(Minghui.org)
A Life of Hardship
I was born in the 1960s during a famine in China. When I was born, my body was swollen and malnourished. People said that I was fortunate to have survived. I was pale, with dry hair. As I grew up, I felt very self-conscious when I looked in the mirror with my pale face and thinning hair. My mother was also very weak. She gave birth to six girls. My parents didn’t make much money and we lived in poverty, and they still needed to look after their parents. My mother got really sick after giving birth to her fourth, fifth and sixth children. She lay in bed with no expression on her face. My dad silently shed tears. Looking at them, my heart ached and I felt depressed. I became introverted, lonely and anti-social. The only thing that made me happy was reading.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched many political campaigns to persecute people when I was growing up. The notion that studying was useless was commonplace, even though I still liked to read. However, books were in short supply. I cherished every book I could get my hands on, although they were likely CCP propaganda. There were no books about traditional culture to be found. My school required students to write articles to criticize other people during each political campaign. I was indoctrinated with atheism and the culture of the CCP.
When the university system was restored after the Cultural Revolution, I successfully passed the entrance exams and was accepted by a great school where I studied electrical engineering. I was assigned to work in a research institute after I graduated. I got good grades and was able to go overseas to study advanced technologies. When I returned to China, my career was successful. I gained senior positions in the early 1990s. However, my health and mental well-being were poor; I had insomnia and irregular menstruation. I was not able to get pregnant after I got married. I didn’t get along with my husband, and we often argued. I was in poor health and had headaches and nightmares regularly. I didn’t know the meaning of life and felt lost. Sometimes I thought of committing suicide.
Finding Falun Gong
Some of my colleagues started to practice qigong when it became popular in China. I thought it was superstitious and out of touch with reality. Later on, some people said that traditional culture was profound and Chinese qigong was marvelous. I got curious and started to read qigong books and practice qigong exercises. I had some physical reactions after doing the qigong exercises; I saw colorful energy circles in front of my forehead and felt a warm current in my body. I realized that there are unexplainable phenomena in this world that directly affect our lives, yet we aren’t aware of them. Only by practicing it firsthand could I understand the mysteries.
Some qigong books said that we couldn’t practice qigong by ourselves and needed a master to guide us so that we wouldn’t deviate. I started to look for great masters but found no one after I tried a few qigong forms. Instead, I was left with more questions about life. My health declined even more and I felt hopeless and wondered where I could find a great master and which qigong I should practice.
On New Year’s Day in 1998, a friend told me with excitement that there was a really good qigong called Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). I will never forget that day. He showed me a book by Master Li Hongzhi, and Master’s lecture. When I opened the book and saw Master’s photo, a gust of energy immediately enveloped me. I started to read the book earnestly and finished it in one go. I told my friend that I found the master that I had been searching for. My friend lent me the exercise videotape. With the guidance of Falun Gong, I have been walking the path to return to my true self ever since.
I immediately benefited from practicing Falun Gong. I started to learn the exercise movements from the video the next day. When I did the second set of the exercises, I saw blue lights from my forehead. It was so amazing that I didn’t want to stop the exercise until I had practiced it for two hours. When I was doing the sitting meditation, my legs gradually became soft and flexible, and I could sit in the full lotus position with each leg crossed above the other.
I underwent a fundamental change soon after I started practicing the exercises and reading the book. My insomnia and headaches disappeared. I hadn’t had these kinds of experiences when I practiced other qigong. I felt very fortunate to have found Falun Gong.
I also found answers to my questions about life from reading Zhuan Falun. I understood that hardships were caused by karma generated from doing bad deeds. My perspective of life changed dramatically. I stopped being so attached to fame and gain. I only did good deeds, not bad deeds, and became considerate of others.
Being a Good Person
After I began practicing Falun Gong, I no longer take my annual bonus at work for granted. I actually started to nominate my colleagues for it. I donated my medical allowance to a colleague whose child had gotten seriously ill and had to pay huge medical bills. I donated the most in my institute. I also donated a lot to areas that were hit with natural disasters. My actions got me noticed in my company. They invited a reporter from a TV station to interview me. I told the reporter that I practiced Falun Gong, gained good health and learned the principles of being a good person, and that is why I did good deeds.
A street near our institute was piled with trash from vendors who sold food and vegetables but never cleaned up after themselves. Several practitioners and I decided to set up a practice site in that street to introduce Falun Gong to people. We cleaned up the street and hired a trash collector to haul the trash away. The trash collector ended up not charging us anything when he learned that we practiced Falun Gong and did good things for other people. We cleaned the street before we practiced the exercises each week. Ever since then, the street has been trash-free.
Clarifying the Truth Amid the Persecution
Former CCP head Jiang Zemin and his regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. Police and security department officers, the Party committee and my department gathered in the company meeting room and called me in. They demanded that I give up Falun Gong. I said with tears in my eyes, “We practice Falun Gong for good health and to be good people. What’s wrong with that? Why should I give it up?” They didn’t say anything and left.
I’ve been harassed ever since then. The authorities talked to me constantly, but I was very determined that I would not give up Falun Gong. The police station and my institute collaborated to persecute me further. They cut my salary and bonus by making an excuse that I failed a qualification examination. Then I was deprived of CCP membership and was deposed from my position. They ordered me to write “thought reports” at work, so I wrote how I had benefited from practicing Falun Gong and my understanding of Falun Gong.
The CCP secretary at my institute was not able to “transform” me. He contacted the local police station and sent me to a brainwashing center. Later on, they sent me to a detention center.
I went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in 2001. I was given one year of forced labor after I came back from Beijing.
In 2015, I lodged a complaint against Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong. As a result, my home was ransacked. I was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. The officers from the community center and the local police station kept harassing me after I was released from prison. I had no other choice but to leave home to avoid the harassment. I had no income and sold my apartment.
When I was in the brainwashing center, I was required to write thought reports. We could go home at night during that time. I wrote one thought report at night discussing my understanding of Falun Gong. When I finished it, I felt my body become transparent and my mind was in deep tranquility. This feeling lasted until the next day. I felt that my life was elevated and knew that I did well.
When I submitted the report, the guard on duty, a man who was very wicked, called me into his office. I decided that no matter how he treated me, I would keep smiling. I saw my report on his desk and understood that he must have read it. I had no fear, with a righteous mind. It looked as though his evil side was suppressed in this righteous field. He asked me to sit down and looked at me silently. He just said one sentence: “You have good enlightenment quality. You can leave now.” When I saw him again later on, he no longer looked wicked.
When I was detained in 2001 after I returned from appealing in Beijing, I had no knowledge of the judicial process at the time and didn’t know why different policemen kept coming to see me. Late one night, two policemen came to see me. They asked me some questions and took out a pen and paper. I told them what Falun Gong is, how I had benefited from practicing it, and what consequences the persecution would bring about. They listened to me and didn’t write anything down. Finally, they said that they had never heard this before and even thanked me for educating them and that they knew what they should do. One of them said, “You see, we didn’t record anything.” I was happy for them; they had a positive attitude toward Falun Gong and didn’t want to do anything bad to me.
Sentient Beings Are Blessed by Knowing the Truth
I used different means and took every opportunity to clarify the truth to people. I cooperated with other fellow practitioners to validate the Fa and save sentient beings. People’s attitudes towards Falun Gong will determine how much they will be blessed. I’d like to share one story with you here.
An elderly person from the village used to be bullied, as his father was once a rich farmer and was persecuted to death by the CCP. This man lived with his mother, but was forced to go to another city to work. He married a co-worker and they had a daughter. His mother called him back because she couldn’t handle living alone. He built a simple house.
He came to my home one day in 2006. I played DVDs about Falun Gong and the persecution for him. He acknowledged Falun Gong after he watched the programs. He said that he’d safeguarded a set of Falun Gong cassettes. When Falun Gong books and materials were destroyed in his town, he saw a cassette with a cover of Falun Gong’s principles of Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance) on it. He felt it a pity that such a good cassette was being destroyed. He took it and kept it at home. His kind deed connected him with us. He liked to read the Falun Gong materials I gave him. All his family members withdrew from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He also gave Falun Gong pamphlets to his friends.
During a big earthquake in 2008, his town was almost completely leveled; eighty percent of the houses were destroyed, but his home was intact. He thought it was amazing. His neighbors’ houses were much more solid than his, yet they fell apart. He knew that Falun Gong protected him. His daughter had gotten hungry before the earthquake and went out to buy food. She was on the street when the earthquake happened. The dormitory she stayed in collapsed, yet her life was saved. She later got married to a capable young man. The elderly man built a three-story house and made good money.
The persecution has been going on for more than 25 years. I was severely persecuted. I understand from the Fa that although I have lost everything in this world, a beautiful future awaits me. The people who have truly been persecuted are those perpetrators of the persecution who will eventually receive retribution. We Falun Dafa disciples should cultivate ourselves well, clarify the truth to sentient beings and complete our mission and fulfill our responsibility to save sentient beings.
I used to be an atheist and didn’t really know what life was about. Now I’ve become a Falun Gong practitioner. I have gone through a lot while validating the Fa and countering the persecution these past 20-plus years. Many of my attachments and human notions have been exposed during the process. I’ve stumbled many times, but I got back up again and again thanks to Master’s Fa. I hope that I will cultivate diligently, walk steadily and well the last leg of my cultivation path, and follow Master to return to my original home.
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