Cultivating a Compassionate Heart to Sincerely Contribute For The Sake of Others

By a Dafa practitioner

I started practising Falun Dafa in June 1995. From the first day I studied “China Falun Gong (revised version),”the conflicts in my family have accompanied me for more than seven years in my cultivation. From the very beginning, I definitely thought that no matter what happened, my husband could not change my resolute mind about cultivating Falun Dafa, and could not be an obstacle to my cultivation practice. Thus, from enduring with anger to enduring with tranquility, I have stumbled on the road of cultivation for more than seven years. In others words, I have paid much in order to gain the freedom of cultivation during seven years. My husband was extremely chauvinistic. Everything should be done his way. If he could not get his own way, he would make things quite difficult for me. The most typical example was that whenever I wanted to go out to study the Fa [The books of Falun Gong] and spread Falun Dafa, he would say that there was still much housework left undone. He even looked for some chores and forced me to finish doing them before I could take my leave. Because I did not study the Fa well enough, and did not understand the Fa principles more profoundly, I could only go through the difficulties with my sturdy personality. I even thought that I was diligent and did a good job.

One time, when we held an experience sharing meeting, one practitioner suddenly asked me how my family was. I started to complain about however good I was at home, my husband would not be satisfied. He especially did not have a right understanding of Dafa. As I incessantly gave examples, I realised my lack of compassion towards my husband. In fact, everything I did for him was hidden behind a selfish heart. For example, when I went away, I would prepare the meals for several days for my family. I did not really do it for their sake, but for the sake of going out without being held back by him. I suddenly felt terrified.

In the meantime, practitioners shared their understandings about the issue I raised. One practitioner said, “I actually think your husband was not wrong. Everything was due to your faults.” Hearing it, I was quite shocked. What shocked me more was the story told by another practitioner. The practitioner came from Mainland China not long ago. He told about one event that happened before his younger brother was imprisoned by the evil Chinese political regime. One day, his sister-in-law bought some live field snails. After seeing them, his brother thought, “My wife does not cultivate. How can she pay back her debt if she kills so many lives?” Thus, he stir-fried the field snails himself. [Believing that as practitioners the lives we harm will be blessed with good fortune if we are successful in completing our cultivation] Meanwhile, his wife wanted to cook the meal.“I’ve made it.” He said in an insignificant way without any further explanation. Upon hearing it, I found the tears welled up in my eyes. I felt the mercy from his innermost being to contribute to all lives. I believed that his wife could feel it beyond words. Afterwards, this practitioner’s brother was under scrutiny. When the police wanted his wife to report his conduct all the time, she sternly refused, and said something to justify Dafa (It was said that his wife strongly opposed to his cultivation previously.)

I realised that whatever we did, the key point was our first spontaneous thought. That practitioner conducted himself completely for others’ sake without any thought of selfishness. So, it was said that after eating the meal, when he went to join the Fa-study gathering, he felt light when riding his bicycle as if someone was pushing him. When he studied the Fa with his legs crossed, he felt his legs soft, and his body felt as though it were levitating. In the meantime, another practitioner in the same exercise site had helped her husband, who had cooked slowly, to cook the live fish, in order for he to go to the Fa-study gathering. Afterwards, she could not cross her legs at the exercise site, and it was very painful. The results were different because of different thoughts.

The power of mercy is immense. I felt this suddenly untangled the knot in my heart, that was, the conflicts in my family which had perplexed me for years. It was me who did not do well. I did not treat my husband kindheartedly all the time, not even to mention with mercy. The old forces used him to disturb me, and tried to prevent me from practicing cultivation in the name of testing cultivators. forces [Old forces is a reference to old evil beings at high levels in the universe who, according to practitioners understanding, interfere with practitioners’ cultivation practice, and have also arranged the persecution of Falun Dafa] When my xinxing upgraded to the required standard, he had nothing to say; otherwise, he would be furious, and spoke offensively to me. We fundamentally deny all arrangements of the old forces. However, everything is systematically arranged by the old forces. Thus, we have to save all beings whilst denying the arrangements of the old forces. When I thought that my husband was being ignorantly exploited by the old forces, compassion emerged from the depths of my heart. Because if he could not understand it, the consequences for him would be terrible. Thus, I decided to treat him kindly, and did my best to save him. Later, when I arrived home, I found that my husband was different from previously, and the barrier between us disappeared.
As the Fa-rectification progresses till now, the standard for us is higher. Every step we take should be righteous, because it is concerned with saving beings. When we behave righteously, the old forces have no excuses. Actually, all beings are waiting to be saved.

Above is my personal understanding, which may be incorrect Please compassionately correct anything which is incorrect.

Translated from:
http://www.yuanmingeurope.net/articles/200301/16148.html