(Minghui.org) I was working in a school in 1999, and was not yet 30 years old. But despite my young age, I was already sick. I was given the opportunity to learn Falun Dafa, and soon after I began practicing this cultivation system, I was free of illness. My life completely changed—Dafa created a new me.
Honored for Following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Dafa in July 1999, the 610 Office repeatedly pressured the school to force Falun Dafa practitioners who persisted in practicing their faith to submit a “guarantee letter” and “thought reports.” I knew firmly that Dafa is good, and Master Li [Dafa’s founder] is good, and that I could never betray Master and Dafa. I did not cooperate with their unreasonable demands. The school leader in charge of the matter told my husband to write the letter for me. I now know, my xinxing was not up to par, and my husband committed a sin in writing the letter.
Despite the cruel persecution, I behaved in accordance with Dafa’s standards, and as a result gained one achievement after another. Dozens of my papers were published in national, provincial, and municipal journals, nearly ten of which were published in national core academic journals, and the editor-in-chief of the core journal in Beijing came to my office to request my manuscripts in person. I was later promoted. I taught senior classes for two years and my top class won the first prize at the provincial level. I was named a municipal-level excellent teacher.
I did my job as assigned, relieved school leaders’ concerns, and coached students for an academic competition. If the team did not win the province or national awards, then all the work one did was in vain. Since the school leader assigned me the task, I would do it well and earnestly. Although our school did not advance to the provincial level, it was selected as the experimental base. I was also recommended to be a judge for the municipal competition, and was invited to speak as a representative in the general assembly. I was later named as one of city’s most talented teachers.
During the provincial teachers’ training sessions, I conscientiously did every assignment and gave teachers reasonable and fair evaluations. My evaluations and articles were often praised by my instructors and used as examples many times.
I did everything according to Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My articles were pure, elegant, and unassuming, so that people would feel the goodness and forbearance from them. As a result, I was awarded the title of Provincial Outstanding Student for six consecutive years at the teachers’ training session, the only such award in our teaching group, among only a handful of the 600 to 700 faculty members in the entire school.
The school leaders also saw the demeanor of a Dafa practitioner, which helped to change their views on Dafa. When the persecution was most severe, I was recognized for my excellence in the year-end evaluation.
All of these achievements would not have been possible if I had not studied Falun Dafa, because Dafa gave me good health, taught me to be a good person, and required that I followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Additionally, I was righteous in my thoughts and deeds, which made all of these things possible.
Taking Students to Beijing
There was a national competition over 10 years ago, starting from school-level selection. I did not think I had a chance to win any awards, and just took the task I was given seriously, and coached the students well. Five out of the six students selected came from the class I taught. It wasn’t that the students in other classes weren’t good, it was because the other teachers didn’t take the tasks assigned to them seriously, and their students didn’t pay much attention to the competition either, which was quite normal. I could also have irresponsibly coped with the task and saved myself the trouble, but I am a Dafa practitioner, and couldn’t do that. I had to be responsible for the school and the students. Every student and I are predestined, and what I did might affect their whole life.
The school leader decided to have me lead the team to participate in the city competition. We progressed all the way through, and two students from our school ended up qualifying for the provincial team. We also represented the province to participate in the national competition, and I sacrificed my time off during the summer vacation to tutor the students in each of the competing subjects.
When the competition was about to start, the school began to select a teacher who could take the students from our school to Beijing. My department’s director worried that if I lead the team to Beijing, there might be trouble [because I am a Falun Dafa practitioner]. I did not think about it too much, and said that I could go with them. We took the train to Beijing, and in the heavily guarded China Convention Center, a state leader personally handed out awards to my students. We won a second prize and a third prize, which was the best result in our province for quite some time, and the provincial team leader said, “I really didn’t expect your students to get such a good result in a national competition. This is the best result in our province in years.” I was also awarded the title of National Outstanding Counselor that year.
I knew that it was the gift from Master, otherwise I would not have won this award. It was Master who taught me to think of others in every way, and that was why I received the honor.
When I met a leader of my school later, he gave me the thumbs up and said, “You are now a famous teacher!”
Letting Go of Fame and Fortune
In every performance evaluation, several teachers in our group worked together to give each other high performance scores. In China such a thing is not uncommon, which could make anyone who worked hard and was honest not receive a high score. A few good teachers, whom I knew well, asked me to work with them to give each other a high score, but I did not agree. I must give every coworker a reasonable score in accordance with the requirements of Dafa, and I would never do anything to harm others and benefit myself. I knew that one coworker gave me a low score, but I didn’t do the same in return. Rather, I reflected on myself, looked inward to see what I had done wrong, and corrected my actions that were not in line with the Fa. In the end, I gave this coworker the highest score in the evaluation, according to her actual work. During the process, I cautioned myself to put aside fame and fortune and be a true Dafa practitioner.
I was persecuted that year, so the management didn’t give me the outstanding performance award (I was rated as outstanding by that school almost every year in the past). The 610 Office was behind the decision. Three times, my director applied to the management to award me the “outstanding performance” that year, but it was still not approved. However, this year a coworker in the human resources department told me that my outstanding performance award was approved. After a lapse of six years, I received the award again.
Because of the unprecedented persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners, millions of Dafa practitioners have suffered greatly, and I was one of them. I was unable to get a salary increase and job promotion, unable to teach senior classes, and unable to be evaluated for excellence at the end of the year. However, under Master’s compassionate protection, I followed Dafa’s requirements, cultivated my thoughts strictly based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my work, thought of others first, put aside the pursuit of fame and fortune, and practiced righteousness. I deny everything arranged by the old forces, and have managed to make it to the present day.
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