(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. In my second year of high school I developed severe headaches. The cost of my medication was more than my living expenses, but my headaches didn't improve. There were only a few days a year when I didn't have a headache. The pain was so severe that sometimes I hit my head against a wall, and dying seemed better than living. I practiced qigong every day because I believed that qigong could cure my headaches. It wasn't very effective, though I felt more relaxed right after practicing.
I began college in 1995 and encountered many different qigong practices. They seemed to have little effect, and I would try a new one every few weeks. I went to secondhand book fair because I wanted to buy a qigong book. The first book I saw was China Falun Gong. I bought it for two yuan. This was the first and the last time I ever saw Falun Gong books at a secondhand book market. I went to my dorm and laid down on my bed. I opened the book and immediately felt a light radiating out towards my head. My headache improved.
Two things really surprised me when I read China Falun Gong. First, given the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) philosophy of atheism and materialism, I was startled to read about belief in the divine. Secondly, I was astounded that this type of book was allowed to circulate. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it anymore, but since my headaches were much better, I did. It was truly amazing that, as long as I read the book, my head didn't hurt. If I read the book for a half an hour, I was headache free for one to two hours. As soon as I finished my classes and returned to my dorm, I read China Falun Gong for awhile. This continued for about six months. I came to believe that if you hit someone, you would give the other person virtue as compensation.
In the spring of 1996, due to the severity of my headaches, I decided to practice Falun Gong. I followed what China Falun Gong taught and destroyed all of the other qigong books that I had. I started learning the exercises. Since my memory was bad because of my headaches, I was afraid that I couldn't memorize the exact movements, so I only learned the first one. I had an amazing experience after I returned to my dorm. My body felt light as I walked up the steps, and my headache was gone. I was in the habit of taking a nap in the afternoon, but I couldn't sleep. I felt very energetic and simply had to get out of bed. I strolled around the campus. I noticed that some people were reading a leaflet when I returned to the entrance to my dorm. It announced that there would be a videotape showing of the teachings of Falun Gong in the main hall of the computer department that night. I was happy because I had been worrying whether my movements were correct or not. I thought this would be a good opportunity. But I worried that they would collect a fee, because I didn't have any money.
I entered the big hall in this state of excitement and anxiety. The videotape explained the teachings of Falun Gong and demonstrated the exercises. Some people left immediately after the videotape ended, but others hung around the organizer. I hesitated to speak with him because I feared he would expect to be paid. I met a classmate of mine who was in the same year as me. He asked me if I wanted to practice Falun Gong and suggested we go together to chat with the organizer, a professor. We gathered up our courage to approach the professor, who later became our assistant. The assistant told us that they practiced and taught the exercises early in morning at the Labor Union every day. He also told us that they would be showing Master's nine-day lectures at Forestry University Auditorium over the next few days and suggested that we go. He said that there weren't any fees, and I was relieved.
I felt like a different person after hearing the first lecture, and my worldview changed. I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted and as if I was floating in the air like a celestial being after leaving the auditorium. It would be an unimaginable experience for someone who had never had a serious illness. In the second lecture Master said that he would adjust our bodies and that people who had long term illnesses would have no idea how it would feel to not be ill. Tears flowed down my cheeks and from the bottom of my heart I silently said, "Master, I now know what it is like to not be ill." He told us that we might experience relapses of symptoms from previous illnesses and to be prepared for this. He said that, no matter what happened, to come and listen to the Fa, because it was difficult to obtain. I felt that Master had already adjusted my body so perhaps this didn't apply to me. But when I woke up the next morning I had a toothache (I had had my teeth pulled out before), my cheek was swollen, and I had a high fever. A slight touch would cause the pain to radiate like an electric current from my skin to my bones. I remembered what Master said, to come every day to Forest University to listen to the lecture no matter how uncomfortable one felt. I had to change my pace and walk slowly because of the fever. If I walked too quickly the pain was unbearable, penetrating from my heels to my very insides. About the time the nine-day lectures concluded, my toothache and fever were gone. There was another student who had a toothache and whose cheek was swollen at the same time as me. He got a lot of medicine from the university hospital and offered me some. It is interesting that our toothaches disappeared at the same time, although I didn't take a drop of medicine.
Since practicing Falun Dafa, my head rarely hurts. I am grateful for my headaches, though, because without them and having been indoctrinated with the poisonous CCP propaganda, I wouldn't have obtained the Fa. It wasn't easy for me to obtain the Fa given this climate, the arrogance of the CCP, and the impoverished background from which I came. I was able to obtain the Fa and overcome all these obstacles due to Master's great compassion.
