(Minghui.org) I have spent most of my 69 years in poverty, often depressed and ill. I almost died in 1997 when I was 52. However, that was also the year I began practicing Falun Dafa.
All my diseases disappeared after just one week of practice. I let go of my attachment to seeking fame and fortune, and began behaving according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
I felt relieved, happy, and full of joy after I began cultivating.
My daughter was arrested in November 2006 for distributing Falun Dafa informational materials. Because of that, my pension was stopped.
In the eight years that followed, I kept going to my former employer to ask for my pension. I also kept telling them about the persecution. They sometimes gave me a few thousand yuan.
They owed me 130,000 yuan in back pension by late 2013, and I needed it to pay for my housing, so I went to ask again. I wasn't sure how to proceed, so I went my with my husband to ask for the money.
I went to see the boss, and he agreed to give me my pension.
I sometimes look back on the past eight years. When I denied the arrangements of the old forces, I saw that I had many attachments, and eliminated them. I also clarified the truth to the people who were involved in the persecution.
I treated this as personal matter at first. I felt the boss was persecuting me, so I was very angry and felt it was unfair. When I talked with the bosses and the people involved, this exposed my attachments of hatred, competition, jealousy, and fear.
When they argued with me, they could not win the argument. However, they controlled the money and ignored the laws. For example, they made me report to them whenever I left town. I refused to cooperate—but the refusal came from my attachment to competition instead of from the perspective of the Fa.
I later learned that when they could not find me, they went out of town and looked for me. Of course, they deducted their travel expenses from my pension.
I was very angry when I heard this, and I sent their telephone numbers to the Minghui website. My attachment was taken advantage of by the old forces and things didn't turn out as I hoped. When practitioners outside of China called them, the bosses said they were being harassed, and stopped paying me even the minimum pension.
Fellow practitioners were confused, because the persecution of practitioners usually eases up when officials get calls like that. What was different in my case? I later understood that my attachments to hatred and competition affected the outcome.
I went along with my strong attachments and forgot I was a practitioner. I even forgot that I should behave in accordance with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, so I fought with everyday people like an everyday person. As a result, things worsened.
The police often came to my home, and even smashed open my door. I still didn't understand why things were happening this way. I thought I was being persecuted because I had an attachment to benefits. After my entire pension was taken, I thought I had eliminated my attachment to benefits, so I didn't understand why the persecution didn't stop.
I studied the Fa more and read fellow practitioners' articles about their own cultivation experiences. I realized that practitioners need to keep upgrading their xinxing. We are Falun Dafa practitioners, so we should conduct ourselves according to the principles, and nothing should interfere with the path that Master arranged for us.
We should not suffer the persecution passively. It is bad for ordinary people when they persecute practitioners. I knew that the people in my company didn't really want to persecute me, but they were afraid of the CCP.
Master said,
“Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy...” (“Rationality,” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I realized I should save the bosses where I used to work, instead of fighting with them. When I stopped fighting with them and treated them with compassion, our relationship improved. My company gradually began paying me my pension and paid off all of it by September 2014.
On the surface we are being persecuted. Actually, I always had money when I really needed it. And my company always gave me something when I went to ask for it.
I also understood that the situation didn't mean that I should have to forgo my pension after I let go of my attachment to benefits. Our resources are limited and should be used to validate the Fa and save people. The old forces should not take my money, as that is a bad thing to do.
Everyone who is involved in the persecution will have to pay for their actions in the future. After I understood this, I felt the pure compassion of a Dafa disciple. I could feel that I improved.
I realized that Master was in charge of everything. However, we should still try our best to improve ourselves. Master will make all the arrangements as long as we want to save people. For example, I wanted to write a letter to my company and explain why practitioners follow the Dafa principles. When I wrote the letter with my heart, the company contacted me (before I mailed the letter) and told me that they would pay me my pension.
I realized that when I passed the test, Master eliminated the barriers arranged by the old forces. When we truly upgrade ourselves, all the people involved are saved.
Category: Improving Oneself