(Minghui.org) In the mid-1990s a family member gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun. After I read it, I thought it taught people how to be good, but I was hesitant to become a Falun Dafa practitioner.
When I read Zhuan Falun for the second time, I realized it was mainly about cultivation, so I went with my family to watch the videos of Master lecturing. After that, I started to study the Fa and did the exercises. I also quit drinking. I practiced Falun Dafa for two years.
Because of all kinds of temptations, I gradually became less and less diligent and did not study the Fa regularly. My coworkers eventually persuaded me to have a drink. At first I drank a little beer, then hard liquor, and then my drinking got worse.
I felt ashamed and was too embarrassed to join the Dafa group sharing.
When winter arrived, I got even lazier and stopped studying the Fa or doing the exercises. After July 20, 1999, I was completely lost.
Over 10 years passed. One day I was arrested by the procuratorate and charged with bribery. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t explain the whereabouts of several thousand yuan, and I was sentenced to prison.
Returning to Dafa
I finally realized that, if I had not stopped practicing Dafa, I would not be in prison. Therefore, I clarified the truth about Dafa to the inmates.
I met one prisoner who was sentenced for bribery. He was a leader in the 610 Office and had persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners. He knew that it was retribution for what he did.
I met a lot of practitioners in the prison's newcomer section. I felt very bad for them, but at the same time I saw hope for myself because I was given the opportunity to ask questions, such as why Falun Dafa was being suppressed by the government.
An inmate asked me if I was a Communist Party member, or if I'd quit it. I knew that he must be a practitioner. I said that I had quit several years before. I remembered it was 2005 when I went to Singapore and read the Nine Commentariesin the Epoch Times newspaper. I called the hotline to quit the CCP.
When I was about to be transferred to another section, a guard called my name. It was one of my high school classmates who was the head of a section of the prison. He asked if I wanted to go to his section. He promised to look after me and would keep me from doing hard labor.
I remembered some things from the past and decided not to trust him. I chose to be in the section with the most practitioners. That would help me to get back on track in cultivation.
Since I was no longer a government official, I felt a lot more carefree and had no more concerns or worries. Fellow practitioners helped me understand why Dafa was being persecuted.
With the help of practitioners. I read Master's latest lectures, and fellow practitioners outside the prison helped me get the electronic versions of Dafa books.
Celestial Eye
I read Master’s lectures and talked with fellow practitioners whenever I couldn’t understand something. One night I was listening to the second lecture Master gave in Guangzhou, the part where Master talked about the celestial eye. I then closed my eyes and was about to go to sleep. Then I saw a big eye blinking at me, exactly as Master described:
“...people usually choose to meditate or do energy exercises late at night, when all is still. They will be practicing away when suddenly a large eye appears before them, out of nowhere, giving them a scare. It’s frightening enough that it scares them away from practicing again. It’s incredibly unsettling—such a large eye, blinking and looking at them, and all of it so vivid.” (The Second Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I was so excited because Master Li opened my celestial eye. This large eye lasted for about a week before disappearing.
Then I felt as if I was lying on the lawn in a park, watching the stars above me, and it seemed as if the stars were watching me. All of a sudden the stars moved quickly toward me, and other stars joined. They transformed into a black and white dragon. At the same time, I saw on the left side a Tang or Song dynasty official wearing the official’s hat coming toward me from a very familiar constellation. It was the first time that I had ever seen so clearly with my celestial eye.
Awakening to the Truth
Fellow practitioners were in jail because they were being persecuted for assisting Master in Fa-rectification and saving sentient beings, while I was pursuing ordinary people’s goals and re-gained the Fa in jail. I was very embarrassed. I was determined that. once I was released, I would firmly do things well as a Dafa practitioner and fulfill my mission.
One day my former boss came to see me. Just then, I suddenly realized what had happened to the missing money I was in prison for. I couldn't believe it! How come I completely forgot about it when I was tried?
It had happened about eight years before. Several Dafa practitioners where I worked were being persecuted and harassed by people from the 610 Office. I was one of the leaders and knew that all of the practitioners were crucial employees. The 610 Office investigated them for many days, and several office computers were confiscated.
It was chaos at work, and we couldn’t do normal business. Eventually they detained one of the practitioners and sent him to a forced labor camp.
Our upper management was frightened and used the money to bribe the police. My former boss and I went to the 610 Office and gave the money to someone surnamed Yang. When I was being tried, it was that lower level leader who testified and said the money was used for bribes. Should I appeal? I evaluated it with the Fa, and eventually I decided not to.
Realizing That a Bad Thing Was a Good Thing
It was actually fortunate that I went to prison, or I would still be living the “good life” as an ordinary person. I would not recall anything about the way back to heaven or how I need to fulfill my mission.
Therefore, I do not hate them and, in fact, am quite grateful. I have no words to thank our benevolent Master. Master saved me from falling down into hell, giving me a chance to return to Dafa. I also am grateful to practitioners inside and outside the prison. They helped selflessly and got me the electronic Dafa books so that I could study the Fa inside.
Because there were no ordinary temptations in jail, I was able to solidly study the Fa and really study it with my heart. And when I had questions, I could always ask fellow practitioners.
All these things helped me change into a completely different person. I was attached to fame, gain, and sentimentality when I ended up in prison, but since my release, I follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
