Written by Liangyou, a practitioner from Dongying City, Shandong Province

(Clearwisdom.net) After reading the article "Suggestion for Practitioners in the Dongying Area to Write About Your Precious Memories of Master Coming to Spread the Practice and Teach Dafa", I would like to share some of my precious memories.

Master standing in front of Xianhe Cinema on January 7^th of the Lunar Calendar, 1994

1. The great predestined relationship of Dongying

It was said that in the early years of the Tang Dynasty (around year 621), Emperor Tang Taizong (originally named Li Shimin) led his troops on an eastward expedition to Korea. The large military force went to the Dongying area near Bohai Bay and the Emperor only saw the far north area with vast waves and thus ordered his forces to set up a station. A contingent was sent out to explore the path to the east. This troop of a thousand soldiers came to the location of the current Dongying Village and only saw the endless desolate beach everywhere with no inhabitants, so they had to pitch camp on the spot and wait for the opportunity to take further action.

Shortly after, the troop received an order to stay on station, so the emperor's troops were split into two battalions of Dongying and Xiying to station and guard. Several years passed, but the troops didn't receive any orders to move from Emperor Tang Taizong. Afterwards, military officers and soldiers married and established families and careers in the local area. The 2 battalions areas at that time were the village site for the earliest Dongying Village and Xiying Village.

Kenli County used to be a plain that was formed by silt from the Yellow River and it is a county newly built from the agricultural reclamation area of Lijin County.

In 1961, one oil well that could produce a thousand tons of oil per day was drilled at the east area of Dongying Village and the Shengli Oil Field was established.

To this day, Dongying City has a total size of eight thousand fifty-three square kilometers. Because more and more beach areas were turned into land, the land mass of Dongying City keeps expanding. As of the end of 2004, Dongying City governs two districts: Dongying and Hekou, three counties: Guangrao, Lijin, Kenli, twenty-three towns, thirteen townships and one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four villages. At the end of 2001, the total population of the city was 1.73 million, (including a 1.34 million population in local areas and a population of 390 thousand at the Shengli Oil Field).

After Dafa started to spread, the officers and soldiers in Dongying and Xiying came together again with the people with whom they had predestined relationships in past lives.

On January 2, 1994 of the Lunar Calendar, Master was invited to lecture and teach the practice at Dongying City. From February 11 to February 18 (January 2^nd to January 9^th of the Lunar Calendar), Master taught the Fa for two hours every night (6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.). The Falun Gong seminar was held at the assembly hall of the boarding house of Kenli County's Communist Party Committee. There were nine classes in eight days and on the last day of the class there were two classes, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

There were only a few shuttle buses passing by Kenli County. The distance from the County to Shengli Oil Field was 25 kilometers. There was no bus in the evening and 230 people from Shengli Oil Field attended the class.

It was arranged for practitioners who came from other areas and needed accommodations, to stay in the boarding house of Kenli County. This boarding house is a small yard with one-story houses.

The first class was on January 2 of the Lunar Calendar, and practitioners finally heard Master's teaching of the completely new high-level great Fa of the cosmos. Their first impression was that Master was extremely energetic and kind.

From January 3 to 9 of the Lunar Calendar, Master came to do the exercises with practitioners staying at the boarding house at 6:00 a.m every morning and also helped practitioners rectify their movements until they had breakfast at 7:00 a.m. In the morning of January 4, one elderly practitioner suddenly fainted when practicing the exercises and two assistants sent him back to his room and told him, "You have practiced too many kinds of Qigong exercises in the past and they mixed you up." Master came to see him and told him, "The exercises you have practiced in the past interfered with each other." This practitioner realized the seriousness of "no second discipline" and practicing only one cultivation way.

On the morning of January 3, Master was accompanied by the organizer unit of the class to visit the bridge on Yellow River and the diversion works wharf on Yellow River at Shengli Oil Field.

On the morning of January 4, practitioners from Gudong Oil Extraction Factory came to visit Master and invited Master to teach the Fa at Shengli Oil Field. Master said, "Let's do it this way. I will give the Fa lecture twice, once on the south bank and another time on the north bank of the Yellow River. I will lecture on the north bank on January 7 and on south bank on January 8. The practitioner was happy after hearing the answer and called the the oil field and asked them to help find a lecture room for the south bank Fa-lecture on January 8 and also informed the elderly staff section of the Gudong Oil Extraction Factory.

Practitioners from Gudong went back to Xianhe Town on the morning of January 5 to report to the Gudong Oil Extraction Factory and the Communist Party Secretary of the factory Wang Zuoran said, "That is good. Let me arrange for Master Li's trip to the factory to give a lecture. You should study the practice well and bring the essence of the practice back to the factory."

The morning of January 6, one practitioner went to visit Master. She knelt down upon entering the room and Master supported her by the arm to help her stand up. She said, "Master, you are so great. You teach me how to be a good person, how to handle the relationship with my spouse and with my children. Even my own parents never taught me like that. You are so great and I remember your words in my heart and I will study the Fa well." Master smiled and encouraged her.

The morning of January 7, Master Li was accompanied by the supervisor of a transportation company (the CCP secretary and director of the Gudao headquarters) Zhao Tongde and one practitioner, Shen Yongdong, from Dudong Oil Extraction Factory and a group of eight people. They went to Gudong Oil Extraction Factory for the Fa lecture. The car passed by the bridge on the Yellow River and on the bridge the car moved slowly.

Practitioners first invited Master to visit Dongying Harbor and Master watched the passenger ship leaving the harbor heading for Dalian and Master and his family had their picture taken on the wharf. After visiting the harbor, Master also went to the eleven wells at Gubeizhuang and Master and other people in the car went along one straight artificial sea dam that was one kilometer long into the sea. There was a big platform at the end of the sea dam surrounded by the sea. Sometimes during the rising tide, the sea water would well up to the platform. The several oil wells on the platform were a tourist attraction at Gudong and almost every visitor to Gudong stopped here. Practitioners showed Master the slant holes that went eastward, southward and northward underneath the oil wells in the sea. Master had his picture taken with practitioners at the eleven wells at Gubeizhuang. The wells were not something precious, but in order to dissolve the accumulated grievances in history, Master still came to the platform surrounded by water.

Master gave a lecture at 2:00 p.m. at Xianhe Cinema and the banner on the stage said, "Welcome to the Founder of Falun Gong, Master Li Hongzhi, Who Comes to Our Factory to Teach the Fa." One practitioner saw there were only about 120 people coming to the lecture and asked Master, "Too few people come today, should we cancel today's lecture?" Master said, "Look forward and there will be many people coming. I will speak!"

Master gave the lecture and at the same time sent out strong energy to purify practitioners' bodies and also asked practitioners to cooperate to eliminate diseases together. Master lectured for an hour and a half. As soon as he stopped talking there was warm applause and praise. One person said, "I have arthritis and now my feet no longer feel painful." Another person said, "I have bursitis in my shoulder and now my arms are recovered and I can raise my hands now." Another said, "I also recovered from my diseases and now I no longer have asthma...." "Hurry, let's ask Master to give us his autograph as a memento."

Over forty people surrounded Master and asked for his autograph. Some people asked Master when he would come to organize the study class. Several dozen people crowded around to buy the Zhuan Falun book and some people felt worried that they would not be able to get the book and tried to push forward.

Master left energy and miracles wherever he went: the Buddha light illuminates everywhere.

At the end of the evening lecture on January 7, Master announced the establishment of the Kenli County Assistant Center. On the afternoon of January 8, Master went to the Power Machine Factory at Shengli Oil Field to give a lecture and also took a picture at the gate of Zuanjing Park. (I hope other practitioners who know the miracles of Master at the bridge over the Yellow river and the lecture at Power Machine Factory can provide more details.)

On January 8, with the request of Gudong practitioners, Master approved the establishment of the Gudong Falun Gong Assistant Center of Shengli Oil Field.

After the evening lecture on January 8, Master said, "We have another class tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and hope everyone can come on time." At the end of the January 9 lecture, Master raised the requirements for practitioners,

"I hope that after you finish this class, at the very least you can be a good person even if you can't be somebody who cultivates by the Great Law, and that will benefit our world"... "I hope that in your cultivation that lies ahead you'll go about things as a practitioner and truly keep cultivating. I hope that both our new students and veteran students are able to cultivate in Dafa, and have complete success! I hope that after you go back home you'll seize the day to really cultivate." ("The Ninth Talk" Zhuan Falun, 2003 edition)

Practitioners warmly applauded for a long time.

At 10:00 p.m.. on January 9, Master left Kenli County and returned to Beijing.

Practitioners at Dongying City and Shengli Oil Field realized how great Dafa is and they went around to tell more people. This message was spread from person to person and from heart to heart and practitioners made light of discomforts to spread Dafa. It is really like what Master said,

"Dafa is being spread far and wide. Those who hear about it are looking for it. Those who have obtained it are delighted with it. The number of cultivators is increasing daily and becoming countless." ("Seeking Discipleship with Teacher")

In order to memorialize the second anniversary of Master's coming to Dongying City to lecture, practitioners from eight units of Shengli Oil Field at Dongying City (Gudong Oil Extraction Factory, Dudao Oil Extraction Factory, Power Machine Factory, Central Hospital, Drilling Well Engineering Company, Xianhe Oil Extraction Factory, Pump Company and Transportation Company) wrote fifty-seven experience-sharing articles and the Gudong Falun Gong Assistant Center helped to forward them to Master on January 1, 1996.

Master read practitioners' experience-sharing articles and wrote a letter to the Gudong Assistance Center on January 6, 1996.

On the same day, Master published the article "Further Elimination of Attachments." After practitioners read Master's words, they were deeply touched and also realized they were far from meeting Master's requirements and decided to "seize the day to really cultivate."

In the past few years, Dongying City has developed quickly and practitioners feel our heavier responsibilities. A long time ago in history, Master created conditions for the sentient beings in this area to obtain Dafa and arranged for the practitioners who would obtain Dafa in the future. Dafa practitioners have waited for a thousand years and the main purpose is to fulfill our oaths to cultivate ourselves and save sentient beings today when Dafa is spreading far and wide.

I hope every practitioner in Dongying will sense the urgency of this time period. We should strive forward diligently and rationally, do the three things well with a clear mind as Master required, save every predestined person, fulfill our prehistoric wishes, not let down the mission given to us by Master, achieve Consummation, and follow Master to return home.

Written on April 17, 2007

Posting date: 5/12/2007
Original article date: 5/12/2007
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Translated on 4/23/2007
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/4/18/152986.html