(Minghui.org) One morning when I went to the fried chicken restaurant where I worked, I saw that several of my coworkers had already been working for more than ten minutes. I looked at my watch, and it was seven minutes before our shift started.
I wondered why they’d started early. I asked the deputy manager who showed me the text message the restaurant owner had sent him: There was a customer order that required an earlier pick-up, so they’d started work early.
After a while, the owner came in, took off his coat, put on an apron, and pitched in. It was rare for him to do that.
As soon as he appeared, the pace in the kitchen sped up. Everyone worked with their heads down, no one talked, and the only thing you could hear was the clashing of pots and pans.
Around 11:20 a.m., the left side of my stomach started to hurt. The feeling was a combination of bulging, swelling, numbness, and pain, and it was limited to the size of a fist.
Our Fa-study group memorized the Fa every day, and at that time, we were studying the first chapter of Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun, “Cultivation Insanity.”
Master's Fa naturally appeared before my eyes:
“Another case is that in qigong practice, one will be scared when qi is congested somewhere in the body or when qi cannot come down from the top of the head. A human body is a small universe. Particularly in a Taoist practice, when qi is going through a pass, one will run into these problems. If qi cannot go through the pass, it will stay there. It can occur not only in the head, but also in other parts of the body...”
I thought it seemed that qi was congested in my stomach, and that feeling gradually became stronger and stronger.
I couldn’t stand the bulging. My whole body felt empty, sore, and weak, and my legs had no strength: I could barely stand.
By about 11:40 a.m., my stomach bulged vigorously, my head was sweating, and I didn’t think I could hold out any longer.
I remembered what Master said:
“Practitioners will not feel physically comfortable in their future cultivation, as their bodies will develop many kinds of gong, all of which are very powerful things moving around inside their bodies; they will make you feel uncomfortable one way or another. The reason for your discomfort is principally that you always fear catching some illness.” (Lecture Six in Zhuan Falun)
I grit my teeth and felt sweat running down my forehead. The sweat on my face, neck, back, and chest soaked through my shirt.
I kept wiping my face with paper towels that were soaked through. I felt really weak and wanted to take a break, but I knew that the owner had arranged the workload.
I thought that if I left in the middle of work, it would cause trouble for others. I also thought that practitioners should consider others first and not quit halfway.
But the pain made the thought of asking for a break hard to suppress. However, I continued to suppress it, gritted my teeth, and worked on without slowing down.
At the time, I felt that my body was very weak, as if I was floating in the air. I thought, “It's to eliminate karma.”
Master said, “In cultivation practice one needs to eliminate karma, and that is painful. How can one increase gong comfortably?” (Lecture Six in Zhuan Falun)
At noon, the deputy manager called me over and opened the big warmer. I saw there were already five layers of cooked food inside, and there was no room to store anymore.
Meanwhile, the owner was selling everything we made. I don't know how much he sold in the first hour and a half. On a normal day, I usually made six pots at most by noon, but that day I guess I made at least seven pots, which was more than usual.
The deputy manager held the door of the warmer open with his left hand and gave me a thumbs-up with his right. I thought I could finally take a break.
As soon as I relaxed, I realized that my whole body was wet—even my legs were sweating. I clutched my stomach, said it hurt, and asked him to look at the sweat on my head, chest, and back. Then I asked if I could take a break. He motioned for me to go talk to the owner.
I said to the owner, “Boss, my stomach hurts. I'm sweating all over and want to rest for an hour.” He quickly said, “Sure,” so I punched my card and went out to rest in my car.
In the car, I took out my phone to set the alarm for one hour, which would be 1:05 p.m., but I saw there was already an existing alarm set for 1:05 p.m.
That let me know that this had been arranged for me by Master long ago. It seemed disorderly, but in fact it was very orderly. This had not happened by chance.
I lay down in the driver's seat. My stomach still hurt, so I was restless and didn't know where to put my legs, which also hurt. My mind was confused.
I just closed my eyes and wanted to take a nap. Just then, my boss came over to my car and said, “Take some medicine this time. Haven’t you ever taken medicine?”
I said confidently, “I haven't; I'll be fine in an hour.” He pressed my stomach and left.
Master said:
“In qigong practice, those of you whose qi cannot go through a pass or come down should look for reasons within your xinxing to determine if you are stuck at that level for too long and whether you should upgrade your xinxing!” (Lecture Six, Zhuan Falun)
I recalled this paragraph of Master’s Fa. What did I do wrong? I found two shortcomings related to my family and my cultivation.
I started to recite “On Dafa.” Because of the pain and my confused state, I couldn't do it even after several attempts.
I remembered a practitioner wrote in an experience sharing article that doing the sitting meditation could relieve pain. So I sat up, opened the car door, and started doing the sitting exercise with the music on.
Twenty minutes later my boss came over again. Just then, my alarm rang, which meant one hour had passed—and my stomach no longer hurt.
I had promised my boss I would be fine in an hour and I actually recovered in one hour, which was amazing. He saw I was fine and left with peace of mind.
Later, when I finished the sitting meditation, my boss and the deputy manager both came to look me over. Seeing that I appeared to be fine, they both gave me a thumbs up, patted my shoulder, and went back to work.
After that, I went back to the kitchen, ate something, and went to work. I still had a little pain, but I had no problem working.
This allowed my coworkers to witness the miracle of Dafa. At this time, the atmosphere in the kitchen was really lively.
Everyone gestured with their hands to mimic the posture of the sitting meditation, and some mimicked the movements of my usual exercises, all giving me a thumbs up. Before I got off work, my stomachache had completely disappeared.
I think this experience was Master testing the effect of my memorizing the Fa. It was a “quiz” arranged for me to see if I understood the Fa, if I memorized the Fa, and if I could apply the Fa.
That is, it was to see if I was able to genuinely cultivate Dafa. At the same time, Master used this opportunity to eliminate a lot of karma for me. Thank you, Master, for your great compassion.
Through this experience, I have enlightened to two things:
First, do things in accordance with the requirements of the Fa. Because I’d memorized the Fa, when I encountered this incident, Master’s teachings continued to come to mind.
If I hadn't memorized the Fa, I wouldn't have been so deeply influenced by the teachings and my understandings would not have been so thorough. I might not have had the right thoughts in this situation. Or I might have thought it was an illness, and that would have been very troublesome.
But Master arranged everything for me at this time and “quizzed” me so that I could strengthen the effect of memorizing the Fa. This also made me more aware of the benefits of memorizing the Fa and strengthened my confidence and determination to do it.
Second, our thoughts must be righteous.
Master said:
“We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I think an ordinary person would likely have gone to a hospital if they’d been in that much pain. If my thoughts were not righteous at that time, and I thought it was an illness, there might have been another outcome, even an unthinkable one.
That made me realize that, in all circumstances, we must consider ourselves practitioners and our minds must be righteous.
This is one of my cultivation experiences. If there is anything not in line with the Fa, please compassionately correct me.