(Minghui.org) I was born into a middle-class family in a village and was introverted. I became a shop assistant in a large shopping center. Most of my coworkers lived in the city and were better off than I was. I had low self-esteem. I had four sisters and knew my parents struggled to raise us. I didn’t want to use my parents’ money when I got married, so I was frugal and saved.
Morally Corrupt: Accepting Kickbacks
I was made a team leader in my section several years later. I was in charge of purchasing, quality control, and settlements. We experienced a good business. My fellow villager told me that the team leader could get kickbacks. I asked for kickbacks from the suppliers. Later on the supplier gave each shop assistant a kickback due to the fierce competition. I asked the supplier to give all the kickbacks to me and then I allocated them to the shop assistants. I would first keep some to myself before I distributed it evenly to each colleague. Sometimes I asked for goods at wholesale prices from the suppliers and sold them at retail prices. I pocketed the profits. The amount was even bigger than my annual salary.
When I got married in 1997, I gave 10,000 yuan to my parents as my dowry. At that time the apartment I bought cost me less than 20,000 yuan. I felt very happy and considered myself capable and filial to my parents.
As I made more money, I regarded money as more and more important. I judged people differently--whoever made more money was capable and smart. I looked down on those who relied only on salaries.
As I indulged myself, I found that I was more prone to catching colds. Later on I suffered from pharyngitis and severe breast hyperplasia. I paid a great deal of attention to my daily life and the food I ate to keep myself from getting sick. I didn’t eat anything sour, sweet, spicy, or cold. I wore more clothes than other people. I admired people in good health. I was exhausted every day. Life began to seem meaningless.
On one occasion I went on a trip to Qingdao with my family for three days. I had a high fever and diarrhea after I returned home. I lost a lot of weight. No one else in my family was sick at all.
Practicing Dafa and Understanding the Principles
I saw that my friend became healthy after she took up Falun Dafa and was happy all the time. I started to practice Falun Dafa as well. After I read Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, I got answers to my unsolved questions and understood the causal relationships of things that happened. If people suffer, bear hardships, and do good deeds, they will accumulate virtue and extend their lives. They will have higher positions and make good money, and everything will go well. When people do bad deeds and hurt others, they will lose virtue, suffer losses, and have illnesses or even lose their lives.
Falun Dafa requires practitioners to be good, sincere, kind, tolerant, and forgiving. Practitioners need to cultivate away various attachments such as jealousy, competitiveness, pursuing personal interests, resentment, and so on and elevate our realms. People’s health is related to their moral realm. Practitioners have to be considerate and avoid harming others. In conflicts, they look within to find what they are not doing well. Good is rewarded and bad incurs retribution. People who don’t do good things will pass their misfortune on to the next generations.
Master said:
“One practitioner works in a textile factory in X city of Shandong Province. After studying Falun Dafa, he taught other coworkers to practice. As a result, the factory has taken on a new look. He used to take home pieces of towels from the textile factory, and so did the rest of the employees. After practicing Dafa, instead of taking things home he brought back to the factory what he took home before. When others saw his actions, nobody would take things home anymore. Some employees also returned to the factory what they previously took home. This situation occurred throughout the entire factory.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that everything had causal relationships. I found the reason why I had been suffering such bad health. I had done many bad things and hurt others. That was the reason. Divine beings are watching over us. Good is rewarded and bad will be punished. That’s the principle that applies to us. To harm others means to harm oneself. To be good to others means to be good to oneself.
I decided to change myself and to become a sincere, kind, tolerant, and calm person according to Dafa's requirements. I would try my best to be a selfless person.
I Changed Once I Took Up Falun Dafa
I went to buy goods for the company with other colleagues. The suppliers gave us kickbacks or gifts. My colleagues didn’t know that I practiced Falun Dafa. If I didn’t accept it, they would think I was strange and they would not accept the kickback either. I accepted the kickback first and then used it to buy office supplies for the company. For the kickbacks that I couldn’t return such as the kickbacks I got from the shopping center, I used it to do activities to raise awareness about Falun Dafa.
On another occasion I delayed a repayment and incurred a penalty. My manager said that the delay was caused by the lockdown that employees could not go to the office to work as normal. The company would pay the penalty. But I felt it was my fault. I transferred the payment to another account incorrectly thus delayed the payment and incurred the penalty. It was a warning to me that I should be more careful. It was also a test to me to see if I was attached to personal interest. So I paid the penalty out of my own pocket.
My manager and colleagues said that Falun Dafa practitioners are people with high morality.
One day I found out that we failed to pay several thousand yuan that we owed to a client. He forgot about it. I asked him if our company still owed him any money. He said he had settled everything with us. I asked him to check his bank statement to see if he had received that fund. He didn’t want to because it was too troublesome. I asked him to check several times. He didn’t find that payment on his bank statement. He was very thankful and said that he would give me half of the amount. I told him that it was his money and he needn’t do so. I told him that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and adhere to the practice’s high moral standard. He said that I was a good person and thanked me again.
I clarified the truth to him about Falun Dafa and the persecution. He acknowledged that Falun Dafa is good and agreed to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations using a pseudonym.
Looking Within to Improve Character
I live my everyday life according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, consider others first, do good things, don’t do bad things, and don't harm other people. My body has been purified and my moral standard has been raised. I am happy and energetic every day. I recovered from all my illnesses. I have been healthy, and haven’t needed medication for the past 12 years.
Falun Dafa practitioners will have interference if they don’t comply with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They will have disruptions at work, physical discomfort, or cultivation inference. These are the warnings to remind the practitioners to look within to find out where they fall short. Do they have jealousy, competitiveness, pursuit of personal interests, resentments, or selfishness?
One day I bought a pair of glasses in the hospital. The doctor said that I could use the medicare card. When I paid the fee, the cost came up as a surgery fee. I was a bit surprised and didn’t think it was correct. But I didn’t ask the cashier to issue another invoice so that I could pay cash.
I started to have blood in my spittle for a couple of days. I became alert and started to look within. I realized that it must be because I made a false claim and didn’t pay for that pair of glasses out of my pocket. I had the pursuit of personal interest and was lying. I said sorry to Master and used the money to produce truth-clarification materials to make up for it. The blood stopped after that. This incident told me a truth: Divine beings are watching over us and that good will be rewarded and evil will be punished.
Falun Dafa is the universal great law. It teaches people to be good according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance These are universal values. Whoever acknowledges Falun Dafa and treats practitioners kindly will be blessed.
I hope people will remember “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” and withdraw from the CCP organizations so that they will be blessed, avoid catastrophes, and have a good future.
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.
Category: Improving Oneself
