(Minghui.org) I am a 42-year-old male surgeon. I started cultivating Dafa in 1996.
I would like to share a brief account of my experience of how I started to practice Falun Dafa, and of some of the stories and experiences during my cultivation.
When I was a child I read a lot of extracurricular books and knew that there were many unsolved mysteries in this world, such as the construction of the pyramids in ancient Egypt and numerous supernatural phenomena in the world.
The remains of many ancient civilizations discovered in the world show a level of science and technology that is far beyond the level of modern science. Additionally, many supernatural abilities of the human body have been observed.
During the dead of night, I often thought, “Who exactly am I? Why did I come to this world? What does a person live for? What is it like before my birth and after my death when I have nothing?”
When I was in junior high school in the 1980s, qiqong was very popular, and I frequently heard that many people gained supernormal abilities after practicing qigong.
As a result, I was very interested and wanted to practice too. So, I started to practice according to a few isolated words I'd heard.
I sat on the edge of the bed, conjoined my hands, touched the tip of my tongue to the hard pallet, closed my eyes, and kept my mind empty.
After practicing for a while, the distracting thoughts were gone and I could calm down during my exercise. I felt wonderful and very comfortable.
One day when I was practicing, my celestial eye opened and I was able to see some phenomena. I didn’t understand what was going on then, but I was fascinated.
Due to not knowing the principles, I did not know how to cultivate, and some of the things I encountered during my practice caused me fear.
I heard that “going astray” could occur during the practice, and I was worried that the same thing would happen to me. Because I wanted to understand the fascinating state, and because I had the fear of “going astray” during my practice, I read some religious books, including some Taoist classics.
But not only did it not alleviate my concerns about “going astray,” the scary phenomena mentioned in the books even strengthened my fear. As a result, I was afraid to practice.
I even worried about it when closing my eyes to sleep. I was worried that there would be some unknown things of qigong coming to me.
But I did not want to give up those wonderful phenomena and feelings which I experienced during my practice. I wanted to figure it out.
With my determination, I was more eager to find a master to get his guidance and protection.
One day at the book stand next to the entrance to my college, I saw the book Zhuan Falun. I opened it and saw Master Li's photo (the founder).
Master looked at me mercifully. I had a feeling of peace of mind, and a feeling of Deja vu.
After reading Zhuan Falun, I understood everything. I found the answers to the worldly mysteries.
I came to realize why human beings live after all. I had also understood the utterly amazing phenomena that had appeared when I was first trying the qigong exercises, as well as the scary things I came across too.
I suddenly became enlightened. Knowing that there was Master to protect me, the previous fears, worries and anxieties were totally gone.
Ah! This is the cultivation that I was looking for. This is the Master I was looking for!
I made up my mind to cultivate straight to the end.
One night when I was sleeping my body became lighter and floated up; even the covered quilt was lifted. All the uncomfortable feelings in my body I had before were gone.
I felt relieved. The neurasthenia I had in high school, due to an overload of homework, used to keep me awake at night.
I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, and I slept soundly. My whole body and mind had undergone a deep transformation; it was truly like being reborn.
After cultivation, it was quite different from before. When my main spirit (yuanshen) was separated from my body at night, it flew out of my body and was free.
Once my main spirit went to the undersea palace and saw a legendary mermaid. Another time it went to a large desert and saw a camel team. When I woke up in the morning, I could still feel a strong and compassionate field surrounding me.
One night, my main spirit was separated from my body and flew downward layer by layer. Finally, I came to a gray world and landed on a hill. Looking down at the bottom of the cliff, it was layers of iron cages, deep and bottomless. A lot of people were held in each layer of the cages.
They looked up at me in despair. At this time, a person appeared on the opposite side of the hill and said to me: “No somebody.”I woke up and thought about the experience. I thought, “Wasn't that a kind of image of hell?”
The "somebody" said by that person on the top of the mountain was my name! Wasn't it telling me that my name was not in hell? Wasn't it indicating that my name was eliminated from hell? I was very grateful to Master.
During my consequent cultivation practice, I saw the form of the supernormal ability of clairvoyance discussed in Master's teaching. There was a small mirror in my forehead that flipped back and forth quickly.
I also saw the form of the supernormal ability of precognition and retrocognition. There was something like a small TV screen in my forehead showing flashing snowflakes without a signal.
One day when I walked out of a park I suddenly saw in another dimension that there were three flowers on my head. There was a pole of light on each flower that reached all the way to the zenith.
At the same time, several people walking in front of me all turned around and looked at me. I thought this might be the "three flowers gathering above the head" that Master mentioned.
In fact, after cultivating Dafa, I had a lot of wonderful experiences. I won't go into every detail here, however.
By learning Dafa, I know that cultivation is not only about refining movements, but more importantly, improving one's moral character. In my daily life, I asked myself to be a good person according to the requirements of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Prior to my cultivation of Dafa, my relationship with my family was very tense. I often quarreled with my younger brother, and the interpersonal conflict between us was quite strong.
Once at the peak of our argument, my brother even picked up a kitchen knife and tried to stab me. My father was often furious because of the tension between my brother and me.
One time he was so furious that he grabbed a drinking bottle and smashed it on the floor. After I began cultivating in Dafa, I was able to forbear and was kind to my younger brother.
We no longer quarreled anymore, and the whole family's relationship also became harmonious. The harmony among our family members was a blessing, and this blessing was brought to me by Dafa.
One day after graduating from college, a classmate in the same dormitory called me. He said his brother needed surgery for appendicitis and he wanted to borrow 500 yuan from me.
I knew that his family was very poor, and that his father only earned 50 yuan a month, and his mother was paralyzed. I lent him a thousand yuan and told him not to worry about paying me back soon.
I told him that he could wait for ten or twenty years when he really had the ability to pay me back. In truth, my salary per month was only five hundred yuan at that time.
Afterward, I learned that this classmate also called other people in our dormitory. I was the only one who lent him money.
I did so because I am a Dafa practitioner, and Dafa is to cultivate Shan (compassion). Master has asked us to consider other people in everything we do. One person who cultivates will benefit the others around them.
After graduating from the university in 1999, I became a surgeon at a mining factory. I required myself to follow the Dafa principles. I worked very diligently and did whatever task my supervisor assigned me with no personal conditions attached. I was self-motivated in studying and improving my professional skills.
I approached the experienced colleagues modestly to get their advice. I was benevolent and kind to my patients and gave them more consideration.
I took the dirty and cumbersome work in the hospital, and I did it diligently. As a result, I was well received by everyone.
At the end of 2002, the hospital held a vote to select a model worker. All the staff at the hospital voted for me. Holding the selection result, the hospital president said to the audience: "He practices Falun Dafa. Even if we submit his name it won't be approved."
As a result, everyone had to choose another person. This incident demonstrated that Dafa disciples are well-recognized good people. People accepted the fact that Dafa teaches one to be compassionate and to be a good person.
At the beginning of 2001, the factory had a town-hall meeting. When the head of the factory reported a work summary at the meeting, he suddenly said something to smear Dafa. I was shocked. How could he openly smear Dafa in front of everyone?
I thought that I should stand up and tell people the truth and let them know that Dafa is good. But immediately a thought came up: “ If I stand up like this, I will be beaten and caught.”
I was not mentally prepared yet, as there was a torment in my mind by the contradiction. But finally, I made up my mind, and knew that I had to stand up and tell the truth to the world!
I stood up from my seat and recited Master's words in my mind:
“Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy—this is establishing the mighty virtue of an Enlightened Being.” (“Rationality” in Essentials for Further Advancement II)
I walked to the podium calmly. It was already the Party secretary's turn to speak on the podium. I said to the secretary, “Can I have the microphone for a moment, please?” He stared at me blankly.
I picked up the microphone and turned to face the crowd of over 500 employees. At first, my mind was blank.
Finally, I said, “Falun Dafa is not superstition and not a religion.” Right away, the secretary grabbed me and several factory's policemen rushed up from the crowd.
They rotated my hands and handcuffed them behind me, then escorted me to the factory's police station. They forced me to go back to the meeting for a self-criticism to admit "I was wrong."
When I refused to do so they beat me heavily, and then brought me to the local police station, from where I was escorted to a detention center for illegal quarantine.
During the early days of my detention, regardless of whether my eyes were opened or closed, I could see the gods and divinities all over the sky, stacked in layers and layers, very solemn and magnificent. I knew it was Master who let me see this wonderful sight to encourage me.
In 2003, I was sent to a labor camp in the province due to the persecution. As soon as I arrived at the labor camp, several policemen surrounded me.
They threatened to use electrified batons to shock me and use a brazier to burn me. However, I still kept saying Dafa is good.
I told them that the Tiananmen Square self-immolation was fake. I said that it was staged to incriminate Falun Dafa.
When they saw that I was not intimidated, they handed me over to some groups of thugs and asked them to deal with me.
The police first handed me over to two thugs who often violently beat Dafa disciples. They dragged me into a room and they were going to beat me.
I saw one of them with a fierce light in his eyes, and his face looked like a devil. At that moment I remembered Master's words:
“Dafa disciples are able to righteously look the evil people straight in the eyes, and the evil people immediately try to avoid eye contact. That's because the righteous thoughts scare off the evil beings that manipulate the evil people, since they know that if they flee just a bit too slowly they'll be instantly eliminated by Dafa disciples' righteous thoughts.” (“Touring North America to Teach the Fa”)
I gazed in his eyes with a righteous look. When he saw my righteous look, he also stared at me.
We all gazed at each other without blinking. After a while, he couldn't hold it anymore, and he didn't dare to look me in the eye.
He avoided my gaze and withered away. At the same time, the person next to him did also. They lost the previous fierceness and madness completely. Next, the policemen forced me to watch a video that smeared Dafa.
Several "transformation" personnel took turns to "teach” me, including verbally threating me with things like detaining me indefinitely, not allowing me to return home, killing me without any consequences, and so on.
There I was only allowed to sleep for three or four hours a day. Except for meal time and going to the toilet, they did not stop for a moment.
There was no time to study and memorize Dafa. I could not remember how long it lasted but I felt a thick layer of bad substances surround my brain.
It inhibited my righteous thoughts, and always brought up bad ones: "Write it, write the ‘five regretting pledges,' write it and I would be freed.”
One day after a whole day of extensive mental bombing, which made me extremely exhausted, I was lying in bed and said to Master in my heart: “Master, I would rather die than convert! Those bad thoughts are not mine. Master, please help me clear those bad things."
When this thought came up, I immediately felt the bad things surrounding my brain disappear completely. The bad thoughts were gone and my mind was clear again.
I was able to think righteously again thanks to Master who gave me the power. I finally overcame the tribulation.
I learned that among the steadfast fellow practitioners, there was a pocket-sized Zhuan Falun in circulation secretly. I had not read the Dafa book or studied the Fa for a long time.
I was very eager to read the book. However, the labor camp would have a thorough search from the top to bottom at least once a month, and they sometimes even had a random search.
If the book was discovered, one had to suffer severe persecution. I was wondering where the fellow practitioners could hide the book?
There was a contradiction in my mind between learning the Fa and being persecuted. Finally, the desire for the Fa prevailed.
I thought, “Even if I was killed, I still want to study Dafa!” Once I let go of the thought of life and death, many miraculous things happened!
It didn't take long for the pocket-sized Zhuan Falun to circulate to me. It was such a treasure!
Looking back now in such an evil environment, I truly relied on Master's protection and blessing to preserve Zhuan Falun and Master's new articles, and disciples were able to overcome the hardships one after another.
Before returning home, I passed this pocket-sized Zhuan Falun onto the next fellow practitioner, so that they could learn the precious Fa.
In 2011, I started to participate in the project of installing the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) receiver. I regarded the process of installing NTDTV as a process of cultivation.
When I ran into problems I would search internally and conducted myself well. The results were very positive.
Fellow practitioner Enron's husband was an official of the CCP. He read many books, including some religious books.
He traveled to many places and had been exposed to some "celebrities" in the religious circle, but he had been deeply indoctrinated by the evil CCP.
Once I went to Enron’s home to install the NTD satellite receiver. After learning that we were Dafa disciples, Enron’s husband expressed disdain for us.
He repeated the lies that the communist party instilled, constantly questioning and accusing us. He even disparaged Master.
He was extremely arrogant. However, we did not care about his attitude toward us, but we could not stand his disrespect toward Master.
As a result, we started to argue with him. He was very eloquent and good at speaking. As such, we were not able to prevail over him in the argument. I told him the truth about the "Tiananmen Square self-immolation."
He avoided the topic when he was not able to win an argument. I felt that he looked down on us so I told him about my profession.
I thought that my occupational prestige was not bad among everyday people, but he did not care at all. Then I realized that I was handling the situation with an ordinary person's mind.
When I realized that my mind was not proper, I left him for a while. I gained my calmness and looked at myself internally.
I found that I had a strong competitive mentality. I was not trying to tell the truth, but instead, to argue with him to prove who was right.
I also found that I was using ordinary human sentimentality so that when I heard others disrespect Master, I was angry. I thought, “I should let go of the competitive mentality and human sentimentality. I should not be tempted by what other people have said.”
I also thought that I should use my wisdom and take the attitude of a cultivator to talk to him about the facts of Falun Dafa.
I went back calmly, and Enron's husband was challenging us, saying, “You guys were caught, beaten, and killed. Why didn't your Master protect you?”
Other practitioners were not able to answer. By that time, my mentality became stable and I was not moved by his attitude.
I said peacefully, “You've also read many religious books. You should know what is going on! Buddhism was persecuted for five hundred years before rising.”
I went on to say, “Christianity was persecuted for three hundred years before rising. Can you say that Shakyamuni Buddha and Jesus did not protect their disciples?” Enron's husband had nothing to say.
He was quite shocked when I finished. Furthermore, I said, “We benefited and became healthy from practicing Falun Dafa. Many people's lives have been saved by Falun Dafa!
He was changed after listening to the truth. Some days later, I met practitioner Enron again. She said that her husband loved watching NTDTV, and genuinely did the three withdrawals from the CCP.
In addition to telling the truth using the opportunities of installing NTDTV, I also went out to the streets, markets or other places with practitioners to clarify the truth.
During the course of truth-telling over the past few years it is obvious that people around the world are also rapidly awakening.
The difficulty of telling the truth has been greatly reduced. Many people who understood the truth have sincerely expressed their gratitude to Dafa disciples.
I will cherish these cultivation opportunities and continue to do well as a practitioner.