PureInsight | May 31, 2007
[PureInsight.org] Life is many
years of walking in the dark night of the mundane world. The struggles,
hardships, and endless searching reveal that there may be some relief
at the end. If life, indeed, is longing for such relief, then the
various kinds of sorrow and joy would have true meanings.
I cannot find words for the miseries in life. There may be
satisfaction, joy, or even the excitement of getting ahead
occasionally, but sorrow rests quietly at the bottom of my heart.
I know neither how others live nor what brings them joy and
sadness. I have often failed to grasp how people could be that
excited. Personally, no matter how smoothly my life runs, there is a
tinge of sadness rising from my heart.
Other people think that I have been very fortunate. Even though I grew
up in a very poor family, I was in an enviable position academically
during my school years. Everyone admired me for my intelligence,
diligence, lofty ambition, and a foreseeable bright future. Altogether
they believed that I was a remarkable person and many of them worshiped
me. I have been a celebrity since I was a little child. In the
eyes of the ordinary people, that should have been happiness. I was
also well-read and seemed to walk on a bright path.
However, I am very much aware that no matter how intelligent others
perceive me to be and how many books I have read, I have no idea what
the most basic things of the universe and the truth might be.
There are countless theories in the history of mankind and they appear
to be rational and systematic, but I find that none of them can explain
clearly about the universe. I have not grasped the basic truth
and so I have no guidelines for my behavior. I have, therefore, been
anxiously waiting for such truth and standards. I believe that if
I do not have such guidelines, everything I do will be wrong. How
terrifying that would be! I certainly cannot take just any theory
from the East or the West as the highest truth. In reality, there
are so many different theories in the world, like idealism and Marxism,
but I have not been convinced by any of them.
Many people take whatever theory is popular to be a barometer for their
behavior and they live a shallow life. There is no need to think
what life is all about - just live it. But I cannot live like that and
I like to ponder things. Sometimes, I envy those people who can live in
a state of semi-darkness. I wish that I could have been like
that. Life is different for every one of us. I love to think and
to read, but I don't believe that is merely a postnatal notion.
That seems to be an inner knowing side to me. How come many other
people who have read a lot of books feel different from the way I do? I
am totally lost. As a result, I suffered from severe neurasthenia and
insomnia. At times, I could not sleep a wink all night and I was
really miserable.
In May, 1993, I happened to get acquainted with Mu Jun, who loves
traditional Chinese culture. Mu Jun was very interested in
cultivation and had a good understanding of qigong and traditional
religions. We were like old friends as soon as we met. I could talk to
him just about anything and I felt that he was very kind and amicable.
At that time, in my mind, I separated the intellectuals into two
groups: "In the world" and "Beyond the world." I am definitely
the "in the world " type for I have ambition and ideas. I wanted very
much to change our society through my own efforts and bring people
happiness. However, I did not look down at people who are beyond the
world and I respected them as well. I believed that we were going to
stay away from this world eventually. The only difference was that I
wanted to accomplish something and fulfill my wishes first and then I
would live a quiet life by the mountains and streams. Basically,
I love a quiet and peaceful life. Despite my lofty ambition to
help the world, I often shed tears when I read Tao Yuanming's "Home
Coming Speech."
Consequently, I did not give up my worldly ideas, but I still got along
well with Mu Jun who was taking sabbatical leave from his job to search
for the Tao. Qigong was fashionable at that time. He was well familiar
with the principles of various religions and different schools of
Qigong. He thought that Falun Gong was quite good and overcame a
lot of difficulties to attend the class. My friends and I gave him
suggestions for finding lodging and food so he could attend the class
more easily. He was very happy and afterwards introduced Falun
Dafa to us. He said that the essence of the characteristic of the
universe is "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." Unfortunately,
I did not take the time to understand that. I thought that it was good
but not good enough for me to learn it. I wanted to accomplish
something first, so I missed the opportunity to learn Falun Dafa that
year.
My friendship with Mu Jun continued. In 1995, after I got deeper into
more western philosophical theories, I was more disappointed in them. I
recognized that the Chinese culture was more profound. I thought,
"Perhaps, I should look for the truth in this universe in religions. I
had the idea to read and understand Buddhism and the Buddha School. I
made a comparison of a few schools of qigong at that time and almost
picked a well-known qigong. I decided against it because it seemed like
it was not too righteous. While I was hesitating, Mu Jun
introduced me to Falun Gong. I did not know for sure that Falun
Gong was good, but I sensed that I could not go astray with it. Since
my friend said that it was good, I would give it a try. I asked
Mujian to send me some books about Falun Gong.
Actually I have a predestined relationship with martial arts.
When I was in junior high, the classmate with whom I shared a table was
a great fan of martial arts. He subscribed to every Qigong
magazine. He practiced martial arts and his interests in qigong
far exceeded his interests in his school classes. He recommended
some form of qigong that did help me with my insomnia. The most
mysterious thing is that, after I practiced it, I could feel that there
was a fireball in my abdomen, even in winter. Practicing that not
only helped my insomnia but also my car sickness. The first year
when I was a freshman in high school, my classmate with whom I shared a
table was a fan of qigong and Buddha worship. Thus, I gained
quite a bit of knowledge.
Mu Jun sent me three books about Falun Gong. After I read two of them,
I thought that Falun Gong was quite good. I started to practice
according to the instructions in the book. From the very beginning, I
felt that there was an invisible force guiding me to practice my moves
correctly and I knew that was the energy mechanism mentioned in the
book. I was glad to find out that qigong really existed.
After that I read Zhuan Falun
and my thoughts toward that book were quite different than those about
the other two books. I had to use words like "the best" or
"beyond description." I could not put it down and wanted to read it all
in one sitting. I had tears in my eyes when I finished reading it and
my spirit had never been so moved in my entire life.
That is what I had been looking for. That is the truth that I
worked so hard to find for many years and finally I found it.
In Zhuan Falun,
I found satisfying answers for the questions that had been raised since
the beginning of mankind. And the answers are so convincing and
so comforting. There is no other book in the entire world that even
comes close in comparison with this one. For thousands of years, many
philosophers and scientists have tried to answer this basic question,
and many intellectuals have written volumes of theories, but no one has
succeeded.
I understand from Falun Dafa that the characteristic of the universe is
"truthfulness-compassion-forbearance" and that controls everything in
the universe. That is the highest truth in the universe, and that
is the essence of everything in this universe.
I immediately used Falun Dafa to look at everything in this world. I believed that what is being stated in Zhuan Falun
is most pertinent. The world as a whole is restricted by the
characteristic of truthfulness-compassion-forbearance. Even
though there are bad people and bad deeds based on the ordinary
people's perception, that, too, is a manifestation of this
characteristic of the universe. The bad people on earth are arranged by
gods in order to remind the degenerate beings to return to their true
selves. It's just like a good teacher will treat students strictly. As
students, they will say that he is a bad teacher. If we look at the
whole picture, he is not a bad teacher but a part of a good educational
system.
Falun Dafa points out the characteristic of the universe and enables me
to become clear-headed. All the confusion I had for many years
were thus dimmed. It gave my spirit a real lift and I felt like a new
person. What a great feeling!
What kind of being is able to immerse himself in Dafa and how fortunate
he is! There are countless human beings in this world, but I am so
lucky to have the mercy of Dafa. From the day I obtained Dafa, I knew
that nothing could ever change it in my heart. I have handed over my
life to Dafa and assimilated to Dafa and, therefore, nothing else can
change me.
That is the heartfelt opinion of a being who really understands the truth.
Translated from: http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/5/28/44113.html
