(Clearwisdom.net) My wife, Wuqin (pen name), and I are both retired cadres from a workplace in Jilin City, and we are both 65 years old. We are new Falun Dafa practitioners who obtained the Fa on March 27, 2005. Under the protection of our esteemed Teacher and Dafa, we both have gained a new life. Looking back on our cultivation practice, what we have most deeply enlightened to is that, to truly walk into Dafa and understand the Fa from the Fa, one is required to step out bravely and assist Teacher in Fa-rectification, spread the Fa and save sentient beings conscientiously.

One way for us to step out and validate Dafa is through telling people the direct changes in us since practicing Falun Dafa so as to validate the greatness of Dafa. People around us have witnessed my wife's mysterious youthful glow and the changes in me since I've abstained from alcohol. Therefore our stepping out itself is a validation of Dafa's greatness. For those who are not that familiar with us, we tell them about the changes we've experienced; we clarify the truth with our personal experiences, and expose the lies that have been used to attack Falun Dafa.

I used to be an alcoholic. I began drinking in 1960. My drinking had distorted my appearance. I couldn't eat any of my meals without alcohol, and I often drank with our guests five or six times a day. I wouldn't stop drinking until I was completely drunk, and I was carried home almost every day. In the army I secretly drank while carrying out a mission, and I was almost punished for doing so. As the party secretary at my workplace, I always drank. This negatively affected my daily work and violated the regulations and rules, which stipulated that drinking alcohol was prohibited during working hours. Hence the influence was very bad. I had to retire early for this reason. After retirement, because of my bad mood, it became even worse. I indulged in drinking from the moment I got up in the morning until the time I went to bed at night. My family members, relatives and friends all tried to persuade me to give up drinking, but I couldn't restrain myself a bit. My wife had thought about divorce many times, and she even thought about committing suicide. Because of her worrying about me over the years, she developed serious illnesses. Even though I had made my mind up many times to abstain from alcohol, I was not able to. I was truly hopeless.

One morning in May 2004 my wife suddenly suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for more than three weeks. She was discharged from the hospital because we couldn't afford the medical expenses. In September 2004 she suffered a cerebral edema and heart disease, and she was hospitalized once again for more than half a month. It cost us more than 20,000 yuan for both hospitalizations. To cure her illnesses, we tried all kinds of methods, but none cured her completely. She could experience life-threatening danger at any moment. Our whole family was frightened.

March 27, 2005 was the day when we regained light in our life. Falun Dafa was introduced to my wife and me. We woke up from the maze and started on our path of cultivation practice, and we have gained a second life. On this day, a Falun Dafa practitioner came to our home. She introduced the situation of Falun Dafa to us sincerely. We were excited, as if we had found a treasure. Dafa indeed targeted our hearts. We immediately told her we wanted to follow Teacher and practice cultivation in Falun Dafa. She gave us the treasured book, Zhuan Falun, and all kinds of materials including videotapes and CDs of the exercise instructions and Teacher's lectures. We bought a big-screen TV and a DVD player, and started attentively studying the Fa and practicing the exercises.

From that day on, Falun Dafa has manifested its wonders in us, especially for my wife. All of her diseases are gone, and she looks very energetic. I am very happy. Our acquaintances were amazed at her changes and asked why she looks more energetic than before she was sick. Now she can do any kind of housework, and she feels very light while walking. We just moved to a new apartment, which is on the seventh floor. She is not tired after going up and down the stairs several times a day. It is Falun Dafa that has enabled my wife to defeat her illnesses, and it is Teacher who has given her a new life.

Since I started practicing Falun Dafa, I have persisted in studying the Fa with a calm mind and taking the Fa as my teacher. When I read Teacher's Fa about drinking alcohol, my mind opened. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun (Lecture Seven),

"Some people love alcohol as much as their own lives. Some people enjoy drinking alcohol. Some people are already poisoned by drinking alcohol, and they cannot even pick up their rice bowls without drinking--they cannot do without a drink. As practitioners, we should not be this way. Drinking alcohol is definitely addictive. It is a desire and stimulates one's addictive nerves. The more one drinks, the more one becomes addicted to it. Let us think about it: As practitioners, shouldn't we give up this attachment? This attachment must also be removed."

I wanted from my heart to quit drinking alcohol. As soon as this thought emerged, my attachment to alcohol was indeed removed. I had been drinking alcohol for most of my life, and that I quit it like this was like a miracle. From then on I didn't want to drink anymore, and I have not had a drop since.

It was Teacher's mercy and Dafa's greatness that helped me break away from the alcohol demon's entanglement. I have also passed the test of my sincerity in quitting. One day I came across a former coworker on the street that I hadn't seen for years. He wouldn't leave unless I agreed to go drinking with him. I told him I had quit. He didn't believe me, and he dragged me along, almost tearing my clothes. He finally became mad at me and left. An old friend of mine phoned me twice to invite me out to drink, and I refused him both times. During a family reunion around the holidays and at other parties, I dealt with it by drinking a soft drink or water. Seeing that I wasn't drinking, my family members all smiled. They said I was a totally different person than before. Teacher and Dafa have given us new lives and a happy new family. Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa. Zhen-Shan-Ren is good.

Since we started practicing Falun Dafa, we have been studying the Fa and practicing the exercises conscientiously. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston:"

"When you do well in the Fa-rectification, I can see that it's always because you are able to understand the Fa from the Fa; and when you do somewhat poorly, I can see that it's because you aren't making a priority of Fa-study and you aren't able to understand the Fa from the Fa."

Teacher has repeatedly told us to do the three things well, "Validate the Fa with rationality, clarify the truth with wisdom, spread the Fa and save people with mercy..." ("Rationality" in Essentials for Further Advancement II)

We thought, "We are new Falun Dafa practitioners. We should also step out to assist Teacher in the Fa-rectification." But there was fear inside of us. We feared that, because we were new practitioners and have only cultivated for a short time, we would do it poorly. So we wanted to wait a longer period of time before doing so. This was how we justified our not stepping out. Teacher said in "The Only Thing Falun Dafa Disciples Have a Role in Is Saving People ** With Teacher's Commentary" (Article on Clearwisdom.net):

"The fact is, those who can't step forward, regardless of the excuse, are concealing fear. Yet for cultivators, fear or lack thereof proves [one's] humanity or divinity, and it is what differentiates cultivators from ordinary people. It is something that a cultivator must face, and the biggest human attachment that a cultivator must remove."

Comparing this standard to ourselves, we finally enlightened to the reason for our not being able to step out. It was the interference of the word "new." As soon as we removed the mentality of fear of being "new," we were able to step out. Now we have stepped out, and we have increased the area of our truth-clarification from small to large. Lacking experience, we asked veteran practitioners to help us to perfect our ways by comparing them with theirs. We summarized our experiences, and if we couldn't say it well we practiced it. As long as we walk into Dafa and understand the Fa from the Fa, any difficulty can be overcome, and anything can be done.

We have arranged our time for Fa-study and exercise practice very efficiently. We get up at 3:30 a.m. to practice the exercises, send forth righteous thoughts at 5:55 a.m., study the Fa after sending forth righteous thoughts at noon, read Teacher's articles at 4 p.m., send forth righteous thoughts at 5:55 pm, and study the Fa until 2 a.m. after sending forth righteous thoughts at 11:55 p.m. When we first stepped out we felt time was extremely limited. Then we tried our best to find time to validate the Fa outside, and we grasped every minute to spread the Fa and save people. We utilized the time after midnight and after practicing the exercises in the morning to distribute truth-clarification materials in the surrounding neighborhood. There are more than thirty buildings in our neighborhood, and we have taken the initiative to cover them.

In the past, a fellow practitioner would deliver the truth-clarification materials to our home. Now, to save her time, we have begun to fetch the materials from her home. We pick up the materials on Mondays, and my wife divides them overnight. She prepares every copy of the materials carefully. Every copy of the materials looks beautiful from the outside, and those who had the predestined relationship to get a copy are so delighted with it that they can hardly bear to put it down. To use the time more efficiently, between our home and our fellow practitioner's home, we usually do not take the bus. Instead, we walk and distribute materials on the way. Each time we fetch the materials we take the east road to her home, and then we take the west road back home. Every round trip takes us about three hours. One day, to explore a new route, we spent more than three hours on the return trip because we wanted to find a route to distribute the materials more efficiently.

Jan. 24, 2006