A Falun Dafa Practitioner in Canada’s Change in Outlook

[Editor’s Note: This account was relayed to the FDIC by an acquaintance of the practitioner, Jane, whose full name has not been provided because she still has family back in China. She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.]

In 1997 Jane’s husband had an accident, which led them to start practicing Falun Dafa in order to aid his physical recovery. From then on, they not only became healthier, but were also inspired by the spiritual teachings of the practice, prompting a change to their outlook on life.

Treating travel reimbursements at work with honesty

At the time when they first took up the practice, Jane’s mother worked for a foreign company that would reimburse her for daily taxi fares accrued as a result of any transport related to her job. Since she lived close to her job, she did not need to go to the company by taxi.

“Before practicing cultivation, I often gave my own taxi invoices to my mother to submit for the reimbursement money,” Jane recalls. She says she did not think that this was wrong, because everyone did such things. In addition, her mother’s taxi invoice reimbursement, although it actually covered Jane’s expenses, was still less than others. Some employees were reimbursed for very long taxi distances. After embarking on the path of spiritual cultivation, Jane realized that it was wrong to do this kind of thing because it does not meet the criterion of following truthfulness for Falun Gong practitioners. She stopped giving her mother her own taxi invoices for reimbursement.

For Jane’s work, she would sometimes travel on business trips. She always applied for a reimbursement based on the actual cost of the expenses she incurred. Once, after finishing a local business trip, her company erroneously reimbursed her for too much money, so she returned the extra amount. Later, many young people in her office told her that it was silly to return the money. Some of her peers said, “Why would someone return the money? It would be great to get all that reimbursement! Who will it hurt if you get extra money? There will be no problem if you turn a blind eye to it.” Jane told them it was because of the principles she tried to live by, so she did not want to take the extra money.”I felt happy after I returned the money,” she says.

Encouraging her son for sharing his pizza

Jane’s son is in the third grade in Canada and has been admitted to the gifted class at his school. Jane also encourages him to be a kind person based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. She knew that sometimes her son was mischevious, but that he was a kind person at heart. One day her son’s school had pizza available to purchase for lunch. One of his classmates lost the money he brought and did not have money to buy any pizza. Jane’s son told her when he came home that he had two pieces of pizza and so he gave one piece to the classmate who lost his money. The other classmates said he was stupid, “You gave him some pizza? You will not have enough to eat, will you?” Her son told her that his classmates all said that he was stupid. Only his best friend said nothing. Jane encouraged her son, “What you did was very good. If he did not have the pizza for lunch he would have gone hungry, wouldn’t he?”

Whether spiritual cultivation is easy or not depends on one’s mind

Jane’s path of cultivation has not always been smooth. She and her husband stopped practicing for a period of time because they were scared by the cruel persecution in China.

Then, in 2002, Jane’s husband suffered a stroke. His mouth and face became distorted. He then decided to resume practicing Falun Gong. He recovered within one week of practicing the exercises and studying the teachings diligently. Jane and her husband regained their firm faith in Falun Dafa.

“I think cultivation is the only way out for human beings in this world,” says Jane. “I have read many different books. There were cultivators from kingdoms and empires. Sakyamuni was born a prince, but he finally went to practice cultivation. Who can solve the problems of birth, old age, illness and death? I think cultivation is the only way for human beings, but it is really not an easy way.”

Jane says that sometimes she still cannot control herself and gets angry when disciplining her son, but she continues to try to improve her patience.

“I feel that whether it is difficult or easy comes from a person’s instant thought and if you really want to give up those immoral thoughts and attachments, it is actually very easy,” she says. “If not, it will be very difficult. That’s what I feel. It seems that some bad thoughts are quickly eliminated. If you have a strong thought that you do not want them, those things will be eliminated immediately. But, some attachments will appear repeatedly, and are hard to completely eliminate.”