(Minghui.org) I’m 41 years old and I began practicing Falun Dafa in February 2023. In these six months, I've experienced immense excitement, the elevation in my morality as my xinxing improved. I also experienced significant changes in myself both physically and mentally. I want to walk well the path Master Li arranged for me and cultivate diligently. I’d like to share some of my experiences with you.
Obtaining the Fa wasn’t easy.
I first saw the book Zhuan Falun in a classmate’s home years ago when I was in junior high. Because I was interested in qigong, I was attracted to the book’s cover. My friend told me that it belonged to his grandmother and I shouldn’t touch it. He let me take a quick peek after I promised to only look at the table of contents.
I later saw the book in a bookshop and flipped through a few pages. I felt the book explained Falun Dafa but it didn’t show any exercises. So I put it back and missed an opportunity to practice Falun Dafa.
In 2012, I heard about the persecution of Falun Dafa and quit my memberships in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations I joined. I went online and downloaded everything related to Falun Dafa. I read Master’s teachings and learned the exercises. However, I wasn’t really cultivating or looking inward.
I saved the Dafa materials in a folder on my computer and didn’t look at it for the next eleven years. I couldn’t remember what parts I read before, I only remembered the truth-clarification content and that I quit the CCP organizations.
In October 2019, just before the outbreak of COVID-19, I quit my job and focused on setting up and running my own business for the next three years.
One day, I mentioned Falun Dafa to my wife and thought, “Why shouldn’t I give it a go?” Due to my irregular lifestyle over the years, my health started to decline. Even though I practiced qigong for years, it didn’t seem to have much effect.
With this thought in mind, I started to read Zhuan Falun and Master Li’s other teachings that I got online. The more I read, the more I wanted to read, especially when I read about the profound historical background of Dafa, the structure of the universe, and the limitations of modern science and technology.
I felt the capacity of my mind was no longer big enough to contain the huge amount of knowledge I was absorbing from reading Master Li’s teachings. I kept sharing what I read with my wife until she complained that I was driving her mad.
Master said,
“Many people have practiced qigong for a very long time. There are also people who have never practiced it, but who have pursued and pondered the truth and the meaning of human life. Once they learn our Falun Dafa, they will understand at once many questions in life that they have wished to understand but could not answer. Perhaps along with their minds being elevated, they will become very excited—this is for sure.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
I experienced exactly what Master described. During those days when I intensively read the teachings, Master cleansed my body. One day, when I was sleeping, I felt someone hit my Baihui pressure point (at the crown of the head). In the next few days, I had several unpleasant dreams that were not just dreams. I felt Master was helping me settle my karmic debts in other dimensions. In two dreams, I saw flames in my body.
Later, when I was going through a lust test, Master dropped a hint in my dream. When I was cleaning up my computer, I found the folder of Dafa materials that I downloaded but hadn’t read for eleven years. Reflecting on what happened over the years, I feel deeply that it was not easy for me to obtain the Fa.
The first test I had after I began practicing Falun Dafa was when my wife became angry and scolded me in public.
My wife and I went to a restaurant for breakfast. She became angry about something trivial and started scolding me loudly. She even poked my head with her finger as her anger intensified.
The restaurant was crowded and everyone could hear what was going on. Some people turned around and looked at us. I didn’t react to my wife’s anger as I knew I was being tested by Master. I thought, “This is nothing. Come on, make it a bit harder.”
My wife was still angry on our way home and she continued scolding me. When we got home, as soon as she closed the door she started slapping my face. I took off my glasses and offered her the other side of my face. Without hesitation, she slapped it hard several times. I didn’t react to her anger at all, as I knew that she was helping me repay my karmic debts and was giving me virtue at the same time.
She yelled at me until she was exhausted, then she went into the bedroom and called her mother to pour out her grievances.
I sat on the sofa and started reading sharing articles on the Minghui website. One was by an elderly practitioner who suffered a lot in the first half of her life. She had a miserable childhood, a gambling husband, poor health, and various illnesses. She felt so wretched that she repeatedly tried to commit suicide.
After she started practicing Falun Dafa, our compassionate Master gave her a new life, and she experienced amazing changes, both physical and mental, and was happy.
I couldn’t help crying while reading the article. I tried not to cry out loud so that my wife would not hear me.
I’m a big man, and even when I’m terribly wronged or injured, I find it hard to squeeze out a single tear, but I wept like a baby. I felt that I passed a test, my xinxing improved, and I was in touch with my true self.
Since then, I read sharing articles on Minghui.org every day, and I’m often moved to tears.
Master has dropped hints to me from time to time, and gradually, I learned how to cultivate myself. I also began doing household chores without being asked.
We have a steamer, which had not been cleaned properly for a long time and was covered with a thick layer of grease. One day, I felt the urge to thoroughly clean it. I washed off the grease and polished the outside until it shone like new. My wife laughed and said to me, “Wow, you’ve learned to do chores without me nagging you, and you’re pretty good at it.” I realized that this was also cultivation.
Remembering an experience I had when I was young also helped me. I was undergoing an extremely painful surgical operation, and when I felt completely helpless and feeling unbearable pain, a warm hand reached out and held my hand. I immediately felt stronger and held on till the surgery was over.
Master has explained, “It is known that what actually causes people to become ill is seventy percent psychological and thirty percent physical” (Lecture 6, Zhuan Falun). As long as we have strong righteous thoughts based on the Fa, we are able to overcome tribulations.
Although my wife does not practice, she also has a deep affinity with Falun Dafa. During the six months I have been cultivating, she said she heard Master’s voice in her dreams at least three times. She told me that in the first two dreams, she heard someone talking to her but could not understand what was said.
In the third dream, the voice was answering her questions about cultivation. When she said she didn’t want to practice cultivation right now, because she was afraid of trying to sit in the double lotus position, and that she still wanted to do this and that, the voice said to her kindly, “It does not matter. You can do whatever you want to do. Eventually, you will practice cultivation.”
I was touched by what my wife told me, and said, “Not everyone can obtain the Fa. There are always obstacles to overcome.”
Many years ago, I would become wary as soon as I heard the words “Falun Dafa.” It was only after I had learned the facts about the practice that I gradually awakened to the need to cultivate.
I was prevented from obtaining the Fa in the early years due to all kinds of paranoid concepts I had. I thought that qigong was all about the intention of your thoughts and techniques and had no idea that it actually required one to cultivate one’s xinxing (character). I didn’t believe Falun existed, and I was obsessed with pathways in the body and pressure points. I favored Taoism and held some resistance towards Buddhism. I did not have much respect for Gods and Buddhas, either, and didn’t believe in fate. Along with those notions, I focused on trying to achieve something among ordinary people.
Master explained all these issues very clearly in Zhuan Falun, and if I read the Fa attentively back then, all those obstacles would have been broken through.
Looking back, I am really envious of my high school classmate because his grandmother practices Falun Dafa. I am envious of my wife, who received hints from Master in her dreams. I also feel envious of and admire Falun Dafa practitioners as I am often moved to tears by their efforts to save people. Above all, I feel extremely grateful that Master arranged for me to obtain the Fa through the website run by Falun Dafa practitioners.
As I am a very new practitioner with a limited understanding at my level. Please kindly point out anything improper in my sharing.