(Minghui.org) It has been nearly two decades since I began to practice Falun Dafa. At first, I was diligent in my cultivation.
I had a good paying job, and I believed that I was not attached to fame or other personal interests.
However, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa in 1999, I lost my job, and the local police station seized my home and confiscated my identification card.
From then on, it was very difficult to find suitable work, so I have been living a vagabond life.
Falling Into the Trap
In early August of this year, an Internet user was added in my contact list. We spoke with each other for a very long time, and he introduced me to making fast money by playing crude oil index futures.
In less than a week, my mind was controlled by the idea of making money. I tried to reject the idea, but I was overcome by the attachment. Thus, I opened an account online, and invested all of my meager savings.
With the guidance of the company's customer service adviser, I was very pleased to earn 8,000 yuan on the first try. However, on the second try, with the guidance of the adviser, I lost 22,000 yuan.
When I think back, I realized that before I made the second investment, Master gave me a hint to stop this behavior:
When I was getting ready to invest my money, my computer broke down. I hesitated a little bit, but did not think about it in depth. By using another method, I reconnected my computer and continued with my investment strategy.
After I lost so much money, I could not eat or sleep well. I wanted to stop, but with the adviser’s repeated recommendation, I decided to invest a third time, despite another hint from Master. As a result, I lost another 6,000 yuan.
A Painful Lesson
Having drawn a painful lesson, I realized that playing stocks and crude oil futures is against Dafa’s requirements.
From the Fa, we have learned: No loss, no gain, and practitioners should not be attached to fame and personal interests.
Master said:
“One practitioner in Beijing took his child to Qianmen for a walk after dinner and saw a commercial vehicle promoting lottery tickets. The child became interested and asked to play the lottery. He gave the child one yuan to play, and the child ended up with the second prize, a luxury junior bike. The child was very delighted. At once an idea flashed into the father’s mind: 'I’m a practitioner. How can I go for such a thing? How much de must I give away if I get something that isn’t paid for?' He said to the child: 'Let’s not take it. We can buy one ourselves if you want it.' The child became upset: 'I’ve begged you to buy one, and you didn’t do it. Now, you won’t let me keep it when I get one on my own.' The child cried and screamed terribly. This man could not do anything about it but take the bike home. At home, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He thought about sending the money to those people. Then he figured: 'The lottery tickets are gone, and won’t they divide the money among themselves if I send it to them? I should donate the money to my workplace.'” (Zhuan Falun)
The behavior of playing crude oil futures in itself is seeking ill-gotten wealth, which is the same as gambling. In the process of gambling, my heart was following the volatility of the market, and, my state of my mind was even worse than that of an ordinary person.
Master said, “The Buddha School requires emptiness, and the Tao School teaches nothingness.” (Zhuan Falun)
My peaceful mind was gone, and I was enthusiastically seeking personal gain.I understand now that demons were trying to prevent me from practicing cultivation and I fell into the trap.
Losing Virtue
Practitioners should walk on the righteous path, even though it is narrow.
Upon seeing our gambling attachment, the old forces will persecute us severely, and we will lose a great deal of money. It might even make us unable to cultivate.
I read articles about some practitioners having lost over one million yuan by playing the stocks, yet they still have not awakened. It is the attachment to personal gain. The more you want to make money through playing stocks, the stronger your attachment, and the more easily you will be persecuted by the old forces.
We should walk on the right path, and let go of the attachment to personal gain.
Isn't wanting to make large sums of money an attachment to living more comfortably? Is this what practitioners should be pursuing?
Whether a person is rich or not depends on how much de (virtue) has been accumulated in his or her previous lives. We have also learned the principles from the Fa: “No loss, no gain.”
If we make so much money by playing stocks and crude oil futures, how much valuable de do we have to use in exchange for it? Is this what practitioners should pursue?
The above is my bitter experience and a painful lesson. I would like to share it with those practitioners who are still gambling on things such as stocks, crude oil futures, silver, and precious metals.
We should walk the right path, and not leave any loop holes for the old forces to persecute us.
Category: Improving Oneself
