Former Drug Trafficker Lives a Dignified Life After Practising Falun Dafa

Falun Gong practitioner Xiao Qing was illegally sentenced to three years in prison for distributing materials containing factual information about Falun Dafa. She was recently released.

One day, Xiao Qing brought a woman to my office. I learnt that she was a "fairly new" practitioner who had started practising three years ago. "Three years, and you are still considered a new practitioner?" I felt surprised, "Yes, I don't know anything. My movements are also not quite correct in doing the exercises, I don't have other materials, and I have only been reading Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong) over and over during the past three years."

This woman (Ms. Yang) told me her unique experience:

I was arrested and held in a detention centre for selling drugs - 60 grams. One hundred grams was enough to be sentenced to death. I thought this time I would die, and even if I could escape death, at least I would be sentenced to over ten years.

When I got to the detention centre, I was beaten so badly that I had wounds all over my body. I could not move my legs and arms. Falun Gong practitioner Xiao Qing, who was in the same cell, often helped me. She helped me to eat, changed the medication on my injuries, and helped cover me with a blanket, and other kindnesses. I was very touched. I thought to myself: There is still a person in this world who treats me so well. Falun Gong is great.

Every day, Xiao Qing practised the Falun Gong exercises in the prison cell. The police intervened a few times, but she persisted in the practise. Later the police stopped bothering her. The other prisoners in the same cell all learnt the Falun Gong exercises from her. A month later, all my wounds were healed. When I saw Xiao Qing meditating, I also folded my legs the way she did. The strange thing was, I could easily fold them, and it was the double lotus position. I could cross my legs for a long time.

Xiao Qing said, "You truly have a strong predestined relationship! Come, let's practise Falun Gong together." I said, "Sure. I have wanted to learn this for a long time."

Every day, Xiao Qing taught me to practise the exercises, and I quickly learnt the five sets of exercises. She even explained to me patiently what Falun Gong is, what the true requisites are for a genuine practitioner, and how to upgrade one's moral nature according to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance". She also told me how, through cultivating, we can achieve a very high realm, obtaining things ordinary persons could never obtain. I was enchanted to hear all this, as if I had entered a completely new world. My life's values were completely changed.

I never knew that throughout one's life, higher beings are in control, and that things we are not meant to have in our life cannot be obtained, no matter how hard we try to get them. We work hard to make money, and try to satisfy our desires by hook or by crook. We hurt ourselves and bang our heads against the wall until they bleed, and in the end, our hands are still empty and then we are put into prison. Our eyes are blinded by the quest for fame and self-interest, and we don't know what we are living for.

Finally, I understood. In reality, money is not the most important thing, fame and self-interest are not important at all, and those human emotions that had made us feel lost and crazy are also not the final goal in life. In my life now there is something more beautiful! Through hard work we can obtain all of it: namely, an inner life - to return to one's majestic and pure original home.

Xiao Qing recited "Lun Yu," Hong Yin, Essentials for Further Advancement, and other writings for me, and told me some miraculous stories she had personally experienced. I kept asking her to tell me more. I wanted to learn, too! I really wanted to have a copy of Zhuan Falun, so I could also become a Falun Gong practitioner.

Because I was close with Xiao Qing, the prison guards grew angry. Two months later I was transferred to another prison cell. I didn't want to go. I cried and begged the prison police to not make me leave Xiao Qing. When we were being separated, Xiao Qing told me, "Don't be afraid. Remember what I've told you. You will be going home soon!"

A young lady in this new prison cell also practised Falun Gong. However, she was not as brave as Xiao Qing. She didn't dare to practise the exercises and didn't dare to talk to me much. I told her I wanted to learn Falun Gong. She said the conditions were not suitable now, and that I should wait until after I get out.

I kept waiting for the court to hear my case, guessed how many years I would be sentenced to and prepared to go to prison. One day, about five months later, a detention centre police officer found me and said, "Pack your bag, you can go home tomorrow!"

I could not believe my ears. "I don't need to go to prison?" The police said, "How should I know? Aren't you happy we let you go home?"

Thinking of Xiao Qing's words ("you will be going home soon"), I immediately cried and really wanted to kneel down for a long time and not get up. "Our merciful and great Master, is this you who is helping me? Master, I will follow you in this lifetime for sure." Xiao Qing had previously told me that what Master has endured for disciples doesn't reflect in this dimension. However, in other dimensions, Master had endured karma as huge as a mountain and as vast as the sky for all of us people who truly want to cultivate.

When I got back to the detention room, I told the news to that girl. We hugged, we cried, laughed, and jumped. I called out loudly, "I will be leaving! I can practise Falun Gong now."

That girl gave me her boyfriend's telephone number, saying I can go to look for him when I get out, and that he is also a Falun Gong practitioner. When I walked out of the detention centre, that very moment I was thinking that I must find this practitioner! I want to read Zhuan Falun!

Very soon we met. He also brought the book and corrected some of my exercise movements. I also wanted some other writings by Master, such as Essentials for Further Advancement and Hong Yin. He said, "You may study Zhuan Falun first."

I seldom saw him after he gave me the book. Because I don't know any other practitioners, I could not obtain any new articles during the past three years. After studying Zhuan Falun, I completely changed. Thinking back on my life over the past several decades, almost everything I did was bad. I only knew fraud, deception, kidnapping, cheating, taking and selling drugs, gambling, and sex. But now all of these are removed from me. I know how to earn money by my own efforts, and I also know how to conduct myself according to the standards of a cultivator, and that I must live nobly.

I have no education, and I don't have any abilities so it's not very easy to find a job and yet I have a family to support. One day, a friend said that I could get an interview in Shenzhen City and work as a housekeeper. I knew this was Master's arrangement. I knew that I could no longer take the path of hurting other people. Master is helping me to live the life of a normal person.

I brought Zhuan Falun with me to Shenzhen and read the book every day. Every day I gain different understandings and realise more and more about the principles taught in Falun Dafa. Sometimes, I feel that the whole book is very red and shining like gold. The things Master talks about that could happen - I experienced almost all of them. I personally experienced the magical mystery of Falun Dafa.

My employers didn't approve of me learning Falun Dafa. I explained the practise to them patiently, and used my actions to prove to them that Falun Gong practitioners are good people. They were touched by my deeds and behaviour, and I was honoured as an outstanding housekeeping employee.

Hearing that Xiao Qing got out of the prison when her term finished, I asked for a leave from work and came back from Shenzhen to see her. I said to her in tears, "You gave me a new life! Without you, I would never be where I am." Xiao Qing said, "The one you should be thankful to is our Teacher. He has given us so much that one lifetime is not enough to thank him!"

Xiao Yang finished telling her story. I printed all Master's lectures, articles, and other Falun Dafa books from the computer for her and put them into books. Xiao Yang said, "I brought a large travel bag just for taking these articles."

When we parted, I held Ms. Yang's hand and said, "You must continue! Never give up!" She said, "You can be certain that I will never give up!"