(Minghui.org) After retiring from a state-owned enterprise, I was rehired by its parent company with a six-figure annual salary. Many people around me were green with envy. One of my supervisors said to me, “A retired manager got rehired as an expert – this has never happened in our company before.”
I know that my good fortune happened because Falun Dafa made me a considerate and competent person valued and respected by others.
I began to practice Falun Dafa in early 1998. Master said, “The most fundamental characteristic of this universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, is the highest manifestation of the Buddha Fa.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun) I was awestruck by this sentence. Since I knew this is the criteria of being a good person, I knew I must follow it. Since then, my life has had a purpose.
I was responsible for purchase accounting in my company before my retirement, one of the positions known for gray income. In the past 20-plus years, I have handled billions of yuan in purchases each year, but I always required myself to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance (Zhen-Shan-Ren). That is, I tried to be fair, just, and transparent so as to protect my company’s interest and that of our vendors as well.
I also declined to accept any kickbacks from the vendors, nor did I allow them to pay for my food or travel, even when my salary was still low in the beginning.
The vendors felt I was too foolish and tried to persuade me to take advantage of the opportunities to earn gray income. One of them said to me, “Everybody is doing this. If you are in the position to do that and you don’t do it, all the opportunities would be gone when you no longer have the privilege. Another one complained it was even harder to invite me to dinner than inviting a high-ranking official.
I was not moved by their pressure to accept gray income. After I explained to them why I would do things this way, they all became understanding and very respectful of practitioners.
“Falun Dafa has solved the corruption issue that money and rules cannot resolve,” one of the vendors remarked.
In the past 20-plus years, I have experienced countless audits and our auditors were always satisfied. My contracts and accounting records were clear and standardized. No vendors reported I had any issues.
Once after a major audit, I ran into a manager at my company on a bus. He said, “Many mid-level managers were ordered to return their gray income after the audit. You are the only exception who reported no gray income!”
Another coworker came to my office and said, “Your faith has helped you; otherwise, you would not be able to sit here [since many others were disciplined for taking bribes or kickbacks].”
I thus gained more and more trust and was promoted.
Some ten years ago, one of my supervisors told me that my analysis of purchase accounting was circulated at a conference held by our parent company and attended by all subsidiaries. He said he was asked why he still dared to use me, a Falun Dafa practitioner. He replied, “She does whatever is asked of her and does it well. If we have more people like her, things would be much easier.”
Over the years, I have worked with a revolving door of vendors. They all told me in the beginning that they were aware of the [unspoken] rules and that they would not let me help them secure my company’s business for nothing.
I would smile and say, “Those [unspoken] rules do not apply to me. I won’t take things from you since I have my belief. You’ll get our business as long as your quality and price are good.”
Whenever possible, I would talk with them about Falun Dafa, the persecution, and defamatory propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Nearly all of them agreed and quit the CCP organizations. Some shared the information with their family or friends. Some told their police friends not to suppress Falun Dafa. Some have begun to practice.
One vendor came to my office with an envelope full of cash. He insisted on thanking me with the cash because I helped him “learn how to do business honestly” and still make a lot of money. He said, “I have thanked all other people who have helped me along the way. This is for you since you helped me the most.”
I explained to him that I would always offer help whenever I could because of Falun Dafa teachings. However, I would never accept gifts from others. In the end, he took the envelope back.
Before the Chinese New Year, he returned with a big bag and said, “We are no longer business partners so there is no conflict of interest anymore. I just wanted to give you some gifts as a friend. Look, this is a high-end watch I bought for you from Hong Kong and that is some cosmetics my wife bought for you... Please do not say no this time.”
I smiled and said, “I understand and thank you. I also hope you help me keep in line with Falun Dafa principles.”
He was very moved. “I have been in business for many years and have never met a person like you,” he continued. “Having you is a blessing to you company. The practice of Falun Dafa must be very good.”
I told him all practitioners would handle these situations like me.
Whether before or after becoming a manager, I never allowed vendors to visit me at home in the past 20-plus years [when it was common practice for vendors to try to bribe people away from their workplaces].
Once it was near the Chinese New Year, and a representative from a client of our company called me saying he was outside my apartment building.
“My manager asked me to visit you and your family,” he said.
“You know, I never accept gifts. It is cold outside, please go back and we can meet at my office tomorrow.”
He begged me, “Please open the door; otherwise, my manager would give me a poor performance rating at work – she said if I cannot do something as simple as this, how can I handle complicated situations?”
I told him I understood his difficulty and explained honestly and sincerely, “I treat all vendors the same. I will call your manager and explain to her tomorrow that this is not your fault. So you will be fine and please do not worry. Please just go back home since your family is waiting for you to get ready for the New Year.”
Through the phone I could hear him sobbing.
“All right, thank you,” he said.
I knew it was not easy for my clients, as they had to prepare gifts before major holidays in a bid to get business from our company. I told them I did not follow that unwritten rule to grant business to those who sent in bribes. I assured them that I would be fair and square in dealing with each and every vendor.
“If you understand and support me, we can do business better together. Right?” I often said.
And they agreed.
One director in my company said to me, “Before working with you, I heard you never accepted any gifts. To be honest, I doubted it. Now, I know it is true.”
I told him about how Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are in line with traditional Chinese culture. Because the CCP promotes class struggle, hatred, and lies, it targets the traditional values including Falun Dafa. The director understood it and quit the CCP organizations. He also convinced his parents to do the same.
A fellow employee from another department once came to my office, and he asked, “I heard you do not accept kickbacks? With your position, you know you are losing an apartment [which could be bought with possible gray income] every year.”
“As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I just want to be a good person. If the money does not belong to me, I would not take it,” I said.
Touched by my words, he also renounced his membership in the CCP organizations and began to read Falun Dafa books. Later on, he told me he had recovered from lumbar disc herniation without treatment.
One vendor said he had never met a good person like me since I always helped others without seeking return.
“The CCP has so much hate propaganda against Falun Dafa, but you are like spring water – clean and pure, purging all the propaganda from my mind,” he added.
During business collaboration, I helped him a lot and he was very thankful. He said his company had many cars and I could use them whenever needed. But I never took advantage of that. Later on, he introduced me to his business partners. He also took Falun Dafa materials and shared them with his friends .
Master said,
“As practitioners, you will suddenly come across conflicts. What should you do? You should always maintain a heart of compassion and kindness. Then, when you run into a problem, you will be able to do well because it gives you room to buffer the confrontation. You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems. Therefore, in cultivation practice you should follow a higher and higher standard for yourself.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
To better align with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I often memorized this paragraph on the way to work. This helped me to be truly considerate of others. As a result, other people often sought advice from me regarding whatever problems they had in life. They treated me as a magnet of kindness, happiness, and selflessness.
I respected everyone with an open mind and tolerance. When issues arose, I tried to understand the situation from their angle while looking within to identify room to improve myself. Therefore, when others made mistakes at work, I would not criticize them and would resolve it with a smile.
One day a coworker was terrified because he had lost a value-added tax invoice.“What should I do?” he almost cried.
I comforted him, “Let’s look for it. If we cannot find it in the end, we can put out a statement in the newspaper to void it.”
But he was still very frightened.
“Please do not worry too much. Had no one ever lost anything, our ancestors would not have invented this word ‘lose’,” I added.
He felt better and the fear on his face was gone.
From Falun Dafa teachings, I learned that my kindness, tone, and being considerate of others could change others for the better. The front office in my department had an ash tray. Several times I found the ash tray full, but no one emptied it. I emptied it and cleaned the area. Later on, this problem was rarely seen.
The department I was in charge of ran well under my leadership. Everyone was clear on what to do and did their assigned tasks well from the bottom of their heart instead of going through the motions. Whenever holidays came up, I would work overtime so others could take time off. They often said to me, “We are so lucky to have you as our manager.”
Over the years, I have gone through more than a dozen supervisors. I always respected and communicated well with them and got things done. I tried to lessen their workload and provide help wherever needed. Working overtime was commonplace for me, and I never asked for extra pay. My supervisors and my subordinates all trusted me. “As long as she (me) is in charge of something, I am confident things will go well,” one supervisor said.
My performance was well-acknowledged. Even in the harsh persecution of Falun Dafa in China, I was awarded many times including some province-level prizes. The selection of awardees was based on votes at different levels of the company. Those who received the most votes in a certain award category would be chosen. So the many awards I received showed that people at my company recognized Falun Dafa’s benefits to businesses.
Once the local police took me to the police department due to my practice of Falun Dafa. Quite a few supervisors and coworkers voluntarily went to the police department to seek my release. By the time I was released at 11 p.m. that day, I saw many of them were still there.
“People like you so much,” one officer said to me. “Look, all of them are from your company. Your company even approached city officials asking for your release. Everyone said you are awesome.”
From vendors to coworkers, they liked to share their stories and problems with me. “Do you know why we like chatting with you?” one of them said. “It is because you have integrity and will not causally leak information to others. Nowadays it is hard to find a person one can trust and some even cannot wait to taunt others for their personal problems. But you are not like that.”
One coworker, Fen, had a marriage crisis. I shared my thoughts based on Falun Dafa teachings and we also chatted after work. I explained to her that her having an affair would bring harm to her and her family.
She listened to my words and accepted Dafa materials. We also watched Master’s video lectures together. She came to understand that the relationship between husband and wife was predestined and that extramarital affairs were not good. She agreed to stop seeing the other man. When I visited her later, she, her husband, and their child agreed to quit the CCP organizations. They now live happily together.
As people trusted me further, more and more people came to me sharing their challenges in life, as if I was a therapist. No matter whether it was on holidays or late at night, I would help whenever needed. They may have struggled a lot before reaching out to me so I did not want to let them down. Therefore, I would share my understandings from the Falun Dafa teachings.
Ying was another coworker. When she got married 17 years ago, her mother-in-law did not agree with the marriage, so they hardly talked to each other over the years. After Ying talked to me, she began to read Dafa books and took the initiative to take care of her parents-in-law. Her father-in-law could not take care of himself when hospitalized. She went there looking after him so attentively that others assumed she was his daughter.
After her parents-in-law passed away, her husband’s younger brother wanted to have his parents’ apartment unit all by himself. Ying gave the apartment to him without any hesitation. All their relatives and neighbors were impressed by her change, and they knew it was because Falun Dafa.
Hua and her husband had divorced, and she was unhappy. I chatted with her many times and told her some of my understandings of marriage based on Falun Dafa teachings. One day I went to her home and her son opened the door. He was happy to see me.
“Mom!” the boy called out to his mother and said, “Auntie is here and our family has hope now!”
I was very touched by the boy’s words. I could sense his trust in me in helping his parents get back together. I told his mother that only Falun Dafa could bring miracles and save her family. She read Zhuan Falun, the main teachings of Falun Dafa, and said to me, “I know where I did wrong now. And I will change.”
Not long after, her ex-father-in-law had a stroke and was hospitalized. She went to the hospital every day to help out.
“You are no longer family now. Why are you here?” Her ex-husband said sarcastically.
But she did not argue back and just helped quietly. Her ex-father-in-law could not speak well at the time and she was the only person who could make out what he was saying. She also read Zhuan Falun to him. After 40 days, her ex-father-in-law regained health and was released from the hospital.
One day, she received a phone call from her ex-husband. He apologized and asked if they could re-marry. Hua was moved to tears by this and she told me about it right away. Both of us were in tears. From our heart, we are grateful to Master and Falun Dafa for bringing the miracle.
There was a coworker who was stationed out of town and had a problem with his supervisor. He even took a train back to our city (where our company was headquartered) to complain to me about his supervisor. It turned out his supervisor reduced his workload and had a new hire to take on part of his job responsibilities. He took it as the supervisor favoring the new hire and not trusting him anymore.
I said to him, “You should thank your supervisor!” He was baffled. I explained that since he told people that his girlfriend lived in our city, I believed that his supervisor adjusted his workload so that he only needed to work out of town for two weeks every month, thus giving him more time to spend with his girlfriend. I said his supervisor was quite good at accommodating employees’ unique personal situations.
He then had a smile on his face and admitted that he never realized his supervisor was being understanding of him. He gave up his thought to fight his supervisor for the new work arrangement.
I once received a letter from someone, who wrote, “I wish I had come to know you much earlier. If I knew the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance when I was in high school, I would not have fought back when bullied and injured a classmate, causing him to go blind in one eye. I deeply regret the wrongdoings I committed in my youth. I’ll follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person for the rest of my life.”
There have been too many such stories to count. Many other practitioners have similar experiences. Deep in my heart, I know the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance will bring a better society with a brighter future.