(Minghui.org) I am a young Falun Dafa practitioner from Shandong Province and have been practicing cultivation for seven years. Looking back, the most impressive thing that happened was at a family gathering at the end of last year. After dinner, the wife of one of my friends told my wife excitedly, “I often tell all the girls in my office that in today's society, a good person like Liang [referring to me] is very rare.” What she meant was that I didn't drink or smoke, had a stable job and did all the housework. In addition, I had a good temper and thought of others first.
However, I wasn't like this seven years ago. At that time, I experienced trouble with both family and work.
I worked in a government department with a good salary and benefits. However, I developed many bad habits, even after I got married and had a child. I often went out drinking with my friends 'till very late and sometimes didn't even go back home. My wife had to look for me and several times she ended up calling my parents in the middle of the night, forcing them to take a bus from their village to apologize for my behavior.
At that time, besides entertaining myself, all I thought about was how to make a good impression with my superior so that I could get promoted and make more money. However, after spending a lot of money, I realized I'd gotten nothing in the end. My health was ruined due to excessive drinking. Sometimes I drank so much wine that I vomited blood the next morning.
I realized that no matter how hard I worked, I couldn't have a “happy and beautiful” life. Without this realization, maybe I wouldn't have been interested in starting a new life. In 2005, I picked up the book Zhuan Falun and started to read it seriously.
It taught me how to be a good person and cultivate myself according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I remembered that in the first year of my cultivation practice, my parents-in-law and mother-in-law's mother were staying in an apartment building. Going up and down stairs was very inconvenient for elderly people, so I told my wife that they could move to our apartment, where it would be easier for them to go out. My wife and in-laws were very happy.
However, as time went by, many conflicts came up. One morning, while I was reading Zhuan Falun, my baby started to cry and my mother-in-law heard it. Simply because I didn't go to check on my baby immediately, she became angry and blamed me for not caring about the baby at all. She even tried to grab my book to tear it apart. She then threw away Master's picture hanging on the wall. Since, at that time, I just started to study the Fa, I couldn't help but get angry, especially when I saw her throwing out Master's picture. I couldn't get over this for a long time and thought that I was being resented by those whom I was trying to help.
Later I read and enlightened to the following principle from Zhuan Falun, Lecture Nine:
“What is a "heart of great forbearance?" As a practitioner, the first thing you should be able to do is to not fight back when you are beaten or sworn at—you must be tolerant. Otherwise, what kind of practitioner will you be?”
Then another conflict occurred with my mother-in-law, and although I didn't handle it well either, I found out that my xinxing was improving. Initially, I was forbearing with tears, but gradually started to look inside myself whenever I encountered conflicts, and they were quickly resolved.
My wife is a typical working woman, and she has had a bad temper. During the beginning stages of my practice she would argue loudly in public over little things. I remember one day when we were doing remodeling in our apartment, my wife heard that I broke a plumbing part and immediately became angry and insulted me. We were eating lunch and she turned the dinner table over. Everyone was shocked.
However, at that moment, I was not angry at all. I remembered what Master said in Zhuan Falun, Lecture Four:
“Therefore, from now on when you come across a conflict you should not consider it a coincidence. This is because when a conflict occurs, it will take place unexpectedly. But that is not a coincidence—it is for improving your xinxing. As long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly.”
At home, I tried my best to do everything according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Gradually, there were no more conflicts. My mother-in-law smiled sincerely and always respected me. And my wife treated my parents even better than her own. It was now rare for her to lose her temper and start screaming. A relative said, “You family is perfect, how did you do that? You have not always been an easy person to deal with.”
My job is related to construction. Every time I was about to complete a project, many people sent me gifts [giving gifts, or bribes, is a common way to do business in China today]. Before practicing Dafa, I might have initially declined the gifts, but would definitely accept them in the end. However, after I started practice cultivation, I knew about the relationship between loss and gain. I tried my best to reject any gifts or donate them to the families of practitioners who were suffering persecution.
At work, I try to follow all the rules and explain to people clearly why I cannot accept gifts. A superior then praised me in public because she often heard the contractors say that I never accept gifts.
During the last Moon Festival, one contractor gave me a few bottles of expensive wine to express his company's appreciation. But they knew that I didn't accept gifts, so their CEO personally called me and hoped I would accept the wine. They even sent a project manager to deliver the gift to my company. But I insisted on not accepting it, no matter what they did. At last, I had to go with the project manager to see their CEO and return the gift. The project manager admired me very much because I was different from other government officials.
Two years ago, right before the New Year, a construction company brought a truckload of fish as a gift to all the officials in my department. Everyone, except me, accepted the fish. They called me out to their car and insisted on delivering the fish to my home. It was hard for them to believe that there are people like me who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and really hold themselves to a high moral standard.
Since I started to practice cultivation in Dafa, my health has also improved. But I feel the progress I've made is still far behind what Dafa requires. I believe I will become better and better. I want to share my experience and tell people why my life has become so harmonious.
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