(Minghui.org) I’ve cultivated in Falun Dafa for more than 20 years, and I’ve increasingly found cultivation to be vast and profound. In the initial few years, my understanding of the Fa was shallow, so I thought that as long as I did not scold or beat people, or steal or snatch from others, I would be considered a good person and a cultivator. Over time, as I studied the Fa more, I discovered that that was not the case at all.
Realizing I Was Vying for Human Principles
Master said,
“What everyday people want is personal gain and how to live well and comfortably. Our practitioners are not this way, but exactly the opposite. We do not seek what everyday people want. Instead, what we get is something everyday people cannot obtain—even if they want to—except through cultivation.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I had studied this teaching countless times, but my understanding was still superficial. I did not try to understand it more deeply, nor did I think more deeply about connecting this teaching to the conflicts in my daily life and at work. In recent years, I’d sensed that my cultivation had reached a bottleneck. I felt like I kept going in circles when dealing with conflicts. Now that I think about it, the problem actually stemmed from my pursuit.
I am an ordinary employee. I am the oldest in my work team, have the most seniority, possess the best technical skills, and have the highest moral standards. I am diligent and reliable, and many of my colleagues were once my apprentices. I used to be the team leader, but because I detested the culture of playing office politics and navigating social connections, I stepped down from that role years ago to work as a regular employee. I work conscientiously and have never taken advantage of others, bullied, or flattered others, and I take pride in avoiding these things.
However, the year before last, the company implemented a score-based performance evaluation system. No explanation was provided at the time of the first evaluation, so none of us even knew it was happening. About four months later, when our wages were paid, I found that I had earned about 700 yuan less than my colleagues. Only after asking my supervisor did I learn about the scoring system and discovered that I had been given the lowest possible score.
I asked him why we were not told about this although it had already been implemented for a few months. Only then did the supervisor evasively instruct the document clerk to share the relevant company document in the work group on WeChat. I confronted everyone up the chain of command, from the team leader to the supervisor to the manager, asking who had given me that score and why. No one would admit to it.
Those higher up blamed those below, while those below blamed those above. Two team leaders even insisted in unison, “You are the last person we would ever give a low score to!” And yet, the fact remained that I had received the lowest score. Three years have passed and still, no one has admitted to it. It was clearly a case of manipulation and underhanded dealings, an act of bullying.
I heard from my colleagues that the department leader knew that I practiced Falun Gong, so he had bullied me intentionally.
Following that, our team held an internal vote to select a team leader and I received the most votes. However, the higher-ups refused to approve my appointment. After a long delay, they ended up appointing the two individuals with the poorest technical skills and the worst work performance to the role.
The year before last, a skill competition with four categories was held, and I took the first place in two of them. Yet, when the awards were presented, I was only given two second-place prizes. I did not even get a look-in for the first-place awards. It was a major event attended by numerous executives, including the company’s deputy general manager, department heads, the factory director, and various managers. A colleague from my team shouted out right then and there, “It’s a sham! It’s rigged! It’s a fraud!” He was about to argue with the executives, but I quickly stopped him, saying, “Please don’t say anymore. My personal gain or loss doesn’t matter. We must prioritize the bigger picture.”
There have also been times when I could not maintain my composure and instead looked at issues with an ordinary person’s mindset. I lost my temper and joined my colleagues in complaining and berating sycophantic, petty individuals and the boorish, ill-mannered executives. But there were also many times when I was able to remember that I am a practitioner, so I cannot stoop to the level of ordinary people. I must handle conflicts with a magnanimous attitude. However, my heart was still moved. I wavered and oscillated between the state of a practitioner and that of an ordinary person, unable to fully eliminate my attachments. I felt that something had gone wrong with my cultivation. I was not improving as quickly as before, and I even seemed to be stagnating.
I Now Live Only as a Being Recognized by Master
Now when I look back, I realized that this state of mine was wrong. I was not behaving like a practitioner. Practitioners should not vie over right and wrong and complain alongside non-practitioners.
As a Dafa practitioner, being a good person among ordinary people is far from enough. No matter how well I did, I was at most a good person among ordinary people. I did not measure up to the standard of a Dafa practitioner. What ordinary people pursue is how to lead a good and comfortable life and gain more benefits. We practitioners are the opposite. We do not pursue these things. Instead, we have to take hardship, be at a disadvantage, and get rid of our karma in order to improve our cultivation levels. In the face of personal gain, we should not vie with others but should instead let nature take its course.
I should not take their looking down on me, bullying me, and speaking ill of me to heart, nor attach any importance to it. I should abide by the standards of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance to live my life and deal with issues. I should see through the illusions of the world, rid myself of all emotions and feelings generated in this world, such as joy, anger, sorrow, worry, grief, fear, and shock, and remain upright, pure, and free from all attachments, except for compassion. This is what Master acknowledges and what the universe wants. I only want to be a being that is recognized by Master! I do not need anyone else’s approval.
If the people in my workplace had not created those conflicts for me, I would not have discovered that I still harbor such dirty human desires such as seeking profit, fame, promotion, respect, and praise. I would not have been able to cultivate myself and that would have been really terrible. The conflicts were really those colleagues helping me find the attachments and shortcomings that remain in me, so that I can further apply the Fa principles at different levels that Master has lectured about to get rid of these dirty human attachments and cleanse myself to elevate to high levels.
Master said,
“In cultivation, everything you experience is a good thing, and you are establishing your own mighty virtue.” (Teachings at the Conference in the Eastern U.S.)
I am so ashamed of myself! In the past, I did not study the Fa well. With the help of my supervisors and colleagues, I realized this Fa principle so late. Therefore, I really need to thank them for it.
From another perspective, if I frequently cannot let go of things, such as my salary and bonus being higher or lower than someone else’s, or fret over if the boss favors me, aren’t I simply pursuing worldly things? Do I still want to live the comfortable life of an ordinary person? Don’t I want to cultivate to leave this mundane world! If there is anything that I cannot let go of, I will not be able to complete my cultivation. It will become a lock that stops me from returning to my true home. This is a serious matter.
Master has said clearly that Dafa practitioners are only doing a service in society. Apart from the three things, there is nothing else that we need to do. We only have the standard of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. We have only one state, which is compassion. We do not ask for or want anything else. We just become upright and pure beings who attain the goal of cultivation and follow Master home.
Thank you, benevolent great Master, for bestowing us with this great universal Dafa. For millennia and eons, never has anyone treated humanity with such compassion, teaching us the profound Dafa that enables us to cleanse ourselves, ascend, and progress in our cultivation from low to high levels. By simply following Dafa, we can purify ourselves and elevate in our cultivation step by step, thus returning to our sacred, wonderful home and reuniting with all of our sentient beings!
Category: Improving Oneself
