(Minghui.org) I have been working in the printing factory of The Epoch Times for a few years. At the start of 2020, one thought came to my mind, “It would be great if I could deliver the newspapers. In that case, we would not need the newspaper vehicle to make one more trip to the factory.” Much to my surprise, after just a few months, I got my chance.
One day, I was told that the headquarters was going to set up its own delivery team. When I heard about this, I joked with the factory manager that I would like to deliver newspapers, as once I finished the printing I would go home anyway. This way the delivery team could save a trip to the printing factory.
At that time, although I had this idea, I did not really treat it seriously. Besides working at the printing factory at night, I need to take care of my business at the market and look after my family during the daytime. My schedule was already very tight. As I am holding two jobs, it is hard for me to take a day off. It has been a very long time since I slept for five hours straight. Most of the time, I only sleep for three to four hours before going to work. Although I thought of accepting other truth clarifying activities, I did not have the time.
During June, my manager told me that my dream could be fulfilled because the headquarters was going to set up a newspaper delivery system in July, and they needed my help. At that time I still had some attachments of fear, worrying that I needed to spend a lot of time on this. Therefore, I talked to the manager, and said that if there was another practitioner who could share half the load with me, I would take on this delivery mission. In the end, when another practitioner heard about this, he immediately agreed to help take on half of the responsibility.
Since I have decided to do it, I can only strive forward. Therefore, I took it very seriously and thought that I would make use of the time to send forth righteous thoughts, memorize Master’s “'On Dafa,” or listen to the cultivation experience sharing selections and songs by practitioners on the Minghui website. I tried to maintain the purity and righteousness of my thoughts, and not think too much about other things. I would not relax for a moment until I finished delivering all the newspapers. After a while working like this, I discovered that I had let go of many attachments.
Maintaining Righteous Thoughts
When I drove, I chose to memorize “On Dafa” or listen to cultivation experience sharing on Minghui radio. When I first started to memorize the Fa, I had trouble with “On Dafa,” which I thought I was very familiar with. I either mixed it up with the old version, couldn’t remember the next word, or memorized the wrong words. Even when I slowed down with memorizing, I had difficulties.
Although I found it to be quite weird, it did not stop me from wanting to memorize the Fa. I memorize some part of the Fa about ten times a day.
Not long ago, I changed to memorizing “On Dafa” ten times before I listened to Minghui radio. Listening to cultivation experience sharing is a great help to improving my xinxing. Every time I listen to a sharing article, it is as though I am exchanging my cultivation experience with a practitioner.
The biggest difference between listening this way and reading the articles one by one online is that what I listen to will not be affected by my attachments. I just need to accept the articles with an open mind, and leave no blind spot in my cultivation. Because of that, often when I meet some tests of my xinxing during the day, I will get to hear how practitioners improve in these areas when I listen to the sharing at night.
Within just a few months, I had already listened to a few hundred cultivation sharing articles. This helped me very much in improving my xinxing.
Abiding by the Traffic Rules
When we talk about traffic rules, many practitioners may feel that what is there to cultivate about, we just follow the rules. That’s the way I thought. I remember that when I was still a student and went out with a group of classmates, everyone would turn right when the light turns red [we are not allowed to turn right when the light is red in Taiwan]. I was the only one who stopped to wait for the light to turn green, and everyone found it hard to understand me. They said that there were no cars, why didn’t I just turn? I only told them that I did not want to break the rules. They later all became used to the fact that I would not follow them to turn right when the light was red, so they all stopped to wait for me.
Because of that, I always thought that I did not have an issue in this regard. It was only when I started to deliver newspapers at night that I discovered that this mind of following traffic rules was not easy to maintain. For example, when I cross a road junction and there is no other car in sight, I would make a U-turn, or wait for the left turn light to come on.
I later learned that abiding by the laws in the mundane world is the way of life at the universe’s lowest realm – so Dafa practitioners should abide by these laws.
From the perspective of everyday people, although it seems that if I do not wait so long, I can complete my delivery mission earlier and return home to rest earlier. However, in the perspective of the Fa, I saw that these are the results of my attachment of being impetuous, unwilling to persist, and rushing to seek completion.
The selfishness and absence of caring about the safety of the other drivers led to the status of understanding the principles but not applying them in action. Every night I needed to go through so many rounds of fights in my mind as being a practitioner and an everyday person. I gradually eliminated the attachment of being impetuous. One day, I discovered that when others blow the horn I no longer feel irritated.
Letting Go of Attachment to Personal Interest
I remember that on a Friday night in delivering newspapers, the door of the last delivery point could not be opened. I thought that the owner could have changed the lock during the day. I was really impatient as it was close to 1 a.m. I tried to contact the other practitioners but nobody picked up the calls. In the end, I placed the stack of newspapers at the entrance.
I was very hesitant about either waiting there until the practitioner came to collect the newspapers, or just leave the newspapers there and leave. I needed to go home to take a rest and then go to work at 4:30 a.m. My business is the best on Saturday mornings. Usually working for four hours on Saturday mornings can earn me the living expenses that my family requires for a week. This amount of earnings is very important to me.
From another point of view, I already did my part to deliver the newspapers to the designated location. It was just that the door could not be opened so I could not leave them inside. I paced back and forth a few times.
Just then, I looked at the newspapers and thought in my heart that these newspapers were the efforts of so many practitioners, and there were so many clients who were waiting for their newspapers. I had the responsibility to look after them well and make sure that they were not stolen. Money and sleep, when compared to this responsibility, was not really that important.
When I let go of this attachment, I took out my mobile phone to study the Fa. I thought that no matter how long I had to wait, I would not leave, even if it meant not going and doing my business in the morning. It wasn’t even five minutes after I started studying the Fa that one resident opened the door. This matter really tested my xinxing.
Getting Rid of Attachment to Time
I go home from the printing factory after midnight every time and then get up early in the morning to take care of my personal business. I can only sleep less than three hours a few nights every week. When I am not in a good cultivation state, I would think that I am sleeping too little. I sometimes even had to look after my sick father after reaching home after midnight. Therefore, I really cherish my sleeping time.
Sometimes I heard that my co-workers at the printing factory said they would sleep until around 8 a.m. I said by the time they woke up, I would have almost completed my second job. When I thought about it, I realized that I was jealous. Jealousy caused me not to be able to understand in depth the Fa of “The paths of cultivation are varied.” (“Unimpeded,” Hong Yin II)
Initially, when I was discussing about whether I could take up the the newspaper delivery job, I was being told that I only needed to go to three places, which would take about an hour. After weighing the time needed, since I just needed to reduce one hour of sleep every night, it should not be a problem. Therefore, I agreed to do the job. However, in my heart, I knew that the timing required for this job could increase at any time, as more delivery locations would be required.
The first time I was informed that the delivery locations would be increased, my heart was disturbed. It caused me to be impetuous for a whole night. All sorts of thoughts popped up, such as why the delivery points differed from the initially agreed upon, but nobody discussed the increase with me first, so my sleeping time needed to be shortened again. I also thought about the transportation cost. Although in my heart, I understood that I needed to do all the workload which seemed to be extra and that it was a good chance for me to improve my xinxing.
Of course, cultivation means that I must look inward. I felt bad as I still had those attachments. I clearly knew that increasing delivery locations meant an increase in subscribers. This was a good thing. But I had one thought, that increasing the delivery points meant working overtime, which was forced upon me and would be permanent. To put it simply, I had the feeling that time was my personal possession, and was being snatched away. However, I understood that as a practitioner, I should put others before myself. But I truly felt bad, as my limited amount of rest time was further shortened.
Although I understood the logic, it was still hard to bear. My attitude did not immediately change for the good. I thus thought of a way to help eliminate the bad feeling gradually. Since I already knew that the delivery points would increase, I just reserved the time slot that I assumed for the job. I did not go to sleep immediately after I got home after midnight. I studied the Fa, practiced the exercises, or read practitioners’ cultivation experience sharing articles so as to delay my sleeping time, taking it as a preparation in my mind and body for the increase in deliveries.
One day I suddenly noted my notions change while I was setting the alarm on my mobile phone. I had no thought of wanting to quickly go to sleep as I had only just over two hours to sleep before I needed to get up. Instead, I had a sense of satisfaction that I still had about two hours to sleep.
Conclusion
On the cultivation path, only Master knows what we lack. As long as we persist in our Fa study and keep looking within, Master will enlighten us through all sorts of ways. The above are just a few examples to share with fellow practitioners. I hope that I can cultivate diligently and improve together with fellow practitioners.
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Category: Improving Oneself
