(Minghui.org) I am an electrical engineer in my 50s. I am writing this article to share how Falun Dafa has changed me for the better.
I used to have numerous illnesses and was very selfish. Dafa has taught me to be a good person and to always be considerate of others.
Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, wrote,
“You can be a good person whatever your strata of society, and have few wants and attachments. Spiritual progress is possible in any segment of society, and you can always show yourself to be a good person.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Below are some of my cultivation experiences.
Detained for My Belief
I’ve always been considered a good child, a hardworking student, and a responsible employee. No one thought I would one day end up in a detention center with criminals.
That happened after 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Dafa. Similar to the Cultural Revolution that happened decades ago, numerous law-abiding citizens were targeted. This time it is Falun Dafa practitioners being targeted. Anyone who persists in his or her belief in Falun Dafa could risk being arrested or even imprisoned. Having benefited from Dafa, I knew I must be honest and stay true to my faith. This way, I have less fear and have more resilience while being detained for my belief.
Every day during detention, the guards and inmates beat me and cursed me. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I kept the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my mind. I always treated others with kindness and I learned that true compassion could change people.
There were also miracles. The beds in the cell were always damp. On freezing winter days, the quilt was not long enough to cover my feet, and inmates forced me to take cold showers. On hot summer days, there were mosquitoes and I had to squeeze together in the same bed with inmates who had scabies. Surprisingly, I did not develop rheumatoid arthritis, nor did I catch scabies. I did not feel cold when taking cold showers in winter, and my feet were warm during sleep even though they were not covered. I think this was because I did the right things in holding firm to my faith.
I was also grateful for Master’s care during difficult times. It made me more optimistic and confident. When encountering challenges after that, I was able to continue and always do my best to be considerate of others.
Design Drawing
The industry I am working in moves quickly, including updating the network, communication, and control technologies in recent years. One has to keep learning to stay current. Because of the persecution, I had left the design institute for a long time.
After coming back, I could only handle some small projects in the beginning. After a while, the institute won the bid for a major project and I was appointed to be in charge of the automation control system (ACS). At that time, ACS was not widely used in my institute. My supervisor only gave me a few days and we would not charge the client much either.
As competition increased, the senior management in the institute became very involved in the major project. We were also required to apply new technologies and come up with a state-of-the-art design that would represent the institute well. The challenge was huge. Learning the ACS process was relatively easy, but without a template, it would be very difficult to finish this task.
As a practitioner who had cultivated for many years, I knew I had to be considerate of others when handling this. Instead of thinking about myself, I tried to plan this project from the perspectives of technicians, construction workers, and the construction owner. The goal was to present the idea clearly so that it would be easy to follow during construction and subsequent maintenance.
Based on this, I did not simply replicate charts for repetitive designs. Rather, I summarized them in a logical way that was clear and concise. For places with complexity and difficulty, I tried to explain the ideas from multiple angles through various levels of information. This way, I drafted a completely new set of design charts, which was approved by both reviewers and our client. They all agreed that this design was clear, informative, and concise. It also received the first prize during a city-wide design competition that year.
Since then, many of my charts and calculation protocols became templates for coworkers. This process also helped me to understand that when we practitioners are truly considerate of others, we will have the wisdom to achieve what we need to.
The Power of Kindness
A designer often works on many projects. Routine designs are also applied, which is quicker and requires fewer modifications. If a client has detailed knowledge of the design and also makes detailed requests, a designer may have to put out extra effort to accommodate his or her wishes.
This dilemma is not difficult to understand. A client may have one idea today and another idea tomorrow for how to make his business better. But for designers, such frequent requests can be bothersome. Especially for project scope expansion, designers usually do not like working on improving existing circuitry, which could be time-consuming and burdensome. For example, if other parts of construction renovation are like treating a patient through injections or applying ointments to wounds, electrical ACS works would be akin to aligning capillary blood vessels – which is much more complex, detailed, and laborious.
One time I participated in the design of an expansion project. The client had professional knowledge as well as ideas on both electrical systems and ACS. The electrical system had been through many changes and was very different from the original design. Furthermore, lots of information, especially information from foreign partners, was missing and the old ACS had stopped functioning with many defective devices. Nonetheless, the client hoped the new design could include all the old ACS to form a complete and seamless system.
As a Dafa practitioner, I knew this was a fair request, so I decided to accommodate the client as much as possible. However, since I could not travel all the time checking information onsite, plus as I had other projects, I just did whatever the client had proposed in the beginning. Then I found myself very passive and the endless modifications took up lots of time.
Later on, I became more proactive. Based on my experience, I made plans to benefit the complete project and the client. From big plans to small details, I made many practical suggestions. After noticing my kindness, the client volunteered to help and collected information about the existing system. He also made feasible recommendations based on his familiarity with the devices.
This way we were able to reach a clear and practical plan in a short time with agreement from both sides. An integrated ACS platform was put in place to form a complete electrical system. Both sides were satisfied and this project later received a second prize in a nationwide competition. This was very rare for such expansion projects.
A Special Gift
After an entire week of hard work, very few people were willing to work on weekends, which should be family time anyway. But things did come up from time to time.
One weekend when I was taking care of household work, a business owner from another city called me saying the government had given him little time to finish a project. The devices were being tested upon installation, but the transformer and distribution system had problems. The circuit breakers kept tripping and technicians onsite could not solve it. Since I was the electrical engineer in charge of the project, he hoped I could come and take a look.
To be honest, I did not have much experience at the time. Most designers simply repeated work or came up with plans at will with hardly any onsite testing. Plus, electrical systems can be very complicated. Nonetheless, I explained the situation to my family and went there anyway. After getting there and learning what had happened, I did not know where to start even after a few hours. The business owner, device vendors, and installation technicians were all there. Seeing their anticipation and disappointment, I felt bad too.
After dinner, I calmed down and reminded myself that I had to do my best as a practitioner. Dafa also gave me wisdom and I knew where to check, spot after spot. Time passed quickly and I was still full of energy. Finally at 3 a.m., I found out what had happened and solved the problem. The transformer and distribution system was installed successfully, and testing passed. The owner was thrilled and he drove me to a nearby hotel to rest.
After some time, the owner specifically drove to my city before the Chinese New Year and gave me some hometown specialties to thank me.
A Birthday Party
Electrical designers often use all kinds of devices for automation and control. Salespeople, both veteran and new, often tried to please designers to sell their products. Because of this, these salespeople are often very polite and sometimes were bullied by designers.
As a practitioner, I always treat them well. I also placed a chair next to my desk so that they could sit down for a rest. No matter how busy I was, I always spent some time listening to them and treated them with respect. Whenever time allowed, I would also share my experience of practicing Falun Dafa and how it had helped me.
We talked about history, society, and many other topics. They liked talking with me since they found that Dafa practitioners have broad views that they can benefit from. Many of them have become my friends and they were also sympathetic toward practitioners in the suppression.
One young man from Inner Mongolia was very capable and successful. He had many friends and sometimes organized local designers to get together for group activities. Within one year, almost all design institutes began to use products from his company. It was during the years when the persecution was the worst. Upon meeting him for the first time, I handed him a business card I’d designed myself with phrases about Falun Dafa. He was impressed and we also met a few times after that.
One day at noon, he called me and asked me to eat out with him. He said it was his birthday and he’d only invited one special guest – me. This was because he wanted a really meaningful birthday. We each talked about our own experiences and the book the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party I'd given him. He had read the book and admired practitioners for their courage and conscience.
A Good Person
Society has changed rapidly with moral corruption, including in the design industry. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I know I need to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and be a good person.
One of the biggest headaches for management in the institute is the difficulty of meeting deadlines. Some designers could not deliver on time and gave all kinds of excuses. I have reported to different supervisors over the years and they all trusted me and had confidence in me. This is because, instead of finding excuses, I always delivered on time even if it required me to work overtime. “The [Falun Dafa] practice you are following is very good,” an official once said to me in front of others, “I really admire it.”
For designers, technical knowledge, charts, and protocols are valuable assets that they do not want to share with others. After becoming a Dafa practitioner, I often help others with whatever they need. Furthermore, electrical automation and control require lots of graphs. They cannot start until other work is finished, while the overall completion time is about the same. With such a short turnaround time, I noticed some designers spending lots of time on repetitive work and having little time for the critical parts. As a result, I taught myself software development, developed some software tools, and shared them with coworkers for free. This greatly increased our job efficiency and institute officials liked it. This way, we designers work with each other well. Although I helped others a lot, I did not lose anything and Dafa also gave me lots of wisdom.
Accepting kickbacks is a hidden rule for designers. Almost everyone does it and nearly no one talks about it. Some vendors gave us cash rewards during events or others occasions. Some even gave money to designers directly through wire transfer.
When this happened, I often told them that Dafa practitioners are good people who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In addition to declining such gifts, I also turned down their invitations to visit places such as nightclubs. Because of this, people trust me and my integrity.
Superiority is a norm in the design industry and very often veteran designers do not help younger ones much. I do not handle things this way. One time, a young man from another department gave me a hard time during a review of my design. Many of his comments did not make sense. As a practitioner, I brushed off the negative feelings. Noticing his hard work, I complimented him and the two of us get along well with each other.
As a Dafa practitioner, I have realized that when one leaves fame and material interests behind, one will achieve real happiness and wonders. My story is just one example, and I hope you can benefit from it as well.
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