(Minghui.org)
As a child, I often recited this verse: “Lord of Heaven, please hold back the rain; We’ll offer you all our steamed buns.” At that time, I imagined the Lord of Heaven dwelling in the vast sky above, and I developed a naive reverence for the heavens.
My father often shared folk tales he had heard, and one of them left a deep impression on me: Once every ten thousand years, an opportunity arose in which anyone who jumped into the sea would become a deity; Yet, when the chance finally came, no one dared to leap in. When I heard that ending, I secretly vowed that if I ever got that chance, I would dare to jump.
My mother was a devout lay Buddhist, even though she was the neighborhood committee director. We even had a shrine in our home where she burned incense to worship the Buddha and bowed on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month. During the Cultural Revolution, the era when most Buddhist things were destroyed, our family’s shrine was likely the only thing of this kind still standing in our small town.
Mother was so kindhearted that she saved many lives with corn pancakes during the Great Famine. At one time, seven distant relatives lived with us, but she never complained. During one period, every home in the village had to submit their corn crop to the government and was given a quota. If the family did not meet the quota, they would be branded “counter-revolutionaries.” My mother and father would take some of their own painstakingly-grown corn to help the families who were short. She did everything to protect the people in her neighborhood.
My most memorable episode was when an over-80-year-old beggar showed up at our doorstep during the coldest days of winter. Since we didn’t have any leftovers, my mother invited him inside and made him some corn porridge. She said to me, “After this porridge, we must hope this grandpa will have the strength to walk home.”
A fortuneteller had predicted that my mother would only live for a little over 30 years. At 37, she fainted several times but miraculously recovered without medicine or treatment. She passed away at 74. Only after I started practicing Falun Dafa did I understand that Mother was blessed with extended longevity because she had accumulated virtue throughout her life.
My mother’s compassionate acts planted the seeds of kindness within me. After I became a cultivator, I came to understand that Master had arranged this to pave the path for me to start practicing Dafa and to hear his teachings in person. I realized that the purpose of being human is to return to our true nature, a kind nature.
I’d always loved to read. In a book of prophecies, I once read: “A sage shall appear in the human realm. His surname will include the Chinese characters 木 (mu) and 子 (zi) .” So I guessed this sage would be surnamed 李 Li. The prophecy also said: “The sage scatters gold everywhere.” At the time, I only understood its superficial meaning.
When I visited a friend on March 8, 1997, she gave me a copy of the book Zhuan Falun to read. Though this happened very casually, I later realized that it was Master’s painstaking arrangement.
Just a week after I learned the sitting meditation (the fifth exercise), while I was meditating, I saw Guanyin Bodhisattva coming towards me from far away through my third eye. She was beautiful, with a tall bun, delicate skin, and flowing robes. She radiated serenity and compassion. When she got near me, she vanished.
A month later, I was meditating again when I saw something similar, but this time, it was a Buddha, with benevolent eyes and hands in a folded mudra. Behind him were two distinct, enormous halos—one encircling his head and another enveloping his entire body, solemn and majestic. I sensed that divine beings were always near us, but only through faith can we perceive them.
By reading many Dafa books over the years, I came to understand that the profound wisdom of Gods and Buddhas far exceeds people’s imagination. They created humanity, and from ancient times to the present, they have remained in the human world, constantly protecting us.
People often assume that what they cannot see does not exist. Yet, though invisible, it is undeniably present. We cannot perceive cell phone signals or Wi-Fi signals, yet they exist. There are so many things invisible to our naked eyes. Can we claim that none of those things exist? They simply exist in other or higher forms. We must transform our frame of mind.
After I started practicing Dafa, my health problems disappeared, and I felt light and full of energy. I used to be impatient and suspicious, which nearly destroyed my family. By following Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I became a better person, and now my family is harmonious.
Many people were touched by my physical and mental transformation, and they came to me seeking guidance. I gave them Dafa keepsakes and told them about the auspicious phrases “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Many families have benefited from reciting these phrases during tribulations.
In August 2023, the wife of my former neighbor, Don, suffered a brainstem hemorrhage and was in intensive care for over three weeks. Though she survived, she was in a vegetative state, on oxygen, with a tracheotomy, a feeding tube, and a catheter.
She had practiced Dafa in the past, and Don, in his 70s, told me in tears that he wanted her to practice Dafa again once she recovered, so she could be healthy, like me. I told him that only Dafa could save her.
Hearing this, the whole family believed that it was true, because they knew how wonderful Dafa was and finally saw that there was light at the end of the tunnel. They played Master’s lectures for her. Whenever possible, her daughter read Dafa books to her, and, as a result, she herself began to cultivate Dafa. Whenever the family had free time, they repeated the auspicious phrases together.
A few months later, during the Chinese New Year, I visited her. She could lift her head on her own, blink naturally, and was trying to speak. The oxygen tank had been removed. It was truly a miracle. Her family kept thanking me profusely and wanted to donate to Dafa. But I declined their offer.
Falun Dafa brings blessings when you believe in it. Many people cherish the Dafa information booklets they are given, as they are blessings from Buddhas.