(Minghui.org) As a practitioner who has witnessed how extraordinary, wonderful, and sacred Falun Gong is, I think I should write about my experience to help people understand the facts about Falun Gong, and also to expose the lies that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has spread against Falun Gong and to help people choose a wonderful future for themselves.
As with the majority of modern Chinese people, my mind was dominated by the atheism that the CCP deceptively enforces through various channels. It dominated my mind to such an extent that even after I was taught a lesson many times, I still refused to believe the reality of what I truly experienced. During that time when a single person's thought replaced millions of people's thoughts, traditional culture was labeled as “reactionary,” people lacked individual thought, and morality and conscience were lost. My mind was filled with nothing except the ideas from Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong, and what the CCP had preached. I had lost the ability to think independently about life and the world and didn't understand things rationally. I took as truth what I saw and hear on China's Central Television and radio and in the People's Daily, and I never thought about, or dared to think about, whether what they were claiming was correct. After many years, the narrow and extreme concepts formed during that time controlled my thoughts and actions.
I went to work in a coal mine when I was 16 years old. I was thin and physically weak. I worked overtime in poor conditions. As a result, I developed cervical spondylitis, chronic gastritis, sinusitis, and other illnesses, and they were getting worse. In addition, I also had to participate in unbearable political study for two hours every day. I repeated the same routines day after day as I suffered with my health problems. I could see no end to it. I got more and more pessimistic. I started thinking about the meaning and purpose of life. Was I supposed to spend my life just eating, sleeping, working, then dying when I got old? I could not find a convincing answer except for those high-sounding political preachings.
A youth from Xuzhou City came to our dormitory one day to tell fortunes and read faces. Many gathered around. Every person whose fortune he told said that he was accurate. His predictions about things that would happen to somebody at a certain time indeed happened as he predicted. Weren't we told that one decides one's own fate and that one's fate could be changed through hard work? Who doesn't want to be a high ranking official? Who doesn't want to make a lot of money? But why couldn't those who were smart and capable get positions of high office no matter how much effort they made? On the contrary, it seemed that an average person without much ability could just as easily have a successful official career. Why did some people lose money while others made a profit doing the same kind of business? If one could change his fortune through hard work, that meant one's fortune could change at any time. Then how could his fortune be accurately predicted? The fact that one's fortune could be predicted implied that one's fortune was already decided at birth, that some things in life were fixed and could not be changed. Then who had decides a person's fortune? It could not be the parents, who cannot even control their own lives, let alone their children's. Heaven's intent is unknown. A higher intelligence must be doing it. He exists everywhere, yet people can't find him anywhere and modern science can't prove his existence. He is indeed a god! Many have heard this story: A person gets sick. No hospital can cure him. Taking medicine does no good. He spends a lot of money but only gets worse. As a last resort, he finds a psychic to check for him and ends up recovering quickly. However, this was labeled as superstition, and people were told not to believe it. Is that reasonable? My old ideas of atheism and materialism wavered. I started studying The Book of Changes.
I switched to a different job around 1991. Soon after that, I quit my job and started a business. Because I was interested, I learned how to tell fortunes by studying The Book of Changes. I developed a habit of doing divination every time before I bought stock or went away. I usually didn't change my decision once I made it, especially when ideas from atheism still existed in my mind. I often wavered between believing or not believing in fortunetelling. Because of that, I did what I had planned for several large deals, even though my divination results had been negative. I went ahead, because both the buyer and the seller had reached an agreement regarding price and merchandise and both sides were satisfied. However, heaven knows better. In the end the deals were not completed, and I lost money on several occasions.
After being taught this lesson many times, I realized: “Our fate is predestined, riches and honor come from heaven.” There are things that are not up to us to decide.
My health problems had gotten so bad that I had to spent a lot on medication every year. I bought whatever rare medicines I was able to find, but I was still not well. I went to different places searching for folk prescriptions, which didn't work for me either. Taking a great deal of medicine worsened the condition of my stomach. I didn't dare to drink cold water or soda in the hot summer. I didn't dare eat food that was cold or not warm enough. If I did, my stomach would immediately swell and hurt unbearably. Because of sinusitis, I could barely breathe through my nose. I used more and more nose drops, but they didn't help. I had to keep my mouth open when I slept. The moment I closed my mouth, I couldn't breathe and would wake up. I went to a hospital and had my nose cauterized, but the condition returned soon after I came home. The severe cervical spondylitis made me suffer even worse. I felt like I had a heavy weight hanging around my neck. I had great difficulty raising and lowering my head. It was worse during the winter. I could not stand wearing heavy clothes. If the temperature was even slightly too warm or cold, I would in pain and get restless. It eventually let to pressure on my optic nerve. A half hour after I got up, I would begin tearing involuntarily and could not open my eyes. I went for two treatment sessions in a hospital, where I was treated with retraction, electric heat, acupuncture, and massage every day. I felt better for a few days after I came home, but that was all. I asked a doctor if taking medication would work for me. The doctor said that, if even these methods didn't work, taking medication would even be less useful. Modern medical science considers cervical spondylitis as difficult to cure as cancer. I saw no hope for my life. I was desperate and irritable. I constantly had conflicts with my family, and we quarreled every day. I lost confidence and even thought about committing suicide.
I saw the book Zhuan Falun in my neighbor's home in late 1998. I said to my neighbor, “Let me flip through it, then I will bring it back to you.” I took it home. Once I started reading it, I wasn't able to put it down. I read through the entire book nonstop. I had never heard of the principles explained in the book, and no other book had such knowledge either. I felt from the bottom of my heart that this was a book from heaven! After I finished reading it, all the issues that I had stored up in my heart for several decades that I was not able to resolve, my questions about life, and my desperation about my own life all completely dissolved. It was as if a long sealed channel was suddenly unblocked and light came through. I discovered a totally new heaven and earth. My heart was renewed.
I watched Master's lecture in a fellow practitioner's home a few days later. As soon as I got home, I started having loose bowels. It felt like a big wheel was rotating in my body and it was making all my organs rotate. I felt no pain, however. The water I'd drunk and the food I'd eaten also made a lot of noise along with that rotation. I ran to the restroom seven or eight times that night. I was cold because I couldn't stay in bed for long. What surprised me was that, although I was not able to sleep the entire night, I did not feel tired at all when I got up the next morning. Instead, I was full of energy. I felt relaxed and pleasant. I understood later that Master Li was purifying my body that night.
After about two weeks, I suddenly noticed that those untreatable illnesses that had tortured me for over ten years and made me almost lose hope had all disappeared—without any treatment. All of a sudden, I seemed to have become much younger. I was filled with unending energy. I was full of joy and left worries and sadness far behind. I no longer felt depressed or desperate. I felt even more than before that Falun Dafa was extraordinary. A person who doesn't practice cultivation would never be able to understand or experience what I was feeling. My gratitude to Master Li was immense.
I constantly studied the Fa and practiced the exercises, and I was strict about living by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
“As a practitioner, the first thing you should be able to do is to not fight back when you are beaten or sworn at—you must be tolerant. ”(Zhuan Falun)
My character was steadily upgrading. I did not quarrel with my customers, regardless of their attitude, and I tried to provide them the best service. I did not sell counterfeit goods or poor quality goods. I absolutely would not deceive my consumers. I only recommended appropriate products to my clients, and I charged fair prices. I gained a good reputation. Many owners loaned their goods to me with no worries and would not chase me for payment. They knew that I practiced Falun Gong and would not harm them. Sometimes, some of my competitors sold goods at the same price as they paid in order to win more clients. Some of my clients left as a result. However, they soon came back and told me that they felt safer buying from me.
One of my clients from Hubei Province went to Xinjiang in 2004 to ask for payment for the goods he sold. The person in debt denied owing him money. He was so angry that he had a heart attack and died on a train. I also owed him 5,000 yuan at that time. His wife called me almost at the same time that I heard of the tragedy. I asked her about her husband. She would not tell me that her husband had died out of fear that I would not return the money. I asked her to tell me about the incident. She then told me what had happened. She also told me that her husband told her before he passed away that I would not refuse to pay off the debt because he knew that I practiced Falun Gong. Although I still had some goods from them that needed to be exchanged, I soon sent the total payment to her.
In the autumn of 2007, I went to Henan Province to get in a stock of goods. After I came home, I found that the factory had undercharged me 10,000 yuan. I immediately informed the factory over phone and mailed the 10,000 yuan to them. Some people didn't understand me. They thought that they couldn't get such good luck even if they had pursued it. The factory didn't know about it, yet I still returned the money. They thought that I was silly. I thought that it was precisely because we had too few such silly people in this society that our social standards had degenerated to such an extent and people's morality had gone bankrupt.
I stopped forcing everybody in my family to do what I decided. I talked less, did more, and had more consideration for my wife. I put more effort into searching within during conflicts. I considered others more and was no longer full of complaints. My family became happy and peaceful. Seeing my drastic changes after I practiced Falun Gong, my wife also started practicing it. It is exactly like Master said:
“...if every one of us cultivates his inner self, examines his own xinxing to look for the causes of wrongdoing so as to do better next time, and considers others first when taking any action, human society would become better and ethical standards would again rise. The spiritual civilization7 would also become better, and so would public security. Perhaps there would not be any police. No one would need to be governed, as everyone would discipline him or herself and search their inner self. Wouldn’t you say this would be great?” (Zhuan Falun)
Falun Dafa renewed my life and saved me from a desperate situation. It saved my life and my family. Through practicing cultivation, I truly realized that Falun Dafa is the law of great virtue that can truly save mankind, and it is the only hope of salvation. As a person who has benefited from it, when Falun Dafa was subjected to unprovoked assault and slander, it was my obligation and duty to stand up to speak a just word for Falun Dafa. Otherwise, I would not deserve to be a human being. Although the persecution was escalating, we still believed with our good will that the government did not know about Falun Gong, that it had been deceived by people with ulterior motives and thus made this wrong decision. Since childhood, we had been educated that we should believe the government and the CCP, and that the CCP worked for the interests of the people and was responsible to us. However, the reality turned to be the opposite. It was the CCP and Jiang Zemin who launched this long drawn-out bloody persecution of Falun Gong.
Although practitioners have been treated unfairly and even cruelly persecuted again and again, being arrested, beaten, sent to forced labor camps or prisons, we still kindly explain the facts about Falun Gong to those officers who break the law while enforcing it. We tell them about the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa and why Jiang Zemin persecutes it. We advise them not to be deceived by lies. Cultivators don't have any enemies. In our hearts, we have only compassion that we developed through our cultivation in Falun Dafa. What we think about during the tribulation is still saving people.
Above is my personal experience of how I have cultivated in Falun Dafa. It explains one aspect of why millions of practitioners still choose to persevere in cultivation practice after being brutally persecuted. Heaven's will manifests itself and justice lies in people's hearts. My friends, through reading my experience you might already understand who is righteous and who is evil, who is right and who is wrong. I sincerely hope that you will no longer believe the CCP lies and will understand the truth and choose a wonderful future for yourselves.