(Minghui.org) I was a Buddhist lay practitioner for sixteen years. I had been a vegetarian for thirteen years, and I spent lots of money printing scriptures and releasing animals. In 2019, I met a Falun Dafa practitioner on an overseas social media platform. With his help, I began to read Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa. In early 2022, my wife and I helped each other on the path of cultivation, diligently advancing together, and embarked on assisting Master in rectifying the Fa.
As the 25th World Falun Dafa Day approaches, I am writing about my personal experience of transitioning from Buddhism to practicing Falun Dafa so that people can see how wonderful Falun Dafa is.
Starting in 2018, hundreds of P2P lending institutions began going bankrupt. My relatives and friends who invested based on my recommendation lost more than one million yuan, which was even more difficult for me to accept than my own financial ruin.
Over the past three years, tens of millions nationwide who invested in online lending platforms have struggled to survive, and their rights protection efforts have been repeatedly suppressed. They are genuinely puzzled: How did “Internet finance,” vigorously promoted by the government before, suddenly become illegal fundraising overnight?
Seeing more and more people who have failed in their Internet finance investments have been struggling to make ends meet and not even being able to afford to raise their children, I wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister with a heart of concern for China and a sincere plea for the people. At that time, I still held a glimmer of hope, hoping that the failure to resolve the issue of Internet finance was because of the local governments deceiving the central government. I naively thought that the “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is still good.” Looking back now, it is incredibly ridiculous.
I believed that this letter would be delivered. I have a friend who also failed in Internet finance investments. He is a doctoral supervisor at a university in the south, and one of his students works at Xinhua News Agency and can send information to the State Council. The friend’s student also attached great importance to this letter and invited relevant leaders of Xinhua News Agency to dinner. However, the leader replied during the meal: “There are clear instructions from above regarding the P2P issue, and no one is allowed to mention it again.” “Above” refers to the CCP.
At that time, I was in despair. Tens of millions of people were suffering every day. How great must their karmic retribution be, and what kind of disaster would it bring upon them? I was helpless and fearful. The human-made disaster caused by the government controlled by the CCP left me with no way to seek justice, and my cries seemed to fall on deaf ears. For the first time in over ten years, I began to doubt my faith in Buddhism.
Just when I was fruitlessly petitioning everywhere, and my outlook on life was on the verge of total collapse, I saw a glimmer of light in the darkness. None of the domestic media dared to report on this matter; they are all mouthpieces of the state-owned media. But by chance, I contacted a reporter from the Epoch Times and was interviewed.
Unexpectedly, the first media to speak up for the victims of the financial disaster was founded by Falun Dafa practitioners. So, I learned to circumvent the CCP’s Internet Firewall and began to understand the truth about Falun Dafa. I knew the truth about the April 25 peaceful appeal and found out the Tiananmen self-immolation incident was staged by the CCP.
I realized I was living in a country ruled by demons. It turns out that the CCP not only caused tens of millions of financial disaster victims to be ruined but also led to the unnatural deaths of 80 million Chinese people since its inception.
I also learned about the “Character Stone” in Guizhou. The ancient Chinese prophecies such as the “Tui Bei Tu” had long predicted the collapse and demise of the CCP. And the Udumbara flowers mentioned in Buddhist scriptures are now blooming all over the world. This is a sign of the appearance of a great enlightened being in the world, spreading the Fa. So I knelt in front of the Buddha statue at home, and repeatedly prayed to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, hoping to encounter auspicious signs.
I met a Falun Dafa practitioner on an overseas social media platform in 2019. With his help, I began to read Zhuan Falun. However, I had difficulty letting go of the Buddhism I believed in for sixteen years, and I was not determined to practice Falun Dafa.
This opportunity also allowed me to come into contact with more Falun Dafa practitioners. I found that these practitioners are all very kind-hearted. To help me study the Fa better, they risked endangering themselves by mailing me physical books; seeing that I was living in extreme poverty and my Internet was about to be cut off, they even paid my phone bill.
What moved me, even more, was that practitioners I had never met, knowing that I was taking care of my elderly mother, and was struggling financially, sent me 5,000 yuan to help me through the difficult times. In my sixteen years in the Buddhist lay community, no one had been so eager to help me. Buddhism also emphasizes kindness, but the kindness of Falun Dafa practitioners is genuinely practiced. I realized that they are the true cultivators in this corrupt world.
The selfless help from practitioners time and time again finally made me determined to enter the practice of Falun Dafa.
After experiencing this financial disaster, I thought I was destined to be single for life. Which girl in this society would accept you without a house, a car, or savings? Unexpectedly, I met my current wife among fellow practitioners. She is tall and beautiful, and she owns her own business.
Falun Dafa has given me a beautiful and kind-hearted companion. We married in early 2022. From then on, the two of us have helped each other on the path of cultivation, diligently advancing together, and embarking on the path of assisting Master in rectifying the Fa.
Three months into my marriage, on the way back from distributing truth clarification flyers, my wife and I were arrested by local police officers. I fearlessly told them the truth. I told them about myself and tens of millions of financial disaster victims who, believing the government’s propaganda, invested in P2P lending platforms only to end up losing everything, with nowhere to turn for help. I said only the media run by Falun Dafa practitioners reported the truth to us. Finally, I firmly said, “Apart from Falun Dafa, I don’t know who else I can trust.”
During a medical examination in the hospital, I found out the police officer in charge of guarding me was Mongolian. I then told him about the CCP’s forced “bilingual education,” which seeks to destroy the Mongolian language and culture. He began to avoid the topic because of its sensitive nature. Later, this Mongolian police officer said, “People should read more history; it’s very beneficial.” I knew he understood the destructive nature of the CCP. So I told him, “If you understand, then I didn’t come in vain.” That night, he handcuffed me to a cage, as per regulations, while quietly saying, “I have no choice.” I knew he accepted the truth.
On the way to the detention center, I told the six or seven police officers in the car, that the political police of former East Germany lost their jobs after the Berlin Wall fell. I suggested they leave themselves a way out and quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. All the police officers in the car listened silently, and I knew they had taken the information in. They were also very insecure when persecuting good people who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
I was taken to the detention center at midnight. I was there for more than a year.
The third day after I entered the detention center, a homeless man was placed in the cell next to mine. Someone had stolen an electric bike’s battery and used him to sell it for profit. He was the only one caught and he kept saying he was innocent. Everyone here had to take turns on duty, but he refused to and cursed every day.
One day, the captain was swearing on the walkie-talkie, and this man thought it was directed at him, so he shouted back at the captain. Sure enough, a few moments later, four or five police officers came in aggressively, followed by the sound of the neighboring cell door opening, then a series of intensive punches and kicks, interspersed with the sound of a belt whipping. The homeless man’s body was repeatedly slammed hard against the iron door, making a continuous “clang clang” sound that could be heard throughout the entire cell block. While he was beaten, he kept cursing the CCP.
I suddenly thought, “Master is enlightening me! Even a homeless man can resist the CCP’s intimidation. I am here to clarify the truth of Dafa and save sentient beings. I’m innocent, and I’m a practitioner. I should let go of life and death. Why should I fear being beaten?”
There was a man named Yu in my cell. He was in his fifties and was imprisoned for nearly thirty years. This was the fourth time he was incarcerated. He talked about his past exploits in society, and he acted like a prison bully.
One afternoon, Yu came to pick a fight with me: “If you practice Falun Dafa again, I’ll report you to the captain immediately!” Without hesitation, I loudly replied to him, “Go ahead and report me!” I thought: If I’m afraid of this prison bully and the evil’s control, wouldn’t I be worse than a homeless man? Falun Dafa practitioners are upright and dignified wherever they are. Unexpectedly, Yu didn’t respond and instead went to talk to someone else as if he hadn’t heard me.
I continued practicing the exercises during my free time, and Yu never reported me. From then on, until I was released after serving my sentence, no inmate stopped me from doing the exercises.
After I was in the detention center for three weeks, I had my first opportunity to breathe fresh air outside. The prison guards took me to the interrogation room, which is in the office area. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all interrogations were conducted online.
The prosecutor asked me, “You failed in your personal investments. Why do you blame the Communist Party?’ I replied, “By 2020, all P2P platforms were forced to clear out. If a pond has dozens or even hundreds of dead fish, it may be a problem with the fish; but if all the fish die, then it’s a problem with the water!” The prosecutor was speechless. He asked, “You’ve never seen Master Li Hongzhi, why do you believe in him so much?” I said, “You wouldn’t understand!”
When I first started practicing, some practitioners said, “You’re just starting now; you are part of the second batch of practitioners, right?” I also positioned myself as part of the second batch. I thought being part of the first batch meant speaking out about the truth about Dafa and exposing the lies of the CCP, but that would make my mother worry even more, so I couldn’t step forward.
Before I practiced Falun Dafa, my only hobby was playing chess. I sometimes played for two days and nights without sleeping. I had a dream: someone brought me to Master Li and asked me to play chess with him. Master took out a chessboard, and when he unfolded it, I saw that the chess pieces were all irregular shapes, and there wasn’t a single word on them. How could I play chess with pieces that had no words? At that moment, I woke up.
More than a year later, I was handcuffed and faced the prosecutor because of my faith in Falun Dafa. Suddenly, I understood the meaning of that dream: Master was playing invisible chess with me, which symbolized guiding me to practice. I believed I couldn’t be part of the first group of practitioners because of the so-called “fear of worrying my mother,” a barrier set by my preconceptions about cultivation.
Tears streamed down my face, and I thought, “Master, I understand now! My mother’s life and death are predestined; I’m no longer afraid that she will be worried about me. I will practice until the end!” With these thoughts, I firmly told the prosecutor: “I do not plead guilty, I do not admit guilt, and I will not sign any statement renouncing my faith.”
As the COVID-19 epidemic re-surged at the end of September 2022, my city was locked down. The food in the detention center became increasingly poor, with only cabbage soup and steamed buns every day. By December, even the wealthiest inmates had no supplies left.
Zhiwei was brought in for stealing electric bikes. He was tall but very thin. It was his third time inside, and no one in his family sent him money. To make matters worse, he developed tonsillitis and had a high fever every day. With the lockdown and the extreme scarcity of medicine, no one could help him. I volunteered to take his shift, doubling my workload (three hours and forty minutes per shift).
Captain Liu was the strictest of the guard captains; usually, no one dared report feeling unwell. One day, during a meeting, his tone was particularly severe: “Some people, seeing that medicines are scarce, pretend to be sick, taking up valuable medical resources. Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?!” His voice grew louder and harsher as he spoke.
That day, I saw Zhiwei sitting there shaking uncontrollably, and when I touched his forehead, it was burning hot. I immediately discussed the situation with the room administrator, as it should be his responsibility to report to the captain. However, the administrator refused, saying, “This is Captain Liu’s shift. If you’re not afraid of being punished, then go ahead and report it.” I saw Zhiwei shaking more and more violently. I thought, “When it becomes a matter of life and death, and you do not help others just for your own sake, how can you be a true Dafa disciple?” So I decisively shouted, “Report!” Captain Liu came over and took Zhiwei’s temperature, which was 39.5 degrees. Captain Liu immediately let him rest (he needed special permission to sleep before the usual bedtime of 9 p.m.) and gave him medicine (which was very scarce in the detention center then). He also told Zhiwei to go to the clinic the next day.
I took the opportunity to make a bold request: “Captain Liu, I want to buy a box of instant noodles for Zhiwei, is that okay?” He shook his head, “There are none. The whole squadron is out.” His calm attitude greatly surprised everyone.
After Captain Liu left, Zhiwei whispered to me, “Look at you, no money, no connections, and no one will listen to you. Why do you help me? You need to learn to protect yourself.” I said, “I’m helping you not because I have money or connections but because my Master teaches us to be good people wherever we are. I believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” Several people in the cell gave me approving looks.
The next day, Captain Liu took Zhiwei to the clinic. When he returned, Zhiwei’s spirits were noticeably better. He said, “Today, Captain Liu asked me about the person who wanted to buy instant noodles for me yesterday. He also asked why you were detained. He chuckled when I told him you were arrested because you practice Falun Dafa.” His smile reflected his changed attitude towards Falun Dafa.
Bing is seventy years old and had a stroke so one side of his body is partially paralyzed. His two daughters feel ashamed of their father. Bing was detained for nearly a year, and apart from his nephew from out of town who came to deposit three hundred yuan for him, no one cared about him.
Bing’s bunk was the smelliest in the whole cell. He never bathed because he couldn’t do it himself, and no one helped him. Since I arrived, I’ve been helping him bathe, wash his clothes, trim his nails, and I helped him make his bed every day.
One night, he had diarrhea and couldn’t make it to the toilet in time, so he soiled his pants. Everyone except me scolded him, urging him to clean up quickly. But one hand was practically useless, and he couldn’t wash himself. Seeing this, I helped him. I overheard people behind me commenting, “Only Falun Dafa would help him. Who else would care for someone like Old Bing?”
Since then, sixty-two detainees in the cell quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations, expressing their recognition and support for Falun Dafa. I’m genuinely happy for these sentient beings, who understood the truth about Falun Dafa.
Old Bing hadn’t bought anything for over a year, but he bought two packets of brown sugar. He tried to give one to me. I declined and told him as a Falun Dafa practitioner, we helped others without expecting anything in return. However, he insisted. His voice choked up as he said, “Please accept it; I’ll cry if you don’t take it...”
Once, when I was bathing, Old Bing came over and, even though he was partially paralyzed, he wanted to help me scrub my back. I said that I helped him not for any reward—I just wanted him to remember, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” With tears in his eyes he said, “Rest assured, I will never forget!”
In the harsh environment of the detention center, everyone is preoccupied and has no spare energy to help others. Only Falun Dafa practitioners who cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance can selflessly help others in difficult situations without seeking anything in return. I am grateful to Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, for teaching me to be a better person, more than just a good person. At that moment, I silently said to Master in my heart, “Master, I have not disgraced you.”
These are my cultivation experiences. Due to space constraints, I can only list a few incidents. As a practitioner who started practicing Falun Dafa later in life, I deeply understand that I still have a long way to go. My experiences are just a drop in the ocean compared to the countless Falun Dafa practitioners worldwide.
Master said, “Never in history has someone who persecuted those with upright faiths ever succeeded.” (“Coercion Cannot Change People’s Hearts,” Essentials for Further Advancement II)
It was only when I indeed became a Falun Dafa practitioner that I understood why the CCP has not succeeded after using all its might to suppress a group of unarmed civilians for over twenty years.
Millions of Falun Dafa practitioners risk being arrested and imprisoned, but continue to help people understand the truth and attain salvation through Falun Dafa. I hope that all those still deceived by the CCP’s lies can awaken, and remember “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations for a better future.
(Selected submission to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)