My Personal Understanding about Money

By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Qiqihaer City

(Clearwisdom.net) As I have shared with other practitioners, there was one issue that I was not able to understand. It goes as follows: There was a practitioner that made a living by operating a small business, and she had financial difficulties. Costumers often drove a hard bargain for her products. The practitioner sometimes accepted a lower price because she thought that it would provide a good opportunity for her to clarify the truth. While some practitioners didn't agree with the way she handled this, her rationalization was that she resorted to this method in order to offer salvation to others. I wondered if she had ever thought about whether she had really saved these people or not. In our area, there are some practitioners that pay almost ten times the original price to buy certain goods, choosing never to bargain for them. From my understanding, they are following the old forces' arrangements.

In terms of saving sentient beings, our starting point should be for the good of others and not for ourselves. Perhaps an ordinary person was acting cantankerous and was then controlled by the old forces in order to cheat you out of money. Your mind, however, was filled with the idea that you had saved this person. The person might swindle you with his non-stop flattery and in the end all you got was fame. So, didn't you fall into the old forces' trap? If you look at this issue from the basis of the Fa-rectification and consider others, you shouldn't help people indulge in their demon nature. We should rectify people's thoughts when we clarify the truth so that they can eliminate their demon nature and truly obtain salvation.

I also wish to talk about spending money on our materials. No matter who donates the money, it should always be used for Dafa materials. How can we accept financial persecution? Some practitioners may think that they are following the path of a Dafa disciple because they don't dispute over money with everyday people. Nevertheless, they didn't look at this issue on the basis of the Fa-rectification and subsequently allowed the old forces to take advantage of their loopholes. The old forces then controlled all sources of income and prevented people from obtaining salvation.

We should search inside to see whether we have thoughts such as: "I am a Falun Gong practitioner and I am being persecuted. However, I am afraid to let other people know that I am a practitioner and am making Dafa truth-clarification materials." With thoughts like this, we are virtually regarding ourselves as offenders.

There are also some practitioners who are afraid to protest reductions or delays in their pay. Although as practitioners we have various kinds of attachments such as attachments to fame, fortune, and sentimentality, Teacher wouldn't allow the old forces to take advantage of these loopholes. We should never accept the old forces' arrangements. We cannot allow sentient beings to commit crimes against Dafa, and we must have the proper perspective while saving sentient beings.

If there is anything inappropriate, please point it out.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/1/11/169954.html

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