(Minghui.org) Greeting Master! Greeting fellow practitioners!
I am a Falun Dafa practitioner in Hong Kong. To my great joy I met Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) in person on July 13, 1996. In the 25 years that followed, Master has watched over me every moment. Whenever I think back over the chain of events that led me to practice, I feel extremely grateful.
I was born in China. My father was wrongly sent to jail when I was two years old. He passed away two days after he was released. Unable to bear the blow, my mother left home for Shanghai. I was brought up by my paternal grandmother and we later moved to Hong Kong when I was ten.
Without the love of either parent, I felt lonely and hopeless. As a teenager I looked for the Way; that is, the purpose of life. I read books on Buddhism, Taoism and Tantrism. I studied Hinduism and tried different kinds of qigong. It was not until I became a Falun Dafa practitioner that I realized that learning from different schools was wrong. One should only practice one cultivation way.
In my youth, I enjoyed meditating in the mountains. I would sit for hours and did not mind the burning sun. I knew that in a past lifetime I was an old monk with a long beard and I lived in a deep forest. I decided to become a monk, but when my family found out they immediately put to a stop to it.
It was not until after I began practicing Falun Dafa that I realized if I hadn’t lived through so much hardship when I was a child, perhaps I would not treasure Dafa as much as I do now.
As a child, I was often wronged, beaten and bullied. Although I practiced martial arts, my hands grew weak when I struck others. I later realized that Master was already watching over me—perhaps even before I was born.
In 1992, I saw a photo of Master in a qigong magazine. He was doing the Falun Dafa exercises in Guizhou. I was curious, but I didn’t try to find out more about Dafa.
One day as I passed through a local park I noticed people doing the exercises in a gazebo. I did not stop to check it out.
The second time I passed by the same place, it started to rain so I went under the gazebo for shelter. The same group of people were reading a book aloud. I listened but did not know what they were reading. After they finished, one of them gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun and asked for my phone number. Ordinarily, I would not give my phone number to a stranger. However, I gave her my contact information without hesitation. That day must have been predestined. I was fortunate enough to meet Master in person because of this encounter.
One day in 1996, the practitioner I gave my phone number to called me. She invited me to come and listen to Master teaching that evening.
“I have to work tonight; I can’t go,” I told her.
“Come even if you have to skip work. Many people want to meet Master but don’t get the opportunity.”
So I went to Master’s Fa teaching that evening. It was the first time I met Master in person. Inexplicably I felt so moved that I wanted to cry—I felt extremely close to him. That day I became a Falun Dafa practitioner.
The second time I listened to Master teaching in person was in 1997. I had been practicing for a year and was quite enlightened by Master’s words.
I was on the phone with another practitioner, when I saw Master walk out of the elevator. I placed my palms together in front of my chest in the heshi position (a sign of respect). Master did the same to me. At that moment, I was engulfed by Master’s enormous compassion. The feeling is impossible to describe in words.
I was able to sit quietly and study two lectures from Zhuan Falun in one go. Since I often worked at night, I had time during the day to study the Fa. I did what Master told us to do: study the Fa, do the exercise and improve my xinxing. Soon, I achieved the state of Heavenly Circuit as Master described. Sometimes I felt energy bouncing around in my body. At that time, the other practitioners and I did not know what it was. It wasn’t until later that I learned that it was caused by the flow of energy through my meridian.
Cultivation helped me find my life’s purpose. I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I did not practice Falun Dafa. Master gave me everything. That is why I cry every time I meet Master, as my appreciation for his compassion is beyond words!
(2021 Hong Kong Practice Sites Cultivation Experience Sharing Article)