Following the Standards of the Fa in Conducting Business

I am a Dafa practitioner who is a businessman. When I first started up my company, I felt that the old forces wanted to destroy my business. I deeply felt that without our great Teacher's protection, I do not know how many times my company would have faced bankruptcy. I had a lot of thoughts about that. Due to limited space for this article, I want to talk about one aspect, which is handling the issue of clients requesting kickbacks.

As we all know, at present kickbacks are very popular in doing business in China. Everyone is well aware of trading power for money. When I first began my business, I did not know how to handle that. I tried to look for some experience-sharing articles on this issue on the Clearwisdom website. However, I could rarely find anything. There was a fellow practitioner who was also a businessman. However, that person bribes heavily and gradually he strayed from Dafa. At first, I also wanted to give clients some kickbacks. Some clients even gave me some hints about bribes. However, I did not do that.

Once it was right after I finished a company project. I had not yet received another project. The Chinese New Year was about one month away. Even before the Chinese New Year holidays, without another project for us to work on, I still needed to pay my employees and the office expenses. At that time, my financial condition was not good. Moreover, I experienced the pain of not having any projects at the beginning of my business. Therefore, I felt a lot of pressure.

At that time, a department of the local government asked us to work on their small project. I did an estimation. It was about 15,000 yuan, which was only enough to cover employees' salaries, but I would not lose a lot that month. It was only a little over one month before Chinese New Year holidays. I was thinking that whenever the workers finished the project, I would let them go home early for Chinese New Year holidays.
However, the leader of the commissioning party asked us to declare 35,000 yuan for that project. The leader of the commissioning party requested 15,000 yuan in kickbacks. Instead of 15,000 yuan, they would give us 20,000 yuan for the project. Thus, I could earn some profit on that project.

At that time, I felt very conflicted and did not know how to handle it. I even thought about those cultivation experience-sharing articles published several years ago that talked about some fellow practitioners giving customers kickbacks. I later realized that I was not solid enough in my understanding of the Fa and also had some attachment of pursuing benefits. There are no role models in cultivation. Our Teacher told us to take the Fa as our guide. Why should I look at what others do at a critical moment? I even tried to find excuses to cover up my attachment. I finally decided that I would not accept that project. Cultivation is to cultivate oneself; it is not to look at how others handle things. Following others instead of following the Fa has ruined so many practitioners.
Once I decided what I should do, I told the commissioning party that we would not accept that project. What should we do in the following month? If we had no project to work on, the entire staff was wasting their time doing nothing all day long. I became very depressed. I even felt regret and thought that I might not be following the natural course (in fact this would be drifting along with the current social climate) and that I should not have given up the project.

At night I had a dream about my parents and I working in the fields in my hometown. Suddenly, wind surged and clouds spread all over the sky. It looked like it was going to rain. At that moment, my father quickly collected all our farming tools and planned to find a shelter. My mother said, "Don't worry. I have an umbrella." I suddenly woke up. I realized that Teacher was giving me a hint that I should not worry as I have Teacher and the Fa protecting me. Thus, I became firm in my decision. I knew that Teacher would take care of me.

Not long after that, a friend called me and introduced a project which lasted until right before the Chinese New Year holidays. After finishing the project, I calculated the total revenue for that project. It was about 35,000 yuan. However, that project did not have any kickbacks. After deducting workers' salaries and office expenses, my company made a profit of just over 10,000 yuan. Moreover, during the process of working on the project, the customers often praised us for doing such a good job. I knew that nothing is accidental. If I had accepted the former project which had asked for kickbacks, I would not have been able to accept this project later on.

Although at present the scale of my business is larger than before, I want to share my experience with fellow practitioners so we can improve together. Fellow practitioners, the purpose that we came to this human world is not to pursue fortune or fame or enjoyment. We should not forget our original vow. We came here to assist Teacher, validate the Fa and save sentient beings. Everything we do is for us to cultivate and validate the Fa.