(Minghui.org) Mr. Chen Boxiang is a guide at the National Museum of Taiwan History. He is talkative and is always smiling. His various kind acts won him respect from the residents of the Wuzhu District, and in 2009, he won the Model Father Award in the district.
Caption: Chen Boxiang talks to a group of tourists in the Museum of Taiwan History in 2012.
Seeing Chen’s current life, no one would believe that eleven years ago Chen was addicted to alcohol. He drank so much that his health deteriorated. Alcohol also caused him to be anxious and depressed, violent and fretful.
As he got older, chronic illnesses such as a stomach ulcers, stomach prolapse, hepatitis, and nerve inflammation emerged. He tried all kinds of medicine but to no avail. The pain and suffering was unendurable to Chen and he resorted to drinking even more to numb himself.
Chen was lost in the world of alcohol and he could not bear conflicts in real life. “Even small conflicts irritated me. At work, I had to swallow it and curb my temper, but when I went home, I unleashed my emotions and fought with my wife all the time,” said Chen.
In October 2001, Chen went shopping in a market. He saw an apartment on the street with an introduction to Falun Gong hanging on the walls, welcoming people to borrow books for free. He borrowed a copy of Zhuan Falun. After reading it for three days, the pain and aching in his left shoulder suddenly disappeared. As he continued to read, his right shoulder stopped hurting. He came to the conclusion that everything in the book was true, and that as long as one truly wants to cultivate, Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) will help purity the person’s body.
Seeing hope in his life, Chen quickly found a local Falun Dafa exercise site. “Every morning I went to the site to exercise and study the teachings. I never slacked off or gave up no matter how difficult it got,” said Chen.
One day Chen told his friends and relatives, “I want to quit drinking.” Everyone began laughing. Mr. Chen said, “They all thought it was impossible because I was an alcoholic for over 30 years.”
The reason why Chen wanted to quit drinking was because of what is says in Lecture Seven in Zhuan Falun,
“Some people love alcohol as much as their own lives. Some people enjoy drinking alcohol. Some people are already poisoned by drinking alcohol, and they cannot even pick up their rice bowls without drinking—they cannot do without a drink. As practitioners, we should not be this way. Drinking alcohol is definitely addictive. It is a desire and stimulates one’s addictive nerves. The more one drinks, the more one becomes addicted to it. Let us think about it: As practitioners, shouldn’t we give up this attachment? This attachment must also be removed.”
Chen was determined to quit because he realized that he must listen to what Master Li says. “The moment I made up my mind to quit drinking, I felt Master had already begun to help me.” There was not even a process of quitting alcohol for him. He showed none of the discomfort associated with withdrawal, and never thought seriously about having a drink of alcohol again.
All of Chen’s friends and relatives thought that it was incredible that he quit drinking because he practiced Falun Dafa. “There was no way I could have done that without being a genuine practitioner,” Chen said.
After he quit drinking, one day Chen suddenly felt that everything about him had changed without him even realizing. “Everything I did, I thought about whether it conformed to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I felt that I had become tolerant and calm. I stopped throwing tantrums gradually. My physical condition improved drastically. All of my pain had disappeared and I could sleep easily and soundly.”
Caption: Chen accepts an award in Yongkang, Tainan, in 2009 and becomes the model father in Wuzhu.
After Chen retired, he became a social worker. He wanted to fulfill his responsibility as a citizen and at the same time share the joy of practicing Falun Dafa with others. He volunteered to work in Tainan Prison in 2002 and introduced Falun Dafa to the inmates. “Some of them chose the right path and began to practice Falun Dafa.”
In 2009, Chen was elected model father and received a government award on Father’s Day.
In the past ten years, Chen has been actively involved in volunteer work. He is currently a guide at the National Museum of Taiwan History. He said gratefully, “I cordially thank the founder of Falun Dafa, Mr. Li Hongzhi. Because of him, I have the honor of validating the beauty of Falun Dafa.”
