This is a story about Yu En that Yu Menglong shared in Voice from the Other Shore while replying to the Lemons. ("Lemon" refers to Yu's supporters. In Chinese, the word for lemon (柠檬, níngméng) contains the character "Meng" (檬), which has the same pronunciation as the "Meng" in Yu Menglong's name.)

In this life, Yu En has had a very, very hard time.

As a student, she was bullied by her teachers and classmates as a group. After entering the workforce, she was bullied by her supervisors and coworkers as a group. Her family relationships were also very bad. All of this caused her great pain.

One day, while her coworkers were deliberately shunning her, she suddenly felt that life was meaningless. She wanted to jump onto the train tracks. She wanted to die.

Then, for no apparent reason, Yu En fell asleep right where she was sitting in the train station's waiting area, and she had a strange dream.

In the dream, a huge crowd of her relatives and friends from past lives sat in a circle. There were so many of them that the circle was enormous. In the seat of honor sat the God of Fate, glowing from head to toe.

"Which of you is willing to become a family member who hurts Yu En? Raise your hand."

Some people did not dare raise their hands, because raising a hand, and bullying Yu En, would mean sacrificing the merit they had accumulated and creating karma for themselves.

Just then, a few people did raise their hands. They loved Yu En dearly and were willing to sacrifice themselves and take on karma for her.

The God of Fate told them: "Yu En must eliminate a great deal of karma before she can become a practitioner of Falun Dafa. When you are reborn as humans, you will be responsible for hurting Yu En to help her eliminate her karma."

Without hesitation, these relatives and friends departed to be reincarnated.

"Which of you relatives and friends is willing to become, in your next life, the teachers and classmates who bully Yu En? Raise your hand."

Everyone looked at Yu En in tears, their hearts aching for her. A group of people bravely raised their hands. Weeping, they said: "Yu En, we love you. For your sake, we are willing to sacrifice ourselves and help you eliminate your karma in the next life!"

Yu En held them, and they all cried together. Then, through their tears, they said goodbye. Next, the God of Fate spoke again: "Relatives and friends of Yu En, who is willing to become her supervisors and coworkers in the next life?"

A group of people raised their hands. They hugged Yu En, told her they loved her, and then went to report to the Reincarnation Office.

Yu En thought the meeting was about to end, but the God of Fate spoke once more: "Of the relatives and friends who remain, who is willing to become Yu En's enemy, someone who starts out as her friend but becomes her enemy because of a misunderstanding?"

Several relatives and friends raised their hands. They hugged Yu En and told her they would always love her, and that they would never truly become her enemies forever because of what happened in the mortal world.

Most of the relatives and friends had now left. The God of Fate spoke: "Which of you is willing to help Yu En, to help her fulfill her path, to support her always on her life's journey, and to remind her at critical moments?"

All the remaining relatives and friends raised their hands, including Ariel. The God of Fate said sternly: "You are unwilling to sacrifice your merit to help Yu En eliminate her karma. What kind of relatives and friends are you?!"

Suddenly, a beam of golden light shone down from above, and a voice full of majesty resounded across the sky: "They have all signed covenants with me. They have more important missions and must not lightly lose their merit."

The God of Fate knew the voice came from a higher realm, but did not know which deity it belonged to. He hurriedly said: "Very well! All of you, go report to the Reincarnation Office at once. This meeting is adjourned!"

And so, Yu En went through countless setbacks and much suffering, eliminated a great deal of karma, and only then began her path of cultivation.

Someone once told Yu En that life is like this: you yourself set a cup of milk tea on the table and put an iron plate on the floor. You turn around, turn back again, and you have already forgotten who put the milk tea and the iron plate there. So you drink the milk tea, and you also stub your toe on the iron plate, and then you grumble and curse, "Who put this iron plate here? My toes are killing me!"

After Yu En woke up, she no longer wanted to jump in front of a train. She obediently went home to eliminate her karma, and she no longer felt despair.

I heard what Yu En said and found it very meaningful, so I wanted to share this story of hers with everyone.

Perhaps you, like Yu En, have a group of relatives and friends who love you and who sacrificed their own merit to help you eliminate your karma.

What we need to do is thank them for giving you the chance to eliminate karma, thank them for giving you virtue, thank them for helping you improve, and thank them for helping you return to the path of cultivation.

Translator's Notes

  1. Heartfelt Words from the Other Shore (彼岸心聲): "The other shore" is a term from Buddhist-influenced Chinese culture referring to the realm beyond this life.
  2. Merit and karma: In this belief system, merit (also called virtue) is a positive spiritual substance earned through good deeds, while karma is a negative substance created by wrongdoing. Mistreating someone costs the wrongdoer merit and creates karma for them.
  3. Falun Dafa: A Chinese spiritual cultivation practice, also known as Falun Gong. "Cultivation" means spiritual practice aimed at improving one's moral character and spiritual level.
  4. "Thank them for giving you virtue": In Falun Dafa teachings, when someone wrongs you and you endure it, virtue is transferred from that person to you.
  5. Milk tea and the iron plate: The milk tea represents good fortune and the iron plate represents hardship. The parable means that both the blessings and the difficulties in our lives were set up by ourselves (through past choices and past lives), but we forget this and blame others. In Chinese, "kicking an iron plate" (踢到鐵板) is also an idiom for running into a serious obstacle.