(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I usually live alone. My daughter studied, worked, and got married out of town, so my life is rather simple, and my workplace has become my primary cultivation environment.
I work in the product inspection department of a pharmaceutical company. I’ve worked in the Greater Miami area for more than 20 years, switching between several companies, big and small. On the surface, it was so that I could make a living, but looking back, it was all arranged by Master. Through the toil I could reduce my karma, remove attachments that I needed to eliminate, and more importantly, save the sentient beings I needed to save.
Let me start from the time I changed jobs in 2005. I began working in K Company’s laboratory. There was already a Chinese colleague there. My department manager was a Filipino lady who assigned me relatively important projects. I handled them smoothly, and we worked together very well. She even gave me a significant raise. Just when I felt everything was going smoothly, she suddenly announced that her husband’s job had asked him to transfer to a new location and she would move with him. I felt very disappointed.
A Hispanic lady recommended by upper management was hired as the new manager. After some time, I heard that the higher-ups did not acknowledge her competence, but she managed to keep her position due to her relationship with a company executive. She hired quite a few new people, all Hispanic, and formed a small clique. I had no issues with these new colleagues and got along well with them. However, I did have some opinions about this manager. One time, due to a work-related issue—actually due to her misunderstanding—I failed to maintain my xinxing and had a loud argument with her. A few days later, she half-jokingly said that I should apologize. Thinking I was in the right, I refused. Looking back now, I feel quite ashamed. At the time, I was arrogant and proud—nothing like a cultivator. I only realized later on that I had the mentality of looking down on others.
However, regardless of the environment, I always took the initiative to clarify the truth to everyone, including the manager. I even lent her Dafa books, and my Chinese colleague read them too. They both accepted the truth well. The manager liked the Dafa music I played in the lab.
Back when Shen Yun had just started performing, I forget if it was the first or second year in our area, the manager took two of my colleagues to watch the show. The next year, she encouraged everyone in the lab to go, and I helped everyone buy group tickets, including my Chinese colleague’s family of three.
The company’s owner later sold the entire business to an Indian businessman. Due to poor management, the company began laying off staff and by 2010, K Company had closed.
In 2011, the original owner of K Company restarted operations at the original site and founded E Company, so I joined. Since it was a new venture developing new products with a small staff, I was uncertain about its prospects. At the same time, I had applied for a job with the large W Company, which invited me for an interview. I received a job offer with much better pay and benefits, and although E Company tried to retain me, they couldn’t match the salary, so I left. But they welcomed me to return anytime.
At W Company, my project manager was Indian, and many colleagues were Chinese. The company had many tasks, and I worked diligently. Still, I felt the manager was quite harsh with me. I later learned that he had wanted to hire his friend, who also interviewed for my position, but since the hiring panel consisted of seven or eight managers from different departments, he didn’t have the final say. Once I was hired, he was picky and overly critical. As a cultivator, I knew I had to maintain a righteous mindset—be diligent, responsible, and endure hardship. But due to the heavy workload, I often had to work overtime, and the manager required me to work at least one weekend day each week. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I once complained to a fellow practitioner, and she said, “You just don’t want to endure hardship, right?” In hindsight, perhaps Master had arranged all that for me to suffer and eliminate karma.
On the other hand, since I had many Chinese colleagues at W Company, I knew it was my responsibility to clarify the truth. After joining, I spoke to my colleagues whenever it was appropriate, especially when talking about my family or visits to China. I explained how I couldn’t return to China because I practiced Falun Gong, and I told them the truth. Another project manager heard “Falun Gong” and said, “I hate Falun Gong.” I asked him if he had read any of the books—he hadn’t. I knew he was misled by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda. I shared my own experiences of how I had benefited physically and mentally, and he didn’t argue further. After I left the company, I heard that whenever my name was brought up, he would say, “She’s a good person!” Another male colleague was deeply influenced by the CCP and repeated its lies. We debated for two hours. In the end, he agreed to read Zhuan Falun. I lent it to him, and after reading it, he didn’t say anything else. A female colleague was more open-minded—she accepted the truth easily and wanted to read Zhuan Falun. After reading, she said it was great.
About a year and a half later, news came that W Company was merging with another large company. People speculated about potential layoffs. I didn’t think much about it and just did my job. Sure enough, three to four months later, large-scale layoffs began. Two people in my group were let go, and I was one of them. Many laid-off employees were very emotional; some cried out, “Why me?” I was calm, as I had expected it. Some Chinese colleagues thought it was unfair and asked why I didn’t protest. I just smiled and said, “Maybe I owed him.”
I again faced job hunting. I thought about E Company, but I felt embarrassed, since I had left despite their efforts to retain me. But there were no other opportunities, so I contacted them, and they welcomed me back with open arms.
I returned to E Company in 2013. A supervisor joked, “You wanted to leave, but now you’re back!” I said, “I won’t leave again; I’ll stay and work here.” He half-jokingly replied, “Hmm, we’ll see.”
In the following years, the company gradually grew. The skills I learned at W Company—especially instrument operation and method development—came in handy. They bought second-hand instruments, and I was able to train new employees. I had opportunities to be promoted, but I declined and recommended younger coworkers instead. A supervisor later told another colleague, “Linda had many chances to be promoted, but she refused. She doesn’t want to deal with interpersonal relationships.” He knew me well. I just wanted a steady job so that I could spend more time on Dafa projects.
When the company was at its peak, several Chinese PhDs joined the R&D team. I took the opportunity to clarify the truth to all of them and help them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Sometimes this included their family members.
When the COVID-19 outbreak started in Wuhan, our pharmaceutical company remained open. A production employee and a department supervisor showed symptoms, and everyone was nervous. I felt it was time to speak up. I wrote a brief truth-clarification letter with links to an Epoch Times video exposing the CCP’s cover up, the “END CCP” petition, and articles about the power of reciting “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I sent it to the two infected individuals and also to the VP and HR director. The HR director thanked me; the VP not only thanked me for the information but also said she loved the Epoch Times. Turns out she was a regular reader—I was surprised.
Two colleagues near me in the lab got infected. While they were isolating at home, I stayed in touch with them and told them to recite the two phrases. Both of them recovered.
After the pandemic, the company’s performance declined. They suspended 401k contributions and stopped issuing bonuses. I didn’t usually pay attention to company gossip, but I noticed many people—from top to bottom—had left, including the Chinese colleagues. The owner passed away unexpectedly, and his relatives took over, leading to major management changes.
I had promised when I joined that I would stay, so I never considered leaving. But soon I found there were only three or four people left in the lab. I wondered if I was being stubborn. I casually searched online and found that Company A was hiring for a similar position. I applied and quickly got an interview and job offer. Though management tried to persuade me to stay, I felt that Master had arranged a new path for me.
I joined A Company in 2022. After familiarizing myself with the environment and instruments, my supervisor asked me to quickly get involved in testing a product using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method—method number 605.
While collaborating with colleagues during testing, I learned that this method often produced unexpected issues, and no one knew why. As a result, each step of the process had extremely strict requirements. There was a guard column in front of the main chromatographic column, and the guard column included a filter. The solutions had to be prepared using HPLC-grade ultra pure water. Even with all these precautions, problems frequently occurred. Whenever an issue arose, they would repeatedly change columns or guard columns. One chromatographic column cost over $2,000; a guard column was several hundred dollars; a bottle of HPLC-grade ultra pure water cost nearly $100, and several bottles were used for each test.In other words, this test was extremely costly.
After becoming familiar with the procedure, I started running the tests independently. The first few tests went relatively smoothly. But soon enough, anomalies began to appear. I had to discuss solutions with my supervisor and coworkers. I quickly realized how tormenting method 605 was. Many people in the company were aware of it. As soon as someone mentioned “605,” people would sigh and shake their heads—as if it were cursed. There was even a saying: “Everybody quit 605.” That is, everyone who had to do this test ended up quitting because of it. No wonder everyone in my group was relatively new—those before them had all been driven away by this experiment. At that time, I truly regretted leaving my previous company. I felt I had jumped into a fire pit.
My supervisor hoped I could research and find a solution to the problem. I agreed to think of a way. I suggested we try running the method without the guard column. She said that wasn’t allowed because the methodology officially required it. Then, one time, a colleague got abnormal results, prompting an investigation. I was responsible for running the verification test, which had to be completed that same day. But when I tested on two instruments, the chromatographic peaks were both abnormal. I was nearly in breakdown mode. I told my supervisor: “This is literally torture!” She lost control and shouted, “Torture?! I’ve wanted to quit for a long time!”
With no other options, I decided to remove the guard column and try again. To my astonishment, the chromatographic peaks were excellent. Immediately, I decided to remove the guard column from all future 605 tests—and the final results were also excellent.
Who would have thought: a so-called “guard column” not only failed to provide protection, but had caused so much suffering. This was likely a result of someone making a premature assumption during the development phase of the method.
Afterward, I also revised the cleaning procedure for the chromatographic column, significantly extending its lifespan. Additionally, I experimented with preparing the solutions using just filtered deionized water instead of expensive HPLC-grade ultra pure water. As of now, with the improved method, the costs have decreased significantly, and the experiment has become much easier to perform. No one will quit over method 605 anymore—the curse has been broken.
My supervisor told me, “I’m really, really grateful to you for solving this problem. You have no idea how hard it used to be—no one who knew the situation wanted to join my group.” One colleague also said, “You’ve saved the company a lot of money. They should give you a big bonus.” I just smiled. As a cultivator, we do good things without seeking rewards.
Now, regarding the environment at work: the vast majority of employees speak Spanish. I’m not sure of the exact percentage, but I would estimate at least 95 percent. Our small team merged with another small group—around 10 people in total—and I’m the only non-Hispanic person. Except during meetings or when people speak to me directly, everything I hear is in Spanish. In my previous workplaces, regardless of people’s native languages, everyone spoke English in shared spaces. That’s not the case here. For example, even when speaking in front of me, the manager and another colleague will speak Spanish. At first, it was hard to adjust, but now I’m used to it.
Because most of our department is female, there’s constant chatter during and after work. One time, I said to a male coworker who shares my office: “I don’t understand what they’re talking about.” He replied, “You don’t need to understand—they’re just gossiping.” I felt that he had a point—perhaps Master was giving me a hint. When I mentioned again that I couldn’t understand their conversations, he said, “Linda, you really don’t need to understand—they’re just gossiping.” I felt again that Master was giving me a hint: I should let go of this curiosity. Maybe Master arranged this environment to help me maintain a calm and pure mind.
Even in such an environment, I still found opportunities to share the beauty of Falun Dafa, the CCP’s persecution, and Shen Yun performances. Two coworkers have finished reading Falun Gong and want to continue with Zhuan Falun. Some haven’t finished reading, but through interacting with me now understand that Falun Gong is a practice that teaches people to be good. Every Shen Yun season, I bring flyers to share with everyone. Many people are interested, and some have already gone to see the show.
The above is a summary of my experiences working at different companies over the years. My realization is: every time I enter a new environment, it’s like the curtain rising on a grand play. We walk the stage with sentient beings, forming predestined relationships. We must play the role well that Master has arranged for us.It’s important to look back frequently and see whether we have performed well—and to always remember: we are cultivators. We cannot get lost in the human world.After more than 20 years of trials and tempering, many human attachments have been worn away. The arrogance and pride I once had are gone. I no longer complain. Most of the time, I carry a humble and grateful heart, cherishing the karmic connection with every person around me. As Master said, all sentient beings have come for the Fa. Our conduct is their reference for the future.
Of course, I still display many human attachments—especially in my current company. Master uses various situations to help me see these attachments. Thankfully, I can now quickly become aware of them, catch them, and work hard to eliminate them.
I will strive to be a genuine and solid cultivator.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Selected article presented at the 2025 Florida Fa Conference)