Clarifying the Truth with our Families and Friends

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

The Buddhist School emphasizes pre-destined relationships. People with whom we come into daily contact, such as our families, friends and acquaintances, are those who have pre-destined relationships with us. However, due to our lack of an in-depth understanding of Fa [law and principles] we tend to neglect these people around us, which has led to their unwillingness to support us. It has even caused unnecessary interference in our work of Fa clarification and the salvation of sentient beings.

Realizing this, I was determined to create a more conducive environment for myself in Fa clarification. My first step was to clarify the truth with my family during a home visit on my vacation.

My parents-in-law used to have a negative impression of Dafa. In order to change their minds, starting from the first days of my marriage, I had engaged in many conversations with my mother-in-law regarding mundane matters utilizing my knowledge in daily living. I had impressed her as well as my father-in-law with my character and talents.

Upon arriving home, my wife and I sent forth righteous thoughts to clear away the evil elements and old forces behind the thoughts of my parents-in-law. We then invited them to view a CD production of Dafa. While my father-in-law was watching, my wife and I sent forth righteous thoughts again. After he finished watching the CD, he did not say a word and walked away. We knew that he already understood the truth, but that he needed time to think. Before we left them for the day, I very straightforwardly said, "My purpose of coming home is to share the truth about Dafa with you. We have experienced Falun Dafa and verified some of the points in the book. We feel that we should share Dafa with our family because we have found it to be good. Our Master has told us that cultivation is not about politics. Instead, we have to get rid of our attachment of discontent with what is happening socially and politically. If people adhere to the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, they will have a happy family and the society will be stable." After hearing this, my father-in-law at last shared his righteous thought about Dafa: "I know that the Principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." This discussion with him helped me realize that I should cultivate my righteous thoughts, break away from my old ways of thinking, and clarify the truth with my family members directly and simply in order to help them bring out their righteous thoughts from their true selves.

My grandmother is a very nice woman in her eighties. She has no problem understanding Dafa as clarified and explained by my wife. Upon our suggestion, Grandma had fondly recited in her mind repeatedly "the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good, and Falun Dafa is good" every day.

I told my second eldest brother why I thought the immolation incident in Tiananmen Square was a set-up. He was quite open-minded and was willing to accept what I said. He and his wife had constant conflicts. My wife and I told him how he should deal with conflicts, and how he should set high standards for himself but be lenient with other people. We also shared with him the stories of many practitioners who have harmonious family relationships. We told them that conflicts over trivia are caused by a lack of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. If people can practice forbearance, put others before themselves, and think from the perspectives of other people, they can resolve conflicts and reduce them to nothing. Before we left the couple, we found that their relationship had noticeably improved.

As a result of this trip in which I clarified the truth with my family members, I realize that as long as our thoughts are righteous, it is not difficult for our family members to understand and accept the truth. If we cannot do that and our thoughts are not righteous, the effect of the clarification will be minimized and interferences will result.

After I came back from the trip, I lost no time in clarifying the truth in my workplace. I feel that I need to further my work in this respect with my colleagues, and create, again, a cultivation environment for myself and stabilize it. I showed CDs to my colleagues during noontime and to my boss after work. I realized that only through maintaining righteous thoughts at all times and leaving no chance for the evils can we truly save people.

The above limited understanding of mine is subject to comments from my fellow practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2001/10/12/17869.html

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