical expenses have I saved? We used to fight and nearly got divorced. Our home was not like a home and our child wasn’t normal. Now we have a harmonious family, we are in good health, and we don’t need to worry about our child. Can you buy this with money? How many families are like us? Haven’t we benefited from practicing Falun Dafa?”
She acknowledged my reasoning and no longer nagged me about the rent.
Falun Dafa has changed me fundamentally, remolded my mind, my nature, and my life. Without Dafa, I would not be the same me. Thank you Master for your compassion and salvation!
(Selected submission to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)
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