(Minghui.org) When I was a teenager, I dominated the village. I would be anxious if I did not fight with someone every day. If I did not come across a situation where I could fight, I would go into the street and beat someone up if I disliked them. My parents always lived in fear. The money they had earned through hard work was all spent treating others' injuries or compensating others.
I lived on the boundary of a city. With nearly a decade of rapid urban development, many high-rise buildings had sprung up. In order to get construction contracts, I gathered more than one hundred associates, and we monopolized the construction projects using violence and intimidation in our area. Of course there were problems. Once, we agreed to start a fight with another group. But for some reason several of our vehicles did not show up on time. A dozen of us fought with more than thirty people from the other group. Several of my ribs were broken. Since I was used to fighting, the pain did not mean much to me, but the failure made me very unhappy. People said that I looked more fierce and increasingly murderous, which scared them.
With more and more construction projects, I had a lot of money. Most of us in the group were not well educated. Since the money came easily, we spent it easily too. We gathered together, spending time at the dance halls and other places of entertainment. We were totally addicted to the four vices (gluttony, drunkenness, lechery, smoking). We spent our days and nights like this, only going home a few times a year. My parents could not do anything for me, and my wife wanted to divorce me. I was completely out of control. I was simply unable to handle my own life.
I came into contact with Falun Dafa in 1996 when I visited my family from the army. My father, who was in poor health, became healthy after practicing Falun Dafa. He did not even want the expensive cigarettes I got for him from Inner Mongolia because he had quit smoking. Since then I found that Falun Dafa is a Buddhist cultivation practice of high virtue that help improve people's health and elevate social morality. In 1999 when Dafa practitioners were persecuted, I told my friends the facts about Dafa.
At that time I was around twenty years old, and could not bear any constraint. Leading a group of thugs, I became a tyrant relying on force. In a few years, I escalated from being a tyrant of the farmer's market to a tyrant of construction projects. I started taking drugs and was accompanied by different woman.
I was not satisfied with this and felt empty inside. Something made me struggle internally with pain. When I was about ten years old, I watched a television series "Journey to the West". When I saw the Tang Priest ascending to heaven, a picture appeared in my mind: Three people sitting in the sky, as if they were just waiting for me. Then a thought occurred "I am not a life from this earth." This experience often came to my mind.
In 2006, my father said to me solemnly: “You should listen to Master Li Hongzhi's lecture!” Before I had finished Master's Guangzhou Lecture, I quit smoking. I really felt the power of Dafa. My wife and a few friends thought something was wrong with me. In their eyes, gluttony, drunkenness and fighting was my normal state. In order to test whether I was okay, my wife encouraged me to smoke, otherwise she would divorce me. Once I put a cigarette in my mouth, it fell on the ground. I know that Master was protecting me. They felt strange too. I could not resist pressure from my colleagues and my wife's threats, so I started to smoke again.
It is difficult to return when lost. The outside temptations interfered with me greatly. Over time, I fell back into my previous state and did not continue to practice.
Every time I came home after ten days for half a month, I felt that only my shell came back, but my heart was still wandering outside. Once, a friend said to me “You have just survived a catastrophe. The lotus flower on your neck saved you (a Falun Dafa amulet). “Indeed, two days ago when I wanted to go out, my wife saw she could not stop me and she held a knife and threatened to kill me. All of a sudden she became inexplicably calm, and let me go. At that time I did not know what was going on, and just thought it was strange.
I particularly wanted to quit using drugs but I could not. I felt very sad. My father said: “Son, come back. Only Dafa can save you.” In 2011 I began to practice Dafa. I dismissed my accomplices and ended the two decade long lifestyle of killing and fighting. In terms of construction projects, everything comes naturally. I will not fight for them.
This time I started to practice for real. I slept for seven days and nights without waking up. Master quickly purified my body. I had diarrhea for several days. I gained over 30 pounds in one month. I changed from a skinny man with a yellowish face and murderous eyes to a smiling and fair skinned chubby man, according to comments from fellow practitioners.
When I just started to practice, I looked rough, like a gangster. Once I went to a fellow practitioner's home, her son asked the practitioner: “Mom, who is that man?” The practitioners said: “He is a fellow practitioner.” The son replied: “Ah? The practitioner looks like this!”
Within one year, Master gave me a healthy body, and Dafa purified my soul and changed my temperament. Here, I, as a disciple, worship Master: Thank you, Master for not abandoning me, thank you for Master's graceful mercy!
I know how difficult it is to obtain the Fa. So with the help of fellow practitioners (my mother also obtained the Fa), I cultivate diligently, and try to do well the three things. I consistently study the Fa, do the exercises, and send forth righteous thoughts. I have a car and drive everywhere as long as I am needed, no matter whether it is a remote area for distributing the truth clarification materials or labor camps or detention centers for sending forth righteous thoughts close by. I pay attention to my own words and deeds. I know that I also had a lot of things which are not in tune with the behavior of a cultivator, such as talking with dirty words, throwing garbage everywhere, etc. No matter whether I realize it myself or fellow practitioners point it out, I will try to correct it. No matter what I do, I first think that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I need to maintain the image of Dafa, and conduct myself according to Dafa's principles.
Villagers saw the power and beauty of Dafa through my change, so it is easy for me to persuade people to quit CCP and its affiliated organizations. My previous associates all know the truth of Dafa and have quit the CCP. The village officials know the truth of Falun Dafa too, and I helped them to quit the CCP. Our cultivation environment is very relaxed and we can basically practice openly.
Now, if I do not study the Fa or do the three things one day, I feel anxious. Only when I am with fellow practitioners do I feel fulfilled, relaxed and happy. Hearing the song, “Be Saved”, I burst into tears. Reading the fellow practitioner's articles about Master's bearing for sentient beings, I have a better understanding of responsibility and the significant mission of Dafa disciples. It encourages me to do well with the three things every day, and be worthy of the Master's immeasurable compassion for all sentient beings!
One of my cousins has very good inborn quality. He could enter deep tranquility and sit in lotus position with two legs crossing each other for half an hour when he just started to practice. He quit the practice due to the temptations of fame and fortune. My wife said: “You have to practice no matter who stops practicing. Only Dafa can make you able to control of yourself”.
Even if my wife did not say this, I would not leave Dafa, because it is Dafa that has changed my life which was heading for doom. It is Dafa which made me change from a criminal to a holy Dafa disciple, admired by all beings in the universe. I must closely follow Master, and cultivate to the end!
