PureInsight | November 12, 2001
During the past seven months Master has arranged for my cultivation three very different work related environments to dig out various attachments. The first environment was helping troubled teenage children as a therapeutic youth care provider, the second was as a carpenter, and the third was as a fisheries scientist. My work has come full circle, and I am again starting work as a social worker. I would like to share the insights I have gained in my cultivation at these various jobs.
My main responsibility as a therapeutic youth care provider was to be a good role model in a home type setting. Unfortunately, the shelter was closed shortly after beginning this position due to a fuel oil leak, and all of the staff was laid off. I became very depressed after this because I felt that I had lost a secure position where I could tell others about the Fa and would provide me with many xinxing tests. I was even more despondent about looking for another job. After a short time I came to understand that I must think of myself as a cultivator and that by losing this position Master was showing me my attachments to sentimentality and material benefits. I was just thinking that a practitioner can cultivate in any environment when the phone rang with information about a carpentry position.
I had been a construction worker previously, and had always been very angry when I was working at that. I felt that much of the work was either beneath me or was just plain unnecessary. I was blaming all of my bad thoughts on others. I think that Master arranged this position for me to face those issues. Sometimes I would be very dirty and tired, but I tried very hard to keep my mind clear and clean. When I worked, I kept reminding myself that, as a cultivator, anything one does is an opportunity to improve oneself and be a good person. I was also able to tell my coworkers about Falun Dafa. I overcame my previous attachments with these pure thoughts, and when the project finished was able to leave on good terms.
Shortly after I finished my job as a carpenter I began work as a fisheries scientist. Once again, an unexpected phone call telling me about this temporary position started my looking within at my various attachments. I studied fisheries science in college and received a Bachelor’s Degree, but while working on a Master’s Degree came to some vague awareness that what I was doing was wrong. I had worked at a fish hatchery about four years previously with much resentment, jealousy, and a competitive heart. I had not dealt with many of my feelings, so of course Master arranged this for me to rid myself of more impure thoughts.
My study site was in a wilderness where I was to observe Chinook salmon spawning behavior. I had to move away from my wife and home for about a month and a half. This brought up attachments of sentimentality and lust, but the first attachment that I noticed was resentment towards my bosses. This came up early and often when I was suffering physically from being tired, cold, or not knowing exactly what was going on. At these times my mind would focus in and think very defensive thoughts, cutting me off from the truth. I overcame these feelings by reminding myself that I was paying off my own karma when I was suffering from being cold and tired and by repeating Lunyu over and over again as I walked.
In this unique cultivation environment I encountered very few people, and my nostalgia and feelings of missing my wife and home came up often. Lustful thoughts often appeared in my mind as well as a dark distrust of my wife’s actions in my absence. These latter attachments were my most forceful thoughts, but were easily brushed off by reminding myself that I was a practitioner and that I could not control other people’s hearts. Of course, thought karma created all kinds of lies to distract me but the sentimentality and nostalgia would settle on my mind very subtly. They could become very powerful if I did not stop them by just being in the present and trying to see the beauty surrounding me.
Jealousy presented itself when I was told that some of my coworkers were getting paid a lot more money for doing the same job as I was even though I was more capable. I laughed about this when I remembered what Master told us about one’s life being arranged according to one’s karma, not one’s abilities. I am sure that from a higher level all things were as they were supposed to be, and I thanked Master for this lesson. By doing the best job that I could my competitive mentality was left behind since I was able to see my own shortcomings and strengths instead of worrying about others’.
The last time I worked in a scientific field I was an ordinary person, and this time I was able to observe the scientific process with the eyes of a cultivator. I am writing another article “Limitations of Science in Studying Natural Processes” which will help validate Dafa and provide a place to share more insights that I learned from being around a scientific profession.
I believe that I am better prepared to work with troubled teens now than I was seven months ago. I always smile when I see how things have come full circle to where it began. I now hold more kindness and compassion in my heart after these journeys and have become a better disciple who can clarify the truth to many people in different environments. Thank you, Master, for teaching me these lessons in so many unique environments.
Heshi
