PureInsight | January 27, 2003
A Story about Searching Inward
[PureInsight.org] On December 13, we went on a one-day trip to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people in the industrial district. We drove very slowly in the inside lane, since we were in a traffic jam that had us traveling bumper-to-bummer. A young man on a motorcycle who was next to my car signaled to go left, but he made an abrupt right turn instead. Although neither his nor my vehicle was moving at a high speed, the crash was inevitable. We were all thrown about by the impact, and saw the young man and his motorcycle on the ground. I immediately opened the door to see if he was hurt, but before I reached him he had already gotten up and heaved his motorcycle up. I asked him, "You are OK, right?" He cleaned the dust off his sleeves, fixed the rearview mirror, and said in a casual manner, "Yeah, I'm fine." Then he took off. At that moment we all felt that the young man was not hurt because of Teacher's compassion. It must have been Falun or Teacher's law body that saved all of us from injury. Later, I only found a few minor scratches on my car, with the biggest being one inch long.
Teacher said, "In genuine cultivation practice one must cultivate one's own heart and inner self. One should search inside oneself rather than outside." (From "A Clear and Clean Mind" in Chapter Nine of Zhuan Falun) In hindsight, I realized I did not truly look inward at that moment. I actually tried to persuade him that he was not injured, with a question implying and soliciting an affirmative answer, "You are OK, right?" But in my mind, I was actually thinking, "You'd better be all right. If you should be injured at all, it was because of your violation of the traffic regulations." Apparently, at that moment I was searching outward. When I actually looked inwards, I was certain that I too was at least partially responsible for the car accident. Why didn't I concentrate more on driving instead of talking? Since I am able to focus on only one cultivation school, then I should be able to focus on one specific Dafa assignment at a time. In this case, I should have been focused on driving and arriving at the destination safely to do truth-clarification work. In the future, I will always concentrate on the task at hand.
A Story about Following the Course of Nature
One of the practitioners at our practice site is a promising young man, who has a Master's degree and who works in a high tech company. He attained the Fa about eight months ago. I was very impressed to see him complete the one-hour sitting meditation in the half lotus position immediately after he completed the nine-day Dafa course.
Recently, he shared a cultivation story from work:
"I can truly feel that since I attained the Fa I have been slowly assimilated into the Fa. I try to think of others first and care less about my personal benefit. I always seek to behave like a Dafa disciple. To achieve that goal at work, I expected of myself that I would work more diligently than everyone else and not think about the personal benefit to be gained. Within eight months, I had more tribulations than anyone else could have endured. Each of the tribulations came from my relationship with the general manager, and yet I dealt with all of them harmoniously. I knew that the general manager saw me as a threat and intended to make me a section head without any subordinate responsibilities. I thought that I should not let it come to a fight, be angry with him, or be troubled by his intentions, as I am a Dafa practitioner now. I faced all of the difficult demands, and I responded with compassion and tolerance. Although no one told me, it appeared that all my co-workers, as well as upper management, supported me and were trying to find a solution. In the end, I was surprised to see that my fortune grew out of the adversity. Not only did I keep my job, but I was also promoted three levels in a row, which is something unprecedented in our company. I was promoted from assistant section head to section head, then to assistant manager and finally to manager. With the promotion my salary also went up significantly. This was why I have been so busy lately. Indeed, 'no loss no gain.'
"I remembered Teacher words, 'Buddhism believes in the principle of karmic retribution. One's life is arranged according to one's karma. No matter how capable you are, if you do not have de, perhaps you will have nothing in this life. […] we therefore believe in following the course of nature. Sometimes, you think that something should be yours, and others also tell you that it is yours. Actually, it is not. You may believe that it is yours, but in the end it is not yours. From this case, it can be seen whether you can give it up. If you cannot let it go, it is an attachment. This method must be used to get rid of your attachment to self-interest. This is the issue.'" (From "Jealousy" in Lecture Seven of Zhuan Falun)
Another thing that occurred to me is that a Dafa disciple should always remember Teacher's words, "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master. It is good enough if you have this wish. It is the master who actually does this, as you are simply unable to do it." (From "Why Doesn't Your Gong Increase with Your Practice." in Chapter One of Zhuan Falun) We must "Do but pursue not." (From "In the Dao" in Hong Yin) It is the truth that in everyday people's society one should be diligent and complete all responsibilities to the best of one's abilities. We should be hard-working and should not be attached to what one could gain.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/12/25/19748.html
