(Minghui.org) I live in a small town that was home to a major mining industry back in the 1990s. Residents were relatively well-off, enjoyed good company benefits, and lived comfortably. However, as the town’s material wealth increased, people’s health and moral values declined. Young people started fighting and engaging in disorderly conduct.
In 1994, Falun Dafa began spreading rapidly throughout our town. Word spread from person to person as people experienced its miraculous powers firsthand. Those who had been sick for years recovered, those with terminal illnesses were cured, couples on the verge of divorce reconciled, and acts of honesty and good deeds became commonplace.
I would like to share some of my recollections from that time, starting with my own experience.
I am a retired attending physician, nearing the age of 80. I had chronic sinusitis from childhood, which caused frequent headaches. At 13, I suffered severe meningitis which left me with hearing loss, hand tremors, bradycardia, leukopenia, and frozen shoulders. I developed an acute urinary tract infection soon after marriage. After a series of ineffective treatments, the condition progressed to chronic cystitis and chronic pyelonephritis (kidney infection). Desperate, I consulted many Western Medicine doctors. When that failed, I turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine. When that failed, I turned to qigong. I attended numerous qigong classes at my own expense and practiced diligently, but my condition only worsened. I suffered extreme physical and mental anguish.
One day in May 1994, a practitioner recommended Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) and lent me the book Falun Gong. After reading it, I decided to give up my other qigong practices and focus solely on practicing Falun Dafa. Soon after that, the chronic illnesses that had plagued me for years disappeared.
Initially, there were only a few practitioners in our area, so we did not establish a fixed practice site. We would practice by the river one day, and in the park the next. One of us would voluntarily bring a tape player, and we would gather before breakfast or after dinner to listen to Master’s lectures, practice the exercises together, and discuss what we had learned from cultivation. All of us had experienced improvements in physical and mental health through practicing, so we discussed how wonderful it would be if we could share this practice with our relatives, friends, and neighbors. Eventually, someone suggested organizing free Falun Gong study classes locally.
On May 13, 1995, we conducted the first Falun Gong study class in our area and it was really well received. As news spread and more learners approached us, we added a second class. As more and more people approached us to learn the exercises, we added more and more classes. As the number of students increased, the first batch of students became veterans and took on instructor roles. Eventually, everyone became volunteer instructors, able to teach new students whenever needed.
As the number of practitioners increased, large public buildings, such as activity centers, no longer had the space to accommodate everyone. We began establishing practice sites in various residential areas to facilitate the practice and to help more people learn the exercises. Those who started practicing came from all walks of life. Blue collar workers, farmers, businessmen, army veterans, teachers, students, doctors, nurses, and government cadres. Each morning and evening, practitioners would voluntarily travel to nearby practice sites to study the Fa and practice the exercises. They would sit in full lotus position in small groups, taking turns to read the Fa, forming neat rows as soon as the exercise music started, and moving in unison according to Master’s exercise instructions.
A large-scale Falun Dafa practice was held every Sunday morning in our town square. We displayed large posters around the practice area that showed Master Li Hongzhi spreading the practice and teaching the exercises in various regions. We also hung posters explaining the exercise movements, and posters containing brief introductions to Falun Gong. I still feel excited when I recall these wonderful scenes.
We later began organizing an annual large-scale experience-sharing gathering, alongside several smaller ones throughout the year. A compassionate and peaceful energy field would permeate the venue.
Once, a person who had yet to start practicing attended a meeting. He listened for two hours as practitioners shared their cultivation experiences, before leaving to attend to other matters. The same day, he discovered that his chronic, untreatable ailment had miraculously disappeared. Word soon spread of Falun Dafa’s incredible powers.
As many local leaders began practicing, local venues—including the town square, cinema, workers’ activity center, and youth center—started hosting practice sites and Falun Gong events free of charge.
Falun Dafa can improve a person’s physical and mental health, elevate their morality, and stabilize society. Below are several examples that occurred in my area during the early years.
Paralyzed Person Regains Mobility
A 59-year-old woman in our town had chronic hip dislocation, causing her to be bedridden for years. The muscles in her lower leg had atrophied. She had finally saved enough money to have hip surgery at a provincial hospital when someone recommended Falun Gong to her. She decided to give it a try.
Unable to leave her bed to practice the exercises, she listened to Master’s audio lectures. One day, she suddenly felt confident about using her cane to go to the toilet. On her way there, she felt light and airy. Inside the bathroom, she felt her body rising upward. Worried about floating away, she tightly gripped the water pipes with both arms. Soon after, she found herself able to slowly walk downstairs on her own to go to her local exercise practice site. She happily recounted her experiences to others.
One day, she heard that a series of videos of Master’s lectures would be screened at a venue over two miles from her home. She excitedly declared, “I’ll use my legs healed by Master to walk and see the video screening each day.” She accomplished what she set out to do, and after days of watching Master's lectures, her atrophied legs were miraculously restored to normal. Such miracles sound unbelievable now but they were commonplace back then.
Recovering from Liver Cancer
Mr. Wang was a liver cancer patient. Despite hearing about Falun Gong’s effectiveness in healing illnesses, Wang decided to seek treatment at the 309 People’s Liberation Army Hospital in Beijing, undergoing interventional therapy once a month. Generally, cancer patients must undergo 10 to 20 rounds of treatment. Even then, a cure is not guaranteed, and death during treatment is normal. Wang received three rounds of treatment at the hospital. His first treatment went smoothly. A month later, when the second infusion was administered, his body went into shock when only half the medication had been injected. Doctors immediately stopped the infusion and resuscitated him. His third round of infusion saw a repeat of the same incident, where he went into shock and had to be resuscitated. After that, Wang did not dare return for further treatment. He returned home and began practicing Falun Gong. Soon after, he underwent a miraculous change: his health was restored and he was able to return to work. He attributed his recovery to Master Li Hongzhi.
Wang’s recovery became widely known. News even reached his hometown, and many people approached him to learn Falun Gong. Among those who approached him was a villager and his 15-year-old son. The boy suffered from persistently high fevers that did not respond to medication. An exploratory laparotomy found his abdominal cavity covered in rice-grain-sized particles. The surgery was challenging and the doctor could not remove all the growths. After surgery, the sutured incision became infected, oozing pus and refusing to close. The boy had remained hospitalized for several days with a persistently high fever, and then his father, in desperation, had taken him to Wang’s house to seek help. Wang welcomed them into his small room and let the teen use his sofa as a bed. While lying on the sofa, he began watching videos of Master’s lectures. Miraculously, the young man’s wound began to heal, his appetite increased, and he was able to move around on his own. Within a few days, he had fully recovered. His father was thrilled and told Wang, “I want to thank Master Li Hongzhi for saving my son. I will spread word of Falun Dafa when I get home, so that more predestined people can obtain the Fa.”
Resolving Grudges
A once happy couple living in our town divorced after the husband had an affair. The husband’s betrayal caused immense suffering to his wife and child. The wife, Guifen, deeply resented her ex-husband and resolved to take revenge. She was determined to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband after working hard to accumulate enough money. Then Guifen came into contact with Falun Dafa. After studying the Fa and sharing her experiences with others, she resolved to follow Dafa’s principle that practitioners cannot take lives. She eliminated all thoughts of revenge, saving all concerned, including both sides of the family, from a terrible tragedy. She said, “If I hadn’t practiced Falun Dafa, I would never have changed my mind!”
A young couple in our town were often embroiled in arguments. Their relationship deteriorated to the point of divorce. Their son, barely three years old, went with his father. After losing his wife, the husband had to shoulder childcare responsibilities while also working a job each day. He became bad tempered, irritable, and hostile toward everyone, causing his friends to distance themselves from him. After practicing Falun Gong, the husband began following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He reflected on his shortcomings, eliminated his bad temper, and became a completely different person. His change in character prompted his wife to return home and begin practicing Falun Gong with him. The couple reconciled, began a harmonious relationship, and the family began living happily together. At one sharing session, the husband wept as he said, “Thank you, Master. Falun Dafa gave me back my wife and my child’s mother. Falun Dafa restored the warmth to our home.”
Countless Good Deeds and Acts of Kindness
Countless good deeds and acts of kindness emerged from the Falun Dafa practitioners in our town. A high-ranking official who strongly supported his wife’s practice of Falun Gong began to follow the teachings of Falun Dafa. He started turning away boxes of gifts and bundles of cash offered to him by people. He did not hold a large banquet when his son got married (many officials take advantage of their children’s weddings to collect cash and make a fortune). He was universally recognized as an honest official in our town.
Our town also saw doctors who refused to accept bribes from their patients, workers who helped others, and mothers and sons who voluntarily returned lost money.
During that time, a huge number of residents in our town were Falun Dafa practitioners. The goodness of Falun Dafa was known to every household. Even members of the Chinese Communist Party practiced it. Our social values saw rapid improvement and our reputation attracted visitors from out of town. “Falun Dafa is so widely practiced in your town. The people here are truly blessed!”
I regret not photographing the large-scale Falun Dafa practice gatherings that were so widespread back then, or the miraculous changes people experienced after practicing Falun Dafa. But I know the goodness of Falun Dafa has been etched into the hearts of every kind-hearted person in our town.
Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, launched the persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999. Practitioners in our town were subjected to brainwashing, illegal detention, forced labor, imprisonment, and many even lost their lives. All this solely because we tried to stand up for our legal right to continue practicing Falun Dafa and to be good people.
Standing on the street now and seeing the noticeably quieter neighborhoods, streets, and parks after the pandemic, I recall the bygone days of people practicing Falun Dafa in our once lively town, and I wish more people could be awakened.
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