(Minghui.org) I am writing this article to share some of my experiences. Falun Dafa turned me from a young thug into a respected social elite.
Influenced by social trends and my classmates, I started hanging out with young thugs at school and outside of school when I was in middle school. I called them “brothers.” Classmates who had bullied me became afraid of me and hid from me. I smoked, drank, skipped classes, got into group fights, and messed around with girls. My academics went into a free fall. My mother, who worked in a carton factory, cried a lot during those years. Her hair turned gray because of me. My father couldn’t control me during my adolescent period and could only get angry by himself. He smoked to dispel his frustration.
I failed the university entrance exams for three consecutive years in the mid 1990s. I was accepted by a secondary vocational school, which was not ideal for me. The school was outside the city, and it strictly managed the students. Students were only allowed to go to the city to buy daily necessities on Sundays. I worried about my future and didn’t like the courses, which might not be useful for my career. I smoked and played cards in the dormitory to kill time after class.
I did last-minute study before the exams. When I failed the courses, I visited the teachers and asked them shamelessly to give me good marks in the make-up exams. My favorite hobby was playing soccer. I was the team leader of my school soccer team. I was also the champion in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter races at the school sports meets. I equaled the school record for the 200-meter race. I attended the provincial secondary vocational sports meet on behalf of my school and got an award. My classmates jokingly said that I was good at everything except academics.
I went to a wholesale market one day to buy uniforms for my soccer team. I met two girls who claimed that they were from a Shanghai university. They said that they had lost money and asked me if they could borrow some money from me to buy train tickets. They tricked me, and I gave them 150 yuan ($30), which they never paid back. That was my living expenses for an entire month. I realized that they had cheated me after I arrived at school and regretted it so much. Tao, a student next door, said that this might not be a bad thing for me. He talked about the relationship between loss and gain. He lent me the book Falun Gong, which he had bought from the bookstore. The light in the dormitory was turned off. I read the book in the corridor all night. The principles in the book attracted me immediately and opened a new world to me.
Tao and I went to the city bookstore and bought Zhuan Falun on Sunday. The book was thick with good quality paper, but only cost 12 yuan ($1.79). It was very cheap. I still clearly remember that the lotus flower on the back cover was a bud about to bloom, with beautiful red illumination. I wrote a letter to the Beijing Falun Dafa Association and got in touch with the assistant in my local area. We started a practice site with several good friends at school and practiced the exercises every morning until we graduated. It was an unforgettable time that I will remember forever.
Once, while playing soccer, someone tackled me from behind and injured the meniscus in my knee. The doctor said that I needed to stay in the hospital. I thought of the Fa teaching about dissolving karma and didn’t stay in the hospital. I went by stairs to the fifth floor of the dormitory and sixth floor of the education building every day as usual. An old saying goes that a person cannot recover within 100 days if the bone is injured. But I recovered in 15 days. I could play soccer again one month later.
One day during the summer I felt cold, even though it was 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Other classmates felt that the day was way too hot, but I felt cold, even while covered with a thick blanket. My blanket and bed sheet were soaked with sweat. My roommates were terrified and wanted to take me to the hospital. I remembered Master’s Fa and didn’t take any medication. I recovered several days later.
The temperature dipped to below negative 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter in Northwest China, and our practitioners did the exercises outdoors, yet we felt warm. I could feel changes every day. I recovered from the stomachaches and insomnia that had bothered me since my middle school years. I could feel Falun adjusting my body. I could almost see the vibrations on my forehead, arms, and back while Falun was adjusting my body. I also showed the vibrations to a female classmate who later became a well-known entrepreneur in my local area. I clarified the truth to her.
After I graduated, I met many practitioners in the small park near my company, and we practiced the exercises, studied the Fa, and promoted the Fa together. Life was simple and beautiful at that time.
I was on business trip in Jinan city on July 20, 1999, when I saw the CCP’s TV program slandering Falun Dafa while I was passing the television section of a store at a shopping center. I struggled in my heart for some time. Why was Falun Dafa coming across such tremendous pressure despite it being such a good practice? Was what the TV program said true? Were Falun Dafa and Master righteous? Though my friends and family members prevented me from practicing, with the help and support of fellow practitioners, I read documents about the fake 1400 cases and watched DVDs that practitioners had made. I was surprised to learn that national TV was so baseless and dirty, and the CCP was very evil.
After serious analysis and thinking, I realized with clearer conviction that Falun Dafa made the most sense and that Master had utmost compassion. I said to myself that Falun Dafa and Master were the most righteous and that I would continue practicing Falun Dafa and never give it up. This genuine thought of mine helped me to overcome ongoing hardships and tribulations. I encountered tests about whether I would choose Falun Dafa or my family, my friends, and my loved ones. I was detained in detention centers and brainwashing centers several times. I faced hypocritical “transformation” sessions. I experienced tests of fame, personal interest, and emotion. Thanks to Master’s protection and encouragement from fellow practitioners’ righteous thoughts and actions, I was able to continue on my cultivation path up through today. Looking back, it seems that my 30 years of cultivation was in just the blink of an eye. Having Master taking care of us, we practitioners are the luckiest and happiest people in this world.
I studied at a university then finished part-time postgraduate studies after I completed my secondary vocational school. I got intermediate and advanced accountant certificates. I was the finance and audit director of my group’s company. I was also once the general manager of a subordinate company. My group’s company invested in real estate, finance, shopping centers, hotels, schools, hospitals, and construction, and had an asset value of nearly 10 billion yuan.
My boss knew I was a Falun Dafa practitioner and trusted me. My group company was comprised of more than 20 companies and made expense payments of several hundred million yuan per year. As long as I signed the bills, they could be paid. The senior managers in the group company knew that I was a Falun Dafa practitioner. I was very aware of my speech and behavior, because I represented Falun Dafa in their eyes. The company had a drinking culture and spent millions of yuan on alcohol entertaining clients and doing public relations. But I didn’t drink at all. My colleagues respected me very much in this regard.
On one occasion, the Domestic Security Brigade put pressure on my company. I thought my boss couldn’t bear it and would ask me to leave the company, but he discussed it with other deputy directors. They recognized my contributions to the company and my character and courage. They admired me for my courage in the face of the CCP’s pressure and for not giving up my belief despite my polite and humble appearance.
Businesses in China generally do not honor contracts on time. Some of my colleagues fought with each other for personal interest and collected bribes from suppliers. This became their habits and skills. My colleagues joked that honest people couldn’t survive in my company. The suppliers who got profitable contracts had to appease and bribe my colleagues at every step, from communication, contract signing, down payment, middle payment, final payment, and quality auditing. The suppliers needed to invite my colleagues to dinners, karaoke, and send gifts and money. Other people thought I was in a high position and had power. But I never accepted any kickbacks. I tried to avoid any dinners so as not to add burden to the suppliers. My only requirement was that they did a good job. I even gave tea and ham that my friends gave me, to my suppliers as gifts.
Some suppliers came to my company in a wheelchair, carried a Tibetan knife, or paraquat herbicide to demand payment from our company. A supplier whose company was going to close came for our payment and said he had to compensate several hundred employees. Some employees were upset about handling business for their managers and then being blamed. I tried my best to help them and settled the conflicts patiently within my power. But I was sabotaged, wronged, and abused by my colleagues. I tried to face them rationally and explain things to them kindly.
While managing my finance team, I followed Master’s instructions to be selfless and considerate. When our team members made mistakes, I took responsibility. When they had outstanding performance and made significant contributions, I sought awards and recognition for the employees from the senior management. I didn’t fight for my own personal interest. I was kind to my team members. I was fair and unbiased toward them and solved many thorny issues thanks to the wisdom Falun Dafa gave me.
I behaved well in daily life and tried not to tarnish Falun Dafa’s reputation. I learned from practitioners’ experience sharing articles on the Minghui website and took every opportunity to tell our suppliers, clients, employees, the street stall holders, and students about Falun Dafa using various approaches. I talked to the employees who were leaving our companies about how Falun Dafa had benefited the world.
The Party secretary of my department was a retired veteran. I tried to persuade him to quit the CCP several times, but he refused. When I said farewell to him in the underground parking lot, I sincerely asked him to withdraw from the CCP again. He agreed this time. Several other veterans of high rank also had the same situation. When they knew the nature of the CCP, they made the right decision for a good future.
Many people whom I helped wanted to invite me to dinner. I declined their invitations and told them to thank Master for reshaping me into a good person, and asked them to tell people that Falun Dafa practitioners are good people, and recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
I came across several young practitioners. I helped them resume cultivation in Falun Dafa. I felt so happy to help them.
I treated every relative and friend sincerely, even those who had harmed me. I showed them how Dafa practitioners put Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance into practice and how a Falun Dafa practitioner behaves after he has elevated his moral character. I enlightened that I should display immense forbearance and compassion, and I shouldn’t care about personal gain or loss at all.
One female colleague was hot-tempered but had a strong sense of justice. She was very much against me after I didn’t agree to reimburse her for a taxi fee of 800 yuan, which was not used for company purposes. I told her the reason I didn’t agree and took the opportunity to clarify the truth to her. She used to believe the CCP’s lies about Falun Dafa, but after she saw my behavior and speech, she no longer believed the CCP propaganda. She told her friends and family members the facts about Falun Dafa and courageously said good things about Falun Dafa. She is now studying in Japan and occasionally shares information about her meeting practitioners in Tokyo and Gyeonggi-do who host stalls to tell people about Falun Dafa and the persecution.
I try my best to be responsible in my family and to be good to my wife, child, and parents. My wife has witnessed the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa through my practice and my improved character. When we married, we had argued about some different habits between us. She would then ask me if I studied the Fa less recently. Or she would call practitioners she knew and asked them to share with me. She changed her impatient temperament a lot in the Falun Dafa cultivation environment. Her wisdom was opened and she did a good job at work and was highly valued by her boss. She became the department manager in a state-level enterprise. Her boss, as well as a deputy general manager and team members, all know that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. While I was detained in a detention center, they comforted and encouraged my wife a lot. On Master’s birthday and at the Chinese New Year, she always asks me to send best regards to Master. She knows that our family becomes better from following Falun Dafa’s principles.
My son was sick and physically weak when he was little. He was also slow developmentally in speech and action. He couldn’t speak until he was two years old. When he grew up a bit, I explained Dafa’s principles to him and recited “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” with him. When he was in primary school and I was detained in the detention center, his teacher forced him to join the Young Pioneers.
When he was in the fifth grade, the teacher asked him to become the deputy director of the Young Pioneers. He refused. When he was in the sixth grade, he was asked to become director of the Young Pioneers. He again refused. He went to see the teacher in charge and the deputy principal to express his disagreement. The deputy principal got angry and said that she had never seen such a student in so many years of her career. He became famous at school because of this issue. Even the students in the middle school nearby knew him. He clarified the truth to the students at school. He was righteous and good at academics, and was accepted by a key high school.
I have been in good health. An old classmate from the middle school in my hometown made a video call to me several days ago. He said that I looked young. A medical examination last week at my company showed that everything was good with me except that my weight was a bit higher than normal. My wife was worried about my bowels because my family had genetically poor bowels. But the medical report showed that my bowels were in good condition. Even the lung nodule discovered several years ago had disappeared.
Falun Dafa has brought blessings to my family and friends. Many of my friends and relatives, who understand and support Falun Dafa, have become healthy and live harmoniously.
I am so lucky to practice Falun Dafa. If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I would be entangled with karma, struggle for personal interest and emotion, have many illnesses, or even resort to any means to achieve what I wanted, or I might be imprisoned. Master rescued me from being a young thug in society and cleaned me with the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. He has given me a healthy body, a happy family, and shaped me into a useful and respected person to other people, to my company, and to society.
During my cultivation and Fa study over the past 20 years, I have increasingly realized the immense breadth of Falun Dafa, which reaches the smallest and the greatest, encompassing everything and leaving out nothing.
I would like to thank Master again for his compassion and salvation.