(Minghui.org) I’d like to share some of my personal cultivation experiences with fellow practitioners.
A few years ago, I was given a job arranging timber slats. Each set of slats was placed in a one-meter-square frame, then packed together, and sold by the bundle. On my first day, I told my boss that I practice Falun Dafa, and would put the correct amount of timber slats into each bundle—instead of following the common practice of putting fewer in a bundle for profit. At the time, the factory was short of hands and the boss agreed.
Because the bundles I packed correctly contained more slats, my boss negotiated with buyers to pay a little extra. The buyers measured my bundles and agreed. As a result, everyone knew that I was a Dafa practitioner, which made it much easier to share the truth of Dafa with my coworkers. I talked to many of them about the goodness of Dafa, and shared the truth about the persecution. Most accepted what I said and withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
Once, after I talked to a man about Dafa and the persecution, he acknowledged the beauty of Dafa. When he learned about my work with bundling the timber slats, he said he would only buy my bundles if he needed timber slats.
One hot summer day, I went out with a fellow practitioner to clarify the truth. The streets were mostly deserted, but we finally spotted three people resting. We stopped in front of them, and I handed an information booklet to one of them, asking him to take a look. However, he refused to accept it and told us to go away.
It was not easy to find people on such a hot day, so I didn’t want to give up on him. I immediately adjusted my mindset, and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference so that he could hear the truth. I also asked for Master’s help with telling the other two people that Falun Dafa teaches people to be good. I wanted them to know that our chaotic society would be a better place if people lived according to Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They both accepted the booklets.
Our conversation drew over more people, and they all acccepted and started to read the booklets. Seeing this, the dismissive man felt awkward. I smiled and handed him a booklet again. He took it straight away, and I was truly happy for everyone.
For a while, I worked as a temporary employee at a deli. One day, a colleague and I were working at the checkout, and a customer handed us a 100-yuan bill. I calculated the amount owed, and said, “Twenty-five yuan change.” However, the customer corrected me, saying the change should be 35 yuan. My coworker agreed. Thinking I must have miscalculated, I handed the customer 35 yuan.
Afterwards I did the calculation again, and realized that 25 yuan was the correct amount. I told my coworker and suggested each of us chip in five yuan to make up the loss. My coworker said this wasn’t necessary since our boss was not at the store. I felt uneasy about this, but didn’t insist.
The more I thought about it that evening, the more I believed I did wrong. As a practitioner, how could I have acted the same way as an ordinary person? Plus, I hadn’t even shared the truth of Dafa with this coworker yet. My actions would affect her accepting Dafa. So I decided to make up the 10-yuan loss myself, and use this opportunity to share the truth of Dafa with her. It was worth spending 10 yuan on this.
The next morning, during the sitting meditation, it suddenly dawned on me that I had an attachment to self-interest when I thought of splitting the loss between us instead of covering it all myself. Also behind my decision to pay the 10 yuan was an ulterior motive for her to easily accept Dafa. I was seeking a return for my action.
I realized that I must carefully pay attention to every single thought of mine. After so many years of cultivation, I have only now learned to look inward and truly cultivate myself.