Young Adult Practitioner: Following Master Home

(Minghui.org) I am a young adult Falun Dafa practitioner. When I was very young, I followed my family to cultivate. I hadn’t started school yet and didn’t have a clear understanding of cultivation, but I knew that I needed to follow Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance when I did things.

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Dafa in 1999, I had just started school. The adults at home who were cultivating were all subjected to persecution. Even my grandma, a village woman around 60 years old, was illegally detained for two weeks. Other relatives were persecuted even worse.

Although I was not directly persecuted, I was deeply shaken emotionally. Without an environment to study the Fa and cultivate, I slowly drifted away from Dafa. Although I did not fully understand cultivation, the seeds of Dafa had been planted in my heart. I knew that Falun Dafa was good and that people who practiced it were all good people. I would also ask Master for protection when I faced difficulties.

Studying the Fa at University

After I started university, time was no longer as tight as when I was in high school. My mother and my aunt (also a practitioner) persuaded me to start studying the Fa and doing the exercises. I started to study all of the Dafa books systematically, including Zhuan Falun and Master Li’s other lectures.

The university dorm lights were turned off at 11 p.m., so I would use the time after that to read MP4 electronic Dafa books for between half an hour to an hour and a half. I read them almost every night, and it became a habit. While I was at university, I read all of Master’s lectures from different regions at least three times. I may not have had higher or deeper understandings about the Fa at that time, but I remembered a lot of the superficial meanings and words from those lectures.

When I later shared thoughts with other practitioners, I was thus able to remember and express the general meaning of the section of Fa that was being mentioned. They also said that I remembered quite a lot. I did not have any intention to show off or have too many complicated thoughts and did not think much of it, as that was what Master had said. (At this point in my writing, I realized that my experience during that period of time really came from Master’s ingenious arrangement to build a very good foundation for my future cultivation. I thank Master from the bottom of my heart.)

After graduating, I started to work. I felt that was when I truly started cultivating and getting rid of my attachments. I have now been in the workforce for about a decade. During that time, I have changed jobs a few times and worked in different fields and have been exposed to different types of people and issues. A work experience that left the deepest impression on me was when I worked in a hotel. During those years, I saw a lot, learned a lot, and suffered a lot.

Working and Cultivating as a Hotel Receptionist

I worked as a front desk receptionist at a hotel. It was a demanding job. I had to welcome a large number of guests, handle a heavy workload, and coordinate with coworkers in different departments every day. This environment gave me many opportunities to improve my xinxing. It also helped me discover many attachments, like my attachment to earning money, not liking criticism, saving face, feeling wronged out of jealousy, lust, vying with others, and showing off.

About seven of us, all relatively young, worked in my department. The young people in China nowadays are profoundly influenced by CCP culture and are very competitive. Even though there were so few of us, we still divided ourselves into three small groups, each looking down on the other. We were also secretly vying with each other.

For example, our coworker Aping (an alias) had a distinct personality. She was capable, excellent at customer service, and outstanding as a professional. Her problem was not being able to stand it if she was wronged. She could accept criticism if she had made a mistake at work, but if she was right, she would not let anybody criticize her. Due to her personality, she got into arguments with the housekeeping department and had verbal spats with the management, too. However, the hotel’s top management still appreciated this kind of employee.

Because we worked in shifts, often, as soon as I clocked in, my coworkers would tell me with a mixture of mockery and amusement that Aping had gotten into an argument with such and such department that day. I had worked with Aping before and knew what she was like. Sometimes, I would feel embarrassed by her assertiveness, making me harbor a little resentment. I had the thought that she should stop behaving like that all the time and be more forgiving. She should not always refuse to give in, even if she was right. Eventually, nobody would say that she was good. When I first heard such things about her, I felt that it was her problem, because she was too strong-willed and hard to get along with.

After hearing things like this a few times, however, I realized a problem: someone was always telling me about her. As I thought about this more deeply, I realized that I had not looked within to find the problems in myself, that I had not found and gotten rid of the attachment of looking down on others. Instead, I was looking at her shortcomings. I suddenly understood that, during this period of time, I had been imposing high standards on others, hoping that they would change, while I was using human standards to evaluate myself, which was the complete opposite of what I should do. I realized my shortcomings and became determined to change.

I wanted to follow the Fa’s requirement and change my notions. Once my notions changed, I felt that Aping was quite good. Her work was outstanding, her customer service attitude was very good, and she seldom made mistakes. Although she was assertive, she was reasonable and open to logic. She did not act unreasonably, nor did she make a scene. In terms of professional competence, I was not quite on her level, so I really should learn from her.

A coworker named Baiyan (an alias) complained to me about Aping one day, saying, “Look at Aping, fighting with someone in one department today and with someone else in another department tomorrow. Nobody except the manager likes her. If one person says that she’s no good, there may not be a problem. But if everyone says she’s no good, she will have a problem.”

I responded, “I don’t see it that way. For me, whether a person is good or bad depends on how they behave and how they do things. Do they conform to the standards of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance? If what they do does not conform to those three words, then I think it is reasonable, at least based on this point, that she is as bad as everyone claims. However, if what she does aligns with those three words and everyone still says that she is bad, then I would say that everyone else is wrong.”

I encouraged Baiyan to try to look at people’s merits when she interacted with others. “We are all doing the same job, and it's not an easy one. We should be more understanding of one another,” I said.

Master Takes Care of Me

As I cultivated, I sometimes experienced an obvious feeling that Master was always looking after me. I had a craving for fish-flavored shredded pork for a period of time, so I kept thinking about when I could find a time to make it. But I was so busy at work that I did not even have time to eat, so the thought just dragged on. During that time, the company canteen actually served fish-flavored shredded pork (which was usually not on the menu) and it tasted good. I ate a lot and felt very satisfied. I also clearly remember that when I was taking the first bite, the dish had just touched my mouth, and I already knew that this was Master’s arrangement. Master saw that I had a craving for this dish, so he arranged for me to have it.

My feelings at that time were very complex. I thought about how Master wished for his disciple to make good use of time to get rid of attachments, cultivate myself well, and improve my xinxing, but at the same time he still had to take care of the feelings of his disciple’s human side. I realized that it is such a difficult task for Master to save us. I felt a bit ashamed and thought that I was pretty pathetic, still having an attachment to food. However, I felt even more grateful; grateful for Master’s vast benevolence. I thanked Master from the bottom of my heart.

The more I cultivated, the more I realized my shortcomings and understood that there are so many areas that I needed to change. When I shared cultivation experiences with other practitioners, I felt a sense of emotion as the more I cultivated, the more I marveled at Master’s benevolence and Dafa’s greatness. I also marveled at my own ignorance.

Conclusion

As the Fa rectification reaches the end, time is very tight, there are many things that need to be done every day, but what we can do is also very limited. I still have to put in effort to cultivate myself well and make good use of the remaining time.

I sometimes thought that, during the initial period when we first started to try to stop the persecution, Dafa practitioners were being persecuted so seriously but we remained steadfast and overcame things. The trials and tribulations of the past more than 25 years have proven that, no matter how complicated society becomes, or how grave the situation is, as long as we follow Master and the Fa’s requirements to act and believe in Master and the Fa 100 percent, we are then doing the most righteous thing and doing what we as Dafa practitioners should do.

I am profoundly aware that my cultivation state is still a far cry from the Fa’s requirements. Therefore, I want to make use of the limited time left to hold myself to being more clear-minded and serious, and to putting in my best to catch up with the Fa rectification’s progress. I want to follow Master home with fellow practitioners.

The above are some of my understandings based on my cultivation level. I am writing them to share with fellow practitioners. Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.