(Minghui.org) Continued from Part 4.
Every practitioner of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) has benefited physically and mentally from the self-cultivation practice. Those who practice it enjoy good health and a positive outlook.
Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of the practice, said:
“From the start, my teaching has been motivated by a sense of responsibility toward the world and to those who want to learn our practice. People have been very receptive to it, and the practice has had a widely positive impact.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
The profiles below look at two people whose lives changed for the better after they started to practice Falun Dafa. We hope they help to demystify the practice and benefit the reader.
CSI Detective's Ailments Cured and Life Turned Around
Ms. Liang Yaomin is a Class III police supervisor and former crime scene investigation detective with the Haiyang City Police Department in Shandong Province.
Ms. Liang was admitted to Shandong Province Criminal Police College, formerly known as Shandong Province Police School, in 1978. After graduating in 1980, she was assigned to the crime scene investigation team of the Haiyang City Police Department's criminal division. Her skill played a key role in solving many high-profile cases. She was one of the few female CSI detectives in Shandong Province.
There were no set working hours for someone in her position, and she frequently had to work around the clock, with time for only one meal in a day. The demanding job cost her her health. She developed serious physical problems, including heart disease, atrophic gastritis, gallbladder edema, pancreatitis, neuropathic headaches, arthritis, and cervical bone hyperplasia. Eventually, she could not even take care of her own basic needs. By the end of 1995, doctors at Yantai City Yuhuangding Hospital and Shandong Province University Hospital in Qingdao City had determined that she was beyond medical help.
Her life took a turn for the better when a friend brought her information about Falun Gong on January 20, 1996. After reading the book and doing the exercises for two weeks, she started to recover. Within a month, all her health problems were gone, and she was able to return to work. She has never had a relapse or suffered any other health problems over the past 20 years.
News of her miraculous recovery became well known in the police system and all over Haiyang City. Many people, including the mayor and the relatives of other government officials, went to her home and asked her to teach them Falun Gong. The police chief let her use the police department's conference room to show Falun Gong videos. Ms. Liang was more than willing to do so because of her own experience. When other practitioners asked her to be the local Falun Gong coordinator, she was glad to take on the unpaid responsibility.
Ms. Liang learned that she had to conduct herself according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She used to accept money from relatives and friends when they came to ask for her help in certain criminal cases. Her husband also took money under the table in his job as part of the leadership of the county infrastructure committee. After she started practicing Falun Gong, she realized that accepting money this way was not right and, after discussing it with her husband, decided to return over a hundred thousand yuan. In the years since, they have never accepted another bribe.
Prior to practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Liang often had conflicts with her in-laws due to her demanding job, and she always resorted to confrontation instead of considering their feelings or points of view. Her practice of Falun Gong dissolved her resentment of her in-laws. She instead conducted herself according to the teaching that “As practitioners, you won’t fight back when you’re beaten or sworn at.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun) and treat them with compassion. Little by little, her behavior had a transformative effect on her family, and now they get along very well.
A College Student's Dysfunctional Family Is Healed
Ms. Zhao Li is from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, and a graduate of the Traditional Medicine University of Beijing.
Born and Raised in Poverty
When Ms. Zhao was just a year old, her father was jailed, leaving her mother devastated and unable to take care of all her three children. Ms. Zhao's older twin brothers were sent to live with their grandmother, while Ms. Zhao was ridiculed and shunned at school for not having a father. Her childhood was lonely and hard.
When she was 12, her father was released, and her mother's spirits soared. Her brothers returned home, and the family was reunited. But after all she'd gone through, she found it hard to accept her father. She would not call him “Dad” or let her classmates know that her father had been released from prison to avoid humiliation. Additionally, after so many years apart, the five of them could not get along and quarreled all the time, sometimes even resulting in physical violence. Oftentimes, she would hesitate at the doorstep after school, reluctant to go into her own home.
To escape her painful past, Ms. Zhao set her sights on her studies in hopes of a better future. She soon became one of the top students. Yet, the poverty she'd lived through as a child and struggles she'd had to endure often made her wonder about the purpose of life and the cause of all the pain. She read Buddhist books and believed in reincarnation and the principle that good is rewarded while evil is punished. She wondered how she could be saved and thought about becoming a nun, but she did not know where to start.
Her father’s 11 hard years behind bars and his children's bad feelings toward him took a serious toll on his health. In his own words, not a single one of his organs functioned normally. He rarely went to see a doctor when he was in pain because he couldn't afford to. His employer fired him when he was sentenced to prison, so, in order to put food on the table and pay for his children's schooling, he had to pedal a tricycle to haul goods.
Father Learns Falun Gong
Qigong practices were flourishing in China at the time. He tried different practices, but his own health never improved. Then, he started to use qigong to cure others' ailments, which caused his health to deteriorate even further.
In 1997, he obtained the books Zhuan Falun and The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection and the exercise music audiotape. After reading Zhuan Falun, he was moved by the fact that the practice was free to learn, with no tuition required; that it taught the purpose of self-cultivation and how to do it; and that it answered so many of life's questions. Through practicing the exercises, his health was quickly restored, and he did not need to take any medications. He was able to continue to do manual labor into his 60s.
One day, he sat down with Ms. Zhao and confided in her, “Those 11 years in prison ruined my life. I used to despise the men who framed and incriminated me, and I planned to seek revenge. If it weren't for Falun Gong, I would have done them harm. I have to thank Master [Li Hongzhi] and Falun Gong that I no longer think that way. Many of the men incarcerated with me had committed felonies. Although they were released early on probation for good behavior, they continued to do bad things once they got out. The so-called 're-education through labor' has no effect on people's hearts. I wish I had come across Falun Gong when I was young so I would not have done what I did.” Ms. Zhao was moved and felt very fortunate that her father no longer sought revenge and that Falun Gong had saved her father and the family.
Ms. Zhao Becomes a Falun Gong Practitioner
Seeing the dramatic changes in her father, Ms. Zhao could not help but ask what kind of qigong practice had such power. After reading Zhuan Falun herself, she realized that Falun Gong is a Buddha school cultivation that teaches people to strive to be good, to be selfless, and to put others ahead of themselves.
After she started to practice, she learned that hardships and pain come from one's karma and that one can repay the karma through cultivation, thereby reaching a state free of illness. She also learned that the purpose of life was to cultivate and return to one's true self. To her amazement, Zhuan Falun revealed the most profound principles, which were once considered beyond people's comprehension and grasp, in layman's terms and concepts from modern science. At the same time, one can cultivate Falun Gong while doing a regular job and being part of a normal family, without the need to become a monk or nun. Her heart was filled with light and hope.
She gradually got rid of her attachments, such as stubbornness and selfishness, willfulness and competitiveness, and jealousy. She also started to regret what she had done to her family in the past. She apologized to her brothers, which quickly led to improved relationships wit them. She was surprised by her own transformation in such a short period of time. She was able to let go of her resentment toward her parents and family and those who had harmed her as a child; she was able to have compassion for them instead.
She used to have serious stomachaches and dysmenorrhea and had to pay extra attention to whatever she ate and drank. Anything cold would lead to bad stomach pain and diarrhea in the following several days. It was worse when she was menstruating. The pain in her abdomen was often excruciating, and it seriously interfered with her college studies and daily life. She tried all kinds of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine with no success. Practicing Falun Gong healed her without her even noticing.
At the age of 18, she was admitted to the Traditional Medicine University of Beijing in 1998. There were Falun Gong group exercise sites on every Beijing college campus and in all the parks. She joined the practice site on her campus. Although fellow practitioners did not know everybody in the group, they all conducted themselves according to the same principles. If anyone needed assistance or had any difficulties, others were eager to help. Gradually, Ms. Zhao's reserved and solitary personality changed. She became outgoing, warm, kind, and filled with happiness.
One day, she went with her roommates to a distant bookstore and bought several books. After the two-hour bus ride back to campus, she realized the bookstore clerk had mistakenly given her ten extra yuan in change. She got right back on the return bus to return the money.
Another day, they rode bicycles on an outing. When they returned to campus, she found a mobile phone case dangling on her handlebar with a nice phone in it. For Ms. Zhao, who was poor and never had a mobile phone, it was a big temptation. But she recalled that practitioners should be considerate of others in everything and realized that the person who had lost the phone must have been worried and anxious to get it back.
She found a home phone number in the phone and called it from the public phone in her dorm. The mother of the owner answered and told Ms. Zhao that her child had lost the phone on the way home. Ms. Zhao rode her bicycle to the place where they agreed to meet. The mother offered her 100 yuan as a reward, but she turned it down. She told the mother that Falun Gong practitioners are considerate of others, so she just did what she was supposed to do. Both the mother and child were very grateful.
Falun Gong has truly changed Ms. Zhao, her father, and their family. In addition to their improved health, their outlooks on life have changed completely. A deeply conflicted family full of resentment has been transformed into one where harmony and peace prevail. Falun Gong has truly blessed their family.
* * *
Falun Gong was introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in 1992. Living by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and practicing the five easy-to-learn exercises improve one's physical health and values. About 100 million people practiced Falun Gong before the Chinese Communist Party suppressed this cultivation practice in 1999.
Over 19 years into the persecution, rather than being eliminated by the Party, Falun Gong flourishes in more than 100 countries. The teachings of Falun Gong have been translated into 39 languages. Groups of people doing the Falun Gong exercises can be seen in almost all major countries throughout the world.
(To be continued)
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Category: Health Benefits
