Discarding My Attachment to Fame and Profit

(Minghui.org) After I returned to cultivation in 2010, Master arranged for me to have a stable job and have time to do the three things. He also arranged my path in ways to expose my attachments to fame and personal gain so that I could recognize and discard these attachments.

Quality Control Must Defend Their Product

Many companies in China nowadays try hard to produce products that meet acceptable levels of toxic substances. However, the purity of their products cannot be guaranteed. I know this because I have worked as a quality control manager in several companies.

In many enterprises, the quality control manager is often pressured by the production manager to allow for increased output, while sacrificing quality, in order to increase profits. The quality personnel also has to defend the products to various outside inspectors. They often fabricate data and records to “prove” the quality of the product.

My First Test Regarding Fame and Personal Gain

It was not too long after I had returned to cultivating in Falun Dafa that I faced this test. At that time, I was employed as a quality control manager.

When I considered how the quality personnel had to defend products regardless of the true quality, I was in turmoil, I knew that as a practitioner, I should not hide the truth or lie to do my job. Since I had neither the power to change nor improve the products to meet quality requirements, I felt that I should not work in quality control. As a practitioner, I must follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and not commit actions that are dishonest. I wanted to resign from this position.

However, human notions kept coming out in my thoughts, “If I don’t do this job, others will do it: the situation won’t change if I quit. Currently, everyone is doing it this way, and it won’t kill people. I will lose tens of thousands of yuan in salary, bonuses and other benefits if I resign from the job.”

However, whenever I had the thought that I am a Dafa practitioner, I realized that I had to meet the requirements of its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I submitted my resignation from the position and became a worker doing honest work.

Many people did not understand me. One person said, “Many people want that job. You have no connections in this company, and you have no higher education degree. You were very lucky to have that job. Why did you resign from it?” All my friends thought that I had lost my senses, but my mind was calm and peaceful.

As soon as I went to the workshop, the company started a work schedule of one day on and the next day off. I had just joined a Fa study group. My work days were every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the Fa-study group met on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Fellow practitioners all said that Master had arranged this wonderful schedule for me.

My Second Test

The quality assurance department wanted to transfer me back to manage their department. One of my colleagues told me that the management had proposed to promote me. They said that I was familiar with the product, and I was very fit for the job.

After hearing what she told me, I became happy. I thought that the job was to truly monitor the product, and there would be no need for me to create fake documentation. With a higher position than the one I had resigned from, with a better salary and benefits, I thought it would be a good position and that I could do well in it.

However, a thought then came to my mind: “Although the job doesn’t directly involve falsifying documents, I would still have to issue permits for the product. Furthermore, if I was asked to work on false documents that my staff had created, what could I do?” I came to understand that I still should not take the job and declined it.

My Third Test

The third time was not too long ago. One morning a colleague told me, “You work hard, and the management appreciates your diligence; they want to demote a person from a key position and promote you to that position.” My mind was moved again, thinking, “Good! I won’t have to write those documents, and I can have my higher salary back.”

I then realized that if I took the key position, I still could not avoid those problems, and with the busier schedule that came with the position, how could I do the three things well? However, the thought of making more money kept bothering me. I could not even calm my mind when sending righteous thought at lunch time. I kept wondering what I should do.

Later, I realized that the reason I kept wondering about the new job was because I still had a strong attachment to fame and personal interests. Other practitioners kept telling me that these new opportunities were to test whether I would be moved. I was moved every time. I felt ashamed, “Why couldn’t I let go of the attachment? Master arranged such a good cultivation path for me. I have a stable job and time to tell people about Falun Dafa. Why don’t I treasure it?”

Master’s teaching came to my mind,

“Ordinary people can't awaken to this. The ordinary people out in the ordinary world, they're just ordinary people, and they think about how to get ahead and how to live the good life.” (Zhuan Falun)

I was like that ordinary person Master mentioned. I said in my mind, “Master, I was wrong. I don’t want the attachment to fame and profit, and I don’t want the position. I will not be moved if similar tests happen again. I only want to follow Master’s arrangement.”

My Fourth Test for Discarding the Attachments

A few days ago, the fourth test came. One of my former colleagues resigned a few years ago to start his own business. He called and asked me to work for him and said he would at least double my salary.

I replied to him, “Thank you for your confidence in me, but I am sorry, I am not available.” I thought, “I must treasure the cultivation path Master arranged for me. Now I am not thinking about making more money. I want more free time so that I can do the three things better.”

However, I still think about better opportunities, and I still have not completely discarded this attachment. Whenever I realize that I have a thought about better opportunities, I stop the thought immediately and work on discarding the attachment.

Master told us,

“Dafa disciples—every one of you—were once kings, and you came to the human world with great blessings. But you gave those up because you wanted to assist Master in Fa-rectification. But now you are not putting your hearts into it. If you had really wanted money, if you had really wanted positions of power, if you had really wanted to be the ones in charge, you would really have been the elite of human society—you would have been able to achieve that. But you didn’t want those things. Having come this far, why can’t you let go of those trivial things?!” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)