(Minghui.org) I would like to share how I changed after I began Falun Dafa cultivation,
When I was 21 years old, I had an accident at work. My arm was broken in a few places and my hand was smashed. Everyone thought that I would either die or become handicapped.
After I was taken to an orthopedic hospital for emergency treatment, the specialists decided to remove my arm, out of concern that it would fester and result in bacterial infections throughout my body. Hearing that, my family was petrified. They all thought my wife, who was fairly young, would leave me. But while she was in tears, she said, “Even if he were to become handicapped, I would not leave him. I will take care of him for the rest of his life.”
She then knelt down in front of the doctor and said, “Please help save his arm. As long as he can keep it, I don't care whether it is still functional or not. He is too young to lose his arm.”
Her words moved the doctor. Though the doctor told my family about the consequences of not removing the arm, my wife still decided to not go down that road. I went through a six-hour surgery. It was truly a blessing from heaven that I had not only survived, but my arm also recovered.
However, after this tribulation, my temper greatly worsened and I turned into a bully. I often swore at others. I became so used to it that I wasn't even aware when I was swearing. In addition, I developed many bad habits, such as smoking a few packs of cigarettes every day, and drinking a lot of alcohol.
At work, no one dared to get into an argument with me. I also formed a habit of taking things home from work to either use at home or sell at the flea market.
I continued to slide down and began to gamble. I either played poker or Mahjong. I always ended up losing money, but that didn't stop me. Whatever my wife made was all used to pay back my debts.
My wife came to the gambling place to find me once. I went home with her but was so upset that I began to tear up money. When she was trying to stop me, I shut the windows and locked the door, then began to mistreat her. I threw her from the bed to the floor, then dragged her back to bed until she had bruises all over her body.
Although we had a lot of financial difficulties, I didn't care. I stuck to smoking, drinking and gambling, and ignored my family, which hurt my wife greatly. She was very depressed and couldn't snap out of it.
One evening in the fall of 1998, I was on my way home when I overheard that someone would be playing a video at his house. I went to watch it by just following other people. They were playing Master Li's (the founder of Falun Dafa) lecture video. After I finished watching the first lecture, I went home. I came back after dinner to learn the exercises from the family that had played the video for us.
To my amazement, I completely changed the next day. Before that, because of my limited education, I never picked up a book to read. Since then, I have been reading Zhuan Falun every day. Whenever I ran into words that I didn't know, I would look them up in a dictionary.
After I learned Falun Dafa, I came to understand the relationship between loss and gain. I knew that I had committed great sins. I also made up my mind to change myself and be a new person. When a coworker heard about it, he said to others: “If he can change himself to be someone good, then anyone can do it!”
I quit smoking, drinking, and gambling and all other bad habits. Thus, our financial situation became better and better. I began to take care of household chores, and the relationship between my wife and I also harmonized.
Soon after I began to study Falun Dafa I met with xinxing tests. I was on a night shift, and the divisional manager whose last name was Ning was supervising. I said hello to him when I saw him.
The next morning, when another divisional manager came to take over his shift, Mr. Ning said I didn't show up that evening. Because of that, he wanted to fine me and deduct my pay. I went to talk to Mr. Ning and challenged him in front of a crowd of employees: “What are you talking about? You are insane!”
He felt that he lost face in front of everyone. So he stood up and slapped my face a couple of times, which really hurt. When the bystanders saw that, they all thought that I would have been extremely upset.
However, right at that moment, Master's words came to my mind: “you did not fight back when hit or talk back when cursed at.” (Fa-Teaching Given at the Conference in Sydney) I was able to adjust my mindset right away. I calmed down and then began to apologize to him, saying, “I am so sorry. I was rude. Please accept my deepest apology.”
That shocked everyone who was there. They all knew that, if this had happened before, there would have been no way for me to endure such humiliation. By practicing forbearance, the conflict dissolved. One of my coworkers later told me, “I can't believe you were like that the other day. It's truly Falun Dafa that changed you into a good person!”
The persecution of Falun Dafa began in July 1999. The president of the factory asked me to sign a guarantee statement to denounce my belief in Falun Dafa. Since I refused to sign it, they didn't let me go home and kept me at the factory. They also had people watch me around the clock.
A few days later, the president asked my wife to pressure me. My wife was terrified by the situation, and as soon as she saw me, she knelt down in front of me to beg me to sign the statement and stop practicing. I wasn't moved, and 20 days later they had to release me.
In September 2000, because someone reported me when I was putting up a sticky note that read “Falun Dafa is good,” I was arrested. The police officers from the Domestic Security Department took turns shocking me with electric batons. When the electric batons were out of power, they slapped my face for eight hours, until I fainted.
I was illegally held at the detention center for three months. The police harassed my wife. She was so scared that she had to move out and stay with our relatives.
Right before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I was arrested again and illegally sentenced to seven years in prison.
At the beginning of my jail term, many people from our village thought that my wife would leave me. However, she was very clear about the fact that Falun Dafa was wonderful, that it was Dafa that transformed me and made me a new person, and that the persecution was wrong.
Not only did she not leave me, but her faith and kindness gradually moved the villagers. They went from being indifferent to becoming sympathetic toward us, and then they even tried to give her a hand. For example, when our village went through a land reform, they under compensated us. The villagers signed a document condemning the unfair treatment of my family.
After I was released, I took care of all the household chores. When the other villagers saw that, they said, “Look at him. Who would believe he just got out of jail after being held for six years?” I had a healthy complexion, and I always felt warm. Moreover, I hadn't taken any medication for nearly 20 years.
It was Dafa that changed me from a bully into a polite and kind-hearted person. I wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the people who have offered me and my family help during our difficult times.