[Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] Young Practitioner: Falun Dafa Helped Me Get Rid of My Bad Habits and Reclaim My Youth

(Minghui.org) I have practiced Falun Dafa for a year now. Dafa cured my diseases and helped me give up my bad habits. My hope is that more Chinese people, especially those young people who grew up in atheism, come to know and cherish Dafa.

Developing a Life-Threatening Disease 

I have been in poor health ever since I was a child. Colds and coughing fits were normal for me every year when the seasons changed. 

Once, my coughing lasted for a month in high school. One day, I felt a sudden, penetrating pain in my back and had difficulty breathing; I went to the hospital. The x-ray showed that my lung had almost collapsed completely: my right lung was compressed to 20 percent of its normal capacity.

The doctors performed surgery. My lung capacity rose back to 70 percent, and I was discharged from the hospital. However, only a month later, my lung collapsed again. This time, my right lung was compressed by 65 percent. I was hospitalized again.

My doctor said there that was no permanent cure for my disease. I needed to avoid coughing, heavy work, and intense exercise. Since then, my lungs were like a time bomb that would torment me from time to time.

Developing Bad Habits

My family bought a computer when I was ten. Soon, I became hooked on computer games. That same year, I also started to pay special attention to sexual content on TV, and in newspapers and magazines, and grew interested in pornography. 

I lived in the dorms at high school. The biggest thing that I looked forward to every week was going home during the weekend to play video games for a few hours. I would also download pornographic pictures and games to my phone, which I would consume after returning to my dorm.

I continued playing games and visiting porn sites when I was in college. I often skipped classes. I had to retake tests or sometimes even retake the whole class in order to pass. 

I didn’t get into a graduate school after I failed the entrance exam, so I worked at my relative’s company in a different city from my parents. My addiction to computer games and pornography kept controlling me. I was lethargic at work; I was often dizzy and coughed a lot. 

I did not have a clear purpose in life. My health also got worse and worse.

Deep in my heart, I wanted to know why people live and why people suffer. I once wrote such a sentence: “The universe is big, but I can’t find any place to call home.”

I looked for help in online forums for my lung issues. Another young man with the same condition said that it was caused by extensive ejaculations—he had a porn addiction as well. I saw this and began looking for a few methods to eliminate my sexual desire (later on, I realized that those are Buddhist or side-path practices). They were effective initially. But once my health recovered, I returned to the same lifestyle.

I thus came across some cultivation-related materials. I read some Buddhist scriptures and also wrote down some Buddhist teachings as mottos to follow. I liked to visit temples. Of course, I didn’t understand the law of “practicing only one cultivation way” yet.

Coming to Dafa

I applied for overseas graduate study after working for a year. I was accepted by the best school I applied to, though I didn’t have shining credentials. Later on, I realized that this was Master Li’s (the founder of Falun Dafa) blessing for me. 

So I came abroad.

There was a Falun Dafa information booth near my apartment. I walked by it every day, but never took any of their literature or stopped to look at their displays. My roommate took the Minghui Weekly home to read every week, but I never read it.

In fact, I’d met Falun Dafa practitioners in China who distributed anti-censorship software, and I've also read things about the Chinese Communist Party’s organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience. I couldn’t understand why people would risk their lives just to distribute materials. The website about organ harvesting I saw also did not mention that Falun Dafa practitioners were the main target of the operation.

Luckily, I met my girlfriend while studying abroad. I found her very kind, and felt that she had a much higher moral standard than others. At that time, I didn’t know that she was a Falun Dafa practitioner.

I talked to her about some cases of child abuse and human rights violations in China. I also told her about my relative’s experience during the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Tiananmen Square Massacre. She knew all about them. To my surprise, she had a very deep understanding of the CCP’s nature. 

Once, when we were studying in a classroom, she saw a copy of Minghui Weekly on the table. She opened to the page of quitting the CCP. I said abruptly, “I don’t believe that number (of people who have quit the party). You can ask your parents: who dares to quit the party in China?”

She came back to China for an internship, and I went to visit her. She told me what Falun Dafa is and why people should quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. I was happy to hear this; I promised her that I would go online to quit the CCP. 

She asked me to read Zhuan Falun, saying that I would find answers to all my questions in the book.

I flew back to school. After getting off the plane, I searched for the Falun Dafa website on my phone and started reading Zhuan Falun. I rode the subway home, but had to get off to use the bathroom every few stations. Throughout this process, I didn’t feel exhausted at all. Instead, I felt that my body became lighter. Later on, I realized that this was Master cleansing my body!

I went to the End the CCP website and made a statement to quit the Communist Youth League and Young Pioneers.

I read Zhuan Falun in a day and half; it changed my worldview completely. I found answers to my questions that I couldn't find in other Buddhist or qigong books. 

In the book, Master uses simple language to explain the profound law of the cosmos. I understood the meaning of life, why people get sick, and why people suffer. I also understand that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the highest characteristic of the universe. I felt that I was very lucky to have gotten the chance to learn Dafa.

However, I didn’t treat myself as a true cultivator. I continued to play computer games and watch porn. They were like two snakes that kept haunting me.

Two weeks before my dissertation defense, my lung collapsed again when I came out of a classroom at night.

There was no one around in the hallway. I held on to the wall and bowed my back, trying to move my feet slowly. But I could not get any air in. I realized that even though I had learned Dafa, I didn’t cherish it and kept wasting my life away. 

I cried in my heart, “Please save me, Master! I was wrong. I want to be diligent in cultivation!” 

In less than a second, all of my symptoms were gone. Looking back, I know that this attack had come to take my life; without Master’s compassionate salvation, I might have died. 

Giving Up Bad Habits

I learned the five sets of exercises and watched Master’s Fa Lecture at Guangzhou before I went back to China to work. 

I lived by myself in the city, but I was not diligent. I didn’t do the exercises, nor did I read the Fa thoroughly—I just picked a few paragraphs here and there to read once in a while. 

Computer games and pornographic content remained a temptation. I still caught colds or felt dizzy from time to time and had to take sick days off to rest. I drank at company events, complained about my salary, and also badmouthed other people.

I visited my parents during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. As the situation got worse and worse, the CCP removed all posts about asking for COVID-19 assistance off of Weibo (a popular microblogging website). I realized that the more the CCP covered things up, the more severe the disaster actually was in China.

I thought of the saying that people should “quit the CCP to save one’s own life.” I also recalled Master’s teachings on saving sentient beings. All of sudden, I lost my interest in entertainment. I just wanted the lockdown to be over so that I could return to the city I work in to do the Dafa exercises and tell people the truth.

After I returned, my addiction to computer games and porn disappeared completely. Every once a while, my classmates would invite me to play some video games, but I kindly declined each time. 

I also faced the test of lust. Two tests were extremely hard. I vowed to Master that I would relinquish my Falun if I watched porn or masturbated. With the strength of that promise, I managed to pass the test.

After these two huge obstacles in my cultivation path were gone, I felt that I was elevating quickly. I could concentrate when studying the Fa. I finished all of Master’s Fa lectures and started to memorize Zhuan Falun. 

Also, I came to know that doing the exercise can transform our body, so I started doing the exercises. I started by getting up at 4:50 a.m. every morning to do one hour of exercises. I then increased the time and got up at 3:50 a.m. to do two hours of exercises.

My girlfriend and I both cherished the time. We had no obsession with spending time together. Instead, we both tried to do the three things well in our spare time.

Telling People about Falun Dafa

From Fa study, I came to know that Dafa disciples do not cultivate for a healthy body or for our own consummation, but rather we shoulder a greater mission. We need to assist Master to save sentient beings in this special period of history: the end of the cosmos.

As Master told us, we are “to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism.” (“Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature,” Essentials for Further Advancement).

As COVID-19 began taking away people’s lives, I started to use various methods to tell the facts about Falun Dafa to my friends and colleagues. I wanted to help them realize the danger of the CCP and quit the Party to stay safe. 

I first talked to my friends online. Some agreed with me right away, some were scared to talk, and some rejected me.

I learned that the CCP was monitoring the Internet heavily. So I switched to talking face-to-face. Opportunities kept coming up. Friends invited me to travel with them, classmates whom I hadn’t seen for a long time came to my city, or my colleagues would just bring up related issues when chatting.

However, I didn’t do well at first. I either went off topic or had fear in my heart; sometimes, I even started arguing with the other party. When people weren't listening to me, I even thought, “I've said this much but you still don't understand. I guess it's fine if that's what you want (to stay with the CCP).”

When I saw that some practitioners on Minghui helped tens of thousands people quit the CCP, I became jealous and impatient with myself. I set a quota for myself that I must talk to a stranger every day on my way home. But I could not successfully convince even a single person to quit the CCP even after a month.

Then I read the books Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, Disintegrating Communist Party Culture, and The Ultimate Goal of Communism. I also watched videos on Minghui which explained Dafa to people.

I came to understand that we cannot go to extremes when saving people. I should not pursue consummation or think about trying to gain virtue when helping people. 

After realizing this, I no longer focused on the end result. Rather, I told the truth with a calm and compassionate mind, with that thought that “Even if you won't quit the CCP this time, I didn't waste time. At least you've heard of it now; there will be opportunities for other practitioners to talk to you later.”

I had been talking to a good friend for over several months. But he just wouldn’t quit the CCP. I didn’t give up on him. Once he talked to me about how the CCP suppressed democracy movements in Hong Kong. I asked him, “Do you want to quit the CCP?” 

“Sure,” he answered, to my surprise.

Dafa Blessed My Family

I had a hard time helping my parents understand Dafa. I told them about Dafa shortly after I started practicing. My mom said she had seen Dafa fliers before. She would recite the phrases “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” but didn’t agree to quit the CCP. 

My dad had worked in the Communist Youth League before and was heavily brainwashed by the CCP. Though he experienced the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, and one of his relatives was almost killed by the CCP during the Tiananmen Square Massacre, he still remained loyal to the CCP. 

When I first talked to him about Falun Dafa, he almost exploded.

I continued talking to my mother about Dafa. She had anemia and dizziness. Reciting “Falun Dafa is good” saved her from fainting several times. Last year, she quit the CCP. She also read Zhuan Falun. She wanted to practice Dafa but was afraid that my dad would be angry, so she didn’t. 

Later I realized that my dad always interrupted me when I told him about how bad the CCP is. I realized that I should change my angle and start from the benefits that Dafa brings to people!

My dad caught a disease that was common to older people this year. There was no cure; he could only take medicine to prevent it from getting worse.

On New Year’s Eve, when Dad was listening to a song on television, I asked him if he had ever heard of Guan Guimin, a famous Chinese singer during his youth. And of course my dad knew about him—and he started talking about the singers of his time.

I then showed him a video about Guan Guimin that I’d collected earlier. Mr. Guan stopped singing due to liver cirrhosis. But after practicing Falun Dafa, he regained his health. He was then able to tour the world as a tenor in the Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe, at the age of 70. I also showed him some other videos about Dafa and told him the changes within myself after I took up the practice. Dad listened intently this time.

The next day, he learned the first set of Dafa exercises. He also started reading Zhuan Falun and listening to Master’s Fa lectures. He finished watching the Fa Lecture series in Guangzhou in just a few days.

Since then, my father has been doing the exercises every day. He had two days of intense diarrhea and realized that it was Master cleansing his body for him. He stopped taking medicine.

Since his attitude changed, my mom finally started cultivation.

I went back to my work city after the Chinese New Year, so didn’t have time to talk to my dad about quitting the CCP. I plan to talk to him when I go home next time.

Conclusion

One day, I read Master’s “Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference” (Team Blue Translation): 

“When I was born, many Gods came down with me. From then on, this happened every year and Gods have been coming down. By the time I started to teach the Fa, those Gods came down like snowflakes—it was just that many. I calculated their ages now, and from when I started to spread the Fa till now, they would be young people around twenty-five years old, many of whom really have not been saved. They were all Gods, coming down to Earth, and they scattered to all areas of the world.”

Tears kept coming down my face. I thought of my classmates, friends, and other people my age. If they do not want to accept the truth, they will be eliminated with the CCP. I was very sad. All these people have come for the Fa, but they are ruined by the Communist Party and its rapidly deteriorating social standards.

Master said, 

“I said earlier that relative to the number of people in the world, the number of Dafa disciples right now is very small, but you have a great mission that history has bestowed upon you. So as for the Dafa disciples in any region, you are basically the hope for the beings in that region to be saved—their only hope, in fact.” (Teachings at the 2004 International Conference in New York)

Here, I want to tell Master, “Master, I can feel that you are watching over me. I can never pay you back for your magnanimous compassion. The only thing I can do is to cultivate diligently, study the Fa more, save more people, and do the three things well, to be worthy of your salvation. Thank you, Master!”