(Minghui.org) My father sent me to live with my uncle in Guangdong Province when I was five years old because we were experiencing extreme financial difficulties.
My uncle's home was very close to Nanhua Temple, a famous Buddhist place of worship. Many childhood years were spent there.
Years later I had a dream. I was approaching the door of the temple, when a monk came out and said to me, “This is Nanhua Temple. You cultivated here five hundred years ago.” Then I woke up.
At that point I had the thought that I had a deep connection with cultivation.
Two Missed Opportunities
From a young age I would often look up at the starry sky, wondering about the mysteries of the universe and the ultimate questions of life: where did I come from, and where would I go?
Needless to say, staring at the stars gave me no answers.
During my college years, my classmates and I went to visit Zhaojue Temple in Chengdu City. The famed temple was teeming with people, and smoke from the incense was spiraling lazily before the palatial halls of worship.
But instead of feeling happy being there, I was overcome by a wave of sadness. What was once a holy place for paying respect to the divine had now become a place where people freely ask the Buddha and Bodhisattvas to grant them wishes to fulfill their desires – like getting a promotion at work, making a fortune, having a son, or getting into a good school.
I went back to my hometown for the 1996 Chinese New Year, and happened to see a banner hanging along the roadside. A few characters were written beautifully in gold – “Falun Dafa.”
A group of people were standing next to the banner doing some exercises. Their slow movements were in time with melodious music that was being played. I stood mesmerized, watching them.
The next day, I went to a bookstore, and a copy of Zhuan Falun on the shelf caught my eye. I immediately remembered the words “Falun Dafa” that I had seen the day before, and bought the book right away.
I was so excited and started reading it as soon as I got home. I felt like I had been suddenly injected with a large burst of wisdom. It was such a great book, in which I found answers to many of the questions I had about life and the universe. I learned about the relationship between virtue and karma, and loss and gain. It led me to reflect upon what I had done and what I was doing with my life.
After the New Year festivities I went back to the city where I was working. I rode around on my bicycle trying to find a Falun Dafa practice site, but never found one. Gradually, my interest in Dafa waned, and I missed out on this chance with Dafa.
A year later, I became disappointed and dissatisfied with my life's direction, and wanted to make a change. So I resigned from my job.
I enrolled in a Beijing university to study English, hoping to have a chance to work in a large foreign company after my English improved.
A middle-aged man sat next to me on the train to Beijing, and introduced me to Falun Gong (another name for Falun Dafa). I excitedly told him that I knew about Falun Gong, and had been looking for a practice site. He advised me to go to one near Peking University, and gave me the address.
I promised him that I would, but my mind was filled with thoughts about learning English and pursuing a better future. I ended up casting my promise to the wind.
During the year that I stayed in Beijing, I never actually went to the practice site. The second opportunity that Master had so delicately arranged for me to start practicing Falun Gong passed me by yet again.
Another year passed, and I returned to Chengdu after finishing my course. I fulfilled my wish and landed a job that I was pretty satisfied with. I was relieved, thinking that I'd finally attained my dream. Now I could strive for fame and fortune.
As for cultivation, which would make me endure hardships, I had long forgotten about it and had put it clear out of my mind.
The Spark Finally Ignites
Shortly after returning to Chengdu, one of my old high school classmates called me. He came over to recommend Falun Dafa to me.
I had actually suggested that he start practicing Falun Gong two years earlier, after I first read Zhuan Falun.
He didn't pay any attention to it at the time because he was a devoted Buddhist and was practicing another qigong. However, when Falun Gong became more popular in Chengdu, he gave up all the other types of qigong he had been doing and firmly got into Dafa cultivation.
This time it was me who hesitated. Should I cultivate? I knew that Dafa was good, but I felt that cultivation would distract me from my pursuit of a good life.
My biggest doubt was whether this practice really could improve health and morality. On top of that, I knew that my friend gets up very early to do the exercises each day, something that I thought was too much for me to do. I wasn't able to make the decision whether to cultivate.
But something happened that made me finally take the leap into Dafa cultivation.
It was Christmas Eve. A friend with whom I had recently become acquainted invited me for dinner at a restaurant. He ordered a table full of food, and after three rounds of drinks said he had leave to fetch another friend. So I lent him my bicycle.
I waited and waited at the restaurant until it was dark, but he never returned. I finally realized I had been taken in. Not only did he have my bicycle, but I also had to pick up the bill.
I was walking home feeling dejected and angry, but before I knew it, I had actually walked to the home of the classmate who'd advised me to practice Falun Gong.
Embarrassed, I told him what happened hoping to get some sympathy, but to my surprise he spoke to me using Dafa's principles.
It made me think, and I no longer felt blindly wronged, annoyed, or resentful.
He said that when a person encounters a conflict, they should first look for the cause within themselves. It led me to recognize that my desire of always wanting to get things out of other people had resulted in me being duped. My greediness, selfishness, karmic debts, as well as the relationship between loss and gain were factors that contributed to this event.
Everything he told me was from the wisdom that he'd learned from Dafa's principles and his own cultivation experiences.
These things were all very clearly taught in Zhuan Falun, but I had long forgotten what I had read in the book, as I did not cultivate.
At that moment, there seemed to be a voice echoing deeply in my heart, and I knew that I shouldn't miss the chance to cultivate again.
I said to my friend, “From now on, I will cultivate too!”
The Dafa book I had was lost when I moved. When he handed me a copy of Zhuan Falun, I held the book in both hands and knelt down respectfully. I wanted to sincerely express my wish to cultivate Dafa in this lifetime, and persist to the end.
Although it was late at night, I asked him if he could teach me the exercises. So he taught me the sitting meditation. Despite the pain, I forced myself to sit with one leg crossed in the half-lotus position and followed him as he did the hand movements.
Something magical happened: when I finished the hand movements, I felt like there were tens of millions of tiny things spinning rapidly within my body, starting from the tip of my toes and moving up to my abdomen, then to my chest, and the top of my head. They multiplied, becoming faster and faster, stronger and stronger, until they finally surrounded my entire body. My body started to feel numb, and my breathing was accelerated.
I was stunned by this sudden reaction in my body. I tried to remain calm, but became anxious. I said to Master in my mind, “Master, no more, no more!”
As soon as I had this thought, “swoosh” all the rotating things stopped and disappeared.
Later, I learned that the sensation I experienced was Master sending out Faluns to purify my body, and at the same time testing my enlightenment quality and level of tolerance. I was disappointed in myself for not enduring it a little longer.
Master said,
“It’s like an electrical plug—plug it in, and the electricity flows through it.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa”, Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
Just like that, on that day – December 24, 1998, fate brought me to the right place. After passing up Dafa twice, even someone as slow as me, who must have caused Master so much concern, finally captured the opportunity to truly step into Dafa cultivation.
