Remembering to Have Compassion While Helping Other Practitioners

(Minghui.org) Last year a message was sent to our group email asking if anyone could help Ms. Ma. She lived alone, was 60 years old, blind and suffered from impaired hearing. Because of the persecution her pension was reduced. After she was released from the detention center local police officers looked for her. Her life was difficult and she couldn’t take care of herself. The person who sent the email asked if someone could take her home, and help her.

Accepting a Challenge

No one replied to the email. A few days passed, and there was still no reply. I thought: I live alone and we’re both women, so I am qualified. Since she’s blind, it will be difficult. Then, I thought, If she could get by on her own, she wouldn’t need help. Besides, if her situation persisted, it would be dangerous for her.

I began practicing Falun Dafa more than 20 years ago. Master asked us, “...so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism...” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement)

Wasn’t this a cultivation opportunity? I let go of my selfish thoughts, and decided to bring Ms. Ma into my home, study the Fa, and help her break through her tribulation.

When I told the coordinator, he agreed. I told him about my situation: I go out to clarify the facts to people face-to-face every day, and my meals are very simple. When she stayed with me, since I couldn’t come home to prepare lunch for her, I would put some crackers in an accessible place so she had something to eat.

The coordinator talked to her about giving me a monthly allowance of 1,000 yuan to cover her expenses. She agreed. I got a bed and so on. When everything was ready, the coordinator brought Ms. Ma to my home.

The First Conflict

Since Ms. Ma couldn’t see what she was eating, I put the food into her bowl; If her water got cold, I boiled water and refilled her mug. I felt she caused a lot of additional work for me, however, I reminded myself to be considerate.

A few days later, an issue arose. I returned from going out to clarify the facts and visiting a practitioner who was seriously interfered with by illness karma, so I came home an hour later than usual.

Before I could explain Ms. Ma. shouted, “I’m starving!” With her hearing problem, it was hard for her to hear anything, so I shouted into her ear, “I left you some biscuits, why didn’t you eat them?”

She said she didn’t like them. I thought, Didn’t we talk about this? Why did you change your mind? It would have taken too much effort to explain, but I still felt wronged. I thought, I took you in out of good will, when no one else was willing to help. Having you in my home put me under a lot pressure, since the local police are searching for you. You don’t appreciate me, but instead you’re giving me a hard time. I felt unbalanced and wronged.

When I read the Fa that night I looked inward: Her behavior was no coincidence. If I were her, would I have as much courage as she did? I suddenly felt sympathy for her, and I thought about her strong points. Even though she was blind, she tried to help me and mopped the floor every day.

Gradually I began to calm down. I told Master, “I was wrong. I lacked compassion.” I decided to make dumplings for her, and I put them where she could reach them. I told her, “When you’re hungry, if you don’t feel like eating biscuits, I prepared dumplings. I’ll re-arrange my schedule, and we’ll have three meals a day from now on.”

More Conflicts

A few days later, she had another request: She wanted to eat some fruit. I said, “Let’s have the fruit that we placed in front of Master portrait.” She didn’t say anything and ate it. The next day she asked about some snacks.

I suppressed my unbalanced heart and began to look inward. Where did I fall short? I’ve been doing the three things every day. I didn’t want to spend so much time cooking. I felt I cultivated diligently, so why was there so much trouble? She increasingly escalated her requests, which made me realize that I must have attachments I needed to look into. I asked Master to give me a hint: “I’m trying to let go of my ego and unconditionally have compassion and forbearance.”

I studied the Fa diligently and finally enlightened: Didn’t I only pay attention to doing things rather than cultivating myself? I went out to save people every day and I felt I was diligent, yet I didn’t truly cultivate my xinxing.

That night I dreamed a young girl fell into a deep well. I jumped in without hesitation. However, the well was filled with water. I began to bail it out. Later many people came to help. When there was no water left the young girl’s head was exposed. When I lifted her up she was still alive. After I woke up, I knew it Master benevolently enlightened me, to tell me: Help Ms. Ma.

I knew I needed to look inward. I stopped thinking about how she was wrong, but rather how the situation was testing me, and pointed out my attachments. Looking inward is truly great! I was able to treat her kindly. With she got plenty of snacks, our environment calmed down.

Helping Fellow Practitioners Is Helping Myself

I had another dream: I found a young girl when I was working in a deep ditch. She was still alive. I took her home. I knew Master was giving me another hint. I enlightened: I was the only one who could save this young girl who was surrounded by difficulty after difficulty. I suddenly felt confident, and thanked Master.

Through continuous Fa-study and looking inward, I’ve gone through tremendous transformations both physically and mentally. I can put myself in other people’s shoes and completely let go of my ego. Ms. Ma also changed. She stopped being picky and was willing to talk about her experiences. I suggested she look inward: For her to have incurred such a great tribulation, where had she gone wrong?

After I read her Master’s new articles, such as Pass the Deadly Test and so on, I shared with her in-depth.

She was illegally detained many times. Because she couldn’t endure the persecution, she was repeatedly transformed by the guards. She was held for more than 40 days in the brainwashing center, and submitted multiple articles defaming Master and Dafa against her will. After she was released and went out of town to take on labor work, she also made the mistake of feeling lust.

I was deeply shocked: How could a practitioner do this? Was she still a practitioner? If she couldn’t step forward to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, how could she make up for what she did? Would the old forces let her get away with it?

My heart was moved. I thought about the hint from Master in my dream and my righteous thoughts arose. Master said, “I can’t leave behind any Dafa disciple.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Practitioners,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VI)

I quickly rectified my attachment of looking down on her. Falun Dafa is powerful, and Master is compassionate. I wanted to get rid of this attachment and just do the things that a practitioner is supposed to do.

I worked with the coordinating practitioner, and kept looking inward. I also shared with Ms. Ma on the Fa, and helped her understand what a Fa-rectification period practitioner should do to validate the Fa. The coordinator often downloaded the Podcast of sharing articles to an MP3 player so she could listen to them and we continuously sent forth righteous thoughts for Ms. Ma. Gradually her righteous thoughts strengthened, she had new understandings about doing the three things. She also gradually learned to look inward.

She realized for her to have an abnormal state stemmed from the old forces’ persecution. She said, “I was afraid of being persecuted to death, or being beaten by the guards, therefore, I went against Dafa against my will. I even went as far as defaming Dafa and Master. Now I am not afraid of anything.” She admitted her mistakes and asked Master to forgive her.

Righteous Thoughts

Ms. Ma finally changed. Her righteous thoughts became stronger, and she decided to go back to her sister’s place, where she’d have to face the police officers who persecuted her and clarify the facts to them.

She said she realized, "I’m here to assist Master in saving sentient beings, if the police who persecuted me continue their persecution, can they be saved? I need to save them."

She planned to clarify the facts to the police after she returned to her sister’s home, and needed some materials. I prepared some and I repeatedly read the content to her, so she memorized it. When she was confident she said, “I’ll talk to them.”

Finally Breaking Through the Tribulation

We took her bank card to the nearest branch to find out the balance. We were pleasantly surprised to see there was 1,800 yuan in her account, which was exactly her pay for one month. We knew that Ms. Ma was on the right path. We were grateful for Master’s compassionate arrangement.

Twenty days later, the coordinator and I went to see Ms. Ma. She was excited to see us and said, “I had my sister call the police in my hometown, to tell them that I was back. Sure enough, the Director of the local 610 Office brought two police officers over. After we greeted each other, I began to clarify the facts to them. I said what I had to say, and they listened. My sister was a bit nervous, but I had no fear. They never came back.”