(Minghui.org) I am a new practitioner, and I began practicing Falun Dafa in June of 2018. I am so grateful for Master's guidance in helping me attain Dafa.
I had learned the truth about Falun Dafa as early as 2007. A colleague of mine clarified the truth of Dafa to me and I withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
But I didn’t try to truly know Dafa. With the passing of time, I saw that my colleague was indeed different. She did not fret over personal gains and losses, treated others with great kindness, and worked carefully and responsibly.
I liked to be around her. Now I know that it was the beauty of Dafa she was manifesting.
My colleague took the time and opportunity over the years to tell me some stories about Buddhas, Taos, and Gods, stories about Dafa; the stories about the persecution and courageous acts to oppose it.
I remember my colleague being very strong. The only time I saw her crying was when she told me about the persecution of fellow practitioners.
Gradually, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance took root in my heart.
On a hot and restless afternoon in June 2018, I received an urgent call from my father’s work unit. My father stood up too fast after a lunch break, and he felt dizzy, with had blurred vision and heart pain.
His colleague called the emergency hot line and he was sent to the nearby hospital. He was given heart medicine.
When I arrived at the hospital, he was okay and was having an infusion. After an hour of observation, they were about to let me take him home.
Suddenly my father felt his chest tighten and the pain in his heart occurred like waves. The emergency doctor checked my father’s electrocardiogram and told me it was a severe acute myocardial infarction, which had a mortality rate of 90%.
There was no chance of survival if he remained in that small hospital. If he was transferred to a bigger hospital, with his condition as it was, he would be at significant risk during the transfer.
But that was the only chance he had. Everyone looked at me and waited for my decision.
At that moment, the words my colleague had told me from time to time appeared in my brain, “Save lives and keep safe by reciting ‘Falun Dafa is good!’ when encountering danger.”
I rushed to my father and told him to keep reciting “Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” My father followed my advice.
At the same time, I kept reciting the words as well. I signed the transfer paper and acknowledged my own responsibility for the consequences.
It was after 6 p.m. and during rush hour, but our ambulance didn’t run into any traffic. I kept saying, “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” and encouraged my father to do the same.
We arrived at the big hospital without a problem, and my father was taken directly to the emergency room. I asked the doctors to check on him immediately.
However, the doctor told me he had to follow procedure. He pointed to the others in the room and said, “Look around! Everyone in here is in severe condition and waiting their turn.”
I looked around and knew he was right. Every patient looked like they were in pain and many were moaning or yelling. At that moment, I felt the bitterness of the human condition; one is helpless when faced with old age, sickness, and death.
I found my father was then able to speak and had become clear-headed. When he was finally examined, he did not have a myocardial infarction.
The doctor held the electrocardiogram from the previous hospital and repeatedly confirmed with the doctors and nurses cin with the ambulance that my father had been transferred because of severe myocardial infarction.
However, all the symptoms were gone. I knew it was Master Li's compassion and Dafa that saved my father!
The doctor still sent my father to the CCU and put him under close observation. A week later, he was transferred to the general ward.
He was discharged seven days later. On his second day in the hospital, my colleague came to visit. I told her I'd witnessed the power of Dafa and that Dafa had saved my father’s life.
We had lunch with some people from my father’s work unit. My colleague clarified the truth to them.
Revered Master saved my father and gave me a hint. As a result, I finally entered Dafa cultivation. I am so grateful to Master for not giving up on me and allowing me to attain Dafa in the last stage of Fa-rectification.
At the beginning of my cultivation, I was full of joy and felt that I had finally found direction in life. Before studying the Fa, I had all kinds of attachments to caring about loss and gain, showing off, jealousy, etc.
I sought fame, self-interest, and sentimentality. Influenced by Party culture for years, I was very impatient and selfish.
Master said,
“Offering salvation to humankind means that you will be truly practicing cultivation, and not just healing illness and keeping fit. Accordingly, genuine cultivation practice has a higher xinxing requirement for practitioners. Everyone sits here to learn this Dafa, so you must here conduct yourselves as true practitioners, and you must give up attachments. If you come to learn the practice and this Dafa with various pursuits, you will not learn anything. To tell you the truth, the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments. In ordinary human society, people compete with, deceive, and harm each other for a little personal gain. All of these mentalities must be given up. Especially for people who are studying the practice today, these mentalities should be given up even further.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Through Fa study, I learned that everything in human society was a test. In the past, I didn’t pay attention to my speech.
Being driven by all kinds of human notions, I often said hurtful things to others without reason. Now I was able to put down the notion of fame and self interest and begin to change.
I started looking inward when encountering issues, I no longer had the fighting mentality, and I paid attention to my speech. I become calmer and could control my quick temper.
I learned how to listen to others and how to speak properly in order not to hurt people. But sometimes I did not do well and situations occurred repeatedly.
My colleague (and now fellow practitioner) told me that cultivation meant getting rid of human notions little by little and that I had to safeguard my virtue and advance.
Before studying the Fa, I was hard headed. I always felt I had paid too much to my family, and I felt unfairly treated and had a strong attachment to fighting.
Master said,
“I don’t think strength is necessarily reflected in a person’s outward expression. If in your daily life you’re like a gentle, true woman, your competence will let you have everything you deserve all the same. You don’t necessarily have to express yourself in tough and manly ways to obtain those things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference”)
Master also said,
“When even couples don’t dare to trust each other, and there’s no place that can give you a sense of security, warmth, and affection, aren’t you living a distressing life? In your mind you think to yourselves: “It shouldn’t be like this. We should have a warm and affectionate place.” But your outward behavior is destroying all this, and your selfish traits are making such a place impossible to have. When everyone behaves this way the wonderful relationships among humans are lost.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference”)
According to Master’s teaching, I tried to correct my actions and speech according to the Fa, look inward to find my shortcomings, and act in accordance with Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance.
My husband and my child felt these changes in me, and the atmosphere at home became harmonious. Those days of big fights were gone.
My child said that I was almost like another person, much gentler. I learned to understand my family members and discussed things with them when needed. I showed my family the wonder of Dafa and they all support my Dafa cultivation.
I attained the Fa late and always felt time was not enough, which brought another attachment to time and consummation.
Master said,
“For Dafa disciples, your doing the three things well is just the biggest thing. You must first cultivate yourself well, only then can you fulfill your historic mission. Therefore, in the entire process of saving sentient beings and validating Dafa, you cannot neglect your own cultivation. So in cultivation you must be serious, and that is the most basic guarantee for you as a cultivator. If you do not cultivate, think about it, that is equal to ordinary people doing good deeds. Yet for a Dafa disciple, this opportunity and basis for you to be able to become a Dafa disciple today were being established in history. During history you have endured so much, and so you can become Dafa disciples today. Also, there is the issue of your life’s most fundamental origin being extraordinary. None of this is simple.” (“Fa Teaching at the New York Fa Conference on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Dafa’s Introduction to the Public”, Team Blue Translation)
Thinking about the three things Master requires, the prehistoric vow before coming down to the human world, and how much time I had wasted in the maze, I wanted to catch up quickly and to advance further and further.
There were so many Dafa books to read. In the beginning, besides the must-read book of Zhuan Falun, I would randomly pick up any Dafa books to read since I hadn’t read any of them yet.
Driven by such an eagerness, I didn’t study the Fa systematically. Although I knew the basic principles such as looking inward and getting rid of human attachments, I often encountered situations I did not understand and was not clear about the Fa principles.
Master said that new practitioners should mainly read Zhuan Falun. Believing Master and believing Dafa, I calmed down and thought it through.
I began studying the Fa systematically in a timely manner and tried to improve my xinxing and do the five exercises. Now I can do the full lotus position for 50 minutes.
Master said,
“Rest momentarily for self-reflection, add righteous thoughtsAnalyze shortcomings explicitly, advance again wholeheartedly”(“Be Rational, Awaken”, Hong Yin Vol. II)
I want to have a righteous mind and righteous actions. Someday I will be able to clarify the truth to save the sentient beings and to establish the virtue of a Dafa practitioner.
I will be able to do the three things well, follow Master, and return to my original home.