PureInsight | May 10, 2015
[PureInsight.org] In “Zhuan Falun” Master Li said, “In the cultivation world people often talk about the connection between loss and gain, and ordinary people talk about it, too. How should we practitioners deal with loss and gain? Not like ordinary people do. The only thing ordinary people think about is their own gain and how to live well and comfortably. But we practitioners aren’t like that, we’re just the opposite. We don’t seek the things ordinary people want, but what we gain is what ordinary people can’t, even if they want to… unless they cultivate.”
I am a middle school teacher. Getting promoted to a senior teaching position is the most important thing that every teacher cares about. Such a position will validate one’s accomplishments throughout one’s teaching career, which demonstrates one’s value to the school. Everyone is interested in getting promoted to such a senior position; everyone is fighting to try to obtain it. However, I have been letting it go for more than 10 years. I have demonstrated to the public how a cultivator behaves when confronted with such an important life decision. I’d like to share one story that happened to me a few years ago.
A couple of years ago, a new round of teacher promotion review had just started in my school. I knew then that I had met all the highest requirements to be promoted to a senior position. My seniority, background knowledge, etc. were all excellent. For example, I had already performed some public teaching at the county and city districts, I had also done some experimental teaching at the city’s district. I had received numerous awards and honors. All such experiences made it easy for me to get promoted. I also realized that it was my last chance to get promoted to such a senior position, as I was about to retire in about one year. If I missed that chance, it meant that I would lose it forever.
My heart was moved. I couldn’t eat or sleep very well. I said to myself, “I want to grab this last chance. I don’t want to miss this last chance. I don’t want to give it up anymore.” As soon as my competitive mentality popped up, I immediately realized that I must apply the Fa to myself. “I am a cultivator; I must use the Fa to deal with things.” So I calmed down and began to study the Fa. I read the following phrase from “Zhuan Falun” about a certain person who didn’t care too much for his family’s house allocation, “I’ll give you an example. One day his company was assigning an apartment to one chosen employee. Management said, ‘Whoever needs housing come on over, tell me why you think you deserve it and why you each need an apartment.’ Everyone got riled up about making a case for himself, but that guy was mute. In the end management decided that he was in a tougher situation than everybody else, and that the apartment should go to him. The other people said, ‘No way, you can’t give him the apartment. You should give it to me. Let me tell you how badly I need it.’ Then the guy said, ‘Okay, then you can take it.’ ” After I finished reading this Fa, I decided that I would simply let it go.
So, all the teachers who met the requirements submitted their applications for the senior position, I didn’t submit mine. The school management invited me to the office for a meeting regarding the position and said seriously to me, “Look, you’ve got all the best reviews, why don’t you apply for it? You really don’t want to miss this chance.” I replied, “Thanks, but I am a Falun Dafa cultivator, my honorable Master teaches us to consider others first when dealing with things, so I’ve decided to let others get it.” The school Principal was very surprised after hearing my story, he continued to ask me many other questions and I answered them all. The conversation took more than 2 hours, we even forgot about lunch time. The Principal was amazed at Falun Dafa, he readily accepted Falun Dafa, I then helped him to do the “Three Withdrawals from CCP”. I felt very pleased, and had also become friend with the school Principal.
At first, everyone at my school was surprised to learn of my decision to give up the chance to be promoted, especially since it was my last chance. In today’s world, people’s morality has already spiraled down so much that everyone is interested in monetary gains only for oneself. With a high level position, one can easily get an extra few hundred dollars more for his salary every month, and it can add up as time goes by. For a salaried worker, such an increase in one’s salary is really something one doesn’t want to casually brush off. No one has thus volunteered to give up on such a promotion opportunity. Everyone in my school also knows that I was a competitive person before I started to practice Falun Dafa. I didn’t easily give up, I met all the requirements, and I was one of the best teachers. Now, I had decided to let this chance of promotion slip away, what was going on? People were curious to know what had happened to me.
As the school Principal had already heard my story, he praised me a lot one day during a staff meeting, “Lofty attitude, high realm of thinking, taking a light view on fame and self interest, this is the manifestation of a cultivating teacher!” My colleagues all echoed the Principal's praise. People then came to understand why I made that decision; it was exactly because I practiced Falun Dafa.
There were more than 20 middle schools that went through this promotion review that year. Almost all the school’s Principals were tired of the in-house fighting among teachers who competed against each other for the promotions. In my school, however, everything went very smoothly as I decided to give up my chance. People at my school all agreed that Falun Dafa cultivators were able to take fame and self interest lightly, and that they should also learn from Falun Dafa practitioners. As a result, there was no issue at all in that round of promotion review at my school.
From then onwards, it became very easy for me to conduct the “three withdrawals from CCP” among my colleagues. People also were more willing to accept the Falun Gong truth clarification information that I presented to them. From this incident I had learnt that as a Dafa cultivator, when faced with fame and self interest, as long as one still remembers that one is a cultivator and applies the Fa to oneself, it is easier for one to take fame and self interest lightly. As a cultivator, one should also remember that one’s conduct can also help to validate the Fa.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/137904
