(Minghui.org) Given some childhood experiences, I have an inexplicable longing to learn as much as possible about gods and Buddhas. Therefore, I have looked for cultivation ways since I was very young.
I had a nightmare during my childhood. I dreamed that I fell from a very high place. The process of falling was thrilling in the depths of my consciousness, and I felt that I would never return to my original place. This nightmare accompanied me throughout my childhood, and I often woke up terrified.
I often dreamed of the demon of lust chasing me. I vaguely understood that if I didn’t find a way to cultivate and return in this life, I would be overtaken by this demon and fall into a bottomless abyss. I ran like crazy until an unforgettable fear woke me up.
A monk once came to my house asking for donations to build a temple. My mother wasn’t home. I donated all my pocket money – a total of 10 yuan. The monk gave me a picture of a Bodhisattva. I happily showed my mother the picture when she returned home, but she said the monk was certainly a fake one. However, I felt happy that I had made a connection with the Buddha law. For a period of time, I carefully read admission ads for monastic colleges, and day-dreamed about becoming a nun and cultivating at a remote, peaceful place.
When I was in high school, a teacher asked what the students wanted to be in the future. Some wanted to be engineers, some wanted to be scientists and musicians. I said that I just wanted to be an upright person. For me, this was the most important desire in my mind.
Master said,
“Before, not a single being who dropped down from Heaven was able to go back. And among humans, Socrates, the ancient Greek sage, also said that nobody who’s fallen down from Heaven could return.” (Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003)
At the age of 15, in 1991, I took the college entrance exams and ranked first in our city. My parents wanted me to study something that would allow me to land a good, high-paying job. But I decided on philosophy. I hoped that reading more books would enable me to solve the mysteries of life, such as why people live, where they go, and how they live. I thought that questions like these were more important to me than anything else.
My mind was occupied by an idea in the summer of 1992: I must follow a qigong master. I traveled to many places but couldn’t find any masters. Master Li started teaching Falun Gong in 1992, but I now understand that my predestined relationship with Dafa had not arrived yet.
I decided to visit Buddhist temples since I couldn’t find a qigong master. There is a temple near Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, that had collected information over more than 1,000 years. The temple has no gate, but there is a Maitreya Buddha sitting at the door. The tour guide claimed that the gate was moved to a temple in Kaifeng City by the legendary Monk Jigong using supernatural power. Nowadays, the temple in Kaifeng has a gate but no Buddha statue. The tourists were noisy in the main hall, so I walked to a side hall, the Hall of Falun, where there were fewer visitors. The descriptive sign in front of the hall read “Falun keeps turning, automatic and endless.”
The tour guide said that this sign was left behind by an eminent monk in the Jin Dynasty. He'd asked the monks in the temple to keep a wooden Falun turning 24 hours a day. He said that, if one day the Falun stopped, a great event would happen. The Falun had been turning for nearly 1,000 years until it stopped during the Cultural Revolution when monks were driven out of the temple.
I returned home in July 1992 and was surprised to find the jade Bodhisattva statue at my house was empty.
In my Chinese Buddhism history class, a professor said that Buddha Shakyamuni said that his Dharma would not be able to save people in the Dharma-ending period and that now was the Dharma-ending period to which the Buddha referred. I was shocked. Was this the “great event” the eminent monk predicted?
One day I thought, "There were many miracles in history when divine beings cohabited with people. Why don’t we hear such things in modern times? Is it because divine beings no longer care about people? If so, there is no hope for humans. What is the purpose of my life?"
After that I heard that a new religion would spread in the 21st century, and the person teaching the Dharma would wear ordinary clothes. Later in a class on Chinese Buddhism, a professor said that a Buddha from a very high level would turn a bigger Falun during the Dharma-ending period. It gave me some hope.
I was jogging around Weiming Lake (at Peking University) on a February morning in 1996 and saw three people. One was meditating, and one tried to cross his legs. The third man was reading a book. I heard the words and immediately sensed some profound meaning. I stopped and asked what he was reading. He said Zhuan Falun. The three words vibrated through my entire body. I recalled the great event that the eminent monk had predicted and a Buddha who would turn a bigger Falun that my professor had spoken of.
Those practitioners invited me to watch videos of Master Li’s Fa-teaching seminars. They gave two classes every weekend. I felt it was too slow so I bought the book Zhuan Falun and decided to read it by myself. When I read the eighth lecture “The One Who Practices Gets the Gong,” I suddenly realized that all the past cultivation methods were cultivating the assistant soul. This is absolutely true, and I instantly understood that this was a heavenly secret that human beings had never heard before.
I had many qigong books at home, and I had been exposed to many religions, but there were many questions that could not be answered. When I read the Dafa book, all the questions I had were answered.
The Falun Dafa assistance center once arranged for local practitioners to watch video recordings of Master’s Fa teaching in Dalian City. At one moment, Master said that those of us in the audience could think about an ailment they or a relative had. I thought of one of my elders who'd suffered from psoriasis for many years. I later dreamed of him talking to his younger brother, and a small, white animal left his body. He no longer suffered from psoriasis.
I had my childhood dream again after I obtained the Fa. I was held firmly by a force as soon as I felt that I was falling. I was so happy that I was saved.
Once when I was doing the third exercise, I felt the Falun driving my body to fly upwards rapidly, and I felt Master telling me: “I will take you to the extreme of the universe.” I felt the incredible remoteness of the universe, so remote that it was terrifying. The flight stopped immediately the moment I was scared.
During Fa-study, I found out that none of the beings who came down from the sky in the past could return. Today, Dafa is spreading to the world and we are saved to return to heaven. This is a precious opportunity that has never been seen since the creation.
Master said,
“The truths and principles that I, Li Hongzhi, have made known have never been disclosed in thousands, well, billions of years, or by any saviors before, no matter who they were, by any of the enlightened beings who came down to this world, no matter how many there have been, or by any of the immortals who enlightened to certain truths, no matter how many there have been.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume VII)
To enable us to obtain the Fa at this moment, Master has been watching over us generation after generation, a process that has spanned hundreds of millions of years. I hope you will find out the truth about Falun Dafa, and maybe you will discover that it is what you have been waiting and looking for throughout all of your past lives.
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Perspective
