(Clearwisdom.net) On July 16, 1993, Teacher came to teach Falun Dafa in Qiqihar and I had the great good fortune to attend. Starting from that day, I stepped onto my life's most meaningful journey of return. During the past 15 years of Fa-rectification with Teacher, more and more I can feel the miraculous profundity of Dafa, and how fortunate I truly am.
I. Learning the Fa
In the middle of July, 1993, the Qiqihar City Qigong Association suggested the seven of us, all Qigong enthusiasts to attend a seminar organized by the Culture Center of the Qiqihar Electronic Department. After the Secretary-General of the China Qigong Research Society, Li Zhinan, had finished with his report, he introduced and recommended Falun Gong to the audience. He highly praised Falun Gong. He then invited Teacher to adjust the bodies of everyone on the spot, and asked Teacher to give a lecture.
When Teacher came to the stage, he looked extremely compassionate with an extraordinary field surrounding him, and he was amiable. I naturally admired him. When Teacher adjusted everyone's body, I felt warm energy all over my body and felt relieved from the pains that I had suffered for many years. When I heard Teacher's lecture, I was attracted by the principles of body and mind that were a part of this Buddha School practice. On the second day, I and other fellow practitioners eagerly joined the Falun Dafa workshop.
At that time, I had been a Buddhist for more than two years. I had tried some other Qigong schools as well, but did not make any progress. I still had cholecystitus, neurosis and rheumatism. After learning that Falun Gong was a part of the Buddha School, I was very happy and joined the Falun Dafa workshop with the mentality of collecting the essence of every school.
In the workshop, the lectures of Teacher surpassed the teaching of traditional Buddhism that I had learned. I had simply never heard of these things in Buddhism. The principles he spoke of were about compassion and improving mind nature. His explanation of increasing gong and improving xinxing was convincing and penetrated to the depths of my heart. But at that time I was very puzzled and could not help asking one question in my mind: Who was this Qigong Master? Was he above or below Buddha Sakyamuni? On the fourth day of the workshop, I could not restrain myself any more. During the break time I found a practitioner working for Teacher and asked him directly "Is Teacher Li higher or lower than Buddha Sakyamuni?" He smiled and answered "Keep learning, Teacher Li is much higher than Buddha Sakyamuni!" I was not very convinced by these words, however. I continued to learn Dafa with the thought that if that was really the case, I would be way too lucky.
Perhaps Teacher saw my doubts, as during the lectures of the following days, he clearly mentioned that Sakyamuni, Jesus and Lao Zi, and other enlightened beings, were "guarding" us around the lecture hall. He also mentioned that he had suffered a lot to save sentient beings at that time. I did not understand these things very well at the time. After so many years, I can now deeply feel that to save us, Teacher withstood so much pain and hardship on our behalf. It is vast beyond expression!
Due to the influence of the Zen Buddhism that I had studied before, after I obtained the Fa, I kept comparing the principles of Dafa with those of Zen Buddhism. After lots of thought, however, I came to feel that Dafa is truly extraordinary. I then decided to go to more Dafa workshops. This wish was realized. By Teacher's arrangement, I joined three Dafa workshops in Dalian, Harbin and Guangzhou due to opportunities stemming from business trips; as otherwise, those in a position such as mine would be so occupied with work that they would never be able to go to the workshops. I remember in Guangzhou I asked Teacher a question regarding Buddhism and I was totally convinced by Teacher's answer. The question was "Is the Falun Holy King you mentioned in your past lectures the same Falun Holy King that was mentioned by Sakyamuni in The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra? " and Teacher answered,
"In history, Buddha Shakyamuni did mention the Falun Holy King. Buddha Shakyamuni mentioned things about the Law Wheel and the Falun Holy King many times before. When people later on tried to recall those things Buddha Shakyamuni said, they could no longer fully express them. So people later on couldn't understand the original meaning of what Buddha Shakyamuni said, which caused misinterpretations. Then, things like "silver wheel," "iron wheel," "bronze wheel," etc. came about, which were all made up by people afterwards. And they talked about Buddha Shakyamuni turning the Law Wheel and so on. With regard to that, Buddha Shakyamuni was not at all talking about turning the Law Wheel himself. Buddha Shakyamuni was able to predict the future, and he saw and knew that such a thing would happen in the future. " (Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Guangzhou, The Law of Zhuan Falun Explained)
Teacher's answer made me realize immediately that he knew the The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra very well. He even explained clearly about gold wheel, silver wheel, iron wheel and copper wheel holy kings, and made some corrections. I also realized that Teacher's understanding of The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra was probably not through regular reading, but through his supernormal power to see the actual situation 2500 years ago. The book The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra is extremely thick, and even if one wants to find the paragraph describing "the Falun Holy Kings," it would take at least half an hour. However, Teacher explained them right away. Looking back at that period of time, I only understood Dafa at a human level at the time, and I only paid attention to Teacher's knowledge and supernormal power, instead of to the principles of Dafa. However, it was enough to attract me to practice and seek enlightenment in Dafa.
Cultivating in Dafa not only eliminated all of my diseases, but also helped me to realize my "true self" and understand the principles of the Fa at my level, which I had not been able to achieve even after practicing Buddhism for many years. I felt fortunate that I had stepped onto the correct path to return to my original, true self. Only cultivating in Dafa could bring me, a person with tremendous karma, to such accomplishments.
II. About "Pulling Teeth"
While Teacher gave the lecture in Qiqihar, the most unforgettable part to me was the part regarding "pulling teeth," which is described in the Seventh Lecture in Zhuan Falun under the heading "Hospital Treatment and Qigong Treatment." As Teacher lectured on "pulling teeth," he brought up the same man that many people in Qiqihar, myself included, had seen selling his potion and pulling teeth at the second gate of Longsha Park. The teeth on his vendor stand were always piled up like a mountain. I still remember this vividly. Such an ordinary issue of "pulling teeth," however, after Teacher's explanation not only helped us to become more enlightened, but also let us feel the profound content of traditional Chinese culture, and broke the sense of superstitious belief that many people had held towards modern science.
At that time Teacher was staying in the Wuyi Hotel close to the park's second gate. Sometimes he would take a walk in the park in the early morning. Many people saw him. Once a practitioner saw Teacher cure the disease of a disabled child from the countryside. At the beginning, the child could not walk by himself. Teacher saw him and asked his parents to leave him alone so that he could try to walk by himself. Then the child, guided by Teacher, was gradually able to walk. His parents were thrilled. As they held the child again and turned to thank Teacher, they could not find him any longer. Teacher always guides practitioners in this manner by quietly doing good deeds without leaving his name.
By telling the story of "pulling teeth" as seen on his way to the park, Teacher expounded profound principles to cultivators. On the surface, "pulling teeth" explained the principle that ancient Chinese medicine is superior to modern medicine. However I enlightened to the fact that Teacher was actually discussing the principle that the "invisible" is superior to the "visible." The yellow potion could invisibly penetrate the cheek and break through the teeth, which involved taking action through other dimensions. Modern apparatus are visible, but they would cause people lots of pain to pull off the teeth, and both doctor and patient would have to go through a great deal of trouble, which seems illogical. This lesson not only broke through our notions of modern science, but also described the principle of "invisibility." Thinking about our practitioners using our righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil, I feel that practitioners' sending forth of righteous thoughts is just like using the strong potion to break teeth. The energy of the yellow potion is invisible to human eyes, but it could "attack" and break the teeth through the cheek. Our practitioners' righteous thoughts are also invisible to human eyes, however, they could penetrate mountains, walls, iron mesh, and other substances which are visible, eliminating all of the evil. The stronger our righteous thoughts are, the more power we have, which is just like the energy of the yellow potion. Our elimination of evil is like pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth, which looks difficult, but our invisible righteous thoughts can completely destroy the dark minions, the communist evil specter and all of the rotten demons. Even modern airplanes or missiles are not comparable with the mighty power of our righteous thoughts. They are a display of the high realm of
"A forward move, myriad things come into being
A step back,
all turns to nothing,
forever to be a mystery"("Nothing", Hong Yin II )
Today I am writing down my enlightenments from the "pulling teeth" that Teacher mentioned in Qiqihar, and hoping that fellow practitioners will come to regard the evil as a few small teeth. Sometimes it looks strong, however, with our own strong righteous thoughts, we can break through its roots and destroy it in other dimensions, while at the same time using the phenomenon of quitting the Chinese Communist Party to restrain it.
III. Witnessing the Difficulties Encountered by Teacher while Spreading the Fa
There was lots of interference when Teacher spread the Fa in Qiqihar. I remember on the third day of the workshop, there was a heavy storm which brought many inconveniences to Teacher and to practitioners. There was also someone making trouble at the workshop that day. One day I sat at the back and heard someone talking nonsense against Teacher. However, no one listened to him. Finally that person left because he could not stand the strong energy field of the workshop.
Teacher tried to reduce the cost to practitioners, so he collected very little tuition. Those who attended from the beginning were only charged 42 yuan per person. Practitioners who joined for the last couple of days of the workshop were only charged half-price. Such a workshop started with around 300 people and ended with around 400. The income from the workshop was not much, but they still had to divide it with the local Qigong Association. Because the local Qigong Association was only interested in money, they were very unsatisfied that Teacher charged so little. As a result, when the workshop had ended, the Qigong Association did not even provide a car to send Teacher off. To save practitioners' expense, Teacher sacrificed a great deal of dignity and convenience among ordinary people! On the night when the workshop ended, Teacher was in a hurry to make it to another workshop in Beijing, so he and those with him went directly to the train station for a train that departed at 11:00 p.m.
When the workshop had ended, Teacher did not allow practitioners to bid farewell to him at the rail station. So we decided to stay outside of the Culture Center waiting for him to pass by and to say farewell to him. With tears in our eyes, we watched Teacher as he left.
When I recall the unforgettable scenes of Teacher spreading the Fa in Qiqihar, I recall the blessed moments and the precious memories. I feel that no amount of words could describe the tremendous compassion of Teacher. It is the greatest honor to obtain the Fa during this lifetime. Dafa has ended our confusion and thousands of years of waiting. The joy of obtaining the Fa is far beyond the happiness of anything in the human world. Teacher's compassion and wisdom, Teacher's noble appearance and benevolent smile, Teacher's care and hard work will forever be remembered in the land of Qiqihar, and kept in the hearts of practitioners.
No matter how much hardship I go through, I will be steadfast in following Teacher's guidance, to validate the Fa and to save sentient beings until I reach Consummation!
Written on July 3, 2008
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