(Minghui.org) I was born in 1986. I live in a society where atheism prevails, human morality has rapidly declined, and many pursue monetary or material benefits. Only after I began to practice Falun Dafa, was I able to tell right from wrong and righteousness from evil.
Dafa Transformed Me
Before I began to practice Falun Dafa, I was addicted to computer games for almost 20 years. Although playing games isn't part of my life anymore, I found that I still harbored some negative thoughts and bad behavior. During the past year, through consistent Fa-study and holding myself to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I have made positive changes in myself.
In the past, when looking at others, sometimes my mind would generate negative thoughts. Now whenever bad thoughts appear in my mind, I dispel them and remind myself that they are not my thoughts. If someone appears to be annoyed with me I still kindly look at them and smile, while having the best wishes for them in my mind. Negative thoughts have disappeared, replaced by thoughts that are positive, optimistic and altruistic.
Just as Master said in Zhuan Falun:
“Black matter and white matter can be changed into and replaced by one another. Getting into a dispute with another party is one thing that triggers this process. Doing good works will earn you white matter, virtue, while wrongful acts meanwhile will get you black matter, karma.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I came to understand that when karma is eliminated, it is replenished by virtue.
Gradually I realized that when my thoughts changed, the way I looked at things, my way of talking and my behavior had also changed. Before I obtained the Fa, my mom would force me to watch the Shen Yun Performing Arts show streamed from the NTDTV programs every Chinese New Year. Back then, I didn't like watching the show, as I didn't feel that I could understand it. However, this year I watched the Shen Yun show three times! I was totally immersed in it, truly stunned by the choreography of the show. I felt that anyone who sees the show must find that the music, dancing and costumes come straight from the heavens! For that, it moved me to tears.
I was no longer interested in things such as pop music and TV drama. I felt like my head was aching when exposed to them. Then I fell in love with Chinese and western classical music. Whenever I heard it, I had a sense of serenity and peacefulness.
Previously, I liked to wear casual clothes and sports attire, and I was someone who never cared about being tidy. I always left my dirty clothes everywhere, which caused a lot of headache for my mother and my wife.
Now I like to wear shirts, formal pants and nice shoes. My coworkers praise me by saying that I have good taste in clothing. One of my coworkers joked with me, “Your white sneakers look sparkling. It must be that your wife cleaned them up for you, right?” I told him that I now take responsibility for the care of my own clothes!
When I went to school, I liked to scribble things to save time and effort. I also thought highly of my handwriting style. Looking back I saw that my handwriting was not very neat. Later, I came across the animated film on exploring Chinese characters produced by our practitioners. I came to understand that words were passed down to us by gods. From then on, I began to write formal letters, and my handwriting looked much better than before.
When it came to controlling my speech, it was very hard for me. All my family members have loud voices so I formed a habit of speaking loudly to others. I also had an attachment to chatting with others, always taking pleasure in showing off what I knew. When I got going on a topic I couldn't pull myself out of it, but rather kept going on and on instead.
Later I used the {[Fa}} to measure myself and then began to look inward. I came to understand that lacking control over my emotions while talking was due to my attachments of show-off mentality, resentment, and pursuit of goals. After realizing this, I began to cultivate my speech based on what's laid out in Zhuan Falun. I have been paying attention to my speech at all times since then, always trying to have a nice peaceful demeanor.
Going Against the Tide, Taking Monetary Benefits Lightly
At the end of 2018, the conference room at my workplace was scheduled to go through some upgrades and reconstruction. I was assigned to be in charge of this project. It was also my first time taking on a project such as this. During the entire process, I was going back and forth about how to do things. For instance, when facing temptation of financial benefit, I wavered; when facing accomplishments, I thought highly of myself and my heart was moved; when facing pressure from the top, I thought about giving it all up. Only because I kept cautioning myself that I was a practitioner, was I finally able to pass the xinxing tests one after another.
With the kick-off of the project from the overall planning to the selection of equipment, I treated everything very seriously. In terms of equipment procurement, I did a lot of research. Even for a small part, I'd go as far as taking into consideration how to put it to use in the long term as well. I didn’t only work alongside the construction company throughout the entire process, but also took the initiative to do some overtime myself. The result was substantial financial savings and improved efficiency for reaching the project completion. Consequently, the management was very satisfied with my performance.
On one occasion my boss asked me to find a construction company. In order to do that, I had to face the temptation to satisfy one's self-interest directly. Prior to cultivation practice in Falun Dafa I always wanted to take advantage of being the middleman in a business transaction. Now I know that I should behave differently.
Therefore, I went to discuss the matter with my boss and told him: “As to the matter that involves money, I will not take anything that doesn't belong to me. There is a saying that goes, ‘A righteous man would not stand by a wall prone to collapse’. I hope there is a way to make things transparent, as opposed to having me hire someone I know.” After that, my boss decided to have only me responsible for the technical side of things and actual construction work. As to the funding, he changed his mind and decided to go through a bidding process instead.
When it came to the bidding process, another manager offered me a scheme that I could profit from. Meanwhile, he would still go and find another two companies but give them no chance to win the bid. I refused him right away. This was pure cheating and there was no way I would accept it.
Later when I got in touch with the construction contracting companies, both of them took their turns in bribing me by offering a percentage of the total amount for the purchased equipment back to me. I declined both of them. I kindly said to them, “Why don't you use that to save on the cost of equipment for us?”
It could be because my sincerity moved them, but they only ended up charging us for the lowest price they could offer. So that the price we got from them was very competitive or lower than the market price. Later on, I had the opportunity to make friends with the owners of these companies, and so they also got to know the truth of Falun Dafa through me.
Similar cases happened multiple times. For instance, I once received extra pay in my check. I brought this to the attention of my manager and he answered:“I understand you contribute the most, yet your pay does not reflect that. I did talk to the big boss about giving you a raise, but he never replied to me. So I just changed your tenure in your employment records, adding another five years behind the scenes, as a way to compensate you.”
I kindly declined him in a considerate way: “If the big boss were to see that my tenure doesn't match up with what's in my employee record, it would have impacted you. Please revert my record back to what it was before. I will also return the overpaid money to the company.”
He felt my kindness and smiled at me: “Don't worry I will go ahead and fix it, leave it to me.” Then he saw me off with a smile. From the way he looked at me, I could feel a sense of trust, and I knew that I had done the right thing!
Helping Family Know the Truth Through Touching People's Hearts
I live with three generations of family members. Since practicing Dafa, I came to understand that I lived in a complex family environment and would need torectify myself by using Dafa standards at all times. This complex environment has helped me eliminate many attachments, as well as allowing others to witness the upright nature of practitioners.
My 89-year-old grandma became ill and was visited by my aunts and uncles. They all knew the truth about Falun Dafa except for one of my aunts. Her husband was the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee in his village, therefore, he was deeply poisoned by the Party culture, which impacted his whole family. All of them were against Dafa.
When this aunt came to visit my grandma, she saw my wife and I taking good care of her. She also heard my grandma say that she felt so fortunate for having my wife and me to help her, and she was touched.
Master said in Zhuan Falun:
“Of course, we go about our practice in the secular world, and so we should still be devoted and respectful to our parents and care well for our children; we should be good to others, not to mention our own families, in whatever setting we may be, and treat everyone with kindness. We should treat everyone equally well, parents and children included, of course, and think of others first at all times. Your heart will not be selfish, then, but will be loving, kind, and compassionate.” (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
When my aunt saw us being so kind to my grandma and grandpa, she recalled how her daughter-in-law swore at her and fought over money. So I took this opportunity to share with her Master's Fa principles. I told her: “If your daughter-in-law were to practice Dafa, she wouldn't have treated you this way. Before I practiced, I had big conflicts with my dad over money and the ownership of the house as well. I made him so upset and I also cried many times and wanted to run away. After I began to practice Dafa, all our conflicts were resolved. I just handed in all my savings for him to manage for me.”
After she heard about that, she felt envious of the harmony in our family. Later she got to watch the truth-clarification video and listened to me read my sharing article submitted to the Minghui website, which made her cry. I understood that it was the universal characteristics of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that touched her true nature and understanding of Dafa. She decided to take several truth-clarification materials from me before she went home.
A similar situation occurred last week. I always went to the same hairdresser to take care of my hair. The owner was very nice and every time I saw her, I'd talk about a traditional story with a theme of good and evil and retribution based on what she could accept. After my hairdresser had some interactions with my family and myself, she came to feel that Falun Dafa practitioners demonstrated kindness, honesty and tolerance.
After observing that our four generations lived together in peace, and that in addition, all of us were very healthy and the seniors lived long lives, she acknowledged Dafa completely. She went from shutting down to the truth, to sincerely quitting the CCP with her daughter.
My hairdresser’s husband ran into a conflict with her parents over financial issues very recently. As a result, they were going to divorce. I knew that this lady had encountered a lot of difficulties in life. I could feel that she had no room to endure anymore. I knew that only Dafa could help this woman’s confusion and change her life. I gave her Master's Guangzhou lecture recordings and told her not to carry any notions when listening to it.
Several days later, I made a trip to the shop to check on how my hairdresser was doing. As soon as I walked into the shop, I saw she was smiling at me. I asked: “Did you get a chance to listen to the lectures? She told me that she didn't get what Master was saying at the very beginning, but as she continued to listen, and her understanding improved. Many of her problems in life were addressed in Master's lectures. The woman felt that she could use Master's Fa to judge what she should do in a conflict from now on. Finally, she revealed the good news of reconciling with her husband.
It was Master who changed this woman’s life. That day we had a great chat. I suggested she listen to the recordings whenever possible. I told her that all problems in life could be resolved by following Dafa principles.
On World Falun Dafa Day, I would like to take this opportunity to wish that more people can come to understand the beauty of Dafa!
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