How I Came to Learn Falun Gong

It was 1996. A gentleman had been living in the apartment below me for seven or eight years, but I didn't know him. One day he knocked on my door and notified me that my sewage was leaking into his apartment. I went down to his apartment with him to check on the problem. As we talked, I learned that he was a huge qigong fan and was seeking an effective treatment for his serious arthritis.

Another day he told me that there was again a leak coming from my apartment. I went to his apartment, where I noticed an interesting book, and I started skimming the pages. I had a warm feeling about the book and the Teacher's picture in it, so I asked my neighbour to buy one for me. Fifteen days later, he brought the book to me. Seeing the printed price, 12 yuan, on the back of the book, I took out the exact amount of cash for him. To my surprise, he said, “Just 9 yuan and eighty cents. That's how much I paid for it,” though he could have kept the difference for himself by not telling me the actual price.

The book was Zhuan Falun. The first time I read it, I experienced some unexplainable feelings. For example, the energy in my stomach was noticeably active, as if a tiny child were punching in there. In no time I felt my liver become as hard as iron, but it shortly turned soft. I was curious and a little nervous in the beginning, but not scared, because none of the unusual feelings hurt or caused any discomfort. I realized this book was extraordinary.

Because the book mentioned five sets of exercises as an important part of Falun Gong cultivation, I went to ask my neighbour where the office of this qigong practice was. He said there was no office. “Then how can I register for a class to learn the exercises?” I asked. He smiled, “Just come to the small square outside the the west gate of the Worker's Cultural Palace at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning; someone will teach you.”

Before dawn the next morning, I went to the the location and found two dozen people quietly doing the standing exercises. I found a position at the very back and started to copy what they were doing. It was November 20, 1996.

Before learning Falun Gong, I had not been a social person and spent most of my time reading, because it was the only thing I liked to do. My dad said to me with disapproval, “You wish you could live in a vacuum, don't you?” My mum was worried that I wouldn't communicate with others at all. But after learning Falun Gong, I changed after I saw that people around me were good. For example, a woman practitioner who owned a butcher shop had been intentionally selling uncertified meat to cheat her customers. She also refused to pay the monthly fees charged by the market where her store was located by abusing her connection with her uncle, who was the manager of the market. After becoming a practitioner, she stopped cheating her customers and the market, and turned into an honest business person. Her uncle, the market manager, was very impressed by the power of Falun Gong in upgrading people's morality.

Another practitioner was only in her 30s but had already retired because she had suffered from a series of illnesses commonly found among older people. She regained her health after practising Falun Gong and went back to work. Others said to her, “Don't be silly. Don't tell your employer that you are recovered. Just find another job and keep getting your pension from your first job.” She replied, “I can't do that. Falun Gong practitioners are good people. If I do that, I am not a good person.”

The greatest happiness in the world is to help others. The founder of Falun Gong has taught His disciples to be selfless and consider others before themselves; they are the happiest people. Over the years that the Chinese Communist Party has been carrying out its persecution, Falun Gong has received high praise and recognition internationally. Kindness has overpowered wickedness. I hope all Chinese people will choose to side with kindness and be happy.