(Minghui.org) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I’m a practitioner that obtained Dafa in Beijing in October 1998. I came to Canada in August 2012, which opened a new chapter in my Dafa cultivation –devoting myself to the media project practitioners initiated. I’d like to share how I, with Master’s compassion and care, let go of the attachments to self-interest in the last three years.
Declined the Kindness of My Former Company
Before I came to Canada, I was an overseas manager for a company’s research and development department. I travelled a lot and the workload was huge in terms of time and energy. I had to work weekends sometimes. At one point, I couldn’t participate in group exercise and truth-clarifying events for a long time. But to keep my legal identity in that country, I could not quit that job. This situation lasted about two or three years, and then I made up my mind to quit the job and leave the country.
With Master’s care and compassionate arrangement, I successfully got my Canadian immigration papers within a year and a half.
Then, the first test came. After I received my immigration papers, I went to give my resignation notice to the general manager. At first she thought I was joking. After she realized that it was not a joke, she tried all she could to ask me to stay. She promised a two-month vacation for me to settle down in Canada, and then I could help the company develop the Canadian market and open a branch company in Canada. She said I wouldn’t need to find a job in Canada, and my salary would be raised according to Canada’s salary standard, all the benefits that I already had would remain as well. I would actually be promoted from a department manager as head of their overseas branch.
However, after I thought it over, I turned down her kind offer. When I applied to immigrate to Canada, I had promised Master to devote myself to truth clarification projects after I came to Canada, in order to make up for all the time that I had wasted before. If I accepted the general manager’s offer, then the same heavy workload that I had would return to my shoulders again and my life would not have changed, but only moved from one country to another. I would not be able to cultivate and keep my promise. This test was thus temporarily passed.
The Financial Test in Canada
I came to Canada in August 2012. I soon realized that my wishful thinking was not easy to achieve. Without a stable income, plus the immigration expenses, I needed to face the financial test right away.
I had promised that I would work full time for the editorial department as soon as I landed in Canada. But due to budget restraints, the department could only start to pay me from the next year without actually knowing how much they could pay me. My savings would be very easily used up if I had no other income in Canada.
In this case, taking into account both the editorial department job and my life, I had to look for a part-time job. The problem was solved in an unusually easy manner. Within one week after arriving in Canada, I found a part-time job in a sushi shop near my home. I only worked three or four days a week for four to five hours a day. With my basic living costs being covered, I was able to work for the editorial department with a peaceful mind.
Quitting Part-time Job for Local Shen Yun Promotion
However, this peaceful life only lasted two months when a local Shen Yun coordinator gave me a call. She said that they were short of manpower, because most of the English speaking practitioners had full-time jobs. She hoped that I could make more time to participate in the Shen Yun promotion and sell tickets in shopping malls, especially on the weekdays from Monday to Friday.
Since my editorial department job required me to only work online, there was no time conflict with my part-time job. But if I were to sell tickets in shopping malls, I would have to quit my part-time job. After the conversation with the coordinator, I thought about what I should do on my way to work. Suddenly, a voice in my head said: if Fa-rectification would end tomorrow, what would be your choice?
The answer was obvious, I told my boss as soon as I arrived at work that I would not come to work next week. In the next two months, I sold tickets almost five to six days a week, and worked for the editorial department website after I came back home.
Job Came to Me after Shen Yun
In January 2013, after Shen Yun left my local area, the editorial department told me that I could not be paid as planned, so I would have to look for a part-time job again. Amazingly, my boss in the sushi shop called me to cover her temporarily for two months, as she had to leave for a two-month vacation. Thus I was able to go back to work in the same sushi shop.
In the next half a year, I worked at different positions in that sushi shop and learned more skills to make sushi. I worked only two days a week instead of six days, but instead of four to five hours a day, I worked nine hours. This means, I worked the same hours, yet I was able to have four to five full days to work for the editorial department.
In November 2013, a friend introduced me to a big company who was hiring a skilled sushi maker. At first they were only offering a full-time position, but after I said that I could only come to work after 6:30 pm, they surprisingly accepted me due to the lack of manpower. Later on, I was told that after they hired me, they started to hire part-time staff. Thus I started to work for this company as a skilled sushi maker.
Now when I look back, my first part-time job in the small sushi shop not only solved my financial problem, but also laid a foundation for my later job in the big company. I am more convinced that Master is always taking care of me, otherwise how could everything go so smoothly after I came to Canada?
I enlightened that as a Dafa Disciple, my being in this world is to save sentient beings and validate the Fa. Everything must give way to saving sentient beings. When the starting point is right, Master will certainly help disciples out.
Master said,
“As I have always said, as Dafa disciples your historic missions are simply huge, with you shouldering the responsibility of saving sentient beings. So for sure there is a path that you will be able to walk through to completion. It is a path that has to meet the requirements, and only that way will the sentient beings of the cosmos admire you and not be able to interfere; will your path be free of problems; and will your journey go smoothly.”( “20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
Quitting Part-time for Fully Engaging in the Media Project
Due to the shortage of hands in the editorial department, I have been working at different positions during the last three years. The workload has also been increasing. In my last part-time job, I had to keep reducing my hours to meet the department's needs and my boss was always very cooperative and helped with my job adjustment.
However, I found that since I had to work seven days a week, sometimes I could not read the Fa and do the exercises regularly. Master told us that if our media is to do better, our cultivation must be kept up.
Master said,
“For a Dafa disciple, cultivation is first priority. That’s because if you fail to cultivate well, you will not be able to accomplish what you are to do; and if you fail to cultivate well, your power to save sentient beings will not be that great. And if you cultivate a little worse, then you will view and consider problems in the manner that ordinary people do, which would be still more awful. So you absolutely mustn’t slack off or lower your guard.” ( “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
I asked myself again, as a cultivator, have I met Master’s requirements? If my basic life cost could be covered, should I keep this part-time job? The answer was no.
So in June, I quit my second part-time job in Canada after a year and seven months. Immediately afterwards, the website assigned me a new job, which demanded more time and energy.
Accomplishment: Fulfill My Vow
Now I only know what I have promised in this life, but don’t know what promises I’ve given in my previous lives. But knowing it or not, I will try my best to have them fulfilled.
Master said,
“Cultivation is the cornerstone of what we do, and saving people is our responsibility. Both of these things need to be done well”.( “Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference”）
I understand that what I need to do now is to throw myself into the media project, and at the same time make more time to study the Fa and do the exercises.
Currently, I am able to study the Fa for two hours every day after I finish my editorial department's job. It was like when I just obtained the Fa.
Although I quit my part-time job in ordinary society, my life was not affected at all. Instead, my financial situation was improving.
Master said,
“Looking back, you’ll find that you’ve lost nothing. It’s just like the Chinese saying, “After passing the shady willow trees there will be bright flowers and another village ahead.” Good things will suddenly come your way again.” (Lecture a thte First Conference in North America)
I'd like to thank Master for saving me and purifying me. And Thank Master for arranging me to catch up in cultivation practice.
Thank you Master! Thank you everyone!
(Presented at the 2015 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
