(Minghui.org) Greetings venerable Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I learned about Dafa while I was in Vietnam and I often read the news on media channels run by practitioners. I thought Falun Dafa was just a qigong practice to improve one’s health, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. One day in 2017, a year after I came to the U.S., one of my wife’s children, who liked to practice martial arts, was sitting cross-legged and breathing in a meditative way. I told him, “Let me find you a qigong practice that is good for your health.” He previously had a blocked blood vessel and was hospitalized.
I went online to search for Falun Dafa books and quickly found Zhuan Falun. In hindsight, this was not a coincidence. When I opened it and finished reading Lunyu, I felt an indescribable joy. I told him, “Let me read it first,” and read it in one sitting without stopping. The first time I finished this precious book I understood many things, and my worldview completely changed. The things written in the book were so simple and easy to understand, yet they answered all my questions about religion and cultivation.
Master said,
“Many people have longed to become better, more spiritual people, and to go to a higher place. I am now laying this out right before you, offering what I have—only you might not realize it. You could spend a fortune traveling the world to study under spiritual mentors far and wide but never find something like this. And today I am delivering it right to your door. I just hope you can realize what this is! Ultimately, whether you can be saved from this world is up to you, and it begins with your discernment.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun).
I visited various temples for 20 years—from the North to the South, from China, Tibet to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia; wherever someone told me about a temple, I went. On the surface, it seemed like a pilgrimage, but deep inside, I was searching for the Great Fa. When I finally found it I felt so happy. I decided to practice Falun Dafa.
Master Gave Me a New Life
I remember something that happened about a month before I obtained the Fa. While setting up a trellis, the ladder suddenly collapsed, and I fell with it. I felt fine—there was just a slight scratch on my leg. I walked inside the house but then I fainted. When I opened my eyes, my wife was holding me and my mother-in-law was standing beside me. They were crying and calling an ambulance. I told them, “I’m fine, there’s no need to call an ambulance.” Then, looking down, I noticed my pants were wet and thought to myself, “Is it that serious? I couldn’t even control my urination.” It was like I had just died and come back to life! At that time, it felt like just a few seconds passed, but when I asked my wife, she said I had been unconscious for nearly 10 minutes. It was truly like another version of me had died... I am deeply grateful to Master for giving me a new life.
Looking back at the first half of my life before I practiced Dafa, I know I created a lot of karma—I used drugs, gambled, did loan sharking, engaged in adultery and took my girlfriends to have abortions, etc. My parents divorced when I was in 8th grade. My father remarried, and my mother left Vietnam. My father sent me to live with my grandparents. With no one to supervise me, I began to skip school and indulge in debauchery, participating in almost every social vice.
So, with a body full of karma, if Master hadn’t mercifully used that body made of karma to repay my debts, who knows how many lifetimes it would have taken for me to pay it all back... As a disciple, I truly have no way to repay Master’s grace for saving me. I will strive to do the three things well, save more people, and not let down the new life Master has granted me! Thank you, Master!
Changing Myself and My Wife Begins Practicing
I remember when I first began practicing the biggest and longest test of my xinxing (mind-nature) was interference from my wife. This was because I couldn’t let go of the attachment to saving face and I was afraid others wouldn’t understand cultivation, I used to sneak outside at night to practice the exercises. One day, my wife found out that I was practicing something, and I told her about Dafa. However, I didn’t explain it well enough, so she did her own research online.
Although there are many short videos about the goodness of Dafa, my wife didn’t find them. Instead, she found videos that painted Dafa in a negative light, which led to constant conflict between us. She filmed me practicing the exercises and sent the videos to her friends and family to mock me. She often started arguments as soon as I finished practicing. Sometimes she shouted for hours.
At first, I remembered Master’s teaching about forbearance, and I didn’t argue with her. However, there were times when I couldn’t endure it and even considered leaving. But then I thought about how I hadn’t treated her well before, and that this was karmic retribution, so I let her scold me, and eventually, it would pass.
One day, I decided to wake up at 5 a.m. and go to a group exercise site in Chinatown, the address of which I found online. When I arrived, even though there weren’t many people, I felt very happy to meet fellow practitioners. I had been practicing on my own for two months, and although I didn’t know English or Chinese everyone was very friendly and kind.
After I did the exercises, I returned home. When I opened the door, I saw my parents-in-law and my wife sitting at the table with very tense and serious expressions, as if I had just returned from an affair. My wife immediately asked where I had been. I replied, “I went downtown to practice the exercises.” My wife said, “What kind of practice starts at 4 or 5 in the morning?”
She began to say unpleasant things. I was about to argue back when I remembered a passage from the Fa:
“...your wife gives you a hard time as soon as you walk in the door. If you can manage to patiently endure that kind of situation, you will make progress in your practice that day.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I suddenly understood many things. No wonder every time I finished practicing and returned home, there was an argument waiting for me. It turns out that my wife was helping me eliminate karma all this time, which is why she acted that way. “You can be sure that whoever your karma is distributed to will feel upset about it.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)
After I understood this Fa principle, my wife began to change. She saw that Dafa transformed me from a heavy smoker who smoked one to two packs a day into someone who could quit smoking. I was also addicted to online games. However, after studying the Fa, I gradually eliminated many bad habits and notions. After my wife noticed these changes and saw the goodness of Dafa, she also decided to practice. Perhaps her predestined relationship hadn’t fully matured yet, so the few times I played Master’s lectures for her, she didn’t really attain anything.
In 2019, I registered for the Fa conference in New York, and I also registered my wife and provided her phone number. I didn’t tell her, but just prayed that Master would allow her to go and participate. A few days later, my wife said that someone called to get her personal information for registration to go to New York. Hearing this, I was very happy and silently thanked Master for the arrangement. I told my wife that to attend the Fa conference, one must be a Dafa disciple, so she should listen to and study the Fa. She followed my suggestion and began listening to the Fa.
When she had a severe nosebleed she asked me what was happening. I told her it was nothing and that it would soon stop. In my heart, I was very happy, knowing that Master was taking care of her and purifying her body.
After we attended the Fa conference, and she interacted with practitioners, participated in the parade, and listened to Master’s Fa teaching, my wife saw the beauty and magnificence of Dafa and completely changed. She officially entered into cultivation. I am deeply grateful to Master for painstakingly arranging for both my wife and me to obtain the Fa and cultivate.
The Restaurant
Master arranged for my wife and me a project for saving people. I received a notice to volunteer for Shen Yun in a border city. I was a kitchen assistant at a Vietnamese restaurant, so I took time off to participate. It was my first time helping out, and since they knew I was a kitchen assistant, the coordinator assigned me to assist fellow practitioners in cooking for the Shen Yun team. It was truly an unforgettable experience—my first time getting hands-on with Chinese cooking tools and techniques, which broadened my horizons and taught me a lot. It was also my first time watching Shen Yun perform, and there was a humorous and joyful act about a restaurant chef that year, which made me secretly wish for something. I silently asked Master, “Master, please let me open a restaurant in the future so that fellow practitioners can come and cook for Shen Yun without having to work so hard.” (At that time, it was just a wish; I knew I didn’t have the means to make it happen.)
Master saw my wish and arranged everything in the best and most detailed way possible. About a year after that trip, a fellow practitioner mentioned that she knew someone who was selling a seafood takeout restaurant for about $50,000 USD. That evening, after returning from group study, she called me again to encourage me to take it on, offering to go half with me. I did a rough calculation and thought it might work, so the next day, I decided to quit my kitchen assistant job. However, to quit, I had to give the restaurant a two-week notice to find a replacement.
I hadn’t yet told my wife about it. Over the weekend, during another group Fa study session, the practitioner told me that she decided not to go through with it. I thought, “I just quit my job, and now she’s backing out?” But since my wife and I had a small business selling phone accessories at the weekend market, I wasn’t too worried about money. I didn’t get angry with her; I just laughed it off. Coincidentally, around that time, my wife was also feeling disheartened with her nail job, so when I talked to her about opening a restaurant, she agreed. Having worked as a kitchen assistant for two years, I only knew a bit about cooking, so I advised my wife to find someone to partner with. My wife found a younger cousin.
We found a location and we had a partner, but we had to wait about three more months before we could start. In the meantime, I told my wife to help me find a temporary job, so she found me a job cleaning offices. If I hadn’t practiced Falun Dafa, I probably wouldn’t have taken such a job. But then I thought that I’m a cultivator, and I can’t be picky. Perhaps it was Master’s arrangement, so I took the cleaning job.
When we opened the restaurant, thanks to Master arranging those cleaning shifts, I was able to eliminate some attachments, such as the fear of getting dirty and the attachment to saving face. I also learned a few skills, so we didn’t have to hire someone to clean the restaurant.
After I worked a few cleaning shifts, my wife thought it wasn’t suitable, so she told me to quit. Perhaps I learned what I needed to, and Master arranged for me to work at another Vietnamese restaurant to gain more skills. Coincidentally, I saw an online job posting for a stir-fry chef at a restaurant. I didn’t know how to stir-fry; I only knew a little from what fellow practitioners taught me. Still, I applied for the job. When I went for the trial they were in great need of help, so they hired me immediately. However, they did not ask me to do stir-frying. They put me in charge of the grill, and everything went very smoothly.
I truly felt that Master was overseeing and arranging every detail. Dafa also gave me wisdom, so in just over three months, I learned various cooking methods and techniques, including flipping the wok and I gained enough experience in running a restaurant.
During my time working there, I told my coworkers, including the restaurant owners, about Falun Dafa. I gave them lotus flowers with messages about Dafa, and they were all very happy to receive them. After more than three months, it was time for my wife and her cousin to open the restaurant at the location my wife found earlier. By this time, my wife had started practicing cultivation.
One day, my wife came home and said the restaurant location was already rented out to someone else, and her cousin didn’t want to partner up anymore. Over the past few months, I saw how diligent my wife was in calculating and learning new experiences and knowledge. Everyone in the family knew we were planning to open a restaurant, and now everything had fallen apart, so it was hard to avoid feeling a bit disappointed.
However, Master arranged another opportunity. My wife found our current restaurant location. As soon as I heard the address, my heart was moved. (I don’t speak English, but I interpreted it as “the land of kings.”) I thought to myself, “Perhaps this is Master’s arrangement, giving us a place to clarify the truth and save people.”
After seeing the inside of the restaurant, the price, and some of the conditions, my wife explained everything to me. On the way home, I told my wife that we should immediately sign the contract, as we wouldn’t find a better location at such a good price, and there were no brokers or middlemen involved. The location was prime, near hotels, markets, and shopping centers. The landlord even gave us two months rent-free to renovate and obtain the necessary permits.
My wife called the landlord to set a date to sign the contract. Things went incredibly smoothly, as if everything was already in place. So, my wife and I got a restaurant that exceeded our expectations and plans. There were many other details that Master arranged for us, such as bringing in a sincere partner, arranging for the quick sale of our phone accessory business so we could focus on the restaurant, and guiding me to a fellow practitioner’s cooking website when I was struggling with the menu.
Each thought and wish of ours, Master knew and arranged the best for us. Later, I realized and shared with my wife that Master arranged this restaurant not for us to make money but to use it as a place to clarify the truth and save people. Master would bring predestined people to know the truth, so we should treat this as a truth-clarification project, put our hearts into it, and operate it well.
Master once taught,
“Let me tell you, every person in the entire world was at one point part of my family (applause), including the worst people, or else they would have no chance to be a human being during this time.” (Fa Teaching Given on the Lantern Festival)
So, we tell every employee and customer about Falun Dafa and give them lotus flowers with “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” on them, so that they can be saved. If they are saved, the cosmic system they represent will also be saved. This is what Master wants, and it’s the responsibility and honor he gave my wife and I.
In the five years that my wife and I have run this restaurant, there have been many touching stories, xinxing conflicts, tests we passed well and not so well, and regrets. We always feel that Master is always protecting and empowering us. As long as we have the wish to save people, Master arranges everything, and it will always be the best. I am grateful to Master and I thank my fellow practitioners.
This is my first time I wrote an experience sharing article. If anything is not in accordance with the Fa, I kindly ask fellow practitioners to compassionately point it out.
(Presented at the 2024 Southern US Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)
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