(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1999, shortly before the persecution began. I experienced ups and downs but I always reminded myself to measure each thought with the Fa.
In July 2010 I was given a forced labor term for practicing Falun Dafa. While I was in the camp people told me that I might lose my job after I was released, which depressed me. I wondered if practitioners truly lost their jobs.
I remembered Master’s words,
“Meanwhile, people also must have a human living space and the conditions to live, and these should also be safeguarded. Human beings still need to maintain their lives and live normally.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
Why should practitioners lose their jobs for practicing Dafa and for being good people? My salary was already very low and I could barely made ends meet. Losing my job meant that I would be unable to maintain a normal life, which felt wrong and seemed like an old forces’ arrangement to disrupt my cultivation.
My mind immediately cleared up, and I believed in Master’s arrangement: Practicing Dafa would not cause me to lose my job. I knew I had to remind myself I was a practitioner and I stopped worrying about it.
After I was released in 2012, my employer not only allowed me to keep my job but even offered me three types of work to choose from. Soon after I returned, the salaries for all employees in the company were doubled. A coworker joked that the company waited for me to return to implement this. The company also compensated me for my pension insurance for the period I was detained.
Through this experience I enlightened that a cultivator’s thoughts are crucial. Only when our thoughts are in line with the Fa can we walk the correct path.
When my company reorganized a few years later, everyone in my group was transferred to the central control room except for one elderly colleague and I, who were assigned the exhausting work of landscaping. I accepted the new position without hesitation.
But on the first day in my new position, I heard I had been given that assignment because I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. Apparently, management was still prejudiced against practitioners. I talked to a manager the next day and explained the facts about Dafa. As a good person recognized by my colleagues, I told him that I shouldn’t be unreasonably mistreated. Not long after, I was transferred to the central control room, where I worked until I retired.
This incident made me realize that we should measure everything according to the standards of Dafa.
Before the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress in 2017, my company’s management was pressured to monitor me, and I was constantly followed. This caused my coworkers to gossip about me, and I was under tremendous pressure.
One day, a manager came to my post and told me to hand in my husband's and son’s ID cards—which was another way to pressure and threaten me. I looked inward and found that I still had the attachment of fear, so I recited Master’s poem to strengthen my righteous thoughts:
“If you have fear, they will grab youOnce your thought is righteous, evil will collapsePeople practicing cultivation, filled with FaSending righteous thoughts, exploding rotten ghostsGods are in the world, validating Fa” (“What’s There to Fear,” Hong Yin II)
I told the manager to tell the company’s upper management that I would practice Falun Dafa forever. My words stunned everyone in the room, and the person left without further comment.
The next day that same manager escorted me to the CEO’s office. Several top executives greeted me with smiles. They told me that the company wanted to offer me a trip to one of the company’s subdivisions of my choice before I retired. I knew that they found a nice way to resolve the current situation, so I accepted the offer.
I was accompanied by several coworkers and treated like an inspector from the head office throughout the trip. I had opportunities to tell the facts about Dafa to leaders in the subdivision and the coworkers accompanying me, answering their questions and misunderstandings. When other coworkers heard about this, they stopped being prejudiced against me and treated me with respect. One envious coworker expressed an interest in practicing Falun Dafa.
I’ve been retired for several years and whenever I recall these amazing experiences my heart is full of gratitude for Master’s constant protection. To walk our cultivation paths well we must keep our thoughts righteous at all times and solidly cultivate ourselves. This involves studying the Fa and constantly correcting our actions, especially during conflicts or whenever there are difficulties. We also need to evaluate our thoughts with the standards of the Fa to discover any human attachments and thoughts that are not from our true selves, send righteous thoughts to eliminate them, and prevent the old forces from taking advantage of our loopholes.
Master said, “... mind is matter” (Teachings at the Midwestern U.S. Conference). When our minds are filled with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, our dimensional fields become clean and beautiful, leaving no opportunities for the old forces to interfere. This also empowers us to save more people.
If there is anything in my sharing not in line with the Fa, please kindly point it out.