(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa four years ago. I had a very limited understanding of the practice then. I asked a veteran practitioner in her 80s who had begun practicing before the persecution: “You went through so much tribulation but never gave up Falun Dafa. What do you really get out of it?” She replied: “The benefits of practicing Falun Dafa are beyond counting!” I now have a deeper understanding of what she means.
My Relationship with My Mother Improved
The first and most noticeable benefit was the improvement in my relationship with my mother. I resented my mother for as long as I can remember. I blamed her for anything and everything. When I grew up, I still scolded her as if she were a child and complained that she could not do anything right. Deep down, I knew I should not behave the way I did, but I could not control myself.
I invited my mother to live with me in Canada at the end of 2015. She had degenerative arthritis in her knee and could hardly walk. I wanted to take care of her no matter how much it cost, but when she arrived, I had a hard time adjusting. I wouldn't let her touch anything in my home for fear she would break it. I did not trust her with anything.
My husband reminded me that I was supposed to be respectful of my mother and not treat her like an outsider. She should be able to do whatever she wanted. I knew I was wrong and constantly encouraged myself to change, change, and change. If I did not respect her during the day, I regretted it so much at night that I could not sleep. For the first three months after my mother came, I had trouble sleeping. I wanted to change, but how?
After I began reading Zhuan Falun, our relationship did change. I began to love, forgive, and care for her from the bottom of my heart. I spoke to her kindly. I often helped her wash her hair and cut her toenails. I patiently taught her how to use our appliances. All the resentments disappeared, and I just wanted to compensate her with love. We studied the Fa teachings and did the exercises together every day. In less than two months, her arthritis and other ailments were all gone!
I was amazed that Falun Dafa was so powerful that it could resolve a relationship problem that had bothered me for many years almost overnight!
With more Fa-study, I learned that the conflicts between people are caused by past wrongdoings that cause grievances, and that most people struggle with them all their lives. I believed that when I made up my mind to cultivate, compassionate Master removed the karma for us. And our relationship naturally improved.
Addiction to the Stock-market Disappears
My husband was hopelessly addicted to playing the stock market for over 12 years. He went to work every day and then checked the stock market after he got home until midnight. Even when we were on vacation, he would always take his computer to keep track of the market. I told him not to torment himself like that, that it was not worth the effort. He told me, “The stock market to me is like drugs. I am hopelessly addicted to it. It is not possible for me to give it up.”
When the stock market crashed in 2015, he lost hundreds of thousands and became terribly depressed. I tried to persuade him not to go back to it. He replied, “How can I recover my losses if I do not go back to playing the market?” I had no choice but to let him be. After I had been practicing Falun Dafa for six months, he suddenly told me that he had pulled all the cash out of the stock market and invested it in real estate. He’s never touched the stock market since! How amazing!
Master taught us: “Haven’t I said that with one person practicing, the whole family benefits?” (Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia)
When a cultivator abides by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and elevates her xinxing, her karma will be eliminated and the surrounding environment will also change for the better. My husband naturally benefited from my cultivation. His physical health as well as his mental state improved.
My husband cannot stop telling people about our amazing experience in buying our new house. We contracted to purchase a new house and the deadline to make the down-payment was January 10. But we had to sell our old house to have enough to make the payment. After three months, no one was interested in buying it, and we were having a hard time getting a loan. The realtor told us that, if our daughter falsified a financial statement for us, it would be easy to get the loan. My daughter and I both practice Falun Dafa, and we could not do something that was dishonest.
My husband was worried. If we couldn’t get the loan, we wouldn’t be able to buy the house which he had been dreaming about for three years. I told him to take it easy and just follow the course of nature. If it was ours, we did not need to fight for it. At the last moment, someone made us an offer on our house and the closing went without a hitch. We secured the funds the day before we had to pay for the new one!
A Challenging But Rewarding Job
My job is taking care of two children under the age of 5. I am responsible for arranging their daily activities and also for teaching them Chinese. They are two years apart, a boy and a girl. It can be quite challenging at times, as their attention spans, interests, and needs change from minute to minute. If I don’t plan carefully, it can be chaos, with crying and shouting.
It was particularly hard to teach them Chinese. My cultivation granted me more patience and wisdom. And over the years, I’ve done really well.
Now we enjoy every day together, and their Chinese has really improved. The boy went to a preschool that has a class in Chinese. He was the only Caucasian, but he caught up with the Chinese students in both reading and writing, and his mother was very proud of him.
I feel that this was possible because I practice Dafa and abide by its principles. I evaluated everything I did with the Fa-teachings and was considerate and kind. I also realized that these two children had come for the Fa, and I needed to lay a good foundation for them to obtain Dafa someday. When my heart is in the right place, the results are amazing.
The benefits of cultivating Dafa can be seen in every aspect of our lives, but that does not mean we will not have any difficulties, because human beings have karma.
Master taught us:
“When one begins to cultivate in a righteous way, one must eliminate one’s karma. Eliminating karma means having karma wiped out and transformed. Of course, karma will resist, and so one will have tribulations and obstacles.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
When we understand the Fa teachings, we know how to handle tribulations when we encounter them. Master and the Fa are the beacons of light in my life and cultivation! As long as we can abide by the principles, many of the problems we encounter can be easily resolved, because studying the Fa and doing exercises continually inspire and remind us.
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