Doing the Three Things Well

Cultivating at work

I am in Malaysia on a UN Refugee Status grant. I got a job with help from a practitioner. My university studies had prepared me for the profession of account management and finance. The job I was applying for required me to work in electrical maintenance; I would have to handle more than 20 tasks. I knew little about physics or electronics. However, this job required proficiency at a relatively high level of electrical skills. The day of the interview I was in a panic. Could I do it? I am a Dafa practitioner who should be different from an ordinary person. Dafa could bring me wisdom. On the other hand, I really did not have any idea how I could do this job since I knew little about electronics. How could they hire me? At the interview, the person who is now my boss asked me, "Jack, what did you do before?" I told him that I was an accountant. My boss paused for a while and said, "If you want to learn, you can do it."

Though the interview went well and I needed a job to earn an income, I was not happy at all. I was afraid to work with 400 volts. I looked for help from Master by asking, "Greetings, Master, Do I have to do this job? Why is my cultivation path so difficult?" On my first day of work, my boss instructed me in the basics of electronics and safety procedures.

After work I recalled Master's Fa and thought about a cultivator's path. I calmed down and soon realized that I had a xinxing (heart/mind character) problem. I began studying the Fa (the teachings of Falun Gong). From then on, every day after work I locked myself in a room, quietly studied the Fa, and practiced the exercises. Gradually, I had more understanding of the Fa and felt the value of this job. I regarded myself as a "doctor" at work and looked at the broken electrical equipment as my "patients." I used my skills and compassion to fix them. From the point of view of the Fa, they were beings that needed to be saved.

I was grateful for the power of Dafa, and my skills improved rapidly. Within one year working at this position, I was able to fix 80 percent of the electrical equipment. My work hours were reduced from five and a half days per week to five days per week. My salary was doubled as well. I had more time for Dafa projects.

Along with the more relaxed cultivation environment I gained self-confidence. Master said:

"All of our practitioners really have to make sure they don't act out of the norm while they're part of the ordinary world. You wouldn't have a positive effect around ordinary people. They'd say stuff like, 'How come they all get like that after they learn Falun Dafa?' It'd be as good as hurting Falun Dafa's name. So make sure you're really careful about all this. In the process of cultivating in other settings, too, you have to be careful that you don't get too engrossed. Demons will probably manipulate that kind of attachment." (The Eighth Talk in Zhuan Falun)

Because I could handle more of the tasks at work, I congratulated myself and lost my usual humility when speaking with my boss or my co-workers. I did not cultivate my speech, the evil took advantage of me, and I encountered a great difficulty.

One day, my boss called me into his office and said, "Someone told me that you keep mentioning to people outside of the company that you can fix everything. You are prepared to walk away if the salary does not seem fair to you. Well, you can go now." What he said stunned me and I just stood there, silently. "Did I say that?" At that moment I recalled Master's article, "The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

Sending righteous thoughts I said to my boss, "I don't remember having said that, but if I did, it was the wrong thing to do. It will not happen again. My current salary is commensurate with my skills, and I have no problem with that." "Well, in that case, you can go to work now, " said my boss. He left in a hurry.

That night I cried as I held my copy of Zhuan Falun. I expressed my sorrow to Master. After studying the Fa, I identified many long-term problems that had magnified. I had not studied the Fa with my full heart--I had studied with attachments. Second, I was primarily after personal gain and held the Fa in a secondary position. Third, I neglected to send righteous thoughts on time, to eliminate all evil elements. This incident taught me a huge lesson. I realized that I must do the three things (study the Fa [the teachings of Falun Dafa], send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and about the persecution to the world's people) well. Using the wisdom Master provides me with, I should reflect the wonders of Dafa in my work.

Thereafter I made progress. I was more skillful, more efficient, and also had a good attitude toward the work. I persisted in daily Fa study and looked inward. The cultivation environment was better. Both work and cultivation became smooth and stable.

I understood that I should consider work part of my cultivation, that the work environment should help improve my xinxing, and that I should cultivate my speech. Through my work, I could express the goodness of Dafa by the way I do my work. I could let people know the facts and provide salvation to the people I work with. Any difficult task should be an opportunity to improve my xinxing and pass cultivation tests.

Improving myself by exposing the persecution

-Telling Tourists from Mainland China the Facts about the Persecution

Along with several older practitioners, I participated in clarifying the facts about the persecution at a tourist attraction in Malaysia from 2005 to 2006. That activity rapidly improved my xinxing. In 2005, many tourists from China did not know too much about the persecution and were afraid to accept copies of the booklet the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and Dafa leaflets and DVDs with Falun Gong content. We considered sending righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil elements or thoughts from their minds. We also posted Dafa flyers and banners and played the Nine Commentaries from a DVD at our booth.

Before I went to the booth, I studied the Fa for hours at home and sent righteous thoughts for 15 minutes, and I continued sending righteous thoughts on the way to the booth to eliminate all bad elements. I also asked Master for support. With the great power of Dafa and filled with righteous thoughts and wisdom and a calm mind, I spoke to tourists about the persecution and the divine powers of Dafa non-stop, until the booth closed. We ran out of flyers and booklets, but many people had quit the CCP. Studying the Fa, sending righteous thoughts to eliminate the bad elements, and asking Master for support are key points to ensure that people will understand the facts.

-Telling the Facts of the Persecution to Malaysian Chinese

It is a challenge to convey the sanctity of Falun Gong and relate the facts about the persecution to Malaysian Chinese for three reasons. First, since practitioners from China have been so indoctrinated by Communist culture, against which Malaysian Chinese rebel, they dislike speaking with us. Second, many Malaysian Chinese have deep roots in China and are sensitive when people mention the CCP; they are therefore reluctant to accept the facts of the persecution. And third, there is a language barrier. Only a few practitioners from China speak English well, and many of them have a specific accent, which makes them hard to understand. To overcome those barriers, I focused on the following:

I spent a great deal of time reading, listening to, and watching the Nine Commentaries to eliminate the evil elements from my body and to be familiar with the content. I studied Malaysian history and politics and culture. When I explained the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong to Malaysian Chinese and handed them the Dafa flyers, I compared the facts with modern Chinese history and the five thousand years of Chinese civilization. Then I asked them to sign a petition to end the persecution, and the results were pretty good.

I studied English very hard and communicated with Malaysian Chinese who know English. I made them feel welcome first and then spoke about the lack of human rights and democracy in China. Many of them agreed that it was marvellous that Falun Gong practitioners let the world know about the persecution in China and the sanctity of Falun Gong. With wisdom, we let people know that the CCP does not represent China, that China is a great nation, that the CCP is an evil regime, and that Falun Gong is good.

-Telling the Facts of the Persecution to Mainland Chinese by using the "Little Helper" telephone dialler.

I have had a stable job since 2007 and have not had much time to explain the facts about the persecution at tourist attractions. To solve this problem and offer more people salvation, I installed two sets of the "Little Helper" telephone diallers and started telling the facts to people in Mainland China. The results were great. Many people in China understood the facts of the persecution and the evildoings of the CCP and decided to quit the CCP. I monitored the operation daily and promptly fixed any problem as soon as it happened. My wife and I keep a phone book. We update phone numbers by reading articles from the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom). We add the phone numbers of those responsible for persecuting practitioners into the "Little Helper" telephone dialler and call them with the real facts, frightening them into no longer committing future crimes and offering them salvation. The most challenging thing is to talk with them on the phone. My wife and I work as a team. We study the Fa first and then send righteous thoughts. One of us then makes a phone call, and the other continues sending righteous thoughts to clean up the environment and ask Master for support. We have regarded this whole process as cultivation.