(Minghui.org) I am 68 years old and I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Even though I had cultivated for over 20 years, I had not totally gotten rid of my attachment to fabric and sewing clothes. I have liked making clothes since I was young. When I graduated from high school, I set up a sewing team with one of our village’s master tailors and started making clothes.
I really loved being a tailor, so much so that I would wake up in the middle of the night and study books on the subject. I put all my effort and concentration into learning the skills and picked them up very quickly. I was also hardworking and willing to take hardship and do whatever I could. The master tailor really liked me and passed all of his skills on to me.
Down the road, the village broke up the sewing team I was a part of. After getting married, I set up a new sewing team in my house and took on a few apprentices. During this time, I would go to street markets to get customers’ measurements, buy the fabric needed, and bring the finished product to the customers the next time the market was open. Because of my good workmanship, many people went to the market especially to look for me, saying that the clothes I made fit well and they really liked them. They also complimented me on my reliability because I always delivered my work on time, whatever the weather.
I later moved to another city with my husband for his job and became a tailor in a clothing factory. After some time, the factory manager let me manage the workshop. My manager, supervisors, and subordinates liked me a lot.
Because my trade was in demand no matter where I went, I got into the habit of placing myself above others and liked to hear compliments. I also became attached to everything I made.
Take, for example, the attachment to fabric. After obtaining the Fa, I thought that I could no longer be attached to fabric because making clothes took up too much of my time, so I tried not to buy any more fabric. However, I could not control myself because I could make a shirt with just two to three yuan worth of cloth. Ready-made shirts cost dozens or even more than a hundred yuan.
I kept making clothes for relatives, friends, and fellow Falun Gong practitioners. When I made clothes for them, I hardly took any measurements. The practitioners I knew all wore clothes that I’d made for them; some even had more than one piece or even a full set. The more other people liked what I made, the more interested I was in making more. Practitioners later advised me not to make their clothes anymore, as it wasted too much time and was cutting into my Fa study.
Markets are good places to clarify the truth, but when I saw fabric on sale, I couldn’t stop myself from going over to take a look. And once I started looking, I would be there a long time. Looking at the dazzling varieties of cloth, I couldn’t help buying a few pieces. Once I got them home, I would use them to make clothes. I would hate myself for being so undisciplined. This repeated many times and I felt really troubled.
Seeing that I really wanted to get rid of this attachment, Master Li, Falun Dafa’s founder, enlightened me through the words of another practitioner who asked me to memorize “The Importance of a Strong Mind” (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun). As I memorized it, I suddenly recalled that in the sixth talk of Zhuan Falun, “The Fear of Practice Going Wrong,” Master said, “They might leap out of a window or jump into a lake if those things tell them to.” (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
This scared me and a thought flashed through my mind: “Isn’t this a foreign message attempting to keep me from the Fa and make me waste my time so that I cannot do the three things well? Why have I gone through so many reincarnations? I have waited millions and millions of years for Master to come and spread Dafa so that I could obtain the Fa, assist Master in Fa-rectification, and save sentient beings.” After I had this thought, I was determined to get rid of the attachment to making clothes.
When I went to the markets again, I just gave out truth-clarification materials. Initially I had distributed the materials in five or six story buildings. When my attachments acted up and my righteous thoughts weakened, I felt my body getting heavier and heavier and I would sweat all over.
At this time, I started looking within myself. I thought that, if it was a divine being distributing these materials, what state would he be in? With a light body and without any attachments, he would be dropping them off at every household. He would also not feel tired. I realized that my attachments were creating a disturbance, so I would quickly send forth righteous thoughts to get rid of the attachments to the desire to finish things quickly, to being afraid of trouble and fatigue.
After realizing all this, my righteous thoughts started to emerge and my thoughts began to change. I realized that all these were good things to go through. As I was saving sentient beings, I was also getting rid of large amounts of karma. My body went from being tired to climbing the stairs swiftly without my legs feeling tired. I also felt very light.
This arrangement by Master made me understand that when attachments take hold, our bodies will be restricted by the Fa principles within the Three Realms. In this case, our bodies and minds will definitely feel heavy and tired. However, when our righteous thoughts take the lead, because they are divine thoughts, our bodies will be close to a divine state despite being immersed in the hardships of the Three Realms. The hardships in the Three Realms do not have any effect on our bodies. Therefore, it seems very hard, but we are able to experience happiness from validating the Fa.
After that, the pandemic broke out, and saving sentient beings became an urgent task. I climbed 18 and even 27-story buildings to distribute materials, but I never got tired. I haven’t stopped since and I do not allow myself to waste any time.
I am writing this experience sharing article to convey to practitioners that our main consciousnesses must be strong. We should not allow external interference to disturb us. We should really differentiate which thoughts are external interference and which are from our true selves.
Through this matter, I also understand that being aligned with the Fa means that we do what Master wants us to do. My understanding is that Master has told us so much in his lectures so that we can cultivate ourselves to attain a higher Fruit Status. Therefore, we should use the Fa to evaluate our actions and thoughts. We must not let external interference disturb us, causing us to commit wrongdoings. If we do not wake up, there may come a time when it is too late for regret. Anything can cause us to rise or fall in our cultivation. The Fa-rectification has reached the very last phase so we must not fail at this last juncture due to very small problems we did not correct in time.
Thank you, Master, for protecting me painstakingly over all these years. Every time I fell, Master helped me to correct myself with his benevolence and warmth. Writing to this point, I can no longer control my tears. Over these past 20 years, Master really went through great pains for all his disciples! Master, I will definitely do well from now on.
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Category: Improving Oneself
