(Clearwisdom.net) Over the last year, I have gained a lot of cultivation experience. I have deeply felt that, while on the path of cultivation, I cannot slack off. In every step I take, I need to strictly do the three things Teacher requires of us, assimilating to the Fa as I validate Dafa. Only then can I fulfill a Dafa practitioner's sacred vow in the Fa-rectification period.
Validating Dafa While Looking for a Job
I wrote and edited articles for a magazine last year. I wrote a lot of articles exposing the vicious Communist Party's evil acts and talking about Dafa. Because of the large quantity of articles and the clear position in the articles, my boss was very anxious. My boss has repeatedly publicly praised my work ethic and productivity in employee meetings. However, he was still afraid that my "extreme actions" could affect the magazine's survival. Because of this, my boss talked to me two or three times. I didn't pay any heed to the fact that my actions were too much for him, and I still continued in my ways. After the Chinese New Year, he suddenly fired me. I felt it was unfair because I indeed enhanced the magazine's reputation, quality of articles, and circulation rate. However, I quickly realized that this incident was related to my cultivation. Because I was in a hurry to save sentient beings, I didn't understand very well the Fa principle of harmonizing everything. Moreover, I did not pay attention to eliminating the evil's control from other dimensions over the magazine. During that period of time, I felt that I received only about one tenth of the value I created. My attachment to money had been enlarged. On the surface, I wanted to have more income as a Dafa practitioner because it was beneficial for validating the Fa. In fact, my attachment to money was mixed in and hidden within this wish.
Losing that job caused financial difficulty in my life. My family complained and put pressure on me because of the lack of income. In fact, the more serious issue was that I lost a good environment to validate the Fa, causing losses. Then I began to calmly look inside for the cause.
A previous boss (who also knew a lot about Dafa) heard that I left that magazine. He quickly asked me to come and work for him. At the same time, he promised me a salary increase and to place me in an important position. I knew that this offer appeared because many practitioners have helped people learn the truth during Fa-rectification, so management in many companies are willing to hire practitioners. I didn't accept the offer right away because I wanted the opportunity to meet and save more people. So I went to some companies, including government facilities, to seek job opportunities.
When I applied for a job, I tried to create opportunities to show them the report I had written to request my old job back (the one I was fired from). I used this method to let them know the facts about Dafa and prepare them for further truth-clarification. Sometimes, they shared the report with others. Once, a vice-president told me that he had seen the material. It had been shared with him by the president. He said that the article was written in a clear manner, with strong points but soft tone.
I clarified the truth through all kinds of methods. Many companies' management and employees got to know the truth about Dafa. Several months later, I finally responded to the offer and went to work for the company that I used to work for. It was where my destiny led me. I kept in mind Teacher's words, "Gods walk the earth, validating the Fa." ("What's to Fear?" in Hong Ying II) I incorporated Dafa truth-clarification into my work. More new employees learned the truth and withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party and affiliated organizations. Some of them even began to learn Dafa and read Zhuan Falun. The company president said that he might practice Falun Gong in the future.
Soon after that, because my work was recognized by the president and fellow employees, I was voted to be the secretariat of the industry association. I was in charge of coordinating various events in the industry. I was also responsible for editing several internal publications. Both my work environment and time became advantageous to validating the Fa.
My boss also asked me to recommend Dafa practitioners to fill some very important positions. He gave good salaries to those that I recommended.
I understood that these changes occurred because I had corrected my state of mind, words, and behavior in the Fa. At the same time, I came to further understand Teacher's words,
"An everyday person cannot detect the existence of this characteristic, Zhen-Shan-Ren, in the universe, because everyday people are all on the same level. When you rise above the level of everyday people, you will be able to detect it. How do you detect it? All matter in the universe, including all substances that permeate the universe, are living beings with thinking minds, and all of them are forms of existence of the universe’s Fa at different levels. They do not let you ascend. Though you want to ascend, you cannot. They just do not let you move up. Why don’t they let you move up? It is because your xinxing has not improved. There are different criteria for every level. If you want to reach a higher level, you must abandon your ill thoughts and clean out your filthy things in order to assimilate to the requirements of the standard at that level. Only by doing so can you ascend." ("Lecture One" in Zhuan Falun)
I saw that only when I assimilated to "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance," the characteristic of the universe, did everything go smoothly. Because I had increased my level, the external environment had accordingly improved.
Incorporating Truth-clarification Into My Request to Resume My Old Job
It was not long after the evil's persecution began that I was fired. I understood from the Fa that I must defy all of the evil's arrangements, including financial persecution against practitioners. Therefore, in the two years after I was fired, I worked at a temporary job while requesting to resume my old job. In the meantime, I clarified the truth to a wide range of people. After this year's Chinese New Year, I was laid off from the temporary job. I decided to use the time to study the Fa thoroughly, and then go back to my former employer and request my old job back.
Earlier, I had written a report requesting my previous job back. It was eight thousand words in length. I tried to meld the compassion of Dafa into the text. I sent forth righteous thoughts to have this report eliminate the evil and all elements of the Communist evil specter within the readers, giving people a chance to know the truth, to awaken, and to be saved. Once this report was written, I wasn't in a hurry to present it. In two months' time, I had asked fellow practitioners' opinions and modified it more than twenty times. In fact, many of my bad notions, my Communist Party's way of thinking, and previously unrecognized attachments were eliminated in the revision process. Once the report was completed, a lot of people including my family, friends, colleagues, and former classmates clearly saw the evil's cruelty and learned the truth about Dafa. Some of the mid-level managers in my former company read and shared the report. Some said to me, "When you came in before and requested to have your job back, I didn't have time to talk about it with you in detail. I read the material this time and learned more. I saw some stories (about how the evil Communist Party persecutes Dafa) on the Internet. They are indeed real."
I have requested my old job back (at my former company and related departments) over twenty times. Recently, I used an opportunity at the association to make the request again. Some practitioners didn't approve of my doing so repeatedly. However, I think that requesting my job back and clarifying the truth go hand in hand. The significance of it is that I saved sentient beings while defying the evil's financial persecution. I feel that cultivation doesn't have role models. When someone says that something is not working, it may not be the case. If I've understood the Fa principle, I will do things accordingly without relying on anybody and while having my own independent thoughts. Just like that, every once a while and whenever the opportunity came up, I would go and request my old job back. I gained new understandings in the process of truth-clarification each time.
As long as we cultivate ourselves well, we will be able to steadfastly do anything. I remember that in an experience-sharing meeting, one practitioner talked about his experience of distributing hundreds of fliers and materials every day over the past few years. He realized that when he steadfastly studied the Fa, did the exercises, sent forth righteous thoughts every day, and did things in accordance with Teacher's requirements, he would foster the heart of compassion. Holding that pure heart for saving people, his trips to distribute fliers went very smoothly. He was able to avoid the occasional interference with ease. It seems that cultivating oneself well is the basis for validating the Fa and clarifying the truth.
Looking back at my cultivation path, I've had a lot of experiences and gained understandings. I deeply feel the seriousness of cultivation. In my daily life and work, I often encounter various forms of interference and tests. Sometimes, when I have neglected them, the attachments were enlarged, and demons would use them against me. Sometimes, when my complacency emerged, I wasn't calm, and trouble followed. In the final leg of Fa-rectification cultivation, with Teacher's empowerment, I must always keep up my righteous thoughts and completely defy the old force's arrangements, cultivate myself well, validate Dafa, and let the Buddha light of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" shine from myself. Let the Buddha light of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" illuminate all predestined beings.