PureInsight | January 26, 2014
[PureInsight.org] I am a practitioner from Northeastern China. I am sixty-nine years old this year. I gained the Fa in May, 1996 as a language teacher in a middle school. I was like many people at my age that ran into “the Great Leap” and the Great Famine when our bodies were in the growth period. Our physical state wasn’t good that we started to have a lot of illnesses and become old-looking at the age of thirty to forty years. When it was time to go to college, we ran into the “Cultural Revolution”. We witnessed all kinds of chaotic phenomena and saw all kinds of methods that CCP (Chinese Communist Party) tortured people. It made me become meticulous and worrisome as if I was living in a shell of self-protection that both my body and heart felt tired. After gaining the Fa, I kept using Fa principles to wash and clean myself that my health was becoming better and better and my heart was becoming more and more forthright and broad-minded. I felt the harmony and ease of melting into the Fa. I share several cultivation stories below:
Using Compassion to Change Work Environment
Not long after cultivation, I became the department leader of education and research of the language department in the school. In our school, language department, maths department, and foreign language department are considered by everyone to have many people and conflicts and are hard to manage. Some people don’t speak directly to others when they see their problem and instead secretly report to the leaders and they conspire against each other; some people are greatly influenced by the Communist culture of “fake, big, and empty” and like to exaggerate achievements, cover mistakes, and compete. After I became the department leader, the first rule was to require team members to solve conflicts within the team and not to discuss behind people’s backs; the second rule was requiring them to speak the truth and do kind acts. At the weekly meetings, I was always the first to speak. I would frankly lay out the strong points and shortcomings of my work of the week without embellishment or concealment. Regarding the shortcomings of coworkers, I did not criticize or blame. Instead, I kindly reminded them. Every moment I remember what Master said in “Clearheadedness” of Essentials for Further Advancement, “I often say that if all a person wants is the well-being of others and if this is without the slightest personal motivation or personal understanding, what he says will move the listener to tears.” One time, when I pointed out what a coworker could improve at, she felt the compassion and the heart of caring and thinking for her behind my words. She was very touched and said, “I have had this shortcoming for many years. Even my own father and mother never pointed it out like this.”
Gradually, the environment within the department became more harmonious with fewer conflicts and more laughter. My coworkers could also open their hearts to talk. Many coworkers read Zhuan Falun. A few young coworkers were very close to me and would talk with me when they had problems. They also invited Dafa books to let their parents read. Once a serious flu spread and there were many teachers and students who got sick in our school. Because of the great fortune from Dafa, no one in our department got sick. There was also once when a coworker said to me with joy, “this year I sat across from you for work. My health is better than last year and I have fewer illnesses than previous years.” She also knew that it was Dafa that let her benefit. If it was not the persecution of Falun Gong that took place later, there would be many coworkers who started Dafa cultivation.
The More I Practice the Younger I Become
I have a photo that was taken in 1997. It is a group photo of several Dafa disciples from my school. In the photo we were healthy, confident, and happy and we were younger than people of our age. One of the coworkers had serious otitis media that the ear was rotted. After cultivating Dafa, not only did the otitis media heal; whenever the exercises began the exercise music would start playing automatically in the ears. Sound player equipment was not even needed.
From the day I gained the Fa, I almost never stopped doing the exercises and almost didn’t turn old. There were people who said that us Dafa disciples, “look so young, good spirited, and such kind people. They are ‘truth’ standing there.”
Once I went to a city in interior Mongolia to visit a good friend who I had not seen for over ten years. She and her husband picked me up at the exit of the train station. When I yelled out her name, she was very surprised, "Is it really you? Am I dreaming? I haven't seen you in more than ten years. How are you so young? I can't even recognize you!" Her husband also said, "It's really hard to tell that we are the same age. Look at us two, with full head of silver hair and illnesses all over the body; look at you, having almost no silver hair and body so strong. This is not right. Wasn't your health not good when you went to school that you still had to go to the hospital often after you started working? How come the change is so great?" I said, "Because I practice Falun Gong." Naturally, we got into the topics for clarifying the truth. I talked about the changes in my health and mind after I started cultivation. I told them in detail the basic truth of "4/25", "self-immolation”, etc. and answered many of their questions. My friend completely understood and exclaimed, “So this is how it is!" She also said that I changed a lot that I became more frank and can look at issues in a broad way. Later she told me that she read Zhuan Falun once too and she still has one book hidden at home. So I taught her the exercise movements and encouraged her to cultivate. Maybe it is because of the connection of this divine predestined relationship that we could become good friends this life.
Not Old Person but Cultivator
On the issue of "oldness", I have also had the lesson of being taken advantage of the gaps by the evil because of one unrighteous thought. In August 2009, with my oldest daughter and granddaughter I went out of state. The second day at that place I stumbled heavily and a few spots on my legs hurt and there was a big bruise around my eye. My oldest daughter was very worried and was going to send me to a hospital. Later, in my persistence, she bought me a ticket to go home. She said, "Before, I always thought mom is immutable and invincible. Now I realize that mom is already an elder and needs protection."
I knew I had loop holes in my cultivation. After I came home I studied the Fa and did the exercises as usual and my wounds healed very quickly. I also found the reason I stumbled, which is sentimentality towards my granddaughter is too great. I kept reminding myself to put down sentimentality but did not immediately deny this "oldness". Sometimes I myself would also say, "I'm getting old that I tend to forget about things." Because of this pessimistic confirmation, I really started to become old: white hair increased, wrinkles increased, face darkened, and body became heavier that sometimes I sprained my foot if I walked a lot. Once, when I was discussing with a fellow practitioner, again I said I was "old". The fellow practitioner said, "We are cultivating a practice that cultivates both nature and longevity that the more we cultivate the more high-energy matter we have in our bodies. How can we be old? Oldness, sickness, and death are to restrain ordinary people, not cultivators.” After I heard it, I realized that yes, isn't confirming oldness going on the path arranged by the old forces? Hurry up and start denying. After a few days, the light and free feeling of the body came back and my body also became younger.
As I kept studying the Fa and reading discussion articles on Minghui, my understanding of "oldness" became clearer.
Master said in Zhuan Falun, "Dual cultivation of nature and longevity means that while cultivating your character, you are also cultivating longevity, or in other words, you are transforming your innate body. While your body is transforming and human cells are being gradually replaced by high-energy matter, the aging process slows down. Your body will show signs of returning to youth, returning gradually and transforming gradually. When it’s finally completely replaced by high-energy matter, your body will have been entirely transformed into another kind of physical body"
Master said in Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles, “Back at that time, I wanted the transformation of the surface body to be in sync with the part that has been well-cultivated; I wanted to have the body be disassociated with the human state during cultivation; and I wanted to have the cultivating disciples use their own righteous thoughts to maintain a state that is just like that of human beings.”
As Dafa Disciples are improving xinxing, the body on the surface would become more young and beautiful, which is what Master wants. We need to believe in Master and believe in the Fa from deep in our hearts and eliminate all the elements that the old forces arranged to make our flesh bodies old, in order to let our bodies and everything around us develop and change toward a good direction and let people see how supernormal and beautiful Dafa is.
This May, I went to Mount Song. I went uphill from the side of Sanhuang mountain stronghold and came down from the side of Shaolin Temple. I completed the entire trip by foot and was carrying a large backpack. Many young people headed back at a third of this path and most of the people who finished the walk were complaining about the suffering and tiredness. Through the walk there were people asking for my age. They all expressed surprise when they heard that I was nearly seventy years old. They raised their thumbs up toward me, admired my good body, and said I have stamina. I also clarified the truth to some people. People who have heard the truth exclaimed sincerely, "So Falun Gong is this good!"
In the period of the last havoc, I fortunately met Dafa. I only have admiration and appreciation toward Master.
During my cultivation, there are still a lot that I'm not doing well and sometimes I am relaxed and not diligent. I hope to work hard with fellow cultivators and walk on the path of assisting Master to rectify the Fa in quick steps.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/124667
