(Clearwisdom.net) I was self-employed and ran a barber shop with my husband. For a very long period of time I did not have a clear understanding of the Fa principle,

“Conforming as much as possible to the way of everyday people,”

(“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore”)

As a result I conformed to some warped things in my daily life and thought that they were for my own survival. As a matter of fact I simply could not let go of the attachment to personal gain, which resulted in my misunderstanding the Fa on this issue.

Since I failed to rectify my thinking I suffered from interference in the three things Teacher asked us to do as well as in my personal life. I paid a heavy price. The most serious consequence appeared in sending forth righteous thoughts and doing the sitting meditation. In sending righteous thoughts I would always fail to keep my palm up straight and in doing the sitting meditation I would feel very sleepy or sometimes would even fall asleep. It seemed as though some substance was mixed into my mind so I always felt sleepy. In studying the Fa I could hardly keep my eyes open or my mind would drift away. I also felt that there was something in my mind so that I could not keep calm and would feel extremely uncomfortable when there was a slight pain in doing the sitting meditation. When conflicts occurred I would fly into a rage and begin to smash things.

At that time I mistakenly took it as part of me. I always felt irrational and could not reach the state of benevolence. Now I know that substance was not me, but it tried to control me, control the state of my mind, make me impatient and intolerant. All this was for one purpose: to stop me from reaching consummation.

Some practitioners were worried about me and shared with me many times. I read a lot of the lectures Teacher gave since the persecution began and finally I found what I was lagging behind in. I failed to make a clear distinction between what I should conform to and what I should not. In other words I totally conformed to the way of everyday people and this behavior was taken advantage of by the old forces.

A practitioner came to my home to share with me and helped me to improve my understanding. When the two of us planned to send forth righteous thoughts the practitioner looked at the clock in my home and noticed that the clock had stopped. I said maybe the battery had gone dead. After we finished sending forth righteous thoughts, the practitioner left and I began to read Zhuan Falun. Before I finished one page I heard the sound of ticking as the clock had begun to work again. I understood that this was because I had rectified my thoughts and the power that derived from studying the Fa disintegrated all the unrighteous factors. Therefore the old forces had no excuse to use the clock to interfere with me. The clock runs very accurately to this day.

After having rectified my thoughts and acts in the Fa, the substance that the old forces brought in to interfere me was all eliminated during Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts. As a result my mind became sober and when erecting my palm to send righteous thoughts, it remained upright. In studying the Fa my mind became clear and I was able to memorize the Fa very quickly. In mediating, I easily broke through the 60 minute mark and then in a very short time I could do 100 minutes.

Today I used the Clearwisdom platform to share this with my fellow practitioners because I found some other practitioners are also not clear on this aspect of the Fa. For example, among practitioners, some dye their hair different colors. I believe that this is warped behavior; the dye is often toxic. Doesn't it harm our bodies?

I knew a practitioner who worked as an accountant at a workplace and quit the job because they did not want to make false accounts. However, some practitioners could not understand this, saying that the practitioner should not quit the job because we must conform as much as possible to the ways of everyday people. Actually Teacher asked us to take a good measure of “as much as possible” to not totally conform to the way of everyday people. Without this precondition we would be no different from everyday people. We need to conform as much as possible to the way of everyday people's society but we, as Dafa practitioners, must not drift with the tide, still less do things that are warped and not in line with the standards of the human level. In the past I would not consider it wrong for anything which was allowed by the government. However, the law was made by human beings, not by gods.

“Human society is also a level created by the Dafa, so within this level there are bound to be standards of existence that the Fa has at this level for sentient beings, as well as principles for human conduct at this level.”

(“Dafa Is All-Encompassing” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)

I was very slow in my understanding of this aspect and wasted too much time. When I was serving my sentence of one and a half years of forced labor, my heart was broken and my husband, also a practitioner, passed away. We were in the same trade and he had the same problem as I.

The lesson has left me more mature. Today I write this sharing for fellow practitioners to take as a lesson and walk well on the path arranged by Teacher, and to totally negate the arrangements by the old forces in our thoughts and actions.

This is my personal understanding. For anything I did not do well, please feel free to comment and correct.