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My 60-foot Fall and the Grace of Dafa By Mike, a Western Dafa practitioner from Canada
Shared at the 2004 Canada Falun Dafa Conference (Clearwisdom.net) Hello, Revered Master. Hello Dafa Disciples. You might have heard about a practitioner in Canada who fell from a tree,
well that's me. It started the morning of September 9th, 2003. I reported to work at
Sunnybrooke Hospital, only to find out the day's work had been cancelled by the
hospital's groundskeeper. Since we were already there, I thought I would show my
supervisor a hazardous 100-feet spruce tree that was threatening to fall onto a
populated area with a high probability of striking a building. Upon examining
the tree, we discovered that the split in the trunk had progressively worsened.
Thus, the decision was made to immediately remove it. I ascended the tree with a rope, removing branches along the way. After
reaching about 70 feet, I cut down one 35-foot treetop. Then I swung out,
descended on my rope and started working on the second stem. Things were
different in that the debris now had to land on the other side of the fence, in
the Veterans' compound where the groundskeepers were working. Thus, I lowered
the small pieces down on a rope for safety and to prevent damaging the fence
right below me. When I reached 57 feet or so, I cut my notch and let a 20-foot
treetop fall. I planned to bring down the final remaining stem in even smaller
pieces, due to the fact that there were workers crossing directly below in the
drop zone. The situation then changed, as the grounds workers left for lunch and
my ground crew was waiting for me to finish so they could do the same. I decided
to reach over, cut and drop the third stem's top. I checked that all was clear
then cut the wedge and let it fall. As it tilted in the direction it was to
fall, my safety rope pulled free from around a stub on the first stem, revealing
what I hadn't been able to see before due to my helmet restricting my vision: my
safety rope was tied around the falling stem. The falling treetop, weighing
around 300 to 400 pounds, was going to pull me to the ground from a height of
approximately 60 feet. My immediate thought was to cut the rope with my
chainsaw. As fate would have it, my personal chainsaw had broken the Friday before. It
had fallen off the locking clip, which seemed impossible, as there was no
sensible way to explain how it had fallen. The new one I was given did not idle,
hence it wasn't running. If I had had my chainsaw I would have been able to cut
the rope, as time seemed to have slowed down, which gave me time to respond.
After weighing my options, I decided to jump into an adjacent tree in the
direction I would be pulled, this seemed like the best course of action to avoid
landing on the fence below. At that time I was not afraid, I knew I had attained
the Fa (1), and I felt very calm and assured as everything was in Master's
hands, and that all would be fine. The other tree branches could not hold me
with the weight of the top dragging me down and they snapped under the pressure.
While falling through the air, my mind was clear, calm and trusting. I hit the
ground. I landed well, missing the obstacles that littered the ground around me
including the 46-inch chainsaw clipped on the right side of my belt. Miraculous
is the word that best describes the way I landed on my left side, even though
the 40-pound saw weighed down my right hip. I felt no pain upon impact after
falling almost 60 feet. I immediately tried to get up, saying to my coworkers I
was OK. They insisted that I stay put. I sat up and struggled to remove my gear
so as to stand up, all the while saying I was fine and I really felt well and
was not hurt. Again, my grounds man stopped me from rising. A male nurse who was watching from the hospital window, having seen all this,
called 911 and rushed over to me. He asked me not to move and asked me where I
was hurt. Somehow my thinking turned around at that second and then I noticed my
arm was numb and difficult to move. I looked at it and said, "Yes." At
that instant, as soon as I said "yes," I was hurt. Teacher said in
Lecture 4 of Zhuan Falun, "We have said that good or evil comes from
a person's spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about
different consequences." Many severe injuries manifested. My diaphragm and spleen had ruptured; my
internal organs had shifted and filled my chest cavity, collapsing my lungs.
This was my first omission. I should have held firm to that first thought of a
cultivator. Thankfully, Master turned the worst into the best. Even before it
received the call, an ambulance was already heading toward me. In about ten
minutes after my fall, I was ushered into an available operating room in the
busiest trauma center in Ontario. Again, miraculously nine top surgeons were all
just finishing their break when I was brought in. They immediately started to
operate. My hip and arm bones were set in about twenty minutes. My spleen was
removed and diaphragm repaired. My other injuries, a fractured pelvis, broken
ribs, bruised lungs and damaged nerve in one arm were left to heal on their own. One Body I woke up in a heavily sedated state, but nevertheless my first thought was,
"I am a practitioner," and my mind became very clear. Even in that
drugged state, I reaffirmed that I was a practitioner. I thought of calling
other practitioners. I knew that they had to be near me. I felt a kind of
oppressive force, like there was a negative field in that hospital maybe related
to the SARS events of a few weeks earlier. It was as if the evil forces related
to SARS were still present in that environment. I suddenly recalled a
practitioner's number, which I had always had to look up before. Thankfully,
when I needed it, there it was. I phoned a non-practitioner friend and gave him
the practitioner's number to call. Again I felt strong. The doctors were commenting on my miraculous recovery
and I felt I was ready to go home. But the doctors wanted me to stay for
observation. The next day, a test presented itself as a surgeon came to my
bedside stating that my aorta was torn and they wanted to do open-heart surgery.
From deep inside my being I knew I was fine and that they should not operate and
I told them this. But part of me was trying to measure the risk, bringing in
thoughts like, it is too soon to operate and my lungs would not be able to
sustain the operation. This was my human side's fear bringing in these thoughts,
making me, at least in that instance, vulnerable. They insisted, proceeding to
tell me how they would operate, explaining that there was little chance of
survival if they did not. I said again that they should not operate and that I
would be fine. They went ahead and operated without my permission. The surgery just worsened
my condition. The surgeons cut around my shoulder blade and under my arm
spreading the ribs and collapsing a lung to get at the aorta. Upon seeing the
aorta, they saw it was indeed healed already. The doctor later told me that my
body structure design is one in a million because of how the flesh around the
aorta sealed the tear completely--how could an ordinary person, explain it. He
said normally one is dead in seconds. During the operation there had been other
complications, as the one lung left for me to breathe with could not sustain my
body with the damage it had incurred. Maybe it was those thoughts of mine about
my lungs not being able to sustain me through surgery becoming a reality. So my
heart stopped and they had to manually massage it to get it working. They
decided to stop the operation. Things got worse as they put me on all kinds of alien machines. At one point,
I had thirty machines connected to my body. The next complication was a severe
case of pneumonia and then they induced a coma on me. With this event, my
cultivation experiences in other dimensions began. They were all very vivid and
I was fully aware of who I was and that I was a Falun Dafa disciple. Many things
happening in the human level were experiences that were reflected in other
dimensions. Before describing some of these experience, let me first talk about
the support I received from practitioners. Right after learning about my situation, many practitioners had come and
spent long hours by my side, supporting me with righteous thoughts and reading
to me around the clock. This 24-hour presence met with interference at the
beginning. Their thoughts and the interference from the hospital staff trying to
keep them away from me was reflected in the various situations I experienced in
other dimensions. In other dimensions I sensed that I was in a battle with the evil, which was
trying to keep practitioners away from me. I knew the evil forces were not
letting the practitioners get close to me, but that could not stop us. I was
still meeting with my fellow practitioners for reading. I went to them many
times to listen to the Fa. The turning point came on about the third day. This time, my fellow
practitioners and I met to read on an open balcony at night, exposed to the
bitter cold and wind. As I looked down at my arms and chest, I could see they
were swollen so much that they were at least double their normal size. In
addition, practitioners told me that I had severe pneumonia. These are things I
should not have been able to know, as I was in a coma. One practitioner told me
that the evil was trying to keep them away but that as cultivators we have our
own ways to deal with that. One other practitioner moved toward me and wrapped
her long winter coat around me. At that moment I felt as if feathers on an Angel
wing were sheltering me from the cold. They began to read Zhuan Falun to
me. My heart became pure, my mind righteous, my voice rose, proclaiming
strongly, "I am a Fa-rectification Dafa Disciple! I am here to help save
sentient beings, and you, evil beings cannot stop me." As soon as these
words came out, from deep within the core of my being, arose the most powerful
force I have ever felt. Radiating from every pore, it grew more and more
intense. As I tensed my body, I felt a shift in my surroundings and I let the
full force loose. As I let it out I could hear the hospital building creak and
groan under this immense force and felt it shake to its foundations. With these
righteous thoughts the tide changed. One practitioner was reassuring me, and promising to take care of my mother.
My mother, a new practitioner at the time, might have been worried about me and
this was weighing on me. I felt this pressure removed from me. Months later,
when I was out of the hospital I told this practitioner about this experience
and asked if it meant anything to him. He explained how he had gone to group
study and said to everyone there, "Mike's problem is my problem."
Those righteous thoughts and his thinking of others first were strong enough to
reach me in other dimensions. In some instances, I caught a glimpse or sensed
practitioners who came to support me without a question in their hearts, and saw
their level shooting up. It made me very happy. A Lesson in Compassion One other experience in other dimensions I had was another instance of how
other practitioners' thoughts were affecting me in other dimensions. One time I
found myself tied in a crucified position surrounded by millions of people, all
judging me and accusing me of things I knew I had not done. I felt so sad for
them to be saying such terrible things about a cultivator and I felt my
compassion for them grow. They were building this ivory tower with me on its
pinnacle, making it higher and higher. As their torrents of insults rose, my
heart seemed to widen with compassion for all of them. With this, the tower grew
so tall, reaching to the sky, so that I seemed miles above the earth. Then a
practitioner appeared in front of me questioning my worthiness; was I a good
practitioner, was all of this my doing. My attachment to what other
practitioners thought of me seemed to be hit upon and suddenly my heart narrowed
and so did my compassion. I felt my focus change from compassion to proving my
worthiness. With this search in mind, I leapt from the tower, flying down,
looking for things with which to prove myself. As I was descending, Zhuan
Falun appeared with a two-inch tall practitioner standing on it. After a few
words he then began to read the Fa to me. As I listened, my mind became calm and
rational, my emotions subsided and out of that, clarity and compassion again
surfaced. I started thinking of these practitioners judging me and felt
compassion for them, and the attachment to what my peers thought of me
dissolved. Suddenly, I was surrounded by practitioners all embracing me and they
were so happy for me. The group of practitioners parted to one side so the
practitioner who exposed my attachment could usher in my family who all had
beaming smiles. I have never seen them so happy. All of them were saying how
wonderful practitioners are, and that Falun Dafa is good. Tears began to run
down my face, I was so happy for my family. Months later when out of the coma, the practitioner who exposed my
attachment, said he did indeed voice a similar opinion. In retrospect, my
attachment had played a role in drawing out that criticism and its reflection in
other dimensions as I experienced. It showed me the power of compassion and made
me aware of how important it is to have righteous thoughts about others. As for
the practitioner who appeared two inches tall standing on Zhuan Falun
reading the Fa to me, he explained that when he read to me in the hospital room,
in order that the reading would not go to my assistant consciousness, the idea
to ask Master to please have the reading go to my main conscience had occurred
to him. Of course that is exactly what happened, and more than once he appeared
on Zhuan Falun at times when I was irrational and distressed, or going
through a test and needed it …quot; he would thankfully appear. As for my family,
when I came out of the induced coma, and each came to see me, the first words
they said to me were, how wonderful practitioners are. My brother, who was
poisoned by misunderstanding of Falun Dafa before, had actually turned around
and even read Zhuan Falun to me and he uses expressions that indicate he
now understands the Fa. Again, tears of joy ran down my face. Thank you Master,
thank you my fellow Dafa disciples. With all the visions I saw, it felt as if I had lived many months in other
dimensions. During these experiences my attachments were revealed. One in
particular that was hit hard, was my fear. When afraid, I was far from the Fa,
and the world where I was seemed distorted and warped, and those in that world
could not see the incorrect state of things. I longed for the Fa, I remember
trying to reach Zhuan Falun but it was just out of reach. A thought came
to my mind at that time that if I got a chance to again learn the Fa I would
study as much as possible, as without the Fa there was disorderly chaos and
misery, and in the Fa, all was perfected. The stronger my fear, the worse things
got. When I let go of the fear, I would finally be able to concentrate and look
inside, and try to recite "Lunyu." When the fear was let go, I could
remember the Fa and the Fa strengthened me, and all things in that world
returned to righteousness. One time, I was rising up towards the heavens. I seemed to be passing through
layers, it was like going through thresholds or vales. At a certain level, I
stopped and experienced being physically stuck and felt how attachments were
literally like threads, some woven so thick that it was similar to cloth gluing
me to the substances at that level. As I struggled to free myself, I saw a
practitioner who was free and others who were all in various degrees covered. I
could not force myself out of it, until words of encouragement from this
practitioner who was free, telling me to look inside and let go, somehow caused
me to be free again and rising along with this practitioner. Then, we passed
another layer where odd-looking beings were surrounding a circular hole that
looked like a window in the sky, working all kinds of controls and levers. They
were so intent on what was below them and so feverishly manipulating things,
that they did not see us at all. We went higher and passed more layers, entering
a very beautiful world, with trees so huge they must have been thousands of
years old, rolling grasslands, meandering streams and an ancient forest
bordering an open field. It looked unspoiled and we were with other
practitioners there. It was very peaceful and welcoming. Greatness Manifested Practitioners came to support this particle of Dafa as one body. First, one
practitioner knew unquestionably what she was to do, so she organized a schedule
so that there would be a righteous field around me at all times when I was
unconscious. She would read to me for hours and at one time she even read for 18
hours in one stretch. Such selflessness is remarkable. Practitioners cleared the
field in the hospital where there had been SARS cases a month earlier. Their
unwavering righteous mindset that I would be fine both comforted my family and
showed the quality of Dafa disciples. They were like an island of calm in that
sea of grief in the waiting room. When the doctors would relay their dire
prognoses, my family and friends would break down, and then be lifted by the
compassionate reassurance of practitioners saying that I would be fine. The
righteous field was so strong that even my friends who lived far away also knew
that I would be fine. The doctors and nurses had never seen anything like our
practitioners before, staying there around the clock sending righteous thoughts
and reading to me. They all got to know the truth about Dafa and some were very
interested and wanted to read the book. The goodness was recognized even by the
minister at the hospital who requested to keep Zhuan Falun in her chapel.
She was very impressed with the practice and practitioners. So much time was
spent there by the practitioners that a deep understanding and respect for Dafa
developed on the part of the hospital staff, my friends, and my family. Practitioners have told me how this whole experience has affected them. I
think we all learned a lot. I spent three months in hospitals. Practitioners
continued to come even when I could read by myself. They came bringing Chinese
chicken soup made with the essence of their compassion, which gave me so much
strength. I was practically running around the hospital. Staff and patients
alike marveled at my quick recovery. Sometimes when it was difficult with the
staff and family focusing on the physical limitations, practitioners would visit
and it was like a light was turned on inside me, and my resolve was solidified.
All the grace you showed helped me through. I would like to thank all of you ,
and I would like to also thank Master for the merciful recovery and everything
that he has done for me. Posting date: 7/6/2004 |