(Minghui.org) I have a university degree and used to have a good job and a happy family.
I was sent to a labor camp after the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999. I lost my job afterward. I lived in hardship by myself for a few years.
In the beginning I thought I was going through this to increase my ability to endure hardships, because my ability to endure had never been very strong. I was also attached to fame before I started practicing, so I thought the reason I lost my job was to help me let go of the attachment to fame. I also thought my husband was arrested because I was attached to him so I had to eliminate my attachment to sentimentality.
I didn't dare ask Master for help because of those thoughts. I thought that I was too attached to those attachments to ask Master to help me get a job or to help my husband come home.
A Better Understanding
It was very hard in the beginning to eliminate the attachments. Later on, I understood what Master said:
“What’s given up is not oneself But instead the folly of delusion” (“Discarding Attachments” in Hong Yin Vol II)
One day I suddenly realized that we do not practice cultivation using the method of “loss” and “suffering.” We should also get rid of the attachment of being afraid of having attachments.
Master also said 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? Yet if a cultivator or an everyday person who cannot even make fundamental sacrifices also discusses this principle, he is actually undermining the Fa by making excuses for the attachments he cannot let go of.”
I began to understand that, as long as I was not pursuing fame, benefit, and sentimentality, I could ask for Master's help to get things that I deserved. Shouldn't a highly educated person with a good degree and a positive attitude get the social position and wealth that she deserves?
I enjoyed a high standard of living before the persecution began. I lost it because of the persecution. The persecution left me unable to demonstrate the good side of Dafa disciples. My friends were sympathetic, while the snobbish people avoided me. I wasn't touched by their attitudes, but it affected their being saved. Since Master does not recognize the persecution, we should not recognize it either.
I started to send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interferences. I also asked Master to arrange my cultivation and life.
Life Improves
Things soon changed. My living environment changed completely. My husband was released. Then Master arranged appropriate jobs for us. The most amazing thing was that I was able to buy a brand new apartment at a very low price. It was amazing, because I wouldn't have had this opportunity without Master's arrangement.
Recently, my parents, who are also practitioners, reunited with us. We now have a good environment to validate the Fa and explain the truth about Falun Gong. We have the opportunity to save people every day.
Eliminating Physical Tribulations
I also want to share how to eliminate the persecution physically. I wasn't healthy when I was young and frequently got sick. I got used to the state of being sick. After I started practicing, my serious illnesses disappeared, but I still some small problems. I took it for granted and didn't pay attention to it. I didn't realize it was a loophole until I read “Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference." Master said:
“Currently, whether it is karma elimination or interference from evil factors, that is all the work of the old forces. It’s all the same—they are just called different names. I am against all that the old forces do. I don’t accept any of it. And even less so should Dafa disciples be made to endure such suffering.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference (Questions and Answers)”)
I understood that they seemed to be small things and didn't affect my ability to validate the Fa, but I shouldn't go along with them because it was also a form of persecution. If I ignored them, I was allowing them to exist.
For example, my menstrual period was more frequent than before, and the flow was much more than before. I didn't pay attention to it, because it didn't affect my life too much. However, I noticed it came whenever I had important things to do. Once I had two periods in one month. I felt something was wrong and sent forth righteous thoughts. My period very soon returned to normal.
Another example is that I've looked much older recently. In the beginning I thought maybe I had an attachment to my appearance or to lust. I gradually realized that, even if I had these attachments, I should eliminate them instead of going along with the persecution. We are cultivating our minds and bodies, so we should look young. In addition, in my understanding, our purpose is not to eliminate the attachments through suffering. We should let people feel the wonderfulness of Dafa, so we shouldn't allow the old forces to persecute or interfere with us in any way. We should demonstrate our goodness in every area to save more people.
Some practitioners may ask, "Shouldn't we be excellent in all aspects, in everything?" In my understanding, "Yes, we should." Master said:
"Back at that time, I wanted the transformation of the surface body to be in sync with the part that has been well-cultivated; I wanted to have the body be disassociated with the human state during cultivation; and I wanted to have the cultivating disciples use their own righteous thoughts to maintain a state that is just like that of human beings. Over these issues I was at an impasse with them for a year. That's why I didn't start to teach the Fa in public at that time. We stayed in a stalemate for a year. Even now I can't acknowledge what they have insisted upon, and I absolutely will not acknowledge it in the future. In the future all beings that have been part of the interferences and disruptions will be disintegrated in the process of paying for what they have done. What I want has to be accomplished, even if we have to reverse history and start from scratch again. Both this content and process are necessary for Fa-rectification. I am not referring to things that will happen when the Fa rectifies the human world." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
Master asked us to disassociate ourselves from the human state in cultivation practice and purify our bodies. Isn’t the state of a God pure in all respects? In order to achieve it, however, we have to let go of human attachments. The reason the old forces tried to interfere with Master's arrangements is because we didn't meet the standards of Dafa. If we can do better, then we'll have the ability to deny the old forces' arrangements. Even if we don't cultivate well, we should not admit the old forces' arrangements, because we need enough resources to validate the Fa and save more people. However, as practitioners, we should make sure our thoughts are pure, because any attachments to use Dafa to get human benefits are wrong. I think a real practitioner should understand this.
These are my personal understandings. Please correct me if there was anything inappropriate.
