PureInsight | March 21, 2005
[PureInsight.org] My parents-in-law have come to visit my wife and me. Shortly after their arrival, they learned that I have been cultivating in Falun Gong. Having been repeatedly subjected to the Chinese Communist Party's hate propaganda against Falun Gong while they were living in China, my parents-in-law have a lot of negative opinions towards Falun Gong although I have been clarifying the truth of the matter to them. To make the situation even worse, I have a little language barrier with my parents-in-law. They are used to speaking Shanghai dialect to each other so I don't know what they say to each other or to my wife. My wife has not started to cultivate Falun Gong yet, so she is not helping me either. One thing I find most unreasonable about my parents-in-law is that they judge my lifestyle based on their lifestyle in China, regard these cultural differences as my personality flaws and blame it on my Falun Gong cultivation practice.
For example, like most people who live in developed countries, I leave the dirty laundry in the laundry hamper and do the laundry with the washer and dryer when the hamper is full. My parents-in-law are used to the traditional Chinese lifestyle of hand washing the laundry, so they consider me sloppy and lazy. I decided to appease them by hand-washing the laundry every other day. Then they complained that I was doing the laundry too often and wasting soap and water as a result. When I tried to explain to them that it might be more economical to use the washer and dryer and do the laundry on a weekly basis, they called me sassy and said I should not talk back to my elders.
Fortunately, my parents-in-law's behavior have not affected my Fa study, practice of the Falun Gong exercises or my participation in truth-clarification work for Falun Gong. They have not affected my work either. I know they must have a predestined relationship with Falun Gong because they managed to get a visa to the United States against all odds, but I still think about their prejudices against me from time to time and feel wronged and frustrated.
One early morning while I was studying Zhuan Falun, I came across this passage in which Teacher said, "Consequently, after your great heavenly circuit is opened, you will not be able to levitate if your finger tip, toe tip, or a certain part of your body is locked." (From "Heavenly Circuit" in Lecture Eight of Zhuan Falun.)
Suddenly I was inspired to think about this issue from a new perspective. When I want to compete or argue with everyday people, my ability will be locked. After all, cultivation is a solemn matter.
During my lunch break, I studied the Fa for a while and came across another relevant passage. Teacher said, "When a problem arises, we have to examine ourselves first to see whether things are right or wrong on our part. If we determine that it is interference or damaging, when we deal with the specific problem we should try our best to be calm and kind to those people who are at the surface, because when the evil uses people, they usually aren't aware of it themselves (although the people who are used are usually either people whose thoughts are bad or people who have bad thoughts arising). As for the interference by evil in other dimensions, we must seriously eradicate it with righteous thoughts." (From "Fa-Rectification and Cultivation" in Essentials for Further Advancement II.)
I realized that I must be unfailingly kind to my parents-in-law and remove my attachment to competitiveness while eliminating the evil in other dimensions that has been manipulating my parents-in-law with righteous thoughts.
While I recited poems from Hongyin II on my way home, I became all the more convinced that's exactly I should do when I came to "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos."
"Mercy can dissolve heaven and earth, bringing about Spring
Righteous thought may save people in the world"
(From "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos" in Hongyin II.)
Then I opened the door, I was surprised to see that my parents-in-law were not wearing the same cold face when they saw me. Instead, they were smiling at me in a friendly way.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/3/13/31519.html
