PureInsight | March 25, 2002
The following incident happened a few days ago, but it has stayed clear in my mind until now. Thus I think I should write it down.
It happened on a Saturday. My husband and I were walking to a store with our three-year-old son, who was riding a bike. Our son saw something interesting while crossing a somewhat broad street, and stopped to look. Although there was no traffic in the street at the moment, my husband could not help berating him to hurry up, thinking about how dangerous it is to stop in the middle of the street. The boy dared not disobey the order from his father but felt that the way that his father ordered him was not very nice. He reluctantly pushed the bike across the street to the sidewalk, full of chagrin. After seeing the boy with an ill-affected face, my husband thought he should explain to him how serious his action was . “You should not stop in the center of the street, or you will get hit by a car. It is dangerous!” He spoke the words with anger and vexation because he was still in an angry mood. The boy did not show respect for these words. Creasing his small brows he said, “Say sorry to me.” This time it was the father who felt hurt. “I have not done anything wrong. Why should I say sorry? You should say sorry to me!' The boy insisted on repeating, “Say sorry to me.” In seeing both of them refusing to budge I reminded the boy, “Tell Daddy to speak nicely.” I repeated this two times until the boy changed his mind and said to his father: “You should speak nicely to me.” My husband felt this request was quite reasonable. He let go of his anger and said, “OK.” At once the two of them held hands and conversed cheerfully.
One night after this incident took place, I got a chance to talk to my husband about my understandings as a cultivator. I told him that I could see the selfish notions of human being more and more clearly after I started cultivating in Falun Dafa. Almost every notion that comes from the human mind is selfish in nature. The only way for a person to recognize his innate selfishness and remove it is by practicing cultivation. My husband didn’t seem to understand. So I told him, “For example, your intention was good when you ordered our son not to stop in the middle of the street that day. Then why didn’t he show respect to your words? In fact, you should think of speaking in a way that he could accept, instead of ordering him not to stop in the middle of the street. You thought you were thinking of him and wanting what was best for him at that time. But if you truly had nothing but his welfare in your mind, why would you get angry at him? It is because his reaction went against your notion of how a son should treat his father. This was where your selfishness lies. If you were truly thinking only of him, how could you disregard his feelings completely and speak to him with anger? If you indeed had done that, how could he not see your good intention?”
My husband thought about it and did not say a word for a long time.
And suddenly, I was also able to see my own shortcomings more clearly.
Translated from
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/3/3/14133.html
