(Minghui.org) I work as a part-time housekeeper. From eight to eleven every morning, I cleaned the house for a businessman’s family. In the wife’s own words, she liked to have everything perfect. If anything was a little unsatisfactory, she would be uncomfortable.
When I first started, I didn’t focus on cultivating my mind or improving my character. I just wanted to do a good job and thought I did my best. However, I could not always satisfy the wife’s requirements.
One time, I noticed a shelf was moved to the middle of the bathroom. I didn’t know what was going on. I ignored it and started doing other chores. The wife asked me to come over and started criticizing me. She pointed here and there, saying that I didn’t do my job well. I felt sad. I’m over 50 years old and had never been criticized this way.
Another time when I washed the floor, I felt that I cleaned it very thoroughly. I even wiped the corners, but I missed one spot. I thought it was not a big deal. To my surprise, the wife criticized me the next day and said that I didn’t do a thorough job. Similar incidents happened several times. At that time, I didn’t realize that this was helping me to stop doing a superficial job. I began to resent her and felt that she was difficult. From then on, I was very cautious and avoided being criticized by her.
Their house was about 2,700 square feet and had high-grade marble floors. I had to add a special detergent when I mopped the floor, or the marble would look cloudy. The wife told me to squat down and wipe the floor with a rag. I squatted and wiped a few times. The more I wiped it, the angrier I became. The more I wiped, the more tired I felt. It was humiliating to work like this! I told her that I wanted to resign. She retorted, “Do you talk like this to your daughter-in-law?” I was shocked because I resented my daughter-in-law.
After I resigned, I had more time to read the Fa. The more I read the Fa, the more I felt I had done something wrong. I did not look inward and examine myself. After calming down, I recalled all the conflicts I had with the wife, and I saw many of my attachments: doing a superficial job, being unable to take criticism, resentment, jealousy, fear, etc. After realizing I had these attachments, I sent righteous thoughts to eliminate them.
Didn’t I tarnish Dafa’s image? I decided to call the wife and apologize. Because I changed my mind and got rid of those attachments, I felt that the wife sounded happy on the phone. She said no worries and asked me to keep in touch with her.
I stayed home for forty days but didn’t find another job. So I called the wife. She called me back the next day and asked me to work for her again. I told myself that this time I had to live up to the standard of the Fa.
Master said,
“... come to work early and go home late. They do diligent and conscientious work, they’re never picky no matter what work their supervisors assign them, and they’ve also stopped fighting to benefit themselves. ” The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
When the wife accidently gave me extra money, I returned it. When she sometimes criticized me for something I didn’t do, I no longer complained. She accused me less frequently and no longer asked me to squat down and wipe the floor with a rag. I still did the same work, but now it felt easy and I was no longer tired. When I changed my perspective, my surroundings changed.
Master said,
"Cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Master Protects Me
One morning last year, I rode a three-wheeled motorcycle with a full load of Falun Dafa brochures and calendars and headed to the countryside to distribute them. I was about to go straight through an intersection. Suddenly a truck turned right in front of me. I hurried over to the right side of the intersection along with the truck. This sudden turn made my motorcycle hit the curb and throw me about three or four meters away. After I was thrown off, the truck passed by. Otherwise, it would have hit me. Thank you, Master, for saving my life! It was a miracle.
I sat on the ground. I noticed my motorcycle was standing upright. My mind was blank. No one else was on the road. After a while, I realized that Master helped me and placed the motorcycle upright. I quickly got up and saw that the engine was still running. The fender was bent but there was no other damage! Master protected me because I was trying to save sentient beings.
Just as the pandemic exploded from Wuhan, due to a loophole in my character, I had severe pain in my legs. The pain stopped after a while, but my legs still felt heavy. The community was still under lockdown at the time. I wanted to distribute truth-clarification materials, so I took some brochures and went out. As soon as I walked out of the building, I felt something fall off from my legs, and I felt so relieved that I no longer felt pain at all.
My experience is that as long as we have the sincere wish to save people and make the effort, Master will help us. I’ve encountered some life-threatening situations, and if it wasn’t for Master’s protection, I may not be here, let alone saving sentient beings.
Memorizing the Teachings Helps Me Look Inward
I study the Fa by memorizing the Fa. At first, I memorized for the sake of memorizing. After reading articles about fellow practitioners’ memorizing the Fa, I was inspired and began to memorize and recite it repeatly. Every time I recited the Fa, my understanding deepened. The inner meanings of the words were revealed to me, and I identitified many of my attachments. When I notice other practitioners’ attachments, I look inward to see if I also have that attachment. I soon realized that each attachment is linked to others.
Reciting the Fa has strengthened my main consciousness. My righteous thoughts have become stronger and stronger, and I can follow the Fa. For example, when I was practicing the second exercise, holding the wheel, my mind unconsciously began thinking about this or that. I suddenly remembered what Master said,
“When you practice you should take virtue seriously. So while you’re doing the exercises, if you don’t have good thoughts, at least you shouldn’t have bad thoughts, and the best is to have no thoughts at all. The reason is, you need to build a foundation while you’re practicing at low levels, yet that foundation serves a critical function, and that’s because your thought process has some effect.” (The Fifth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
When I remembered what Master taught, those other thoughts vanished. They were not mine after all.
When sending righteous thoughts, sometimes I recited the Fa. Sometimes other thoughts come out, then Master’s teaching reflected in my mind:
“The "master soul" we talk about here refers to a human being’s own mind, you need to know what you’re thinking about and what you’re doing, and that is your real self. ” (The Eighth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Reading this helped me to remember the essentials of sending righteous thoughts, and my mind focused on the word mie (eliminate), so all other thoughts were gone. Whatever I encounter, I can recollect the corresponding Fa. This way, I am cultivating within the Fa.
The Fa-rectification has nearly ended. I firmly believe in Master and the Fa, and strive to do the three things well to become a truly qualified Dafa disciple.
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