(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I would like to tell you about some of my experiences of learning to genuinely cultivate by following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
I’ve practiced Dafa for eight years. Over the past two years, I have gone through significant tests. Compared to the persecution and tribulations endured by fellow practitioners in mainland China, the tribulations I experienced pale in comparison. As a Westerner, I am deeply grateful to have obtained the Fa and cultivated in the United States, and to be a particle in Dafa.
Because of my family background, I carried many attachments as I began practicing Falun Dafa. Both my parents came from influential families, and from a young age we were taught the concept of “noblesse oblige” — a principle upheld by European aristocratic families, meaning that the higher one’s status, the greater one’s responsibility. Tracing my family history, past my grandfather’s generations included famous engineers recorded in the annals of history, who served royalty and emperors, and who built infrastructure for Latin America after World War II. I am also a descendant of notable figures in early American history. In more recent times, uncles and sisters have made names for themselves on the Paris fashion runways, in Hollywood, and are renowned in the rock music world. But as the times have changed, my family, too, has struggled to grasp the true meaning of “noblesse oblige,” so as a child I too believed I was superior to others. My husband says the more accurate word for that is “arrogance.” I’ve only recently come to realize that he’s right.
When I first learned Falun Dafa, my life changed like flipping a switch. Before Dafa my life was falling apart. Due to poor health, I was bed-ridden. I wanted to find a way to stop reincarnating in this dreadful place. The same week I began practicing Falun Dafa I started a new job and entered an accelerated career path. Over the next eight years I was promoted, recruited to more advanced roles, and eventually landed an executive role at a large international company.
At this company it was the first time I reported to a female boss. She was efficient, capable, and professional. When I dealt with an issue unprofessionally with another department, the next morning she called me to understand why I made those poor choices. Instead of disciplining me with anger and annoyance, she remained very calm, gentle, and kind. On the phone call with me she genuinely looked within to see where she had misled me. Her compassion moved my heart so much that I couldn’t hold back my tears. How was it that she was able to practice compassion so beautifully as an ordinary person while I fell so short in my “compassion” as a cultivator? She was exemplary of “In the Dao without cultivating the Dao.” (Zhuan Falun Volume II)
Master said:
“...“no loss, no gain.” To gain, one must lose.” (Lecture 4, Zhuan Falun)
Six months later I was fired. My attachments cost me my executive position because I didn’t hold myself to the standard of Zhen-Shan-Ren. If I had first regarded myself as a cultivator and looked within instead of looking outward, let go of my arrogance, and let go of my attachments to pursuing perfection and merely completing tasks, things could have turned out differently.
The moment I got fired my perspective and understanding switched to the other extreme. I was so terrified of how much I fell short as a human, professional, and cultivator, that I could barely take in the words when I studied the Fa. A fellow practitioner reminded me about the Arhat in Lecture 6 of Zhuan Falun who fell because of his fear.
I had trouble sleeping, concentrating, and lost my appetite. When I could not read or listen to the Fa, and the thought karma came to eat me up, I repeatedly recited Lunyu, having memorized the first paragraph. I also repeatedly recited Hong Yin II - “Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions”:
“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardshipHaving forged an admantine willFree of attachment to living or dyingHe walks the path of Fa rectification confident and poised”
I asked myself, “What was my greatest fear and therefore, my greatest attachment?” Had I tarnished Dafa’s reputation because of how poorly I applied the Fa principles in the workplace? Was I sending these sentient beings straight to hell because now they had a poor opinion of Falun Dafa? How can I call myself a Falun Dafa practitioner? I begged Master, “I want to improve so I can fix this. Have I dropped in cultivation levels and implicated other souls? Is this unforgivable? Can I be forgiven?”
Master said:
“From now on, the problems you confront won’t happen by chance. So please be mentally prepared. By enduring some tribulations, you will come to let go of all the things an everyday person can’t release.” (Chapter III, Falun Gong)
I understand Master arranged a path so that I could learn compassion from an ordinary person, because I was not learning it from studying the Fa. Earlier in my career I worked for over a decade in an international setting where profanity was common-place. I wondered how I would ever stop using occasional profanity. The day I got fired I lost the taste for profanity. I saw how far this was beneath a practitioner’s standards, and that was the end.
Through this experience I also discovered that I needed to strengthen my main consciousness. In the process of continually strengthening my main consciousness, I encountered layer upon layer of very intense thought karma. I kept holding to Master’s teachings to persevere. When I had reached my absolute limit and I didn’t know what to do, I asked Master for help. This bone-scraping, heart-carving lesson made me once again recognize the importance of studying the Fa with a sincere heart, and how—guided by Zhen-Shan-Ren—to let go of attachments to self, and cultivate into a being who lives for others.
Master said:
“You have gone against the strong tides of this world. But things aren’t simply what they seem, if you think about it.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XV)
As a cultivator I remind myself that I am swimming against the current of this human world. I have broken through in my preliminary understanding of the principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren in cultivation, that I did not have before. I have discovered the arrogance I harbored in my heart, and need to continue to let go of that attachment. Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation. May I continue to strengthen my main consciousness, place my full attention on Master’s Fa to learn it well, and be a contributing particle to the Dafa Body that safeguards the Fa during the Fa Rectification.
This is my understanding at my current level. Please correct my understanding to continue to improve.
Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2026 Midwest US Fa Conference)