(Clearwisdom.net) The city of Wuhan in Hebei Province experienced a year of good fortune in 1993, when Teacher Li Hongzhi delivered five Falun Dafa seminars from springtime through autumn. Since then, the spirit of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance has brought many people together to practice cultivation.
Looking back, there were many events during that period which were quite moving. One took place in the office of Changjiang Economic Radio, and another at the Changjiang Daily newspaper.
A Changjiang Economic Radio reporter announced during the special program “Health Consultant” at about 9:00 a.m. on April 6, 1993: “Recently, I participated in a Qigong seminar where many rare phenomena occurred that we, the ordinary people, hardly understand. I'm glad to share some of these with you. One, is that some practitioners took a long, difficult journey from remote towns to get to Wuhan, in order to take part in this seminar. Another phenomenon is that incurable diseases suffered by practitioners were healed, after only a few words, a motion or a seminar from this Teacher. I found myself changed after participating in the seminar. Yesterday, my throat hurt badly. Once the Teacher came to stand next to me, I felt much better. Today, I've invited him to our studio. He is the founder of Falun Gong, Teacher Li Hongzhi.”
This direct broadcast from Changjiang Economic Radio made many people aware of Falun Gong and they heard Teacher Li's voice. Teacher Li Hongzhi responded to the audience on the hotline. Many audience participants received immediate benefits, and several had their illnesses eliminated. One family of four turned on the radio at home, and heard Teacher answering questions.
One of the hotline participants asked: “Are you Teacher Li?” He responded: “Yes. I am Li Hongzhi.” The caller said: “Hello Teacher Li! I've suffered for a long time from nose infections and inflammation, and have to breathe with my mouth open all day. This has caused me headaches, dizziness and a sore throat.” Teacher said: “To the whole audience, with nasal illnesses or not, think of your own illnesses, then relax and listen to Teacher.” Teacher then sent out energy while on the radio. One minute later, the caller with nasal disorders cried out excitedly: “Oh, my nose opened up and my whole body feels so comfortable! Thank you Teacher Li! How do I find you, how do I thank you?” Teacher said sincerely: “You do not have to come to me. The Wuhan Falun Gong Association is going to start a class; you can contact them if you're interested, and you may attend the Falun Gong classes.” This family felt amazing happiness, and looked to contact the Falun Gong Association. They finally attended the classes, and listened to Teacher's seminars.
Spread person to person, Falun Dafa was taken up rapidly by people from every community and age group. Relatives, neighbors and workplace units of Falun Gong practitioners knew that the practice benefited society and the state as well.
The newspaper “Culture”, a subsidiary department of Changjiang Daily, published an article which slandered Falun Gong. In order to clarify the truth to the public, some practitioners spoke to the newspaper's top official. Unfortunately, the newspaper didn't send a reporter to interview the practitioner group, nor publish a statement of apology for failing to acknowledge the incorrect report as requested by the practitioners during the meeting. Due to these circumstances, the practitioners visited the Changjiang Daily, intending to explain the issue.
The practitioners waited for the newspaper's office director in the lobby, as arranged by the staff. He represented the chief editorial committee, and indicated that he would reply immediately to any issues presented to him. Otherwise, he would forward the issues to the committee.
The practitioners spoke sincerely to him, explaining how their health improved and how they developed greater mental capacity as a result of the practice. They shared their personal experiences to demonstrate that Falun Gong is a great qigong practice.
One practitioner said that he'd suffered for many years from varicose veins, and could barely walk because of the disease. He'd visited countless doctors, but nothing helped. The varicose veins disappeared after he began practicing. Another practitioner explained that she was suffering from uterine fibroids, and set up her hospital admission in preparation for surgery. Yet, only a few days after practicing the exercises, the uterine fibroids simply disappeared - even the doctors were surprised. Another young man said that he had leukemia, and needed several hundred thousand dollars for the medical treatment. Since he didn't have the money, the only thing he could do was wait to die. He recovered quickly after practicing Falun Gong, without medicine or injections.
There was a teacher there holding her child, who was less than one year old. She handed a stack of medical records to the director, and said: “I have something to say. I was married for many years, but had no children. In order to have a child, I traveled across the country, even to Beijing to be checked by a foreign medical doctor. Their conclusion was that I had a life-threatening pituitary gland tumor which also prevented me from having children. I didn't want to leave this world so young, and went to several major hospitals. The experts' opinion was that there were two options. One was immediate surgery; however, if the surgery failed, I´d die on the operating table. If the operation was successful, I'd need to rely on expensive anticancer drugs to stay alive. If I took the conservative route instead, I'd need to ingest hormonal drugs. Our parents on both sides of the family decided that I should take the conservative treatment. I lost a lot of weight after the medication, and still couldn't bear children. Under these desperate circumstances, I got a copy of the book Zhuan Falun. After study and practice, I began to understand the Fa. Through whole-hearted study of the Fa and the exercises, I gradually stopped thinking about the tumor, children - even life and death. A few months later, I had a dream. I clearly saw Teacher performing surgery on my head. I woke up frightened and I felt my head - everything was fine. I went to the hospital for an examination, and they discovered that the pituitary tumor was completely gone. Even more amazing, was that I was pregnant. Please look at the medical diagnosis documents issued from major hospitals and at the birth certificate of my child. I´m showing you this to prove that it's true, complete proof of this fact of life: Falun Dafa is a great practice and an extraordinary science.”
Some practitioners shared that another Falun Gong practitioner was repairing a park gate, and found over six hundred yuan. He took the money to the park director and left without leaving his name.
Some practitioners had difficult family conflicts prior to learning Falun Gong. After they began practicing, they became strict with themselves, and aligned with truthfulness, compassion and forbearance, as taught by Teacher. Soon, their family conflicts were resolved, and their harmonious environments returned. Another said that he dallied over his work, but since learning Falun Dafa, he worked with a positive attitude and even helped others. The unit leadership saw that he was a completely changed person.
Many practitioners spoke about their personal experiences and shared many facts that all pointed to one thing: Falun Gong raised the moral level of society, was absolutely positive for the entire community, and was not like what the newspaper reported.
Moved by the stories, the office director's eyes teared several times.
After the meeting, the office director explained that he'd thought that Falun Gong practitioners were just ignorant old men and women. Instead, he found this group of practitioners were polite, calm, and peaceful, they spoke with reason and they possessed high ideological levels – he was full of admiration for them. He said: “Today, I met with a group of exceptionally high quality individuals. Through these magical and moving stories, I realized that Falun Gong is truly an extraordinary science.” He said in conclusion: “This practice is great, I only need to reply to the committee for discussion, and tomorrow you'll hear my message.”
The next day, the practitioners came to the Changjiang Daily Hall as arranged by the office director. He granted them their request and offered his apology for the irresponsible comments in the report.
After several rounds of communication in early June 1998, the Changjiang Daily finally sent several journalists from the relevant departments to formally meet with the practitioner representatives. At the forum, the practitioners spoke about their personal experiences, from turning illnesses into health, improvement of the heart and mind, and promoting spiritual civilization in society as well.
A few days after the forum, the Changjiang Daily published an article entitled "Notice", which recognized that the Culture daily newspaper's report on Dafa wasn't true, that it hurt Falun Gong practitioners, and that the management expressed its sincere apology.
