(Clearwisdom.net) Noticing some practitioners struggling with money problems, unable to validate the Fa properly, I would like to share my experience when it comes to money management and the lessons I learned.
I began to practice Falun Dafa in March 1999. At the time my family owned a company. My mother and my daughter began to practice Falun Dafa, and the company business began to boom. By 2006, my understanding of the Fa was still limited and I believed that money was not important at all and not being well off was a good thing to suffer. I was still in the state of individual cultivation. With this selfishness and other human notions, the evil took advantage of me. I was tortured in a detention center for a month. Some of my family members who were not practitioners told the authorities about another practitioner in order to get me released. After I returned home, I didn't realize that money was a constant in my mind. I also was lagging behind in the Fa-rectification process, thinking that studying the Fa at home and making and delivering materials about Falun Gong were all I needed to do as a practitioner. As a result, I sold all our family property, and my family became destitute and homeless. This caused great resentment among my relatives and friends, and thereafter no one listened to me when I spoke of Falun Gong and its benefits.
Teacher said:
“Many students understand only that doing the exercises and studying the Fa are cultivation. Yes, with those you directly engage the Fa. But as you go about truly cultivating yourself in your day-to-day life, the society that you come into contact with is your cultivation environment. The work and family environments that you spend time in are both settings in which you are to cultivate yourselves, are part of the path you must walk, are what you must handle, and handle correctly at that. None of these should be glossed over.” ("Teaching the Fa in Canada," 2006)
These words from Teacher made me realize that I did not do well as a practitioner during the Fa-rectification.
After studying the Fa diligently, I realized that a practitioner's family environment, wealth, and children's jobs could all be used for the Fa-rectification. A practitioner is truly validating the Fa when acting righteously. I wanted to return to the path of true cultivation and walk the path Teacher arranged for me. I began to think about what kind of business I could do to make a decent amount of money and at the same time allow me to talk to others about Falun Dafa. At that time, my elder sister asked me if I wanted to take over one of her businesses. With Teacher's help, I took over the business and made it really profitable. I also took the opportunity to tell people about Falun Dafa. When my sister came to see me at the store, the neighbors told her, “Your younger sister does great. It must be the effect of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance.”
Some practitioners are unable to manage their income properly. Some practitioners are attached to buying only certain foods, and so on. They don't understand what Teacher said:
“In order to fill his stomach, he ate whatever was available to him; it would not matter, as long as he just wanted to fill up his stomach and was without attachment to any particular food.” (Zhuan Falun)
Practitioners' belongings, including time, are all given by Dafa and are Dafa resources. Therefore, they should be used for Fa-rectification activities. For example, practitioners need to make sure they wear clean, neat, and decent clothes and not leave a bad impression, giving truth to what the state media said about practitioners, that they dress silly and dirty.
The attachment to comfort is also a reason some practitioners are financially persecuted. Some practitioners are picky about the jobs they do. They don't want to work too hard and get tired. If we fear suffering, then we will always be suffering.
I hope those who are still persecuted financially can look within and find whether their every thought can catch up with the Fa-rectification process.
