(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996 and would like to share my cultivation experience with fellow practitioners.
1. Receiving a precious book during a critical moment in my life; watching miracles occur with righteous actions
As a child, I was very weak and had many illnesses. As an adult, I suffered from a stomach disease, pharyngitis, and insomnia. I had to take medicine every day and did not know what it would be like to be someone without any diseases. I lost hope for my life back then.
After reaching a point of despair in March 1996, I was fortunate to come across a copy of Zhuan Falun. I read through this precious book and knew that I had found my destiny. From that day on, I strictly disciplined myself with the requirements of the Fa, and my body and mind went through tremendous changes. I stopped taking the medicine that my wife bought for me as my physical health and spirits were all improving.
I have experienced karma elimination several times, but I knew that Master was cleansing my body for me. One day in June 1998, I ate a few pieces of meat, and after I got home, my stomach started to hurt tremendously. I remembered what Master said,
“Yet the sickness usually appears to have been triggered by an external condition in the physical world. This way it superficially conforms to the objective laws of our physical world. That is, it complies with this human world’s principles. As a result, everyday people have no way of knowing the actual truth about the cause of the sickness, and they are thus lost in delusion without being enlightened.” (“Sickness Karma,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
Even though I knew that Master was cleansing my body, it was difficult for me to pass the test. First, my stomach hurt, and then I began to have diarrhea mixed with pus and blood. I stayed in the bathroom for an entire day, and it felt as if a knife were scraping my internal organs layer by layer. My stomach was burning. For ten days straight, I did not eat or drink anything, but at the same time, I was constantly discharging pus and blood. An everyday person would have died from dehydration. On the tenth day, I released a clot, and immediately afterward, my stomach stopped hurting. Furthermore, my appetite returned. During that period, I had lost more than a dozen pounds.
In July or August 1998, our local volunteer assistant informed me that a government agency was conducting a survey to determine the effects of Falun Gong on practitioners’ physical health. Some parts of my body occasionally still hurt when the survey was being conducted; however, I remembered two quotes from Master:
“True cultivators have no illnesses, since my Law Bodies have eliminated them.” (“Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun,” Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
“That is to say, we have removed the root cause of your illness and of your poor health. But you still have a disease field.” (Zhuan Falun)
I understood that true practitioners did not have any illness because Master had cleansed our bodies for us, and that our karma needs to be eliminated before we can reach consummation. So we should not consider these tribulations to be an illness. Therefore, on the survey, I wrote that the healing effects were 100%. Miraculously, as soon as I filled out the survey, all the bodily discomfort I had disappeared.
2. With the Fa in my heart, I use righteous thoughts to resist the persecution
The evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. On that same day, I went to the provincial government to appeal for Dafa. Armed police officers brutally beat practitioners. With help from some other practitioners, we attempted to stop the police from their assault. As a result, one of the officers hit me in the head, face and eyes. At that moment, I saw golden light fall on the parts being hit. Although I was injured, I did not feel pain. I was then illegally detained at the police department for a day.
When I went to work the following day, the head of my work unit tried to coerce me into denouncing Falun Gong. On another occasion, he asked me to go to his office and claimed that if I did not write a guarantee statement to stop practicing Falun Gong, he would not let me and another colleague go home.
I told him, “I follow your orders during the eight hours at work, but I’m free to plan my own time afterward. Your deed is illegal.” The head and some colleagues were stunned, and a few moments later, the head said, “You can all go home now.” Nothing like that ever happened again.
3. On the Chinese New Year, the sound “Falun Dafa is good” echoes in the sky
Regardless of the heavy pressure brought upon us by the persecution, some fellow practitioners decided to hold a small-scale experience sharing conference to discuss how to get in contact with practitioners in other areas. One of the practitioners from our area got in touch with a practitioner in Beijing, who brought us information on how practitioners in other areas approached going to Beijing to safeguard the Fa, as well as news from the Minghui website. We then made copies of the information and spread the news to fellow practitioners. From this experience, we learned that we needed to continue to spread the Fa to people and go to Beijing to validate the Fa.
After the Fa conference, we set off for Tiananmen Square on the Eve of the Chinese New Year in 2000. Back then, large numbers of practitioners from all over the country were going to Beijing. Therefore, when we first got to Changan Street, we saw rows of police officers stationed every few dozen yards to block pedestrians from entering Tiananmen Square. Accompanied by a fellow practitioner, I was able to break through several blockades. As we were approaching the square, my pace quickened in order to be able to unfurl a banner. A gang of officers dashed towards me, and consequently, I was locked up in a police vehicle. Meanwhile, the sounds of “Falun Dafa is good! Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa! Restore the reputation of our Master!” echoed over the square, Changan Street and inside the police vehicles. The sounds spread all the way to the skies of Beijing, shocking the evil forces.
I was then escorted to the courtyard of the Tiananmen Police Department, where many practitioners had already been incarcerated. We all shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!”
Two days later, I was taken back to my work unit. While passing by Tiananmen Square in the police vehicle, I saw some practitioners shouting “Falun Dafa is good,” and some others unfurling banners. Some police officers said that all the detention centers in Beijing were filled up with Falun Gong practitioners. I can still see that heroic scene in my mind today. This is another reason I want to write this article: to leave a primary source of how Dafa practitioners validated the Fa.
4. Creating a cultivation environment inside the detention center
I was incarcerated in a detention center where the guards put me on a tiger bench and locked me up in solitary confinement for three days. After I was let out, a head prisoner viciously warned me: “Don’t ever mention anything about Falun Gong, and don’t practice the exercises, but recite the prison rules promptly. I’ll check on you in two days. If you can’t recite the rules, wait to see how I’ll punish you.” I replied, “I’ve not violated any laws, hence I’m not a prisoner. Since I’m not a prisoner, of course, I’ll not recite the prison rules. I am detained here because I practice Falun Gong, and I’ll definitely talk about Falun Gong and practice the exercises.” Master saved me, and I would have been dead by now had I not practiced the exercises. I made up my mind that I would create an environment inside the detention center for practitioners to practice the exercises freely.
I got up at midnight that day to practice the exercises. The head prisoner simply covered his head, pretending not to see me, and continued sleeping. At 8 a.m., I began to practice the sitting exercise during roll call. The head prisoner instigated 4 to 5 prisoners to attempt to pry open my hands and legs. I told myself that I was a Buddha. As a result, the prisoners could not break loose my limbs no matter how hard they tried. Desperately, the head prisoner kicked me onto the floor. Rolling around once, I sat up and continued crossing my legs and conjoining my hands. I had only one thought at that moment: I will continue practicing the exercises! Hence I finished the sitting exercise like that on the first day.
For more than a month following that, every time I practiced the sitting exercise, the entire cell would be in chaos: The prisoners did everything they could to stop me from practicing. Sometimes, all 12 of them would take turns beating my face, ribs, and back. After that, my body hurt as if I had been struck by lightning. They also used a small clip to pull on my beard, and my face was covered in blood afterwards. No matter what they did, however, they failed to stop me from practicing the exercises. I was determined that as long as I could breathe, I would practice the exercises.
During those days, Master sent hints to me in the evenings to encourage me. Once I dreamed that I was driving an armored vehicle on a gravel road. At the end of the road, I turned around and saw that it had turned into a boulevard covered in golden sand. I knew then that I was doing the right thing.
One day, while I was practicing the sitting meditation, the prisoners put a basin of cold water on my head and said, “If you don’t spill the water today, you’ll be allowed to practice the exercises from now on.” Sitting there with my legs crossed, I did not move even a little bit, and, hence, not a single drop of water was spilled. They said, “Falun Gong is outstanding. From now on, you can practice any way you want. You’re allowed to practice the exercises now.”
From then on, I got along with them very well. I told them how Falun Gong taught people to be good. Two months later, all detained practitioners began a hunger strike collectively to protest the illegal incarceration and requested to be released. After that, we were all released unconditionally.
5. The exercise music melodiously flew across the square
On Master’s birthday on May 13, 2000, many practitioners wanted to come out. We decided that those practitioners who could go to Beijing would leave on May 10, and those who could not go to Beijing would go to the city square on May 11 to practice the exercises together.
At 4:30 a.m. on May 11, I arrived at the city square with a few dozen practitioners. One practitioner brought a big tape recorder and began to play the exercise music loudly. Following the music, we practiced the exercises calmly. The familiar movements, as well as the melodious music, filled the square. The people who were there to do other practices, as well as residents inside the nearby buildings, all stopped to watch us. Police officers also came, but nobody stopped us. It felt as if everything around us was frozen. Some wondered if Falun Gong had been vindicated. We then completed the first four exercises. The mere fact that Falun Gong music was played on the square in front of the municipal building for an entire hour was a miracle.
The fact that so many Falun Gong practitioners dared to publicly practice the exercises on the city square had become the biggest news in our local area. Many people with righteous thoughts said, “Falun Gong practitioners are great.” This event greatly shocked the evil forces and encouraged fellow practitioners.
I was sent to a forced labor camp for over a year afterwards. With righteous thoughts, I broke out of the forced labor camp in August 2000.
6. Master has the final say on everything; My job and salary are returned to me
After I was incarcerated in 2000, both my wife’s and my salaries were withheld. I had to sell fruit in the countryside to make a living. I hung up Falun Gong posters on electrical poles wherever I traveled. Some of the posters still remained a few years later.
I also wrote a letter to the political head of the county and hand delivered it to him. Two days later, my wife was released from the detention center. After my wife came home, we studied the Fa together and were enlightened to the fact that we should not have lost our jobs because they were given to us by Master to validate the Fa. We should completely deny the evil’s arrangements and get our jobs back. We started working on getting our jobs back right away.
I often went to sell fruit by the entrance to my work unit at the end of each day to clarify the truth to my colleagues. Later on, I stopped selling fruit, but every once a while, went to talk to the head of my work unit to ask for my job back. At first, he was vicious, but I kept a peaceful and calm demeanor. The more excited he was, the calmer I remained. As a result, he became friendlier and was ready to listen to me. Eventually he agreed to let me return to work.
I proceeded to write a truth-clarification letter to the newly-promoted head of the county. Finally, in 2002, my wife and I, along with another fellow practitioner, all went back to work, and my withheld salary was returned.
7. Refusing to sign the evil contract, I go to work as usual
I worked diligently at my job and the leaders in the work unit trusted me. I took advantage of the convenience of the work atmosphere and clarified the truth to my colleagues and friends.
In April 2004, all government agencies and work units in the entire province required all employees to sign “employment contracts.” However, one item in the contract stated, “Thoughts and deeds must strictly comply with the Central Government of the CCP.”
All the practitioners who worked in the same system as we did studied “Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York,”
“A being will be whatever is contained in his head, and both for a being who is to be eliminated and one who is to have things end well for him, it will be over instantly in one pass. Some people may say that they just believe in a certain political party or that they just want to work for that party. If the Law of the cosmos considers that party good, then they will be kept when that flash of a moment comes; if the Law of the cosmos considers that party evil, then they'll be wiped out when that moment comes. At that point clarifying the facts will be no more and giving people extra chances to come to some understanding will be no more. At that point there won't be such things anymore, and people will be a member of whatever they contain and will be seen as an element of it. A person will be a part of whatever his head contains, and everything will be over in the blink of an eye.”
We all agreed that we should not sign our names on that contract. However, if we refused to sign, we could be fired. A fellow practitioner said, “We won’t sign even if we are fired.” My wife and I felt pressured because we might lose our jobs again.
I shared with my wife, who said, “This contract is against the law. The evil forces use this as a means to destroy sentient beings. We must not accept it and should refuse to sign it. We are following Master’s requirements. Why would we lose our jobs if we are doing the right thing?”
We also shared our understanding with a few more fellow practitioners the next day. At work, the head of the work unit said that if we refused to sign the contract, it meant that we were interfering with the “reform.” I told him, “No contract should be against the law. This contract attempts to control one’s thoughts. As the leader of the work unit, you should protect the basic legal rights of your employees. Helping good people will give you good returns.”
None of the practitioners signed the contract, but we all stayed in our jobs. It would not have been possible without our steadfast belief. When I refused to sign the contract, some kind-hearted colleagues who were afraid that I would lose my job publicly condemned the CCP.
8. Spreading the truth far and wide; walking righteously on the path to save people
As a fruit seller, I had travelled to every town and village within a 10-mile radius. Besides clarifying the truth to people directly and producing truth-clarifying posters, I also wanted to distribute these materials directly to people.
In the past, farmers had been deeply polluted by the CCP’s propaganda and possessed a hostile attitude towards Dafa practitioners. A few fellow practitioners were arrested when they went to the countryside delivering truth-clarifying materials. I began to deliver materials to the countryside on my bike in the evenings. After a while, a fellow practitioner joined me. Up until 2004, we had covered all the areas that we could reach by bike. To reach more remote areas, I bought a motorcycle. At this point, we have covered nearly all the towns and villages in our region. Sometimes, villagers will shout out when they see practitioners coming, “Falun Dafa is good!”
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