(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. My mother, a fellow practitioner, once said to me, “You have nobody in your heart, except you and your husband.” My younger sister, a practitioner too, immediately added, “Not even her husband, she has only herself in her heart.” My husband also called me selfish. You can imagine what a selfish person I was. Some practitioners felt puzzled how somebody like me, who displayed selfishness in every single action, could begin practicing Dafa.

I had no concept of thinking of others at all, which shows how selfish I was. I yearned to be an altruistic person. After cultivating for more than 20 years, I was still so selfish.

Today, I want to share my experience of breaking through my selfish and self-interested state while sending forth righteous thoughts. My experience validated the wonder of Dafa and the greatness of Master. I also hope that practitioners all attach importance to sending forth righteous thoughts and doing the three things that Master has asked us to do well.

Master taught us,

“I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism. So from now on, whatever you do or whatever you say, you must consider others—or even future generations—along with Dafa’s eternal stability.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

One day in April 2024, I naturally felt the urge to send forth righteous thoughts for an extended period to cleanse myself.

Master said,

“...thinking about eliminating the bad thoughts in their minds, their karma, bad notions, and external interference. As you’re like this, think that they die, and then they will be eliminated. Five minutes will do.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference,” Guiding the Voyage)

I was unable to focus my mind when sending forth righteous thoughts, so I took a large piece of cardboard and wrote the words “die” and “eliminate” in large letters. I kept staring at them and softly chanting “die.” After a while, I needed to change my posture, but my mind never stopped just thinking “that they die,” and I maintained a mindset of pure compassion while chanting silently and calmly. I also reinforced my confidence in sending forth righteous thought with the sentence:

Master said,

“If you are determined, the karma can be eliminated.” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)

I continued sending forth righteous thoughts for an extended time each day for seven days in a row. I did it for more than an hour on the first day. Then for the next three days, I did it for more than two hours in the morning and more than one hour in the afternoon each day. During the following days, I did it for more than two hours each day.

On the sixth day, my true nature was awakened by the Fa. I suddenly sobbed and cried out loudly, “I want to be a life of altruism in the new universe. I don’t want to be a selfish being in the old cosmos. Master, please strengthen your disciple!” I said these words a couple of times, then I calmed down after a little while. I continued sending forth righteous thoughts. After a while, I again sobbed and cried out loudly, “I want to be a life of altruism in the new universe. I don’t want to be a selfish being in the old cosmos. Master, please strengthen your disciple!” Tears flowed uncontrollably, and I kept repeating the words. I felt that my head had broken free from the incredibly hard shell of the old universe. I felt Master’s compassionate arrangement and strengthening, and that he cherishes all sentient beings. I was deeply enlightened to the boundless meaning of the phrase:

Master said,

“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

Master taught us,

“The truth is, anything that is not consistent with Dafa or the righteous thoughts of Dafa disciples results from the old forces’ involvement, and that includes all of the unrighteous elements that you have. And that is why I have made sending righteous thoughts one of the three major things that Dafa disciples are to do. Sending righteous thoughts targets things that are outside of as well as inside of oneself, with nothing unrighteous allowed to escape. It’s just that there have been differences in how we have regarded and handled sending righteous thoughts.” (“On the Responses to the Piece About Assistant Souls”)

That evening, before practitioners came to my home, I was ironing clothes with a steam iron. The iron was very hot, so I placed it on the tiled floor in the living room. After we finished studying the Fa, as I walked out of the room, one of my feet slipped. I realized it was caused by water that had leaked from the iron onto the floor. Instead of complaining as I would usually, saying something like, “You almost made your owner trip,” I calmly cleaned up the water and put the iron back in the room. It was then the time to send forth righteous thoughts globally. As I was conjoining my hands together to cleanse myself, a thought arose, “You say you are the owner of that iron, but you didn’t care when it was leaking. You are still not a qualified owner [so the problem had happened].” In the past, with my character and personality, I wouldn’t have had such a kind thought. This change in thinking only happened after I broke through the thick shell of selfishness while sending forth righteous thoughts.

Without Master teaching us Dafa and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and without Master’s protection along the way, I, a selfish person full of karma, don’t know how far I would have fallen. I’m grateful for Master’s compassionate salvation.