July 2000

Please forward to all kindhearted people:

I'm 41 years old. In 1976, responding to the call of the government, I went and worked in the countryside and mountain areas. In 1978, I was enrolled in the army to serve the country. I was an excellent young man at that time. In 1981, I was demobilized and assigned to work in a factory until now. Although I was still young and full of hopes for life, my life experiences had gradually changed me into a selfish and ill-behaved person. To relieve the pain in my waist and legs, I became addicted to alcohol, and became famous as a drunkard in my workplace. I behaved in an uncontrolled manner: with no regard for to my boss. I'd get drunk and make trouble, beating up and swearing at my wife and son, feeling decadent and unlucky, with less and less basic morality and conscience as a human being. As a consequence, my wife divorced me in July 1996. After that, I considered myself hopeless and led as dim a life as you can imagine.

Then in September 1996 I happened to find a book called Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Dafa). I took a quick glance then took it home . At that time, I did nothing but read the book and drink alcohol. Gradually I was attracted by the principles in the book and knew it was a book for cultivation practice. I had struggled for several days with whether I would cultivate. I felt it was hard to give up alcohol, lust, and various other desires. However, perhaps due to my predestination and through further studying and reading the book , my lost true self gradually awakened to the principles in the book. I came to realize that the saying "good and evil do have their own retribution" was not empty talk. So I decided to cultivate myself.

With the help from warm-hearted practitioners, I started to cultivate myself. I came to understand the meaning of life. From then on, I gave up all my bad habits. Some of my colleagues even joked to me : "If you can quit alcohol, I would give up my meal." I have not drunk a drop of alcohol since I began practicing Falun Gong, and did not want to, either. Moreover, my angiospasm-headache (diagnosed by a military hospital) and lumbar vertebra hernia (diagnosed by a railway hospital) were cured without treatment and did not recur. Zhuan Falun, the great Buddha law, has cleansed the dirtiness in my body and soul and enabled me to cultivate with ease. It is Falun Dafa that has turned me away from an evil way and I became a good person by being considerate of others. I will continue to require myself to assimilate to the characteristic of the universe: "Zhen, Shan, Ren" (Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance) to make further progress.

I behave as a practitioner everyday and everywhere, cultivating kindness and maintaining virtue. In the workplace, I voluntarily cleaned up the office and bathroom, repaired the toilet and blocked sewers, thereby saving money for my work unit. I helped and cooperated well with my colleagues during work. I declined gifts from clients and made my contribution to improve the work environment, therefore receiving good comments from many clients. They all know I am a Falun Dafa practitioner.

However, the government banned Falun Dafa on July 22, 1999, and has been persecuting innocent practitioners relentlessly. What is not understandable is that two workers in my work unit were fired because of going to Beijing to appeal, which is in accordance with basic rights endowed by the Constitution. They broke all obstacles to tell the truth to the government. What they had done is not for themselves, but for the sake of the country and the people, with their pure hearts. Such selflessness and great virtue of sacrificing themselves for the sake of others has filled me with admiration . If the leaders in our work unit also know that they are good people, then why does the government treat good people like that? Is it still that terrible time that whoever tells the truth would die? They were fired just because they dared to speak out the truth and comply with the law to appeal. Where is the basic humanity? Some people are apathetic and can't tell what is right and what is wrong. They beat up kind people in order to pay back a personal grudge just because their fame and position are being affected. It is really hard to convince people.

We Falun Gong practitioners just do the exercises in the morning and study the books together in the evening if time permits, do not bother anyone else and have no interest in political power. We are cultivating ourselves. We work diligently while taking fame and self-interest lightly, stay away from the turmoil of the world and strive to keep peace and harmony in our inner selves. How many people in China have cultivated in the past thousands of years? How many leading characters in history gave up their great wealth and highest honor and went to the mountains or woods for quiet cultivation? Today, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners put behind all their belongings and even their lives and only want to tell the truth about Falun Gong to the world. No matter how powerful the evil forces in the human world may appear, people shouldn't lose their nature of justice, kindness, being open and aboveboard as a human being.

To persist in the truth, many practitioners are deprived of their bright future, superior jobs and high salaries. Among them are university students and graduates. To persevere in their cultivation, they were forced to give up many things in their lives. A key member in our work unit was deprived of the right of working at his regular position and degraded to the position of sanitation worker with a monthly income of 130 Yuan [about $15, while the average monthly salary is about $60] because he appealed in Beijing. His basic living conditions are not secured. A couple was fired for appealing; a mother and her daughter were arrested; a woman over sixty was sent to a labor camp; a student just graduated was sentenced, and so on and so forth.

An even more unconceivable thing happened to Ms. Tang in our work unit. She insisted on practicing Falun Gong, but did not appeal to Beijing or practice outside. She only read the books at home. She was punctual, diligent and uncomplaining in her work. At the end of April, she missed a business trip arranged by our work unit. Her colleagues did not know her whereabouts. After she had been missing for 40 days, two policemen from the City police station questioned me about her. At that time, I knew she had been arrested. There is no security for a Falun Gong practitioner who is trying to be a better person. I go to work everyday under this kind of horror. Perhaps someday I could be arrested, detained, put into a labor camp or even be fired. It is difficult to be a good person under this circumstance. But I fear nothing. I have given my life to my belief. I will face everything with a smile.

There are around 200 people in my machine workshop; twenty of them practice Falun Gong. The people in the workshop, from the supervisor to the co-workers, know in their hearts that we are good people, and see the improvements we have made during these years. What can the government gain by persecuting these honest citizens who follow "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance"?

All inhumane action is shocking Heaven and is not allowed by heavenly justice. The two colleagues mentioned who were fired for speaking the truth about Falun Dafa and all other practitioners have done nothing wrong by living as good people; all their continued mistreatment should stop immediately, all the slander and unfair treatment to our Teacher should be rescinded and our innocence should be restored. I call on all kind-hearted people in the world to pay close attention to the current situation of Falun Dafa in China.

Please wake up, all kind-hearted people. The dignity to be a human being is being trampled on by evil; the norm to be a human being is being distorted and is sliding down to a dangerous edge. The virtue of helping each other, respecting the elderly, protecting the young, being righteous and kind are all replaced by evil mottoes such as "Heaven destroys those who do not live for themselves." "Who supports me will be promoted, who is against me will be suppressed." etc. The mentality of greed and selfishness is destroying human beings. Please be aware that "Good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil." A person who has committed many evildoings will eventually destroy himself. As our Teacher said in the article "When the Fa is Right" (Essentials for Further Advancement, a collection of Teacher Li's articles): "When man does not have virtue, natural calamities and man-made disasters will abound. When the earth does not have virtue, everything will wither and fall. When heaven deviates from the Tao, the ground will crack, the sky will collapse, and all the cosmos will be empty. When the Fa is right, the universe will be right. Life will flourish, heaven and earth will be stable, and the Fa will exist forever."

A Falun Dafa Practitioner in China

July 8, 2000