(Minghui.org) I work at home all year round as an editor and proofreader, so most of my xinxing tests happen at home and in my daily life. I found as long as I remove negative emotions and perceptions, and remember to have righteous thoughts, positive things happen—sometimes almost instantly.
My house is made of wood. Whenever a typhoon comes, I’m on edge because the strong wind once lifted off the roof tiles which damaged our neighbors’ property. My children were little and my husband was out of town, I felt overwhelmed having to handle everything by myself.
Although the insurance company paid for the damage, I was anxious during the entire process, not to mention that a lot of time was wasted.
I’ve been having to deal with these types of chores and troubles for years, and I felt helpless. These things seemed to happen naturally, but I did not realize the old forces were taking advantage of the loopholes in my thinking and created these tribulations to interfere with me.
I discovered this lapse during a seemingly incidental occurrence.
About two years ago, another terrible typhoon hit my area and it seemed as if it was going to rip the roof apart. I was nervous and worried again. As soon as I had this thought, bad things happened.
That night, I slept on the dining room floor for safety. The loud sounds of the wind and debris hitting the windows and doors woke me in the middle of the night. When I touched the floor, it was wet. At first, I thought it was an illusion due to my excessive worry, but soon I woke up completely, jumped up, and turned on the light.
I was stunned: the cord that the chandelier was hanging from had turned into a small stream, and water was flowing nonstop from the ceiling to the floor. My bed cover was already wet. The roof was indeed leaking.
I put a basin under the chandelier to collect the water. I sat on the floor, and my mind was blank. Then, all at once, I remembered the ordeal of past roof repairs, and I was filled with anxiety, irritation, helplessness, and other negative emotions.
I felt as though I was being crushed by these thoughts. I even felt resentment towards my husband for always being away from home. I thought, “I cannot live like this anymore, enough is enough!”
At that moment, another thought suddenly came to me, “Why do I worry and feel anxious like this? Why do I feel helpless? Should a Falun Dafa practitioner live in fear or feel helpless? Aren’t I supposed to be in control of my emotions? Why am I affected? How can I allow this to go on? Can feeling anxious change anything? I can’t even have a good night’s sleep, isn’t that interference?”
So I made an unbelievable decision. I decided to go back to sleep and put aside all the fear, worry, and anxiety, and leave everything for tomorrow. I told myself, “From now on, even if the sky is falling, I will face it with a smile. I simply do what I’m supposed to do.”
This thought really calmed me down, and I went back to sleep.
The next morning, the basin was not even full; the water from the ceiling changed from a stream to a drip, which stopped very soon.
I thought, “Should I file a claim with the insurance company and have the roof repaired so it won’t leak next time?” This time I immediately caught this thought. “Why am I thinking about the next time? Stop thinking about it. Whatever happens next time, deal with it then. I should forget about it.”
I did not have the roof repaired. Two typhoons hit my area again, but I was not anxious. There was no roof leakage whatsoever.
From this I learned to stay unaffected by negative thoughts during tribulations, to always remember that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and that Master gave us righteous energy. Our thoughts can change the outcome.
In fact, it was Master Li (Falun Dafa's founder) who gave me a hint to have righteous thoughts and guides me to stay positive in handling problems in life. I learned I must remove negative thoughts and emotions, and hold righteous thoughts under any circumstance.
I further understood that the negative thoughts and emotions are not part of me, but products of notions and attachments from my past experiences. They made me feel scared, upset, anxious, and resentful. As a result, I complained.
If I admitted the thoughts were part of me and that was how I thought, then I would be going along with the old forces. Wouldn’t this be inviting them to keep interfering with me and allowing bad things to happen?
Master said,
“We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
Through this experience, I felt the power of Dafa firsthand. I realized that it’s really important to remove negative emotions and to cultivate every thought.
One day, I found one of the backseat windows on my car would not close. No matter how many times I tried, it would not respond to the button. My first thought was, “This car is so old it’s falling apart. It has to be repaired again.”
I sat there thinking about making an appointment with the garage. I grumbled that my time would be wasted and I would have to spend money...it’s really a lot of trouble. I started feeling upset again.
A few minutes later, I suddenly came to my senses, “Who said being 'old' means it has to break down? Isn’t this negative thinking again?”
I remembered that a fellow practitioner’s car window was fixed after he sent forth righteous thoughts. So I thought, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. The car is my assistant. It won’t break down.”
I sent forth righteous thoughts for a minute and I also asked for Master’s help, I then pressed the button, and “Whoosh,” the window closed in an instant.
I was very grateful and thanked Master immediately! As long as I have righteous thoughts, Master will let everything return to normal, and the results will be positive.
My younger daughter’s biggest problem is that she procrastinates. She hardly ever does anything I ask her right away. If I repeat myself, she talks back to me. I sometimes repeat myself five or six times, but she still won’t do what I ask. I complain and blame her, but usually give up in the end. I accepted that this was part of her personality.
One afternoon, I noticed that she did not clean the table after eating. Just as I was about to complain, I suddenly realized that in the matter of dealing with my children I always forget what Master said,
“Nothing is by chance, and there are always two sides to things. An occurrence is meant to either test you or help you. In any case, two sides are involved. Think it over and you will realize that nothing happens by chance.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the New York Fa Conference Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dafa’s Spreading,” Team Yellow translation)
I realized perhaps it was my notion that made her that way. Everything was an illusion, and as soon as I changed, she would change.
I thought, “It’s time to change my perceptions. What’s key is whether my thoughts are human or divine.” So I immediately adjusted my mentality and developed a positive thought, “She is a good and obedient child.”
I gently said, “Forgot to clean up the table? Hurry up and throw the garbage away, or the bugs will come.” There was no complaint or blame in my tone.
This time, she did not delay for a second. She immediately stopped what she was doing and happily did as I asked. I watched in astonishment at how incredibly fast she changed. It was really like what Master said in Zhuan Falun,
“...good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, ...” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
Master also said,
“I’ll tell you, for years I have been continually saying that Dafa disciples’ abilities are tremendous, yet many people don’t believe this since those abilities were not allowed to be seen. Under the effect of righteous thoughts, everything around you, as well as you yourself, will undergo changes. Yet you have never thought to give it a try. The old forces as well as the interference from the evil elements are precisely exploiting the gaps in your thinking. That’s what they have been doing all these years.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
I began to understand that everything Master says is true. Any negative emotions we have are the old forces exploiting the situation to keep us thinking negatively using human experience and reasoning. If we acknowledge and accept these negative thoughts as ours, we may incur tribulations. If we lack righteous thoughts, we may be trapped in demonic tribulations for a long time.
I’d like to tell you about a recent experience. My daughter drove me to renew my driver’s license, but I forgot my glasses. I didn’t realize it until we arrived at the office. I immediately became worried because even though my left eye’s vision is in the normal range, I can hardly see anything with my right eye—my vision is less than 0.1.
I usually do not wear glasses and rely on my left eye. I only wear glasses for driving. Without my glasses, I was worried that I would fail the eye exam and I would have to come back. My home was far away, and it would be a waste of time.
I felt nervous and became irritable and anxious. What to do? According to the rules, if one eye is less than 0.3, even if the other eye has normal vision, one would fail the exam.
As I dwelt on these thoughts, I suddenly had another thought, “What is the use of worrying? Worry and anxiety can only make me fail and make things worse. Why should I let myself be moved by these emotions? Even if this was caused by my negligence and I really have to come back, I must not have these emotions.”
So I calmed down and kept quietly saying, “Falun Dafa is good.” The thoughts that were making me feel upset quickly disappeared.
During the exam, my mind was peaceful and empty, and everything went well. The result said my right eye’s vision was 0.3, just enough to pass! I knew Master helped me.
I know that there’s still a lot of room for improvement in my cultivation and I’m still far from meeting Master’s requirements. For example, I still cannot identify a lot of thoughts, and most of the time when problems arise I don’t correct myself immediately, so I’ve suffered a lot of unnecessary hardships.
I will do better in cultivation, get rid of all the negative notions, perceptions and emotions, and critically examine my every thought based on the Fa.
This concludes my sharing. Please kindly point out anything improper. Thank you!