(Minghui.org)
Greetings Master!Greetings practitioners!
Dafa Work and Trials
I had the opportunity to participate in Fa translation work (from English to Finnish) this year. As soon as I announced that I would participate in the translation work, a series of trials began, which took up a lot of extra time.
My teeth hurt so much that it was difficult to speak at times, let alone concentrate. If my upper jaw didn’t hurt, my lower jaw was swollen, or vice versa. During the worst pain, I took anti-inflammatory drugs one day, because I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. The medication was so effective that the pain almost disappeared completely. It was really easy. I understood that if I didn’t agree to suffer my own trials, I wouldn’t get my karma paid off in time. The pain also stopped during the exercises, which was a sign to me that it was karma, and I wasn’t really in danger. It was also a hint that if I do the exercises more, I will feel better.
Time also sped up. I used to have a couple of hours of free time a day. Suddenly, it seemed like there was no free time at all. It took me a couple of weeks to translate one or two pages, even though the actual time spent in translation was probably less than three hours.
One day, I had a problem at work: My back was injured when I was installing a part. At home, the water leaked between the stairwell and the front door, which I had to clean up. My wife’s car had a nail in its tire, which I only noticed when I was inflating the flat tire. I was able to make an appointment to fix the tire. When I finally got home, I had to cook dinner and load the dishwasher. None of these ordeals made me upset. But the next trial revealed a big attachment.
I need a car to commute to work. My almost 30-year-old car had reached the point where it would cost more to repair than to buy a used car. So I spent weeks searching for a cheap and reliable car in car dealerships and on the internet. I had saved up money for this.
I found a suitable car in good condition at a dealership in another city, so I called and reserved an appointment for a test drive and trade-in. I traveled to that city on Saturday. After driving the car for only a short distance, I saw a lot of black smoke coming out of the front hood. Upon a closer inspection, I noticed that the car had rusted. It was clear that this car was definitely not in good condition. The seller claimed that he had not noticed any defects, which was, of course, a big lie. I told him that I would take the reservation fee back and that no trades would be made. I also asked him to remove the car from sale until the engine and rust defects were recorded in the sales announcement. The seller promised to do this. (Two weeks later, the same car was still for sale at the same price, meaning the dealer was going to continue his scamming attempts).
Time was running out as I could only use my own car for another three days, and the whole Saturday had been wasted. So the car shopping had to be completed on Sunday in order to be able to go to work.
I went home and searched for a car again. Late that night, I found a car online that claimed to be a car with no issues. On Sunday morning, I took the train for about 100 km (62 miles) to look at the car, hoping to drive home with it. We made the deal, and I drove it home. I later discovered that the car had a difficult and expensive defect; the repair cost as much as the entire purchase price.
I had been scammed, but I decided to accept the loss. After all, ordinary people always want to benefit and make a profit; you can’t expect them to act exemplarily. The car purchasing process took money and time, but I managed to stay calm throughout the whole process. However, this trade had affected my sleep, making me feel tired and anxious during the whole process, and even afterward. It appeared that something had still affected my emotions below the surface. It was about my sense of control being shaken. After all, a car is like a gallant horse for me, riding freely into the sunset, or into a distant oasis. In my mind, if I had no car, I would have no freedom of mobility. It is embarrassing to admit it, because I thought that such things would no longer have much of an impact on me.
I now realize that there are superficial emotions that can be controlled by not letting them affect me. For example, not getting angry while taking offense in a situation. But there are also hidden emotions that affect me slowly, creeping up on me, so that I only notice them when they are in full force and I can no longer control them. Such feelings, such as the feeling of losing control, keep me at the level of an ordinary person and, therefore, are attachments that I, as a practitioner, must get rid of. Whatever happens, nothing should affect my state of mind. In the West, we are used to the idea that even if we have nothing else, at least we have the freedom to go wherever we want and do whatever we want.
I thought of Chinese practitioners who have been incarcerated. They even had to give up their freedom. This would be a huge test for anyone. Yet many have passed this test and felt freedom within themselves, even though they were imprisoned. In Finland, we do not go to prison for practicing cultivation, but we still have to pass the trials of different levels. If I truly want to “ride freely into the sunset,” I certainly do not need a car (or a horse). Instead, I must be able to let go of my bad things, such as the fear that something bad would happen if I can not control things. Master has changed the path of life for practitioners, and nothing bad can happen anymore. And even if it does happen, I have already obtained the Fa, and there is nothing to fear anymore.
Paying off One’s Karmic Debt and Improving One’s Ability to Enlighten
We discussed the low morale of our employees at work. For example, some people take sick leave even though they are not sick. One coworker assured me that minor ailments are not a valid reason for his absence. This showed that his morale was high compared to other employees. He voluntarily helped me with a heavy job that I could not do alone, and in the process, he seriously injured his leg. He had to take sick leave for almost six months, which reduced his income and could cause problems for his family.
At first, I thought that his injury was a bad thing and it was my fault, but then I corrected my thinking and understood that he had suffered to pay off his karmic debt. Then his enlightenment ability would improve, and he may be able to obtain the Fa. He knows that I am a practitioner and has heard about the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. We have also talked about Chinese communism and the fallacy of evolution, which are things he had been thinking about. I believe that someone is taking care of him and is trying to improve his enlightenment quality by making him suffer.
Inspiration from Nature
One day, while I was at work, I saw a hawk in the sky with prey in its beak, and a flock of crows took turns attacking the hawk, trying to make the hawk drop the prey. Although the hawk is a predator, it was outnumbered. The hawk did not give up and finally found an opening and disappeared into the sky. I felt that the hawk represents a practitioner, the prey was a predestined person whom the practitioner tells the truth, and the greedy flock of crows represents ordinary people or demons who try to hold that person in their grip.
Now, as I am writing, I think of the harassment that happened in Sibelius Park this summer, where deluded Chinese people attacked and cursed our practitioners. The Finnish National Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported the incident and played the video, showing this injustice to the entire nation.
That same day, shortly after the incident, I went to the lake to help dismantle an illegal bridge structure, and I saw a strange sight: a fish was stuck in the mud on the beach, its head stuck in the mud, and its tail was sticking out of the water toward the sky. I didn’t know how it had ended up in such a situation, but it would have died quickly, so I used a rake to gently pull it out of the mud, and it immediately swam to safety. I think this is also an analogue of a person’s fate: a person cannot get out of the mud on one’s own, but must obtain the righteous Fa. Only then can they return to where they originally came from and be saved.
I Told my Mother About the Fa
I had not talked to my mother about my cultivation for many years. When I first talked about Falun Gong and clarified the truth to her, she had interrupted me and asked how I could talk so much all at once. After this phone call, she had her first episode of amnesia, and a few months later, she was diagnosed with a severe form of dementia that would lead to personality changes. I understood that the episode was related to her hearing the Fa, and some factors were trying to prevent my mother from obtaining the Fa. My mother has always been very kind and simple, so I thought it would be easy for her to understand the principles of the Fa.
I told my mother about Falun Gong again and suggested that she could listen to the lectures once and then decide if she wanted to learn more about it. She agreed and listened to the first lecture. She had settled down on the bed to listen. According to her account, she did not understand a word of the first lecture, and she fell asleep. She later said that she did not want to listen to something she did not understand at all. I tried to tell her that others did not understand much the first time either, but she had made up her mind. I understood that there was nothing that could be done right then. We had to let time pass.
My mother later said that she kept having nightmares where she was lost and couldn’t find her way out, even the police or the priest couldn’t help her in her dreams to find the right path. Her flashlight ran out of batteries, and it became completely dark. She woke up feeling deep dread.
So part of her knows very well that she is lost, but part of her does not. Part of her also seems to know that secular law or religion offers no way out of the cycle of birth and death. I was amazed when she told me about this dream, but she did not know what it meant and did not want to hear any explanation for it.
And You Just Smiled?
My workplace was undergoing some organizational restructuring, and most people were nervous. Even the management of our department expressed their indignation at not being able to influence this matter in the morning meeting. Everyone felt insecure, and there was an air of complaints floating around. Our director noticed that I was not at all upset and said loudly, “And you just smiled?” Everyone looked at me, and I had to say that I was not really upset about this. I explained that I practiced Falun Gong, so I always try to be patient and compassionate, no matter what happens. During that day, I was able to tell a few people naturally about the effect of Falun Gong on human nature, and I felt that they took in what I said. Afterward, they were very kind to me.
In the afternoon, a notice came that our four-person office would be reduced to a three-person office, and it caused a flood of complaints. I immediately said that I could move out to the shared computer room. This caused surprise, because people at our workplace are unaccustomed to someone being willing to give up benefits that had already been received. Many people came to ask if I was going to reserve the entire shared room for my own use. I kindly explained that I don’t need my own space very much, and that others obviously need their own workspace more, and I also don’t plan to take the entire shared space for myself, but to use it when it has vacant space. I cleaned up the shared room and moved my supplies in. In the end, there were still two nearly empty shelves, when the room had been very full before. Our director and the manager were very pleased with all of this. If I weren’t a cultivator, I would probably have fought to keep a personal workspace like everyone else. Even now, after more than a month, it still stirs up emotions in some of my coworkers.
How exhausting ordinary people’s lives are, and how lucky I am to have learned Master’s Fa. Thanks to the Fa, I now understand the purpose of the trials and how to deal with them.
When You Pursue, You Only See the Line Ahead
About a year ago, I had a strange dream. In the dream, Master was sitting on a bench, and waved another practitioner and me to come and sit next to him. The other practitioner was in a line with hundreds of other practitioners, probably a food line like in a Fa conference, and everyone was terribly hungry. I thought it was strange that hundreds of practitioners didn’t notice Master sitting behind them, because they were so busy getting what was being distributed. When Master asked us to come to him, the other practitioner gave the portion he had already received to someone else and came over to Master. I couldn’t see it clearly, but sensed that Master nodded in agreement.
Master then gave me his phone number, but I couldn’t add it to my phone, no matter how hard I tried. So I let it go. I really wanted to see Master properly, but I could only see his feet and knees, no matter how I turned my head. In any case, I felt at home, like a child next to his father, and I felt very happy. Master said, “You are very lucky!” I also tried to look up the schedule of a ship that was leaving for Master, first in a green book, then in a blue book, but I was unable to read either book, and the dream ended.
I wrote down this dream because I didn’t want to forget it. I think the meaning of the dream is: Only by letting go of all things can you get the best, and no one can know when Master will leave.
This is my understanding at my level, and I hope you can correct me if any point does not conform to the Fa.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2025 Finland Fa Conference)
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