(Minghui.org) I was a die-hard atheist and never, in May of 1999, could have imagined that my life could change so much. To be more specific, on the evening of May 22, I became a Falun Dafa practitioner.
1. Reading a Book Can Cure Illnesses!
My company planned to have a painting and calligraphy exhibition, and one of my co-workers brought his work to the exhibition one morning. I chatted with him and learned that he had suffered from chronic hepatitis, which is hard to cure. He quickly recovered after practicing Falun Gong. He said that he hoped that I would practice, too, but I did not. I thought that I had more education, so how could I believe such superstition? On the other hand, I did not want to reject him. Besides, I am a writer and like to read books on all kinds of topics. So I promised him that I would read the Falun Dafa book and got the book from him in the afternoon after work.
At the time I was suffering from myocarditis and was very frustrated. I had seen many famous doctors, but they could not cure me. I could only hold on and try to take good care of myself. I was only 30 years old and had to endure physical suffering and expensive treatment. I wondered when this would end. I often cried due to the worry. I lived on the sixth floor. I had to take a break three or four times climbing upstairs every time. After arriving home, I had to lie down on the sofa for half an hour before I could get up to cook. Actually, my husband prepared everything beforehand. I just needed to cook it.
In the afternoon of May 22, 1999, I went to my co-worker’s home after work to borrow the book Zhuan Falun. I remembered very clearly the next day was Saturday. I usually would rest in bed for the weekend. After breakfast I started to read the book in bed. The book seemed very common, and the language is also very straightforward and simple. But I kept reading. The book held my attention. It told me how to be a good person, a sincere, kind and tolerant person. I understood how a person’s health is related to his moral standard. This book helped me understand that we need to purify our minds and then our bodies will be purified, etc. I thought it made sense. Regarding the cultivation mentioned in the book, I sensed a faint desire and longing from the bottom of my heart, as though sensing a distant memory.
The next day my husband said to me, “You should not lay down all the time. I need to move. Let's go out and take a walk.” So I rode a bike with my husband. We did not go very far when I suddenly noticed my heart felt different that day. The left part of my heart felt so comfortable and light, as though it was emptied. I was not used to this. I asked my husband what happened. He wondered whether it was the result of my reading that book. I said it could not be. How could reading a book cure illness?
After I had finished reading Zhuan Falun, I learned that the book does say that it can cure illness if the person can accept the content of the book and that different people have different outcomes due to different circumstances. So it was that I experienced a magical change. This was an incontrovertible fact. I could not understand it, but facing the facts, I was amazed and pleasantly shocked.
I went to my co-worker’s home and told him, "I want to buy this book. How much should I pay you?"
A new world opened up for me, which was unknown to me before. I had rejected this world before and looked down on people who believed it did exist. But this world is so amazing—it helps me to find peace for my heart, and it is very profound. I was so shallow, self-righteous, and arrogant. Yes, this world is rich and vast. We are just a speck of dust in the vast universe. How can we be so arrogant?
My health was getting better and better, and I soon discarded all of my medication. My migraines, high blood pressure (genetic), and stomach problems disappeared without my noticing it. I really tasted the wonderful feeling of being without illness.
2. College Friend Suffered Leg Pain for 10 Years, Cured after Two or Three Months of Practicing
I have a college friend who graduated with a Master's degree two years earlier than me. I met him one summer morning. In fact I had known him for a while. He was known for his superior talent, as well as suffering due to persecution. One day his wife brought a tall, thin man with a kind smile. I knew it was him.
Since we are all Falun Dafa practitioners, we do not feel like strangers. Our conversation is sincere and frank without too much courtesy or hesitation.
My college friend told me his experience, from falling in love with his wife in high school at first sight, his education, his health, how he became a Falun Dafa practitioner, and the persecution he suffered due to firmly practicing Falun Dafa. He told about how he and fellow practitioners remained kind and compassionate in the face of persecution, which touched me deeply. I was in tears hearing about it.
My college friend suffered leg pain in the last year of high school. He stayed in bed for nearly seven months. He was only 16 at the time. During his college years and graduate school, his leg pain recurred several times, and the episodes were getting closer and closer together. One time his classmates had to help him get food, wash dishes, and go to the restroom for nearly five months. He suffered tremendously.
The last time, the pain never really went away. He limped all the time. When he started to work as a college professor, he could not stand to lecture for two classes in a row and had to sit down and talk.
He searched for a cure everywhere. For over ten years he visited doctors that practiced Western medicine and Chinese medicine. He tried all kinds of folk remedies and took countless medicines. He also learned seven or eight kinds of Qigong and practiced Tai Chi. He even taught others Tai Chi. He visited a number of folk secret societies, but his health did not improve much.
He and his wife had been working for more than 10 years by that time. They had spent their entire salaries on the treatment and had no savings left. Because of his poor health, he had a poor temper. He often threw tantrums. His wife was often in tears. He blamed their child sometimes for no reason. He often sighed and wondered why his life was so bitter and wondered what he could do to end his life so that he would not burden his wife and child when his condition got worse.
In early 1996 my college friend learned Falun Dafa. The pain in his leg gradually disappeared after two or three months of practice. With the improvement in his health, he became more and more cheerful. His family was full of happiness. Many of his colleagues would stop by his home. They all said that they felt very comfortable at his home.
He also achieved a lot in teaching and research after his health recovered. Even in the days of persecution, the party secretary of the college still said he had nothing to complain about in terms of his teaching and research.
3. Surviving Systemic Carcinoma
In 2007 my aunt had spinal glioma. She had surgery in Tiantan Hospital in Beijing, but it was not very successful. Her health did not change much, and she was almost paralyzed. I advised her to start practicing Falun Dafa and told her the story of a woman I knew who had recovered from systemic carcinoma spreading, a terminal illness, by practicing Falun Dafa.
My aunt came back from Beijing and had chemotherapy at the hospital where I worked. She lived temporally in my friend's empty home. I asked the woman to come tell my aunt her story.
In 2001 she had surgery for breast cancer. She was only 30 years old at that time. Her husband has a business, and her family is very rich, so she got the best treatment and used the best drugs money could buy at that time. However, the cancer still spread throughout her whole body. Using her own words, she was waiting to die.
Her mother is a Falun Gong practitioner. She was deeply sad about her daughter's situation. She told her daughter, “Only Dafa can save you. For young children, for this family, for your own future, let us practice Dafa!”
She was not moved by her mother’s heartbroken words. Oftentimes she not only disagreed with her, but was also disgusted with her, because she was poisoned by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) slandering of Falun Dafa. One day, the weather was very cold and windy, and her mother came again to visit her. Looked her at ailing daughter lying in bed, her mother encouraged her again to practice Falun Gong. In order to make her mother stop, she said casually, “Okay, I promise you I will practice.”
Her mother was so happy to hear that. She told her daughter she would borrow the book Zhuan Falun. Then she left and looked for the book in the cold weather.
She was not sure how much time passed. She was awakened by her mother. She saw the smiling face of her concerned mother and felt the chill of her mother's body had not yet receded. She had not seen her mother's smile for a long time. Her perfunctory reply had made her mother so happy that she ran out into the cold to get the Falun Dafa books to save her.
Guilt and affection touched her heart. She felt she had not been nice to her mother, not for anything else, but for running around in the cold weather for her. She should not hurt her mother's feelings! Her health had reached the bottom. Death was next. What was there to be afraid of? Just give it a try.
After that she began to read the Falun Dafa book and practice Falun Gong. She soon changed her view about Falun Dafa. She realized the meaning of Falun Dafa. She truly believes in Falun Dafa, and acts strictly in accordance with principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Her health got better and better. Soon, instead of dying from cancer, she became a healthy person.
Her neighbors, her friends, and her family saw the miracle, and some of them began to practice Falun Dafa.
My aunt and uncle were surprised to hear her story. My aunt began to practice, too.
My aunt went a hospital in Beijing for review. The doctor who was in charge of her case before asked her, “What made you recover so well? What drug did you use?” My uncle and aunt did not say anything at that time. They were skeptical, but I know this was the power of Falun Dafa.
Unfortunately, my aunt never truly believed in Falun Dafa. Practice was optional for her. She finally gave up the practice. One year later she passed away.
4. My Sister-in-law’s Change
I remember I talked to a friend about my experience of practicing Falun Gong. He said, “I feel like we live in two different worlds when I listen to your story.”
I quite understand his feeling. I felt the same way when my co-worker told me his story. I felt that world was distant and had nothing to do with me at that time.
However, when I let go of my prejudices and notions and when I do not believe one side of the story, I learn and think using my own mind. I am deeply touched and shocked by the noble character of Falun Dafa practitioners.
I have come across Falun Dafa practitioners who are professors, experts, scholars, officials, clerks, laborers, street vendors, and farmers. Regardless of their jobs or educational level, they all follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They do not focus on material things or power, but pay attention to the purity of their hearts. They are sincere and kindhearted and get along with people. They are not afraid of threats or suppression, not afraid of people misunderstanding or being cold due to the CCP’s lies. They firmly believe in Falun Dafa and hold on firmly to justice and conscience.
Zhuan Falun is a such good book. It teaches people to be kind and purifies their minds. My sister-in-law was not nice to my parents since her marriage. She pretty much ignored them for many years. She never called my parents mom and dad. She often stopped my brother from supporting my parents. There was a time when my brother had poor health. I gave Zhuan Falun to my brother and hoped he would read and practice. I never thought my sister-in-law would read the book before my brother. She opened her heart and became cheerful and kindhearted. She began to call my parents mom and dad. When my dad was very sick, my sister-in-law took very good care of my dad when it was my brother's turn.
In the winter of 1999, I went to Beijing to validate Falun Dafa and heard a true story from fellow practitioners in Beijing. A person was once a local tyrant. He had done many bad things and was punished by the law several times. He entered the Public Security Bureau so often that everyone knew him. Later he practiced Falun Dafa, and became a completely different person. He turned into a really nice guy. After the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, he was arrested. He asked the police, “You arrested me in the past for doing bad things. Now I am a good person. Why do you still arrest me?!”
Falun Dafa is a pure land in this human world. There is no intrigue, no swindling, no bribery or corruption, no ugly dirt here. Those things are what Falun Gong practitioners cast aside and move away from. There is only sincerity and kindness here. It is the result of mind purification and uplifting. Even if some people do not have much education, and even are living in poverty with lower social status, they follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, universal values. Their characters are noble, beyond this human world.
