(Minghui.org) Greetings, benevolent Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I’m in my third year at a science and technology university. I started practicing Falun Dafa with my mother in 2018. In answer to Minghui’s Call for Submissions to Commemorate World Falun Dafa Day 2024, I would like to tell you about some of the wonderful experiences I’ve had since I began practicing Falun Dafa.
Mental and Physical Improvement
Since I was little I loved to read, and I read many stories about kindness and examples of noble morality. What I learned from those stories always encouraged me to become a person with high moral standards and to be respected by everyone. However, when I grew up, I realized that in society these days, it’s hard to maintain your moral standards. People are always fighting and cheating each other for personal gain. I found it hard to be a good person. Some people said that being kind would only bring me disadvantages and that I should be wise and protect my personal interests. I didn’t want to lose my good nature, but I didn’t know what to do. I felt weak and impotent.
In 2018, my mother and I were fortunate to hear about Falun Dafa and we started practicing. Surrounded by the great power of Dafa, our minds and bodies changed dramatically. Master’s teachings helped me understand why we should be good and what it means to be a truly good person. I felt like I’d found the lighthouse to illuminate my life’s journey. As I follow the Fa principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and upgrade my xinxing, I really feel peaceful and happy from the inside. My health has also improved. I no longer have to endure respiratory infections and other illnesses that make me miserable and cost a lot of money to treat. As I raised my moral standards, Master opened my wisdom, allowing me to calmly view and handle the events that occur in my life with a clear perspective and peaceful mindset.
Master and Dafa Guide Me Step by Step to Become a Truly Good Person
During the process of studying the teachings and cultivating my mind, Dafa’s Fa principles have helped me understand what a truly good person is. Since I was a small child, I was praised as a well-behaved and hard-working child. I knew how to please adults by trying hard. Growing up, I always wanted to bring joy to others by treating them well and helping them. I used to consider myself a good person and I was proud of it. Even after I’d practiced for a few years, I still thought this.
Master teaches us,
“I also want to tell you that your nature in the past was actually based on egotism and selfishness. From now on, whatever you do, you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,”Essential for Further Advancement)
Master asks us to consider others first in whatever we do and that we must achieve the state of “selflessness and altruism.” I realized that I still held a very strong selfish attitude when doing things and hardly ever considered others. After I read this, I paid more attention to requiring of myself to think of others first when I did anything. When I did, I saw a change in my state of mind as well as the effectiveness of what I did.
However, I felt that those changes seemed to be only on the surface and there were still things deep down that I still could not touch. These deeply hidden things appeared on the surface as a heart of indifference and a fear of difficulty: I didn’t actively think about other people, only when I encountered something that needed to be resolved did I consider them. For example, I normally didn’t pay much attention to contacting my friends and relatives even though I knew that they have a great destiny with me and that every being needs to know and understand the truth about Dafa. However, I still rarely contacted or visited them and therefore I did not have good relationships with them.
I felt regretful many times and tried to look within to find my attachments behind this. I saw I had an attachment to comfort, I wanted to avoid tribulations, and I procrastinated. Even though I identified these attachments and sent righteous thoughts to eliminate them, it still felt like my cultivation state was going up and down, and it seemed like I still hadn’t changed fundamentally.
In the middle of 2023, I was fortunate to attend a local Fa study group, where everyone studied the Fa together and helped each other view their problems based on the Fa. During the process of studying the Fa and sharing with fellow practitioners, one day I suddenly noticed deeply rooted attachments I still had and that I was controlled by without being aware of it: The attachment to the pursuit of ordinary people’s happiness and the fear of suffering.
I hated being isolated and no one acknowledging me. I did everything I could to create a favorable impression of myself in the eyes of others. So everything I did to treat others well did not stem from sincere and genuine concern for them but to achieve my own selfish goal of having others love me and to avoid the pain of being rejected. That was why I was passive when it came to considering others.
Even though I identified my attachment, getting rid of it was not easy. I tried to be proactive and place others first, but there are still times when I do it reluctantly and I don’t dare to face situations when what I do can truly do them good but can upset them.
One day, a practitioner at group Fa study said, “Sometimes when we do something, we think we’re doing it purely out of consideration for others, but that’s actually not the case. For example, if you are willing to help someone wholeheartedly when they are in trouble and do not expect them to repay you, but then they are ungrateful and betray you, will you be moved? If your heart is moved, then obviously you are not doing it entirely for them. Because if you really only have the desire to want good things for them, as long as what you do really brings it about, then no matter how they treat you, you’ll still be happy and satisfied, right? So if it’s not entirely for them, then there’s definitely a pursuit of self-interest. These are all bad attachments.”
I asked myself, “When I do things, do I do them completely for others?” The answer is “No” because I still hope that others will treat me well. This was the sense of self-importance, the mind of protecting oneself and pursuing the pleasant and comfortable feeling of others treating me well.
These are selfish and bad attachments, but I still haven’t been able to get rid of them entirely. The fellow practitioner said it was because I didn’t really have a “legitimate reason” to get rid of them, which means I still hadn’t seen how those attachments controlled me to take advantage of and harm others, so I was not motivated enough to do away with the benefits that I derive from those attachments.
I thought, “I don’t expect material wealth from others, nor do I need them to give me anything in return. I just hope they will smile at me. After all, I don’t take anything from them, so how do I take advantage of them?” Following the process of studying the Fa and improving xinxing little by little, Master showed me some Fa principles.
Master said:
“So that the universe could be saved, the Creator directed a multitude of higher beings and divine sovereigns to descend to the earth and assume human form in this setting, where they would suffer, elevate, atone for their sins, and forge themselves anew—re-ascending to heaven as a result. (The Creator has been re-making the universe at the same time as saving humankind.) The new universe is perfectly pure and simply glorious. If, in a trying setting like this, a person can still keep his thoughts virtuous; if he can hold his ground against the onslaught of modern values and views, and stick to traditional ones; and if he still believes in the divine in the face of assaults from the atheist and evolutionary camps, then that person will fulfill his purpose: to gain salvation and return to heaven.” (“How Humankind Came To Be”)
When I read the above, I realized that most people in this world are higher beings from heaven who came here to wait for Dafa to save them. And only by maintaining moral standards and maintaining kindness will one have a chance of being saved. I suddenly realized that I was truly harming others terribly by always holding onto the desire to be loved. Because I wanted to be thought well of, I always tried to do what they wanted, say what they liked to hear, and avoid touching on the things they rejected, even if they were good things that could help them raise their moral standards, like talking about gods and Buddhas, good being rewarded and evil punished, cause and effect, and so on).
Thus, I encouraged their attachments and warped notions, and I was unable to awaken the kindness and Buddha nature within them, inadvertently causing their morality to slide further and further away from the standards of the universe. Because what I cared about was my own safety and happiness, I was completely indifferent to the dangerous situation that other people were in when their morals slipped. I did not help their morality improve so they could have a chance to be saved. I haven’t done what Master expects of me and what others’ true selves have been waiting for.
I was shocked to realize that something I once thought to be harmless could harm people so terribly. Now I am determined to get rid of those attachments and not let them control me and harm others anymore. Although every time the thought of being disagreed with or slandered makes me cringe, I still need to get rid of this fear of suffering in order to truly, sincerely, and genuinely have concern for others.
Master has strengthened my righteous thoughts, and my fear whenever I face others is somewhat less. I’m now no longer as strongly controlled by fear and I can better control my own behavior.
Conclusion
The light of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has illuminated my life. Master and Dafa have transformed me step by step from a selfish child who only thought about herself into a person who truly cares for and thinks about others. The above is my understanding at my current level. Please kindly point out anything that is not in accordance with the Fa.
Falun Dafa has truly helped hundreds of millions of people around the world benefit both mentally and physically, helped them have healthy bodies, and raised their moral standards. They’ve become good people responsible for their families and communities. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Master Li Hongzhi for his great benevolence in bringing the great Dafa to the world! I hope there will be more and more people who understand the truth about the beauty of Falun Dafa and have a good future.
Heshi!
(Selected submission to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)
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