(Clearwisdom.net) In January this year (2005) I attended a Falun Gong workshop for the first time in Aso. I had health problems and thought about learning some gentle exercises. One day an acquaintance told me, "Someone has left a flyer about a Qigong practice at my door. I cannot make it on Sunday; how about you?"
It turned out that the first Falun Gong workshop I attended impressed me very much. I felt extremely fortunate to come across something so wonderful. I felt I should immediately thank the acquaintance that had given me the flyer. When I met her a few days later and thanked her, she said, "It's unbelievable. The workshop was on Sunday, which I absolutely couldn't make. But I didn't throw the flyer away. It's really unbelievable."
After attending the second workshop on Feb. 4th, I was sick and could not get out of bed. I was scheduled to retire in March. How was I able to hand over my work under such circumstances? My mind was full of worries about work. I became quite uncomfortable, not knowing what to do. A week later the Falun Gong practitioner who was running the workshop told me in detail about what was taught in Falun Gong. Although I could understand only part of it, I was pleasantly surprised that my discomfort had gone away. I became relaxed and happy, and I was very thankful. Also, I found it so amazing and exciting that I could go to work the very next day.
In the beginning of my cultivation practice, I would do the exercises for one and a half hours at night. Three weeks later I changed to doing the exercises twice, an hour in the morning and an hour at night.
This past February and March were hard months for me. My body was purified again and again. "How come I have so much sickness karma?" I was amazed. I have been feeling better and better since April; so far my body is once again being purified. Looking back, I was mostly thankful for becoming relaxed as soon as I started doing the exercises, even though I was very tired. When I was coughing badly and became short of breath, it would also stop as soon as I started doing the exercises. The same is true when I opened the book Zhuan Falun to read. Since my fellow practitioners had introduced me to Falun Gong, I have not stopped doing the exercises for a single day. In April, I attended workshops in the Western Citizen Hall and have learned quite a lot in every respect.
From July 21, 2005 I started to attend the group study in the Central Citizen Hall and was able to understand the content of Zhuan Falun better and better.
It has been nine months since I started practicing Falun Gong. At six months my heart was full of gratitude and happiness, and that was it. But ever since then, when things started to happen one after another, I thought, "Why is this? How should I look at it?" Things that bothered me began to happen more and more often. Recently I started reading Zhuan Falun from the beginning again with a very sincere mindset. All the questions I had for the past several months were answered. My mind became clear and happy. I didn't realize in the past that my discomfort was due to my body being purified. I came to understand it in the sitting meditation. I could always feel then as if Teacher was teaching me.
The moment I realized this, "Wow, this is the reason," I suddenly felt my whole body becoming normal again. My body becoming normal all of a sudden was something inconceivable to me. But as soon as I read from Zhuan Falun that "Zhen-Shan-Ren" is the characteristic of the universe, my questions were answered.
I would like to share a wonderful incident that happened to me lately. In the past I had fallen and had fractures several times. The doctors in the hospital told me that I would develop sciatica when I got older. Last month my right foot had neuralgia, not very sharp but it was in the underside of the arch of the foot. The pain made me look funny while walking. I was worried what my guests would think when they came and saw me like this. But on that day my foot didn't ache and I was very energetic. I led my guests to tour Aso that day. "What a wonderful time to end the karma elimination. I'm so thankful!" As soon as I thought this, the pain came back the very next day. Until the day before the rice harvest, my right foot ached so badly that I couldn't even touch it. I couldn't cross my legs anymore. When I was going to do the sitting meditation at night, I was about to do it while sitting in a chair. But as soon as I started and pulled my leg to cross it onto the other, the pain was gone. "This is strange. Is the pain really gone?" I couldn't believe it and put the legs down and did it again. Indeed there wasn't any pain at all. Like always, I did the sitting meditation for a full hour, with no problems. The pain didn't come back on the next day of rice harvesting, and I cooked in the kitchen for a whole day. From then on the pain was completely gone.
Before I started practicing Falun Gong, I had several chronic illnesses. I had a bag full of all kinds of medicine and I had to carry it wherever I went; I would feel uncomfortable and wouldn't leave the house without it. When it was between two and three weeks after getting "sick," I suddenly realized that I should stop taking the medicine, and I haven't done so since. Now I no longer feel any discomfort. Being able to live happily and practice Falun Gong, I am thankful every day.
Article presented at the 2005 Kumamoto Fa Conference held in Japan