How Falun Dafa Positively Impacted Practitioners’ Lives

(Minghui.org) I’ve long wanted to share the personal experiences of several Falun Dafa practitioners that I know. They are ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet their experiences of practicing Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) are very moving. In the accounts below, the practitioners share their stories in their own words.

Lian’s Story: Encountering Dafa While in the Depths of Despair

My family was very poor, so I did not go to school until I was eleven years old and I had to stop attending school when I was in the third grade. I started working at a towel and bed sheet factory when I was fourteen. My health had been poor since childhood, and I was dizzy and had fainting spells. My family could not afford any medical care, so I waited until I got married to see a doctor.

After I married, my health worsened. A hospital examination found that I had heart disease, cholecystitis, gastritis, pernicious anemia, atrophic rhinitis, chronic headaches, and hemorrhoids. Later, I developed synovitis (inflammation of the thin membrane lining the knee joints of both legs). I had difficulty standing and I was unable to walk or sleep because of the unbearable pain. I took calcium supplements to relieve the pain in my knees. My family purchased an infrared heater to warm my knees and alleviate the pain, but its effectiveness wore off after a while.

I also received acupuncture treatments at the hospital but saw no results. My husband once saw a TV advertisement promoting a special shoe that could cure knee pain, and immediately took me to the shoe store on his bicycle. A pair of those shoes cost over 1,000 yuan. Despite our low income, my husband bought me a pair. I wore the shoes but they did not relieve my pain. The pain tormented me day and night, and I was living a life worse than death. I even considered suicide to escape the pain.

Many doctors attempted to help me and said their treatments would be effective. I finally met a doctor who told me the truth: my condition was incurable. I wondered if I would spend the rest of my life wheelchair-bound and in pain.

Besides my knee condition, my other diseases were serious enough that my husband accompanied me to and from the hospital each day. I took more than ten kinds of medication regularly and had to be admitted to the hospital two or three times a year. I underwent emergency treatment for three sudden heart attacks, and suffered from insomnia so badly that I had to rely on sleeping pills to fall asleep. Desperate to cure my illnesses, I tried various qigong practices. Instead of alleviating my poor health, the practices made my condition worse.

In May 1997, just when I had hit my lowest point, a friend visited me and suggested I try Falun Dafa. I was skeptical, because none of the other qigongs I tried worked.

The following month, my husband persuaded me to visit the Falun Dafa practice site at the Workers’ Culture Center. I saw more than a hundred people practicing the Falun Dafa exercises. Seeing me enter the venue on my husband’s bicycle, a few practitioners came forward to greet me. When I told them about my illnesses, they reassured me that Falun Dafa could improve my health. They encouraged me to stand up and practice the exercises with them. By that time, I had only been able to stand for one or two minutes, just long enough to brush my teeth. That day, I miraculously stood for over an hour and I did the first four sets of exercises. My husband stood next to me, in case I should faint. My sudden ability to stand shocked him and made him question his belief in modern science.

After doing the exercises, I spent the small sum of 12 yuan to purchase a copy of the book Zhuan Falun. I was mesmerized by the contents of Zhuan Falun and was unable to put it down. Amazingly, whenever I read the book, my excruciating knee pain was gone. A week later, my synovitis disappeared. I was able to walk from home on my own to the Workers’ Culture Center practice site! My other chronic illnesses were also resolved by Falun Dafa. I haven’t been to a hospital for over 27 years since I started practicing Falun Dafa.

A month later, my husband also started practicing Falun Dafa. He stopped taking his antihypertensive drugs. His blood pressure was back to normal and his Meniere’s syndrome disappeared. His health was fully restored.

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners in July 1999, my husband’s work unit used the fact that he was a Party member to criticize him at their weekly Party committee meetings. The unit tried to force him to write letters to denounce Falun Dafa. Unwilling to write anything that slandered Master and Dafa, my husband’s letters of guarantee always failed to satisfy the authorities.

As a beneficiary of the amazing powers of Falun Dafa, I am extremely grateful to Master Li Hongzhi. I would have died long ago if Master hadn’t resolved my illnesses—my husband and children no longer had to worry about me. In February 2000, I went out as usual to practice Falun Dafa but I was illegally detained for a month. After I returned home, the secretary and security chief at my work unit collaborated with the 610 Office (a government organization established by the CCP to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners) and police officers in my district to place me under surveillance. I was harassed, threatened and nearly taken away several times to a brainwashing center. They attempted to restrict my freedom and force me to write a guarantee statement declaring my intent to stop practicing. I had to leave home and hide from the authorities.

The harassment from my work unit, the 610 Office, and local police went on for six years. My family, particularly my husband, faced great pressure, as they were constantly worried about my safety. The psychological strain worsened my husband’s health, and he eventually passed away on December 4, 2003, at the age of 68.

I was persecuted by the CCP because of my belief and my efforts to tell the world the truth about Falun Gong. However, I have no regrets. Many of our country’s public security, prosecution, and judicial personnel have participated in the persecution and committed numerous crimes against Falun Dafa in their ignorance. Every action has its consequences, and I hope these people will come to accept the truth about Falun Dafa, stop aiding the persecution, and choose a better future for themselves and their families.

Ju’s Story: My Husband’s and My Positive Changes After We Began Practicing Falun Dafa

Soon after my husband started practicing Falun Dafa in July 1999, he quit smoking and drinking. His health improved and he became considerate of others. I was completely taken aback. Because he began leaving home at 5:30 a.m. every day, I thought he was having an affair. One morning I followed him. I even planned to divorce him if I caught him with another woman. He went to a place where many people were practicing a qigong exercise. I stood at the back of the group and attempted to follow along with their hand movements. A coordinator came over and asked me, “Who brought you here?” I pointed to my husband. A practitioner looked at my husband and exclaimed, “Everyone is diligently promoting Falun Dafa to their friends and relatives. Yet you didn’t even think to tell your own wife?” In this way, I started practicing Falun Dafa.

If not for Dafa, my husband and I would have divorced years ago. As the only son in his family, my husband should be the sole heir to his family property according to village rules. Yet my mother-in-law favored her daughters over her son, and always gave them more—whether distributing payouts from the village or helping pay for a new home. Her behavior angered me. My sisters-in-law are also domineering and refuse to budge an inch. Our festering resentment led to constant family quarrels over houses and money, and my husband was caught in the middle. I remember fighting with my sisters-in-law one Chinese New Year’s Day. My husband overturned the dinner table and declared in a rage, “Then no one shall eat!” On another occasion, we quarreled about building a new house when my angry husband declared, “I’ll buy a pack of dynamite and blow it up, then no one can live there!” Locked in constant feuds, our family did not have a moment of peace.

After I started practicing Falun Dafa, I came to understand how to be a good person by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I stopped focusing on my personal interest. I no longer fought with others, and I remained calm when others stole from me. Falun Dafa’s teachings broadened my mind and showed me the way forward. I admitted my mistakes and apologized to my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. I stopped blaming my husband and I became more tolerant of him. My husband and I started to make concessions despite the losses we suffered, and our relationship improved tremendously.

My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law observed the changes in me and my husband, and agreed that only Falun Dafa had the power to positively change people’s hearts. Our family relationships improved and our lives became peaceful.

When the CCP started persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners on July 20, 1999, I was illegally detained, subjected to forced labor, and imprisoned for more than nine years. I’m a law-abiding citizen and I’ve committed no crime. I’m a good person who tries to save people by telling them the truth behind the persecution. The authorities have no legal basis to charge or imprison me.

Lan’s Story: Finding Peace Beyond the Mundane and Materialistic World

Before I started practicing Falun Dafa in April 1998, I suffered from gastric ulcers, gastroptosis, gastric bleeding, rheumatoid arthritis, lumbar disc herniation, post-concussion syndrome, neurasthenia, and hepatitis B. Despite spending lots of money on treatments and medication, my condition did not improve and even worsened. After I started practicing Falun Dafa, my diseases gradually disappeared and I became healthy in body and mind.

My husband started practicing Dafa at the same time and recovered from his various ailments. Our family life became harmonious and peaceful.

One day in September 2004, I was hit by a truck while crossing the road. Knocked unconscious, an ambulance was called and I was taken to a hospital. My right lower leg was fractured and several blood vessels were severed. To save my life, the doctor wanted to amputate my leg. He said my life would be in danger if I insisted on keeping my leg. When I told the doctor I was a Falun Dafa practitioner under Master Li’s protection and wanted to save both life and leg, the doctor operated on me. I woke up the following morning to severe pain in my leg. The doctor warned me that it would be difficult to save my leg if the wound became inflamed. I silently recited the phrases, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and some poems from Master Li Hongzhi’s book Hong Yin over and over. My leg pain soon faded, and I made no fuss while I was hospitalized. The doctors commented on my strength of character, and warned me that I would have to walk with crutches for the rest of my life.

As I recovered, I sat up and listened to the recordings of Master’s lectures. I also meditated and practiced the exercises. When I was discharged three months later, I was able to stand for an hour and practice the first four sets of Falun Dafa exercises. Six months later, I was able to walk downstairs with the aid of crutches (our home was on the sixth floor). As my condition improved, I only needed one crutch. I soon walked on my own. A year later, I walked into the hospital to thank the doctors who treated me. They were all amazed. “This is a medical miracle!” one said. I attributed my rapid recovery to practicing Falun Dafa and Master Li’s protection, a miracle that cannot be explained by modern medicine and science.

An elderly woman who lived in my building observed my rapid recovery and asked which doctor I’d consulted for treatment. Her husband had been paralyzed for over three years, leaving her as his primary caretaker in every aspect of his care, including eating and drinking, and eliminating. She wanted to find a good doctor who could cure her husband’s condition. I advised her to ask her husband to recite, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and to also recite the phrases herself. I also gave her two Falun Dafa amulets which had the words “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” printed on them. I saw my neighbor a week later. She excitedly held my hand and said, “My husband and I recite ‘Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’ every day. Now he can sit up, eat by himself and go to the bathroom with my help. It’s amazing! My husband wants to meet you!”

We went to her home. When her husband saw me, he raised his hands and said, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” before thanking me. I advised him to thank Falun Dafa’s Master instead. He shouted, “Thank you, Falun Dafa’s Master! Master is great!” After listening to how my leg got better, he said, “I want to practice Falun Dafa. Can you teach me?” I advised him to read the book Zhuan Falun first, and contact me when he was ready to learn the exercises. I gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun and two truth-clarification booklets.

Conclusion

Practicing Falun Dafa benefits families and society. Practitioners persist in their belief and clarify the truth, not to seek justice as victims, but to dispel the CCP’s slanderous lies about Dafa and to raise awareness of the CCP’s violation of human rights and China’s constitution. In the future, those who have participated in the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners will be held accountable for their crimes.