(Clearwisdom.net) I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for more than ten years. This is the third time that I have written an article for an online experience sharing conference. During the past year, the attachments to fame and profit, as well as jealousy, interfered with me from time to time. I cannot say that I am completely fine now, but I know that the annual experience sharing conference is a great opportunity for me to improve, so I cannot miss it. I feel that whether I cultivate well or not, I must participate in the conference, which is the path of cultivation that we must take.
Get Rid of the Attachments to Fame and Profit at Work
I got my Master's degree in engineering from a famous university. I am in my 30s and work in the technical department of a large foreign company. The former manager was much older than I and famous in the field. At the end of 2009, he quit. As the most senior employee, I did not get a promotion. The new manager is my age but not as experienced as me. At first I did not care about it since I was never interested in being a manager and I like to do the technical work. The new manager also respected me, so it worked out fine.
However, in April 2010 when the annual promotions and salary increases went into effect, I only got a 200-yuan increase to my 5,000-yuan monthly salary before taxes, and I was not promoted. I thought it was very unfair since the former manager promised to increase my salary before he left. And without a promotion, my salary will not change much since every rank has a salary cap. The most important thing was that there would not be much of a future for my career. With no promotion, it meant that I was not productive, or my work was not recognized by my supervisors. Also, with a Master's degree, many people already thought that I was overqualified (many people in the company get more than 10,000 yuan a month) for my salary, and I was even more ashamed to have not been promoted.
Facing the sudden test, I could not stand it. I started to have conflicts with my colleagues and felt that the manager did not value my advice. The attachments to fame and profit, as well as jealousy, suddenly appeared. I started to send out resumes, hoping to find a better job. I soon got interview opportunities. One private company was quite good, but the working environment was not very good. I tried to work there for a couple of days, but it was not satisfactory, so I did not change jobs. Then another small, foreign company liked me and agreed to my requests. We were both satisfied with each other. While chatting with the boss, I felt that she did not know much about the truth of Falun Gong because she belonged to the elite class. I tried to clarify the facts to her. I told her about the movement to quit the CCP and the truth about Falun Dafa. Since my whole family practiced Falun Dafa and my mother and brother had been persecuted, I briefly told her about my own experience. I thought that I would have more opportunities to explain the truth to her later. At that time she was shocked, but she did not show any dislike, instead, she supported us at the level of human rights. But the situation changed in the next couple of days, and she decided not to hire me after all. The excuse she gave did not make any sense. I realized that I probably did not clarify the truth thoroughly or maybe she was afraid that I would bring trouble to the company. At any rate, I felt that I did not handle this well and was frustrated.
This was one of the major tests that I encountered in these years, and it was also a very difficult moment. My relationships with my colleagues were already pretty bad, and I was not interested in the job anymore. What should I do? Fortunately I had cultivated for many years, and I understood that these tests, which looked difficult,, would not be a problem as long as as I could catch up in my xinxing. Through studying the Fa and cultivating my heart, I quickly adjusted my mentality, and there were no more bad consequences.
I realized that, as one of the few Dafa practitioner in my workplace, I actually carried a heavy duty. No matter where I work, I should not let my own profits affect the saving of sentient beings. At the same time, I realized that the problems that I encountered during work were also caused by the fact that I did not let go of the attachments to fame and profit, nor did I do well at work. I lost motivation because the supervisors did not recognize my work, so I appeared lazy, which caused a loophole for the evil.
Master said:
“Dafa disciples go about their lives alongside ordinary people as part of the illusory ordinary society, and are really susceptible to drifting along with the tide in their way of thinking, at least in some regards. If you can’t manage to conduct yourselves according to Dafa when you do things, can’t manage to think things over with righteous thoughts, or are not on the Fa in dealing with problems, then you are an ordinary person. There isn’t any difference, then. Your appearance is ordinary, the setting in which you lead your life is ordinary, and your job is ordinary. Even if you are involved in Dafa disciples’ projects, in the heavens above there are no such things as television stations, nor do gods have newspapers. Those are forms in ordinary human society. If you don’t use righteous thoughts to guide yourself, and if you cannot manage to conduct yourself and look at the world and others according to the standard of a cultivator, like a Dafa disciple does, then you are the same as an ordinary person.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
I realized that, although I did the three things during the past year, I always felt something was missing. Actually, I just worked like an ordinary person, and there were no mighty virtue.
From now on, I will work hard to relinquish the attachments to fame, profit, and jealousy. I will follow the course of nature and be a qualified practitioner.
Clarify the Truth Using Multiple Approaches
Since I work, I don't have much free time. So I used every opportunity to clarify the truth. I tried to write truth-clarification letters, pass out flyers, and post sticky notes with Falun Dafa information. Now I mostly use emails to clarify the truth, make telephone calls, and clarify the truth face to face.
I used my company's internal email system to send truth-clarification materials to my colleagues, trying to change the environment and save these precious lives little by little. In the past I gave Shen Yun DVDs to my colleagues, but I found out later that most of people put them aside and did not pay attention to them. Many people did not watch the DVDs after taking them, and some of them lost the DVDs. It wasted our resources and let these ignorant people create karma. So nowadays I always lend the DVDs to my colleagues. I ask them to give the DVDs back to me later, so that they know that Dafa materials are precious.
When I first started to send out truth-clarification emails and make calls, I encountered lots of interference. I remember that the first time I made a call, my fingers felt so cold that I could barely punch in the numbers on my cellphone. I thought that I had little fear, but I was very nervous. Although I cannot see what happened in other dimensions, I could feel that evil was creating trouble for me in other dimensions. I made a breakthrough with my righteous thoughts. It was quite easy later. While sending out emails and voice messages, I also cultivated myself, and my cultivation status was directly reflected in the results.
I feel that clarifying the truth face to face is the most important and the most effective method. Other approaches are also important, but they cannot replace clarifying the truth face to face. Especially in the big city where I live, ordinary people are all busy and many belong to the elite class and do not care about things not related to them personally. They even do not read or listen to truth-clarification materials. Plus, because of the evil CCP political movements in the past several decades, these people close themselves off so that they will not be involved in anything that could harm them. For these people, only clarifying the truth face to face can solve their problems. Master also mentioned in lectures that those practitioners who regularly distribute flyers were the most precious. I realized that, since explaining the facts face to face always reflects one's true cultivation status, it is the most difficult to continue.
Besides clarifying the facts to my friends, relatives, and colleagues, I also took advantage of other opportunities. For example, I explained the facts about Falun Gong while taking a taxi. With lots of Fa study, reading the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and Disintegrate the CCP Culture, and watching the videos, my mind was purified, and I learned many facts, which was also very helpful for truth-clarification. Practitioners' freeing them from the communist culture is the only hope for ordinary people. It is difficult to save people without cultivating ourselves well. Looking back, I realized that ordinary people are very pitiable. They are poisoned by all kinds of evil lies, which have created all kinds of evil thoughts in their minds. When we clarify the truth to people face to face, just like Master said: “Sharp swords shoot forth from their mouths” (“Hurry Up And Tell Them” from Hong Yin Volume II)
Fact to face explanations are the most direct and effective.
Improving Xinxing at Home
My wife is a new practitioner who started cultivation after we got married. Before, she was a simple person with a bad temper, and sometimes acted quite strangely. From knowing her, getting along with her, and being married, it was always a big test to my xinxing. It's been quite difficult for me, since I also had a bad temper. I have read lots of articles on Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom) regarding marriage, especial about practitioners marrying non-practitioners. I have a lot to share. I think if a practitioner gets married, the practitioner must make sure that he/she can always guide themselves with the Fa, otherwise it will be easy for them to make mistakes and fall down. In daily life, the practitioner will appear not diligent and even behave like a non-practitioner, or the couple might separate, which would be a bad influence in the society and defame Dafa.
I encountered a test at home right after our child was born. At that time my wife had not started to cultivate yet, My mother-in-law came from Heilongjiang Province to take care of her. My mother-in-law used to practice Falun Dafa before it was banned in 1999, However, because of her fear, the poison of the CCP, and some of her extreme behavior, she gave up the practice. My mother-in-law was the oldest child in her home. When her mother was ill, my mother-in-law did not allow her to go to a hospital, and her mother got worse. So her whole family blamed Dafa for this. After the the practice was declared “illegal,' my mother-in-law became a Buddhist and had lots misunderstandings about Dafa. My wife also had a problem with my mother, who is also a practitioner. Once my mother cooked some ribs that she had not bought. After the ribs were cooked, since my father did not cook in his home, my mother asked with me if she could take home some cooked ribs with a box. It was not a big deal, so I did not tell my wife and mother-in-law. However, for some reason they saw this and thought that my mother was stealing from us, which caused some misunderstandings. My mother and I did not know about this until later. Because my mother and I were not righteous at that time, and also because the evil always looked for loopholes to interfere, it caused non-practitioners to have bad thoughts about Dafa.
Master said:
“I know that with your many projects and with what you are doing to save people, some of you have done extraordinarily well, and overall you have done very well and had a big impact. I recognize that you have done what you’re supposed to in helping Master rectify the Fa. I just hope that you will manage to do even better. Our path is narrow. If you go off course ever so slightly, there will be problems. I don’t want to see you experiencing problems, nor do I want anyone to be sliding downward in their cultivation. Even less do I want to see you slack off in your cultivation because circumstances are changing for the better. All of this was brought about by you, and there are still many things that lie ahead—and that will be the case all the way until the day you reach Consummation. You have already passed through the hardest part. What is left won’t be so trying. You just need to do even better with it. The more hopeless things may seem, it’s possible hope will appear right before your eyes. Especially during those times when you are feeling so bored, perhaps you are in fact establishing your mighty virtue. I hope that you can really manage to cooperate well, have strong enough righteous thoughts, look within when you run into things, and be enthusiastic like you were when you first took up cultivation. Don’t be like ordinary people, whose fleeting enthusiasm fades after a few minutes and then disappears altogether.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
Thus we have to be righteous on our path, with no deviation at all.
Sometimes my wife got into conflicts with me over trivial things. To ordinary people, most of them were trivial. At first I also regarded them as ordinary conflicts and did not regard myself as a practitioner. I did not realize that these were tests for me to improve myself; instead, I regarded them as interference and thought that my wife was making trouble for no reason. Then I suddenly realized that I should look inside. It had to be my problem, or maybe it was because I always regarded these conflicts as interference, causing more trouble. After I realized this, my xinxing improved and these conflicts disappeared immediately.
Our son was born in 2005. He was premature, low in weight, and did not have a good digestive system. Because our cultivation status was not very good, before he was three years old, we always took him to the hospital when he was sick. He got injections and was given medicine many times. Looking back now, I feel that we made him suffer too much. Especially once he got a severe cold before he was three years old that later turned into pneumonia, with ENT infections. He was hospitalized with an IV for more than ten days, but still did not completely recover. Then we took him to see Chinese medical doctors, which was also useless. Then I realized that we could not use ordinary people's approaches to solve the problems of little disciples anymore. Once my notions were gone, the situation changed immediately. My son quickly recovered. Besides some minor colds and diarrhea, he has not had much sickness karma recently.
My wife started cultivation in 2007. We study the Fa together, distribute flyers, and post truth-clarification stickers together, and we cultivate diligently together. Now my son has already started elementary school. I did not do well enough in leading him to cultivate. He has not started to study the Fa and do the exercises by himself. He has only memorized some poems in Hong Yin. I will lead him in the future so that he can also achieve consummation in cultivation and return to his home in heaven with Master.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
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