(Clearwisdom.net) I live in a farming village and started practicing Falun Gong about seven months ago. In mid March, 2011, I contracted an illness that could not be cured with normal medical treatment. As I had a belief in Buddhism, I went to a newly-built temple and wished to bring a Buddha statue home so that I could be protected by the Buddha and have my illness cured. However, I could not find a statue of the Buddha Maitreya, which I preferred.
At the end of March, I went to visit a relative in Heilongjiang Province. During the day time, I was the only one at home as the family were all out at work. While I was walking around the house I saw a Buddha statue with curly hair in one of the rooms. Knowing that my relative was a Falun Gong practitioner, I thought it was strange to see a Buddha statue there, as I was led to believe that they don't worship another Buddha. I looked at the statue a couple of times before leaving the room. In the evening, I asked my relative why she was worshiping another Buddha while practicing Falun Gong? She said, “What you saw was my Teacher.” I then asked, “Is your teacher a Buddha? I saw a Buddha statue there.” She looked surprised, and told me that she only has a picture of Teacher Li there. I said, “It's not a picture. I saw a Buddha statue with curly hair and I thought the statue looked good.”
When I went back to the room the next day, all I saw in the room was a picture of Teacher Li. I couldn’t find the Buddha statue anywhere. The following day, my relative told me that she was going to listen to Teacher's lectures on her mp3 player, and asked me if I would like to listen.
Teacher Li was telling people that true practitioners must be good people with a high moral standard, as practitioners are asked to improve their moral character by following the Fa principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I thought that Falun Gong is a good cultivation method. I continued to listen to Teacher explaining about the structure of the universe and how practitioners are cultivating their mind and body. I then told my relative that I wanted to learn the practice and asked her if she would teach me the exercises.
My relative taught me the first exercise, and helped me to quit the Young Pioneers and Communist Youth League. She then gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun and took me to another practitioner's home. Eight practitioners were there practicing the exercises together. They were very happy to see me and taught me all of the exercise movements. When we returned home, I opened Zhuan Falun and saw Teacher's picture smiling at me. I went back to the room where I first saw the Buddha statue, and suddenly realized that Teacher Li manifested himself as a Buddha statue as a way to let me know that a real Buddha was right in front of my eyes.
I remember that many years ago, practitioners once delivered a copy of Zhuan Falun and an exercise DVD to my home, but because I believed the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) propaganda about Falun Gong, I refused to look at them. Now that I have finally read the book, I understand the truth about Falun Gong and the purpose of life. I am so glad to have finally found Teacher.
I was steadfast in studying the Fa and practicing the exercises. But after half a month, it seemed that an illness that had bothered me a lot when I was young had returned. My relative told me that Teacher Li was cleansing my body. Without taking any medication, the illness disappeared after about 12 days. I then thought that I needed to let the people in my hometown know the facts about Falun Gong so that they could be saved. Therefore, I decided to return home. Before I left my relative's place, she gave me a lot of Teacher's recent lectures and some truth clarification materials. She also taught me how to clarify the facts to people, and how to send forth righteous thoughts.
On my way back home, I stopped by another relative's home in Liaoning Province. The relative helped me to find a local practitioner, who then gave me more truth-clarification materials. When I eventually arrived home, I couldn't find my house key. I tried to use a steel bar to pry open the door, but failed. I then started to send forth righteous thoughts and asked Teacher to help me. The lock suddenly opened with a little bit of force. Tears filled in my eyes and I was very appreciative of Teacher's help.
When I went out to deliver the truth-clarification materials around my local area, I was a little scared at first. But once I remembered that Teacher was protecting me and that what I was doing was the most righteous thing, I became more relaxed. When I had finished delivering all of the materials, I went to the practitioner's home in Liaoning Province again. The practitioner told me about another practitioner from Liaoning Province who was arrested in Hebei Province while delivering truth-clarification materials. I felt really scared after that and did not want to go out any more. The practitioner also gave me Teacher's lecture, “What is a Dafa Disciple.”
As I read teacher's lecture, a certain paragraph struck me:
“As you know, I have taught that man’s thinking, back when gods first created man, didn’t have the capacity to respond to nature or society, and had very poor survival skills. Since man didn’t understand anything when first created, the sound of thunder would frighten him and send him scurrying for a cave to hide in; or when rainstorms came, he wouldn’t know to avoid them, or might even be at a total loss as to what was going on. So, over time, man gradually learned how to respond to the natural environment. Afterwards, gods ceaselessly went about imparting to man cultures of every sort, with gods watching, along the way, to see what kind of person such cultures would produce. In other words, it was an ongoing process of trial-and-error and putting things into practice, with things having ultimately been finalized at a certain point. After an extremely protracted process spanning countless years and that served to finalize things, culture suitable for establishing the kind of thinking and behavior needed at the final stage, and the best things from human culture, were selected. Those would be brought forth during the five thousand years of the final mankind, and be enacted by man. It is precisely the five millennia of Chinese civilization that I am referring to. It is the product of what was established over the course of, and is the culmination of, that protracted historical process. The process was meant to teach people what mode of thinking to use, what structures of thought to form, how to think about the things that they encounter, and what ways of thinking to use to contemplate things.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
I realized that in order to save people, we need use different wordings and different approaches dependent on the person.
I am the only practitioner in our village. However, with the help of Teacher and the Fa, I can accomplish whatever is necessary to validate the Fa. I told all the people I met about Falun Gong and the persecution, and asked if they would like to quit the CCP. When I had finished talking to them I sent forth righteous thoughts and asked Teacher to support me. As a result, all of them quit the CCP.
When I met people who had not joined any of the CCP's organizations, I would give them truth-clarification material and tell them to recite, “Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I then asked them to tell these words to their friends and family.
