I first encountered Falun Dafa on a sunny autumn day in the park. Its majestic and flowing movements impressed me a lot, as I knew a little bit about acupuncture. So I was eager to know more about this school. As Master Li's teaching was gradually revealed to me, my heart was very moved, because during my whole life (I was 55 years old) I had been searching and learning from many kinds of cultivation schools. But I had never found anything so perfect and so righteous. "This system could only have been set up by a truly great enlightened being," I thought to myself. My learning Dafa then became so natural and systematic that it seemed as if Teacher was directing it. The more I learned, the more I loved it. Falun Gong surpassed all my expectations. All the marvelous things that I had heard or read in the ancient books of cultivation in the past now became clear and easy to understand. Not only did Zhuan Falun clearly and logically explain all the "secret of secrets" that assist cultivators to ascend to higher levels or even achieve Consummation, but also "a real, living great Buddha" with all his compassion and wisdom is right there telling us: "If you want to truly cultivate in this school, I shall be responsible to you, I shall protect and guide you as a disciple." I was so moved by this.

I had the chance to see Teacher in person twice at conferences before the cruel crackdown in China. Each time, he left me with unforgettable memories that help me to firmly believe. This is the true righteous way of cultivation and Teacher Li is the true enlightened Master of all time. I decided from this point on that I shall cultivate in this school and this school only. á

Since then, my life has taken a different course. Not only did my body rapidly undergo a marvelous change, but also my interior life took on a bright new direction as well. As I belonged to the category of people who can only believe what they see and had poor "inborn quality," Teacher helped me see and experience that everything that was said in Zhuan Falun was the truth. For example, the first days I did the exercises, I felt a strong energy circulating under my skin, as well as a kind of dizzy feeling, but I was not afraid and understood that it was the process of purification. My body then became very light and free of illness. When I walked on the street, I had the cheerfulness of a teenager. I used to have big headaches and needed vitamin C and expensive Chinese herbs to help me get through the day. After a few days of practicing the exercises, I forgot all of them without noticing it. I was so happy I had encountered something so marvelous. á

And there was something else very special that I could never forget. At the very beginning, my vision of life and of people was strange. I began seeing people as though from another level and wondering why they were living like that: everybody was running and hurrying for nothing, eating, sleeping, and working like in an ant community. Babies were born and grew up by themselves, old people were sent to special places such as hospitals, retirement villages, and nursing homes so that fewer people would have to see and witness their presence. The young people were trying to enjoy life as quickly and easily as possible, turning their backs on the tragedy of mankind, old age, illness and death. Listening to people's conversations, they seemed so meaningless. That kind of perception made me feel very painful out of compassion. Then I silently said to Teacher: "Teacher, now I understand your lesson; I understand how enlightened beings feel about us! It is so painful! Please let it go." Then I came back to normal after about another week.

There were other things that I encountered during the first period that definitely could not have been a coincidence. Once I was shopping in a crowded store, and when the time came to pay the cashier, I realized that all my money was gone. My first reaction was true joy because only the money was gone. At home, I told my two sons what happened, and we were all happy because we knew that through this loss I had repaid a lot of karma. Then, just one week later, I met up with a professional robber on a deserted street who threatened me with a sharp knife. I calmly told him: "I won't shout. If you need money, it's no problem." Suddenly, he started crying like a child. During the next twenty minutes, as he kept crying, he told me about his life, his suffering, his being deceived by friends, addicted to drugs, and driven into debt. Some force was helping me. I was very calm during all that time. I only felt compassion for him and thought of his mother, who could have been about my age. I tried to find a way to help him, and told him about the centers for drug treatment and about Teacher's Book. When everything was over, I suddenly felt afraid, very afraid. I understood that Teacher's fashen had been protecting me, even though I was only a beginning student. Later on, I also understood that it was not my real level of compassion that moved the robber, but the one Teacher had boosted in me. At the same time, the meaning of cultivation practice became very clear in my mind: everyone has a different realm of mind! One could raise it only through cultivating one's xinxing. It also showed that I had a lot of karma to be repaid, even though in this life I looked like a kind person and one of whom it is easy to take advantage. á

I also want to report some other things. I wished to have Teacher's Zhuan Falun in my own language to learn instead of learning from its English or French versions. As it was not yet translated, Teacher arranged the circumstances so that I could do it myself. It was done extraordinarly quickly with the help of friends, and that dream of mine has now become a reality. Now I still don't know how it could be so good, as actually my level of understanding of my own language is very common. (Thanks Teacher!). Regarding this issue, some other practitioners are now translating it again, but from the original Chinese version. We all are waiting for it. Another thing to report is that Teacher has arranged circumstances in which I can rapidly progress in my attempt to learn Chinese, so that I can better understand his teaching.

The suffering and joy of a practitioner

All this still does not show the change that Falun Dafa has brought to my life. Externally, friends and relatives might see only that I have become more patient and more attentive to others, but inside myself I know that I have passed through various changes at a very high speed. For example, when the persecution of our friends and Dafa began in China, I truly asked myself the essential questions that Master later pointed out in his lecture during the US Western Dafa conference on October 23, 2000. I had made my decision: even if it seemed overwhelming, I had to do something, anything possible within my means, to support my school of cultivation, because I knew it was righteous, it was fundamentally good for all individuals who practiced it, and definitively good for families and for the whole society. I also wanted to do something because of my gratitude towards Master Li. In return, my reward was the happiness beyond words that I felt while I was going from house to house putting flyers in mailboxes or distributing literature alone in various metro stations. My efforts helped me to overcome my laziness, my shyness, and my human reactions when people looked weirdly at me or said some odd words to me. I was rewarded tremendously with a bright warm energy coming from I don't know where, which filled me with joy and understanding and power, and at the same time a certain feeling of peaceful suffering that I shall explain later. Each time I did this, a level was transcended. As Master taught us: "Cultivation is like climbing a ladder, step by step; stopping in the middle is not saving (anything), being able to carry on the next heavy step is true cultivation." (Hongyin) So I am always trying to take the next step, the necessary step arranged by Teacher for the sake of my cultivation progress. Each difficult step, once done, makes it is easier the next time when I have to do it again. My whole interior life is changing step by step, tremendously, without stop. I can never be grateful enough to our Teacher. If I had not encountered Dafa, I would have always walked on one spot or "crawled within the boundary delimited by my own ignorance." Love, anger, jealousy, bitterness, desires: whereas before I had all these things, now I have peace in my mind and my heart as I know there is "a karmic reason behind everything," and that "one's life is predestined with the amount of De and Karma he/she carries at birth." All these and other teachings of Master Li appear in my mind whenever the time comes to make the next step. A marvelous Teacher is always around to shine on you and show you the way to go up and up. Would you not say that my life has changed now compared with the one I had before, and that this change is forever and never ending?

My story is very simple. I have witnessed no scenes in heaven, but I have truly changed over the past two and a half years. Thanks to Teacher Li, a middle-aged woman like me has been able to live truly in Dafa. Without his benevolence in teaching this Falun Dafa throughout the world, it would have been impossible for me to know it and embrace it in my life. Without Dafa, I would go on fatefully towards old age and die in obscurity. Now and forever, I know and see the light which will shine in my soul and illuminate my way; now I know how to cultivate myself, how to conduct myself in life and how to educate my children, thanks to our beloved Teacher. I understand the practitioners in China who would give up their lives before giving up Dafa in their hearts.

Nowadays my biggest joy is to see Falun Dafa spreading every day, far and wide, to every corner of the world. "The Buddha light is illuminating, rectifying everything, everyone will progress, the future is bright"(Hongyin). My biggest suffering is to see that still many people do not understand, even though it could be the miracle solution to all human miseries. I sincerely think so and hope that more people, all people, will quickly come to embrace it in their lives. Dafa is truly the big gift that Teacher gives to mankind in this dawn of the twenty first century.

Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.

Category: Beginning Cultivation