(Clearwisdom.net)
Giving Up a Forty-Year Addiction to Cigarettes and Alcohol in One Day Upon Obtaining the Fa
I want to report briefly to Master my experiences from ten years of cultivating, and also share it with fellow practitioners.
Twelve years ago, I suffered from several illnesses. Every organ including my heart, liver, stomach, lung, brain, and every joint in my body had a problem. Doctors had given up on me. I was in a very bad state. I could not survive without smoking and drinking. I consumed over 60 cigarettes every day, and drank about one liter of liquor to numb myself. I often beat and cursed my wife and daughter. My family was on the verge of breaking up. I am very lucky to have obtained the Fa before that happened.
Prior to Chinese New Year of 1998, I went to my sister's home to greet her for the New Year. My sister is a Falun Dafa practitioner. My wife told my sister, "Falun Dafa is so good, ask your brother to practice with you." My sister said, "He can not practice. His addiction is too strong. Falun Dafa practitioners cannot smoke or drink." I replied without thinking, "I want to learn. I can quit smoking and drinking. I will not die because of quitting smoking and drinking."
Just because of this thought Master started to help me. On the first night after I finished listening to Master's Jinan Lectures, I quit smoking and drinking which I had been addicted to for over forty years. Dafa's power has manifested in me. Master said,
"So why is it okay to do that for cultivators, then? Because nobody is more precious than a cultivator. He wants to cultivate, and that's the most precious thought. In Buddhism they talk about Buddha-nature, and that when a person's Buddha-nature comes out the Enlightened Beings can help him." (Zhuan Falun).
Two days later, I received the book Zhuan Falun and I started my cultivation. My wife and daughter also started to cultivate after seeing my big change and the miraculous power and virtue of Dafa. With the blessings of Dafa, our family experienced the happiest time of our lives.
Making Truth Clarification Materials
In July 1999, CCP head Jiang Zemin and the CCP launched the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa and Dafa practitioners. However, our faith was unshaken and we firmly believed in the righteousness of Dafa and practitioners. My wife and I, with fellow practitioners, started to clarify the truth of Falun Gong to save sentient beings and to validate the Fa. We distributed Falun Dafa truth clarification materials, fulfilling our mission.
We did not do very well in the beginning. We were not actively involved. We just distributed the limited truth clarification materials which were given to us by fellow practitioners. We wrote truth clarification statements on paper money, clarified the truth face to face, and encouraged people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. However, we did not clarify the truth broadly. Our home was ransacked by the CCP several times. We only had one copy of Zhuan Falun and did not have any of Master's articles. We were worried that we could not learn Master's new articles.
Through studying the Fa and reading Minghui Weekly, we learned that Master encouraged practitioners in China to establish small-scale materials sites "Like Flowers Blossoming Everywhere". We decided to set up our own truth clarification materials site. In the beginning of 2009 we bought a PC and printer. But we did not know how to turn it on and off, much less how to get onto the Minghui website [the Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net]. However, our righteous thoughts to follow what Master planned led to us receiving the help we needed to overcome the obstacles.
"When disciples have ample righteous thoughts
Master has the power to turn back the tide"
("The Master-Disciple Bond", Hong Yin Vol. II)
Soon, a practitioner who I had not seen for a long time came to my home and taught me how to operate the PC and get online. He also gave me the software to break through the CCP's firewall so that we could read Master's articles and fellow practitioners' sharing. Later, the main materials center in our area was destroyed by the authorities and fellow practitioners were arrested. The two districts nearby where we live were without truth clarification materials. For two months, fellow practitioners could not read Minghui Weekly and other materials. Several elderly practitioners came to share with me. We decided to print our own Minghui Weekly without waiting for help. I tried to download articles. It worked, but I did know where the files went. I looked everywhere, and finally found it. Later I learned from technical articles on the Minghui website, and printed the first copy of Minghui Weekly with the help of fellow practitioners from Minghui.
Master saw my heart, and gave me wisdom. With help from practitioners from the Minghui website, I mastered how to download, print, and make mp3 files. I printed the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and various other truth clarification materials. When the 2010 Shen Yun New Year DVD came out, I did not know how to make DVDs or where to find the file. I found the practitioner from Minghui again, and the technical department sent me the compressed file. It took one night to download the file. When the download finished, I found out that the DVD image file was ready and just waiting for me to click the mouse to make the DVDs.
Our small flower has been through one year without any issue with fellow practitioners' help and Master's protection. We will study the Fa more and follow Master's words:
"Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing
be measured against the Fa.
Only then, with that,
is it actually cultivation." ("Solid Cultivation", Hong Yin).
We will continue to do the three things well and fulfill our pledges.
