(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I work in the retail business. Before taking up Falun Dafa, I always competed with others for personal gain, and I had very bad relationships with my competitors. But now as a Dafa disciple, my mission is to save people. Saving people with bad relationships with me becomea tricky, but an inevitable issue for me to handle. It’s certainly not easy to make them open their hearts to me. The only way for me to achieve it is to cultivate myself well and elevate my realm first.
Liang was one such person. He was one of the earliest pioneers and also the market leader in the industry. After I entered the business, I tried to steal his product ideas. I placed several large orders from his supplier and made payments immediately. After I built a good relationship with that supplier, I demanded that they work exclusively with me and stop their collaboration with Liang.
Considering me a better business partner, the supplier terminated their contract with Liang. I used the same tactic to steal several products from him. In just a few short years, I took over most of his business, leaving him with tremendous financial losses.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I felt guilty for what I had done to him. I tried many times to fix our relationship, but he either ignored me or mocked me.
Shortly after, in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Dafa. I was detained for not renouncing my belief. Gloating over my ordeal, Liang and his wife spread many negative comments about my store. I no longer worried about my business, but I was truly concerned about how I should clarify the facts to him given the situation.
I tried many times to apologize to him. Before becoming a Dafa practitioner, I was very arrogant when talking to him, but now I am very humble. When we had gatherings among business peers, I took the initiative to toast him. When major clients visited me, I also invited him to join the meetings to discuss potential business opportunities for his company. As time went by, he became more accepting when I brought up Dafa with him.
One summer, Liang’s wife suddenly passed away of an illness. If I hadn’t practiced Dafa, their family and I probably would never untangle our grudges. While we are good friends now, I felt so sorry that I never had a chance to thoroughly explain the facts about Dafa to her.
After her funeral, I invited Liang, his daughter, and son-in-law for dinner. I said they could reach out to me if they encounter any difficulties in the future. I also persuaded the family to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Liang was very touched, and he expressed interest in learning Dafa.
There were a few times that his employee couldn’t come to work. He asked for my help and I arranged my truck driver to deliver some orders for him. He was very happy and said, “Thank you, bro!”
Solving Dispute With a Customer
When I entered the store one afternoon, I found a group of people there with two police officers. It turned out that when customer Yun came for a return, the product had been damaged. The cashier declined the return and Yun kept complaining. When my son explained the policy to her, she fought with him, tearing his clothing and scratching his arm, leaving two bloody marks. My son had no choice but call the police.
Seeing me entering the store, Yun pointed at me and said, “Is this how you tell your people to treat a customer? You are a Falun Dafa practitioner. How would you handle this?” She intentionally mentioned Falun Dafa in front of the police. But the police appeared to be indifferent to her comment. In the end, both Yun and my son went to the police station to settle the issue.
When my son returned home at around dinner time, he said to us, “Yun was very mean and she asked the police to arrest you because you are a Falun Dafa practitioner.” He said that Yun’s husband also went to the police station and asked the police why they didn’t arrest me. “Dad, please don’t talk about Falun Dafa to such people anymore. It is dangerous,” my son said.
In fact, I was a friend of Yun’s brother and I had helped her a lot. I did not expect she would treat me like this, and even ask the police to arrest me. I think maybe she was affected by the CCP’s defamatory propaganda against Dafa and I needed to find an opportunity to clarify the facts to her.
Not long after, Yun’s brother invited me to his son’s wedding. I knew this was an opportunity to talk to her. When I greeted her at the wedding, she appeared to be very uneasy.
I said to her, “I’m sorry I did not do well last time. Please forgive me.”
“No, it was not your fault,” she said. “It was me who caused trouble for you. I hope you are not angry with me.”
“No, I was not angry at all. See, you, your brother, and I have got along well for many years. We cannot let this ruin our friendship,” I said. “I hope you will still come to my store to see us.”
Yun was moved and thanked me. I then said a few words about Dafa.
She said, “To be honest, I know you are the best. I was stupid and made a mess last time. My brother also said I did wrong.”
I then asked about her husband. She said he was busy with work and could not take time off.
“Please also say hello to him. After all, we have been friends for many years,” I continued. “Whenever your child gets married, please do let me know and I will definitely come.”
With eyes wet, Yun said, “Of course, I promise.”
When leaving the hotel, I was happy for solving the conflict with Yun in a good way.
Making Friends With “An Enemy”
One time someone reported me and another business to the police, claiming that we disturbed local residents. The owner of the other business later found out who reported us and he had reached a deal with that person – if we paid him 2,000 yuan total, he would drop the complaint. That owner asked if I was willing to share the cost with him. I agreed.
It turned out the person who reported us, Dong, was a company executive. He always had a serious look whenever he saw me. When I greeted him, he never responded, as if I owed him lots of money. I was not upset since I knew everything has a reason and it might be that I did owe him something from my past lives. But regardless, I have the duty in this life to clarify the truth about Dafa to him.
I left some Falun Dafa materials at his door. I also talked to his wife and told her about Dafa and the persecution. She agreed to renounce her memberships in the CCP organizations and thanked me.
I once overheard that Dong’s son was getting married. I prepared a red pocket of 500 yuan and went to his home to congratulate him. He was surprised to see me. He accepted the gift and thanked me. He invited me to their wedding party. I thanked him and said I was unable to attend. But I had a few lucky words for them, which were “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” “You will be blessed if you sincerely recite the words.” I said to Dong and his guests. He nodded and said, “Yes, yes.”
Dong subsequently looked happy when seeing me. When the Chinese New Year was approaching, I gave him a calendar with information about Dafa, and said, “This is very beautiful and I hope you enjoy the information on it.” He was glad to accept it. I then talked about what Dafa is and how I had benefited both physically and spiritually. He agreed and nodded.
After explaining how the CCP slandered Dafa with lies, I asked if he agreed to quit the CCP organizations. He said yes.
Clarifying the Facts to “Another Enemy”
I planned to install a door on the side of the warehouse so it would be easier to fetch goods. Just after we made the cut in the wall, one neighbor Tao came over and shouted at me, “Who gave you the permission to add this door? Put the wall back now!”
I thought he was joking. But looking at him, I noticed he was serious about it.
“It is my warehouse. What’s wrong with adding a door?” I asked.
“You can’t have it even if it is your warehouse. If you do not put the wall back, I will call the city management office,” he said.
One relative who was there to help me said, “Don’t bother with him. Let us continue.”
After a while Tao came back to check. “Why are you continuing? I’m calling the city management now.”
“What’s the matter?” I said. “The wall was already opened and it is my warehouse anyway.”
“For a bad person like you, sorry I have to do this,” Tao said.
“What do you mean ‘for a bad person like you’?” I was surprised that he said things like that.
“Why did you try to take away my tenant?” he asked.
By then I realized he was talking about something from two years prior. At that time, I renovated my warehouse and listed part of it for rental. Someone who rented Tao’s warehouse came here for a quote. To get a deal, I gave him a very low price. But that person never came back. Most likely he asked Tao to lower his price to match mine. That is why Tao was making trouble for me this time. It was all my fault and the old forces were giving me a hard time because of this.
I resisted my urge to argue with him. In that situation, the best solution was to give up the plan to install the door. My relative blamed me for being a coward, and left. I picked up the bricks, mixed the cement and re-did the wall by myself.
While working on the wall, I kept reminding myself, “You are a Dafa practitioner and you need to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Bad thoughts and complaints kept coming up and I had to constantly suppress them.
When going home for lunch, my wife was out and there was only some leftovers for me. My desire to seek consolation and support went unfilled.
On the next day, I saw Tao carrying sand and cement in a cart to repair his warehouse wall. I went up to help and apologized to him, “Sorry for what I did two years ago. I am Falun Dafa practitioner and I will do better in the future.”
Seeing that he gained the upper hand, Tao had the satisfactory expression on his face. I again reminded myself to handle this well. I also knew the entire incident happened because of my attachment to material interest. Had I not tried to get his tenant, Tao would not be treating me like this now.
After that, Tao intentionally kept a distance from me, likely to avoid revenge from me. But I always thought about telling him the facts about Dafa. One day after Chinese New Year, my wife and I saw Tao when returning home.
I knew this was an opportunity and called aloud, “Hey Tao, Happy New Year!”
He was surprised and said, “Happy New Year to you too!”
I went up to him and said, “From the bottom of my heart, I have always meant to tell you this. I hope you can remember ‘Falun Dafa is good’ and ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.’ You and your family will be blessed if you sincerely recite these words.”
He was touched and said, “Falun Dafa? Sure!”
I looked at him and said sincerely, “We all want health and safety, right? Trust me.” He nodded.
Looking back, I know the moment I said “Happy New Year” to Tao, I had made improvment in my cultivation. After all, Falun Dafa practitioners have no enemies. I sincerely thank Master for giving me these opportunities to become a truly good person.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
