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A Lay Buddhist’s Feeling After Getting to Know Falun Dafa

July 01, 2013 |   By a Dafa practitioner in China

(Minghui.org) Last year, I received an unexpected phone call from one of my high school classmates, whom I had last seen 26 years ago. Apparently I had never spoken with him, even in high school.

He mentioned his name and was hoping to see me. I thought this might be Master's arrangement to have people with predestined relationship to Dafa to come to me and learn the truth. In order not to miss this opportunity, I prepared a CD of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and several truth clarification brochures for our meeting.

When we met, I couldn’t recognize him, since we had not seen each other for over 20 years. He greeted me by saying, “You look very kind and have not changed much.” I got a feeling that he wasn’t secular like most people in society. We found a small restaurant to talk.

He told me that he was a lay Buddhist, having followed this path for years. He asked, “You look very kind. Do you practice Buddhism?” I told him, without hesitation, that I practice Falun Dafa and have been cultivating for 13 years. He was surprised, because his impression of me was totally different from the way Dafa practitioners have been portrayed by the state-run media. He was anxious to know how I got started with the practice.

I first began talking about how my mother became healthy after practicing Falun Dafa, and then about my own amazing experience before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution in 1999. I told him that I went through a period of deep reflection for six months after the persecution had started. In reading all of the Dafa books, I could not find a single item that related to what was being said in the slanderous propaganda on TV, and this strengthened my determination to continue cultivating.

My classmate could see that I was highly educated, my mind was clear and rational, and I understood exactly what the idea of cultivating virtue was all about.

He raised questions about the “Tienanmen self-immolation” and the rumor that practitioners were supposedly not allowed to take any medication. I responded by pointing out the discrepancies uncovered in the “Tienanmen self-immolation” incident, which proved that it was a hoax staged by the CCP to frame Falun Dafa. Since he was a lay Buddhist, the “no medication” issue was easy to explain because he understood the relationship between sickness and karma.

I showed him a truth-clarification brochure and helped him to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He told me that he had been forced to join the Communist Youth League while in school. He expressed regret about passing along negative views about Dafa to three people and told me that he would track those people down and explain the truth to them. He said, “I could go to hell if I said bad things about Dafa because I didn't know the truth. It would be terrible."

He also told me about his experience with Buddhism. He asked his teacher questions, such as “How long can one continue improving his level?” or “In this final part of the Dharma-ending period, how can one escape?” However, he could not get any answers. He was anxious to find out what Falun Dafa teachings had to say about these conundrums.

I told him that he could find the answers by reading Zhuan Falun. I explained that I could not tell him what his final destination might be, as the power of Dafa is so big that it has no limits, and I was afraid of making something up.

He was very impressed and said, “Your answers have choked me up. My Buddhist cultivation looks like climbing the stairs, but your Dafa cultivation looks like a lift straight up.”

I told him that everything I discussed were things I had learned from cultivating in Dafa. When I showed him Master’s Hong Yin poems, he said: "This is the Dharma. I should read it.”

I expressed my wish that he read Dafa books and not miss this precious opportunity. Because he had a predestined relationship with Dafa, Master had arranged for me to help save him.

I feel so fortunate that I have been under Master’s protection the whole time. Thank you, Master! I must cultivate diligently, do the three things with righteous thoughts, and help save sentient beings.