(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, teaches its practitioners to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and to look inside ourselves for things to improve, to take responsibility for our decisions and actions. Almost every practitioner has a personal story about their moral improvement.
On Family Life: Repaying Mistreatment with Kindness
The relationship between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is probably the most difficult interpersonal relationship in China and often leads to unhappy families. Falun Gong practitioners deal with it differently.
In the article “Paying Back Mistreatment with Kindness—Family Blessed,” the author Mei was saddled with a 20,000-yuan debt compliments of her mother-in-law shortly after she got married. It took her and her husband ten years to pay it off. Her husband had a violent temper, gambled, and drank to excess. Once he beat her so badly that she ended up in the hospital. Even worse, he and her in-laws and husband treated their children badly. Mei couldn’t stand it and secretly saved up to get a divorce after the children were older.
After she read the book Zhuan Falun, the main teaching of Falun Dafa, she understood why she suffered: it was because of the karmic debts she owed from her previous lives. The light of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance dispelled the gloom that had weighed on her for over 10 years. She opened her heart and stopped crying. She followed the teachings, stopped complaining, treated her in-laws with kindness, and cared less about how they treated her. She took care of her mother-in-law in the last stage of her life in the hospital. None of her other children were able to make it.
Mei’s husband was moved and thanked Falun Dafa from the bottom of his heart and was very supportive of her practicing.
Another practitioner, Lian, shared a similar experience in the article “My Relationships Improve after Eliminating Resentment.” Lian had been bullied by her mother-in-law for 10 years after she married into a family where it was normal for the parents to beat and scold their sons and daughters-in-law. Once her father-in-law asked to borrow money from her and promised to pay her back after selling the harvest in the fall. She lent him almost all her betrothal gift money. But after the fall harvest, her mother-in-law refused to pay back the loan, saying that Lian had been eating their food. Then her mother-in-law wanted to borrow more than 10,000 yuan and told them to repay the 600 yuan she had borrowed from someone else a few years before. When Lian refused, her mother-in-law instigated her father-in-law to attack Lian with a hoe. Lian fainted from the shock.
Lian’s 10 years of marriage was desolate and depressing. She often cried and was filled with resentment. She refused to greet her mother-in-law and vowed to hate her forever.
But when Lian started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998, her life changed dramatically. Its teachings drove away the hatred and resentment in her heart. She came to understand that she might have treated her mother-in-law like that way in her past life, and now she had to repay the debt—that may be why her mother-in-law was mean to her. A cultivator must be kind to everyone. She started to follow Master’s requirements. She let go of all her resentment and treated her mother-in-law as if she were her own mother. When her mother-in-law was sick, she got her a doctor, bought her medications, and stayed by her bedside. None of her own children were around.
Lian took Master’s teaching to heart:
“A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion.With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.”(“Realms,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
Her mother-in-law was often moved to tears and said how much kinder Lian was than her own daughter.
In “A Nearly Broken Marriage Becomes Harmonious,” Fang (an alias) gave up city living and a decent job to follow her husband back to his hometown. Because she had no job, her mother-in-law looked down on her and often gave her hard time. Eight years ago, her mother-in-law tried to get her husband to divorce her because she was misled by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) lies defaming Falun Dafa. She was scared that Fang’s practicing would compromise her son’s future due to the Party’s policy of implication. As a result, her husband often yelled at her and threatened to divorce her. Fang was miserable.
By spending more time studying the Falun Dafa teachings and talking to other practitioners, little by little, Fang learned to cultivate herself. She remembered what Master said:
“I have thus said before that Dafa disciples, being cultivators, should view problems in the opposite manner from how human beings do.”
“When you encounter unpleasant things, it is precisely time to cultivate yourself, to cultivate your mind.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
No matter how her husband mistreated her, she was still kind and patient with him, took care of him, and tolerated his frequent drunkenness. Gradually her husband realized he had a good wife and promised to treat her well in the future.
Her husband learned from Fang how to reflect on his shortcomings, although he does not practice Falun Dafa. He has become a different person. He is sincere and kind and loves his family.
On Education: Raising Good Kids
In China today, educating children is a headache for most parents. The schools only talk about test scores, while Falun Dafa practitioners focus on improving their children’s moral character.
In Xiaomei’s experience sharing article “How a Single Mother Is Raising Her Daughter,” she couldn’t be more grateful to Falun Dafa for showing her the way to educate her daughter and raise her well. She realized that children were like mirrors of their parents. It is difficult for a pessimistic parent to raise a sunny child. And it is also difficult for parents who crave fame and fortune to turn out children who are tolerant and open-minded.
Xiaomei got divorced when her daughter was 11, and it was an agonizing period of time. But she never revealed her pain to her daughter or even complained about her husband. Xiaomei said it was Dafa and its teachings that guided her through the predicament and enabled her to understand that only by letting go of resentment could she unlock the shackles that bound her; only by forgiving others could she get out of the conflict and pave a bright path for herself; and only by treating others with kindness could she experience the greatness of compassion. She set a great example for her daughter. Their life is, simply put, fun. They laugh a lot together, and her daughter often tells her, “Mommy, you are so good.”
Getting along with a rebellious teenager is another headache most parents experience. In her article “My Upright Behavior Touches the Hearts of My Mother-In-Law and Family Members,” Jing related how she guided her son to be an upright human being with the wisdom she learned from Falun Dafa.
When Jing’s son was young, he was adorable Unfortunately in the big dye vat of today’s society, he became rebellious and refused to listen to his mother. He stopped focusing on his schoolwork. Jing was worried and did not know what to do. At one point, she wanted to give up. She reflected on herself, looked inward, and realized that she needed to change herself first.
She no longer made demands on her son to do well. Instead, she cared for him from the bottom of her heart. She tolerated his shortcomings and was gentle and calm when she did correct and guide him. Then she began to see him change and become more obedient. His grades improved and he was accepted to the his ideal university.
Many little Dafa disciples have shared their experiences of quitting playing video games and bad habits after practicing Falun Dafa.
On Society: Honorable Government Officer, Honest Businessman, Caring Teacher
With the pursuit of money the main goal of life in China, corruption and counterfeit goods are everywhere. But Falun Gong practitioners act differently.
Practitioner Wei (alias) told how he became an honest businessman after practicing Falun Dafa in the article “Improving Mind Nature and Telling People about Falun Gong as a Businessman.” By the time he was in his 30s, he already had a successful business. But he paid little attention to ethical standards, so he would do almost anything to make money, including cheating and selling counterfeit products.
After he started to practice Falun Dafa, he decided to live by its principles. He stopped stocking counterfeit products and called the manufacturers to say, “I practice Falun Dafa now [the persecution had not started then]. Please do not send these [adulterated or counterfeit] products to me because I will not sell them.” Interestingly, his business continued to do well and his profits remained steady. He was also honest wi his peers and kind to his employees. Being truly considerate of others is how he runs his business now.
An elementary school teacher wrote “Validating the Preciousness of Falun Dafa with My Words and Actions.” She teaches her students well and also takes good care of them. She boils water and prepares medicines for those who have a cold. She uses a warmer to keep their stomaches warm when they have a stomachache. She offers them hot water in the winter to keep them warm. Their parents are very touched. They know that she is a cultivator. They see the facts of Dafa through her and no longer misunderstand the practice.
In the article “Confessions of a Tax Officer: Dafa Taught Me to Be Honest and Upright,” Wen (alias) shared her story. She thought she was a good person before she began practicing Falun Gong. She never extorted money from her clients or did anything against the tax law. She only realized how far she was from Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance after studying the Fa. As a tax officer, it was usual to receive gifts and accept bribes. From studying the Fa, she understood the relationship between loss and gain and decided to come out clean from the muddy waters. She calmly turned down a bribe for the first time, paid for her meal in a restaurant for the first time, paid in full for a purchase without demanding a discount for the first time, and so on.
While renovating her house, on the way home after buying construction materials, she ran into a coworker. He was shocked when she told him that she’d intentionally avoid buying the materials from the client she looked after. He mumbled to himself, “Indeed, Falun Dafa is different.” He even told his coworkers, “Look at her—you cannot help but admire her. I don’t need to worry about her honesty at work.”
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