(Clearwisdom.net) I am 80 years old this year. I started practicing Falun Gong on July 6, 1998. My grandfather and my father both passed away in their 60s, so I know for a fact that Teacher has extended my lifespan so that I would have an opportunity to practice Falun Gong. Before I started my cultivation practice, I suffered from chronic fatigue and arthritis. As a result, I was unable to walk for long distances. After I started practicing Falun Gong, I became healthy and energetic in less than six months. I have become an excellent walker and bicyclist. I can ride a bicycle with my wife on the backseat for over 30 miles. Falun Gong can truly create miracles!
I have never had any formal education. When I started practicing Falun Gong, I learned that it was important for practitioners to study the Fa, so I decided that I must learn to read Zhuan Falun. I reduced the number of hours I slept in order to spend more time studying the Fa with fellow practitioners. After I returned home from group Fa study, I could identify some of the Chinese characters in Zhuan Falun and guess the meanings of the rest of them. I also knew that cultivation is a solemn matter, so I must not read any word incorrectly. When I thought I had learned some new Chinese characters, I would carefully verify if I was reading them correctly in the next group Fa study. Gradually I learned to read all of Zhuan Falun. Next I learned to read Teacher's new articles. After reading the new articles a few times, I would still find it refreshing and inspiring when I read them again. I feel that the Fa is immensely profound!
I live in a farming village. When Jiang Zemin and the Chinese Communist Party started to openly persecute Falun Gong in 1999, the environment of our village became unfavorable for practitioners. In order to help fellow practitioners catch up with the progress of Teacher's Fa-rectification, I volunteered to be the main contact for over 30 local practitioners in our area who live far from each other. The two nearest practitioners live half a mile away from each other, while the two furthest are four miles apart. Every once in a while, I would call on each and every fellow practitioner. Each time I would have to ride a bicycle for a long time. I would deliver Teacher's new articles and Minghui Weekly to them. I also organized group Fa studies so that we could exchange our cultivation experiences. When something important happened, I would call on them to deliver the news. As for those fellow practitioners who had not stepped out for Falun Gong, I would call on them as well to exchange cultivation experiences with them and encourage them to step out and validate the Fa.
Once while I was on my way to deliver Minghui Weekly to fellow practitioners , a police car suddenly pulled up in front of my bicycle and stopped me. One of the policemen recognized that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, so he got out of the police car to inspect my belongings. He grabbed a bag of Minghui Weekly publications from the basket of my bicycle and asked, "What is this?" I did not panic. As soon as he turned his head, I grabbed the bag from him, turned my bicycle and rode away immediately. The policeman shouted, "Freeze! Freeze!" I started sending forth righteous thoughts in my heart and thought, "You freeze! Stand still!" Soon I entered the highway. When I took the turn to the highway, I turned and checked on the policeman. He was standing absolutely still! Thanks to Teacher's compassionate protection, I escaped from the police safely.
Later, Teacher asked all practitioners to start clarifying the truth to the world's people. The practitioners in my area started distributing truth-clarification materials. I volunteered to deliver these materials to fellow practitioners. On average I needed to make a delivery once a week. I usually made the deliveries in the daytime. Each round trip to pick up the materials takes about 16 miles. Then I would deliver them to practitioners on the way back. Because practitioners were distributing the truth-clarification materials to a lot of people, I would pick up a large sack of materials each time.
I spend most of my free time clarifying the truth. Sometimes I clarify the truth to people in person, and sometimes I distribute truth-clarification materials. I try to clarify the truth from the bottom of my heart. I always distribute the materials during the day. As for my relatives and friends, I clarify the truth to them and give them the truth-clarification materials in person. I ride my bicycle for four to five hours each day. I don't always know my way around, but I have never been lost. It is as though Teacher is leading the way for me. I have never taken the same route, so I have taken a lot of detours. In order to offer more people Teacher's salvation, I have been paying attention to my personal safety. Because of my righteous thoughts and righteous actions, I have not met with danger.
Once my wife and I traveled to Hunan Province to visit our relatives and to introduce Falun Gong to them. We brought a dozen truth-clarification VCDs and over 100 copies of printed truth-clarification materials. Shortly after we arrived at my relative's home, someone reported us to the police before we had a chance to introduce Falun Gong to my relatives. About five policemen came and took us to the police station. A policeman asked me where I got the materials. I replied, "What a strange question! I came from a far more developed area. Falun Gong truth-clarification materials like these are available to everyone." Then about five policemen entered the room. All of them took a copy and started reading. One of them appeared to be the police chief. He asked me a few questions and made some notes. Then he took a copy of the truth-clarification material and left. In the end the policemen took almost all the truth-clarification materials and VCDs. In the afternoon the police sent us back to our relative's home.
There is one more thing I wish to share with fellow practitioners. I may be 80 years old, but I have become increasingly rejuvenated since I started practicing Falun Gong. As a result, I started to have marital relations with my wife more often and also to have sexual fantasies. However, I knew very clearly that Teacher did not rejuvenate my body for me to be more sexually active like an everyday person. Teacher rejuvenated my body so that I could cultivate. Therefore, I started studying the Fa intensively and refused to let myself act like an everyday person. I must overcome this test. When I read Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun, I was inspired by a passage regarding lust, so I read the passage one more time. Teacher said,
"Then, as a practitioner and one who rises above and beyond, one should not use this approach to judge things, and one should break away from them. Therefore, as to the many attachments that come from sentimentality, we should take them lightly and eventually abandon them. Desires, lust, and things of these sorts are all human attachments, and all of them should be given up." ("Demonic Interference in Cultivation" in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun)
Now that I had a better understanding of the subject, I started reminding myself constantly to overcome my attachment to desires and lust. I must pass the test with flying colors! I repeatedly drove out the interferences to my mind and tried to purify my mind by studying the Fa more. Before I knew it, I had successfully upgraded my xinxing level. Several years later, I entered a very tranquil state. I thought I had already passed the test until one day I had to following encounter. While I was riding my bicycle on the riverbank, a woman in her 40s waved at me and called out to me. I said to the woman, "I don't think I know you." But she insisted that she knew me. I thought perhaps another practitioner had asked her to be a messenger, so I went up to her. She asked me to park my bicycle in her house. When I entered the house, I noticed that she was alone. She offered to let me wash my face and started to flirt with me. I realized her intention and left right away. I decided that this was not just a simple test of lust. Teacher's Fa-rectification has progressed to the final stage and the evils have become desperate. They will stop at nothing to destroy our cultivation practice. Teacher said,
"Throughout history, or from the perspective of higher dimensions, the issues of one's desire and lust have been very critical in determining whether one can practice cultivation. So we must really regard these things with indifference." ("Demonic Interference in Cultivation" in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun)
I decided that I must completely deny the old forces' arrangements and see through their plots and schemes in order to complete my cultivation practice with fellow practitioners.