(Minghui.org) I am a 70-year-old retired individual. My grandfather and my father were well educated. I benefited a lot from them as a child. I was also influenced by traditional Chinese culture in my childhood. I heard a lot about the ancient prophecies, and knew that the Lord Buddha would be reincarnated into a human being at the end of days period [Dharma Ending Age]. He might spread the Fa and save sentient beings by the way of qigong. So our family members practiced many forms of qigong. But those qigongs were not beneficial. When we came across Falun Dafa in 1996, my father said for sure that Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa and that Falun Dafa’s Master is the Lord Buddha!
My grandfather often said, “In the future, Buddha Maitreya will come to spread the Fa and the Way, and save sentient beings. He will bring to the World the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
My grandfather was well educated in the ancient literature. He was a teacher in private schools of the late Qing Dynasty, and during the rule of the Republic of China. He and my father were good at fortune-telling, and told people’s fortune very accurately. They provided services to the local people, and to people from other places. My grandparents and my parents were also good at Zhuyou Ke – the practice of supplication – which has to do with ritual healing. They used its techniques, incantations and knacks to cure diseases, and were rather effective.
As a child, I thought that my grandparents and my parents had cultivated very well. Sometimes I watched their magic ways when they treated people’s diseases and insisted on learning from them. My grandfather said, “Those are only petty techniques – not the Great Way. They are useless to you in your life or your profession.” He taught me ancient classical poems and verses, while he wrote them down.
A lay Buddhist in my village visited me several times and said that I had a predestined relationship with Buddhism and asked me to read the scriptures. I told my grandfather about it. He said, “Buddhism is sabotaging the Way. It is not a pure land.”
During the great famine in 1960 everyone was given 0.1 kg of hulled barley per day. Everyone of our 8 family members were starved and so skinny. People starved to death at home or on the streets every day in our little town. I was a 4th grader, and often saw dead people. I took my 6-year-old brother with me to dig up wild vegetables and peel tree bark. My grandfather picked up bones in the wild, which we had no idea of what animals they were. My mother broke them into pieces, dried them, ground them into powder and then put them into the wild vegetable balls. The balls tasted much better.
There was no wild vegetable in winter. We dug up the corn stubble in the fields. My mother chopped them into small pieces, dried them in a wok and ground them into powder. She mixed them with barley and bone powder, then steamed them for rationing.
My father was the accountant of a grain depot. He brought home a bag of flour secretly each month. But, he kept worrying if people would find out. If it was found out, he would be paraded, beaten, imprisoned or even beaten to death. My mother worked so hard for our family and became so skinny. My third brother who was just born was not breast-fed for a single day. He lived on flour paste. My mother became so hopeless, she tried to commit suicide by hanging herself. My father was very sad. He closed up his accounts and wrote a letter quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a resignation letter to his employer. We, a family of eight, escaped to a small town in the North of Heilongjiang Province. We lived a much better life there. We ate rice and white flour bread every day.
Our good life didn’t last long. We faced misfortune again. The political campaigns came one after another. The movements of suppressing counter-revolutionaries, eradicating counter-revolutionaries, anti-rightist, eradicating the “four olds” and the Cultural Revolution materialized. My grandfather, and my father, were targeted and interrogated many times. My grandmother got so scared that she burned all the classical literature in the earth stove when she cooked food. The CCP representatives categorized my grandfather as “landlord” because he had so much classical literature, although he didn’t have any land. His crime was spreading superstition and fooling the peasants. He and my father were labeled as anti-revolutionaries and rightists. They worked hard during the day and were criticized during the criticism meetings at night. My father suffered a mental breakdown. But, they claimed that my father was cunning and pretending.
I was entering middle school just then. I had to quit school and watch over my father who now wandered around. My home was not far from the Songhua River and Mount Xiaoxing’Anling. He didn’t come home even after dark. Sometimes he slept on the bank of the river, and sometimes in the mountains. He gradually became better after the Culture Revolution ended.
As time went by, my family was eventually freed from the persecution. But it left an indelible shadow on my young heart. Due to the persecution and hardships of life, we suffered from stomach disease and many other illnesses. My third brother couldn’t walk at the age of three due to malnutrition. My elder sister had to carry him on her back, supporting him with her hands. This caused hyperplasia of her finger joints. She also suffered from ankle hyperplasia. I suffered from even more illnesses, such as retinitis, periarthritis in my left shoulder, osteoarthritis in my left knee as well as my cervical and thoracic vertebrae, coronary heart disease and peripheral neuritis.
Three practitioners introduced Falun Dafa to me at the beginning of 1996. I didn’t take it to heart. I went to the city for a conference in March that year and I was fortunate enough to obtain the Fa there. The conference was for 9 days, which coincided with the 9-day Falun Dafa lecture seminar. I drank a bit of alcohol that night and went to the seminar. The chief assistant made the opening remarks. He said, “This class is a pure land. If you want to learn Falun Dafa, you must quit smoking and drinking.” I looked around and thought he must be talking to me. This was a theater room that held hundreds of people. I sat in the middle of the second to last row. I was quietly sitting there. How did he know that there were people drinking and smoking? I had some doubts. Then, we started to read Zhuan Falun.
I taught my parents and siblings to practice the exercises after the nine-day seminar finished. My father had practiced many forms of qigong, but didn’t have a good impression of them. But, after he saw Master’s photo and read “On Dafa” in Zhuan Falun, he said happily, “This is Buddha’s Fa. Master is the Lord Buddha. This is what we have been searching for all these years!”
March was the quiet season. My father’s home was bright and spacious. He made it a practice site. Soon my parents recovered from their illnesses. My mother, in her 80s, was able to read Zhuan Falun in less than three months.
My third sister-in-law, a local healer, worshiped “fox, weasel, hedgehog and snake.” After she saw patients, she had to suffer for several days for them. My third brother read Zhuan Falun once and threw away all those messy things. His wife was no longer possessed by those spirits.
Recovering from all my diseases was amazing! One day I came home from work. As soon as I stepped into the door, I had to step back because the heart disease medicine smelled so strongly in the room – I got a headache. I asked my wife to throw away the medicine. She packed them into a bag which she threw away. She then called me in. When I came near the door, I stepped back again. The medicine smell was still strong. I remembered that better quality medicine was in one of the drawers. My wife packed them up and asked me if she could give it to her sister. I said yes, or she could throw it away. Whatever she did, we could not keep the medicine in my home. My coronary heart disease was gone. Master also removed all my other illnesses.
My whole family was so happy! We are so grateful to Master. Thank you Master! Thank you Falun Dafa!
More and more people started to practice Falun Dafa. Dafa was shared by word of mouth. Local practitioners went to other villages to introduce Falun Dafa. Predestined people came to learn, one after another. We practiced the exercises, studied the Fa, watched Master’s video lectures, and listened to Master’s audio lectures. Practitioners were as old as 80 and as young as 8 years old. Many illiterate elder people could read Zhuan Falun within 2 or 3 months after they started practicing Falun Dafa.
Our village was a big village, made of four small natural villages. People from each village came to learn Falun Dafa. People from other villages also came to watch Master’s video lectures and exercise demonstration. I booked the classroom at my school, and played video lectures to the practitioners after class. I booked the classroom on weekends and school holidays to show Master’s video lectures and exercise demonstrations for practitioners. Many practitioners recovered from illnesses. Some practitioners’ third eye was opened, and they saw scenes in different dimensions.
In order to help practitioners have a good study environment, we set up a practice site in every village. We practiced the exercises and studied the Fa every day. Although we were busy in the fields, everyone came to the practice sites on time. Those who were very sick and unable to work could work again after they started practicing Falun Dafa. Those who easily got tired and were of low energy became energetic. They all said, “Although we go to the fields late and go home early, we work faster and better. This is bestowed on us by Master. Falun Dafa has given us good health. Thank you, Master! Thank you, Falun Dafa!”
Master purifies our hearts as well as our bodies. We comply with Master’s instructions and work on our xinxing and behavior. We gradually let go of selfishness, complaint, competitiveness, showing off, jealousy and seeking fame and personal interest. The principal of the central school intended to promote me to be the principal of the middle school. He talked about the many advantages if I went there. I refused because the environment there was not suitable for me to practice Falun Dafa. Three people in my school made false accusations about me to my superior. I didn’t hold resentment towards them. I still looked after them. They were very moved and said, “You Falun Gong practitioners indeed don’t have the heart of revenge or hate.”
We are considerate of our families. We respect parents and elder people in the family and look after them. Our families live in harmony. We are kind to everyone and not moved by people who are mean. Some practitioners were hit by cars. They didn’t blame the drivers and told them that they were fine, and let them go without consequence.
Many villagers raised cows. The practitioners cleaned the streets voluntarily, summer and winter. The village leaders assigned tasks to the villagers. Our Dafa practitioners always completed them ahead of time. We were praised by the village officials and villagers. The village Party secretary said, “If all people in the nation practiced Falun Dafa, society would be stable and in harmony.”