PureInsight | July 1, 2002
Dear Master Li and Fellow Practitioners:
My name is K and I attained Dafa in Chicago at the end of 1995. I‘ll share my cultivation experience.
1. How Did I Attain Dafa?
Right after Christmas of 1995, one of my neighbors went to a friend’s home to play Mahjong. There she borrowed a book she thought was good. When she came back, she met me right at the door and told me, “K., I have a good book. Do you want to read it?” I said, “O.K.” So she lent the book to me first. After reading the book, I liked it very much. That good book was Zhuan Falun. Later I invited her friend to my home to teach me the practice of Falun Gong, and I also borrowed the book from him.
At that time the book was not available in Chicago, and I did not know where to find it. Later I told two co-workers about it, and they liked the book, too. So we made a copy of the Zhuan Falun book, and each of us got one copy.
At that time, Master Li had taken care of me, but I didn’t really understand that.
Whenever I watched the exercise tape, a golden Buddha would come down from the roof top to my sofa. I saw him but didn’t know what it meant, but I was also not afraid of him. Later, when that friend brought me the 9-day lecture tapes, he told me, “This is the Fashen of Master Li.” I said, “Is it? He came down from the roof of my house! I was wondering why the roof of my house did not block him!” The friend was happy and said: “Master’s Fashen has come so early in your practice!” At that point I learned that I had experienced Master’s Fashen.
That friend went back to China in February of 1996, so my co-workers and I kept on reading the book and kept practicing. Gradually, some people found out that I practiced Falun Gong. One of my tenants said, “I know some others who practice Falun Gong.” I said, “Then please give me their phone numbers.” Since he did not know the numbers offhand, he got one by asking his friend who gave it to me. I called Mr. Y. in Atlanta. Since no one was home, I left a message in Cantonese and in my nonstandard Mandarin. Although unclear about my message, his family managed to understand that the call was from some faraway place, and they finally called back. Then Mr. Y. mailed me three Dafa books, one for each of us. We also got other books of Master Li’s lectures from him.
In October 1996, Y. was going on a business trip in the United Kingdom. Knowing that Master Li would give a lecture in Houston on October 12, he called fellow practitioners in Atlanta on October 10 and asked them to inform me about the news. We hurriedly bought a second day air ticket, and were able to see Master Li for the first time. Due to a relationship formed in some unknown and distant time, we were able to attain Dafa. We were overjoyed to see Master Li.
2. Personal Cultivation and Hongfa (Spreading Dafa)
Once I started practicing, Master Li arranged to eliminate my karma. Once, just as I started my sitting mediation, I smelled the burning of an electric wire. I hurried up from the position and turned on the light to search for the cause, but found nothing. Later when I went to sleep, my hands happened to be on my face, and, again, I smelled a burning electric wire. I discovered that the smell came from the center of my palms. It was Master Li helping me to get rid of dirty substances through my palms. Several times I found blood in my stool and urine and I knew it was karma elimination and was not nervous. After drinking a few cups of water, I was fine within two hours. Sometimes I got fevers and it was hard for me to work. Once I talked to Master Li’s picture: “Master, it’s hard to go to work if I have a fever. Could you please eliminate my karma on weekends only.” Then in the next few weekends, I got a continuously high temperature, but felt all right during the work week.
The second year after I came to the USA, I got an itchy, running nose, which got worse whenever flowers bloomed. It disappeared after I practiced Falun Gong. The old-age spots on my hands disappeared also. My face was not dark anymore, and a reddish color returned to my lips. Friends meeting me would say, “K., You are doing well! You look younger now!” I said, “Of course, I practice Gong.” They would ask, “What Gong?” I said, “Falun Gong, this Gong cultivates both your body and mind. Of course it’s good.” Many would say, “I’ll come to practice when I have time.”
Our personal changes through Fa study and practice began to draw other people to come. People around me all knew that Falun Gong is good. When I went grocery shopping, I would tell people about Falun Gong. Some friends would say, ” You talk shop all the time. In a few sentences, you’ll turn to Falun Gong.” I said, ” You bet! Such a great thing, I should let all people know about it.”
Because I got great benefits from the practice of Falun Gong, I was eager to let people know about them. But my Mandarin is poor, my English even worse, so I didn’t know how to tell people about Falun Gong. This worried me. So I told everyone I knew. I knew Ms. M. through going to a temple, and thought she was nice. So I kept telling her about it, sometimes calling her. But she’d say, “I cannot learn anything else. I’ve learned too many of them. I have no time.” Such was the case at the time.
I was not discouraged by M.’s refusal, and persisted in calling her again every once in a while. On occasion, I went to her office and gave her some Dafa materials. M. was really busy. I was not able to talk to her thoroughly. I could only talk a little bit each time I called her. But I just hoped more people would come to practice Falun Gong, so I kept on trying.
One day, I went to M.‘s office to give her Dafa materials again. I left them on her desk. She saw the material when she came to work and took them home to read. After reading them, she felt something like water was rotating inside her brain. She went for a medical check up but found nothing. Later she asked me to bring her a copy of Zhuan Falun. After she went through the book, she thought, “This time I should return the book by myself instead of asking her to come pick it up.” After seeing me, she thought, “I haven’t seen K. for some time. Yet, in such a short time, her appearance has totally changed.” I told her something I had learned from the book Zhuan Falun, and she was amazed by my thinking. She thought I had learned a lot in such a short time. So she asked me, “Are there any other materials?” ”Yes,” I said and lent her the exercise instruction tape and other books. She started to practice Falun Gong after she finished those books and the tape.
M. is good at English and also knows a lot of people. Months later, Y. moved to Chicago for his new job. Thus we had more Falun Gong people in Chicago. I felt I was not that capable, so stopped worrying about how to spread Dafa. Later we started a 9-day lecture series by putting an introductory ad in a newspaper, and over 30 people joined the first class. Since I was listed as the contact person for Cantonese speakers, Cantonese speakers and people around Chinatown would all come to me. I ran the 9-day lectures in my home many times, sometimes two people came, sometimes more than ten. Other practitioners ran similar classes in other areas. Falun Gong gradually spread out in the Chicago area. Some learned Falun Gong in Chicago, then moved to other states and spread Falun Gong to those other places.
3. Fa Rectification Cultivation and Clarifying the Truth about Falun Gong
After I attained Dafa, karma eliminations were frequent. Later I found that if I took part in any Dafa activities or did Fa rectification work, karma would be eliminated quickly. In the fall of 2000, when the evil head came to New York, I was experiencing a three to four week spell of coughing, and nose problems, but I still went to New York. My nose healed without notice while I kept running here and there. Once I could not raise my hands for a few months, but found it was all right after I went to a Dafa experience sharing conference.
We practitioners living in Chinatown practiced Falun Gong in a sports field every morning. Many other people would go there for morning exercises. I would give Dafa materials to them to read and they liked them. Sometimes they would say, “Falun Gong is good!” Even after the persecution began, they would still say so. But there were a few who were deceived by the Chinese propaganda against Falun Gong. One person living in Chinatown attended all the meetings the Chinese consulate organized for the purpose of slandering Falun Gong, and he didn’t accept Dafa truth materials. He used to own a restaurant, but then sold it and went back to China because he was unable to pay his debts. Later he got a brain thrombus. We truly save people by telling them the truth of Falun Gong. Most people know Falun Gong is good. Only a few believed the lies from the Chinese Consulate and China.
After China started the persecution against Falun Gong, the Chicago Chinese Consulate would take the opportunity of gift-giving at festival times to disseminate slanderous materials to Chinatown businesses, in order to instigate them to act against Falun Gong. Several fellow practitioners and I then went to those offices to tell them the truth. I went to every office and gave them the Dafa truth materials and video tapes. Some warmly welcomed us and said, “At tomorrow’s meeting, I’ll show all this to them. What you are practicing is very good.”
When some offices were cold to us, I would say, “I’ll leave the materials for you, and you can look at them when you have time. It’s easy to read them. There is no harm in knowing more.” In one office, they were preparing for a mahjong game, and one of them would not accept my materials. But another said, “It’s OK, just take a look. Good or bad, we’ll know after we see it.” Some were actually expecting our materials. Then I would give them one copy of all the materials.
Once I passed by a station and passed out Dafa truth materials to people there. One of them believed the lies from Jiang Zemin. He didn’t accept our materials and was unfriendly. I met him again the same day and I talked with him in Taishan dialect. He is actually a fellow villager of mine who used to live in a village very close to the primary school where I went. I told him, “Falun Gong has been slandered. If you watch this tape, you’ll understand everything.” He was a little embarrassed for having been rude to me, and said, “I’ll treat you to tea if you have time.” I said, “I’d like that. I can treat you also. But please read these materials first. Your point of view will be changed.” He accepted the materials and said, “I’ll take it to my office.” During the truth clarifying process, if some people challenged me, I would remain calm, and think that I’d talk to them again when given a chance.
Once, we were doing the sitting meditation in front of the Chinese consulate. One man rushed out and spewed a lot of bad words at me and pointed his fingers at me, almost touching my nose. He spoke very fast, I said, “Falun Dafa is righteous! Falun Dafa is good!” He left after he finished talking. I know where he lives and kept in mind that I would let him know the truth. Later, I met him in an insurance company and talked to him again. He knew that I knew him and was embarrassed, and accepted the materials I handed to him.
During the truth clarifying process, the effort of one or two times may not be enough for people to know the truth. Eight times may be needed, and it may take even one or two years. Once they know the truth, they will not believe the lies disseminated by the Chinese consulate. I have a friend who is a Ph.D. We have known each other for more than ten years. I talked with him about Falun Gong whenever he visits my home, or I call him to talk about Falun Gong. When he went to China for business trips, and when some people there attacked Falun Gong, he would say, ” Falun Gong is good. I know Falun Gong people in the US who are very good. I have friends who practice Falun Gong, and they all are nice people.” He told the truth of Falun Gong to the deceived people in China. Recently, I called former friends and colleagues in China to tell them the truth about Falun Gong.
Six years ago, we just had three or four people who practiced Falun Gong. Now there are around one thousand people who have studied Dafa or practiced Falun Gong, and who have benefited. Master Li told us to do three main things: study Dafa, clarify the truth about Falun Gong, and send forth righteous thoughts. If we could do it well, more people will benefit and be saved.
