(Minghui.org) It's well known that smoking harms your health. Many people try to quit smoking, but few succeed. As Mark Twain once said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." For Falun Gong practitioners, however, quitting once and for all is the norm.
Mr. Chen Rutang was a cellist and the head of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He started to smoke when he was sent to a village during his college years. In no time at all he was addicted. That was 35 years ago.
For the sake of his health, his family did everything they could think of to help him quit smoking, but nothing worked because he didn't truly want to quit.
In 1995, he saw a video of Master Li Hongzhi lecturing on Falun Gong. It resonated with him and he decided to practice it.
That night, Mr. Chen didn't even think about smoking. The next day when he lit up a cigarette, it didn’t taste right. In fact, it tasted terrible. He tried different brands, but they all tasted bad.
On the third day, Mr. Chen tried one last time after dinner. It still tasted bad. He threw his cigarettes away and hasn’t thought about smoking since. His desire to smoke just disappeared. He thought it was very strange that it was so easy to him for him to quit this time.
After he read Zhuan Falun later on, he understood that it was Master who had helped him. He was amazed.
In Glorious Recollections of Attending Teacher's Lecture in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, an article originally published on the Minghui website in March 2011, the author recalled the following:
“Before, I tried to quit smoking more than 20 times without success. After I began to cultivate in Falun Gong, I decided to attempt to quit smoking again. I persisted for one morning, but began to feel so bad. I could not help but search for cigar butts. I found two in a ashtray and one on the balcony. I rolled up the tobacco in the three ends with paper, and smoked it. In the afternoon, I could not find more butts, so I decided to go downstairs to buy a pack. Right then, it seemed that clouds of smoke were floating towards me, and got into my nose, mouth and throat. That irritating smoke made me extremely uncomfortable.
“Since then, whenever I thought of smoking, a cloud of white smoke floated over and got into my throat. Soon afterwards, I truly quit smoking. For more than ten years, I have never smoked. Teacher said, ‘If you really want to cultivate I urge you to quit smoking today, and I guarantee you can quit.’ (Zhuan Falun) Teacher's words are so effective. Without Teacher's help, it was really hard for me to quit smoking.”
Mr. Cai Shi from Taiwan smoked a pack and a half every day for 30 years. His lungs were damaged and he coughed all the time. He knew that he had to quit smoking, but he said, “I tried more than a hundred times, but it was so hard. The longest I went without smoking was 7 days. Every time I tried to quit, it seemed like I was even more addicted to it than ever. Finally I gave up.”
In August 2002, Mr. Cai’s employer sent him to Tainan City. Someone in his dorm told him about Falun Dafa. He went to the practice site and watched Master’s 9-day lecture series. He decided to become a Falun Dafa practitioner.
Half a month later, when his colleague offered him a cigarette, Mr. Cai was stunned to realize that he hadn't smoked since he’d started to learn Falun Gong. And he’d never missed it since then.
Young Man Quits Smoking
In Young Man Once Misled By CCP Propaganda Now Practices Falun Gong on the Minghui website in April 2015, the author wrote about how he quit smoking and drinking:
“After I started working at the company, I started to drink and smoke. My parents advised me not to do it too much, but I said, ‘My supervisors drink and smoke. If I don't, I might be treated unfavorably.’ I became more social with them, drinking more frequently, often until I was drunk. I returned home once after drinking too much, and vomited in my sleep. I didn't know I had thrown up, but my mother came into my room and cleaned the mess up. She told me about it the next morning.
“When I smoked too much, I would start having long coughing fits because I previously suffered from asthma. Sometimes the coughing lasted a week. I tried to quit smoking because of my cough, but my determination was weak, so I would resume smoking after a few days.
“After I started practicing Falun Gong, I had a feeling that a strong energy force restrained me from thinking about smoking and drinking, even though I hadn't decided to get rid of my bad habits. I even started disliking the smell of cigarettes, and felt queasy when I smelled them. It was marvelous. I was suddenly freed from my addictions to drinking and smoking.”
I Quit Smoking Thanks To Falun Gong was originally published on Minghui in May 2015:
“I learned about Falun Dafa in 1996. Back then I was a chain smoker. Smoking was the first thing I did after I woke up. I could live without food but not cigarettes, and my health deteriorated. Because of my chain smoking, I had inflammation in my trachea and asthma. I still smoked while I was treated for my smoking related illnesses.
“I tried to quit and ate the kind of candy, drank the kind of tea, smoke the kind of cigarette, and took the kind of drug that were all supposed to help me quit smoking. None of them worked. I quit one day and smoked again the next day. I quit in the morning and smoked in the afternoon. Eventually, I shredded all my cigarettes, thinking that would be the only way I could quit. In the end, I had the urge to smoke and begged a friend for a cigarette, which was so embarrassing. A colleague of mine said to me, ‘If you can quit smoking, I can quit eating.’
“I finally was able to give it up completely. One day a friend of mine told me that Falun Gong was good for my health and asked me whether I was interested. I agreed at once.
“I felt fine when I did the exercises. Then a practitioner told me that I needed to study the teachings. When I read about quitting smoking in Zhuan Falun, I was so excited, thinking that finally I could quit. With the book in my hands I said to Teacher that I must quit smoking. It was just like magic—I did not think about smoking the next day and it was easy to do. The days went by and I have not smoked since then. I did not feel bad or have any adverse reactions, and my colleagues were shocked to see me as a non-smoker.
“As I gradually gained a better understanding of the teachings and improved my character and became a better person, my physical condition got better by the day. During the past 14 years, I have not spent a dime on medical expenses and have not needed a single pill.
“There are no words that can adequately express the degree of my appreciation for Teacher and Falun Dafa.”
This is about a Falun Gong practitioner's father.
“When I was being held in detention center for refusing to give up my belief, my father often came to see me. One day he picked up a copy of Zhuan Falun and started to read it. When he read the section about quitting smoking, he thought, ‘Maybe I should try it, too.’
“The next day he couldn't stop vomiting and having diarrhea. He didn’t want to eat or drink anything. My mother was worried and wanted to get him some medicine. But he said, ‘I don't need medicine, it is Master purifying my body.’ He suffered for three days, and after that, he was totally changed. He was renewed. And he never smoked again, even though he had smoked more than 40 years. His regained his appetite and health.
“Sometimes he tried to meditate. He said he believed in Dafa.”