Overcoming Addiction to the Internet

(Minghui.org) I learned Falun Dafa when I was a child, but I did not cherish it and almost stopped practicing.

My life and my cultivation were severely affected after I received my first cellphone and desktop computer, and became addicted to the Internet. I spent hours on games, novels, movies, TV soap operas, and entertainment articles, as well as QQ, WeChat, and Weibo (popular social media platforms). I was lost amongst it all.

Every day, all I thought about was what to eat or what clothes would look good on me. I did not do any housework and I gained a lot of weight. The more I gained weight, the more I wanted to eat. After I ate to my heart's content, I did nothing but lie in bed and play on my cellphone.

It went from bad to worse. Merciful Master did not give up on me, however, and I soon received hints in my dreams.

My mother is a Dafa practitioner and she spared no efforts trying to talk me into resuming Fa study. She even yelled at me sometimes. I would promise her and promise Master that I would go back to Dafa and start afresh instead of continuing down this slippery slope. But I never put my promises into action. I would pretend to be busy when it was time to send righteous thoughts, and I would look for excuses to avoid doing the exercises and studying the Fa.

Many years passed and I had only read a few of Master's books. I would doze off when sending righteous thoughts. I could barely meditate for an hour in the half lotus position.

My heart and soul were gradually defeated as the days went by. Luckily, with Master's protection, I was still holding on to my moral standards.

I suffered from jealousy, competitiveness, and pursuit of gains. As a result of these attachments, I began to have serious health problems. I would be woken up by pain in my spine at night, and I had excruciating menstrual pains as well.

I had to hold a strange posture to alleviate my pain. I was incapacitated by the loss of blood, and my menstrual period would go on for weeks—or sometimes the opposite would happen and my period would be many weeks late.

As I was not practicing Dafa at that time, I resorted to Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and other remedies.

In 2014, I went to visit my hometown. At that time, I could not lift my right leg due to pain in my spine. Seeing my condition, my mother encouraged me to resume practicing Falun Dafa. So I began studying the Fa and doing the exercises with her. I was very addicted to the Internet, however, and could not focus on Fa study, so I cherry picked what exercises I wanted to do.

For example, I preferred to do the sitting exercise with a blanket covering me on cold days, but didn't want to do the second set of exercises of “holding the wheel.” Despite my half-hearted efforts, merciful Master cured my spine, and my menstrual pains stopped. My face looked prettier and kinder as well.

I could not believe the changes I experienced. Practitioners who had not seen me for some time were impressed as well. The kinder and prettier changes to my face happened within one month of my coming back to Falun Dafa, and I was not even diligent.

Unfortunately I didn't appreciate Master's mercy and painstaking efforts in saving me. I thought I was doing alright, and was still holding on to my cellphone. In the days that followed, I even went back to my old ways. It was only when I had “problems” that I remembered Master.

I would do the exercises and read the Fa for a few days to get better, and then go back to my cellphone and forget about Fa study altogether. I forgot that I was a Dafa practitioner, and was not cultivating although at times I appeared to be.

When my employer required that I use WeChat for work communication and the Internet for work purchases, I had a great excuse to spend more time on my cellphone.

However, one day toward the end of August 2018, I was at work and my menstrual period started. I heard water falling on the ground. When I looked down, I saw a puddle of blood. I went to the washroom and my pants were soaked with blood. I also started to bleed blood clots. On the third day, a fellow practitioner came to stay with me. In the afternoon, I had to run to the toilet every hour.

Some of the blood clots were the size of an egg. They didn't look like membranes, but rather rotten flesh, sometimes with tumors attached. Every day, this stuff came out in great amounts. Despite this situation, I did not feel bad. I enlightened that Master was cleansing my body, so I did not feel the pain.

As the bad stuff was moving out of my abdomen, my big, unsightly stomach shrank. It is still shrinking at the time of my writing this article.

During the three days when I was being cleansed, my mother could not be with me because she had to go to work. Had it not been for my mother's practitioner friend, who came to study the Fa and share experiences with me, I would not have survived.

Strangely enough, I did not even want my cellphone during this period. Although occasionally something reminded me to check my phone, I rejected it with righteous thoughts.

Then I had to use WeChat to promote my company's products and make purchases online, so I went back to my phone and spent some time on it. I spent hours comparing prices before I made a purchase decision. I realized that ordinary people have millions of excuses to spend all day on the Internet. However, I am a Dafa practitioner, and I have no excuse to do so. I must quit the Internet!

We have been given everything by Master and Master has arranged everything for us. Why do we want to arrange anything for ourselves?

Although we may need to use social media such as WeChat for employment purposes, practitioners should not be addicted to the Internet. The lure of the Internet is nothing to practitioners when we maintain our righteous thoughts, study the Fa more and send righteous thoughts.

In my dreams, I talk to people about Falun Dafa in public and post information in public places without any fear. Faced with the police, I am calm and talk to them about Dafa.

I often feel ashamed and envious when I wake up because in reality I am completely different. What is done is done, and the crazy days of my Internet addiction have fortunately come to an end, with Master shouldering a lot for me and cleansing me.

I am reborn and all I want to do is the three things while cultivating myself well and fulfilling my mission as a Dafa practitioner.

Those who are addicted to the Internet, please wake up. Master has been protecting us, but the Internet is infested with evil. If you are blinded by the evil, how can you walk the path to godhood?