The Pure Heart of a Butcher

At our local market there is a butcher who likes to drink alcohol. He often curses at people and frequently gets into fights. Nobody dares to offend him. We own a restaurant and buy meat from him and so due to our mutual businesses dealings we know each other well.

Before the Spring Festival, my spouse said that since we know him so well, it means that there is a kind of predestined relationship between us, and therefore we should go and clarify the facts about Falun Gong to him.

To be frank, according to my knowledge and impression of the butcher’s everyday life style, I hesitated at the thought of this. As soon as he drinks alcohol, he loses control and forgets who he is. I questioned the appropriateness of clarifying the truth to this kind of person.

But, I soon changed my mind and thought that what my spouse said was right. We should do what Teacher requires us to do without any alteration. To fulfil our mission, we should not give up on any predestined person. Finally, we decided to clarify the truth to him.

When we went to his home his wife was there and appeared to be very weak, so we started the conversation by asking about her health. Naturally we moved into a discussion about Falun Gong. We told them of the benefits of practising and about how Falun Gong teaches people to be good, cures illness and improves health, and so on. We explained how Falun Gong is beneficial to both the country and the individual.

When the subject of Falun Gong came up, the butcher became very animated and talkative. He told us many stories that we had not heard before. He had already received Dafa truth materials before and after reading them he had keep them. Sometimes, he even took the materials to the market and passed them out. One day, he saw two yellow banners with red characters on the floor in a hallway of the market place. He picked up one and pretended to be illiterate, and he asked if others would tell him what the banner said. Everybody replied, “Falun Dafa is good.” He said, “Then we should put it up. Because Falun Dafa is good, there is no reason the banner should be on the ground.” He then tacked it up onto a telegraph pole. He picked up the other banner and asked people to read it. Everybody replied, “Falun Dafa is righteous!” He would then exclaim, “Since Falun Dafa is righteous, we should put it up as well.” The butcher proceeded to put up the banner for everyone to see.

The butcher was sincere and very much absorbed when he told his story. I was shocked and also touched with the story. You can never predict the behaviour of a living being since they are all so different.

From the bottom of my heart, I realised that when clarifying the truth, people cannot be judged by their appearances.

Chinese version available at http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/2/20/20505p.html