(Minghui.org) I am a former drug addict who was deeply entrenched in addiction for over a decade. Had it not been for practicing Falun Dafa, I would likely not be alive today. I am sharing my story to testify to the world of the greatness of Falun Dafa, while expressing profound gratitude for the boundless grace of Master Li Hongzhi.
Went Astray at a Tender Age
I was born in a city in the 1970s. My father was an educated youth who had been sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, where he married my mother while working on a rural commune. After I was born, I grew up in the city with my grandmother.
My grandmother had little education and didn’t know how to raise me. Being far from my parents and without supervision, I started getting into trouble as early as third or fourth grade. I frequently ended up at the police station for fighting, stealing, and other misdeeds.
Because I often skipped school, it took me eight years of on-and-off attendance to finally graduate from elementary school. I lasted only a month in junior high before ending up in a detention center for robbery. Too young to be sentenced, the center notified my father to take me home. From then on, I dropped out altogether and drifted through society.
In 1995, I became addicted to heroin. Later, I was sentenced to two years of re-education through labor for robbery; then another two years for drug use. I underwent forced detoxification four times. Each time I was released from detention, I would start using drugs again within days. During that period, I was utterly lost—without a legitimate job, without a stable income, unable to see any path forward or any hope. I sank deeper into this sea of suffering, sliding toward the abyss.
Encountering Dafa With Hesitation
The year was 2011. Upon my final release from the labor camp, I encountered Xiao Dan, a former drug-using friend. He had also been detained for drug use. During his time in the labor camp, he met a Falun Dafa practitioner. Guided by that fellow practitioner, Xiao Dan decided to cultivate Falun Dafa.
After his release, he began his cultivation practice. He quickly overcame his drug addiction and resumed a normal life. During his drug-using days, he had once jumped from a second-story window to evade police capture, breaking his leg and becoming disabled. After practicing Falun Dafa, his disabled leg healed rapidly. He walked freely, indistinguishable from anyone else—showing no trace of his former disability.
Xiao Dan’s experience deeply touched me. What particularly astonished me was his complete recovery from addiction—he never relapsed! This prompted me to read the treasured book Zhuan Falun, and Dafa’s principles profoundly convinced me. I came to understand who I truly am and why I came into this world. I realized that people should live with dignity, align themselves with the cosmic principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, cultivate virtue, and live uprightly as good people!
However, I didn’t immediately embark on cultivation. At that time, I had stopped using heroin but had turned to new types of drugs—methamphetamine, ketamine, marijuana, and ecstasy—basically every drug available on the market. While these substances weren’t as addictive as heroin, they caused even greater harm to the body. I also smoked and drank alcohol, all of which are prohibited by the principles of Falun Dafa cultivation. So I decided: I wouldn’t cultivate yet. I’d quit smoking, drinking, and drugs completely before starting.
However, these things aren’t something one can just quit easily.
Fast forward to 2017. One night, I had a dream. In the dream, I was being chased by many evil beings. They looked like those bizarre alien creatures from American blockbuster movies. I fled up a mountain, running all the way to the top. Just as they were about to catch me, I steeled my resolve, closed my eyes, and leaped off the peak.
Unexpectedly, they caught up, grabbed my feet, and held on tightly, preventing me from jumping. Instinctively, I cried out, “Master!” and woke up. In that instant of awakening, I knew with crystal clarity that I must cultivate! Only through cultivation could I escape entirely the demons’ entanglement and harm!
Transformed After Practicing Dafa
Once I formally embarked on cultivation, I followed Xiao Dan’s example and quickly kicked my drug habit completely. At the same time, I quit smoking and drinking, abandoned all unhealthy habits, and bid farewell to my former absurd and reckless lifestyle.
I’ve given up illegal activities for good and now earn my living through honest work. I’ve worked as a security guard and a delivery driver, and now I make my living as a taxi driver.
With each day of practicing Falun Gong, my body underwent daily transformations. Master purified my body, scarred by years of drug abuse, with powerful energy, restoring it to vibrant health.
During my drug-addicted days, I was emaciated, weighing as little as 40 kg (approximately 88 lbs) at my lowest—people nicknamed me “Ribs.” After cultivation, I became rosy-cheeked, full of vitality and energy, and my weight increased to a healthy 65 kg (143 lbs). Driving a taxi is grueling work, yet whether on day or night shifts, I never felt tired.
Falun Dafa is a practice that cultivates both body and mind. As the body purifies, moral character also improves by leaps and bounds. For instance, in my residential complex, there was a period when the janitors were dissatisfied with their wages and performed their duties half-heartedly, frequently leaving the hallways filthy. Yet my floor remained consistently spotless. This was because I consistently volunteered to clean the hallways, meticulously mopping the floors until a new janitor was hired.
In another instance, taxi drivers often encounter a situation where, on a day with heavy traffic, the meter naturally shows a higher fare than on a smooth-flowing day. Some passengers become upset, saying that the same distance usually costs only a certain amount. Because I understood the principle from Dafa’s teachings about loss and gain, I’d say, “It’s up to you. Pay whatever you think is fair.” I preferred to take an apparent loss without a care in the world, just smiling and not letting it bother me.
There are many more stories like this, but I won’t discuss them all here.
Friends and family saw the changes in me and they knew it was due to the mighty virtue of Falun Dafa. None was more deeply moved than my grandmother. Seeing her most cherished grandson finally turn away from wrongdoing and return to the right path, Grandmother was overjoyed beyond words. Having understood the truth about Falun Dafa, she felt heartfelt gratitude toward Master Li and the Great Law (Dafa). Grandmother passed away peacefully at the age of ninety-three.
Persecuted for Spreading Truth
One day in 2020, I was arrested for distributing informational materials about Falun Dafa. I firmly believed that being a good person by following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance is not a crime, nor is sharing the truth about Falun Dafa with the world.
At the police station, in the detention center, and during each interrogation, I refused to sign any documents or make any confessions. Subsequently, I was sentenced to two years in prison. Behind bars, I practiced the Falun Dafa exercises with dignity and integrity. I openly shared the truth about Falun Dafa with my cellmates. I told them the facts about Dafa, its virtues, its righteousness, and the compassion and greatness of Master Li Hongzhi. The guards and cell head all knew I was practicing and clarifying the truth, and they didn’t try to stop me.
It should be noted that throughout my entire ordeal of persecution, those so-called law enforcement officers violated the law themselves. They arrested me without notifying my family, and the court held a trial without informing them either. When my family hired a lawyer and the lawyer called the judge to inquire about my situation, the judge initially answered the phone, but later stopped picking up altogether. Consequently, neither my family nor my lawyer were aware of my sentencing until it was imposed. After I was released from my imprisonment, I called my aunt—she was startled and thought I had escaped.
Now, about hiring a lawyer. Shortly after I was detained in the detention center, a fellow practitioner happened to find my relative’s phone on the street. Stories of practitioners returning lost property are commonplace—there are too many to count. While trying to locate the owner, this practitioner contacted my relative and learned about my persecution.
He persuaded my relative to overcome their fear and hire a lawyer to rescue me. Upon learning of this, other practitioners generously contributed funds, quickly raising the necessary legal fees. Only after the lawyer became involved, did my relatives discover where I was being detained and that I had already endured an unlawful trial.
Although the lawyer’s intervention did not rescue me from the persecution, my relatives witnessed the dedication of Dafa disciples who selflessly gave without seeking reward to save a fellow practitioner they had never met.
They were even more deeply impressed and convinced by the great power of Dafa to elevate people’s spiritual realm and teach them to do good. Every story of Falun Dafa practitioners bears witness to the boundless compassion of Master and the profound virtue of Falun Dafa.
Closing Remarks
Earlier in my life, I was sentenced to prison for drug use and robbery. Now, I find myself behind bars again simply for being a good person. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cannot tolerate good people, much less Falun Dafa, which has cultivated hundreds of millions of good people. This is because the CCP’s nature of falsehood, evil, and violence is fundamentally opposed to and utterly at odds with Falun Dafa’s cultivation principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance!
Dear friend, after hearing my story, will you still believe the absurd lies concocted by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Falun Dafa, lies that fall apart at the slightest scrutiny? Will you still harbor any illusions about the CCP, which twists truth into falsehood and is steeped in wickedness? Will you still shake your head and refuse the truth-clarification leaflets handed to you by Dafa disciples?
Dear fellow Chinese citizens, when you encounter Falun Dafa practitioners on the street sharing the truth and encouraging the “Three Withdrawals” (withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated youth organizations), please do not rush past them indifferently. Why not pause for a moment, calm your mind, and take a look? Learn the truth about Falun Dafa; it can only benefit you, never harm you!
The world has reached an unprecedented crossroads. At this critical juncture of cosmic renewal, every life faces the choice between good and evil, a choice no one can evade.
I sincerely hope my story can help you make the right choice: believe in the goodness of Falun Dafa, treat Dafa practitioners with kindness, withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, and refuse to align with the evil forces. By doing so, you will embrace a bright future and attain eternal happiness!
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