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Minghui Fahui | Encountering Dafa, Understanding Dafa, and Validating Dafa

Dec. 20, 2012 |   By Falun Dafa practitioner Li Lian from Tianjin

(Minghui.org) I was 42 years old in 1998, and this was the lowest point in my life. I had lost my job, and my body was full of illness. I was losing all hope for my future.

I Was Saved

For a long time, I had suffered from tightness in my chest and had lost my appetite. March 26, 1998 was the most important day of my life. That day I was scheduled for a physical checkup at the hospital. In the morning, to kill time, I picked up a book entitled Cultivation Practice Experience Sharing from Dafa Disciples in Beijing which a Falun Gong practitioner had lent to me. I sat down on the couch and started reading it. As I read, I was increasingly shocked by the magical effects of Falun Dafa. I saw a brand new world in front of me and came to know the existence of a practice method that was new to me. I skipped the physical checkup at the hospital because I wanted to learn Falun Gong and follow Master into a brighter world.

I finally put down the book at around noon. When I got up from the couch to prepare for lunch, I realized that the tightness in my chest was gone and I could breath freely. My appetite returned, and the constant fatigue and weakness disappeared. I felt extremely comfortable. I then became motionless and my eyes filled with tears. Master was taking care of me even before reading the books, as soon as I developed the thought, “I want to practice Falun Gong.” Falun Dafa is great! I immediately went to the above-mentioned practitioner's home and learned all four sets of exercises. I also participated in the group study session that very evening.

Over the ten days that followed, I finished reading all the books Master had written. Within Dafa I found the answers to every question I had in my life. I have undergone great changes mentally and physically, thanks to Fa-study and practice. Unknowingly, all my diseases (heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, stomach ulcers, colitis, neurasthenia) disappeared. My face's dark ill-looking gray color faded away, and a rosy complexion appeared. “Falun Dafa is good!” I have had this strong feeling for 14 years, since I started practicing Falun Dafa.

Soon after I began cultivating, I started introducing Dafa to my son, who was in elementary school. I told him the basic principles of Dafa and asked him if he wanted to practice cultivation with me. He happily agreed and started studying the Fa and doing the exercises with me, and conducting himself by the standards of the Fa. In the next three months while he was preparing for middle school entrance exams, I didn't have to put any pressure on him except for taking care of him. When summer came, he graduated elementary school and was admitted to the city's key middle school. In the the six years that followed, he continued to conduct himself using the standard of the Fa. He was persistent in Fa study, even during the last few months prior to the national college entrance exam. In the end, he was admitted to a key university.

CEO Said, “It's surprising to see how dramatically you have changed!”

I have greatly improved my xinxing through cultivation practice. In the summer of 1998, my former employer called me back to finish up an assignment because I still had a large number of sample goods in the safe, from when I was in charge prior to being laid off. I worked with an employee for an entire morning, inventorying the samples in all three safes. I listed each item and the employee signed off on the list. The employee said to me, “There is no record of these items. They're useful, and since you have lost income, why don't you just keep them for yourself?” I smiled and replied, “I can't take things that are not mine.” After the work was completed, my body felt extremely light and relaxed. I felt proud to be a Dafa practitioner.

I did odd jobs to make a living, including working at a wholesale market, and as a gatekeeper. One day, the CEO of my previous workplace ran into me in the wholesale market. We chatted for a while and he said, “It's surprising how dramatically you have changed!”

Two days later, he had someone call me back to the company. I was offered a job with special approval allowing me to continue doing export work. At the same time, he laid off an employee who was three years older than me. I told the CEO, “I greatly appreciate your thoughts and effort, and also hoped to come back and do what I am familiar with, but if my return means someone else is being laid off, then I will have to forego this opportunity.” He looked at me curiously and asked, “Why do you care about her?” I replied, “If she is laid off, her life will become difficult. Please let her stay.”

Two years later, I had another job opportunity, which I also declined, because it involved sacrificing someone else. As long as one studies the Fa conscientiously, conducts oneself with the standard of a practitioner at every moment and under every circumstance, and constantly gives up human attachments and conventional thinking, one will not find everyday pursuits attractive, and at the same time Master provides practitioners a ladder to heaven. One would praise wholeheartedly, “Falun Dafa is good!”

Prior to practicing cultivation, I had registered a company in Hungary with a friend and obtained my passport, ready to go abroad. While waiting for my visa, I found Dafa. According to my shallow understandings at the time, I thought a practitioner only needed a simple job that was enough to make a simple living. I therefore gave up that opportunity. Moreover, I was intentionally looking for relatively low-level work, thinking that the more hardship I suffered, the higher I would cultivate.

With constant Fa study, I gradually realized that this understanding was rather extreme. I came to understand the difference between today's Fa-rectification period cultivation practice and personal cultivation practice from the past. I have realized the significance of my responsibilities, and the importance of walking my path while validating Dafa and saving sentient beings in this world. I realized that I should utilize my capabilities to widely interact with society.

Validating Dafa

Because my understandings improved, Master made arrangements for me. A long-lost friend helped me find a statistics job in a company.

I knew nothing about statistics, and my skills with computers were limited to typing and working on word processing files. During the first few days at the new job, a clerk taught me four ways to do statistics with spreadsheet software. I felt at a loss as soon as she left. Two weeks later I was still very confused. I asked myself, “Why can't I grasp this after such a long time?” I knew it must be that my attachments were interfering.

I calmed down and stopped thinking about work. I held the book Zhuan Falun in my hands and started studying the Fa respectfully. Master's Fa enlightened me. I found that I had a very heavy element of validating myself while I was validating Dafa. After studying the Fa, I felt my heart lighten.

The next morning, I came to the office and found that the work was actually very easy. It took me only two hours to finish what used to take an entire day. I was very excited because I knew it would have been impossible if it wasn't for Master's help.

Upon finishing my assignments, I quickly became familiar with the equipments and materials used in the engineering projects. Moreover, I took on management and bookkeeping for the equipment and material storage. This happened within the first month of my new job. I later took on the management of engineering vehicles and fuel cards, and was actually doing the work of several people. The CEO was very surprised, as he believed that the tasks would difficult even for young people, and I was the oldest in the company aside from him and the chief engineer. Others also found my health and capabilities surprising. This laid a good foundation for me to later do truth-clarification.

During the course of the year within the company, I conducted myself with the standard of a practitioner. I arrived at work ahead of time in the morning and worked diligently. When I was done with office work, I helped prepare lunch in the kitchen. When I saw that the bathrooms needed cleaning, I took the initiative to clean them. Everyone saw this, and the director of the Engineering Department asked the CEO, “Where did you find her?” The CEO's wife was the cashier in the company. She was seven years younger than me but her health was very poor. One time she did not come to work for several days in a row, so I knew she must have been sick again. I realized that this was a good opportunity to promote Dafa to her, so I went to her home after work to clarify the facts to her.

I brought some food and truth-clarification materials with me. I told her about my changes after I started practicing Falun Dafa, and told her some basic principles of Dafa. She listened to me conscientiously and said before I even finished, “I believe everything you have told me. I want to learn with you.” From that day on, she started practicing cultivation. She has since undergone great changes mentally and physically. Her 80-year-old mother was once critically ill and bedridden. I told her to advise her mother to sincerely recite, “Falun Dafa is good! Zhen-Shan-Ren is good!” Two weeks later, she told me with a big surprise that her mother could now take care of herself. Several years have passed and her mother is still alive. Through this incident, everyone including the CEO developed a positive understanding of Dafa. I gave truth-clarification materials to everyone, and gave a copy of Zhuan Falun to the coworkers, who expressed further interest in learning Dafa.

Boss Said, “Your conduct makes me believe Falun Gong is good.”

A friend introduced me to a sales job in foreign trade a year later. The boss of that company wanted to hire me as soon as he heard about me. I had finished truth-clarification at the existing company, and since I could save more people at the second company, I accepted it. The new job was a challenge to me because I knew nothing about the business, but I decided to go.

I quickly familiarized myself with the merchants, customers, and the market, and continued to work diligently. I used my lunch time to clarify the facts to my coworkers. However, an incident happened six weeks into the new job which caused me to draw back.

A year prior, the boss hadn't followed the customs rules for handling the processing of goods. To deal with the customs officials, the boss now wanted us to change the business archives and hide the correspondence between the customers. As a practitioner, I practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance, and should not use deceit, but the boss wanted me to help him in this regard. What should I do? As a practitioner, I lead an honest and clean life, so I thought perhaps I should resign immediately and not collude with him. However, I was there to save sentient beings, so should I just walk away like that? I was very confused, and pondered over and over again why this happened.

I handed in my resignation, but he didn't accept it. He asked my friends and family to persuade me to come back, and called me many times for a face-to-face talk.

I was very distressed. I knew it was a test that required me to raise my xinxing, and I couldn't avoid it. I was in a dilemma, how could I walk this path righteously!

Once again, Dafa untied my knot. Master taught in “Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles” in 2006,

“Then why is it that in recent times, suddenly all kinds of cultures, theories, and social phenomena have come about? This is the result of the various gigantic cosmic systems' things manifesting themselves in the lowest level, the human world, and their reason for doing this is so that they might be chosen.”

“Have you thought about the fact that, if the many occupations and the many fields seen today were brought here from those distant systems of beings, and Dafa disciples are cultivating in this setting, with Dafa disciples cultivating in different occupations, then isn't it just like rectifying [those systems] with the Fa? Isn't that acknowledging their existence? Isn't that saving them?”

“In other words, what gods want are not the formats that mankind uses, but for you to utilize the formats here and ascend. When you elevate by making use of these formats, you are validating Fa, validating gods, and saving sentient beings, right? (Applause) Dafa disciples' cultivating in the diverse occupations is acknowledging the beings in those systems, and it is saving all those lives.”

Master taught in “Non-Omission” in Essentials for Further Advancement,

“The Fa has different requirements for cultivators at different levels. Sacrifice is evidenced by one’s being detached from ordinary human attachments. If a person can indeed calmly abandon everything with his heart being unaffected, he is actually at that level already. Yet cultivation practice is to improve yourself: You are already able to abandon the attachment, so why not also abandon the fear of attachment, itself? Isn’t abandonment without omission a higher sacrifice?”

Master's earnest teachings made me suddenly see the light. I came to understand that as a Dafa practitioner, it is correct to conduct oneself in accordance with Dafa's requirements, but during the Fa-rectification period, saving beings is a greater mission for Dafa practitioners. Only when one cultivates oneself well at work and among our living environment, and walks a righteous path, can one save the sentient beings in that area. I realized that I should use this opportunity to clarify the facts to my boss, with the hope that he will be able to choose a bright future for himself. Before meeting with him, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate interference as well as any obstacles that may keep him from understanding the truth.

When he asked me why I resigned, I explained to him that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and explained in detail how practitioners should conduct themselves. I also told him the principle that good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil. He listened to me carefully and when I finished, he said, “Since the company was established over ten years ago, I have not met a single person who moved me so much. I feel that you are very different from the others. Your conduct makes me believe that Falun Gong is a good practice. I like to work with your kind of people.” He said that he respected my belief, and would not do that kind of cheating in the future. In addition, he openly admitted his wrongdoings during company meetings. I installed the software to circumvent China's great Internet firewall on his computer (so he could browse websites outside, that were censored by the Chinese Communist Party) and gave him some truth-clarification CDs and magazines. From then on, my work environment became very relaxed. When I was done with my work, I could read the Fa, read Dafa websites, or clarify the facts to other coworkers and persuade them to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Some coworkers also started practicing cultivation in Dafa.

During the several years I worked at the company, I deeply felt Master's compassion and the almighty power of Dafa. In the foreign trade business, there cannot be flaws in any aspect of the business process, otherwise the export proceeds can become a problem. Quite a few times, when I was about to issue the documents, I had an inexplicable feeling to check them again, and then discovered errors.

I have used many opportunities to contact my past coworkers and friends. They were all in awe when they saw how healthy and capable I was. I clarified the facts to them and they all willingly accepted.

Throughout 14 years of cultivation, Master has been watching us at every moment, holding our hands while we walk our paths righteously. Every sentient being saved is the result of Master's hard work. As a Dafa disciple, I feel incomparable happiness. I hope that all people around the world can remember, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” and choose a bright future for themselves!

Thank you Master! Thank you fellow practitioners! Heshi!