(Minghui.org) Before obtaining the Fa, I was tormented by various ailments and suffered immensely. After I started practicing Falun Dafa, without spending any money or taking any medicine, all my illnesses vanished without a trace.
Whenever I reflect on this miracle, the joy of obtaining Dafa floods back, and my heart swells with emotion. Grateful to Master! Grateful to Dafa! My resolve to maintain the same steadfast devotion I had at the very beginning of my cultivation has grown even stronger.
A Life of Confusion and Suffering
I grew up in the countryside. When I was 10, the Great Famine struck, precipitated by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “wind of exaggeration.” To survive, people ate tree buds, bark, and chaff, and nine out of 10 suffered from edema, hovering on the brink of death.
Two members of my family starved to death, while two others were forced to wander far from home in search of a livelihood. After lying in a stupor for over 10 days without food or water, I miraculously survived. After that, however, I became weak and I suffered from dizziness, fatigue, and insomnia. Back then, we couldn’t even get enough coarse grains to eat, let alone afford medical treatment, so illnesses continued to plague me.
In the early 1970s, I left farm life behind, but my new work environment was high-altitude, oxygen-deprived, and desolate. The freezing conditions caused frequent pain in my shoulder and knee joints, as well as in my finger joints. Chronic rhinitis and pharyngitis also set in, while stomach pain, headaches, and insomnia gradually worsened. Whenever I caught a cold, all these ailments would flare up simultaneously, causing me unbearable suffering.
In the early 1980s, I suffered a lower-back injury from an accident. The medical diagnosis was severe: a pelvic fracture, lumbosacral nerve damage, a ruptured small intestine, numbness in both legs, and muscle atrophy. Although surgery saved my life, my existence became a living hell as the damaged nerves caused a searing, relentless pain that never let up—day or night. Because I was unable to turn over, I had bedsores on my lower back and buttocks, and I was completely dependent on others for bowel and bladder care.
In the midst of this torment, every second was like an eternity; the saying “days felt like years” couldn’t capture the unbearable agony I had to endure. After more than two months of hospitalization, the medical staff stopped visiting my room because a deep wound on my lower back refused to heal.
Strangely enough, it was precisely during this time that the wound finally healed. Later, the doctor said the wound on my lower back could have become a devastating infection. Only then did I realize I had narrowly escaped another crisis.
More than a year later, after another muscle transplant surgery on my lower limbs at a different hospital, I was finally able to stand. However, the entire right side of my body remained rigid; I could not bend at the hip or knees, nor could I put on my own trousers, shoes, or socks. Using the toilet was extremely difficult, and I required my wife’s assistance with all my daily activities. The already arduous journey of seeking medical treatment became even more agonizing.
Family, friends, and colleagues eagerly sought out renowned doctors and specialists for me, recommending everything from proven folk remedies to new and specialized medications.
Yet, every medicine carries some risk of adverse effects. I spent a fortune and endured great suffering with no significant improvement in the original condition. Instead, new ailments emerged, such as allergic purpura and eczema. My misfortune grew, making the treatment process even harder.
I became extremely prone to catching colds, and usually took over 10 days to recover each time. Whenever a high fever subsided into a low-grade one, I suffered from incessant sweating, alongside flare-ups of rhinitis, pharyngitis, and oral ulcers.
Ordinary painkillers had no effect on the searing, excruciating nerve pain. Medications irritated my stomach (already affected by atrophic gastritis), increasing pain and bloating; my allergic purpura worsened, with intensified bleeding and a proliferation of skin lesions; and eczema broke out on my limbs, manifesting as densely packed, millet-sized blisters that itched unbearably.
It was as if these various ailments were governed by pre-programmed routines in an electronic device, emerging one by one to torment me. A cold acted as the master switch that triggered a relapse of all my conditions; even when I stayed indoors for months on end, I still managed to catch colds which was what my family and I dreaded most.
One time, after catching a cold, I received treatment for more than three months at a well-respected specialist clinic in my area, but saw little improvement. The doctor there said, “Your immune system is too weak, which is why you catch colds so easily. You also have an allergic constitution, leading to a complex array of ailments. Just as one improves slightly, another worsens—it’s very difficult to treat. Even if you went to every hospital in the country, there would be no effective solution.”
Modern medicine couldn’t cure my illness, so my family brought in a stream of renowned local Taoist masters, one after another, who were rumored to have miraculous healing powers—but none had any effect.
Then leading members of the local Christian association came to my home to preach their doctrine. I just skimmed through a few chapters of the Bible before giving it back.
At the urging of relatives and friends, I also looked at some Buddhist materials. Members of the local Buddhist Association recommended that I go to Mount Wutai to pay my respects to a “renowned master,” but my health was too poor for such a long journey.
Desperate to cure my ailments, I grasped at any remedy and began exploring qigong in the 1980s. I read qigong books from many schools, believing that any book was worth reading. Whenever I came across another type of qigong, I learned and practiced it, thinking I was drawing on the strengths of various schools.
At the time, I even studied the most notorious sham qigong practices that taught people techniques to treat others’ illnesses and make money. This fake qigong also peddled items like tea and soap at exorbitant prices, claiming that the energy they carried could cure illnesses.
Only then did I come to my senses: I was still a sickly person myself—how could learning a few movements enable me to treat others and even make money? Wasn’t this the opposite of curing illness and improving health? A sensible person would realize they’d been duped. From then on, I stopped practicing any form of qigong.
Time and again, any attempts to treat my illnesses followed the same pattern: spending money and enduring suffering, resulting in failure and disappointment. Although I faithfully took various medications as prescribed, my physical condition steadily deteriorated, and my symptoms grew increasingly severe.
For instance, during the hottest days of summer, I had to wear layers of clothing. During other seasons, unless a hospital visit was absolutely necessary, I never ventured outside; I was confined at home.
Faced with these longterm hardships, I kept pondering questions like: Why do people fall ill and face misfortune? Is there a way to eradicate this? What is the meaning of human existence across the generations? I felt deeply bewildered, unable to find an answer, no matter how hard I looked.
Dafa Cultivation Brings a New Life
One morning in late May 1997, my wife said, “The weather is nice today and there’s no wind. Why don’t you go out for a stroll in the courtyard and get used to being outdoors?” I had become so frail that even a breeze could knock me over, and rarely dared to venture out. After being hospitalized just a month earlier with a cold and related complications, I had only been discharged a few days prior.
As I reached the entrance of the residential complex, a woman walked up, smiled, and asked, “Is your community director in?”
I replied, “He’s off today, but he will be in tomorrow.”
She said, “I’d like to arrange a video screening here.” Then she thanked me and left.
The next day, I was very interested to know more about this matter. Around dusk, I saw small groups of people heading towards the activity room and guessed they were probably there to watch a video. I hurried over and saw that more than 10 people had already arrived.
I sat down on the sofa in the back row. Later, many more people arrived, each carrying a small stool. They sat in neat rows; no one spoke loudly, and certainly no one smoked—they all seemed very well-mannered. I later learned that they were all Falun Dafa practitioners.
The video started at 8 p.m. and the television screen showed the words “Teaching the Fa in Jinan,” accompanied by beautiful music and a rotating, multicolored Falun emblem (law wheel). I watched intently, feeling my entire body enveloped in an energy that brought a sense of ease and comfort unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
Immediately afterward, Master’s compassionate and serene face appeared, and the teaching began. I kept my eyes fixed on Master as I listened to his teachings. Suddenly, it felt as if many worm-like creatures were crawling around rapidly inside my forehead, but it didn’t bother me at all.
I kept listening closely to Master, afraid to miss a single word as the teachings were truly wonderful! Every word struck a chord in my heart, as if it were specifically tailored to my own situation.
Master said:
“In particular, many of our qigong practitioners who study one practice today and another tomorrow have already messed up their own bodies. Their cultivation is bound to fail.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
I was one of those people Master spoke of, who learn and practice qigong haphazardly. I had no idea that practicing qigong required focus, nor did I realize the dangers of mixing different types together. I now feel a sense of dread when I recall how carelessly I practiced in the past; it was as if Master had just pulled me back from the edge of a cliff.
As I listened to Master’s teachings, I felt my tainted heart become purer, and my state of mind elevate. I gradually came to understand the principles of the Fa: why people fall ill and suffer tribulations; the true reasons why one might practice without making progress or recovering from illness; the necessity of genuine cultivation to remove sickness and overcome adversity; and the true purpose of human existence—to return to one’s original, true self.
I realized just how profound and vast the inner meaning of high-level qigong truly is! I felt my bewildered true self awakening, and a firm conviction emerged: “I want to cultivate!”
When the first video lecture concluded, a practitioner announced, “The screening will continue tomorrow evening; everyone is welcome to attend. Those interested in practicing the exercises should go to the school sports field to learn. There is no fee for this practice, no registration, no membership rolls; come if you wish to practice, everything is entirely voluntary.”
As I walked home, the scene of Master teaching still lingered in my mind, and I felt a sense of joy, lightness, and ease. I happily shared with my wife about it all and said, “I’m going to get up early tomorrow and go to the school to learn and practice Falun Dafa.”
She was surprised, saying, “With your poor health and so unsteady on your feet—you still want to get up early to exercise? What if you catch a cold?”
I replied confidently, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
Early the next morning, I dressed in layers. When I arrived at the sports ground, I immediately recognized the practitioners I had seen the night before, and they greeted me warmly. While everyone else wore light long-sleeved or short-sleeved tops, I was the only one bundled up in heavy layers.
When the exercise music began, I tried to follow the practitioners’ movements. However, I couldn’t keep my balance, so I leaned against a basketball pole for support while practicing. Surprisingly, I felt quite energetic after finishing the exercises.
Back home, my wife was concerned, and said, “Are you doing okay?” She repeated this question several times throughout the morning.
I understood her deep emotional scars from the terrifying ordeal of my near-death experience, combined with the physical and mental exhaustion she had endured while caring for me during my long battle with illness. Her greatest fear was that a simple cold might trigger a relapse of my other ailments.
In the evenings, I continued watching Master’s video lectures, and in the mornings, I practiced the exercises with other practitioners. After a few days, I had gradually mastered all the movements of the standing exercises and could practice with stability and ease.
When practicing the third exercise, my hands felt as if they were being drawn upward by a magnet; then as I poured energy downward, a wave of heat traveled from my palms to my feet, and my stomach rumbled audibly. During the fourth exercise, a stream of heat circulated in loops from the front of my body to the back, following the movement of my palms.
When practicing the fifth exercise, the sitting meditation, I felt the Falun rotate nine times to the left and nine times to the right in my lower abdomen. Its rotation felt particularly powerful over areas where I had previously suffered from ailments, such as my shoulder joints, knee joints, and spine.
Streams of heat surged rapidly throughout my body—shifting up and down, left and right—causing my body to vibrate vertically or sway from side to side. Only those who practice Falun Dafa know what it is like to experience these sensations.
Summer rains became increasingly frequent. I remember one time, just as we began our exercises, a light shower started. I opened my eyes and saw the others staying focused on their practice, completely motionless. So, I closed my eyes and carried on as well. By the time we finished, our clothes were soaked through. When I got home, my wife hurriedly helped me get dry and change my clothes, muttering, “It would be terrible if you caught a cold.”
On another occasion, while we were practicing together by the river, a sudden thunderstorm struck. There was nowhere nearby to take shelter, and a deep flow of water blocked the road. We had no choice but to stay there and let the heavy rain pour down on us. Afterwards, I remained perfectly healthy. From then on, my wife never mentioned the word “cold” again.
By persisting with the doing the exercises each day, my previously stubborn ailments never returned, and my health steadily improved. Without spending money or taking medication, and enduring only a bit of physical hardship during the exercises (which was not even one ten-thousandth of the suffering I had previously endured)—all my illnesses vanished completely through practicing Falun Dafa. It is truly incredible! I personally experienced that every single word spoken by Master is absolutely true.
After witnessing the miraculous changes in my health, my wife also began practicing Dafa. My daughter and son-in-law have both read the precious book Zhuan Falun and strongly support our practice.
Colleagues and relatives who saw the remarkable changes in me all acknowledged that Dafa is good. In particular, my workplace leaders and accounting staff know I have not submitted a single medical reimbursement claim in over 20 years of practicing Dafa, and recognize the goodness of the practice, praising the noble demeanor Dafa disciples cultivate by following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
As my understanding of the Fa deepened through cultivation, I realized that when Master cleanses our bodies, in his compassion, he bears karma and suffering for each practitioner. Thank you, benevolent Master, for your boundless compassion! Thank you, Dafa, a teaching so rare it comes but once in an eternity! I will cherish this cultivation path I have walked and strive to cultivate diligently and earnestly, so as to meet Master’s expectations.
These are some of my experiences and reflections from when I first began cultivating the Fa. My writing skills are limited, so please correct me if anything is inappropriate.
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Category: Health Benefits
