Treating Oneself as a Cultivator

(Minghui.org) I retired in early 2020 to spend more time cultivating and studying the Fa. Then, immediately afterwards, I heard news about the lockdown in Wuhan. Numerous other cities, and my own neighborhood, followed with lockdown measures. I was shocked to learn that only one person from each household was allowed to leave the neighborhood. I wondered at the time if it was the beginning of the great weeding out. I felt I needed to go out and save as many people as possible and not stay home to relax.

My husband works in our neighborhood, so I had the card that allows one to leave the neighborhood. After finishing the chores and studying the Fa, I had time to go outside to clarify the truth to people. However, no one was on the streets, all the businesses were closed, and all forms of public transportation had stopped. There were also numerous temperature check points, at the entrances of each residential community.

I decided to start with my community. Many articles about the virus had been published on the Minghui website at that time. I downloaded some of the information and made as many brochures as possible, so I could deliver them to all my neighbors.

We owned two properties in two different communities, so I applied for two access permits. Throughout the pandemic, I was able to deliver brochures to thousands of households. All the paper I had for printing materials was soon depleted, and all the shops where I would purchase paper were closed. Yet I didn’t want this to delay saving people.

I went out as usual one day and walked past a paper store. I saw that the garage door was open halfway. I quickly went over and bought the paper I needed. The owner had come to the store to get some inventory and was going to leave soon. It seemed like a coincidence that I passed by there while he was in the store. However, wasn’t this Master Li helping me?

In My Work Environment

I previously worked as an accountant for a private business. After I was arrested and then returned to work in 2015, my boss moved me to a different department, watched my every move, and made my life difficult. Fortunately, a friend’s employer was looking for an accountant, so I quit my job and joined that business. I wanted to be a better employee at this job than I was before, and to hold myself to higher standards.

I quickly cleaned up their general ledger and all the account balances going back to the start of the business, categorized all the different statements, established internal controls, and designed numerous tables and graphs to make their data much easier to understand. Whatever data my superiors wanted, I could provide to them. I upheld my xinxing during conflicts, worked hard, and did not bicker or chit-chat with other colleagues.

There was a procurement manager who was very selfish and liked to bad-mouth other employees to her superiors. People were always uneasy around her. A co-worker told me that apart from me, there were no good people in the company. Apparently I was the only person whom the manager did not bad-mouth. I thought to myself that it was because I was very transparent and didn’t conceal anything. What else could she say?

As an accountant, not only did I have to be diligent at my job, but I also had to help the company win bids for projects. If our company won the bid, the boss gave a bonus to everyone involved in winning it. I once helped the company win a bid, and my boss handed me a bonus in private. The next day, I returned the bonus. She said I deserved it and asked why I didn’t want it, “People lie and cheat others for money. No one would think that having more money is a bad thing.”

I replied, “I have nothing against money, but my Master taught me to be a good person and practice altruism. It is hard to make a profit nowadays, and you have invested a lot of money in capital. I only ask to be paid for doing my job and nothing more. It is my responsibility to do a good job.

“Falun Dafa is cultivation in the Buddha school, and its followers practice the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Yet the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes Falun Dafa. It was out of jealousy that Jiang Zemin, the former CCP leader, spread false propaganda and lies about Dafa, such as the Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation, and lies about practitioners killing people and committing suicide in order to defame Falun Dafa.

“Dafa has spread to over 100 countries, and it is openly practiced in places like Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. But you don’t hear of any such extreme behavior in those countries. Falun Dafa is good for everyone. You should take some time to learn the truth about it.”

I went through some sickness karma in winter 2018. My legs hurt a lot, which made walking and sleeping painful. Since I had only one year before I could retire, I decided to retire early, focus all my energy on my cultivation, and spend more time doing the three things. When I brought up my retirement to my boss, he asked me if I wanted a pay raise or if there were other reasons for my resignation. I told him that I wanted to stay home and rest. He offered to give me as much time off as possible, and they would keep my position open until I came back. My boss even offered to pay my medical bills if I went to see a doctor. I refused his offer to pay medical bills and said, “If you need to hire other people, don’t hesitate to because of me.” But they didn’t hire anyone, so I eventually went back to work.

In My Personal Cultivation

I finally retired in late 2019, and could focus on my cultivation. I handed the work over to my boss’s wife and taught her everything she didn’t already know. Not long after, the Wuhan coronavirus began to spread. There was no time to take a break because I had to start saving more people. When the pandemic eased up, my former boss’s wife called because she couldn’t handle the accounting and wanted me to help her. They were willing to increase my salary and give me a bonus, saying that I was the best accountant they had hired. I thought maybe this was meant to be, so I again decided to return to work.

Master Li said,

“Spiritual cultivation is about progressing to divinity, and all human attachments act as impediments.” (“Another Stern warning”)

As cultivators, we must follow the principles laid out by Master in our daily lives, and we must guard our thoughts carefully because the old forces are watching our every move and every thought. We have had many lessons in the past.

Back in 2013, a couple of fellow practitioners and I studied the Fa and exchanged our experiences every day. I gradually began to develop human sentiment towards them. I told my mother that people nowadays have no morals, and I would only loan money to other practitioners. I wasn’t aware of my attachment to showing off.

Attachments to worldly gains, excitability, and other human notions made me say that, but I did not realize it then. Not long after, we were handing out truth-clarification materials when a security guard reported us to the police. Three practitioners were arrested and sentenced. Even though I wasn’t arrested with them, the police eventually came after me, and this delayed our efforts to save sentient beings.

During my ten years of cultivation, I have stumbled about and strayed off the path. I sometimes thought I was unworthy of being a Dafa disciple, but I quickly rejected that thought and distinguished it from my true self. I knew that was not coming from Master, but was a trick used by the old forces to destroy me. So I increased my Fa-study time, memorized the Fa, and increased the number of times I sent forth righteous thoughts. This helped me to escape that negative state of mind and diligently do the three things.

Dear Fellow practitioners, we are so fortunate to be alive in this era of Fa-rectification, which has never happened before. Let us cherish the opportunity, cultivate diligently, save more sentient beings, fulfill our sacred vows, and return to the heavens with Master. Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!