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Stories from a Food Shop
(Clearwisdom.net) Teacher has said: "Every Falun Gong practitioner is a member of society, and each has
his own job or career. It's only that they go to the park to do Falun Gong
exercises for half an hour or an hour every morning, and then they go to
work" ("Some Thoughts of Mine"). With Master's teachings in mind, I have kept my shop in fairly good working
order while still persisting with group Fa study at night and practice of the
exercises in the morning together with a fellow Dafa practitioner. During the
day we work as usual, and we frequently exchange our cultivation experiences
when we have free time. In this way we have established a stable
truth-clarification environment under the compassionate protection of Teacher. I have tried to improve the effects of my efforts to clarify the truth and
save sentient beings by paying special attention to the state of mind of the
people with whom I interact. I send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the
elements in their minds that prevent them from understanding the truth of Dafa,
and through this I have been successful in enabling them to enlighten. Teacher
has said: "It's hard to save people nowadays. You have to explain things to them
by following the logic of their attachments. For the sake of saving them,
don't create any obstacles for them." ("Touring North America to
Teach the Fa") "Every person you come into contact with in society is someone to
clarify the truth to, and what's manifest in clarifying the truth is Dafa
disciples' mercy and their salvation of the world's people." ("To
All Students at the Nordic Fa Conference") I have clarified the truth at every opportunity. Usually I chat for a while
with customers before clarifying the truth to them. In this way they are more
compelled to believe me and, most important of all, I find a suitable starting
point for truth-clarification. Once I chatted with a retired army veteran. In the process of talking to her
I discovered that she did not know much about Falun Gong. She told me that all
of her family members were serving in the army, except for her mother. One day
her father returned home from a conference, with the news that China was going
to launch an attack on Taiwan, and that all who served in the army were to be
signed up, but her mother didn't want her family to be signed up. I said to her,
"That is because your mother doesn't want to part with you, right?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed. I took the opportunity to say, "It seems
that the Taiwan issue cannot be solved without a war, but the people will suffer
if a war begins." "Yes, that's right," she said. I said,
"You see the Falun Gong practitioners are trying to solve their problems
through peacefully appealing, isn't that righteous? But the authorities, instead
of finding a solution, simply punish them by arresting and beating them, and
sentencing them to ¡®re-education through labor' terms, even though their
activities are legal. Isn't belief a personal freedom, and isn't appealing an
individual right?" She said, "In the army, every person was forced to
express hatred towards Falun Gong and write guarantee statements
vowing not to practice Falun Gong. Even my mother, an ignorant farmer, was also
forced to do that. She was so busy with the household all the time that she
didn't know at all what Falun Gong is! It's so terrible and ridiculous!" I
continued, "Right, Jiang Zemin is trying to eliminate those who are against
him through a national campaign of terror. The self-immolation incident* in
Tiananmen Square was fabricated by him." Step-by-step I told her the truth
of the self-immolation incident. Hearing this, she angrily denounced Jiang's
regime. In the end I said to her, "You can tell all this to your mother and
other family members when you are home." She wholeheartedly agreed with me. I didn't give up on any of the people who I had karmic relationships with.
One day, a lady bought 3 kilos of food from my shop. After a while she came back
again and said that the food was short by half a kilo, but I didn't compensate
her because the other two fellow practitioners witnessed that I had given her
the correct amount. When I saw her again, I took the chance to greet her. But
she still insisted that I had cut her order that day. I said to her, "I am
not attached to that small amount of food, but I am afraid of losing a friend. I
will send you a half-kilo in a couple of days, as soon as I produce the
food." She was very happy to hear that. In the end, her mind was balanced
when I sent her the food. Now she enjoys chatting with me each time she passes
by my shop. She even gladly accepted Zhuan Falun when I gave it to her.
In the past few years, more than twenty people have obtained Dafa or read Zhuan
Falun and listened to Teacher's lectures, and my shop has become well known.
More and more people have come to my shop to buy food and they have become aware
of my practice of Falun Gong. One day, a thirty-year-old lady came to my shop
and asked me to teach her the Falun Gong exercises. She already had the book Zhuan
Falun, so I told her to read the book first and gave her a VCD containing
the exercise instructions. Now she understands the importance of searching
inward when encountering problems, and she is much healthier than before. She
usually comes to my shop to exchange cultivation experiences with me or asks for
experience-sharing and truth-clarification materials. One day a former practitioner who had enlightened along an evil path came to
my shop. Her words caused me to be a little angry, but with the thought that I
should not be driven to anger, I promptly adjusted my mind and said to her,
"I know a story about a group of golden fish who enjoyed swimming and
playing along the bank of a river. Among them was one who thought herself to be
much more beautiful than all the others. She was so happy about this thought
that she would jump out of the water in excitement. One day, the conceited
beautiful fish jumped so high that she threw herself onto the bank. Without her
friends by her side, she struggled on the bank and was unable to return to the
water. At this crucial moment, the friends whom she thought to be ugly helped
her return to the river. Her life was saved and she came back to her
friends." Hearing this story, the practitioner suddenly realized her
problem. After that, she went back to her old group of fellow practitioners to
exchange ideas and borrow books to read. Now she often comes to my shop and
talks with me about cultivation experiences. Fellow practitioners told me,
"She realized her attachments in the end. Your food shop is playing a very
important role." I said, "It is arranged by Teacher." In my continuous and penetrating truth-clarification, I see in the eyes of
sentient beings that they are longing to be saved. I will not disappoint the
compassionate salvation of Teacher and the hopes that sentient beings have
placed on me. I will cherish my time and do even better and better. * In January 2001, state-controlled media across China reported that five
so-called Falun Gong practitioners had set themselves on fire on Tiananmen
Square. Through slow-motion analysis of the footage, numerous independent
agencies have concluded that the entire event was staged. The footage can be
downloaded from www.faluninfo.net |