(Clearwisdom.net) I am from a small city in Heilongjiang Province. When the Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi taught Falun Gong in Harbin City in August 1994, many people from my city attended the lectures. After attending the lectures they taught Falun Gong to others. By 1999 more than 8000 people had become Falun Gong practitioners in my city.
My Relatives Became Falun Gong Practitioners
I started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. Before that I suffered from many diseases, including postpartum tetanus, myocarditis, heart disease, a brain tumor, and neurosis for eight years. I sought treatment in many hospitals, only to find that my conditions worsened. My mother-in-law usually wept when I was not present, certain I would die soon. At that time my child was young but he also suffered from myocarditis. My husband was from a family spanning four generations including two younger sisters and one elder sister. My mother-in-law was illiterate. Most people in my family were irritable and oftentimes they took it out on me. My husband was also irritable, and seldom bothered to take care of the family. I thought my life was completely hopeless because of all my suffering from diseases and unfortunate marriage. I had thought of committing suicide, but I couldn't bring myself to do that because of my young child. I considered divorcing my husband, but my poor physical condition didn't allow me to do so. In the end I decided that I would become a Buddhist nun and join a monastery starting in the spring of 1996, and I began making preparations for this. My mother-in-law agreed with my plan as she thought that it might be my only chance for survival, and if I did survive, my child could go to the temple to see me.
This was in late1995, and it was at this moment that I learned Falun Gong. Dafa brought me the solution for my bad relationship with my parents-in-law because I came to understand that all my misfortunes were nothing more than karmic results of the bad things done in my past lives. I measured myself against Falun Gong's principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in everyday life and my xinxing gradually improved. Most significantly, all my diseases were gone only twenty days after I started to practice Falun Gong. I said to my husband joyously, "It is such a great comfort to be free from any diseases! After eight years of suffering from so many diseases, I forgot what it was like to be a healthy person."
My family was very happy to see the great changes in me. My husband and child also started to practice Falun Gong and my child recovered quickly. One by one, my mother-in-law, my father, my elder brother, my sister-in-law, and my younger brother also started to practice Falun Gong, and benefited from the practice. Dafa renewed my life and brought hope to my family, which had been in a state of disrepair. I was grateful to the Falun Gong founder from the bottom of my heart for setting me free from the tribulations and letting me know the ultimate goal of human life--returning to one's true self. While diligently practicing Falun Gong, I thought, "Falun Gong is really good. I will bring it to more people so that they can benefit from it like I did." I then set out to teach Falun Gong to others as a voluntary instructor.
Disseminating Falun Gong in the Countryside
One day, several months after I began practicing Falun Gong, two fellow practitioners visited me and told me that they needed some money to buy Falun Gong books for people in another city. At that time the number of new practitioners was increasing very rapidly, but there weren't enough Falun Gong books to read. Hearing this my husband and I decided to use 10,000 yuan of our own money to buy new books. We thought it would be a good opportunity for us to help more people obtain Falun Gong. Seeing our generosity and willingness to help practitioners they told us that we should go to countryside to visit practitioners there. We agreed. When we first started going there many people had never heard about Falun Gong before and we needed to carry video players and bring our own food and water. Each day, after we finished playing the videos of Falun Gong lectures for the new practitioners, we had to return home because we couldn't find any place to stay overnight. The next day we went there again to play the next lecture. As time passed by more and more people started practicing Falun Gong and we didn't need to worry about these things, as many new practitioners invited us for dinner at their home. They were even unhappy if we rejected their invitations.
We used to go to the countryside by bicycle, but it usually rained and became windy halfway there. In winter the way could be very icy and slippery, and sometimes we had to travel in snow. However, we simply dismissed the hardship caused by the bad weather, and it never stopped us from doing Dafa work. We were always happy and energetic. When we were there we tried to give fellow practitioners two yuan if we had dinner at their home, but they never accepted our money. Not wanting to take anything for free, we brought various lightweight food items, like dried noodles, to leave as gifts in exchange for the meal.
One day several fellow practitioners and I went to a countryside 35 km. (22 mi.) away by bicycle. We visited several small villages halfway and returned home by bicycle that evening. In a single day we covered a distance of 70 km. (43.5 mi.) but I didn't feel tired at all. My family was very surprised to see this, "Dafa is miraculous, really miraculous!" They had their reasons to say that. I had been in very poor health before and had to carry with me medicines to refuel my heart all the time. I suffered from shock whenever something happened to me suddenly. They never thought that I could go such a long way, so they were very supportive of my travel to the countryside to do Dafa work.
One day we went to an area in the countryside about 15 km. (9 mi.) away by bicycle. The village has a river and Jilin Province is on the other side of the river. We found a boat and went across the river. In route, a fellow practitioner told me a story. One day several fellow practitioners went to the village to introduce Falun Gong to local people for the first time. It was early spring and there were no boats available. There was still ice over the river but it had already started to melt and was covered with a thin layer of water. The ice was not strong enough to hold a person and it could be very dangerous to walk on it. None of them dared to cross the river on the ice. While hesitating they saw someone going across the river and the person had already made it to the center of the river. They were very happy to see that and followed that person to go across the river. When they were on the other side they were surprised to see that the person disappeared. They then realized it was a hint from Teacher and he was right at their side protecting them.
Later the fellow practitioner, who was the first to bring Falun Gong to people in the countryside, was selected as the major coordinator for our Dafa work. He had suffered from serious heart disease but recovered soon after he began practicing Falun Gong. He was a warmhearted person and had the enthusiasm for Dafa work despite any hardship. We then helped set up practice sites in many towns and villages. The new practitioners normally solved their problems in their cultivation by themselves, but all coordinators from those practice sites gathered together to study the Fa and share their cultivation experiences every one or two weeks. They brought questions from practitioners at their practice sites, and discussed them to attain an understanding in accordance with Dafa. We also set up five coordinator's practice sites in our city, which covered all the practice sites in all the towns and villages. We measured ourselves against the Fa whenever when we had problems and we made progress in our cultivation together. In this way we set right our path of cultivation and brought Falun Gong to more people.
More and More People in Need of Falun Gong Books
One day a fellow practitioner who was in charge of distributing Dafa books became unavailable. I suggested to fellow practitioners that I could take his place, and they were happy that I could do that. A vending location to sell Dafa books was established in a grocery store owned by a veteran fellow practitioner, who allocated a space to accommodate Dafa books for free. When I went there I saw it was a sales counter about 4 meters (13 ft.) long, and Dafa books were displayed there. All of the books were originally bought by several local practitioners. They paid the fee for transportation by themselves but didn't charge the fee when selling the books. The books were available to all practitioners from all the practice sites in different towns and villages. When they came to buy the books I temporariluy kept the money that was paid, recorded every payment in a notebook, and gave the money to the practitioners who originally paid for the books. As the number of new practitioners increased, the need for books also increased. Besides the Dafa books we also distributed Master Li's articles.
By 1999 we had sold 7,800 Dafa articles at the sales location. We did this as volunteers as required by Teacher. In Spring 1999 we attempted to normalize the sale of Dafa books by selling them in bookstores. Our major coordinator then found a bookstore in the city center and asked them to sell Dafa books. The bookstore owners were a retired couple and knew that Falun Gong was good. With their agreement, we moved all Dafa book sales to the bookstore, and maintained the original price. From that day on Dafa books were sold just like regular books.
One day our major coordinator told me a story. One day the male owner of the bookstore went with a large amount of money to another city by bus to buy new books for his bookstore. In route, some young men with knives stood up and started to rob money from the passengers, one by one. Before they came to the owner he thought to himself, "Falun Gong Teacher, although I am not a Falun Gong practitioner and I make money from selling Falun Gong books, I think I have done something good. Can you protect me?" He kept pleading this way. When the robbers with knives came to him they simply passed by him as if they did not see him. They stole from everyone but the bookstore owner. After that the robbers forced the driver to stop the bus and they fled. The passengers then started talking about why the robbers had somehow overlooked the bookstore owner. Their conclusion was that the elder man must be an acquaintance of the robbers. Then they asked the driver to drive the bus to a police station. In the police station the police checked the man's ID and ran a background check. Finding no problems, they let him go home.
More and More Falun Gong Practice Sites
As the number of practitioners increased in our city, the number of practice sites also increased. At one point I set up a practice site in my own neighborhood and became a voluntary instructor. I bought an audio tape player and audio tapes of the Falun Gong exercise music. Every morning I carried the audio tape player to the nearby street where we did Falun Gong exercises together. At that time almost every street had Falun Gong practice sites. Our street had only about ten practitioners in the beginning but the number increased to more than 80 later. Every morning we put up a Falun Gong banner and assigned two practitioners to teach newcomers the exercises. At 4:00 a.m., when the exercise music sounded, practitioners lined up in neat rows and started doing the exercises. It was really spectacular and divine.
We all wanted to create a stable environment for our Fa study and cultivation where we could improve together. Every one was supportive of such an idea. We then found a workshop in the street, which was a factory in the daytime. The owner didn't practice Falun Gong but he knew that Falun Gong was good and trusted us. He allowed us to use the workshop at night for free. We were happy to get this place. Every night we went there to study the Fa for two and a half hours. In the beginning there were about ten people, but later more than thirty came, and sometimes even more. We played Teacher's video Fa lectures for new practitioners periodically. Some practitioners brought a TV to the workshop, others brought a video player, and even their relatives came to help.
One day an older lady and her son came to watch the Fa lectures. Her son was seriously ill and he could hardly catch his breath after walking a short distance. According to the the mother, her son was newly released from a prison. The prison released him before completing his sentence because he vomited blood and was sent to a hospital in critical condition. Seeing this, practitioners gave her a foam cushion that they normally sat on, placing it on the ground and asking her son to sit on it. However, her son simply could not sit on it. A little while later his mother brought a chair from her home and her son sat in the chair to watch the Fa lectures. After the lecture his mother said, "I never thought he could sit in the chair and watch the lecture. At home he has to lie down for a rest after only a few minutes of sitting." On the next day the mother told us, "My son told me not bring the chair. He said he will sit on the cushion to watch the lectures today." Being unable to sit straight, he was virtually lying down on the cushion while watching the lectures. On the last two days of the lectures he came by himself without any problem. When the nine-day lectures were over he was completely renewed and he came to study Fa with us from that point on. He later did the Falun Gong exercises with us and he recovered gradually. Regaining his health, he was able to do some business and lead a normal life. There were many cases like this. The power and miracle of Dafa attracted more and more people to practice.
An older female fellow practitioner once found a gold necklace at the entrance gate of her apartment building close to our practice site. She immediately gave it to the gatekeeper. When the gatekeeper found the owner of the necklace he was very happy. This case made Falun Gong even more well known among the residents in the neighborhood of our practice site. Many things like this happened.
As time passed by we realized that we should pay for the electricity that we used in our Fa study at night, although the owner of the workshop never asked us to pay for it. Several practitioners talked about this issue and decided to pay for it with their own money. All the practitioner heard about this issue and insisted on sharing the payment. We decided that every practitioner could pay two yuan each month. They gave the money to a fellow practitioner, who gave the money to the workshop owner, even if the total amount was more than what we actually owed. I later found that practitioners who had been to the Fa study only a few times were also sharing in the payment, and even new practitioners did so. Gradually we realized it was not right for us to do that because it did not conform to the Fa teaching that we should not be involved with money issues. We did violate this Fa principle, and similar things also occurred in other practice sites. We knew we must solve this problem as soon as possible. After talking with fellow practitioners we decided to divide our Fa study group into smaller groups. One of the groups went to the hall of a governmental office, which was very spacious. The chief of the office was a Falun Gong practitioner and he allowed us to use it for free. I heard that he had suffered from blood cancer but recovered after practicing Falun Gong. The other group of about 15 practitioners studied the Fa at my home, as my home is spacious and no fee was required.
Our cultivation went on smoothly until July 20, 1999, when our cultivation environment was sabotaged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). CCP officials constantly went to my home to harass me. However, all fellow practitioners from our practice site are walking stably on their paths of Fa-validation, clarifying the truth and cultivating themselves.
