Greetings Master, greetings fellow practitioners

I came to the U.S. to study in a Catholic High School when I was 15 years old. Although my school was a Catholic school and we used to go to church every Sunday, I still did not fully understand the real meaning and purpose of my' life. During vacations from school, I used to go back to China to visit my parents. My mom worked for a multi-national company. Due to high pressure and stress from the work, the blood vessels in her brain were getting blocked, and the next stage of her illness would be cerebral thrombosis. She took medicine for three years but the illness stayed the same. Due to the high pressure from her work, she had a very bad temper. She would easily lose her temper even over a trifle. Whenever she became angry, she suffered from the worst headaches that anybody could imagine. I remember one time, my dad had to hold my mom and I knelt down in front of her bed, helplessly watching her suffering from those unbearable headaches. In the beginning of 1999, my mom received a book that changed the life of my family, Zhuan Falun. Only three months later, my mom's headaches disappeared and she did not need to take any medicine.

My mom came to the U.S. at the beginning of 2000. She quickly contacted local practitioners. Because she did not know how to drive, every time when she went to study the Fa or practice the exercises, I gave her a ride. Unfortunately, I had not started to cultivate at that time. In December of 2000, mom found out from other practitioners that there would be an Experience Sharing Conference in Michigan. She also found out the time and the location, I did not think much about it, I just went with my mom to the conference. I remember the conference quite clearly--it was in an auditorium at the University of Michigan. There were not many people at that conference and we did not sit too close to the front. When Master Li walked onto the stage, all the practitioners stood up together and applauded. I stood up as well. I did not know why but I was crying. I felt a little embarrassed, afraid of other people seeing a guy like me crying so hard. I could not control myself, I was crying during the entire lecture from Master Li. I felt like a child who has been lost for so long and always dreamed of coming home, and one day his dream came true; no wonder I was crying so hard! After I came back to Chicago, I kept thinking, "You have seen the recovery of your mom's illness, and you felt so strongly after you saw Master. Aren't you of poor enlightenment quality if you do not practice?" I decided to start cultivation, but most of the time I was passively involved. If my mom went to study the Fa, then I went, and if she did not, then I did not. Due to work reasons my mom left the U.S. It was really a test for me to actively study the Fa and do the five exercises. I remember on the evening of the first Friday after my mom left, it was time for our group study. After I finished my classes, I was getting ready to go home. For some reason without thinking I drove my car directly to the practitioner's house. Just when I was going to park, a strange thought came into my mind, saying something like, "Why do you want to go in there? The people inside are your mom's friends and you do not really know them. You will feel really awkward; just go back to your own friends." After this idea came, I was ready to turn the car around. Then I thought again, if I leave this time, it will be very hard for me to come back. There are two paths in front of me, the first path is to truly start cultivation, the second path is to go back to my ordinary people friends and enjoy the material life. Teacher already paved my way toward cultivation, but I have to make the final decision. I parked my car and walked into the practitioner's house. Practitioners were still kind and I did not feel awkward at all. Now I know it was thought karma. From that day on, I started my cultivation in Falun Dafa.

The first Dafa project that I got involved in was the torture exhibition during Jiang's lawsuit. At the time, I was getting ready to graduate from college and look for a job. My major was in computer science and during that time it was very hard to find a job in that field. It was almost impossible to find a job for someone like me, who did not have any work experience. During the process of looking for a job, various attachments of mine were exposed. For example, when I received a notice for an interview, my zealotry would emerge, but when I heard that I did not get the job, I would become upset. During that time I was very much attached to finding a good job, and spent a lot of time preparing for the interview. I thought it was the attachment of money and fame in ordinary people's society. As a result, after half a year of searching and so many interviews, I was still unemployed. At that time, the torture exhibit was about to start. I thought it was a good time to get rid of the attachment that I had been struggling with, so I started to help on the torture exhibit full time. On the second day of the torture exhibit, I received a phone call asking me if I had received a "decline letter". It was a company that I had interviewed with a long time ago. I had not received the letter, so he was really happy and told me there was another opening and asked me to go to a second interview as soon as possible. The torture exhibit was just starting, so I set up the interview on Friday after the torture exhibition finished. On Friday, due to the time constraint, I just washed my face and I even had to borrow a belt from another practitioner. Obviously I did not have any time to prepare for the interview. During the interview, the interviewer asked me a very hard question. At first I did not even know where to start, and then I saw the bandage on my finger. My finger was injured by the electric screwdriver during the torture exhibit setup. Somehow it inspired me. I answered his question very quickly, using the electric screwdriver as an analogy to answer his question. When I answered the question, the interviewer kept nodding his head to show he agreed with my answer. On the ordinary people's side, an interview without any preparation went really well. On the last day of the hearing of Jiang's case', I received a job offer from that company. When I validated Dafa and clarified the truth to my friends in ordinary society with my own experiences, some of them felt it was coincidental and some felt it was amazing. I finally realized that if I left all my human attachments behind, I would follow the cultivation path arranged by Master. As Master Li said in Hong Yin II, "Unimpeded":

The paths of cultivation are varied
But none is outside the Great Law
When one is attached to nothing
The path underfoot is naturally smooth

When I started working, I did not fully understand how to balance cultivation and my job in ordinary people's society. Almost a year after I started my job, the head of the CCP was coming to New York for the United Nation's' conference. I knew it was a good opportunity to send forth righteous thoughts and eliminate the evil at close range. So I decided to go to New York. Just before I was going to ask my boss for a few days off, the attachment of fear came out. I was afraid that taking that much time off would affect my job. I worried about the loss of fame and money with my job. I hesitated for a long time before I finally went to my boss and asked her for a vacation. She was not happy but accepted my request. I went to New York to send righteous thoughts and hold banners. Together with thousands of Dafa disciples, we acted with righteous thoughts and eliminated the evil. As it turns out, the long vacation did not affect my work at all. On the first day back, my boss actually promoted me. I realized the importance of validating the Fa and the encouragement from Master and how important it is to balance the relationship between cultivation and work.

Since I started working, everything had gone very well and I was praised by my boss and put in an important position as well. I thought, as long as I do well in Dafa projects, I don't have to work very hard at my ordinary people's job. On the second day after I had this thought, I made a serious mistake at work. I carelessly sent a version of un-tested software to one of our biggest clients, causing a very negative effect on my company. The client was very angry and complained to both my boss and my boss's boss. Before it happened, my colleagues and managers treated me very nicely, but now it seemed that they suddenly changed their views about me. I felt an indescribable pressure. I even thought of quitting my job, but as a Dafa disciple I knew I should face the test and conflict. When I looked back at the two years of work, first, I was afraid that taking a long vacation to participate in Dafa' events could have a negative effect on my' job and I was afraid of losing money and fame. Later I went to another extreme, feeling that as long as I do well in Dafa projects, I don't have to work very hard at my' job. After this test, I finally understood what Master has told us, because we are cultivating in ordinary people's society, balance between Dafa projects and our work is very important. I needed to pass all the tests that Master has arranged in my Dafa projects and my' job and let go of the load of baggage in ordinary society.' After the mistake, I went to my boss and our client to apologize. After our client used the correct version of the software, they told my boss they really liked the product and it was helpful to them.

Soon after I started to work, the 'green card that my mom applied for my dad was approved. After all the procedures were completed, my dad went to the interview. At the end of the interview, the interviewer suddenly asked if my dad was a member of the CCP. Without thinking, my dad said "yes", and as a result the interviewer asked my dad to go back and wait. We found out from another source that if you tell them you are a member of the CCP, you will have to wait at least six months or a year. At that time, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party had just been published on the Epoch Times website and quitting the CCP had just started. I published the statements on behalf of all my family members to withdraw from the Party, the Youth League and Young Pioneers League. Then I sent the message to my dad. The next day my dad received a notice from the U.S. embassy stating that his green card was approved and he could go to pick it up. I knew the CCP's spirit possession had been eliminated. Things that seemed impossible in ordinary people's life were once again manifested as a miracle of Dafa.

My mom and dad came to the U.S. Together. My dad knew Dafa was good but had not really started cultivating. After he came to the U.S., he gradually started cultivation in Dafa. In 2005 our family attended the New York Fa Conference. It was the first time my dad attended a Fa conference. After Master Li's lecture and during the break, my dad's craving for a cigarette began to show its effects and he went to smoke during the break. Before he smoked, he felt his whole body was very light, almost like floating, but after he took the first puff the feeling was all gone. After my dad went back to Chicago, he felt that the cigarettes tasted really awful. My dad actually quit smoking after 46 years. My dad used his own experiences to clarify the truth to our relatives and friends. Their first reaction was that they did not believe my dad quit smoking, but afterwards everyone said that Dafa was miraculous. Some of them even started practicing Falun Gong. Now our whole family is cultivating in Falun Dafa.

Posting date: 8/4/2006
Original article date: 8/4/2006
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/7/3/132036.html

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