(Minghui.org) I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for over 20 years, and I cannot imagine what I would be like if I had not come across Falun Dafa. I’d like to share some of my experiences over the years.
I was always very competitive and lived a very tiring life before I began practicing Falun Dafa. I ended up with all kinds of ailments, such as liver disease, stomach pain, kidney stones, and insomnia. I ran to different hospitals for six years with little relief. My relationship with my wife deteriorated due to my short fuse.
Fortunately, I came across Falun Dafa in a park in Shanghai in 1996 and began practicing it. The very first night after I did the exercises, I slept great. The insomnia I’d had for years was gone! After just 21 days, all my illnesses were gone!
I began abiding by the principles of a cultivator. I worked more diligently, turned down dinner invitations, and no longer worried over what I’d gained or lost. I was recognized and praised by my employer. I learned to look within whenever conflicts surfaced, and my relationship with my wife improved. I became more considerate and even gave my bonus to a villager who was struggling financially.
Three years after I took up the practice, the communist regime launched a nationwide persecution of Falun Dafa. Fellow practitioners and I went to the provincial government to appeal for the right to practice. After I returned home, I told the village Party Secretary that I wanted to withdraw from the Communist Party. He refused to honor my request and reported me to the township and county Party organization.
The county Party secretary asked me. “Why do you want to withdraw from the Party? So many people want to join and can’t, yet you want to quit?”
“I benefit from practicing Falun Dafa and abide by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. But now the Party is persecuting it and spreading lies in the media defaming my faith. I am shocked and disappointed and don’t want to be a member of such an organization.”
“You don't know that the upper levels have political motives?”
“Upper-levels? Who are they? What kind of political motives?”
They could not answer my questions. I told them what I’d experienced and the principles of Falun Dafa, and they realized that they could not persuade me to do otherwise. I stopped paying my Party dues and have not participated in any of their activities since.
I was arrested in 2000 for distributing Falun Dafa information and sentenced to nine years. To try to make me give up my belief, they forced me to sit on a small bench for a long time and do hard labor for over 12 hours daily and beat me on a regular basis.
The long term forced labor and brainwashing sessions wore me down and my wife betrayed me. The agony I felt was beyond words. One night, my consciousness left my body. I looked down and saw my physical body was sleeping, as I felt wonderful, weightless and free – how great it was to escape the misery of life. But I was reminded that this was not a righteous thought and that I should not tarnish Falun Dafa by leaving like this. I would leave with dignity and honor. So I came back.
When I was released in 2007, I learned that my wife had squandered all our savings, left me without divorcing me, and had another child with her lover. After years of incarceration without doing the exercises and studying the Fa, I was no longer a practitioner. The only thought in my mind was to retaliate, to kill my wife and her lover.
It was strange – whenever I was on my way to kill them, my knees hurt so much that I couldn’t walk. I didn’t wonder why that was so. I looked around my empty home and had nothing but hatred. I wanted my knees to get better so I could carry out my plan.
I had surgery on my right knee. Fellow practitioners talked to me and encouraged me to study the teachings well and let go of the hatred.
After I spent a lot of time studying the Fa, I realized I was wrong. I gradually let go of thoughts of retaliation, divorced my wife, and let her move on.
With intense Fa study and the elevation of xinxing, my hatred and resentment subsided. I felt sorry for my ex-wife and felt sympathy for her. I understood that everything that happens has a reason. I might not understand the reason, but I should not behave like a non-practitioner. My left knee no longer hurt, but it took many years for my right knee to get better.
I began to take on contracting projects to make a living. My quality requirements were strict, and I never cut corners. When the budget was limited, I would use most of the money for materials and to pay wages. I never delayed paying my team, even if it meant I didn't make much.
Today, debt is widespread, and not paying hard-working laborers on time has become the norm. My words and deeds earned me a good reputation and my business grew. More clients came to me and I made a very handsome return. I knew I was blessed because I practice Falun Dafa and that I should cherish everything I have even more.
On one project, I met an underworld boss. After I got familiar with him, I told him about Falun Dafa and the persecution and asked him to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But he thought I was just being rebellious.
I told him that I had shared that information with him for his own benefit and that he should go home and think it through.
Several days later, he asked me to help him quit the CCP. I was surprised by his turnaround. He told me that his wife had told him what I’d said was all correct. She told him not to miss the chance. I helped him and his wife quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He took the informational materials I handed him and later asked for more and helped me distribute them. He often tells others that Falun Dafa is good and also got rid of many bad habits.
During a break, I talked to a laborer about Falun Dafa and told him my story, about how, within a month, many of my health problems disappeared. I also told him that the CCP persecutes Falun Dafa. He acknowledged that Falun Dafa was good, and quit the CCP and its organizations. He then memorized the phrases “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
Three months later, he came to thank me. He told me that he’d had rheumatoid arthritis and sciatic nerve pain for years. He’d taken drugs for the pain for years and gone to different hospitals, but nothing had really helped. After he quit the CCP and repeated the phrases, his symptoms were gone! I told him it was the power of Falun Dafa and that he should thank Dafa, not me.
One day, a group of us were chatting in the office. I told them the man's story, but nobody believed me. The man just happened to come that day to get his paycheck, so I asked him to relate his experience. Everyone was dumbfounded and knew they’d witnessed the wonder of Dafa firsthand.
I was having breakfast one day when the village Party secretary and director came to my home and reported me to the police. I did not have any negative thought and began to clarify the facts to them. The secretary did not say anything, but the director commented, “It sounds like Falun Dafa is good.” I told him that if he acknowledged Dafa and protected practitioners, he would be blessed.
Three police officers arrived before I’d finished eating and told me I had to come to the police station with them. I did not care where I went, but I wanted them to know the truth. I told them how I had been healed in 21 days and that Falun Dafa teaches people to be good, which benefits society as a whole. They realized that Falun Dafa was good and began to share their health problems with me and asked me to teach them the exercises.
We went to a vacant yard and I taught them the exercises. They learned and drove me home afterward.
One day I went out on business with two truck drivers. In the truck, I saw a picture of Chairman Mao hanging on their rear-view mirror. I asked them why they had it there, and they told me that they admired him.
I began telling them about the history of the CCP and its endless political campaigns that have resulted in the unnecessary and often violent deaths of over 80 million Chinese citizens since it seized power. The Party was responsible for the killing of thousands of college students in the Tiananmen massacre in June 1989. And then it began to persecute Falun Dafa in 1999.
One driver told me that his grandfather had five brothers. Three were persecuted to death and the other two weren’t doing well. I pointed to Mao's picture and asked, “Do you still hope that the one who persecuted your grandfather will protect you? Could he protect you?”
I told them that the end of the communist regime was Heaven’s will. They threw Mao's picture away and both quit the CCP and its organizations.