With Attachments Removed, I Earned Top Marks with Little Preparation

(Minghui.org) I would like to share my experience during my time at a university in the hopes that we can all improve together. 

The university I attended can choose which top students can enter graduate school without taking the national entrance exam. In my junior year, I was already thinking about what to do after graduation—find a job or pursue a graduate degree. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I didn't know if further education was positive for my cultivation or not. 

I asked Master to help me decide what to do. I thought that if he arranged for me to get a Master's degree, the school would recommend me. If not, I wouldn't bother sitting for the national entrance exam. 

There is a key exam at the beginning of the last year in college. A student's final score is a combination of the test result and their grade point average (GPA) from the first three years. Recommendations for graduate school are granted based on the final score. 

My GPA in the first three years was very good. As long as I got a high mark in this key exam, I would likely be recommended. I planned to devote one month to studying for the exam starting in August. 

In July, a fellow practitioner asked if I could help him. He said, “The practitioners in a rural area need truth-clarifying calendars. I have to work during the day. It would take a long time if I only make calendars in the evening. I wonder if you could help?” I said I would help, and so from July to August, I was busy making calendars. 

Sometimes I wondered if making calendars would interfere with my preparation for the exam. I immediately recognized that this thought was an attachment. I believed that the idea was not mine but the evil’s, and I must deny it. Making calendars was a righteous project and I should not add any attachments. Failing the exam was not as important as delaying a Dafa project. This was a test to see what I considered a priority—Dafa or my daily life. 

I also looked inward. On the surface I didn't seem attached to getting a Master's degree, but actually the attachment was deep in my heart. If I missed the chance because I was busy with a Dafa project, wasn’t that also Master’s arrangement? I should follow Master’s arrangement in both my words and my heart. I firmly decided to focus on the Dafa project and to deal with the exam when the exam date was closer. 

Five days before the exam, I told the practitioner that I needed to prepare and would be absent for several days. I knew that other students had about two months to study while I only had five days. Maybe I wasn't supposed to get a Master's degree. But, again, I immediately denied this thought. I should not always use ordinary people’s concepts to think about Master’s arrangements. I would just study for five days and not consider the exam results. I would follow Master's arrangement without adding any conditions. 

I did not have time to study the books in the usual way. Instead, I looked at exams from past years and made a summary of questions based on them. 

All the questions I reviewed were on the exam. It seemed like the exam was based on my preparation during those five days. 

I earned the highest grade and set a record based on results in recent years. I accepted the recommendation to go to graduate school as the best student in my major subject.

When I look back at the whole experience, I realize that my thoughts and attachments were very silly. I saw that attachments were negative and we should focus our energy on Dafa cultivation. 

The above is my personal understanding. If there is anything improper, please point it out.