Eliminating Resentment and Developing Compassion

(Minghui.org) I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for many years; however, I always felt something was separating me from assimilating to the Fa. Whenever other practitioners shared their cultivation experiences with me, I had to keep repeating what they said, otherwise I couldn’t remember anything.

I focused on reading the Fa, but distracting thoughts kept popping up and my mind wandered. I didn’t assimilate to the Fa even though I repeatedly read it. I felt I wasn’t respectful to Master. I also couldn’t remember the Fa when I ran into conflicts.

Master has talked about “atheism” multiple times. I asked myself: Do I believe in gods? Yes, I do. Do I believe everything is in Master’s hands? Yes! Do I believe that everything is arranged by Master? I do. I said to myself: Since I believe, I need to conduct myself according to the requirements of the Fa.

Cultivating Myself Amid Conflicts with Practitioners

I ran into Ms. Jia, who talked about her son and daughter-in-law. They were newlyweds and still getting used to married life. Her daughter-in-law was spoiled as a child and didn’t know much about taking care of household chores. She also did not acknowledge Dafa. Ms. Jia had a lot of complaints about her, saying that her son had to cook, and so on. Her sympathy towards her son and dislike for her daughter-in-law were obvious.

Ms. Jia understood the Fa principles very clearly. She could see through other’s attachments and was very enthusiastic in helping them. I thought: Now, you’re encountering a test. But I knew the situation she described wasn’t true. I interrupted her and pointed out her attachments. Based on my understanding of the Fa, I told her what to do.

She felt wronged and said I wasn’t kind; I never waited for her to finish talking and was too attached to my own ego. I also felt wronged by her. I thought: The whole morning was spent on that; you were stuck on your family matter and didn’t consider how others felt, nor let them give you feedback. When I headed home I felt depressed.

I thought about what happened while I prepared dinner. I felt I didn’t handle it correctly. I felt sorry for her, and I let Master down. Instead of helping her, I gloated. I thought she was good at giving feedback to others, but got lost when she ran into a tribulation. Wasn’t this zealotry on my part? She understood the Fa principles well, wasn’t this a good thing? I should be happy for her. I realized I lacked compassion.

I wanted to have practitioners listen to me and follow what I said, instead of following the requirements of the Fa. When I strayed from the Fa, what could I do? Nothing! No wonder she said I wasn’t kind and I was attached to my own ego.

What we cultivate is the universal Fa, and we should follow the requirements of the Fa to conduct ourselves. I wondered what to do. A word appeared in my mind: Kindness. Right, I should be kind, to both regular people and practitioners. As a cultivator, one also has human attachments. When a human attachment flares up, it sometimes manifests even more intensely than it does for an ordinary person. But when it gets exposed, we need to cultivate ourselves, instead of pointing out that someone didn’t pass a test. With Master here, with Dafa here, she will be able to make a breakthrough!

Endurance—what do we endure? I recalled that when I talked with other practitioners, I always looked at their shortcomings. I wanted to fix them instead of looking inward and cultivating myself. Master gave me some hints—when I ran into conflicts, I needed to have my main consciousness be in charge and cultivate myself. I asked for Master’s help to empower me and eliminate those bad attachments.

Eliminating Resentment Towards Family Members

My husband didn’t want to do household chores, plus he was picky and narrow-minded. I have a carefree personality and don’t stop and think when I encounter problems. I tend to open my mouth and say anything. I usually regret it afterwards. But the next time, I immediately say the same thing again. We both looked down on each other.

My husband has a sister-in-law who is good-looking, gentle, and caring. Everyone praises her. However, my brother-in-law was a womanizer and passed away at a young age. Her son also had an affair and ended up getting a divorce when their child was still a teenager.

My husband felt that things were so unfair for her. I was jealous but I didn’t want to show it. I always wanted to surpass my sister-in-law in everything, but she behaved better than me in every way. For example, when I helped my bedridden mother-in-law, I wore gloves to wash her lower body. However, my sister-in-law said that she cleaned her with her bare hands and didn’t mind getting dirty.

We worked out of town, so when we visited my in-laws, we dropped by my sister-in-law’s home. When I was alone with her, she talked very little. But whenever my husband was there, she talked a lot. When I clarified the facts about Falun Dafa to my neighbor, she saw it and told my husband. Afterward, he beat me and I was very upset.

Since I repeatedly felt hurt, I had no good thoughts about my sister-in-law. Whenever my husband praised her, I criticized her. I knew deep down that this was my resentment, jealousy, and competitive mentality. None of these are good, and all of them need to be eliminated. I asked myself if I still wanted to cultivate. If I did, then I must break through this.

Through Fa-study, Master had me understand a layer of inner meanings in my cultivation, as well as proper relationships among people. With my xinxing improvement, my resentment gradually subsided.

The pressure in my sister-in-law’s life led her to have a hunchback, and her face became wrinkled. Thinking about things from her perspective, I felt she didn’t have an easy life. With her husband betraying her, and her son’s issues, she must have felt a lot of pain deep down. My husband treated her kindly. Beyond this indicating he had a predestined relationship with her, it also meant he had a conscience, and he appreciated her helping to take care of his mother.

When my jealousy subsided, I realized that my sister-in-law changed for the better. The next time I clarified the facts to her she did not say anything bad about Dafa. Now, whenever I visit her, she always has a smile on her face, and we chat happily. My husband also changed. He began to care about me, learned to say things in a pleasant way, and praised me in front of the family. If I didn’t know about the Fa principles, I wouldn’t have been able to snap out of my resentment and would have led a painful life.

I already thought we achieved a good ending. But when I was writing this sharing article, my deceased brother-in-law appeared in front of me. He was handsome and winked at me, just like he always did. We shared a similar personality and were like siblings. When we saw each other, we felt close and chatted a lot. My sister-in-law always just stood by and looked at us with a smile on her face.

I was shocked by how similar the situations were between my husband and sister-in-law, and me and my brother-in-law. In the past, I thought my being cheerful was one of my strong points, yet I caused harm to others. These biased, modern notions are truly harmful to people; therefore, Master asks us to return to traditional values.

Thank you, Master! I know I was wrong and will correct myself for sure!

Saving People with Compassion

With the onset of the COVID pandemic, the news of a lock-down spread everywhere. People lived in fear. Disasters, such as floods, fires, and earthquakes came one after another.

Master came to save sentient beings and impart the Fa. However, poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda, many people have negative thoughts about Dafa. In order to save them, fellow practitioners and I used all kinds of opportunities to clarify the facts to them.

I met a couple waiting for a bus. They asked, “How come the bus hasn’t come? If we knew this would happen, we would have driven instead.” I greeted them and said, “Please keep a positive mindset. When you have that, you’re in a good mood; then you are less prone to disease.” They nodded and smiled.

Seeing that they were elderly, I said, “For people our age, what does good fortune mean? Nothing can be more important than having good health, right? When we don’t suffer, our children can also focus on their work and suffer less.” They agreed.

“This is what we wish for, yet in reality, it’s a different story. An illness is not up to whether you want it or not, it can come at any time. I’m fairly lucky. When I gave birth to my child, I developed postpartum rheumatism. My mother-in-law told me the only way I could recover was by taking good care of myself in the traditional one-month confinement period following a second childbirth. However, because of the ‘one-child’ policy, I could only give birth once, which meant I would have to suffer for the rest of my life. Unexpectedly, I got better anyway.”

They asked, “How did that happen? What medicine did you take?”

“I began to practice Falun Dafa, and my illness went away very quickly.” Upon hearing that, the man lowered his head. I smiled and said, “Nothing I previously tried helped me, but Falun Dafa did. Our Master asks us to become better people. How good is that?! Why would I try to deceive you? I see that you’re intelligent. I hope you will understand the truth to ensure your safety amid any calamity.”

The man said he was a teacher. We chatted about all kinds of political movements under the CCP, and he said he was fully aware of them. He asked, “The CCP has killed so many people, what can we do?” I said, “If we don’t do something about it, then heaven will. There is the hidden character stone. Didn’t heaven use that stone to warn people? When the time comes for heaven to eliminate the CCP, if one hasn’t quit the Party, one will be counted as part of it. Whatever bad deeds the CCP committed, one would be counted as an accomplice. Only by quitting the Party can one have a future!”

He replied, “I don’t think quitting is important.” Even though he refused to quit the CCP, his wife understood and renounced her memberships in the CCP and its affiliated organizations. I thought at a critical moment, he will remember. I also hoped other practitioners would talk to him later and help him.

Another time, I saw a middle-aged man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. She had little hair, and it seemed that she had gone through an operation. She also kept shouting. Neither of them looked happy. I walked up to them and said, “Hello, can I tell you something?”

The man said, “Sure.”

I said to his wife, “Let me tell you a story. My mother-in-law was bedridden for eight years after a stroke. Her mind later became clear. She not only never had a relapse, but her memory was better than ours.”

The man exclaimed, “That’s impossible!”

From her appearance I assumed the woman had cancer. So I said, “Please listen. In the beginning, my mother-in-law often picked on my other sister-in-law, saying she wasn’t as nice as me. So I told her: ‘I have my belief and my Master takes care of me. You lost your mobility and need her to take care of you. Regardless of what happened before, you should be grateful to her.’ When she wasn’t in a good mood, I told her to recite the phrases, ‘Falun Dafa is wonderful!’ ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful!’”

The woman calmed down and listened to me. When I asked her if she wanted to be in a good mood, she said yes.

“I understand that you’re not in a good mood, because you don’t feel well. You used to be mobile and capable of taking care of things.” She nodded.

“When you’re ill, you become a burden on others. So you feel upset and don’t want to carry on with your life.”

She nodded her head again, so I continued, “But have you thought that your husband suffers as well?”

“That’s true!” The man exclaimed.

I continued, “He pushes you around in a wheelchair. You should thank him, as he doesn’t lead an easy life either. You should just think about his kindness. So you should not shout and abuse him. When you don’t feel well, please recite those phrases. They will surely work for you. Let your husband recite them for you, okay?” She replied, “Yes.”

I then said to the man, “Don’t be angry. No one wants to be sick and have to be waited on. You are husband and wife, you have to treasure that relationship.”

He replied, “Thank you! You’re so kind.”

“It’s my Master who teaches me to be like this. Please remember the phrases ‘Falun Dafa is wonderful!’ ‘Truthfulness-Compassion Forbearance is wonderful!’” After they quit the Party and its affiliated organizations, they left in good spirits.

There have been so many touching stories, but I highlighted only a couple of them here.

Thank you, Master!