Resuming Cultivation as a PhD Student

(Minghui.org) I am in my third year in a Ph.D. program in a sub-discipline of medicine. I began practicing Falun Dafa in 2008 when I was in junior high school. However, I later became immersed in the dye vat of ordinary society’s pursuit of fame, gain, and sentimentality and stopped following the principles of Falun Dafa. In August 2021, I resumed cultivation and began reading the Falun Dafa teachings and behaving as a cultivator should. I am grateful for Master’s compassion, and for not giving up on me when I strayed from the practice.

Obtaining the Fa

My grandmother’s sister, a veteran practitioner who obtained the Fa before 1999, told me how wonderful Dafa is in 2001 when I was six years old.

I was in elementary school, and I told my classmates that Falun Dafa was good and that what was said about Falun Dafa on the TV was not true. As a result, all of my classmates laughed at me and stayed away from me. I cried alone. After a while, our teacher spoke up for me, and my classmates no longer discriminated against me after that.

I got curious to know what the book Zhuan Falun was all about in 2008. I flipped through the table of contents and read the fourth lecture in which Master talks about loss and gain, the transformation of karma, and improving one’s character. Master’s teachings deeply touched me. I felt that my worldview had changed.

Master asks us not to fight back when we are beaten or sworn at. I used to be particularly bad-tempered. I scolded anyone who bullied me. After reading Zhuan Falun, I no longer fought with others. When my classmates talked badly about me or confronted me, I told myself to take their actions lightly.

After I became a Falun Dafa practitioner, I encountered some dangerous situations, but was always safe. Once, a person riding a bicycle with a child in a seat behind him knocked me over. I only had a small bruise on my leg and didn’t feel any pain. I knew Master was protecting me.

When I was in high school, I wanted to join a Fa study group. After having this thought, I met a practitioner who gave me a pamphlet about Dafa on my way home. When I told him I was also a practitioner, he took me to a Fa study group near my home. With the help of adult practitioners, I developed a deeper understanding of Master Li’s teachings.

However, I didn’t understand the Fa principles deeply. I pursued protection through Dafa and didn’t cultivate diligently. I thought that by practicing Falun Dafa I would get high marks in my college entrance exams. When I did not get what I wanted, I spent less time studying the Fa and didn’t look inward to get rid of the attachment of pursuit.

Resuming Cultivation

While attending college, I didn’t truly cultivate. I did well after I talked with practitioners during the summer and winter holidays when I went home. However, I couldn’t persist in practicing when I was on my own.

I went to a big city that was far from my home to attend graduate school. New to a big city, I drifted along with the trends, indulged my attachments and desires, and moved further and further away from cultivation.

I was not happy and started to have insomnia, headaches, and other health issues. I thought about resuming cultivation, but just couldn’t do it.

I was muddled in ordinary society and was driven by personal interests. Sometimes I felt sad, feeling these interests would pass like clouds; still, I didn’t have righteous thoughts, and just couldn’t resume cultivation.

It was not until August 2021 that the outbreak of diseases and various disasters woke me up. I clarified the truth to my boyfriend and helped him quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organizations. Perhaps because of this righteous behavior, Master Li arranged for me to read the things he said at the 2021 Epoch Times and NTD Television Experience Sharing Fa Conference in Manhattan.

I felt Master was talking about me when he mentioned that some people didn’t want to practice cultivation and just wanted to live a relaxed life in this human world. It was like a blow to my head when I read that Master said the purpose of our lives was not to be a human being, and we were not here to enjoy a human life.

Master’s Fa awakened me. I knew that everyone in the world was supposed to learn Falun Dafa, let alone me, a Dafa practitioner! Shouldn’t I do the three things well, cultivate myself, and save more sentient beings?

I began reading Master’s recent teachings, and doing that strengthened my main consciousness. I realized that all along, the old forces were using all kinds of negative factors to prevent me from being diligent in practicing Falun Dafa. The purpose of my life is to cultivate and return to my true self. How could I be disturbed by the chaos arranged by the old forces. I was determined to negate the old forces’ arrangements, and follow the path of cultivation in Dafa.

Those bad substances that had attracted me were gradually removed, and I quit my bad habits one after another. I believe I can let go of all of my attachments and overcome all difficulties if I study the Fa. I will cultivate and at the same time, tell the facts about Falun Dafa to my classmates.