(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa keeps me going and is the most important thing in my life. I have been practicing for 27 years, and no matter what tribulations I have faced, Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) and Dafa have been guiding me all this time.
Studying Dafa
On New Year’s Day, 1996, my brother returned home from the city, and he brought with him an audio tape of Master’s lecture in Jinan. After listening to the lectures, I felt as if I had rushed out of the fog. My life went from darkness to light again. I had been looking for this all my life.
From then on, I embarked on the path of cultivation. Studying the Fa and doing the exercises were truly most precious, and the changes in my body were very obvious. I was 41 years old at the time.
Although I was still young, I was in poor health. I suffered from back and leg pain, frozen shoulder, insomnia, frequent colds, and a bad trachea. I had a difficult time doing farm work.
I recovered from all these illnesses within half a year of my studying the Fa and doing the exercises. I was agile when walking up mountains or crossing streams; I could do any farm work. I truly felt the joy of being free from illness.
Spreading the Fa
I was very happy after I learned Dafa, and wanted to tell others about it.
We lived in a remote mountain village, and people there learned Dafa relatively early. Some people from surrounding counties and cities even came to our area to study Falun Dafa.
As more people came, I tidied up three old houses of mine and used them for practice sites. Later, I enshrined a bronze statue of Master, and it became famous.
I held small experience sharing meetings there from time to time, which helped spread the Fa.
There were practice sites in four surrounding towns. As the number of people increased, the area we introduced the Fa to got bigger.
I carried a TV and Dafa materials on my back, and went everywhere to promote the Fa. I never felt tired, and the joy I experienced was indescribable!
Dafa Changed the Village Atmosphere
Our village is in a ravine. During the Cultural Revolution, food was a problem.
We didn’t have enough to eat, after working hard, for a whole year. So stealing became prevalent.
Later, some properties were privatized, and it was common for people to steal corn. In particular, every family raises livestock, and they secretly let them graze on other people’s fields. The whole village did this and fights about it were common.
After Falun Dafa spread to our area, the atmosphere in the entire village changed. Out of the 150 villagers, more than 40 were Dafa practitioners.
Not only did practitioners become better people, but those who didn’t practice also benefited. Villagers all learned that good and evil are rewarded accordingly, and they stopped doing bad things. People’s souls were purified, and the village atmosphere changed.
Solid as a Rock Amidst the Persecution
The evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Dafa in July 1999. My home was a practice site and a well-known shrine with Master’s bronze statue.
People from the town police station came to destroy the shrine. It just so happened that I had taken the bronze statue to be plated 10 days earlier. They did not see the statue, but took away all of Master’s pictures on the wall. They came to harass us again and again from then on.
My only thought was: “Be resolute cultivating Dafa, the mind unstirred ...” (“True Character Revealed,” Essentials for Further Advancement II). I held the thought, “No matter what happens, I will uphold Dafa.”
I was illegally arrested and sentenced to five years in a detention center in July 2002. I suffered endless hardships during my detention,
In order to “transform” me, the authorities deprived me of sleep for half a year. My heart beat was dangerously fast, I couldn’t eat, and I had difficulty walking.
The guards’ designated helper, a local prisoner, hit me in the face whenever I closed my eyes. He acted crazily, and got into a fight with other prisoners. As a result, the one-year reduction of his sentence for helping persecute me ended up being cancelled. I know this was the retribution for the evil he did to me.
Later I learned that I had attachments to resentment and combativeness. After I realized this, Master removed these attachments for me, and led me to understand that I was there to save people.
Gradually, I developed a kind heart and was able to treat the guards and prisoners kindly. I told them my personal experience of cultivation, and touched their hearts with my kindness.
The environment in the prison later became more relaxed, and they changed their attitude towards Dafa. Some prisoners even decided to practice Falun Dafa after they were released, and we even became good friends.
Helping Fellow Practitioners Enlighten
Only three out of a dozen Dafa practitioners in the ward where I stayed remained “untransformed.” The guards couldn’t “transform” me, so they used “transformed” practitioners to try to persuade me.
I told these practitioners that we practiced Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and that their badmouthing Dafa while knowing in their hearts that Dafa is good was being untruthful.
I told them, “One is a supernormal person if one can tell people the facts about Dafa, showing kindness, and while facing tribulations and difficulties save those who harmed oneself. It is what a divine being does.”
After repeated exchanges with fellow practitioners, most of them woke up and returned to the path of cultivation.
Although five years of imprisonment was hard to bear, I helped save many predestined people. My mind became broader, my confidence in Falun Dafa increased, and I also cultivated away many human attachments.
After five years of illegal detention, I returned home in 2007. The weeds in the yard were as tall as a person. It was obvious that no one had lived there for many years, and I felt some sorrow. Later, I learned that my wife had gotten sick from the pressure of the persecution and passed away soon after my arrest.
Our oldest daughter worked out of town, and the younger daughter went to middle school and lived with my brother. My family was destroyed.
I felt extremely sad and couldn’t figure out why good people were suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Is it wrong to be a good person?
I collected myself and decided to take the time to make up for what I had missed while incarcerated during the previous five years. With this thought in my mind, Master arranged an environment for me.
My brother found me a job at the city heating company where he worked. I had my room and board there and had a lot of free time. I used the time to study and memorize the Fa. I worked there for five years during which I learned a lot of Fa, and memorized it several times.
Distributing Truth-Clarification Information
While I worked and studied Dafa, I also went out to distribute Dafa materials when I had time. Once, I was reported by a woman, and three or four security guards arrived.
They asked me where I was from. I didn’t answer; I just clarified the truth about Dafa to them.
I told them that there were so many natural and man-made disasters now, and people had to do good to avoid them. I told them that good deeds will be rewarded with good, and evil deeds will meet with karmic retribution. I talked a lot. They saw that I was not afraid, so they let me go.
I still had 30 or 40 sets of Dafa informational materials that had not been distributed, so I switched to a different place and finished distributing them all. There were many such occurrences.
I returned to my hometown in the countryside after I had stayed in the city for five years. I used the time between field work to go door-to-door to clarify the truth and ask people to quit the CCP and its affiliated youth organizations.
I rode my motorcycle to nearby places, and took a bus when it was far away. Master asked us to save people, so we did.
Over all these years we have never stopped, knowing it is our responsibility.
Looking back on my cultivation path, I know there are things I have not done well. I am still far behind the diligent disciples.
In the limited time left before the Fa rectification of the human world begins, I will study the Fa more, save more people, and go home with Master.
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.
