Letting Go of the Pursuit of Fame and Gain

(Minghui.org) I taught in a vocational school. During the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “reform and opening up” era, my husband was transferred to work in a coastal city, leaving me to take care of our nine-year-old daughter. The principal came to me and said, “In the past few years, you alone have taken up 80 percent of the school’s annual medical expenses. How can we cover reimbursements for the senior teachers?”

Seeing the pained look on the principal’s face, I replied, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t choose to be sick.”

I was just 40 years old but suffered from multiple illnesses. I had neurasthenia and felt drowsy every day. I had bone spurs in my cervix, thorax, and spine, which required hospitalization each year to clear my blood vessels. The most serious condition was tumors on both ovaries. I had one surgery to remove an egg-sized tumor on the right side. The doctor thought I was too young to remove both tumors. They left the tumor on my left ovary, which was the size of a ping pong ball, and said it should be monitored. They would remove it if it grew larger, or perhaps it would shrink after menopause. The remaining tumor still caused pain, and I felt tired every day.

The principal sympathized with me, and said, “Why don’t you go join your husband? You can at least look after each other.” Since I had just graduated a class that year, I didn’t have any new courses to teach. At the time, unpaid leave while keeping one’s position was popular, so the school granted me special treatment. My salary and benefits continued as usual.

Reborn

My daughter and I moved to the city where my husband worked. My illnesses persisted, so I continued seeking treatment, but this time it was all at my own expense.

I found a job and later, through connections, I switched to another company. A client of this company told me about Falun Dafa. I later learned that people came to his home to read the Fa (teachings), and his mother was a volunteer coordinator. His mother played Master’s exercise-teaching video and invited me to do the exercises with her. After I did the exercises for a few days, something miraculous happened. A few minutes after I left their home, my menstrual period returned.

I bought Falun Dafa books and read them diligently. From the teachings, I learned that Falun Dafa is a practice that cultivates both mind and body, and it can transform practitioner’s bodies to become more youthful. Even elderly women may resume menstruation, allowing the body to return to a state free of illness. From then on, I embarked on the path of Dafa cultivation.

I had a vivid dream in which a tall man in a white doctor’s coat was holding scissors in one hand and a thin tube (thinner than an IV tube) in the other, with a ball of flesh the size of a ping pong ball in the middle. He said, “Look! I’ve cut it off for you!” I instinctively touched my abdomen and asked why he cut it off. He replied, “What use is it to keep it?” I woke up and thought, wasn’t this Master’s Law Body in another dimension?! The man looked exactly like Master’s photo in Zhuan Falun. Master removed the tumor! I didn’t know what Fallopian tubes look like, yet it felt so real! My abdomen never hurt again.

When I transferred my household registration to my husband’s city, a physical exam was required. I worried that my many illnesses would disqualify me, but the results showed everything was normal. The three bone spurs also healed without treatment. My body was now free of illness, and my heart was full of joy—I truly felt reborn. I diligently began practicing Falun Dafa.

Learning to Let Go

I followed Master’s teachings of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. This meant letting go of all kinds of attachments, including fame and personal gain. One of my close friends told me that my former school had built some new apartments to improve teachers’ living conditions. Teachers who took a new unit needed to return their old unit and pay the difference of 4,000 yuan, making it essentially subsidized housing. She said the principal wanted to know if I wanted one.

After I left, my younger brother lived in my old apartment. What should I do? This was a big matter. After some thought, I decided, the new housing was meant to improve conditions for teachers, and since I would not return to live there my brother would use it. To claim the new home while giving up the old one didn’t feel right. So I told my friend, “Don’t consider me for the new apartment.” Later, my brother said he had spent 800,000 yuan to buy a new home. When I heard this, I wasn’t moved or envious—I felt calm. Even though I lost out on a big benefit, as a cultivator I knew I must hold myself to strict standards and I must not take what does not rightfully belong to me.

The national requirements for evaluating senior professional titles included, 1) holding an intermediate title for at least five years; 2) having a paper published in an advanced journal; and 3) passing a foreign language exam. As a teacher, the title of Associate Professor was considered a lifelong pursuit and honor. So after I was promoted to intermediate level, I began preparing and published two papers in provincial journals. After working for five years I met most of the requirements, except the foreign language exam.

When I returned to the school the principal said that since I traveled a long way he would treat me to dinner and also invited two senior supervisors. During the meal, the principal brought up the matter of my promotion to associate professor. He said that this year two associate professors were retiring, which opened two promotion slots. However, in recent years, the higher authorities required evidence of actual teaching hours. He said all my other qualifications were sufficient, but I would need to have teaching hours officially recorded for me.

But I hadn’t taught for two years. If the principal fabricated teaching hours for me, wouldn’t that be falsifying records?! It seemed the principal invited the two supervisors and brought this issue up to intentionally make it work for me. I thought, “I’m a Falun Dafa practitioner. I cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Wouldn’t this violate Truthfulness”? I felt uneasy. So I firmly said, “No need to make this up for me.” I explained to the leaders that Falun Dafa teaches people to live by Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and I couldn’t do things that don’t align with being truthful. I told them I would not compete for this position.

I later heard that the two assistant teachers beneath me were promoted to associate professors. I did feel some regret. After I retired I realized that the salary difference between senior and intermediate titles was about 2,000 yuan per month. But Master taught the principle of “...no loss, no gain...” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

At the company where I was employed, my salary was more than 2,000 yuan higher anyway. When the school later changed its policy to pay salaries based on attendance, my salary was stopped. I accepted it calmly.

One year, the city issued new social security cards. The school notified me to come back and get one. At the social security office, I learned that I had to return my old medical insurance card in order to get the new one. The new card combined medical insurance and a bank savings card into one. Since I never had the old card, I couldn’t apply for the new one.

One of my student’s relatives was a supervisor at the Social Security Bureau. My student took me to see him. After hearing my situation, he got angry and said, “How could the school not give you a medical insurance card? That’s a violation. Don’t worry about this. I’ll send a lawyer to audit your school’s accounts. Even if you don’t live here, you’re a formal staff member, and the finance bureau has been paying you. I’ll get it all checked at once and make them return everything.”

I was startled by his reaction. As a practitioner, I must tell the truth. I quickly said, “Thank you for your kindness, but it was me who didn’t apply for the old card—it wasn’t that the school refused. And since I haven’t been teaching these years, it’s reasonable that my salary was stopped.”

He asked why I didn’t apply for the card since money was deposited into it every month. I told him how I benefited both physically and mentally after I began practicing Falun Dafa. He nodded. My student added, “My teacher looks younger than us now.”

A New Position

I was hired by a foreign-owned company. I was an outsider to the industry, so I had to learn from scratch. Master opened my wisdom and within a few years I gradually had some professional knowledge, knew industry standards, and related laws and regulations. Step by step, I was promoted from a regular employee to department manager, and eventually to general manager.

I held myself to the standard of a cultivator and guided my work in the company by Dafa’s principles. This created a harmonious atmosphere, our performance improved steadily, and the company’s reputation grew. Whether it was inspections from various departments or supervisors from the regulatory authorities, over time they all became my friends.

After the CCP began persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999, I was targeted. My workplace was monitored, my whereabouts were tracked, and people often used the excuse of work related issues to search my files or check my computer. I knew their real purpose, but I still treated them kindly. I just wanted them to know how Dafa improved my health and mind, and how Falun Dafa teaches people to be kind and good.

I was illegally detained in a brainwashing center and a detention center. To avoid further harassment and arrest, I became homeless for over a year. My boss arranged for me to work at the Beijing branch for a while. He later told me, “You’d better go back. They can’t manage without you. People with faith are good people—they have high standards.”

Practicing Dafa completely transformed my health and character, and my family and friends also benefited. I will always follow Master’s teachings, be kind and caring towards everyone, and strive to be a better person!