I'm 41 years old and an ordinary worker. In 1976, responding to the call of the government, I went and worked in the countryside and mountain areas. In 1978, I was enrolled in the army to serve the country. I was an excellent youth at that time. In 1981, I was demobilized and assigned to work in a factory until now.
Although I was still young and full of hopes for life, my life experiences had gradually changed me into a selfish and ill-behaved person. To relieve the pain in my waist and legs, I became addicted to alcohol, and became famous as a drunkard in my workplace. I behaved in an uncontrolled manner: with no regard to my boss, making trouble after getting drunk, beating up and swearing at my wife and son, feeling decadent and unlucky, with less and less basic morality and conscience as a human being. As a consequence, my wife and I got divorced in July 1996. After that, I gave up on myself as being hopeless, and led a dim life as you can imagine.
I happened to find a book named Zhuan Falun in September 1996. I wanted to have a glance of it and took it home. At that time, I did nothing but either read the book or drank alcohol. Gradually I was attracted by the principles in the book and knew it was a book for cultivation practice. I had struggled for several days with whether I would cultivate. I felt it was hard to give up alcohol, the lust, money and various desires. However, perhaps due to my predestination, through studying and reading the book further, my lost true self was gradually awakened by the principles in the book. I came to realize that the saying "good and evil do have their own retribution" was not empty talk. So I decided to cultivate myself until the end. With the help from warm-hearted practitioners, I took a path of the Fa (the great Law) to cultivate myself. After studying the Fa for a few years and sharing with other practitioners, I came to understand the meaning of a human being's life. I gave up all the bad habits since then. Some of my colleagues even made a joke about me: "If you can quit alcohol, I would give up my meal." I have not drunk a drop of alcohol since I practiced Falun Gong, and did not want to, either. Moreover, my angiospasm-headache (diagnosed by a military hospital) and lumbar vertebra hernia (diagnosed by a railway hospital) were cured without treatment and did not recur. Zhuan Falun, the great Buddha law, has cleansed the dirtiness in my body and soul and enabled me to cultivate with ease. It is Falun Dafa that has turned me away from an evil way and I became a good person by being thoughtful to others. Though I haven't done very well, I will continue to require myself to assimilate according to the characteristic of the universe: "Zhen, Shan, Ren" (Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance) to make further progress.
I had willingly bore the burden of hard work in my work unit since July 20, 1999 when the government began to arrest Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale. I reminded myself to be a practitioner everyday and everywhere, voluntarily cleaning up the office and bathroom, repairing the toilet and the blocked sewers of my work unit, therefore saving the expenses for the work unit. I helped and have cooperated well with my colleagues during work. I declined gifts from clients and made my contribution to improve the work environment, therefore receiving good comments from many clients. They all know I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and am cultivating Buddha-hood. I am wondering whether there is such a member of an evil cult who always constrains and requires himself by cultivating kindness and maintaining virtue.
What is not understandable is that two workers in my work unit were fired because of going to Beijing to appeal, which is in accordance with the basic civilian's rights endowed by the Constitution. They broke all obstacles to tell the truth to the government. What they had done is not for themselves, but for the sake of the country and the people, with their pure hearts. Such selflessness and great spirit of sacrificing themselves for the sake of others has made me full of admiration. The leaders in our work unit also know that they are good people, then why does the government treat good as evil? Is it still the terrible age that whoever tells the truth would die? They were fired just because they dared to speak out the truth and comply with the law to appeal. Where is the basic humanity? Some people are just apathetic and can't tell what is right and what is wrong. They beat up kind people in order to revenge a personal grudge just because their fame and position are being affected. It is really hard to convince people.
We Falun Gong practitioners just do the exercises in the morning and study the books together in the evening if time permits, do not affect anyone else and have no political interest. We are cultivating ourselves. We work diligently while taking fame and self-interest lightly, stay away from the turmoil of the world and strive to keep peace and harmony in the inner self. How many people in China have cultivated in the past thousands of years? How many leading characters in history gave up their great wealth and highest honor and went to the mountains or woods for quiet cultivation? Today, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners put behind all their belongings and even their lives, they only wanted to tell the truth about Falun Gong to the world. No matter how powerful the evil force in the human world may appear, people shouldn't lose their nature of justice, kindness, being open and aboveboard as a human being.
To persist on the truth, many practitioners were deprived of their bright future, superior jobs and high salaries. Among them are university students and graduates. To persevere in their cultivation, they were forced to give up many things in their life. A key member in our work unit was deprived of the right of working at his regular position and degraded to the position of sanitation worker with a monthly income of 130 Yuan [about $15, while the average monthly salary is about $60] due to appealing in Beijing. His basic living conditions are not secured. A couple was fired due to their appealing; a mother and her daughter were arrested; an woman over 60-years of age was sent into a labor camp; a student just graduated was sentenced, and so on and so forth.
An even more unconceivable thing happened to Ms. Tang in our work unit. She insisted on practicing Falun Gong, but did not appeal to Beijing and did not practice outside either except she read the books at home silently. She was punctual and diligent without complaining. But she missed a business trip arranged by our work unit at the end of April. Her colleagues did not know her whereabouts. After she had been missing for 40 days, two policemen from the City police station asked me some questions about her. At that time, I knew she had been arrested. There is no security for life as a Falun Gong practitioner who is trying to be a better person. I go to work everyday under this kind of horror. Perhaps someday I could be arrested, detained, put into a labor camp or even be fired. It is difficult to be a good person under this circumstance. But I fear nothing. I have given my life to Falun Dafa. I will face everything with a smile.
There are around 200 people in my machine workshop; twenty of them practice Falun Gong. The people in the workshop, from the supervisor to the co-workers, know by heart that we are good people, and see the improvements we have made during these years. What can the government gain by persecuting these honest citizens who follow "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance" in their daily life? And what has the government lost?
All inhuman action is shocking Heaven and is not allowed by the heavenly justice. The two colleagues mentioned who were fired for speaking the truth about Falun Dafa and all other practitioners have done nothing wrong by living as good people, all the mistreatments to them should be rescinded as soon as possible, all the slandering and unfair treatment to our Teacher should be rescinded and our innocence should be restored. I call on all kind-hearted people in the world to pay close attention to the current situation of Falun Dafa in China.
Please wake up, all kind-hearted people. The dignity to be a human being is being tramped on by evil; the norm to be a human being is being distorted and is sliding down to a dangerous edge. The virtue of helping each other, respecting the elderly, protecting the young, being righteous and kind were all replaced by some evil motto like "Heaven destroys those who do not live for themselves." "Who supports me will be promoted, who is against me will be suppressed." etc. The greedy and selfishness mentality are destroying human beings. Please be aware that "Good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil." A person who has committed many evildoings will eventually destroy himself. As our Teacher said in the article "When the Fa is Right" (Essentials for Further Advancement): "When man does not have virtue, natural calamities and man-made disasters will abound. When the earth does not have virtue, everything will wither and fall. When heaven deviates from the Tao, the ground will crack, the sky will collapse, and all the cosmos will be empty. When the Fa is right, the universe will be right. Life will flourish, heaven and earth will be stable, and the Fa will exist forever."
Please forward to: all kind-hearted people
Falun Dafa Practitioner in China
July 8, 2000
