(Minghui.org) First I would like to thank Master for saving me and two other practitioners in my family. We are fortunate to walk on the path of cultivation and return to our origins.
I am 50 years old now. I worked in provincial news media after graduating from college. In 1990, I began graduate studies in Beijing. However, I had several illnesses, including arthritis, a premature heartbeat, and arrhythmia. I was in pain due to the arthritis. To get rid of my illnesses, I began to read books on Buddhism and Taoism, but I could not fully understand them.
In late 1992, the school doctor who did acupuncture for me gave me a ticket to the Oriental Health Expo and said, "Your health problems are hard to cure. You can learn something to improve your own body." During the health expo, I saw Falun Gong and got an introduction sheet. Unfortunately, I did not know that Master gave a lecture later that day.
I Saw Master During the Lecture Series at the Taiji Plant Auditorium
When school started in early 1993 after the winter break, I called the phone number listed on the Falun Gong introduction sheet. An assistant told me that there would be a lecture starting that day (February 23) at the Taiji Plant Auditorium and invited me to attend.
I arrived at the auditorium at about 4 p.m. with a camera and film from my school. When I talked with a staff member, he said each lecture session was 10 days, with 90 minutes of lecture and 30 minutes to teach the exercises each day. The tuition was 50 yuan, or 5 yuan per day, similar to the price for a movie ticket in Beijing at that time. The tuition was reduced by half if one had attended the class previously.
Because I did not want to pay the tuition, I told the staff member that I was a graduate student who was interested in Falun Gong. I would take some pictures and might write a report. He told me that he would check with Master. After about an hour, Master came with several other staff members. He was tall and wore a black jacket. I asked Master about this, and he said yes. I thus went in with Master and the several staff members.
The auditorium was very simple. There was a desk in the front with a bottle of water on it. An embroidered Falun emblem was hanging next to the desk. At about 7 p.m., Master came on stage, took out a piece of paper like an index card, and began to lecture. At first, I pretended to take some pictures while listening to the lecture. After about 10 minutes, however, I started to listen attentively.
Starting with why someone who practices qigong has been unable to improve his or her gong, Master explained what cultivation is, what the Buddha Fa is, where life came from, and what the purpose of life is. Because Master introduced Falun Gong as similar to a Qigong system, during the lecture He asked us to extend our hands with our palms facing upward to feel the rotation of Falun. I did that with the other students and felt something invisible rotating in my palm. It was very powerful, and I could feel numbness and swelling. While teaching us that everything has life, Master took out the spirit of the water bottle and showed us. I saw a red dot.
Many students, including me, came to get their illnesses cured. Master knew this and, when speaking about one's physical improvement as one cultivated to a higher level, he asked us to think about our own illness or the illness of a relative and stamp on the floor together. It was very quiet when we were thinking about the illness, then there was a loud sound when over one thousand students stamped their feet together following Master's instruction. Although I was only 31 years old, I was suffering from arthritis and feared I would die because of my arrhythmia. They both disappeared as Master lectured. I was so happy it was beyond description.
During the break, we students gathered together and shared experiences. One student from Beijing told us he experienced his celestial eye. Every day while doing the exercises, he experienced running forward through a passageway. When the lecture was over, we began to learn the exercises after a 10-minute break. A student who came with Master showed us the movements. When learning the first set of exercises, I could feel a strong energy. I also saw Master correct the movements for some students.
The next day, the lecture was moved to the Beijing Nuclear Instrument auditorium. By then I thought it was inappropriate not to pay for the lectures, since they were so good. So I paid the tuition and continued to listen and learned the exercises. On the way home that evening, my body was very light, and I felt as if I had springs under my feet when I walked. Waking the next morning, before opening my eyes, I saw an oval-shaped yellow circle at the Shangen acupuncture point, and it stayed there a long time before diminishing.
After the lectures were over, I immediately quit smoking and drinking; these were bad habits I had had for many years. Every day I practiced the first four exercises in the evening and the fifth one in the morning. Soon after I went to the practice site nearby, the one in Zizhuyuan Park, and practiced with the practitioners there, many of whom were family members of the Police Ministry officials. Both my arthritis and heart diseases were eliminated.
Then, from April 29 to May 6, 1993, I attended the 10th lecture series held in an auditorium at the Aeronautics Ministry, located at Wukesong in Beijing. One day before class, a 50-year-old lady whose health recovered through the lectures was waiting outside the auditorium. When she saw Master coming, she came up and knelt in front of him to thank Master for saving her life. Master helped her get up and compassionately told her, as well as the other students, not to do things like that.
Master’s Compassion in the Eleventh Lecture Series in Beijing
From July 25 to August 3, 1993, the Chinese Qigong Scientific Research Society sponsored the 11th lecture series at Beijing Public Security University. Despite the high temperatures in the middle of the summer, more than 2,000 people attended this lecture series.
During those days, I experienced some interference from both this dimension and other dimensions. For example, sometimes when Master was lecturing, the speaker's sound suddenly increased with a strange humming noise. Master stopped, waved his hand by the side of microphone, and continued the lecture. Another time during Master’s lecture, a 40-year-old lady suddenly stood up and interrupted, saying he was deceiving people. Master was extraordinarily calm. He told the staff to refund her tuition and let her walk out herself.
In that lecture series, a ceremony was held in honor of the publishing of China Falun Gong. That day, the auditorium was filled with compassion. Above the stage was a banner announcing the occasion. On the desk in front of Master, facing the students, was a Falun emblem (as we see in Zhuan Falun) with words around it. During the ceremony, Master gave a brief lecture about the book and cultivation practice. I went on the stage and took some pictures in color. The pictures were then given to the staff that came with Master.
After the ceremony was over, the sponsor arranged an interview session and I had a chance to shake hands with Master. Before that I had thought of many questions to ask Him, but while sitting next to Master, all my questions were gone. I also saw the hunchbacked practitioner that Master cured at the Oriental Health Expo, who was now able to walk with a straight back. In a serious yet gentle tone, Master said to him that, although the illness was now gone, it was necessary to continue do the exercises and improve his xinxing to fully resolve the problem.
Attending the Third Lecture Series in Guangzhou City
The next lecture series I attended was in early 1994. As I read in the Fa, one's life journey may change after beginning to practice. I did not accept an offer to teach at a college in Beijing. Instead I went to Guangdong and worked for a company there. I took one week off and attended the 3rd lecture series in Guangzhou, which was sponsored by the Guangzhou City General Labor Union. There were two reasons why I attended the class: one was that I wanted Master to accept me as a disciple, thinking only disciples could obtain high level teaching; the other was due to strong illness karma I experienced in cultivation, hoping Master could help relieve it.
On the third day into the lecture series, I did not leave immediately after the class was over; I instead waited for Master at the exit of the auditorium. There were other practitioners also waiting there, including a young couple. When Master came, the young couple asked Him to consecrate a jade necklace. Master did this for them, and the young couple left very happy. I then went up and explained my situation. Master then explained to me what a Dafa disciple is and about the transformation of karma. My confusion no longer existed; Master's words helped me tremendously.
At that time, Master and the staff stayed at the Guangzhou Labor Union Hostel, which was next to the Labor Union. The hostel was a two-story building with stairs outside the building. The doors were wooden, just like most other hostels in 1970s or 1980s, and the rooms were connected by the stairs. From this we could see what a plain life Master lived when spreading the Fa.
The Gigantic Falun in the Sky During the Fifth Lecture Series in Guangzhou
Because I had read some Buddhist books in the past, I thought donating money could help my cultivation. So I wrote a letter to the Falun Dafa Association in May 1995 and sent 2,000 yuan. Soon afterwards, I received a letter that said Dafa did not accept money and that one should pay more attention to cultivation. Such a brief communication led me to the fifth lecture series in Guangzhou between December 21 and 29. That was the last lecture series Master gave in China.
The location was the Yuexiu District gym in Guangzhou City. After all the tickets were sold out, the remaining practitioners who came could buy standing-room-only tickets. When Master was giving the lectures, there were people near the table in front of Master as well as in the aisles. Most of us from other provinces were arranged to stay in dorms at the Guangzhou Chinese Medicine College. On the first days into the lecture, we began to feel comfortable after our bodies were purified by Master. We also experienced how karma was eliminated, during which our bodies were very heavy, and we needed to rest every 20 or 30 meters as we walked.
On the fourth or fifth day, Master talked about the Falun emblem. When returning to the dorm, someone saw that the cloudy sky had turned clear and a gigantic yellow circle appeared. There were also many small circles attached to the big circle. Practitioners with their celestial eyes open said that was a gigantic Falun. Since my celestial eye was not open, I could only see the circle and some light moving around it periodically.
When Master finished the lecture on December 29, 1994, all the students stood up and applauded for a long time. Many practitioners gave flowers to Master to show their gratitude. We did not know that it would be so hard for us practitioners from China to see Master before the end of Fa-rectification.
The above are my experiences. I hope we all cultivate diligently.
From the Call for Submissions to Commemorate the Twentieth Anniversary of Falun Dafa’s Introduction