(Clearwisdom.net) I am a new practitioner at a practice site in Taipei Tiger Roar Park. I graduated from the School of Medicine at Taipei Medical University. As a qualified physician I previously practiced Western surgery, but now I am a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.
During my college years, I started to believe in Christianity. That belief helped me somewhat, but with regard to elevating my xinxing (mind nature), it was inadequate.
After I started working in the medical field, I noticed that my colleagues' pursuit for fame and personal gain far exceeded the sacred nature of a medical professional, and few people in church truly followed the teachings of the Bible. I was also influenced into chasing after fame and personal gain, planning for my own future. Since I was a child, I have had stomach troubles and I easily developed diarrhea whenever I ate something cold or something unusual. During my senior years in high school, due to the intense pressure of my schoolwork, I also developed a constant headache, which was the reason I chose to study medicine.
In 2000, I passed the tests to be a surgeon and a traditional Chinese doctor at the same time. My stomach trouble was getting worse. It had reached the point where if I stopped taking medicine, I would have constant diarrhea. A year later, I went to work in the Chinese traditional medicine department of Chang-Gung Hospital as a resident physician. While working there, I read in textbooks from China that each illness could be treated with qigong. I was curious and wanted to learn more about the effectiveness of qigong. I asked Professor Jiang, who came from Beijing, for an academic exchange. He said, "Qigong could be effective, but only if one practices it." The heat generated by those doing qigong and the government suppression of Falun Gong both made deep impressions on me.
I subsequently went to work at Cheng Hsin Hospital. In meetings for all the medical employees of the hospital, the head of the orthopedics department, Dr. Ao, often talked about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong. One time it was my turn to give a speech. When I talked about the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (a skin disorder), he also mentioned to everyone, "Practicing Falun Gong also relieves the severity of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus." At that time my understanding about qigong was at the level of treating illness, and I thought that Dr. Ao was promoting Falun Gong because of its healing power.
In 2004, I went to work at a Chinese medicine clinic in Neihu City. Opportunities to practice Falun Gong started to present themselves. When I was working in Chang-Gung Hospital, I often went to Nanjing, China, to take advanced classes. A doctor I knew at that time (a fellow practitioner, who came to Taipei to work in May of this year) invited me to join the group that promoted Falun Gong and practiced at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. I followed them and started to do the exercises. Mr. Lin, who was producing programs at New Tang Dynasty Television at the time, gave me two tickets to the performance of the Divine Performing Arts from the United States, which was taking place in Taipei in April. He also invited me to the TV station to record a lecture about treating Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and constipation with Chinese traditional medicine. "Uncle" Deng, who had practiced other qigong systems for many years before finding Falun Gong, also lent me the audiotapes of Master's lectures in Jinan. With all these opportunities, I learned about Falun Gong. I attended a nine-day group Fa lecture series and group practice and went to Tiger Roar Park to join the morning group practice. I started to feel the magnificence of Falun Gong.
In September of this year, I took part in a nine-day Fa study class. During the class my diarrhea got more serious, and I thought that my illness was getting worse, so I continued taking medicine. However, every time after I had diarrhea, I felt more energetic instead of having a backache and being exhausted as was the case previously. After the nine-day class, I watched Master's Fa lectures on video at home one day. Master mentioned in the lecture that cultivators do not have illnesses. I kept on thinking about Master's words and stopped taking medicine. The first day, I was nervous and worried about whether my diarrhea would become worse. However, two days, three days, one week passed, and ever since I have been all right. I clearly knew that Master had been purifying my body and helping me to eliminate my karma. But my family members have not noticed my physical changes yet and they still think that my strength has somewhat improved by practicing qigong. As a matter of fact, my physical improvement is not insignificant. I was sick for such a long time, and now I no longer need to take medicine. This is a huge and drastic change!
Master said:
"When our humankind evolves to this extent today, almost everyone is born with karma built upon karma, and everyone's body has quite a lot of karma. In transforming karma, therefore, this situation will usually occur: While your gong increases and your xinxing improves, your karma is eliminated and transformed." ("Lecture Four" from Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version)
Now I get up at 5:30 a.m. almost every day. After practicing the standing exercises, I continue to read the Fa if I am not working the morning shift, in an effort to continuously improve my xinxing, discard my attachments in daily life and in interactions with people, and diligently learn the Fa in order to catch up with the progress of Fa-rectification.
Moreover, I realized that I have strong attachments to sentiments towards my family members. I even worried that I would not be able to see them if I reach consummation, so much that I had thought of not wanting to reach consummation. Master mentioned in Zhuan Falun:
"In the course of samsara, you have had mothers who were human and non-human, and there are too many of them to be numbered. It is also countless how many sons and daughters you have had throughout your different lifetimes. Who is your mother? Who is your son or daughter? No one knows it after one passes away. You must still pay for what you owe others. Human beings live in delusion and just cannot give up these things. Some people cannot let go of their sons and daughters and claim how good they are, and then they pass away. One may speak of how good one's mother is, but then she also dies. This person grieves so much that he almost wants to follow her for the rest of his life. Why don't you think about it? Aren't they here to torment you? They use this form to make you unable to lead a good life." ("Lecture Six" from Zhuan Falun)
From reading this paragraph of the Fa, I came to understand that my attachment to sentiment also interferes with my cultivation. Master taught us:
"Love has a side that humankind considers good, which includes helping each other. At the same time, it has a bad, negative side. Cibei, on the other hand, is completely good. So the love Western Gods talked about in the past, I'll tell you again explicitly, is called cibei, and not the love that people talk about in this human world." (cibei--compassion, mercy).
"As cultivators, you have to rise above it, and cultivate away the attachments that result from love and emotion. That's the relationship among these things. If you want to be able to love without getting attached, that's impossible. But in your process of cultivation, you can't possibly take everything lightly, let go of everything, and not be so attached right away. So in your current phase, whatever state you're in, you can just be in that state." ("Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference" 1999)
As a human being one ought to have love. As practitioners, however, we have higher standards. In the past, under the influence of Christianity, I persistently pursued love for a long time. However, this pursuit caused me a lot of trouble. I came to understand that letting go of attachments and gradually developing compassion is the correct approach in cultivation. My mind felt very much relieved thereafter.
From then on, when dealing with people, I let go of my strong competitive mentality, which I had before, and instead made improving my xinxing my first priority. I kept reading the Fa and discarding attachments, and I am now able to maintain a benevolent mentality and accept negative criticism from others without having conflicts with them. I also stopped thinking nonstop to a dead end about things that I did not agree with. My life has become much simpler. I used to drive a car to work every day and now I either ride a bicycle or take a bus to work. I have saved a lot on transportation expenses. I also stopped being picky about food and now I eat whatever is available as long as it can fill my stomach. I started taking personal interests lightly and stopped competing with others for personal gain. I am gradually improving my xinxing in order to reach the standard of a practitioner.
My father did not believe in Buddha, Taos, or God, and he criticized the things that could not be seen with his eyes as superstition. When he saw how I improved after I started cultivating Falun Gong, he was amazed. One day he suddenly asked, "When are you going to have another nine-day class? I want to go." His words really surprised me. Now he watches Master's Falun Gong Exercise Instruction DVD every day and he even takes notes. I am really glad that my father also has the opportunity to cultivate Falun Gong--this was really an impossible scenario becoming possible. I deeply believe that the best way to promote Falun Gong is to do well as a practitioner. When others see that we have improved, they will naturally believe Falun Dafa is good. Therefore, we must validate Falun Gong well so that more people can understand Falun Gong correctly.
The above is my experience during the three months after I started cultivating Falun Gong. Please point out any mistakes.
