(Minghui.org) “I had been searching for the truth my whole life. Although I was exposed to Falun Dafa, I was not interested in this cultivation practice, I dismissed it due to deceptive propaganda and my notions. I even advised my father to sign a guarantee statement not to practice it. It wasn’t until I faced tribulations and problems that I reconnected with Dafa through a good friend. After reading the book Zhuan Falun, I regretted my mistakes and realized that I finally found what I had been looking for,” recounted Nancy Zeng in an interview.
It took her 13 years to accept Falun Dafa, from the day she heard about it from her father in 1998 to the day she decided to cultivate herself in 2011.
Nancy Zeng was happy to start practicing Falun Dafa.
Nancy’s father had practiced many kinds of cultivation exercises. When Nancy heard about Falun Gong from her father, she thought that it was simply another ordinary exercise. With her mind filled with beautiful images of a career and marriage, Nancy thought she would be fine as long as she didn’t hurt anyone.
Nancy saw many faculty members, students, and parents practice Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) on campus. She knew that it taught people how to be good. Despite the government’s ban on the practice, she wasn’t initially opposed to her father’s cultivating. But the CCTV’s program about the staged self-immolation on Tiananmen Square completely changed her mind about Falun Gong.
“I didn’t have the slightest doubt that the TV program was true, and I didn’t know that suicide was against the principles of Dafa. I couldn’t imagine that CCTV would concoct lies. Such a thought never came to my mind. Although no one I knew had committed suicide, I thought a practice leading to suicide must be bad. That program ruined my view of Falun Gong.”
Nancy told her father not to practice anymore. Her father wasn’t very articulate but he told her, “We aren’t like what is said on television (TV). I don’t know why they did that.” As a matter of fact, even he didn’t suspect that a TV program would purposefully deceive people.
One day, Nancy came home to see a police officer pressuring her father to sign a guarantee not to practice Falun Gong. “My father was determined not to sign it. The officer was mad and they got into a stalemate, but I persuaded the officer to leave. After he left, I asked my father to be considerate of the policeman, sign a guarantee, and just practice at home. I regret having done that. It was the worst thing I ever did in my life.”
Nancy had a great job and a perfect family at that time, but after she tried to persuade her father to stop practicing Falun Gong, everything started to go wrong. Her husband, who had wooed her for almost 10 years before they married, had an affair and divorced her. Her company laid off employees due to financial problems, and her income was greatly reduced. Even though she was still young, she suddenly had health problems, often feeling weak and dizzy. “I felt like the whole world was crashing in on me,” Nancy recounted. “It wasn’t until after I started cultivating that I realized that blessings and retributions are related to one’s attitude toward Dafa and that sins against Dafa are the most dangerous.”
Nancy immigrated to Australia in 2004, remarried, and had children. Her father also immigrated to Australia to help her take care of her children and to be able to practice Falun Dafa openly without being persecuted.
Poor health and misery motivated Nancy to seek spiritual help. However, she was frustrated to find that no religion could help her. She lost hope and thought that life was painful. Nancy told the reporter, “My heart told me that I needed a belief, but I couldn’t find anything.”
In July 2011, Nancy found out that her father had loaned a copy of Zhuan Falun to one of her friends, because her friend had been looking for a way to help her child with a stubborn ailment. Because of Nancy’s prejudice against Falun Gong, she was mad at him. She ran to her friend’s home and said, “Did my dad give you Zhuan Falun? Don’t read it. He always tells my friends about Falun Gong without my permission.”
Before she could finish, her friend said, “I have read it. It makes sense. I have started learning the exercises.” Nancy was surprised to hear that. She thought that she was now obligated to drag her father and her friend out of the “trap” of belief in Falun Dafa. With the intention of coming up with convincing arguments to discredit the practice, she asked her father for a copy of Zhuan Falun.
Deceived by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda, Nancy made up her mind not to accept the logic in Zhuan Falun. She arbitrarily picked a page to read and then jumped to another page. She skipped the section about the celestial eye, because she didn’t want to pursue any supernormal capabilities.
After reading bits and pieces of Zhuan Falun, she found that the whole book was about how to be a better person by following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and that suicide was forbidden, completely opposite to what the propaganda had presented. In addition, not a single sentence in the book was about politics.
Nancy read it a second time, attempting to find contradictions and faulty logic. “To my surprise, there seemed to be many big and small reasons throughout the book, but they supported each other, and I couldn’t understand them. Indeed, the Great Way is formless.” Nancy said her view of Falun Dafa changed completely: “I realized that Falun Dafa was a righteous law to save people. It was also what I had been looking for!”
With endless housework and the responsibility of taking care of a four-year-old and a one-year-old, Nancy could not find time to read. One night, she turned off the lights after her family had gone to sleep and got ready to go to bed herself, but a thought came to her mind: “Zhuan Falun is a great book, and I should find time to read it again.” In a fraction of a second, Nancy found herself in another dimension.
“It was a beautiful world, with bright sunshine, chirping birds, and perfect temperature. The beauty was beyond this world. Another world flew to me from far away. I entered it before I knew it. All of a sudden, I flew up and saw waves of mountains under me. The air was pure and clean. Although I flew up high, I could see every piece of grass in the mountains,” Nancy recounted.
“As I turned my head, trying to look at both sides, I heard the sound of wind. Whoosh, I came back to my dark bedroom. I lifted my hands in front of my eyes, but I couldn’t see my hand because the room was so dark. I sighed and admitted that other dimensions truly existed!”
Nancy read the section about the celestial eye the next day. After that, she decided to cultivate herself according to Falun Dafa.
Nancy demonstrates the Falun Gong exercises at an introductory activity.
Nancy experienced a rebirth physically and spiritually. “Not only was my health restored through cultivation, but I’ve also learned the purpose of life—to return to one’s true self. I no longer complain when I run into conflicts but look within for my faults. As I learned to view things from a higher understanding, conflicts were resolved easily. My family life became harmonious. I finally found hope.”
Nancy now understands why her father had been telling people about the benefits of Falun Dafa. “It’s out of compassion. A Falun Dafa practitioner wants to share such great benefits with more people and wants to spread the message that Falun Dafa is great. We hope our family and friends will be blessed, too!”
Nancy hopes the Chinese people won’t believe the CCP’s propaganda and will treasure the rare opportunity to cultivate.