A Story about Money

By practitioners in China

(Clearwisdom.net)

We are practitioners in China making Dafa materials. I obtained the Fa late and have had financial problems. One day, a veteran practitioner told me about their experiences while spreading the Fa in rural areas.

The practitioner, S., said, "When we were spreading the Fa in rural areas, it was very difficult to buy food. We usually brought instant noodles with us to eat on the way. When the local people wanted to cook for us, we politely refused. One practitioner went to spread the Fa in the village where his father-in-law lived. When his in-laws had a meal ready for him, he did not eat. The villagers asked him why he would not have a meal in his in-laws' home. The practitioner said, 'If I had a meal in my in-laws home, so should the other practitioners who came with me. We came here to spread the Fa, and what we do represents the image of the Fa.' Since then, whenever practitioners went to spread the Fa in rural areas, they always prepared and brought food with them.

"The people living in rural areas do not have conditions as good as those in the urban areas. In the beginning, nobody wanted to spend the more than 100 Yuan (Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban laborer is about 500 Yuan, 167 Yuan for an average rural labor) it took to buy a tape player/recorder. I'm not sure who started it but, one after the other, the practitioners in the urban areas voluntarily bought tape player/recorders and sent them to the practitioners in the rural areas. The people in rural areas thought the tape player/recorders were gifts and everyone asked for one. Later, through studying the Fa, they understood. They decided they should not take the tape player/recorders for free. They collected money and wanted to give it to us, but we politely declined.

"So they thought, 'They won't take our money, why don't we go to spread the Fa like them. We could use the money to buy tape player/recorders for others who have financial difficulties.' When they all did that, the efficacy of spreading the Fa was very good.

"Once I went to a town. The contact person of the local practitioners asked if I could give him another tape player/recorder because they had more and more people joining in and wanted to set up another practice site. I asked them how long they had been practicing and got a general idea about their local situation. Then I said smiling, 'I don't have a tape player/recorder in hand. But you can keep practicing together and I will send one to you once I get one.' After a while I visited them again, and found that they had already solved the tape player/recorder problem among themselves. The contact person felt so embarrassed about his request for a tape player/recorder from me the last time that he would not mention it."

I listened to their stories silently and suddenly understood why practitioner S. would not accept money from the practitioners living in other places when we sent Dafa materials to them, even when our own financial condition was not good. As he said, "We are spreading the Fa, not selling Dafa materials."

Practitioner S. does not have a high level of education, and is usually quiet when we talk about cultivation experiences. But a pure and kind heart can move other people. So when he said softly, "No matter how good you think you have practiced, you should not consider yourself as special or outstanding," I was almost moved to tears.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2001/12/4/20849.html

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