(Clearwisdom.net) My life changed in 2008, when I came to learn about Falun Dafa.
I was born into a military family, and most of my family were members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At a very young age I was taught to be an atheist because, during the Cultural Revolution, all religions were regarded as "historical trash" by the CCP and therefore I had no knowledge of Buddhism or Taoism. If anyone mentioned religion or the word "Buddha," I would regard it as superstition and instinctively reject it.
In 2000, a friend of mine took me to visit someone who knew about fortune telling and The Book of Changes very well. I heard that this person could predict the future and even the date of a person's death. Based on the timing of my birth he said, "You have a good predestined relationship with Buddha. You should become a Buddhist. However, there is no need for me to persuade you to do this. When the time is right, you will do it by yourself."
In 2007, the same friend took me to to see a Buddhist who cultivated at home. The Buddhist told me a lot about the benefits of being a Buddhist and that once becoming a Buddhist, one will be protected by the Buddhas. I had no idea about Buddhism, so I just went along with her to a temple and became a Buddhist.
Among my work colleagues, there was a Falun Dafa practitioner who started cultivation in 1997. Whenever she heard me telling others Buddhist stories, she looked at me with much regret. One day she sighed and said, "With your wisdom and the way you speak, if you could cultivate in Dafa, you would have saved many people." But I did not understand what she meant. She continued, "It is now the Dharma-ending Period, and there are no more Buddha's in most of the temples. Only Falun Dafa can save people now. Why don't you try it."
The next day, this colleague brought me the book Zhuan Falun. I took it home with a sincere wish to read it. However, while reading at the beginning, lots of thought karma started to interfere with me. When I read the text, "At present, I am the only person genuinely teaching qigong towards high levels at home and abroad " (Zhuan Falun), I felt that Master talked at too high a level for me. After reading a couple of pages, I could not continue and so put the book aside.
At that time I had just ended a relationship. Although I knew that it would never work out between us, I was still very emotionally involved. I wanted to find a way to truly get myself out of this emotional entanglement and needed a brand new life. Being a Buddhist did not fill this void, so, with this kind of pursuit, I started to read Zhuan Falun again.
Surprisingly, this time every word of Zhuan Falun reached deep into my heart.
"Since human beings have sentimentality, being upset is sentimentality, so are happiness, love, hatred, enjoying doing one thing, resenting doing another thing, preferring one person to another, hobbies, and dislikes. Everything belongs to sentimentality, and everyday people just live for it. Then, as a practitioner and one who rises above and beyond, one should not use this approach to judge things, and one should break away from them. Therefore, as to the many attachments that come from sentimentality, we should take them lightly and eventually abandon them" (Zhuan Falun)
As I read, those sentiments that I could never give up before soon faded away. I felt a kind of physical and mental relief that I had never experienced before. I was shocked by the miraculous power of Zhuan Falun, and quickly cleared away all my books and CDs on Buddhism in my home, including the Buddhist certificate. I then found my colleague who practices Falun Gong. I told her, "I have decided to cultivate Falun Dafa. Please teach me the exercises." My colleague said, "You should only cultivate in one school. You need to clear away everything that you practiced before." I smiled and told her, "I understand. Master mentioned in Zhuan Falun, "If you step on two boats at the same time and cultivate both this and that, you cannot attain anything" I have cleaned up that stuff, including the papers on fortunetelling. Master mentioned that starting from the first day of cultivation, one's life will be rearranged. I believe in Master." My colleague felt reassured, and, starting from that day, we became fellow practitioners.
I had been through some difficult times to obtain the Fa, but I wanted to be a true cultivator from the beginning. "When one's Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake 'the world of ten directions.'" (Zhuan Falun) I know Master had arranged my cultivation environment, and the practitioners that had cultivated alone before, after hearing that I had obtained the Fa, all came to encourage me, and we formed a Fa-study group at my home. To help me, the newcomer, we studied the Fa and did the exercises together everyday. My cultivation state surprised everyone, and on the first day I was able to sit in the double lotus position for the sitting meditation exercise for 20 minutes. After only a month, I was able to sit in the double lotus position for an hour and felt that my body was floating in the air. Practitioners said that Master was encouraging me because I was diligent. One day during group exercise, when we were dong exercise three, Penetrating the Two Cosmic Extremes, I saw a strong white light in front of my eyes. To the left of the light were two giant green stalks of bamboo that reached all the way to the sky. Soon after, a Maitreya flew down to me from far away and entered my body through my forehead. Then, I saw Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in white clothes sitting in front of me, making hand signs. After we had completed all of the exercises, I told the other practitioners of my experience. They said, "Master opened your celestial eye. Master is encouraging you. Don't be zealous." The next day, I did the exercises alone. Once my hands were conjoined, I saw an even more spectacular scene. A ladder came all the way from the sky, and Buddhas, Taos, and gods appeared in front of me, one by one. Warm energy went through my body and I burst into tears.
I eagerly read Zhuan Falun and wanted to read more of Master's lectures. One day, while I was doing the sitting meditation, my celestial eye saw transparent books falling from the sky, and there was a transparent Falun rotating above the books. I saw five books. At that time I heard Master's voice from the sky, "You should read these five books carefully. You are just beginning your cultivation!" I understood this to mean that Master told me that there was a long way for me to go in cultivation and that I should be diligent. Not long after this experience, from different practitioners, I obtained five Falun Dafa books: Essentials for Further Advancement, Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun Fajie - The Law of Zhuan Falun Explained, Hong Yin, and The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa.
During the process of improving my xinxing through Fa study and getting rid of all kinds of attachments, I also did the three things required of us by Master. I sent forth righteous thoughts four times a day, studied the Fa, and did the exercises. With the wisdom given to me by Master, I clarified the truth and helped people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Whenever I met anyone, it was an opportunity to save them. With Master's help, my cultivation environment became better and better. Our Fa study group always relied on another larger group to provide us with informational materials. We all wished to be able to print our own materials. However, none of us knew much about computers, so we had to wait and rely on the larger group to deliver materials to us. I was the only practitioner who knew a little about computers, so I used my knowledge to start and create my own truth-clarification VCDs. Not wanting to rely on others, I got in touch with a practitioner who was good with computers. They helped us to buy all the necessary equipment for producing materials, and we learned how to use them. We were finally able to establish a small, but fully functional, printing site. This not only relieved the workload of the larger group but also decreased the risk of the practitioners who delivered the materials. More importantly, all the practitioners around us could now read Master's new lectures and the Minghui Weekly in a timely manner, and practitioners can now directly obtain truth-clarification materials to help save people.
Thank you, Master, for your compassionate protection and also thank you to all the practitioners who have been encouraging and supporting me.
Feb. 12, 2010
