(Minghui.org) Greetings, compassionate and revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I now live in Calgary Canada, but I’m from Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, China, where I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Over the past 27 years, I’ve felt continuously bathed in Master’s infinite grace. I’d like to share some of my experiences with you.
I was born in Yi County, Jinzhou. I was bullied and beaten by older children in school and scolded and beaten by my hot-tempered father. As a child, I lamented my suffering and I always wondered why I was born. I wanted to go to a temple and become a monk. In high school, I began practicing a Buddhist teaching. I ate vegetarian food, and chanted scriptures. However, I was physically and mentally exhausted, and felt even more confused about life.
It wasn’t until the summer of 1997, when my uncle gave me videotapes of Master’s lectures, that my life’s path finally became bright.
I had insomnia, but while watching Master’s lectures, I fell asleep in just five minutes. Even though I was asleep, I could hear every word Master said. I woke up as soon as the lecture ended! In just a few days, my heart disease, migraine headaches, and insomnia were gone! I also understood many unanswered questions about my life, and my heart was filled with joy. My father, mother, and sister began practicing Falun Dafa, and embarked on the path of returning to their true selves.
A few months later, while driving a loaded four-wheel tractor to the granary, I had an accident on a mountain road near my home. The tractor and I fell from a bridge after going down a steep slope. The bridge was about five stories above huge boulders left by mountain torrents. Every couple of years, someone fell from this spot, either in a car, riding a motorcycle, or on a bicycle, but no one survived. The locals were all very afraid of this place and avoided it.
My trailer fell down first, resting on its side. I landed on the trailer, and the tractor itself landed on me. Rescuers carried me out of the deep ditch, and waved down a passing car to take me to the county hospital. Medical examination, including x-rays, showed that I was unharmed!
Many people from our village went to the scene to help retrieve the grain and the tractor. When they didn’t see me, they all assumed I had died. When I returned home the next day, everyone was shocked! They all said that no one ever survived a fall at that spot, and that I must have been protected by gods or Buddhas. It was truly a miracle! I knew compassionate Master protected me!
On July 20, 1999, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of Falun Dafa. In October 1999, I went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested. I was taken to Fengtai Stadium. There were already more than two thousand Dafa practitioners detained there, and buses kept bringing in more arrested practitioners.
The sky was clear, and the sun was shining, but raindrops kept falling. Even more miraculously, there was a huge rainbow above the stadium. I was puzzled—how could it rain without clouds? How could there be such a big rainbow with the sun shining so brightly? The rainbow was vivid and colorful.
I and some other practitioners from Jinzhou were taken to the Jinzhou Liaison Office in Beijing. After sitting in a room all night, we were put in a van and taken back to Jinzhou the following morning, escorted by policemen and Domestic Security officers from Jinzhou City. On the way back, the sun was still shining, but I saw a rainbow outside the rear window of the van, about half a meter away. It was not as huge as the one above the stadium, but it was more than ten meters long, with the lower end on the same level as the van window, and it was still vividly colorful. Throughout the six-hour journey, the rainbow followed behind the van about half a meter from the rear window.
My celestial eye wasn’t open so I didn’t understand why this happened. I later understood that this was Master’s way of enlightening, protecting, and encouraging his disciples.
After July 1999, my life was no longer peaceful. Policemen from the local station frequently harassed us. I was illegally detained and fined for distributing truth-clarifying DVDs at the local farmer’s market near my home. I had to leave home to avoid the persecution and I got a job in Anshan City.
One summer day in 2001, I planned to take a long distance bus to go back to Jinzhou City. At the entrance of the bus terminal, there was a large photo of Master laid on the ground. Everyone had to step on it and curse Falun Dafa as a “cult” to get through. Several police officers guarded the spot. I felt very sad watching everyone step on Master’s photo. I knew that Master came to save sentient beings, but the CCP used its power to force people to commit crimes against Dafa, dragging them to hell.
When it was my turn to check my ticket, I asked a policeman, “Why are you doing this?” He replied, “We are looking for Falun Dafa practitioners. We’ll arrest and send them to labor camps.” I said, “You don’t need to look. I’m a practitioner, and I won’t step on Master’s photo.”
Seven to eight policemen immediately surrounded me and took me to their office. They searched my belongings thoroughly. They told me their superiors would decide whether to send me to a detention center or a labor camp.
I thought, “I’m Master’s disciple. Master saved me from suffering, and I understand the meaning of life. Moreover, obtaining a human body is difficult, being born in China is rare, and encountering the righteous Fa is hard. I’m fortunate to have encountered Falun Dafa, which is taught only once in millions of years, and being saved by Master is such a great honor. I have no regrets in this life. No matter what the outcome is, I cannot bring disgrace to Dafa.”
Three hours later, a leader came into the room and told me, “Our department had a meeting about you and decided to release you. But you must not go to Beijing to appeal. You can go home.”
I didn’t expect to be released. I immediately realized: “Master protected me. Everything is decided by Master. A policeman cannot control a cultivator’s fate. Thank you, Master!”
On April 25, 2005, I was arrested in Chaoyang City after I was reported to the police by a neighbor when I installed a satellite dish to receive NTD TV programs. The police searched my house and confiscated several satellite dishes, receivers, and Falun Dafa books. My family businesses, a curtain and bedding shop and an aluminum-plastic door and window store, were sealed by the authorities.
My family had been truly shattered: My mother was sent to a labor camp first. Then, the same day she was released, my father was sent to a labor camp. I was arrested six months after my father was incarcerated in the labor camp.
I was held in a detention center and then sent to the Chaoyang City Labor Institute a few days later. I experienced the hellish cruelty of the human world in that evil den! The other practitioners and I who refused to be transformed were repeatedly subjected to inhuman tortures including electric shocks, beatings, and forced-feeding. I knew deeply that this black den was not a place for Dafa disciples to stay; I must leave! However, despite multiple attempts, including one escape attempt and three hunger strikes that lasted 7 days, 12 days, and 15 days, I failed to leave the labor institute.
I deeply looked inward and realized that I hadn’t let go of my attachment to my daughter. Deep down, I had a thought: if I lost my life, what would happen to my daughter, who was only six at the time? This attachment to her prevented me from letting go of the fear of death. I resolved to overcome this.
An eighty-year-old practitioner and I were transferred to another brigade. The elderly practitioner and I cooperated to clarify the truth to inmates and we persuaded almost everyone in that brigade, including some prison guards and team leaders, to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
Under Master’s compassionate protection and the persistent righteous thoughts sent by many fellow practitioners, I was finally able to calmly face life or death. I was released unconditionally without signing any guarantee statement or repentance letter. I walked out of the labor institute with dignity!
The CCP had sentenced me to two years in a labor camp, but I did not accept it! I walked out on April 25, 2006, exactly one year after my arrest! Through this tribulation, my faith in Master and Falun Dafa became even more steadfast.
Master said,
“All of you are aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you have no fear, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist. This is not to be self-imposed, but is achieved by truly and calmly letting go.” (Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s), The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
I concluded that only by truly believing in Master and the Fa can one find hope when one is in tribulations.
After I returned home, due to the closure of my aluminum-plastic door and window store, I lost dozens of customers who had signed contracts with my company, and I had a lot of inventory of glass and aluminum products. Human notions appeared, and I felt depressed, so I went to Shenyang City to work as a truck driver.
Due to the prolonged long-distance nature of the job and the lack of rest, it was often difficult to ensure time to study the Fa and practice the exercises. In the summer of 2007, after returning from a long-distance trip, I suddenly experienced severe abdominal pain. I sweated profusely from the pain, and I could not do the sitting or standing exercises. I was no longer able to stand, sit, or lie down. I thought to myself: I have two choices now. One is to dial 120 to call for an ambulance to take me to the hospital; the other is to believe in Dafa and Master! I struggled; it had been over two hours since the pain started. I was drenched in sweat, and felt I’d reached the limit of my willpower to persevere.
After a few minutes, I made up my mind, and I told myself: trust Master, be a true cultivator; even if I die from the pain, I won’t go to the hospital! At that moment, as soon as I firmly made that decision, the pain miraculously disappeared completely!
After that, in the nearly twenty years of my cultivation journey, I’ve had many experiences where a single thought changed everything! Whether it was physical pain or difficulties in life and work, it truly was as Master said in Zhuan Falun:
“We have said that good or bad comes from a person’s initial thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
About ten years ago, I had severe neck pain. I treated it as a test of sickness karma and passively endured it for over forty days. For one week, the pain was so severe that I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t turn over, or get out of bed. Although I persisted and got over this tribulation, I realized that I didn’t look inward to understand why this happened. Otherwise, how could a true cultivator passively endure such pain for over forty days? Later, through studying the Fa, I realized that in personal cultivation, such sickness karma is a manifestation of karmic debt; but in Fa-rectification cultivation, it is interference from the old forces, and a true cultivator should completely deny it.
Two years later, my neck and shoulder pain recurred. I thought: I endured so much pain for so many days last time; haven’t I paid off this debt yet? As soon as this thought appeared, it felt like a mountain was pressing on my back, and the excruciating pain began again. I couldn’t use my right hand at all. I immediately became alert. I thought: I’m Master Li Hongzhi’s disciple, and I don’t accept any other arrangements. You cannot interfere with me. I sent out a strong thought: “Eliminate,” and the pain instantly disappeared!
I’ve realized that I should correct my understanding of the concept of sickness karma. There is no such thing as sickness karma; it depends on how a cultivator thinks! If you acknowledge it as sickness karma, all symptoms of the acknowledged sickness will immediately manifest, which further deepens your belief in the false appearance of sickness karma.
On the path of cultivation practice, when facing a false appearance of sickness karma and the pain it brings, when facing the police who are directed by the evil communist specter, when facing harm to one’s interests, or even when facing natural disasters and calamities... all these scenarios test the righteous thoughts of a cultivator. If our thoughts are righteous, as Master said in “The Master-Disciple Bond,” Hong Yin II,
“When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn the tide.”
In 2008, I was once again arrested and detained, which devastated my window and door business again. I was forced to leave Chaoyang City, and moved to Jinzhou City where I set up a company to provide home renovation services.
I encountered various kinds of people. I did my best to tell them the truth about Dafa and to persuade them to quit the CCP. Most people accepted it. A few even recovered from cancer after listening to the truth about Dafa and reciting, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
Many landlords and business owners recognized the goodness of Dafa after I clarified the truth about the persecution and they were blessed. A furniture store owner I once worked for often told his friends, “If you want to do business and renovate your store, you must hire someone who practices Falun Dafa. Only then will your business prosper!”
Earlier this year (after I moved to Canada), a restaurant owner I'd worked for contacted me. He said the restaurant I renovated for him boomed since it reopened. With the current economic downturn in China, most restaurants cannot make money, but his restaurant is doing so well that customers have to make a reservation to get a table. He planned to open two more large restaurants this year and asked me to handle the renovations. Since I couldn’t return to China, he wanted me to recommend someone. I clearly knew that when business owners acknowledge the goodness of Dafa and treat practitioners kindly, divine beings will bless them.
However, I also encountered significant challenges in the renovation business. In 2017, a local mall of furniture stores was opened. I took on the renovation jobs of five brand-name stores. The first four went smoothly, but the last one was delayed by a week beyond the contract deadline. The owner only paid the initial 70,000 yuan out of the total 110,000 yuan and refused to pay the remaining 40,000 yuan. He was extremely rude, and cited the delay as an excuse, and even threatened me in a mafia-like manner.
This business closed down six months later. When the owner didn’t pay the remaining amount, I developed strong resentment towards him and his wife. I could let go of the financial loss, but their unreasonable attitude and vicious expressions stirred up my human emotions, causing my resentment to surge. Although I knew that cultivators must let go of resentment, I still couldn’t help but recall the incident, and I felt distressed. This resentment tortured me for a long time. I also knew that nothing happens by chance, and perhaps in a past life, I treated others this way, so I had to repay it in this life. Even though I understood the principle of karmic repayment, I still couldn’t let go of my resentment for a long time.
Because I had this mindset, I experienced other unfair treatment in life and work, which intensified my resentment and jealousy, and formed severe thought karma that interfered with me. Sometimes, these negative thoughts filled my mind before I fell asleep at night or when I did the exercises, followed by a series of negative thoughts. I knew this wasn’t truly me; it was thought karma and persecution from the old forces. Although I tried hard to resist and deny it, my heart was moved. It was as Master said in “Tempering the Will,” in Hong Yin: “Indeed, cultivating mind is hardest.” I truly realized how difficult it is to improve one’s xinxing.
Master said,
“You fell here from a holy, pure, and incomparably splendid world because you had developed attachments at that level. After falling into a world that is, by comparison, most filthy, instead of cultivating yourself to go back in a hurry, you don’t let go of those filthy things that you cling to in this filthy world, and you even agonize over the most trivial losses. Did you know that in order to save you the Buddha once begged for food among everyday people? Today, I once again make the door wide open, and teach this Dafa[1] to save you. I have never felt bitter for the numerous hardships I have suffered. Then what do you have that still can’t be abandoned? Can you bring to heaven the things deep down inside that you cannot let go of?” (“True Cultivation,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
Indeed, what can I take with me? Master teaches us to cultivate compassion, yet I harbored the main element of the communist specter: hatred.
I was shocked at myself, and realized that I was unconsciously practicing an evil way. There’s a saying in human society: “Birds of a feather flock together.” If I don’t eliminate resentment, wouldn’t I become a particle of the CCP specter?
I asked Master to strengthen me, I was determined to eliminate the poisonous influence of Party culture. Whenever a resentful thought appeared, I immediately extinguished it. After a long time, I finally managed to overcome it. Although it still occasionally surfaced, it no longer interfered with me, and I will continue to strengthen my righteous thoughts until I completely eradicate it.
As my mindset became more open and tolerant, my cultivation and work also became smoother.
In the summer of 2019, I won a bid for a large kindergarten project, working for a married couple. After starting the project, the husband was fine, but the wife was temperamental and often scolded my workers on-site. When I visited the site, she was very rude to me, criticizing my materials and saying that they did not pass the standards and my workers’ skills were not up to par. I remained calm and patiently explained that my materials were environmentally compliant and my workers were skilled and of good character. She said that if she wasn’t satisfied with our work, she definitely wouldn’t pay the remaining amount. I agreed with her, and thought, as a practitioner, I shouldn’t argue with her—as long as I did my best, the result will follow the course of nature.
During the project, there were many small incidents that made my workers reluctant to work on site. They were afraid of the wife. However, when the project was completed, the couple invited me out to dinner to apologize and they thanked me.
The wife finally said, “I know you practice Falun Dafa, and I also know that Falun Dafa practitioners are good people. I will hire only you for future projects or home renovations. We won’t consider others. This dinner is to express our family’s gratitude for your hard work, and we will pay you the remaining amount.”
Our two families became good friends. Recently, she contacted me and told me that due to the low birth rate in China, the kindergarten was just breaking even. She plans to build a large guesthouse on land she previously purchased on a hill and asked me to take charge of the project.
Through these work experiences, I realized that our mindset determines our environment. When our heart is kind and compassionate, everything changes for the better; when our heart is not good, everything will follow suit. Cultivation is very serious, and the elevation of xinxing must be genuine.
At the end of 2022, under Master’s compassionate arrangement, I brought my daughter to Calgary, Canada. Since I didn’t know any practitioners in Canada, the first thing I did after renting a house was to find local practitioners. I found a phone number for quitting the CCP on the front page of The Epoch Times newspaper in a supermarket, and thus I was able to contact the local Falun Dafa Association, and join practitioners. It was a critical time for Shen Yun ticket sales. Due to my language barrier, I couldn’t visit companies and government departments to promote tickets, so I joined local practitioners and hung door-hangers. Despite Calgary’s cold winters and heavy snow, nothing could stop practitioners’ efforts to assist Master in saving people. I felt extremely fortunate to participate.
Master saves people. Bringing the message of Shen Yun to people is the same as distributing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and Falun Dafa fliers in China. It’s an incomparable honor and blessing.
When Shen Yun performed in Calgary, every practitioner was busy—from preparing meals, delivering food, to tending the dining room, helping with costumes and security, every practitioner wholeheartedly fulfilled their duties, truly forming a strong unity with Shen Yun performers to ensure a successful show to save more people who came to the show. My role was to watch the Shen Yun buses. I’ve had the privilege of doing this twice. When I watched the show, I felt my soul’s deep memories being awakened, and tears streamed down my face.
After joining the local Falun Dafa community, I learned of many truth-clarification projects which provide opportunities for practitioners to validate the Fa and save people. I believe sending righteous thoughts in front of the Chinese consulate is important. Therefore, several local practitioners and I protest the persecution and send righteous thoughts at the Chinese consulate every Saturday. There are frequent hassles, such as consulate staff taking photos and videos of us and sabotaging the protest site, making it dirty and smelly. We just clean it up and continue doing what we should do.
The situation has greatly improved. Even when consulate staff occasionally come out, they appear to be fearful. If we take out our phones to photograph them, they quickly flee. This truly shows that the evil in other dimensions is almost eliminated, reflecting the powerful strength of righteousness.
For the twenty-seven years since I obtained the Fa, I often exhibited strong human attachments and sometimes stumbled and could not get up. However, compassionate Master never gave up on me. He continuously enlightens and protects me. I truly feel Master’s boundless, meticulous efforts for me, for fellow practitioners, and sentient beings.
As the Fa-rectification nears its end, we Dafa disciples must firmly believe in the Fa, save more sentient beings while elevating our character, and be an assisting particle in the Fa-rectification process.