[Note from Editor: This article was presented on November 21, 1999 at the Asian Falun Dafa Conference held in Tokyo, Japan.]

Hi, my fellow practitioners! My name is Shao, Xiaodong. I obtained my bachelor's degree from China Western Medical Science University and my master's degree from China Chinese Medical Science Research Institute. I have a master's degree on Qigong and Acupuncture certified by the State Education Commission of China, and have served as the Deputy Chairman of Heilongjiang Provincial Qigong Science Research Society and counselor to Liaoning Provincial Qigong Science Research Society. I was also nominated and recommended by Mr. Zhang Zhenhuan, formerly Director of China National Defense Science and Industry Commission and now Chairman of the China Qigong Science Research Society and China Human Body Science Society, as academic counselor of therapeutic Qigong. Since 1985, I have had many opportunities to give lectures in European and American countries upon invitation. In 1989, I came to Japan to teach upon invitation. In 1990, I accepted appointment to work in Japan and settled down in Tokyo.

Prior to coming to Japan, I worked as a leading attending physician for China's State Chinese Medical Science Research Institute in Beijing and a Specially Invited Lecturer for the Therapeutic Qigong Research Institute of the Beijing Chinese Medical Science and Medicine University. To a cultivation practitioner, the education, degrees and titles mentioned above are of little significance. I listed them just to show that I have received formal trainings in modern science and I am not a novice at Chinese and Western medical sciences, Qigong and human body science research. In addition, being a senior high school graduate in the early 1960's and having gone through the Culture Revolution and all types of ideological movements, I am used to evaluating various theories and doctrines with a critical eye, would not have carelessly believed in and blindly followed anyone and any of his theory. As to things new to human kind, I am of opinion that we should not carelessly believe them, or carelessly deny them. Rather, we should avoid the influence of our acquired perceptions and probe them with rational thinking and personal experience. Only after that shall we be able to draw the conclusion.

Today I will talk about my personal experience in choosing to practice Falun Dafa. What I will talk about here is from a beginner's perspective, superficial and won't be of much help to veteran practitioners. But to beginning practitioners and those interested in learning Falun Dafa, it may help them learn more about Falun Dafa and start practice.

In mid 1993, I left Japan for China to conduct research on various schools of Qigong practices. Near the Golden Fish Pond of the Zhongshan Park in Beijing, I heard pleasant music and was attracted to take a look. I saw dozens of people were practicing a Qigong system that I had never seen before. What surprised me was that three out of four standing stances they practiced were high-position stances (that is, the center of palms is higher than shoulder). Since I specialized in Qigong research, I knew that all traditional practice schools started their standing stance practices with low-position and middle-position ones. I had never seen such a school that began with high-position stances, regardless of the practitioners' length of practice or blood pressure. From the conventional therapeutic Qigong's perspective, practicing like this may result in rising blood pressure and is dangerous to high blood pressure patients. However, after talking with the practitioners on the site, including former high blood pressure sufferers, I found no problems. Those that had suffered from high blood pressure got their blood pressure lowered and those with low blood pressure got it raised to the normal level. What did it indicate that the phenomenon did not fit the conventional Qigong theory? I immediately realized that judging from the surface, the practice was not an ordinary heath-improving Qigong. It must be extraordinary, unique and profound. Later on, after I practiced Falun Gong myself, I came to know that each practitioner of this school have a Falun (Law Wheel, existing in another dimension) ever rotating in his/her abdomen and "it is the Fa (Law) that cultivates the practitioner". Practitioners put their hands in different positions of their body to reinforce the law wheel and mechanism and all cultivation procedures operate automatically under the effect of the mechanism.

As my observation continued, I was even more surprised to see that the fifth set of practice was a sitting meditation and practitioners were required to do lotus sitting (with two legs crossed) as long as they could possibly do, whereas all other popular Qigong schools only practice sitting meditation after reaching a high level. Since lotus sitting is difficult to do, most people only practice it at home and never show it to others. Publicly promoting the lotus sitting practice on a large scale plus the so-called "secret among the secrets"-the hand signs, was rarely seen and almost never heard of. Judged from the appearance, the system starts at a high level, higher than traditional health-promoting Qigong systems. That was the conclusion I drew at that time from a bystander's point of view. Later, Teacher Li said explicitly in the class: "This set of practice is the kind of cultivation at a high level, the one that I did alone in the past. I presented it to you without any modification."

After the practice finished, I had a conversation with the practitioners. They told me that the practice was called Falun Gong and the Teacher was Mr. Li Hongzhi. Teacher would plant a Falun (law wheel) in every practitioner's abdomen. Whoever fortunately get the Falun actually had already been halfway successful in cultivation. They also mentioned that Falun Gong was a cultivation practice and Teacher Li not only taught the practice, but also lectured the Fa (law and principles), which guide spiritual cultivation at a high level. Since the practice is supernormal and miraculous, I definitely should treasure this precious opportunity. I thought to myself: this might be the advanced cultivation Dafa (Great Way) I have been seeking for years. Then, I hurriedly moved to a nearby hotel and started learning Falun Gong at the park every morning. Upon hearing that Teacher Li was going to give another series of lectures in Beijing, I asked contact person of that practice site to enter my name too. I talked with her about the ancient proverb, "Learning the Tao in the morning, One can die in the evening." At that time, I had been heavily influenced by the Buddhist thinking and believed that everyday people's life was unpredictable and uncontrolled. I interpreted the proverb as saying that once attaining genuine Fa and Tao, one has lived a worthy life even if he dies later. Of course, that was my shallow perception at that time. I did not understand the more in-depth meaning of the proverb.

August 27, 1993 was a day most worthy of celebration in my life. On that day I became a practitioner of the 13th Falun Gong lecture series in Beijing.

During that period, every evening I went to attend the lectures practice teaching given by the Teacher at No.27 Beijing Locomotive Factory way outside the city proper. Returning home after the 3rd lecture, I practiced the fifth set of sitting practice for 30 minutes and felt light and comfortable all over the body, with no numbness and pain when doing the lotus sitting. That was the first time I physically experienced the great power of Falun Dafa. Just as Teacher says: "For a cultivation practitioner to reach the stage of Milky White Body in other schools, it may take more than 10 years, dozens of years or even longer. We take you to that stage in no time." "We push you beyond that and let you achieve the state of no illness." Before I attended the lectures, when I practiced lotus sitting up to 30 minutes, I would feel swelling pains. Although I had been practicing Qigong for many years, I did not understand the reasons behind Qigong therapy and had offered treatment to many patients when I was abroad. Just as Teacher says, "Everyday people's affairs such as birth, aging, illness and death all have predestined relationships, and should not be changed at will." To cure diseases with Qigong is to exchange my own De (Virtue, a white substance) with the patients' karma, therefore creating obstacles for my own cultivation. Wasn't the pain I had experienced in lotus sitting the consequence of karma?!

Teacher says: "Under the circumstances at that time some Qigong masters also treated patients in order to cooperate with that cosmic climate." Teacher also says: "Qigong can cure diseases, but it should not interfere with the state of the human society. If applied on a large scale, it would interfere with the state of the human society. That is not allowed to happen." Consequently, to give up the attachment of treating patients with Qigong became the first hurdle I had to overpass in order to practice Falun Gong. Back in 1984, I had been invited for many times by foreign physician communities to teach therapeutic Qigong and offer Qigong treatment in Europe and America. After I arrived in Japan in 1989 on invitation to give lectures, I even gave live demonstrations of so-called "External Qigong Healing Methods" for TV Asahi(Morning-Light)'s "Supernormal Capability" program. Upon invitation, I also offered Qigong treatments to the former Japanese Foreign Minister (candidate for Prime Minister at the time) and a number of upper-class figures. At that time, many media in Europe and Japan carried feature reports on the events. I had even registered a "Chinese Therapeutic Qigong Research Institute for Difficult and Complicated Cases of Illness" with the Tokyo Business Affairs Bureau and made an ambitious plan to expand business into Europe and America. But in order to practice Falun Gong, I had to give up the original plan, that is, give up the attachment to money and fame. At that time, the famous Japanese publishing house "Ko Dan Sha" also seeked my writings and expressed wishes to publish my books on therapeutic Qigong, because I was the only Chinese Qigong physician with degrees in both Chinese and Western medical sciences and certification in Chinese and Western medical practices. This was another good opportunity for me to make money and fame. But after weighing gains and losses, I chose to practice Falun Gong and give up the attachment to publishing my own Qigong books. Teacher says: "What an everyday person wants may be some fame, fortune, to live a better material life, have more comfort or money. That is everyday people's goal. We cultivation practitioners are different. What we get is Gong (cultivation energy)." "Gong can be carried away with you, because it grows on your Zhu Yishi (main soul)." "Gong is not easy to attain. It is extremely precious, hard to obtain and so invaluable."

Teacher says: "The most distinctive feature of Falun Gong practice is the cultivation of Falun (Law Wheel)", "Falun is an intelligent living entity" and it automatically rotates 24 hours a day. These words may sound incredible and cannot even be found in fairy tales. But after returning to Japan from the Beijing lectures, based on my experience accumulated from prior years of human body science research and Qigong practice, I tentatively conducted a human body experiment to test the existence of Falun. Once, I invited to my place a Japanese (her Tianmu (celestial eye) was open and can see her Dantian ("Field of energy cluster", in the lower abdominal area)) who had learned Qigong from me. I asked her to sit in the lotus position, close her eyes and place her hands on her legs with palms facing up, and then put a Falun badge facing down on her hand, without telling or hinting to her what it was. After she was in tranquility for a few minutes, I asked her through the interpreter how she felt. She answered that her palm warmed up and some shining circular substance rolled along the arm into her body and rested in the Dantian position, the same place where her internal Dan (energy cluster) stayed. The internal Dan was white in color and motionless, while the shining substance was rotating. The two sometimes overlapped, sometimes separated from each other. Her lower abdomen was lukewarm and very comfortable. Since at that time her celestial eye was not on a high level, she could not see the Swastika symbol (the symbol of the Buddha school, with a history of at least 2,500 years in human society) and the Taichi pattern. That was the experiment I conducted at the beginning period of attaining the Fa to test the existence of Falun. Of course, looking at the experiment now, I view it as an attachment. But the result of the experiment led me to believe that Falun is real and is a physical entity. It is not imaginary. It just exists in another dimension.

In the past, I had been involved in the human body supernormal capability research conducted by China's science and technology communities. In those days, the "People's Daily" (the official news paper in Chinese communist party) published a commentator's article denying the existence of human supernormal capabilities. At the same time some people in the literature and science circles also published articles on central and local government newspapers and magazines to attack Qigong, labeling human body supernormal capabilities as pseudo-science, ignorance and superstition. The overall situation turned ominous under the circumstances. As a result, many people who had come to probe supernormal capabilities as a fashion were frightened away and only a few sober-minded and serious scientists continued their research. At that time, under the sponsorship of most-renowned scientist Qian Xuesen, we called together people with supernormal capabilities from across the country. With coordinated effort of researchers from the Physics Research Institute, the High Energy Physics Institute and the Biophysics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science and the No.1129 Institute of the Public Security Ministry, we made use of such hi-tech instruments as micro-beam video cameras, reaction testers and brain electroscopes and testified the validity of human body supernormal capabilities, including capabilities of peering through objects with celestial eye, Clairvoyance and moving objects through dimension barriers. Therefore, we came to conclude that, besides the existing physical dimension we live in, there also exist other dimensions. The human body experiments conducted by China's upper-level science circles at that time also confirmed the existence of other dimensions, which were called by the researcher as "hidden state" or "field state". Later on, with the help of high-speed cameras, researchers from the National Defense Science and Industry Commission even succeeded in capturing with hi-tech camera the process that medicine tablets pass through dimension barriers of a glass bottle under the energy effect of supernormal capabilities. It was because of the series of successful experiments in human body sciences that the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council of that time formulated the "Three Nos" policy regarding human body science and Qigong (that is, No Promoting, No Criticizing, No Debating). However, since 1996 some Chinese media including the Guangming Daily violated the central government's "Three Nos" policy by openly attacking Falun Gong. The situation later escalated to the public security bureaus arresting Falun Gong practitioners and the 4.25 Zhongnanhai Petition Event.

In the recent anti-Falun Gong campaign waged by the Chinese government, a few so-called experts or scholars relied on the limited knowledge and assumptions of today's human sciences to rashly deny phenomena yet unknown to them. Their attitude of jumping to conclusions subjectively itself is unscientific and unsupported. Even from the perspective of experimental science, we should not recklessly negate things that we cannot understand temporarily.

At the end of December, 1997, when I attended the Falun Dafa International Experience Conference in Changchun, China, I watched an unforgettable video tape in my lifetime. The tape was recorded as practitioners in Changchun held their first Falun Dafa conference in the auditorium of Jilin University. When it came to the part where the conference formally started, some auto horns were suddenly heard and it was clearly seen on the screen that big colorful Faluns with Swastika signs lined one by one in an endless queue from the auditorium gate up into the sky. The scene was miraculous and spectacular, more so than any descriptions in fairy tales. But it was true and a concrete manifestation (the camera can often capture the picture of Falun although our human eyes cannot perceive it). If I had not watched in person, I could hardly believe such an incomprehensible scene. But it was real. It was said that Teacher later interpreted the phenomenon as big Faluns in the Falun Paradise coming down to the earth to attend the conference. Later on, at the Switzerland Falun Dafa Conference, Teacher said: "Now matter you want to see it or not, sometimes it comes to manifest. It does happen that at times some people can see it all of a sudden when matter somehow manifests itself in motion." I hereby suggest president Jian Zemin to borrow this tape and watch it in person, and ask experts to examine its validity.

At 5:30 on the morning of the New Year's Day, the temperature in Changchun was 23C below zero. We overseas Falun Dafa practitioners practiced together with Changchun's local practitioners in a park. At that time I only wore a pair of thin gloves. In the posture of Embracing the Wheel before the Head, according to the music tape, we only needed to practice seven minutes. But seven minutes at that time was even harder to endure than 70 minutes' usual practice. My fingers were almost frozen into ice bars and there were extreme pains in my hands as if freezing cold needles were planted into my flesh. It's like a hell torturing. After the 7 minutes of hard endurance, I had planned to change to the posture of Embracing the Wheel Before the Abdomen according to the music and use the opportunity to take a breath. Then an idea came to me: why not impose higher standard on myself and continue to practice another 7 minutes? Although the environment was harsh and the practice was difficult and painful, was it not a result of karma accumulated by myself over the previous lives? Teacher said: "When it is difficult to endure, you can endure it; When it is impossible to do, you can do it." Why not just do it? It is true that good or bad comes from an instant thought. Falun is something of intelligence. It was not long before I felt small Faluns rotating around my 10 frozen and painful fingers. When the second 7 minutes finished, my fingers were no longer painful and actually started to warm up. Experiencing in person that sweetness comes afte the bitterness is really memorable. Deep inside I concretely experienced the majesty and realness of Falun Dafa. I further realized Teacher is strict with but full of paramount compassion for every practitioner. Falun Dafa is not empty preaching, but all truth. Only genuine practitioners can experience it at different levels of genuine practice.

Falun Gong is a cultivation practice of both mind and body and encompasses the Buddha-body (The never-degenerated Vajra body as it is called in the Buddha School, or "Yuanying" in the Tao School) cultivation. In the section of "Xuanguan Shewei" of Zhuan Falun, Teacher expounds on every evolving step of the Buddha-body cultivation in plain languages and revealed "Xuanguan"-the secret among the secrets-in explicit details. I specialized in the research of "Dan Jing" and "Tao Tsang" (two ancient Chinese books on cultivation practice) in the library of China Chinese Medical Science Research Institute and the title of my graduate dissertation was "The Analysis of the Internal Dan of China's Taoist School Qigong through Ancient Works". For "Tao Tsang" alone, the library had a wealth of 5285 books. However, even though you go through all the ancient books, you are still at loss as to what exactly "Xuanguan Yiqiao" means. However, our Teacher fully discloses this ancient mystery, which is regarded as the secret among the secrets.

The above-mentioned cultivation experience gives rise to the reason why I chose to practice Falun Dafa. The experience is very superficial and is derived from perspectives at a beginning level. Actually, Falun Dafa is the Fa of the universe and has much higher implications. In this article, I have talked about things related to empirical sciences and cultivation theories that are often very close to theories in human society, only in hope of having the human society to understand us, or at least to avoid some misconceptions. It is also our wish that the Chinese government and the top leaders will clarify their misunderstandings of Falun Dafa and its kindhearted practitioners.

Personally, I like to practice cultivation alone quietly and enjoy the peace. However, when the Fa of the universe is being mistreated as such in the human society, as a veteran practitioner and disciple, I have the obligation to stand out to clarify some facts and reveal the truth.

Recently, the People's Daily (the official newspaper of the Chinese communist party) carried a commentator's article accusing Falun Gong of "Amassing Wealth". That is totally groundless. For the 10-day Falun Gong teaching series given by Teacher Li in Beijing that I had attended, I only paid RMB40, the equivalent of 500 Japanese Yen (or $5), which was the lowest charge I have ever known for Qigong teaching sessions in China. Even now I still kept the Completion Certificate issued at that time, with the cover signed by the China Qigong Research Society. Obviously, it was the China Qigong Research Society that had organized the event. At the Falun Gong practice sites I had visited in several parks of Beijing, all Falun Gong teachings were voluntary and free of charge. Furthermore, the Beijing Assistance Center did not even have an office. I personally had requested to make a donation to Falun Gong. But the Falun Gong Research Society graciously declined my request after reporting to Teacher Li. According to the staff of the Research Society, Teacher Li said: No individual donations will be accepted, because after affluent practitioners make a donation, the less well-off practitioners may also want to make a donation. However, their financial inability will make them feel bad. That's why no individual donations would be accepted. I was deeply moved by the reply. This was real, selfless benevolence and compassion! As far as I knew, Gao Qiuju, contact person of the Dalian Assistance Center, had purchased a villa in her personal capacity and wanted to give it to Teacher as a gift. But Teacher rejected the gift and criticized her for the action. I had also proposed to donate the 6 suites of real estate investment I purchased in Beijing to Falun Gong for base construction uses. But Teacher Li rejected my proposal again. All the above facts are what I personally saw or heard.

The commentator of the People's Daily even accused Falun Gong of "secret association". That was simply ridiculous, because from 1993 until March of 1996, Falun Gong Research Society had remained a branch Society directly under the China Qigong Research Society, an official organization of the Chinese government. I have at hand a copy of a brief report of Falun Gong Research Society's overseas contact groups, which was dated April 5, 1995. The report wrote, total 100 copies. The recipients of the report included the Nine-member Human Body Science Administrative Office of the Central Government, China Qigong Science Research Society, every provincial Qigong Academic Associations and every provincial or municipal Falun Gong Assistance Centers. What's more, the Overseas Communication Team of the Falun Gong Research Society sat right in the yard of the No.1 Research Institute of the Public Security Ministry. So where is the secret? Since 1995, the Public Security Ministry has carried out two nation-wide investigations into Falun Gong and concluded that Falun Gong had no political background and should be regulated as per the Regular Public Group Security Rules. In fact, Falun Gong teaches good citizenship and offers instructions to genuine practitioners in cultivation practice. It brings every benefit but no harms to any society. In short, the accusations made by the Chinese government against Falun Gong are non-factual. We believe history will give a fair judgment.

Finally, I wish all my fellow practitioners can take the Fa as the teacher, be firm and diligent in the practice and make vigorous advances and complete cultivation in the near future!

Thank you all!

Shao, Xiaodong, Falun Dafa practitioner in Japan

Nov. 21st, 1999