(Minghui.org) As someone born in the late 1960s, I considered myself to be an upright person, although I was hot-tempered. Whenever my temper flared up, I couldn’t control myself and ended up fighting with others, regardless of whether they were male or female, or bigger than me or not. Even though I hardly ever won, I still kept fighting. I became well-known, and my teacher’s comments were, “I’ve never seen anyone who is so much into fighting as her.” But a consequence of constantly fighting with others was that I lived a bitter life.
Under the influence of the big dye vat of ordinary society, I went from someone who was upright and honest to one who was cunning. I used to take advantage of my company and had to prevent others from seeing me do bad things. Infused with an atheistic education from childhood, I didn’t believe in anything. If someone mentioned anything about the divine, I would be sarcastic and laugh. I didn’t respect the idea of divine being and was greedy for money. Back then, I was totally against cultivation practice.
“How Could There Be Such a Great Book!”
My life changed in September 1998. I returned to my old company, where the receptionist handed me a parcel that was sent by a former classmate from another province. I opened it and saw a book called Zhuan Falun. The classmate put a note inside, saying that this book was the best book she had ever read. She asked me to read it from cover to cover.
I ran a bookstore myself and knew that Zhuan Falun was very popular. The bookstore close to me carried it. In the spring of 1998, there was a cultivation experience sharing meeting in our area. There were long lines of people on both sides of the street in front of the bookstore, waiting to buy Zhuan Falun. I’d never seen such long queues before. I’d been to that bookstore pretending to be interested in the book but, as a competitor, I couldn’t tell the truth that I really wanted to find out how they went about procuring copies of it. I went there for the sake of making money, as opposed to having any interest in the practice.
I found out they put down a 200,000-yuan deposit to obtain a copyright for printing this book. I didn’t understand why as, at that time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had already put out some restrictions on publishing Zhuan Falun. However, because it was so popular, the publishers decided to collectively print the book. I couldn’t afford to get a copyright, so I had to drop the idea of purchasing Zhuan Falun.
Out of curiosity, I decided to start reading it before I went to sleep. I had never come across anything that was mentioned in the book; it was almost like reading a novel. Although it was a bit mysterious and unbelievable, it did make sense. I continued to read Zhuan Falun every day. As soon as I wrapped up my work, I’d go home to read.
The more I read, the faster I read. I finished the first three chapters in a week. For the next six chapters, I kept reading it the whole night through until after 5 a.m. the next morning. I then exclaimed, “How could there be such a great book!”
The book answered many things I wanted to understand but couldn’t figure out. I was so excited. I finally understood why I lived in this world and realized that I did many things wrong in the past.
Falun Dafa Is Truly Precious
I thought to myself: Why did I obtain the Fa so late? If Master Li hadn’t saved me, I’d have been stuck and lost in ordinary society. Even though I was subjected to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution for practicing Dafa and went through a lot of hardships, I never doubted Master and was full of gratitude for Him.
I liked to fight for justice, and believed that I was a good person, generous, and kind. I felt it was only because others treated me badly that I fought them. But when I compared my words and actions to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I knew I lagged far behind the standard for being a good person.
Soon after I began to cultivate Dafa, my eye ache, which had tormented me for so many years, disappeared. Before, when I either was reading a book or watching TV for a long time, I began to feel sick and wanted to vomit. However, when reading Zhuan Falun for a whole night, my eyes didn’t hurt, and I was rather comfortable.
I didn’t begin to cultivate at that time, but my body was still being cleansed by Master. My pelvic inflammatory disease, gastritis, and congenital heart disease all disappeared unnoticed. I was no longer afraid of heights, nor felt heartache. In addition, the periodic bleeding I experienced was also gone.
I felt a bit strange. It was as if this book knew what my thoughts were. I tried not to think about anything and only read Zhuan Falun and did the exercises. Since then, I never tried to fight with anyone. Many years have gone by, and I no longer felt the need to control my temper. Falun Dafa is truly precious!
Tempering Myself Amid Hardship and Difficulties
In late 1992, my family went through some changes. A family member passed away, and I was a bit depressed. For someone like me, who didn’t believe in the existence of gods, I suddenly had a Buddha appearing in a dream. The scene was sunny, with colorful clouds floating in the sky. I’d never seen clouds like those before. There was a green mountain with no visible soil, and a giant Buddha sat on a platform behind the mountain, with children playing around it. I wondered if there really is a Buddha.
I found the answer in that dream after I finished reading Zhuan Falun: Master hinted to me not to get attached to worldly affairs. I was so excited that I quickly passed Zhuan Falun along to my parents. They also began to practice Falun Dafa.
My brother began reading the book after he came back for his school break. And, pretty soon, our entire family became Falun Dafa practitioners. Our family used to be easily agitated and fought often, but we began living in harmony. My mom said she felt the warmth of family only after practicing Dafa. She used to be hot-tempered and would curse and beat us. We all had to be careful with her, because if we said anything she didn’t like, we would have received a good beating. After Mom became a Dafa practitioner, I never heard her curse at people once, let alone hit anyone. We had a loving mother!
When the persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999, I was impacted, and my family couldn’t stay out of it either. Both my father and brother stopped cultivating. My mother and I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa and ended up being arrested and sent to a detention center and brainwashing center. I was forced to leave home and move from place to place to avoid the persecution. My family was torn apart, and I lost my job.
My mother lost her cultivation environment and couldn’t make a breakthrough in her sickness karma tribulation. She passed away four months after I was taken to the detention center.
I walked out of that dark den a few years later. I was in my 40s and didn’t have a job. My family was in tatters, and I could only stay with my father. Nobody could help me. I understood that I needed to use the wisdom bestowed upon me by Master and Dafa to create a cultivation path for myself.
I had learned some accounting skills in the past, but never took it further. Master had arranged my classmates and old coworkers all to be senior accountants. I had good relationships with them and whenever I had questions, I could ask them. Through their help, I was able to move between different jobs ten times. I learned how to do accounting on the job and finally obtained an accounting certificate.
Once, one of my bosses came to me with a document, asking me to check some information. He said contemptuously, “If you can find what I need in one day, that would be good.” I didn’t know where to start and was sweating. I was embarrassed, as if I was being paid for doing nothing. Then I calmed my mind.
Even though I had limited knowledge in my field, I knew that as long as I paid attention to that urgent matter, I would be able to get it done fairly quickly. Master is by my side, so I could manage to handle things properly. It’s just that I wasn’t that experienced. People were giving me the cold shoulder, and my boss scolded me. Wasn’t this a perfect opportunity for me to cultivate my xinxing?
I’d clarified the facts to my colleagues before, and I didn’t want to give them a negative impression of Dafa practitioners. So I silently said to Master, “Master, how can I work this out?” Soon enough, I had an idea. Within twenty minutes, I found the answer for my boss.
Making Use of Every Opportunity to Clarify the Facts
Whichever company I worked at, I always held myself to the standards of a Dafa practitioner. I worked diligently, coming to work early and going home late. Whenever there was an opportunity, I’d clarify the facts and help people quit the CCP and its youth organizations. I talked to my colleagues as soon as I came on board at a new company. Unfortunately, I ended up being laid off from five companies after working there for only a few days and didn’t receive any pay.
A colleague once reported me for informing people about the persecution. I realize that I could have avoided this tribulation, as I was pushy in trying to get him to take the informational materials and kept stressing the importance of reading them. I was held in a detention center. As soon as I was released, my boss wanted me to come back to work. But a few days later, I was taken to a brainwashing center.
I later started work at a newly formed agency that treated overtime as the norm. The company started from scratch and, within six months, it had more than 300 clients. There were two senior accountants. One of them had been in this field for over twenty years. The other one was me. I didn’t have a long tenure, but since I cultivated Dafa, Master had given me wisdom. I seemed to be more professional than she was, as I could find the root cause of issues. The other employees in the company were all new graduates.
I held myself to the principles of Dafa. I didn’t care about hardship, nor personal gain. I helped young colleagues sign contracts and negotiate with clients, which involved my self-interest. I was responsible for about 50 companies’ books and was busy to begin with. But as long as they needed me to help with negotiations, I always gave them a hand. By doing so, I could talk to my colleagues individually and clarify the facts to them. I never treated the clients as my own, but rather let my colleagues take the credit. They worked extremely hard with generally low pay. Even though sometimes, with my help, they earned more than I did. But I still didn’t think much about it.
I became more mature in cultivation and tried not to pass up any opportunity to clarify the facts. My boss was a bit nervous in the beginning, but when he saw that I worked wholeheartedly and gained the respect of my colleagues, he didn’t worry about me any more. Even though he never expressed his stance toward Dafa, he never stopped me from clarifying the facts. I worked there for close to two years. It was only when an experienced accountant joined that I left the company.
When I left, except for a few colleagues, almost everyone chose to quit the CCP. My boss didn’t want me to leave, but I insisted. When I left, he purposefully deducted my pay, but I didn’t argue with him. Among the 50-plus companies under my belt, over ten of them had great trust in me. I could have, like other accountants, brought clients with me when I switched jobs. A few of them expressed their willingness to go with me, but I declined. I knew that we were creating the path for the future, so I persuaded them to stay with my old company.
If I wasn’t a Dafa practitioner, I’d be so happy taking away those clients who wanted to go with me, as I would be taking revenge on my boss!
I’ve cultivated Dafa for over twenty years. From clarifying the facts to helping people quit the Party, I have run into all kinds of people. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, and I’ve stumbled along the way. It was benevolent Master who didn’t give up on me. What I have done is very limited, and I feel that I have let Master down. But compared to before, I have became mature. I used to treat doing things as cultivation. Now I give precedence to doing the three things over everything else.
I’m not quite up to the standard of practitioners who have done well. I hope I can cultivate as if I’ve just started, become a qualified Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, and not be unworthy of Master’s saving grace.
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