PureInsight | December 2, 2002
Before I practiced cultivation, I used pirated software instead of purchasing my own, because the official software was very expensive. I used to have a lot of pirated software on my computer. One night after Fa-study, a practitioner told me that he needed to purchase a piece of software. Later, he bought it for 3,500 Taiwanese dollars (1 US$= 34.80 Taiwanese dollars). At the time, I found what he did ridiculous, because that practitioner is a student with limited financial resources. He could easily have gotten the pirated version. Yet, he spent a lot of money buying the official software. Later, when I thought of this issue from the perspective of the Fa, I realized he was right to purchase the legal software. His actions were very righteous. After being enlightened to this situation, I gradually removed the illegally copied software from my computer and purchased the official software that I needed. Due to the high cost of the official software, my computer has only a small number of programs on it. My computer has suddenly become neat and fast, because I removed a large number of pirated programs from it, freeing the computer's system resources. It has become quite stable and seldom freezes.
With this experience, I gradually came to understand the principle that, "…matter and mind are one thing," as stated in Zhuan Falun. My computer used to contain a lot of copied programs made by pirates, who were manipulated by bad notions such as greed. When all those bad notions were fed into the computer through the illegally copied programs, it was no coincidence that my computer froze a lot, and that its hardware tended to malfunction. On the computer I currently use, all programs on it were legally purchased. For two years now, the computer has been working very well.
Not long ago, I was involved in a project of categorizing articles from a Dafa website and their placement into electronic books. I needed to collect many precious photos (e.g. a human footprint on a trilobite and the thighbone of a giant) for inclusion in these books. Copyright issues were involved with the use of the pictures. In order for these pictures to be published in the books, the photographers must grant permission for their use. I felt pressed for time and didn't have much time to resolve this issue. I thought of other ways to avoid copyright laws. Fortunately, a practitioner who is a lawyer told me that it was necessary to get the photographers' permission. Otherwise, it would be a violation of copyright laws. Initially, I felt that it would be difficult and troublesome to email and contact each photographer. However, as I started to contact them, I was surprised that most of the photographers were willing to grant permission for the use of their photographs. The project went smoothly. In the process of contacting the photographers, I also told them about Falun Dafa.
After this experience, I enlightened to the fact that it is easy to mix human attachments with Dafa work. One may not realize it. For instance, when the practitioner who is a lawyer reminded me that I needed to obtain the photographers' permission, my first reaction was to use my misunderstanding of the principles of the Fa to cover up my own attachments, instead of facing them head on. I was reluctant to confront my attachment of "making it easy for myself," only wanting to finish my part of the project as soon as possible.
My experiences doing Dafa work have shown me that when my actions were righteous, I experienced little or no interference, and the project went smoothly. However, when difficulties arose and I didn't make an effort to improve my xinxing, and searched for ways to solve the problems with a human mindset, things did not go well.
Whenever I need to buy some software, Master arranges my finding what I want from auction websites, which are legitimate and cheaper outlets to obtain the programs. Computer companies also sell computers that have software preloaded. Educational editions and discounts also exist. Both are cheaper than the official editions. When I am unable to afford the software, I ask myself, "Do I really need this software for the current Dafa work that I am doing? Or, is it that some attachment is driving me to buy it? If I really need the software, then is there some other good way to obtain it?" As long as I see things from the viewpoint of a cultivator, I am able to have a clear picture of the issue and make a rational decision without getting entangled within the situation.
Currently, the universe is going through Fa-rectification. From my cultivation, I have enlightened to how the old forces bring obstacles to Fa-rectification. It is because they conduct themselves using the distorted principles from the degenerated old universe. As Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we must take a righteous path and leave our demonstration of great mighty virtue as an example for the future.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/11/15/19245.html
