(Minghui.org) What is China like today? What may first come to mind are loud voices in public, people spitting in the street, pollution, people cutting in line, counterfeit products, poisoned food, and so on.
People seem to be bent on cutting each others' throats, so much so that no one dares to offer help if someone falls down.
The situation has prompted many people to immigrate overseas.
Are the people of China, home of ancient, honorable civilizations, completely lost?
My answer is no. My experience tells me that the people of China may be able to quickly recover their moral standards.
I was 20 years old in 1993, working as a police officer in Qiqihar City. China was experiencing a qigong craze at the time. Interested myself, I went to local parks every morning to join different qigong groups.
I also attended many qigong seminars, but still had many questions that even the city qigong association officials were unable to answer.
It was seemingly by accident and luck then, that I had an opportunity to hear Master Li Hongzhi's lectures. Many of my most confounding questions about life, which had troubled me for so long, were answered right away. I was excited beyond words.
But due to my own notions, when I heard Master's teaching on "Qigong practice requires one to value virtues" (Zhuan Falun) and "Without cultivating one’s inner self and one’s xinxing, one cannot increase gong" (Zhuan Falun), I felt some resistance. Because I had always distrusted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—with its forced "political education"—and because it was an official from the Qiqihar Qigong Association who introduced Master Li in our city, I originally thought that Master's teachings were somehow connected with the CCP's "thought education."
I stopped going to the exercise site after a few days.
One day a friend asked me how my practice was going. After all, we had learned the Falun Gong exercises together. I said (as an excuse) that I was too busy.
"The people at our practice site are wonderful," he said. "Many have been cured of their old illnesses—even cancer. They save on medical bills, and they are conscientious at work. Their relationships with their families and neighbors have also improved. Everyone is trying to cultivate diligently.
"Why don't you come to join us at a conference to hear some of us share our experiences?" he asked.
I couldn't believe that so many people had experienced such great changes in a very short period of time. So I agreed to go and have a look.
The group of local practitioners and I went together. After getting off the train, we took a bus. The bus tickets cost 30 cents per person, so I took several yuan and decided to buy all the tickets. To my surprise, everyone re-paid me.
They were indeed different from everyday people. No one wanted to take even a cent that wasn't theirs.
There was a large crowd at the conference hall when we arrived. Everyone lined up and entered the hall in an orderly fashion.
The number of people from out of town was far beyond the original estimates. When we entered the hall, all the seats were taken.
A practitioner from Daqing City called out, "All practitioners from Daqing City, please stand up and give your seats to nonlocal practitioners!"
The local practitioners stood up, and went to sit on the floor in the open space in front. None of them seemed upset.
Many people still had no seats. The conference hall manager eventually agreed to let all the practitioners in, and let them stand in the aisles.
Practitioners had come from all over to share their cultivation experiences. The audience was very quiet. No one talked, ate, smoked, or littered. I heard some of the hall security staff say that they had never seen a conference like this. It left them with nothing to take care of.
There was a one-hour break for lunch. The host announced that the dining hall was next door, and I thought there would be no chance for me to get anything to eat. I remembered the lunch-time chaos at my old school, where there were only several hundred of us. There were more than a thousand at this conference!
Practitioners entered the dining hall one by one. We were told at the door, "Ten people per table, six yuan per person. Please leave your cash on the table."
There were many tables in the hall, but no chairs. On each table was a large bowl of rice and four dishes. Everyone just looked for an empty spot and joined in. Everyone ate, put down their six yuan, and left quietly when they were finished. Within about thirty minutes, more than a thousand people had finished eating and left.
The conference ended in the late afternoon. Those of us from Qiqihar stayed a little longer since our bus wasn't leaving for another two hours. The cleaning crew arrived, but there was not much for them to do, since no one had left any trash.
One of the organizers said that she was surprised that the conference went so smoothly. She told us that she had been worried about everyone paying for lunch. When she went to check with the manager of the dining hall, she was told the amount collected was correct to the penny.
She told us that she was a housewife, and that none of the other organizers had any experience organizing such a large activity. They were so worried that they had not slept well for several nights prior. But all the practitioners had considered others first, and the conference was a great success.
Many years have passed, yet I am still touched whenever I think about this event. In just two short years, Dafa forged countless people who based their lives on higher moral standards. They lived by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Officials, businessmen, or employees--they were good people wherever they were.
But just as the number of these good people began to increase exponentially, and society's moral standards were truly being uplifted, the communist regime launched the persecution.
The CCP destroyed this precious opportunity for a moral recovery in China. The CCP marshaled all its evil forces to wipe out the good people of China. As a result, society has sunk further into chaos, and the moral standard continues to decline.
Are the people of China inherently ill-behaved? No! The solution is simple. Give the Chinese people back their right to practice Falun Gong so they can become good people.