(Minghui.org) Eleven years ago, the death of a close friend of mine awakened me from a spiritual ''sleep.'' A few days before her death, my husband and I had been staying with her. This was the first time that I accompanied death. The time we spent with her and her family members was very tense. In those days, I perceived some energy, which I had never experienced before. Although I did not see nor reach something definite, I felt I was moved, enriched and awakened spiritually by something in the hospital ward.
After that, I had been looking for a spiritual master. Although I had practiced Taichi and other Qigong for many years and was interested in Buddhism and sitting in meditation, I only sought health and relaxation through them. I also tried to sit in meditation a few times, but felt it too difficult. My back ached soon and thus I became impatient and troubled after sitting in meditation for ten minutes.
However, I found myself quite different after my friend's death. I desired to sit in meditation and was eager to receive profound and spiritual guidance. I wanted to know more, what would happen during our death process, where we would head to after death, and what worlds existed besides our tangible, “real” world.
In that year, I was thirty-six years old and had a four-year-old son. I lived with my son's father, but we were not married yet.
A few months later, my son's father brought a leaflet back, which read "Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) is one kind of high-level Qigong practice which cultivates body and mind. The fundamental principles of the practice are 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.' And the teachings are free of charge."
I was attracted by these contents. In my opinion, the principles, ''Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance'' include sincerity, sympathy and tolerance and these are very good values. Besides, this practice is free and people can come and go as they please.
Nothing happens without a reason.
In the summer of 2001, I visited a practice site in a park and then began to read Master's new lectures. After that, I knew there was no doubt that I had found a profound and spiritual practice to guide me from here.
1. Newly coming to Dafa
I still clearly remember that a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner taught me the five sets of exercises in a park one day eleven years ago. While doing the exercises for the first time, I felt my hands become hot and a slight shiver passed through the centers of my palms. What impressed me the most was the way in which the energy channels were opened. I felt a hot flow of energy on the exterior side of my left leg, which went down to my feet just like warm water flowing in a shower. I had only experienced this kind of feeling during acupuncture therapy before.
Before I learned the fifth exercise, the Chinese practitioner shared her experience with me about how our state of mind affected this physical body. She said that once she had the intention of showing off to her friend about how well and how long she could sit in meditation. As a result, she could only sit for a shorter amount of time than usual. She was enlightened that it was her attachment of showing off that caused the opposite result. Such attachment was against "Truthfulness," "Compassion,'' and "Forbearance,'' and accordingly her legs became rigid and ached very soon in the meditation.
Although I had never heard about the concept of state of mind and such causality between the human mind and body, I accepted her views on these right away. On this very day, I began to understand that Falun Dafa includes not only a very effective practice, but also more profound Fa principles providing spiritual guidance.
Soon after that, I read through Zhuan Falun. I then read it once again, because my fellow practitioners told me that this was quite a special book whose profound meanings could be understood more deeply only through reading it repeatedly. My practical experience just proved this. When I read Zhuan Falun for the first time, I only understood a part of it. One should live a life according to the principles of ''Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." These principles contain all good values, such as considering others before oneself, finding and getting rid of selfishness, and believing in gods and the heavenly law. I could not understand much of the content of Zhuan Falun because I did not know of the many concepts from Buddhism and Taoism, or the stories from Buddhism that were included.
In addition, some contents of Zhuan Falun, such as the manifestation of spirit possession was unacceptable to me at that time. Even so, the profound causality I had never heard about before, still impressed me a lot. From these strange words of the book, I would perceive that ''Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance'' is the heavenly law of the highest level. This clear understanding and a positive strength combined with it bolstered my belief in Master. So I was determined to learn Falun Dafa attentively and deeply.
I think this was the moment that my Buddha-nature had emerged.
“So, once somebody wants to cultivate, they’d say his Buddha-nature has come out. That thought is the most precious, because he wants to return to his original, true self, he wants to break out of this level of ordinary people.” (Zhuan Falun)
2. My Magnificent Experience with Falun Gong
Daily Headaches and Migraines Gone
After practicing Falun Gong for two months my periodic daily headaches and migraines disappeared, and I successfully gave up my addiction to tobacco.
Since I was young I was plagued by severe migraines. When it hit me for the first time I was 11 years old. It was so acute that my parents called the doctor as an emergency and I took medicine for the first time in my life. In the following years I took big doses of painkillers and it had became the most important thing for me in order to survive. In my adulthood I consulted many doctors and physiotherapists who were experts in curing headaches but none of them could truly help me. The best effect that I achieved was the easing of the pain through some natural therapy. According to my medical records, in the three months before I practiced Falun Gong, I experienced only two days without getting a headache.
Several weeks after a practitioner in the park taught me the Falun Gong exercises, I practiced diligently by myself. One morning I found the headache was gone. I then spent six pain-free weeks like a new person. It was truly unbelievable, as I never thought that the Falun Gong exercises, so simple in movement, could be so effective, which transcends the realm of modern medical science. It is hard for a layman to understand its efficacy, but it has been testified by many Falun Gong practitioners when they experienced remarkable healing effects.
“We need to purify their bodies and make it possible for them to cultivate up to high levels. When you’re cultivating at the lowest level there’s a process, which is, we totally purify your body. We take all the bad things in your mind, that karma field around your body, and all those factors that make your body unhealthy, and we clean the whole thing out.” (Zhuan Falun)
While other practitioners enjoyed being healthy and disease free, I still had the problem of my headaches coming back from time to time. The good thing was that I did not need to take any painkillers like I did 11 years ago, as I became able to endure the pain while working until the pain disappeared several hours later.
Casting Away My Tobacco Addiction
I witnessed the power of Dafa when I successfully quit smoking one week after I started practicing Falun Gong. I began smoking when I was a teenager and the addiction has plagued me ever since, even during pregnancy.
I guess the changes happened when I read the seventh lecture of Zhuan Falun, where Master addresses the issue of tobacco addiction:
“Aren’t we practitioners trying to purify our bodies? We want to keep purifying our bodies, and keep moving up to higher levels. So what are you putting that in your body for? Isn’t that the opposite of what we’re trying to do? Besides, it’s another strong desire. Some people do know it’s bad, but they just can’t quit. I can tell you that it’s actually because they don’t have the right thoughts guiding them, so it’s not easy for them to just up and quit. See yourself as a cultivator, and treat it as an attachment today and try to quit, see if you can quit. If you really want to cultivate I urge you to quit smoking today, and I guarantee you can quit. In the field of this class nobody thinks of smoking. If you want to quit, I guarantee you can quit, and when you next pick up a cigarette it won’t taste right. Reading this talk in the book has the same effect.” (Zhuan Falun)
I read this part with one hand holding the book while the other hand was holding a cigarette. I thought; “Well, let me quit smoking starting tomorrow.” The next morning I implemented my decision and took great pains in suppressing my rising tobacco addiction. It was not easy. At noon I began to sense the addiction in me. I was extremely anxious and my skin was itching, like ants were walking on me, typical symptoms when tobacco addictions were surging. I did not tell my husband my plan to quit tobacco, because even I myself was not certain whether I was serious about it, so I left myself with some space to change my mind. I wanted to see if I truly wanted to quit smoking, so I did not mention it to anyone.
At noon my husband asked me, “What is wrong with you? You look low in spirits.” I realized that I must make up my mind. I said firmly, “I will quit smoking.” With my words of determination my anxiety was gone, my skin stopped itching and I was enveloped by a wonderful feeling of comfort and calmness, a magnificent feeling.
What impressed me more was that after I got up the next morning, I found my headache was gone. In merely several seconds, great changes happened to me. I later came to understand that my quick and unmovable decision to quit smoking had made me a cultivator. At the moment when I made up my mind to meet Falun Gong's requirement as a practitioner, by ceasing to contaminate my body with tobacco, Dafa manifested its power in me.
3. What Falun Dafa Means to Me
Since I began practicing Falun Gong, 11 years have elapsed and Falun Gong is now celebrating its 20th anniversary after Master Li introduced it to the public 20 years ago. What would Falun Gong practitioners be like now if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had not started the persecution in 1999? I believe it would have brought to even more people from all social levels the recognition of Falun Gong as a priceless valuable treasure for their personal lives and for society.
What does Falun Gong mean to me, then? It is not easy to say with human words. Above all, it made me believe in gods and the heavenly law and convinced me of the power and constructiveness of compassion, which by far transcends the evil's destructiveness.
The more I understand Falun Gong, the firmer my faith in it becomes, like diamond, indestructible and unmovable. My assimilation to the Falun Gong teachings aligns my conduct in life with the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” which in turn deepens my understandings of the teachings of Falun Gong.
My faith in Falun Gong gave me a new lease on life. I am entirely different from what I was like before. By doing the practice on my own, I have come to know the reason for our ever increasing pains, depression, tendency for violence, narrow mindedness and fanaticism. All of these can be traced back to our overlooking the law of causality that is defined by the universal law and our turning against the universal law because of our being lost in society and blind belief in atheism. My firm faith in “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” lays the foundation of my good health and rewards me with a life of honesty, generosity, kindness, responsibility and altruism.
Closing Remarks
Based on its atheistic ideology, the CCP gives top priority to fighting, competition and suppression and instills such ideology to people under its rule, disguising itself to be the ruler of rulers and claiming itself to be the godfather of the people. In such a system only the voice of the CCP is heard and only the CCP's disciplines are enforced.
Until the persecution of Falun Gong ends, I will keep on calling out to the world. The persecution of Falun Gong is the persecution of peaceful and good people, and a battle between good and evil.
For people like us, who live outside China, we need to take a stand. Which side shall we support?
From the Call for Submissions to Commemorate the Twentieth Anniversary of Falun Dafa’s Introduction
