(Minghui.org) Greeting, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I have been cultivating since December 2001. I would like to take this opportunity to report my cultivation journey to Master.
Blessing Brought by a Car Accident
I was in a serious accident on a highway on January 1 this year. I didn’t notice a fast car approaching as I was changing lanes, and my car was hit from behind. The other car rolled over. My car’s rear wheel and door were completely destroyed, but my non-practitioner family member and I weren’t injured.
I was completely stunned. My mind went blank. How could that happen?! Fortunately, the two young people in the other car also got out smoothly. They had some scratches and minor concussions, but they were quickly released from the hospital.
I felt scared while recounting what had happened. The highway was in good condition at that time, and there wasn’t much traffic. Both of our cars were going fast. The other car turned over immediately after the collision, but was miraculously thrown from the inner-most lane to the shoulder lane, and then stopped perfectly there. Although my rear tire was damaged, I was able to drive my car to the shoulder lane as well. Neither of our cars were hit by any other cars. I must have dissolved a huge amount of karma under Master’s protection.
The tests of my xinxing kicked in as I started dealing with the damage. I had to eliminate my attachment to personal interest. My car’s repairs alone cost 160,000 Taiwanese dollars (~USD$5,100). The estimated cost of the other car's repairs were more than 600,000 Taiwanese dollars (~USD$19,000). Both of us had insurance, but I still had to pay a large amount out of pocket. I thought it was a lot of money, but my second thought was that I had to pay my debts, and a cultivator shouldn’t be calculating. However, the police report put 100 percent of the responsibility on me. My fighting mentality was stirred up, thinking that the other car had obviously been speeding. How could they have no responsibility at all? My aunt, who happened to be my insurance carrier, insisted that I should apply for an accident reassessment, which I did. The reassessment report found that I had failed to keep a safe distance, and that the other driver had been speeding.
I thought it was fair, but because of my aunt’s repeated advice, I tried to diminish my responsibility by appealing so that I could possibly pay less. Contrary to our expectations, the result of my appeal was that I should be the solely-responsible party for the accident. Due to my repeatedly delaying discussions about compensation, the other party filed a lawsuit against me for negligence. My fighting mentality and attachment to personal interests ended up pulling me into deeper trouble.
My aunt thought it was important to fight on the issue of right and wrong. She had lost many nights of sleep because of my case, and even thought about how to win for me in her dreams. Her blood pressure went as high as 200, but she wasn’t bitter. While I was writing this article, she called me several times to remind me how to revise my answers to questions.
Master has enlightened us:
“As a cultivatorOne always looks for one’s own faults‘Tis the way to get rid of attachments most effectivelyThere’s no way to skip ordeals, big or small[During a conflict, if you can remember:]“He’s right,And I’m wrong,”What’s to dispute?”(“Who’s Right, Wong’s Wrong,” Hong Yin III)
Recounting my reaction to the accident on the first day of the year, my first thought had been “Why am I so unlucky?!” I didn’t remember to look for my shortcomings as a cultivator.
As I started to seriously look within, I found I had impatience while driving, my fear of getting into trouble and losing money, my fighting mentality, and my over-reliance on ordinary people. It would have been hard to eliminate all these attachments without the accident. I wasn’t unlucky. The car accident was indeed a good thing, and even a blessing.
Demotion
NTDTV went through some restructuring in March this year. I received a call one morning, telling me that I would no longer be the manager of the News Department. I initially thought that I would be able to accept it calmly, because it would be great for NTDTV if a more capable manager could take over. However, the person who took over my position turned out to be one of my former employees who had confronted me in front of others.
Things he had done flashed into and stirred up unhappiness in my mind. I couldn’t understand why a younger and less experienced fellow practitioner had been chosen to manage the department, and I had to work for him. I realized that my negative thoughts weren’t right, and I warned myself to let go of my notions about this fellow practitioner, but I couldn’t suppress my negative thoughts, even after sending forth righteous thoughts. I lost sleep at night. After doing the exercises in the morning, my disgruntlement continued to bother me.
Master must have seen my difficult attempts to break through and enlightened me with the word “jealousy” in front of my eyes. In the meantime, a paragraph from Master’s teachings came to my mind:
“A wicked person is born of jealousy.Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself.”(“Realms,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
My mind became clear right away. In my mind I said that I don’t want jealousy. In a fraction of a second, I felt like I was floating up slowly from the place that I was sitting, and stopped at a certain level in the universe.
I knew that Master had encouraged me by letting me experience the genuine improvement that comes from letting go. As long as we are truly determined to let go of our attachments, Master can help remove the negative substances that have been affecting our minds. I indeed faced this fellow practitioner with a calm mind and seriously worked to meet his requirements. I only saw this fellow practitioner's strengths, instead of any shortcomings.
My Reflections Following Fellow Practitioners’ Deaths
Several practitioners passed away and I personally attended a couple of fellow practitioners’ funerals this year. Some of them had cultivated for more than ten years, or even more than twenty years. Some passed away due to sickness karma. Some died in car accidents. Their deaths prompted me to reflect on the reasons.
Regardless of the various reasons, their deaths not only brought a huge loss to our body of cultivators, but also presented us with tests on the level of our belief, to see whether we measured issues with the Fa, or with human notions at critical moments. Any momentary slip at a critical moment distinguishes the human from the divine. If we fail to treat ourselves as Falun Dafa disciples, Master won’t be be able to protect us even if he wants to.
I found a lot of blood in the toilet one day after I used the bathroom. I was shocked, thinking that an old illness from years prior had returned. Though I ignored it, knowing it was a process of dissolving karma instead of illness, and the symptoms persisted for several days.
The bleeding paused for a few days. I thought I had passed the test, but it returned, with worse bleeding. It lasted for weeks, but I didn’t feel any pain. None of my daily activities were affected. However, a negative thought crept up, “Is this colon cancer? Should I have it checked?” I immediately realized that these thoughts were wrong. It was a process of dissolving karma and passing a test. As a cultivator, I should first look within and see if any attachments had been blocking me from passing the test.
I found my fear of illness, as well as my lust. When I saw young and pretty women on the street, I couldn’t help looking at them more. I also wasted a lot of time watching movies and following soap operas, but I hadn’t studied the Fa or done the exercises regularly.
After working for our media for so many years, I had many hidden attachments and notions. For example, holding grudges against upper management, being afraid of conflict if I corrected fellow practitioners’ shortcomings, my grievances against fellow practitioners who didn’t listen to me, and my looking down upon fellow practitioners who played video games.
Looking within made me realize how poorly I had done in cultivation. I had been harboring so many attachments for so long, but I had dismissed them as trivial. There is actually nothing trivial in cultivation. A little negligence could become a huge issue.
The appearance of sickness karma turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me identify my shortcomings. Master must have seen my dangerous situation and enlightened me to improve quickly. I made up my mind to let go of my attachments and measure my thoughts according to the Fa. After I persisted in doing so, the serious bleeding stopped before I knew it.
I would like to encourage my fellow practitioners with Master’s words:
“Divine beings hold in high esteem the Dafa disciples who have gone through this historic period. You too should cherish yourselves, and find a way to make it through this unprecedented and most evil of persecutions. Become a True Enlightened Being! Through these things you will achieve what divine beings consider magnificent!” (“Stay Out of Danger”)
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2023 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
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