By Zai Sheng, a Falun Gong practitioner in Liaoning Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) I am an elderly man who recently started practicing Falun Gong on January 16, 2005. I was diagnosed with lung cancer and had spent more than 100,000 yuan in chemical and radiology treatments in order to kill the cancer cells. However, the radiology had a side effect of burning my esophagus and caused me to have difficulty swallowing and to feel pain and itching in my throat. I was scheduled to have eight more radiology treatments, but I kept procrastinating having them, for fear of getting my esophagus burned again.

During the delaying of the radiology treatments, a relative and an old classmate who are both Falun Gong practitioners came to visit me at my home. After learning of my health condition, they sincerely offered their help to restore my health by introducing Falun Gong to me. They told me about Falun Gong's miraculous power of treating illness, Teacher's compassion, the fact that Falun Gong has been warmly received by people in more than 70 countries, as well as Jiang Zemin and his henchmen's persecution and the lawsuits against them. I was very excited and inspired. Like countless Chinese people of my generation, I have experienced many of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP)
political movements and know very well the vile tactics the CCP uses to torment the Chinese people. I saw through the evil nature of the CCP a long time ago. It is an indisputable fact that the CCP justifies and maintains its persecution of Falun Gong by the use of hate campaigns and character assassination. There is nothing wrong with Falun Gong cultivation practice based on its cultivation principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. I decided to start practicing Falun Gong. Since then, they often visited me at home and read Teacher's Fa lectures to me. The more I hear them, the more I am devoted to Falun Gong.

From studying the Fa, I have learned that the true purpose of life is to return to one's true self. I have also learned that I had become ill because of the karma I had accumulated from doing bad things in my present and countless previous lives. While suffering from the lung cancer, I was paying back the debt. Those who truly cultivate in Falun Gong are under Teacher's protection and care. After Teacher cleanses a Falun Gong cultivator's body, he will not suffer from illness, but he will get rid of sickness karma during his cultivation practice.

I memorized Teacher's lectures about sickness karma. I conducted myself as a genuine cultivator each time I experienced sickness karma. I believe that sickness karma is not illness and I believe that it is a sign that Teacher is eliminating the sickness karma for me. I must endure the feeling of discomfort. For a period of time, I felt an intense pain in my chest, as though something was pounding inside my chest. I had never experienced a pain like this, but the intense pain disappeared about a month later. Starting off as a frail and sickly creature, I became very healthy and strong. My withering countenance became a healthy complexion. I looked like a different person!

Teacher said,

"A practitioner will come across tribulations in cultivation practice. When a tribulation comes, it may manifest as an interpersonal conflict. There will be mind games and the like involved, which directly affect your xinxing. There will be many cases in this regard." ("Your Mind Must Be Right" in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun.)

Teacher also said,

"Why do you encounter these problems? They are all caused by your own karma. We have already eliminated for you many, numerous pieces of it, leaving only that tiny bit which is divided into tribulations at different levels for upgrading your xinxing, tempering your mind, and removing your different attachments. These are all your own tribulations that we use to improve your xinxing, and you will be able to overcome them. As long as you upgrade your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them. Therefore, from now on when you come across a conflict you should not consider it a coincidence. This is because when a conflict occurs, it will take place unexpectedly. But that is not a coincidence--it is for improving your xinxing. As long as you treat yourself as a practitioner, you can handle it properly." ("Transformation of Karma" in Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun.)

Since I started practicing Falun Gong, I have been trying to conduct myself according to the standards of Falun Gong. When I encounter conflicts, I no longer intensify the conflicts by engaging them. Instead, I try to address conflicts with compassion and peace and lessen them in this fashion.

Teacher said,

"What else will you encounter? Our bodies may suddenly feel uncomfortable. This is because repaying the karma will be manifested in different ways. At a certain point in time, you will be made unable to discern clearly whether something is true, whether your gong exists, whether you can practice cultivation and make it, or whether there are Buddhas and if they are real. In the future, these situations will surface again to give you this false impression and make you feel as though they do not exist and are all false. It is to see whether you are determined. You say that you must be firm and sure-footed. With this determination, if you can indeed be firmly resolute at that point, you will naturally do well because your xinxing will have already improved. But you are not yet that stable at the moment. If you are given this tribulation right away, you will not be enlightened to it at all, and neither will you be able to practice cultivation whatsoever. Tribulations may take place in different respects." ("Your Mind Must Be Right" in Lecture Six of Zhuan Falun.)

Lately I have been experiencing a new round of sickness karma and have been in a lot of pain. My son knew that my lung cancer had disappeared because I practice Falun Gong. However, when he saw me suffering from sickness karma, he begged me to seek medical treatment out of his filial piety and out of fear for my life. I told my son, "I am not ill. I am reducing sickness karma. I spent over 100,000 yuan to treat my lung cancer, in vain. After I started practicing Falun Gong, Teacher eliminated my lung cancer right away. Nothing will alter my will to cultivate in Falun Gong. I believe only in Teacher and the Fa. I believe in Falun Gong cultivation practice." My son abandoned the idea of persuading me into getting medical treatment once he saw how determined I was.

Although it is still difficult for me to practice the Falun Gong exercises, I try to do the five exercises separately. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun, "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it."

Under Teacher's compassionate protection, I will definitely pass this test. I want to go out and clarify the truth about Falun Gong to save sentient beings! My life is under Teacher's protection, and no one can shake my firm belief. 

Posting date: 7/20/2005
Original article date: 7/20/2005
Category: Personal Cultivation
Translated on 7/11/2005
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/7/8/105734.html

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