(Clearwisdom.net) Around the end of last year, after a sojourn elsewhere, I returned to the big city where I had previously worked. My first thought upon arrival was that I needed to make the best use of the New Year time to catch up by studying as much Fa as possible. Within a short period of time, I went over all of Master's books and lectures. During that time I was full of the Fa; it was instilled in my head, so much so that I felt like a changed person.
After studying a large amount of Fa, I started to ask myself why I would allow myself to be led astray into giving up my former stable environment. Right after the New Year, I started to send resumes to online job posts. People were saying that, due to the economic downturn, decent work opportunities were few and far between and that submitting one hundred resumes would not get you even one job interview. Although that did seem to be the case in the city I returned to, I understood from the principles of the Fa that these (worldly) factors have little effect on practitioners. In two days I sent out 19 resumes, and then I resumed my Fa study. A few days later, I got three offers to interview. At the second interview, a company (the one I currently work for) agreed to hire me. I then found a good place to rent and settled down. These things happened so fast that I felt as if I had never left this city.
I recall that everything went well at my second interview (with the department head and another key person). They acknowledged my competence and agreed on the amount of my salary. All that remained to do was to report to their supervisor and issue me a job offer in writing. The department head gave me his cell phone number, telling me to expect his call within a week. After six days passed and I had not yet heard from him, I called him. He was uneasy on the phone, saying that his supervisor thought my salary was a bit high. According to him, he really liked me, and he told me that the company had already recruited a few new staff who took less pay after they interviewed me.
Hearing that, I said to him candidly, "I can understand what your boss is thinking. I was a boss myself a year ago, and I understand how it feels to be in his shoes. I am thinking that, even though I have relatively more work experience, I need to start from scratch in a brand new company. Only after I have contributed to the company would it be right for me to be paid commensurate to my experience. I would like to be paid a salary similar to what you offered the recently hired staff. Can you talk to your supervisor again with my idea?" He OK-ed it. The next day, I got the official job offer.
Before I made that phone call to the department head, I already came to understand that I had a xinxing test that I had to pass. I realized that I must eliminate a filthy attachment---my jealousy. The fact that I left this city to become a boss on my own was largely due to this mentality of jealousy.
Before I originally left this city, I was a founding member of the department I worked for in my old company. Along with my colleagues, I often worked overtime (without pay) late into the night. Yet, at the year end, it was my colleagues who got bonuses, and I was left out. I thought it was unfair and wondered how my boss was able to forget someone like me who equally contributed his free time to the company. That mentality was an attachment that I did not take seriously. The old forces took advantage of this loophole and magnified it. Eventually, I left my stable job and good environment in which I could do the three things well.
Now, with my return to this city, I was able to smoothly find a job and equally smoothly find a place (the rental market was tight then). It was all because Master pulled me back from the brink, revealing to me that only by walking the path Master arranged for me was I able to return home. It was all because of Master's compassion. In the meantime, the whole thing made me realize that at this critical historical juncture, for someone who did not cultivate diligently, his attachment would be manipulated by the old forces, and he would eventually walk the path of the old forces. That person would drift away from Dafa and place himself in a dangerous situation.
In the wake of my departure from this city, I was not in a good state. All day long I was busy with the trivialities of life. I was exhausted, frustrated, and the three things were no longer as important. I was not behaving like a Dafa practitioner, I was drifting away from Dafa, and I was becoming more and more like an everyday person. The old forces have no scruples about getting their hands on an everyday person. A calamity descended on me. When I was working on a construction site, a huge wooden block slipped and hit me on the head. I was knocked down to the ground. It hurt so much that it brought tears to my eyes. Those present urged me to go to the hospital, with one person citing the example of his relative who in a similar accident had his head crushed and lost his life. In my case, I had a big bump on my head that gradually went down.
During my intensive Fa study around the New Year, I came to realize that the old forces would manipulate those defective Dafa practitioners; the old forces have no qualms in causing these practitioners to even lose their life. I also came to understand that Master once again bore so much for me. When my state started to get better after intensive Fa study, Master encouraged me in a dream. Thinking about these things, I burst into tears.
I want to use my lesson to share with fellow practitioners that only by walking solidly the path Master has arranged for us can we return home. The other paths are full of dangers and will not lead us home. I also want to take this opportunity to pay respect to our great Master. Master, thank you! It is only because of your benevolent compassion for those lost disciples that they are able to make it back. To be worthy of your grace, I have no other choice but to be diligent in my cultivation.