[Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] A Retired Tax Officer: Witnessing the Beauty of Dafa Through My Personal Experience

(Minghui.org) I am a retired tax officer. I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2006 after I almost died from a medical emergency. However, I haven’t been diligent enough in my cultivation. I occasionally did Falun Dafa exercises and read Dafa books when I didn’t feel well. Even so, I have changed for the better thanks to Dafa’s teachings. Here I would like to share my experience on how Dafa made me a healthy and upright person to testify to Masters’ compassion and the beauty of Dafa.

All My Diseases Gone

I landed a job at a tax bureau right after I graduated college. I held the designations of certified pubic accountant (CPA) and enrolled agent (EA). I was the deputy director of a district tax bureau before I retired.

I had suffered from poor health since I was a child. I often went to see the doctor and took medicine and injections. After I graduated college, my condition got worse, probably because of the excessive drinking or the long hours of study to prepare for the CPA and EA exams. I got multiple diseases when I was in my early 30s. I had hypertension, cholecystitis, insufficient blood supply to the brain, myocardial ischemia, and lumbar disc herniation. I woke up due to the heart problem at 3 or 4 a.m. every day. I had been sent to the emergency room several times after suddenly passing out.

I tried everything I could, including western and Chinese medicine and folk remedies. My situation didn’t get better. I had low energy and all I wanted was to lie down and do nothing.

My wife always recommended Falun Gong to me, saying the practice had amazing healing power. I read the book Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, and thought it was good. However, I felt following the teachings was too hard for me. For example, quitting drinking was almost impossible. Drinking with friends and colleagues was part of my life and work. People who don’t drink at business or social gatherings would be shunned. The most important was that I liked drinking very much. 

Over the years, my health kept deteriorating. I collapsed again in 2006 and was taken to the emergency room. The doctor shined a flashlight into my eyes and said, “His pupils are dilated!” The near-death experience really scared me. I was still young. I didn’t want to die!

After serious consideration, I decided to practice Falun Gong. To my surprise, the soothing exercise movements made me sweat profusely. Since then, my head was no longer dizzy, the tightness in my chest was gone, and my blood pressure dropped to normal range. I was so excited and I was fully convinced by the healing power of Falun Gong.

But in the years that followed, I only did the exercises and read books when I was really uncomfortable. However, even so, I no longer needed injections or medication.

Dafa Teaches Me What It Means to Be a Truly Good Person

Tax Bureaus have been generally considered a good workplace with numerous opportunities for "gray income," that is, a person's income that is outside the scope of state supervision and control. For example, before my office’s annual spring trip, many companies competed to provide sponsorship to us. Every festival we received gift cards, money, and other gifts, including expensive cell phones. I never paid for car repair, even the windshield washer fluid was free.

No one thought those were bad things, as it was normal to everyone. Nowadays, the Chinese society has become so degenerated that people don’t know what is really good and what is really bad. It is exactly like what Master said:

“When some people do bad things and you point it out to them, they don’t even believe you—they really can’t believe they’re doing something wrong. Some people size themselves up with the fallen moral standard, and they think they’re better than other people. That’s because even the standard for measuring has changed.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Without knowing good and bad before my cultivation, I not only saw my health deteriorate but also affected my daughter’s future. 

When my daughter was in high school, she applied to a foreign university through an agent. If she passed the interview by the university, she would receive full scholarship to study there. Among all the applicants in my province, my daughter’s IELTS score was the highest and her resume was good, too. However, she didn’t even get an interview.

Master said:

“But there’s a law in this universe, called "a person doesn’t gain anything if he doesn’t lose"—to gain, you have to lose, and if you don’t lose you’ll be made to lose. Who enforces this? It’s the nature of the universe that does.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)

After I began to practice Falun Dafa, I realized the reason why my daughter lost the interview opportunity. The nearly 30,000 yuan agent fee I paid was from my gray income. “No loss, no gain.” 

Once I understood the principle, I began to reject any gray income and tried to make up for my previous mistakes.

The Right Thing to Do

My work involved a lot of business dinners and offered a lot of perks, but my heart still felt empty. When I read Dafa books, my heart was full of joy and enrichment. I started to think of the companies whom we collected various taxes. It was not easy to earn money as a private company in China, not only because of the heavy tax burden but also the burden of having to deal with many government agencies, such as commerce bureau, tax bureau and public security. Any one of those could give the business trouble if they didn’t bribe the agency to keep a good relationship. I decided to follow Master’s teaching to be a good person. I stopped accepting money or gifts from those companies and tried to return those I received previously.

Once I went to a supplier of a power plant to return the 10,000 yuan he gave me before. He was surprised and became alerted. He questioned my intention. I told him sincerely, “I practice Falun Dafa now and believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I shouldn’t take your money.” He was immediately relieved and understood, “My accountant saw a Falun Dafa calendar on your desk and said that you practice Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa is really good!”

The calendar was given by my wife before I practiced Falun Dafa. I was glad that I returned the money; otherwise people might misunderstand Dafa, which would be very bad.

I also invited a colleague to my office. I received money from a company through him. I asked him to help me return the money and told him in detail the reason. I also told him about the persecution of Falun Gong. After he became aware of the truth, he agreed to quit the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). I also downloaded Master’s Lectures in Guangzhou to his cell phone. About half a month later, he told me that he had finished listening to all the lectures. He said that Master’s teaching is very good and that he felt differently about everything now. He said he would listen to the lectures again.

I have returned tens of thousands of such gray income. For the money that I had no way to return it, I used it to make informational materials about Dafa.

While I was improving myself gradually, sometimes I did not do well. Once I had a car accident and my car was damaged badly. I drove to a body shop as usual and the shop waived 4,000 yuan repair fee as usual. However, after I went back home, I felt something was not right. Then I talked to my wife about it. We both agreed that I should pay for the repair fee. The next day I sent the money to the shop and took the chance to tell them the facts about Falun Gong.

On the way back I was so happy that I wanted to sing. 

I believe Master knows what we do. Since then I have not had any car accident again and my car has barely had any problem. With the Dafa in my heart, I live with a peace of mind. Thank you, Master!

After Being Abused by a Subordinate

Once due to work arrangement adjustment, one deputy section chief felt that her personal interest was affected. She became very angry. She cursed me over the phone with extremely arrogant attitude. I was not moved. After she calmed down, she apologized to me. I told her calmly the reason of her work adjustment, and I wouldn’t take her attitude to heart.

She didn’t believe me. Then I frankly told her my faith. She was relieved and said that her aunt was also a Falun Gong practitioner, who used to be combative and dominant but turned into a totally different person after taking up Dafa. Her aunt took care of her elderly grandfather very well. My colleague’s whole family knew that Falun Dafa is good through her aunt. 

Later, my colleague gave me a shirt as a gift. I wasn’t able to turn it down, so I bought her children items of the similar value in return.

Not Taking Advantages, Big or Small

When the driver of my workplace saw my car was dirty, he often volunteered to bring my car to the car wash. I politely declined his kind offer because I knew that he would pay with the workplace’s credit card.

The workplace’s canteen made snacks for every employee once a week and charged minimal fee since it was counted as part of the fringe benefit. The canteen manager always put snacks in higher ranked officers’ cars and never charged them. I patiently told the manager that as a practitioner of Falun Gong who believed in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I couldn’t take any advantage and I must pay in full.

Every higher ranked officer was also issued a laptop. Although the laptop belonged to the workplace, actually everyone kept it after being transferred to other agencies or retirement. But I am a Falun Gong practitioner. When I retired, I returned my laptop. I saved some videos of Falun Gong in the laptop, hoping the next person who used it would know how wonderful Falun Dafa is and how brutal the illegal persecution is.

Sometimes people did not believe that a tax officer would reject gifts and money. They suspected whether the real reason was because they did not give enough. I simply told them directly that I am a Falun Gong practitioner. There were times when I felt timid and didn’t reveal that I was a practitioner. But I would say that my wife was a practitioner and that she would not allow me to enter the house if I dared to accept money or gifts.

By refusing money and gifts, I helped many people quit the CCP. One colleague’s mother even started to practice Falun Dafa after I helped her get a copy of Zhuan Falun.

I still have many attachments to eliminate. I know that I’m far behind diligent fellow practitioners. But I am determined to try my best to catch up, do the three things well, save more people and not let our great Master down.