Cultivating in Dafa Changed Me

(Minghui.org) I have been practicing Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) for more than 20 years. I was born in the 1960s, just in time for the Cultural Revolution, when temples and Buddha statues were being destroyed. I grew up in an atheist environment and did not believe in gods and Buddhas, nor did I believe in retribution.

As a female, I was competitive and would definitely fight back if offended. I could not take suffering or losing out, and no one would dare pick on me. I thought that I had a sense of fairness and that I was fighting for justice. I even fought with boys. One time when my neighbor’s kids were bullying my younger sister, as soon as they saw me coming, they got scared and ran home quickly, and did not dare to come out again.

I can’t even imagine how people were troubled by my presence back then. I met a former colleague after my retirement. She was also one of my childhood friends. She had once done something wrong to me but I did not take it to heart. This made her change her view of me. She said, “After cultivating Falun Dafa, you became a different person. You now help anyone in trouble, and you don’t worry about suffering a loss. You are always cheerful and I like to talk to you.”

It was a miraculous turn of events that led me to cultivate in Dafa. In the early 1990s, qigong became very popular nationwide, and various qigong practices circulated in our area. Many of my colleagues, relatives, and friends were involved in some kind of qigong practice. However, I didn’t believe in it and never joined any of them.

I later had an opportunity to read the book Falun Gong, an introductory book of Falun Dafa. As soon as I started reading it, I couldn’t stop. I finished reading the book overnight. I was excited and couldn’t fall asleep. For the first time, I realized that Buddhas do exist, and the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the only criterion to discern good and bad people! My worldview completely changed and I came to understand that the purpose of life was to return to one’s original nature! This is what I was looking for. The sense of happiness was really indescribable. I made up my mind to practice Falun Dafa!

I then started joining group Fa study and exercises in the park every evening. My health improved rapidly and I became energetic. My morals were also elevated to a new realm. That period was truly a happy time for me.

Validating Dafa and Saving Lives

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999. The state apparatus, including television, radio, and newspapers, were all used to attack Falun Dafa and slander Master Li, Falun Dafa’s founder. The propaganda was so overwhelming that I almost couldn’t breathe. Facing the devastating situation, I decided to tell people, using my own experience, that Falun Dafa teaches people to be good; practicing Falun Dafa improves people’s mental and physical health and is beneficial to the country and society. I wanted to tell people the truth about Falun Dafa, to validate the Fa, and clear Master’s and Dafa’s name.

After I started cultivating, I strictly required myself to follow Master’s teachings. I worked diligently and considered others first in all situations. I looked inward for my insufficiencies whenever conflicts occurred, discarded my attachment to fame and personal interest, and treated others kindly. The managers at my workplace saw the changes in me and came to understand that Falun Dafa was good. When I was persecuted by the CCP, a manager reached out and helped me. He said, “She is such a good employee, we must keep her job.” He not only brought me home from the brainwashing center, but also saved my job. I was able to work steadily until my retirement.

I look young and I am healthy from practicing Falun Dafa. After I retired, someone recommended me for a job managing raw materials for a construction site. As soon as I started working at the company I immediately started contacting the relevant personnel in different groups of the construction site to understand the materials they needed, and replenished them in time to avoid possible delays in construction. The boss saw that I was diligent and responsible, and trusted me very much.

Most of the workers on the site were migrant workers, and lived frugally. I took the clothes and shoes that I wasn’t using from home, and gave them to some of the workers. My help made them feel warm, and over time they all liked to come and chat with me. I talked to them about the self-immolation hoax on Tiananmen Square, how Jiang Zemin (the former CCP leader) persecuted Falun Dafa out of jealousy, and the beauty of practicing Falun Dafa.

I would say, “I have practiced Falun Dafa for more than 20 years. I used to be sick, had to take medication, and often couldn’t go to work. After I started cultivating in Dafa, I became healthy. Now I have retired but I am still working, still contributing to society, and at the same time helping my family financially. Falun Dafa is nothing like what the propaganda on TV says, that Falun Dafa practitioners don’t care about their families, have no family affection, and don’t work. Those are all false accusations.”

The migrant workers came to understand the truth about Falun Dafa. They discarded the CCP’s lies and propaganda that was forced into their minds, and realized that Falun Dafa is good. They quit the CCP and its youth organizations and helped to distribute calendars with information about Falun Dafa.

The small warehouse I managed had all kinds of materials. I strictly followed Dafa’s requirements. I did not take home anything, even a small nail. A driver transporting sand to the construction site once came to me and asked me to register an extra truckload of sand in his account. He said he would give me a certain amount of money in return. He said that the previous warehouse manager did it, and that no one would notice it because the site used a large amount of sand.

I refused, and said to him, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and I cultivate Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. No matter what other people do, I will not do anything that harms others for personal interest.” I also explained the principle of “no loss, no gain,” and told him that gods were above our heads watching what we do. Hearing my words, he left and did not come to me again. I hoped he would understand this principle and become a good person.

It is Falun Dafa that taught me to become a good and kind person, a person of high moral standards, a person who is beneficial to society, and a person who follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, walking the path to my true home.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, Dafa!