By Xiaoqing Wu, a Falun Dafa practitioner from the Western U.S.

(Clearwisdom.net) Four years ago I was a cancer patient. After cycles of chemotherapy, I was extremely weak. The cancer shifted to the lymph glands and the doctor, seeing my body so desperately ill, told me that I only had one more year to live. I obtained many materials introducing Falun Gong from Seattle Falun Gong practitioners. I read the book Zhuan Falun from beginning to end in one sitting, and it was as if a lightning bolt had lit up my life and awakened my true nature. What is the meaning of life? I finally found the answer. From then on I decided to follow Teacher, and walk the path of cultivation.

When I first started practicing, I immediately felt many Faluns turning. Cool air kept coming out of the center of my palms and feet. I could not cross both my legs in the double-lotus position, so I used cords to tie my legs up. Soon afterwards, one day, I started crossing my legs, and the cords loosened by themselves,;when I tied them up they loosened again. I enlightened to that it was Teacher telling me I did not need to use cords anymore. I tried it, and really could sit in the double-lotus. One night I was lying flat on my bed, and suddenly felt a pair of hands reaching over and positioning my slightly tilted head to be straight and upright. The hands started massaging my two shoulders, from the neck area to the top of my head. One hand turned in circles horizontally and the other turned in circles vertically. It felt as if the hands reached into my head, and felt very comfortable. I knew it was Teacher's Fashen helping cleanse my body. From then on, my severe frequent migraines and stiffness of the shoulders were all gone. One day, I was lying in my bed and one pair of hands helped fix the bedding, and one hand laid on my left chest. The heat of the hand sunk through to my body. It was Teacher cleansing my body again, taking out all the cancer that had spread.

Teacher said in Zhuan Falun that everyone will encounter the demon of lust. One night during sleep, a naked demon came upon my body, and I shoved it away. I said, "I am a cultivator of Falun Gong, don't bring me trouble." It persistently looked at me with no facial expression. Only when I started to send forth righteous thoughts did it start to leave, and just before leaving it grabbed my right rib maliciously. The next day, I could still feel my right rib hurting.

One night, I was suddenly awakened by an animal. This animal looked like a dog and also like a fox, and it was lying on my body. My whole body was rigid and I could not make a sound. I used all my force and grabbed its two skinny back legs trying to push it away, but I could not move it. I used my hands to push its abdomen, and I could feel the warmth of its body heat. In my heart I cried for Teacher's help. After persisting for a while, it then disappeared and I could move again. I immediately got up and sent forth righteous thoughts.

After this, I have encountered many times different demons' interference. Some came to claim my life, some pretended to be Jesus. Every time a tribulation comes, I believe firmly in Teacher, and with righteous thoughts and righteous actions, I am able overcome them all.

During the summer of 2004, I went to London on a business trip, taking my mother for a planned vacation in Europe. My mother, who is over 70 years old, saw that after practicing Dafa my health and spirit became very healthy, so she started practicing too. We took truth-clarification flyers and toured tourist spots and clarified the truth at the same time. After we passed out the last flyer and were sitting atop a little hill in Morocco, we saw that the blue sky was covered with shiny Faluns of big and small sizes; some were shiny dots of light. We were very excited. The last stop was Venice. It was about two in the morning and my chest suddenly became severely congested. It was as if my heart was about to stop beating, and it was difficult to breathe in. A sensation of warm numbness crept up through my legs and my whole body was covered in a layer of cold sweat. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the red wallpaper's patterns were all faces of demons. I had no strength in my body at all, it was a feeling of death. I looked at my mother who was asleep, and started asking Teacher for help in my heart, "If it is really my time to go, could I please have a few more days. Let us return home first. My mother doesn't know much English, if I go, what is she going to do?" Then I thought, Teacher said that a cultivator's path is arranged to all the way to Consummation; am I consummating? I still have a lot of truth clarification and saving sentient beings to do, how can I just die in Venice? At this point, my breathing was difficult.

Then I suddenly thought, Teacher takes care of all cultivators. I worried about my mother, which is a form of not letting go of an attachment to family members. She is also a cultivator and Teacher is looking after her, I don't need to worry, I should just let go. Whether I die or live is also up to Teacher. After that thought, I started calming down. I picked up the Dafa book next to my pillow and started reading with a calm heart. Time slowly passed and my heart started beating again. Teacher has said in the poem "The Master-Disciple Bond" from Hong Yin II, "When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn back the tide."

The school that I work at has some collaborative projects with China. One day at noon, the Chinese side arranged a meeting. That morning, I started feeling dizzy and wanted to throw up, and I could not even stand firmly. I thought, this is definitely the fear of the evil spirit and interference from the black specter and rotten demons. I sat down and resisted the strong feeling and started sending forth righteous thoughts. After a short while, the feelings all disappeared, and I could attend the meeting. Afterwards, I used the addresses I got on all the business cards and mailed each person the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

Every Saturday or Sunday I go to Chinatown or a park practice site to distribute flyers and clarify the truth. One day when I was clarifying the truth at a park, a middle-aged man from Beijing, after reading the poster boards, starting yelling bad words at us. I asked him, does he know much about Falun Gong? Then I started telling him from my own personal experience, how wonderful Dafa is and how it benefits people physically and spiritually.

He said, if this practice is that good, then when the government doesn't allow you to practice in parks, you can just practice at home. I said, "Parks are public places, people can go there to run, to exercise, to practice Taichi, then why does Falun Gong have to be practiced in secret at home? Is that fair?"

He said, it is because you meddle with politics. I asked him, imagine if I was your sister, and after practicing Falun Gong my illness was healed, but the vile Party arrested me and forbid me from practicing. You as my relative then go to them to ask them to release me, but now not only do they not release me, they arrest you too, and they say you are meddling in politics, and they want to sentence you. Wouldn't you hope someone would stand up to speak for you and support you?

He said, "I also know Party well, and I do not approve of it. But it is just that, you people doing this is completely irrational. How can a few people fight that Party? I do scientific research at XX University. People must have knowledge."

I said to him, "The university you mention is a good school, I have two degrees that I obtained from there. And I taught there for five years. Now, I am a professor at a different university, does this count as having knowledge? Aren't the knowledge and rationality you speak of confused with self-protection? I went to a university in China, and I have been in the United States for 18 years. Is it sufficient to allow me to claim that I know both countries well?" His facial expression appeared quite surprised.

I then pointed to a practitioner passing out flyers at an intersection and said, "You see that person is a doctor, this person here practicing the exercises is a retired teacher, this person organizing materials is the owner of a jewelry shop. You can think about why people like us do not take a rest on Sunday, are not making money on Sunday, but want to clarify the truth here under the baking sun. We are supporting the innocent practitioners who are being persecuted, it is for justice and human rights, for telling people what a wonderful practice this is. We are all using our hearts to do this voluntarily."

I also said to him, "You are an educated person, you should use your own judgment." In the end, he took Dafa truth-clarification materials and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. The entire time I was speaking to him, fellow practitioners were sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind him. I also knew that Teacher was always next to me, which is why I could answer his questions so calmly.

In this boundless Dafa, the benefits I have received are hard to express with words. The above are only bits and pieces from my four years of cultivation. I deeply felt that it is difficult to maintain a calm and peaceful heart at all times, because any test, any tribulation, when it comes, reaches where it hurts. It is all heart-wrenching, to see if you can put down ordinary people's attachments. If you want, at that moment, to uphold a practitioner's standard, you must persistently read the book and study the Fa. Only then can you remember Teacher's words at those moments.

Lastly, allow us to share together Teacher's poem, "Falun Dafa" in Hong Yin:

"Cultivating gong has a path
mind is the way
On the boundless sea of Dafa
hardship is your ferry"

Posting date: 1/8/2007
Original article date: 1/8/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/10/27/141122.html

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