(Minghui.org) Finding words that express the importance of Falun Dafa in my life is difficult. While having read Zhuan Falun, as well as other writings by Master Li Hongzhi many times during my 17 years of cultivating in Dafa, I remember having experienced many shocking insights in my body and mind. These were moments of insight as to how heaven and earth cooperate, different from what I learned in school. Surprisingly, it highlighted how very few people in the fields of science or philosophy can understand the theories or accept the truths without questioning them.
Falun Dafa Enters My Life
I came across Falun Dafa in 2001. My husband had picked up a flyer which said on its front page, Falun Gong – Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. It gave the practice site information and that everyone is welcome and there is no cost for participating.
It happened during a time when I searched for something spiritual. It was a time when a friend had just passed away from cancer. My husband and I had been at her bedside during her last days. This was an especially intensive time, which caused my spiritual awakening. Indeed, I had practiced decades of Tai Chi. However, I never found any convincing answers concerning the mysteries of life, what happens when one passes on, and what was the energy that I experienced when sitting at her deathbed.
After I had some esoteric experiences, I received this flyer.
I remember clearly my meeting with Falun Dafa practitioners. It was a warm summer day when I visited the practice site in the park. A friendly Chinese lady welcomed me, who had been doing the exercises with other Chinese practitioners. She showed me the five Falun Dafa exercises. It was easy to copy them, as they were gentle and harmonic movements – four standing exercises and one meditation exercise in the lotus position.
I had my first remarkable experience when doing the exercises. During the second exercise, the Falun Standing Stance Exercise, I felt a strong current flowing down my thigh, as if I was taking a warm shower. I only experienced this feeling once in the past – during an acupuncture treatment for chronic headaches and migraine. I understood some time later that during the first exercise, Buddha Showing A Thousand Hand, all energy channels are opened and the energy starts to flow. In doing so, one will experience a warm current.
After the exercises, we sat down and the Chinese lady said that Falun Dafa is more than just pleasant exercises. Most importantly it was the understanding of the Falun Dafa three core principles – Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Then, she used a simple explanation as to how body and mind relate to each other and trigger positive bodily changes when one gains an understanding of the deeper meanings of the three principles.
She told of someone who she happened to see after a long time. She wanted to demonstrate the fifth meditation exercise to that person. She wanted to show her the ability to sit in the lotus position yet she felt pain much earlier than usual. She realized later that she acted out of egoism – she wanted to show off how long she managed to sit in the double lotus position.
I had studied psychology. Thus, I am familiar with the interaction of body and mind. However, the profound truths and magical properties inherent in Dafa and the three principles, and how this coincides with the life of humans on this earth took me several years to understand.
Dafa discloses dimensions pertaining to wisdom and spiritual knowledge that cannot be found in books. I found over and over again, that the core knowledge of Falun Dafa requires that one recognizes different kinds of egoistic motives and then to get rid of them. In the end, one is in sync with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. This is a wonderful and fortunate state of peacefulness.
To achieve this state is not easy. It is especially difficult as everything around us is governed by the contrary.
The First Miracle: Chronic Headache Disappeared
There are countless experience sharing reports on the Minghui website that talk about recovery from illnesses. Even people who were diagnosed with terminal cancer recovered after they practiced Falun Dafa.
I also experienced Master cleansing my body, resulting in an “illness free body.” One morning, I woke up and my chronic headache was gone – it was gone in the morning, the evening, and during the day during the following weeks. It felt as if I was reborn.
I had suffered since my childhood from headaches and migraines, and when I grew up, these problems bothered me daily. I took painkillers daily to be able to endure. Then from one day to the next, these headaches were gone, as if they were blown away. Only people who suffer from migraines can imagine the importance of this. About six weeks later I had a recurrence of these headaches. They troubled me for a few hours or one to two days and were then gone again. Now, they come back rarely.
Once I started to practice Falun Dafa, I have no longer needed painkillers–since 2001.
How could such an awesome health improvement have happened? What is so special about this cultivation practice that can cure chronic illnesses?
Master said,
“I do not talk about healing illness here, and neither will we heal illness. As a genuine practitioner, however, you cannot practice cultivation with an ill body. I will purify your body. The body purification will be done only for those who come to truly learn the practice and the Fa.” (Zhuan Falun)
The Second Miracle: Quitting Smoking
One of my spectacular experiences included my giving up smoking in the beginning of my cultivation.
I began to smoke at the age of 16 and developed an attachment to smoking. My mother smoked and so did many friends. When I came down with chronic bronchitis, I tried to stop smoking, but unsuccessfully. I did not have the willpower to stop, even when I was pregnant.
When reading Zhuan Falun for the first time I saw Master's Fa regarding smoking.
Master said,
“Smoking does not do the human body any good. If a person smokes for a long period of time, at the time of autopsy a doctor will find that his or her trachea and lungs are all black. (Zhuan Falun)
“Don’t we practitioners want to purify our bodies? We should constantly purify our bodies and constantly progress toward high levels. Yet you still put that in your body, so aren’t you going the opposite way from us? Furthermore, it is also a strong desire. Some people also know that it is not good, but they just cannot quit. In fact, let me tell you that they do not have correct thoughts to guide themselves, and it will not be easy for them to quit that way. As a practitioner, why don’t you take it as an attachment to be abandoned, and see if you can quit. I advise everyone that if you truly want to practice cultivation you should quit smoking from now on, and it is guaranteed that you can quit. In the field of this class, no one thinks of smoking a cigarette. If you want to quit, it is guaranteed that you can do it. When you smoke a cigarette again, it will not taste right. If you read this lecture in the book, it will also have this effect. Of course, if you do not want to practice cultivation, we will not take care of it. I think that as a practitioner, you should quit it. I” (Zhuan Falun)
After reading Master's Fa, I decided that smoking was an attachment that I would quit. And, really, as soon as I was serious about letting go of this attachment, I found help. There were no withdrawal symptoms or restlessness, nor did it feel as if I were on an ant hill. I could quit smoking without any side effects.
Many practitioners have shared similar experiences – not only with regard to nicotine but also for those addicted to alcohol or all sorts of drugs.
The Magical Power of Zhuan Falun
Perhaps there are those who came across the words “Fa study,” or “we are meeting up for Fa study.” This represents repeated readings of Zhuan Falun, as well as other Falun Dafa scriptures. After reading again Dafa books and other materials, a practitioner can gain more understandings of the deeper meanings contained in Zhuan Falun.
Master said,
“Genuinely teaching a cultivation system requires teaching the Fa or the Tao. In ten lectures I will make known all of the high-level principles so that you can practice cultivation. Otherwise, you cannot practice cultivation at all. All of what others have taught are things at the level of healing and fitness. If you want to practice cultivation toward high levels, you will not succeed in cultivation without the guidance of the high-level Fa.” (Zhuan Falun)
I experienced the immediate positive benefits of studying the Fa at different times. For example, I remember when I sat in front of the computer my head was filled with complaints and criticism of another practitioner's behavior. I then picked up Zhuan Falun, studied the Fa without any other thoughts for about one half or three-quarters of an hour. I did not gain any specific understanding, but, when I put aside Zhuan Falun my thoughts had turned a hundred degrees. I could think peacefully about the conflicts without being angry. My grievances had disappeared. My horizon had broadened and I recognized the difficult environment of that practitioner, as well as her efforts to meet all tasks.
This was an exceptional experience because the state of studying the Fa was so new to me. The heaviness in the heart, the restlessness from anger, the circling of the recurring thought about the complaints, and then just about an hour later, such a complete difference. The experience of the positive and harmonious power of Zhuan Falun was magical.
Falun Dafa changed my life fundamentally towards the positive. In this experience sharing article, I mainly discussed some states I experienced at the beginning of my cultivation path.
I know – and nothing can shake my understanding – that Falun Dafa and the transmission of the profound meanings of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” are a gift from gods to humans. It is true that what is most important to a human being is to recognize the values and to appreciate that we need to live our life by those principles. Everyone makes his or her choice whether to accept the truth.
Practitioners are persecuted in China because they want to follow these principles. For them, nothing in this world surpasses the Dafa principles or are worth living for. For believing in these truths, they will give up their lives.
I sincerely hope everyone can find out about Falun Dafa.
