(Minghui.org) I'm 59 years old, and I have been practicing Falun Dafa for more than 14 years. Before I started practicing, my life was very difficult and complicated.
Late in the 80s, I joined the wicked Party, drifting and wandering and following the social trend. I started smoking, drinking and playing mahjong; and I gambled day and night, which put me heavily in debt. My wife and my children suffered a great deal of pain and pressure, and my family's financial situation completely collapsed. My image and reputation plummeted among the villagers. Some villagers even advised my wife to divorce me.
To hide from the gambling debts, I left home and went to Beijing to work. The heavy debt pressured me so much that I could not catch a breath. Going home to reunite with my family seemed impossible.
February 28, 1998 is the most unforgettable day in my life. In a small barber shop, I fortunately had a chance to read the heavenly book Zhuan Falun, and my outlook on life was totally changed. The barber took me to a group exercise site, and then I started cultivating in Falun Dafa.
At that time, besides joining the group Fa study and group practice, I spent most of my time reading the Fa. For all the questions I had since I was young, I found complete answers in the Fa. I was determined to cultivate Dafa all the way. While I was reading through Zhuan Falun the first time, I read that Master asked disciples to give up smoking and drinking, I quit smoking and drinking the same day. Until today, for 14 years I have never smoked and drank. This was my first change after I started practicing Falun Dafa.
After I read through Zhuan Falun the first time, I came to understand the reasons for being a good person and came to understand that whether a person is rich or poor is decided by the person's virtue and karma. Virtue and karma are true matter that exist in another dimension, and they are the results of what the person has done. If the person does good things, he accumulates virtue and will be rewarded. If he does bad things, he loses virtue and accumulates karma. Accumulating karma brings tribulations, and he will experience suffering to repay the debt, and he will suffer pain and disasters. I was suddenly enlightened. My gambling desire, which had been a problem for me for more than a dozen years, suddenly evaporated, and I did not gamble even a dime since then during the past 14 years.
A few days before I started practicing Falun Dafa, I was suffering an attack of trigeminal neuralgia, which had bothered me for many years. The extreme pain was unbearable, and strong painkillers could only relieve the pain slightly. However, unexpectedly, when I was absorbed in reading Zhuan Falun, this incurable pain disappeared unknowingly. I have not taken any medicine since then.
I benefited very much from Dafa. Although my financial situation was still very limited, I felt spiritually enriched. I thought about my fellow villagers, friends and families in my home town. I wrote to them, and told them about the beauty of Dafa. I made a wish that I wanted to introduce Falun Dafa to the predestined people in my home town. I scrimped and saved some money, and I bought seven copies of Zhuan Falun, two copies of The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection and a dozen other Dafa books. I also found time and hand-copied some Dafa books. At the Spring Festival in 1999, I brought these books back to my home town. I visited my friends and family and introduced them to Falun Dafa. I told everyone I met about the miracles of Dafa and my profound changes after I started practicing Falun Dafa. A dozen people read Zhuan Falun at that time, and four of them started learning the exercises.
Dafa Books Are My Life
Not long after my village's group practice site was established, Jiang's regime started their brutal persecution against Falun Dafa and Falun Dafa disciples. My heart felt very, very heavy. After thinking it over and over, I acknowledged that there is nothing wrong with Falun Dafa, and my choice was correct. Without Dafa I would not have been able to achieve my fundamental changes, my all new life, and have harmony return to my family. I realized I couldn't live without Dafa and Master. I made my firm determination to defend Dafa and Master, and defend my Dafa books with my life.
The secretary of the Party branch at the county had listened to me introduce Dafa. Out of wanting to protect me, he sent someone to tell me, “When personnel from the village police station come to talk to you, I will be there. You can turn in a couple of books to get by.” I told the person firmly, “Please take my words back to him. I will not turn in any of my books.” With the firm determination, Master protected me and the evil never dared to bother me.
Since the start of the persecution, I have been telling the people about my understanding of Dafa, and telling them of my enormous and profound changes since I started practicing Falun Dafa. With my experiences, I wanted to tell people that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was slandering Falun Dafa with fabrications. Although I was still immature in clarifying the truth, and many times I got into arguing with people, some people started understanding the truth and supporting Falun Dafa. I was determined to shape the image of a Dafa practitioner with my conduct, starting from the trivial things in my daily life and work, in order to validate to people that Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa.
Conducting Myself Following the Principles of the Fa
At that time my main issue was my debt. I put down all the ordinary considerations about saving face. I went to construction sites to do unskilled labor and to load or unload trucks. As long as I could earn money to pay the debt, I took the job regardless of how dirty and tiring the job was. I also started planting crops on the wasted land or on land given up by others – the most difficult land in the village. I started achieving a harvest the first year, achieved a major harvest the second year and I achieved more than 1000 Jin/Chinese acre (1 Jin = 1.1023 lb; 1 Chinese acre = 0.1647 acre) the third year.
The fact that I changed these wastelands into fertile farmland became a somewhat significant miracle in our village. The fellow villagers saw how I sweated and endured hard work in the process. In their minds my image underwent another radical change. Some of them praised me for my hard working spirit, and some of them praised me for my perseverance. Every time I heard these compliments and praises, I told them proudly that Dafa and Master changed me.
Afterwards I managed and planted a total of 60 acres of land and paid back all my gambling debts. People's view about me were changing, and their attitude towards Dafa was also changing. Of course, as Dafa practitioners, we do not pursue any fame and interests in human society. I used my personal experience to validate to people that Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa.
At the Mid-Autumn Festival one year, there was a workshop processing moon cakes in our village. People from villages within a dozen Li (1 Li = 0.3107 Mile) all came to make moon cakes. My family was arranged as the last one on the list of the shop of the day. When it was my family's turn it was already late at night. One tray of about two dozen moon cakes was left from the previous family and the family had already left the shop. The people of the shop did not know who the moon cakes belonged to. I found out on the second day that the family was from a village of about 6-7 Li away. I rode my motorcycle and delivered the moon cakes to them in the early morning. According to the Chinese traditional morality, this should be something small and normal. However, in today's society with morality rapidly deteriorating, people were surprised and moved. The director of our village's public security committee who was working in the shop was especially shocked. He praised me loudly to the several dozen villagers and said that if I had not practiced Falun Dafa, I would have not been able to do this. And he clearly said, “Dafa is good!” He said that Dafa had changed me.
It was to my surprise that this small thing had such a big impact. After this happened, the director withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, and he has been quietly protecting me since then.