(Minghui.org) Chunsheng was born in the year of the ox, in the early 70s in a small town in the Changbai Mountains in northeastern China. The day of his birth happened to be during the Ching Ming Festival, when people pay homage to family members who have passed on. The weather that day was not of the drizzly kind poets write about, but rather sunny with no clouds. Chunsheng’s father was very happy, and gave his son the name Spring Born.
Chunsheng was not healthy, but rather skinny, weak, and subject to frequent illnesses. What set him apart from others was that he had quick reflexes beginning at an early age and was very smart. Therefore, he grew up amidst affection and praise by relatives and friends. Although born with a good nature, he nonetheless developed quite a few attachments, such as pride, inability to suffer grievances, impatience, becoming depressed when facing adversity, unwilling to put forth steadfast efforts, vanity, love of winning and outdoing others, and having temper tantrums.
When he started school, young Chunsheng found everything he needed to learn from textbooks very easy to handle and so his arrogance grew daily. Even with his lack of effort, he always received pretty good marks. Despite his disdain to fight for first place, he was always eager to hear praise from others that he was the smartest. He would compete with his young friends to see who could be more mischievous. Sometimes he would deliberately make friends with those who loved to stir up trouble. He felt that being unafraid of sacrifice, even to the point of death, and being loyal to the code of brotherhood in the rough and tumble justice system surpassed all else in importance.
Admitted To and Expelled from Prestigious University
In the beginning of the 90s, 18-year-old Chunsheng was admitted to a prestigious engineering university in Shanghai because of high marks. Everything seemed smooth sailing. He did not encounter any feeling of restraint. Therefore, he started to skip classes and make friends with those of like minds. Later, he started smoking, drinking, causing trouble, and engaging in fights. He became a different person in the eyes of his fellow students. Chunsheng himself was actually very distressed. He did not understand why he was born to this world, without a goal, living in ignorance, and unable to make changes.
Chunsheng was expelled from the university. He had only finished a little over a year when the teacher summoned his parents to take him back home. At that time, there was no future without an education. Chunsheng was born to a poor working class family. In order to turn his life around, he had to wait for a few months before he could take another college admissions exam.
Chunsheng received an admissions notification from another engineering university in Beijing. He changed his name and once again entered a university campus.
Changing for the Better after Learning Falun Gong
Chunsheng chanced upon a book entitled Zhuan Falun in the bookstore of the People’s University in Beijing in October 1995. He opened it and saw Teacher’s smiling face. Although he had no idea that this book would forever change his life, he nonetheless bought it without hesitation. That evening, he read the entire book by candlelight. He was stunned and his soul was shaken to the core. He wondered, “Is everything the book says true?”
Deep in his heart, he felt an indescribable affinity toward the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and an indescribable appreciation towards the warning that “good and evil will be likewise repaid.” He felt that it should be like that throughout the world.
A year later, Chunsheng became a Falun Gong practitioner. He told himself on October 31st, 1996, “I will devote my life, heart and soul to the cultivation practice of Falun Gong.”
Fellow students soon discovered that the indolent and cynical Chunsheng had become industrious and even tempered. For years, he who never cared about anything now began to voluntarily bring boiled water for everybody, plus do cleaning and sanitation chores. He gave up smoking and drinking. He used to pride himself as being a foul mouth, but now had become urbane, humble in speech and mild in manners.
During the last year of university life, Chunsheng's classmates truly fathomed that a righteous belief could thoroughly change a person from inside out. They realized that an impetuous, arrogant, frail person with a complex and sensitive personality could transform into one who was peaceful, generous, considerate, sincere, and energetic. In his graduation autograph, his classmates wrote, “Wishing you success in attaining Consummation!”
Turning into an Outstanding and Honest Teacher
Chunsheng started teaching at a school in a northern capital city in 1997. People who practice Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are welcomed no matter where they are.
One year, his school responsibilities were particularly demanding. He had to teach as well as take care of an entire class as its class teacher. His workload was three times heavier than the others’. Chunsheng did not complain but continued to work hard and remained happy. His colleagues said, “Your work is outstanding and impressive.” When his Department was electing a Chairman of the Trade Union Branch, everybody unanimously voted for him even though he was the youngest among them.
Chunsheng never chose what work he would do, under what conditions, or with what requirements. Other colleagues would always request that the school provide transportation whenever they had to perform duties away from the school premises. They also complained whenever they had to travel during bad weather. Chunsheng would just quietly hop on his bicycle no matter how bad the weather or how far away the assignment. He also always completed his designated work in a timely fashion.
Later, Chunsheng had to teach full time and could not take over any class as class teacher. One of his department directors said, “We are really sorry to see you go. We will really will miss you. You are the best work partner!”
Chunsheng was assigned to do some training. When he was checking into his quarters, the hospitality unit falsified some invoices but he refused to cheat. He told them, “I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I practice Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. I cannot cheat.” The hospitality staff said, “Your kind of people are truly rare. However, your other colleagues all do things this way. If you act differently from them, what are we to do?”
He recognized their awkward position, so he let them issue him an invoice with the normally inflated amount. When he returned to his own unit, he kept the invoices without submitting them for a refund, even including the amount he should be reimbursed. He felt that, on the one hand. he could not take what did not belong to him, and on the other, he would not get others in trouble, so the only way to solve the problem was to quietly pick up the tab.
Remaining Honest without Embarrassing Colleagues
Nowadays, there exists in the schools a bad situation: right before each exam, the students will collectively buy gifts for the teachers to assure that they receive good grades. Chunsheng had also received this “gift of deep affection.” He did not want to flatly decline this “gift” when all his colleagues accepted theirs with complete peace of mind. Instead, he waited until after the exam and then bought volleyballs and other presents for the students.
When Chunsheng was judging a scholarship competition for his class, he noticed that a student leader from his home village who was a rather hard-working and good student, had, while helping to calculate the students’ scores, intentionally marked up his own scores in order to squeeze out another student and become the scholarship recipient.
Upon making the discovery, Chunsheng sought out the student leader to gently point out the discrepancy and encouraged the student to redo the calculation. The student leader followed Chunsheng’s recommendation. Several years later, this student leader, who had graduated and was already working, made a special trip back to the school to seek out Chunsheng because he could not forget this honest, forthright teacher.
A Good Colleague
There are many more such stories, although none of them is spectacular. In fact, all of them are quite mundane, insignificant incidents, but every one is touching. Those who know Chunsheng just enjoy being with him.
When he was living in the dormitory for unmarried singles, he always took up all sanitation and public health related chores. After he departed, nobody would pick up where he left off and all cleaning stopped.
In his dorm room, he always quietly bought food and cooked for everybody. After their meals, his colleagues would always wait for him to clean up and scrub the dishes. Chunsheng never complained but maintained a good spirit and took care of everything.
There were always some colleagues who were petty and greedy; from taking food without paying to even secretly helping themselves to items Chunsheng put away for personal use. Chunsheng noticed but never reacted.
A colleague once told him candidly, “You are the best person I have ever met!”
Facing the Persecution of Falun Gong
Chunsheng was forced to leave the school in the Winter of 1999 because of the Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong. No matter how good his performance, his superiors dared not go against the orders from above. They had to ask that he write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong.
Chunsheng could not agree to the persecution of this great Fa that had transformed his life, purified him physically and spiritually, and opened up a new outlook to so many people. There was no way he would ignore the truth and allow the Fa to be trampled by those in power.
Chunsheng went to Beijing to appeal and added his voice to the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners calling for justice. From then on, he was homeless. Later, he was arrested several times and beaten. He protested his illegal arrests by going on a hunger strike. He refused food and water. He would stand up to defend the dignity of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.
Chunsheng was sentenced to forced labor, transferred to different prisons and suffered torture.
However, the great Fa of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance had rooted firmly in his heart so that he could face anything without regret.
Category: Improving Oneself
