Thinking of Others First When Doing Things

(Minghui.org) I’m a Falun Dafa practitioner who has been cultivating on and off for the past 20 years. Sometimes, when I wasn’t very diligent, I stumbled and fell. There was joy after my realm elevated through Fa study. There was also pain and a sense of loss in the process of passing through tribulations and trials. Master Li, however, was always there to hold my hand and safeguard me every step of the way. If it were not for Master’s continuous encouragement, I would have been nowhere near where I am today.

 

Recovering From the Illusion of Sickness Karma

I was working in my store in Spring 2006, when a practitioner who was on his way back from working in the mountains stopped by. When she saw me, she said my mouth was crooked. At first, I didn’t believe her, as I didn’t feel anything. Only when I went home and looked at myself in the mirror did I see that it was true.

At the time, I thought, “I’m a practitioner, how could my face be like this? Didn’t I undermine Dafa’s reputation? How could I validate the Fa and help others? I must quickly rectify myself.” By following what Master said about looking inward, I finally made the breakthrough when facing this trial.

My neighbor had fallen from a great height and broke his lumbar vertebrae last year. He was bed-ridden and couldn’t work. His wife had to take care of everything. When it came to work she couldn’t handle it, she often asked my husband to help her. She raised pigs, and when it was time to sell them, she asked my husband to help her catch them. When it was time to plant wheat in the Fall, she also called my husband over to help. As long as it was something that she couldn’t do, she’d ask my husband to help out.

After a while, people started gossiping about her and my husband, which I overheard. I also became a bit perplexed about whether what they said was true or not. When my attachment flared up, the more gossip I heard. For instance, someone asked me, “Did you go to the back of the hill to work this morning?” I replied, “No, I didn’t.” She then said, “I saw a woman like you with your husband?” But I wasn’t there. So I thought it must be the wife of my neighbor. When my husband came back from work, I gave him an unpleasant look.

Since I didn’t treat myself as a practitioner, I often found fault with my husband and fought with him. I started feeling very bitter and became emaciated. My complexion also looked pale. I couldn’t focus when studying the Fa and was in low spirits every day. It felt so painful.

I was called to the police department to get my ID, which triggered my fear. Consequently, in just a few days, my mouth turned crooked. and my eyes were also askew.

I was once cooking at home when recalled this passage of the Zhuan Falun:

“There is love for family members, romantic love, love towards parents, emotions associated with relationships, and the affection that goes with friendship. People act for the sake of emotional bonds, and emotion follows you everywhere you go. Everything human about this world stems from emotion, from likes to dislikes, from joys to sorrows, love to hate. And so you will have problems in spiritual practice if you don’t manage to free yourself of it. Those who do, will be free of human sentiments and unflappable. In its place will arise compassion, something far more noble.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

After remembering this passage, my compassion also came forth. My neighbor’s husband suffered such a great mishap, and his wife had to carry the burden of the whole family. How difficult could that be? As her neighbor, shouldn’t I help her? What’s sentimentality? Didn’t it come to torment me?

When thinking about that, I became enlightened: Wasn’t my sentimentality being used to test me and help me improve? How could I be selfish and even become muddle-headed?  Once I completely let it go, the wife seldom came looking for my husband.

Master has mentioned in his lectures multiple times that cultivation is a very serious matter. I haven’t eliminated many attachments, such as sentimentality, jealousy, fear, worry, and vanity.

Once I realised that, I was able to be more positive and were able to change my thoughts. Whenever I had time, I studied more of Zhuan Falun. I always tried my very best to help my customers learn the truth, and quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organisations. When I ran out of time, I gave them informational materials. With that change in mindset, I forgot about my illness karma, and within ten days both my eyes and mouth were fine.

 

Walking Away From a Motorcycle Accident

I went to my sister’s home to help pick some apples in the Fall of 2010. I rode the motorcycle and was about to turn towards the entrance of her orchard. A car with a group of people going to a wedding hit me. My motorcycle and I landed on the ground 15 feet away from the car.

The driver got out of the car and asked me, “Are you okay?” I said, “I’m fine. You can go.” Upon hearing that, he drove away. I gradually got up from the ground. I then picked up my motorcycle and saw there was a pool of gas on the ground. The rear-view mirror on the right side was also broken, as well as the plastic on top of the foot brake. After I tried a few times, I was able to start the motorcycle. I got on it and quickly drove to my sister’s orchard.

When I was hit, I didn’t feel I was hurt, but only thought to myself, “Since I practice Falun Dafa, I will not blackmail this driver. Especially today, because it’s their wedding. So I shouldn’t hold them up.” Right then, I didn’t think about how I was, but only about the needs of the other party. Since my thoughts were righteous and I was completely fine.

When I mentioned this incident to my sister’s family, my brother-in-law got angry, “How can you just let the driver leave?” I said, “I’m a practitioner, I would not blackmail others.” My brother-in-law said sarcastically, “Did you become dumb from practicing Falun Dafa?” I just smiled without saying anything. as long as I could treat myself as a practitioner I should be able to manage things correctly.

 

Master is in Charge: Eliminating the Persecution

Three male high school students came to my store in March 2016. I took this opportunity to talk to them about Dafa. I told them that Dafa teaches people to be good, and that former CCP leader Jiang Zemin used his power to defame and slander Falun Dafa. I also touched upon the staged “self-immolation incident” at Tiananmen Square, and the fact that the heaven will eliminate the CCP.

They listened to me attentively. In the end, I gave each of them a pseudonym and helped them renounce their memberships from the CCP’s youth organisations. One of them asked for a truth-clarification DVD. I said, “I don’t have any DVDs with me, but only brochures, can I give you those?” I then gave each of them a few copies. Before they left, I asked them to share with their classmates about what they learned, and they agreed.

Unfortunately, soon after they left, a few police officers came to arrest me and took me to the police station. This was probably because I didn’t clarify the facts to them effectively, plus they may have been motivated by being told about getting rewards for reporting Falun Dafa practitioners.

At that time, I wasn’t scared but kept clarifying the facts. I thought I wasn’t courageous enough to come to the police station to talk to them in the past, so they came to get me. I said to the officers who interrogated me, “Dafa has spread to more than 100 countries. Children and people in their 80s and 90s practice it, as do university students, people with Master’s and Doctorate degrees, professors, engineers, and teachers. There are multi-millionaires and even billionaires. Aren’t they smarter than us? When we hold parades outside of China, police officers help to clear the way.

“Only the CCP cracks down on these kindhearted people. If everyone could learn Dafa, pay attention to their virtue, and pursue kindness, you police wouldn’t be needed. The law can only manage problems on the surface level as opposed to truly improving people’s morality. After those criminals are released, when they are not seen, they still do bad things. Can you catch them all?

“Only Dafa can change people’s hearts. From the Fa, one gets to know that good will be rewarded and evil will be punished. So one knows to practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and do only good things. During the Great Cultural Revolution, those Red Guards who persecuted senior cadres all received retribution. The CCP secretly executed many of them after using them for their own means. The Party is now using you to commit crimes against Dafa. You’ve got to understand this, not follow it.”

In the beginning, their attitude toward me was cruel. After I finished talking, their attitude changed for the better. In the end, they said that to satisfy their boss, they asked me to sign a detention notice. I refused. They asked me three times in a row in an amicable tone, but I rejected them each time.

I told them, “I didn’t commit any crime. If I were to sign, I’d have cooperated with you, which wouldn’t be responsible to you. I will not sign it, which is also good for you.” In the end, they still took me to a detention centre.

At the detention centre, I calmed my mind and thought it over. I organised my thoughts carefully. Was there anything that I didn’t do well that allowed my loopholes to be taken advantage of?

I carefully examined myself, then I recalled, since I helped three high school students quit the CCP’s youth organisations, I was very happy. This came down to my pursuit of how many people I had helped quit the CCP. My zealotry and a show-off mentality were seized upon by the old forces. I had to negate the situation and not acknowledge the interference.

I’m a Dafa practitioner. Nobody is worthy of interfering with and persecuting me. Even though I had attachments, they’d be rectified by the Fa. This is a place for holding bad people, not a place for me to stay. I should go out to save sentient beings.

On the other hand, my detention would cause concern for my family, relatives, and clients. They’d think that people who practice Falun Dafa are often arrested. When I pass on brochures to them later on, they might be afraid of taking them. When thinking about this, I increased the strength and time in righteous thoughts and building up my courage.

On the second day, before lunch a guard unexpectedly called my name and said, “You can go home.” Right then, a few detained practitioners were also present, and they were all caught off guard by what they heard.

Only when we don’t have fear and are considerate of others, can one see the true goodness of the practice of Falun Dafa.

In the end, I hope we are not moved by the chaos in the world, but rather seize the time to be a good person, help others and show others that Falun Dafa is truly a good practice which everyone can learn from.