(Minghui.org) I am a young practitioner who is so lucky to have grown up in a cultivation environment. I didn’t have much of an understanding of Master’s Fa when I was a child. As I grew up and entered into society, I realized that Master’s Fa answered the questions that I had about the world.
Growing Up Under Buddha’s Grace
My parents obtained the Fa when I was five months old. They took me along when they attended Falun Dafa group exercises in the local park, before the onset of the persecution. It was very cold in the winter mornings, so my mother put thick clothes on me. I played while practitioners were doing the exercises.
As I recall, I often had a fever as a child. But, I was never given any medication or injections. My parents read the Fa to me instead. Oftentimes I recovered from the fever by the next morning, even though the fever was high the prior day. I never missed a day of school.
At primary school, I practiced the exercises for half an hour before I did my homework. During school holidays, I didn’t participate in tutorials like other kids. But, my academic scores were good. I knew that I gained wisdom from the Fa. My parents always said that I came for the Fa, and descended to this world to obtain the Fa, and would follow Master to my original home.
Studying the Fa Passively During Rebellious Adolescence
The school homework increased a lot after I started middle school. Urged by my parents, I tried to make time to study the Fa and do the exercises. But, I did it passively; not because I wanted to. However, Dafa still showed me miracles. I got into a well respected high school, even though I didn’t have any extra tutorials after school.
I started my adolescent rebellion after I entered high school. I didn’t improve in cultivation, but my ability to argue with my dad increased rapidly. I often quarreled with him during my senior year due to my academic scores. He was very angry and disappointed in me.
I had a strong personality, and was very attached to getting good scores. But because I didn’t know how to look within, and was not focused on studying the Fa, I failed all my math exams for some time.
Luckily my mother would intermediate between my dad and me. She pointed out my problems, like not respecting my dad, being selfish and competitive, and only wanting to hear nice words, and being unhappy if criticized. I agreed to change myself, but I didn’t change much at all.
Up until the last winter break before the university entrance exams, my dad sat and helped me while I did my homework. I also spent some time with my mother, studying the Fa, and doing the exercises. Gradually I rectified myself in the Fa. My academic scores improved. Finally, I passed the math exam and actually got high scores.
Looking Within When Entering Society
University was the first time that I lived with other people. I personally experienced the so-called trendy life. Young people competed with each other in every aspect of daily life, including when it came to food and clothing. I also experienced the insurmountable distance between people.
At the beginning I called my mother and complained about all the things I was not comfortable with. Gradually I found that those things and the declining social morality were just like what Master told us in the Fa. When I came across conflicts again, I would remember that I am a Dafa practitioner. What should a practitioner do? Argue with the other person? Or not visit them any more? That’s not how a practitioner should behave. Master said that practitioners should look within and find our own problems, because everything happens for a reason. Since I came across those problems, there must be attachments that I should let go of.
One day I didn’t tell my roommate about my selection of a course online. When she found out, the course was full. She was very angry and felt that I deserted her. She didn’t talk to me for two days.
I thought that I hadn’t done anything wrong at first, as I was free to select any course. It was okay that the two of us were not in the same class. I would not have got as angry at her if I couldn’t select the course, and had to take another one. Later on I realized that she had been trying to be part of our dormitory group by attending the same class as we did. She had come to live in our dormitory later than us and was not in the same group class as us. I disregarded her feelings and forced my mentality upon her. I was wrong.
We talked it over and I admitted to her that I behaved inappropriately. I even gave up my position in the course to her. She was surprised by how I looked for my own wrongdoing in the situation. When I told her my thoughts, we became closer than before.
Master published his new article “On Dafa” when I was in my second year at university. I happened to be at home. I memorized the first two paragraphs and then went back to university. I recited these first two paragraphs before I went to sleep every evening for sometime. My dad gave me an MP3 player in which Master’s lectures in Jinan and Guangzhou were downloaded and asked me to listen to them. Because of Master’s Fa and “On Dafa”, I didn’t follow the trend in society but regarded myself as a practitioner. I was able to look inward and change gradually.
I started to look for a job in the second term of my third year at university. It was not easy for me to find a job because my major was engineering, especially if I went back to my hometown, a small city. If I wanted to have a stable job, I had to pass the exams to be a public servant in the government system. So I wanted to change my major by studying for a master’s degree.
When I returned to university at the beginning of the 4th year, I found that it was not easy to find a job even if I had a good major and a master’s degree. It would be difficult for me to study the courses in a different major at the master’s level because I didn’t have the foundation at the bachelor’s level.
I consulted a teacher and she didn’t think it was a good idea to take master courses. All of a sudden I was at a loss and didn’t know what my future path would be. My classmates had definite goals. Some had already found jobs during the autumn recruitment fair, while I hadn’t progressed and didn’t know which direction I should take. During that time I cried every time I talked to my dad on the phone. I felt so much pressure that I started to lose hair. My dad asked me to let it go. He said that Master would arrange it for me as long as I believed in Him and the Fa, and let go of my attachment to a good job. I should follow the course of nature and do what I should do well.
I had a dream after I adjusted my thoughts. In the dream I saw that I was wrapped in plaster with only my head free. I had made the shell of the plaster myself. I said that I didn’t want the plaster shell in the dream.
I realized after I woke up that I myself caused everything. I made a shell for myself because I was attached to the job and was afraid to lag behind my classmates and lose face if I didn’t find a job. I was jealous that my classmates found good jobs. I lacked righteous thoughts. I blocked myself. When I let go of all these mentalities, the shell crumbled.
I was successfully accepted by a state-run enterprise in my hometown in the online autumn recruitment two weeks later. Thank you, Master, for giving me this opportunity. I had a stable job. Most importantly I could study the Fa and practice the exercises with my parents.
Learning How to Cultivate
I had to work extra hours most of the time after I finished university and started my new job. Due to being understaffed, the work load was huge. If the equipment at work had to be replaced, I had to work until midnight. My colleagues contacted me again and again to have their computer problems solved. My manager learned about this situation, and told me that as long as I could guarantee that the important equipment had no problem, I could leave the computer problems aside and refer the employees to him if there were any issues.
On one occasion I was so busy with the equipment drill, I was not able to fix the computer problem for a colleague who rang me after the drill. She was very angry with me for the delay. I told her on the phone that we would solve it as soon as possible and didn’t say anything else. I got angry after I hung up the phone. I understood that it was not easy for them, as they had a work quota to complete and had to work extra hours. But nobody understood how much my workload was and how difficult it was. When I fixed the problem for them, they felt that it was my duty, and if I couldn’t fix it, they would think that it was also my problem.
Later on I remembered that Master asked us to think of others first when doing things. I didn’t report this incident to my manager. Instead I fixed the problem for her. After several heart-wrenching experiences, I was more open and didn’t complain about minor things. Though I was tired after work, I was in good spirits when I came home. I could feel that Master sealed off my tiredness and the pressure. So I could still be optimistic at work. Older colleagues in the same office were also surprised that I kept a happy face and was not defeated by the workload.
A large project started in 2019. I started to work until midnight most days. I could put up with it at the beginning, but a few times I showed my unhappiness in front of my director. Later on I realized that I was not right. According to the Fa standard, it was my duty to do the work well since it was my job. I must do the extra work well. My director was a similar age as my dad. He kept up with his heavy workload. As a young person, I should do even better. I tried my best to do my work well after that.
My director praised me in front of many people after the project was completed. This was the highlight of my career. My work was acknowledged by many colleagues and senior managers. It was miraculous. This project was assigned before I assumed this position. But it was put aside until I was the only one left in the department. I felt that it was meant to be me who completed the task as efficiently as possible.
I passed the government public servant exams 2020. At the end of the year, there was a performance review for every employee in the company and we were required to give scores to every employee in the department. The scores became meaningless to me as I would no longer work in that company next year. But it mattered to my colleagues. So I scored myself the lowest. My manager learned this and told me that it would still be good if I left with good scores. He was touched when he learned that I gave myself the lowest score. He decided to give me an A. During that time, I had a dream. In the dream I found myself coming out of my company from the back door and discovered that the ground was covered with dirty stuff and mice. I walked through carefully. When I came back, there was no dirty stuff. My understanding was that I had completed the cultivation tests in that organization.
I started a new job in 2021. As I got to know more of my colleagues, I found that the separation between employees was quite large. People helped each other on the condition it didn’t infringe on their personal interest. They would hesitate if anything they did for others would harm their personal vested interest even a tiny bit. They actively applied for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership in order to be promoted. I am not a person who is good at currying favor with my boss to get promoted. I complained about this to my parents. I prided myself on being aloof and not focusing on pursuing fame and personal interest.
One colleague attended a contest with me before. But she avoided greeting me when we came across each other. I was a bit annoyed. She was very warm to the manager but cold to me. In my previous company, my colleagues and managers were all good to me. They praised me a lot when they learned that I got a good position in a better company. I found my new circumstance very challenging.
I was not happy at all. When I talked to my mother I let her know my displeasure and said that I would not greet her if I saw her again. My mother said that I shouldn’t do that, because I am a Dafa practitioner and shouldn’t get angry with an everyday person. Her behavior touched my attachment that everyone should be kind to me. I was moved by such a tiny thing. It was time that I improved myself.
I should cultivate until I attain a compassionate, kind, and peaceful heart. I thought I was better than others and thus stayed aloof. This was also an attachment. I shouldn’t change my attitude towards others because other people treated me badly. I shouldn’t be attached to other people’s faults. I shouldn’t think other people were not good because they didn’t reach my standard. Actually I should feel sorry for them because they are lost in ordinary society. When I changed and had a compassionate demeanor, she greeted me first when we passed in the corridor. I truly experienced that the environment was changing with my mentality. The environment would change for the better when I had the right mindset.
Miracles of Falun Dafa
I experienced many miracles while growing up. Two recent incidents let me experience the power of the Fa and Master’s compassion.
The first incident was that there had been bad thoughts in my mind in the summer of 2021. I filtered out my bad thoughts and the thoughts that were not mine. I used this method several times. A miracle happened. A pimple grew in my left ear. It was a little painful. It broke and discharged yellowish liquid one night. I didn’t sleep at all that night. But I didn’t feel sleepy the next day. It recovered about a week later. I could then clearly feel that those bad thoughts were gone. I felt a lot lighter. Through this incident, I felt the power of Dafa and realized that as long as I want to cultivate and get rid of bad things, Master will help me.
The second miracle I experienced was how I let go of the attachment to playing games. There was a game that I had been playing since I was a freshman at university. I was forced to give it up due to the policy that prevented youth from playing it without registration. That may have been a hint from Master for me to give up playing games. But, I didn’t realize it and started to look for the games that I could play without registration. I found one which was a game about solving puzzles. The background of the story was horrific and weird. I played it twice and had a dream one night. In the dream I was playing this game and felt it was real. I felt there was a bad entity behind the scene which scared me. I woke up suddenly and felt very fearful. I pleaded with Master to help me and recited “Falun Dafa is good” repeatedly. Then I fell asleep. I deleted all the games the next day. This was the second hint from Master.
But after a while I downloaded a new game that didn’t need registration with my real name nor was it weird. I thought it was okay this time. I played it for a period of time. One day I was not able to enter into the game interface. This was actually another hint from Master that I should let go of my attachment to games. But I didn’t give it up, rather I downloaded another new game. Until one day my cell phone was switched off suddenly when I was playing the game. I realized instantly that I must let go of my attachment. I deleted the game after I turned on my cell phone. I haven’t downloaded any games since.
Looking back at the whole process, I was not strict with myself and regarded myself as an everyday person. Master gave me hints again and again. But I didn’t live up to his expectation and let things drag on. Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation.
Epilogue
As a child, I was very interested in astronomy and felt that there must be some mysterious material in outer space. I watched astronomy documentaries when I had time and learned that there were black holes, supernovae, and dark matter in space that we couldn’t see with our naked eyes. After I practiced Falun Dafa, I understood the complexity of space. What human beings know is so tiny. We can see very little of the matter in this universe. Many forms of energy exist that we cannot see with our eyes.
The law of conservation of energy in physics says that energy cannot be created out of thin air, nor can it disappear out of thin air, it can only be transformed from one form to another. Because we cannot see something, doesn’t mean it does not exist. The CCP’s indoctrination using the atheism theory teaches Chinese people to only believe what they can see. This damages people’s belief and deteriorates the morality of human beings. People don’t believe the principle of “good will be rewarded and evil be punished.” They don’t believe in reincarnation or hell. People dare to do all sorts of bad deeds.
Through my personal experiences, and from my own knowledge, I understand that Master’s Fa covers everything. Everyday people think that hardships and bitterness are not good things. Nowadays there is a trendy word called “Lying flat” (doing the bare minimum to get by). I have similar thoughts sometimes. But from the Fa’s perspective it is really just a demonstration of laziness.
Many people think that they are unfairly treated. Actually, everything is fair. People cannot see the causal relationships among them from their past lives. They only want to live happily and comfortably in this lifetime. They don’t realize that this lifetime is so very short. Glory and wealth are nothing. Only through cultivation can life be eternal.
When I see through the things in this world, I start to live consciously. Master gives me so much. Thank you Master for rectifying me as I grew up, constantly purifying me so that I can let go of worldly desires, and understand that worldly materials are only illusions. Only Fa principles and cultivation are real. They let us elevate and ascend, and that is the true meaning of why we come to this world.
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