Pain and Joy on My Path of Cultivation

During the 2008 Mid-Autumn Festival, my family and I were not together. I was home alone. I took the opportunity to organize my thoughts, and to look back on my cultivation experiences.

One spring evening in 1996, my wife took a walk with our children after dinner. She met Lao Zhang, who held a sitting mat in his hand. He said to her, "Xiao Li, you are so skinny. You are not very healthy, are you? Please join us to practice Falun Gong. You surely will be healthy soon." My wife had many diseases such as tuberculosis, gastric diseases, gynecological problems, etc. She took a lot of medicine, had been to a temple to be converted, and had practiced other types of qigong before. Although she spent lots of money, she didn't regain her health. She asked Lao Zhang how much it cost to learn Falun Gong. When he told her, "Not a penny," she said, "OK, I will give it a try."

Falun Gong is truly miraculous. My wife's illnesses all went away after three months. What is more wonderful is that Falun Gong teaches Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. My wife expected our children to follow the principles of Falun Gong--to not lie, to tell the truth, to do things truthfully, to be kind and help others, to be tolerant whenever there is a conflict, and to try to overcome difficulties. The children all strictly followed the principles and changed their bad habits and behaviors. Their moral standards improved, their wisdom developed, their minds were more active, and their test scores just got better and better. They all became very good students. Before the kids began to practice, according to their scores, one child might have been able to go to a good college in the province, but the other might have only been able to go to a second-rate college. In fact, they both ended up going to the best colleges in the nation. Seeing the huge changes in my wife and kids, although I was very busy with my work, I began to cultivate with them.

Clarifying the Truth Is a Multi-purpose Key

Our whole family practiced, both studying and cultivating, happily and harmoniously. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started its mindless persecution on July 20, 1999.

In the dark days when the CCP used its full power to slander and discredit Falun Gong and arrested practitioners on a large scale, our whole family also suffered what other practitioners in the county suffered. The CCP broke into our home to search and rob us, both my wife and I were illegally arrested and imprisoned, and even my two young children were picked up and taken to the police station to be interrogated. After my wife and I were released, we both lost our jobs, and our apartment was confiscated by the place where we used to work.

When I heard about the decision, I worried that our young children would not be able to handle it. I said to my wife, "Let's not tell the kids the truth for now--we will discuss it later." But my wife said, "They have to face it sooner or later. Why should we hide it from them?" Young practitioners are truly different from ordinary kids. Due to their solid cultivation practice, they are very strong-willed. When my wife told them that both Mom and Dad had lost their jobs and our apartment would be confiscated, my elder child said, "Mom, we are not afraid." My second child said, "Mom, the huge bridge can protect us from the wind and rain, let's move under the bridge."

Although we lost our jobs and apartment, the CCP didn't stop there. After we were chased out by our former employer, we rented an apartment. Two months later, police officers from the place we used to live knew the school that our children went to, followed them home, and found where we had moved to. They reported us to the local police. The local police then instructed our landlord to follow us every day because we practiced Falun Gong. They also warned the landlord not to rent the apartment to us after three months. The landlord was poisoned by the CCP media's propaganda, hated us very much, and told us to leave after our three months were up. Later on, my wife clarified the truth to the landlord thoroughly and in depth, revealed the evil face of the CCP, and let him know how unfairly we had been treated. After hearing this, the landlord let us renew our lease. Later we thought that it was not good for a whole family to rent an apartment for a long time, so we decided to borrow money from relatives and friends to buy a home. When we moved out, the landlord, who now knew the truth, gave us some furniture as a gift and was sympathetic toward us.

When we bought a house, the original owner was a very righteous person. He knew very well the evil acts of the CCP towards students on June 4, 1989. After he heard the facts that we told him, he showed his great sympathy and volunteered to take 5,000 yuan off the asking price. After the CCP bad guys from the local government and police station heard about our buying a house, they tried to stop us. They first told the original owner not to sell the house to us, but he firmly refused to cooperate. They then told the owner to sell the house to us at a higher price, but he did not agree to that, either. They then went to the CCP secretary where the owner worked. The party secretary was the owner's teacher before and they had a very good student-teacher relationship. The authorities told the party secretary to convince the original owner not to sell his house to us, but the secretary did not succeed. The original owner sold the house to us despite the pressure, and we moved in.

Those That Persecute Dafa and Dafa Disciples Are Punished

When we first moved into our new apartment, the local government officials and police treated us like very dangerous enemies and arranged for people to monitor us all day long. Those who were sent over were deeply poisoned by the CCP and also wanted to make some money. They sold their lives willingly to the CCP and in the end truly lost their lives. In 2002, the CCP government sent two guys to monitor us. These two always reported us to their boss. This hindered our efforts to clarify the truth and made for lots of difficulties and interference in our work and daily life. One afternoon when the two of them were watching TV in the room for gatekeepers, a car suddenly arrived, and six or seven people got out. Some had long knives, some had short knives, and some held iron rods. They cornered these guys in the room and beat them up really badly. The two guys had no weapons and could not fight back. Each of them suffered seven or eight cuts. What was most frightening was that those who attacked them stabbed their legs and then turned the knives, making them yell with pain. There was blood all over.

The attackers immediately left in the car. Both of the guys were severely injured and were taken to the hospital. Although they had done many bad things to us, we did not hate them. My wife bought some gifts and went to the hospital to visit them. She also found familiar doctors to take good care of them. During their stay in the hospital, my wife clarified the truth to them many times. One of them understood finally and said to my wife, "Big Sister, through our contact with you these past few days, I have realized that you are really good people. The ones that attacked us are the real bad guys. They have done many bad things that others could not see." After they left the hospital, since this person now knew the truth, he did not come to monitor us any more. But the other person still monitored us just to get the money the CCP offered. One night in 2005, he hanged himself in his home. This person was very fierce. After he was released from the forced labor camp, the locals were all afraid of him. For such a person to commit suicide was incomprehensible to the neighbors. Actually, he was punished for his bad deeds.

Those who persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples will receive karmic retribution, and their family members will also be affected. In 2000, the deputy Party secretary of the place where I used to work was a very vicious person. On the surface he treated Dafa disciples relatively nicely, but he secretly did many bad things. It was directly due to him that we lost our jobs and our apartment. He thought nobody would know that he did bad things to persecute Dafa disciples, but he didn't know that he could not hide from the eyes of higher beings in other dimensions. Less than a month after we left our jobs, his son rode home after a night shift with another person on a motorcycle. The motorcycle was hit head-on by a truck. His son was killed, while the other person on the motorcycle was safe.

We know of other incidents of those who persecuted us suffering retribution. I will not cite them all. One thing is for sure: those who persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples will receive retribution.

The Strong Righteous Thoughts of Dafa Disciples Frighten the Evil

Superficially, the authorities appeared strong. In fact they felt very weak inside. One evening in 2002, the deputy chief of our local police station, who was in charge of persecuting Falun Gong, came to our home with household registry police officers. They asked us where our relatives lived. My wife refused to cooperate and reprimanded them for persecuting Falun Gong. She clarified the truth righteously. The deputy chief wrote down some notes while he was listening, and his hand was shaking badly while he wrote. Afterwards, he changed his attitude towards Dafa disciples and only followed the formalities when he assigned people to persecute Dafa disciples according to CCP orders. Sometimes he even protected Dafa disciples secretly. Once the director of the local neighborhood governing office came to our home with seven or eight personnel from the community and tried to take my wife to the brainwashing center. We refused firmly, and our neighbors also came out to question what was going on. They left without any success. In the evening, we called the deputy chief of the local police station and asked why these guys had tried to arrest my wife. He said he would call the director on the phone, and said, "I was against it, but they insisted on doing it." He asked me to comfort my wife and said that the whole thing was over, that everything would be fine.

In the fall of 2003, my wife was deceived and ended up in a brainwashing center. The chief of the 610 Office (an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems) in our region met my wife in the stairway of the center. My wife had very strong righteous thoughts and stared into his eyes. He was scared and took several steps backward. My wife said to me after she came back from the brainwashing center, "They appeared strong on the surface but were frightened to death in their hearts."

Master's Fashen Are Always Near Disciples

As long as Dafa disciples cultivate seriously, Master's Fashen are always nearby, protecting and giving hints, so that disciples can do better and walk more steadily on the path of Fa-rectification. In 2000, I had a business meeting in another city. After the meeting was over, I got my flight ticket and insurance slip that I had booked from the hotel. I put the insurance slip inside the ticket and put them carefully in my luggage. When I checked in at the airport, I could only find the airline ticket but not the insurance slip. There is nothing accidental for a practitioner. I thought, "This must be a hint from Master." Since the insurance slip was gone, my trip was not insured, and it would not be safe if I went back. I was not very willing to go home at that time and wanted to stay away. In the end, I decided to go back and face whatever I had to face. It happened that I was arrested after I got off the plane and was imprisoned for over 40 days.

When Dafa disciples have the heart to clarify the truth and save sentient beings, Master's Fashen will bring people with predestined relationships to us. In February 2008, we went back to our hometown to celebrate the Chinese New Year. On our way back, we passed the county capital, and I was thinking to myself about helping two former colleagues quit the CCP. Although I had the desire, I had had no contact with them for many years, and their phone numbers and home addresses had changed--where would I find them? I then thought that Master would arrange an opportunity for me. Indeed, after we got off the bus, I met one of my former colleagues and his son. I led them to a quiet place and persuaded them to quit with just a few sentences. Through this colleague, I found the other colleague and went to his home and helped his whole family to quit the CCP. Actually, Master does everything, disciples have only done a little bit to help Master with Fa-rectification.

With Master's benevolent protection and fellow practitioners' sincere help, we have walked on the path of cultivation for 12 years. In these 12 years, although we have had Master's careful protection, due to my limited understanding, I have fallen here and there and sometimes I have been very unsteady on the path. Although I have done something to help Master with Fa-rectification, I still feel far away from Master's requirements for disciples and quite far behind compared with fellow practitioners who cultivate really diligently. I just wanted to record the pain and joy I have experienced in the process of cultivation to report to Great Revered Master and share with fellow practitioners. I sincerely ask fellow practitioners to point out things that are not correct so that we can do better and walk more steadily on the path of helping Master with Fa-rectification.