(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, in China in May 1999. I was 19 years old then and was in my second year of university. My mother recovered from a heart problem after she started practicing Falun Dafa. I attended an experience sharing conference in our local area with her. I experienced the peaceful and compassionate field at the conference. It was a beautiful experience. I was deeply moved by the practitioners’ miraculous stories and heartfelt sharing, and I decided to practice Falun Dafa with my mother. Early the next morning, I went to the practice site with her.
I felt the energy field at the practice site on my first day. It was so amazing! I could only sit in the half lotus position [sitting cross-legged, with one leg folded over the other] at the time. After I meditated for half an hour, I had difficulty breathing, and as I continued to sit, breathing became more and more difficult for me. I asked my mom what I should do. She encouraged me, “Master is purifying your body. Take it easy. If you are afraid, you can take your leg down.” The day before, I had listened to so many miraculous stories. I thought to myself, “If I don’t take my leg down, what could happen to me?”
I tried to calm down, close my eyes, and meditate peacefully. I could gradually breathe normally. A peaceful energy field gradually enveloped me. The field became stronger. It felt so wonderful. When I read Zhuan Falun later, I learned that I had experienced the energy field. I felt the energy field for about 5 minutes. I felt so comfortable. I recovered from my bronchitis. I was very excited, and I told everyone that Falun Dafa was unbelievably amazing, because I had experienced it.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners in July 1999. My grandmother urged me to watch television the day after I went to the provincial government compound to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. I switched the TV on and saw the lies and slander against Falun Gong and Master. I opened Zhuan Falun, saw Master’s photo, and cried my eyes out. They were so ridiculous to slander Master in such a way!
My mom and I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Dafa. We planned to go to the Appeals Office in Zhongnanhai, the central government compound. Other practitioners told us that the regime wouldn’t allow us to say anything and would arrest us straight away. We did not go there to be arrested. We went to the CCTV building instead to talk to the host of the program “Focus Report” and tell them that their TV programs about Falun Gong were full of lies and slander. When we arrived there, we saw a small window for submitting papers. We were not able to see the host or the producer.
We didn’t know what we should do next. We left the building and sat outside on the edge of a flowerbed. An older man, who we didn’t know, came to sit beside us and asked us whether we were going to the appeals office. We told him that we came to appeal for Falun Gong. He said, “Please go back. They won’t listen to you. Yesterday a girl your age came to appeal for Falun Gong and was beaten badly and taken away. If you are arrested, you will not able to graduate from university.”
He claimed that he was a judge in a court in Beijing and had been persecuted by the CCP several times and knew how evil the CCP was. We told him that we wouldn’t go back. Seeing that we were very determined to appeal for Falun Gong, he told us that there were several petition offices in Beijing. He explained to us how to get there and how to go through the process before we could see the department chief. He said he had told several Falun Gong practitioners how to go to the petition office.
We thanked the man very much. We gave our copy of Zhuan Falun to him to avoid it being taken away by the CCP officers. He raised the book above his head with both hands and said with excitement, “Thank you very much for giving me this heavenly book!” We then followed him to a spacious square nearby. He saw us off on the bus. When we turned to say goodbye to him after we boarded the bus, he was not there. He had disappeared. There were not many people in the square as it was still very early. The elderly man had come mysteriously and had disappeared mysteriously.
We were moved and amazed. Master must have arranged for this man to guide us! Thank you, Master for looking after us and protecting us. We arrived at the petition office smoothly and clarified the truth to the people there.
Several practitioners and I were arrested in 2003 when we were working on a TV program interception project to broadcast Falun Gong programs to the public. We were detained. I knew that practitioners who were involved in these projects were severely persecuted. When I received my indictment, I deeply felt the cruelty of the persecution. I was put on a plank bed. I was cold. I felt like my life was going to end. I was just 24 years old.
I asked myself whether I would give up Falun Dafa. A voice in my heart told me, “It is impossible to give up Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa is not just a belief, or for teaching me to be a good person. Practicing Falun Dafa is the real meaning of my life. If I give up, I would have to live the rest of my life with regret and pain. It is impossible that I would give it up.” At that moment, I realized that I could be like the practitioners reported on the Minghui website, who were determined to practice Falun Dafa.
Because of this thought, Master helped dissolve the tribulations for me. I was freed from prison one year later. Thank you, Master for your compassion and salvation!
I came overseas in 2004 thanks to my family’s help. I have been involved in news coverage for Shen Yun since 2006. As a reporter who has opportunities to be in direct contact with the audience, I am always so moved when I see and listen to people’s feedback after they have watched Shen Yun. Among so many different audiences, one audience member impressed me most. I still vividly remember the scene that day.
That was in the early years of Shen Yun performances. During the intermission, I saw a young man in the corridor who looked like he was from China. I asked him if he would agree to be interviewed. He said he had especially brought his son to watch Shen Yun and hoped that Shen Yun would allow his son to see what authentic Chinese culture was. I asked him if he would like to talk about how Shen Yun could educate the younger generation, but he declined the interview.
A person patted my back when I had just finished an interview with another person. I turned around and saw that young man. “I want to say sorry to Falun Gong,” he said. He looked like he wanted to say more but he stopped. I turned off my recording device and asked him why he said that and whether he had done anything wrong.
He unbuttoned the first button of his shirt. Inside was his CCP police uniform. He said that many of his colleagues and CCP agents were inside the theater. All of them wore their CCP police uniforms inside. He said that he was part of the first police group involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. He had a lot of inside information about the persecution and he said admired the practitioners very much.
I asked him if he would be in danger for talking to me. He said with tears in his eyes, “I must say sorry to Falun Gong.” He also said that he had learned the truth about Falun Gong and even if he were to face danger when he went back to China, he must apologize to Falun Gong. I told him that he would be saved if he understood the truth and quit the CCP and its affiliated youth organizations.
During that year’s Shen Yun show, there was a performance about a police officer who refused to persecute a practitioner after he learned the truth and was then saved by the Creator. When I saw that performance, I immediately thought of that young man. He must have seen this performance. I was moved to tears. Thank you, Master! You even saved a CCP spy! Though this man was a special agent, he knew the truth and was saved. This was Master’s boundless compassion!
The persecution started two months after I obtained the Fa. I worried about my cultivation state. I pleaded with Master to arrange a diligent practitioner to help me. Thanks to Master’s arrangement, I met a practitioner on Tiananmen Square who had a deep connection with me. We met again three years later, after both of us had experienced the persecution. Both of us were moved by each other’s experiences and determination in cultivating in Falun Dafa. We got married and cultivated diligently together. Both of us were arrested the day after we got our marriage certificate. After I was released from prison, I came overseas thanks to my family’s help. My husband came overseas five years later, thanks to the help of overseas immigration officers.
My husband and I had many conflicts and quarrels in the first few years after we came overseas. I thought he was selfish, petty, and arrogant. He thought I was narrow-minded and had strong jealousy. But together we have witnessed how each of us has become open-minded and learned to consider others first. We dissolved karma and formed a good connection after we assimilated to Falun Dafa.
My father was stubborn and eccentric. In my memory, he always treated me and my mom badly. He went to the practice site shouting and screaming at us when we had just started to practice Falun Dafa. He disliked my maternal grandmother, who lived with us. When my parents came overseas for a visit, I asked them to stay and live with us. They declined because they were afraid that we wouldn’t be happy with them and they also didn’t want to burden us. My father was rude to my husband and shouted at him. I worried that my husband couldn’t put up with him.
To my surprise, my husband didn’t take it to heart. He never argued with my father. One day my father lost his temper. His behavior angered my mother and me. My husband didn’t get angry. He talked to my father patiently and rationally. He helped my father solve his problems. My father was moved to tears. After the incident, I asked my husband how come he didn’t get angry. He said that Master told us:
“I often say that if all a person wants is the well-being of others and if this is without the slightest personal motivation or personal understanding, what he says will move the listener to tears.” (“Clearheadedness,” Essentials for Further Advancement).
He said that we always argued with such strong emotion and it didn’t solve any of our issues.
My husband told my father that we would be happy for them to live with us. He assured him of this a few times. He prepared all the papers for immigration for my parents and also arranged for their lives to be orderly when they came overseas. We have lived together for a few years now. They live with us happily. There are no arguments in our home. My relatives admire my parents very much.
My father always cooks dishes that my husband likes. As long as my husband is at home, my father cooks extra dishes for him. When we go to practitioners’ homes, he always prepares many delicious dishes for us to take. We no longer experience my “rude” father.
Although we still have many shortcomings, we believe that any grudges, complaints, or arguments can be benevolently resolved as long as we assimilate ourselves to the Fa.
One sentence in the notice “Call for Submissions to commemorate the 2024 World Falun Dafa Day” really touched me. It urged practitioners to “write down these experiences and share them with the world’s people so that we can witness with more people this historic period when both human and divine beings coexist.”
Looking back at my cultivation path over the last 24 years, I have experienced many miracles and witnessed many touching stories. I have become a middle-aged woman after starting cultivation as a young and immature university student. I was lucky enough to obtain the Fa before July 20, 1999, and to become a Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period, who walks the path of cultivation to validate the Fa. Thank you, Master, for your compassion and protection on every step on my cultivation path. Thank you, Master, for arranging everything for me. Words cannot express my gratitude to Master. I will cherish the opportunity to cultivate, assist Master to rectify the Fa, and be worthy of Master’s salvation.
(Selected submission in celebration of World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)