Recalling the Blissful Period When I Met Master Li in 1996

(Minghui.org) I listened to a program called “Recalling Master’s Kindness” on Minghui Radio recently. I was very touched by it.

As I listened to the recollections of many different practitioners, I sensed the hardship that Master Li went through and his benevolence toward people. The program also spurred me to be more diligent in my cultivation.

I am very lucky to have had many chances to see Master, and every chance is really precious. Here, I will share my precious memories of the first time I saw Master with fellow Falun Dafa practitioners.

At the end of 1995, I returned to Beijing after I began practicing Falun Dafa in the U.S. just a few months earlier. This was the first time and also the last time that I returned to Beijing.

Other practitioners from the U.S. had also come to Beijing. We initially went to a primary school near Jiuxian Bridge, and some local practitioners made dumplings for us. I can still remember us all gathered together, sitting on little chairs eating dumplings.

I interacted with many Dafa practitioners from Beijing over the next few days. I felt that everyone was good and they could all open their hearts to exchange their experiences of studying Falun Dafa and cultivating in Falun Dafa. Recalling these times makes me feel so warm.

It is a pity that some of the people who participated in these cultivation exchanges went down the wrong path later on. Luckily, most of them are still progressing on their path of cultivation in a steadfast manner.

Some veteran practitioners suggested that I visit Jietai Temple, as it was said that Master had stayed there for a period of time and Zhuan Falun Volume II was written there. I toured the Buddha Selection Field, where I vowed silently in my heart that I would cultivate until the end and follow Master.

I had the good fortune to join a cultivation experience sharing session held at the Second Artillery Auditorium. Having just cultivated for a few months, I benefited a lot from practitioners’ cultivation exchanges. I felt that I had not known how to cultivate before this.

I also spoke at that session and shared my joy of obtaining Falun Dafa with everyone: I commenced practicing Falun Dafa in 1995 and the first book that I read was Zhuan Falun. My parents had asked someone to bring me a copy of the book. The first day, I read the book until very late. In the end, I fell asleep on the carpet. I later read the book through repeatedly and could not stop reading it.

Every time I read the book, I felt that it was an entirely new book. There were many paragraphs that I seemed to have never read before, and I felt that I was too careless when I read the book. How could I have missed these paragraphs?

Sometimes, I got so excited reading the book that I kept slapping my thigh. I wrote a letter to my parents, “Thank you for bringing me Zhuan Falun. This is even more important than giving me a second lease of life.”

January 1, 1996, is a day that I will never forget. I was in a meeting room in Yuetan Park when I met Master for the first time. Master was very kind, benevolent and young. This was the first time that I shook hands with Master. Master’s hand was very warm and it felt like cotton.

I heard a veteran practitioner say that if you are a true cultivator, you will feel that Master’s hand is warm and soft; if your attitude is not righteous and is thinking of creating trouble or challenging Falun Dafa, you will feel like you are holding a steel plate.

The practitioners who attended the meeting came from many countries such as Sweden, Italy, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.S. and Canada. Master patiently answered questions from these overseas practitioners in detail.

I was very curious and had wanted to record what Master said so that I could listen to it by myself later on. I used a video recorder that I had brought from the U.S., and because I did not plan to record a video, I did not point the recorder at anyone. I just wanted to record the sound. I later discovered that nothing was recorded on the videotape. I felt that this was really miraculous because I remembered pressing the record button.

I then realised that I had done wrong, because I did not abide by the requirements of Dafa. Master’s lectures in different regions were later formally published as books and Master asked that all the recordings be destroyed. I had collected many tape recordings of Master’s lectures. And although I was really reluctant, I was determined to abide by Masters requirements this time.

I raised a question during the meeting: Buddhas, Taos and Gods are all beings that have attained Godhood. Therefore, they must have already gotten rid of their attachment to fame, gain and relationships. Master mentioned before that there are higher beings at all levels. In that case, do they have attachments that belong to their levels?

Master replied that I should not understand it this way. Then, he explained the many levels of the Way from another perspective.

Through this, I discovered that I had a problem, which is that I liked to use my own knowledge, logic and notions to research and learn Dafa. I was overly focused on the phrasing, diction or the choice of words.

I read through Zhuan Falun repeatedly because I wanted to find some profound mysteries that others had not been able to find. For example, like an acrostic poem or special formula, etc.

I was able to accept all of Falun Dafa’s principles that the book mentioned but I still had one doubt: Where is the Fa (Universal Law)? I felt that such a vast Fa must definitely not be easy to attain. Later, as I went deeper into my cultivation, I finally understood that this is the Fa. Master uses the simplest language and the clearest reasoning to explain the highest levels of Fa principles in this universe.

I was once reading Zhuan Falun, and when I read to the last paragraph of the first segment of the Fourth Talk, I suddenly felt as though I saw the light. It was as though I had understood everything, but no words could describe clearly what I had understood. My mind seemed to have run a million miles away in a second and suddenly come back again. I felt that my whole body was free and wonderful. I felt that Master’s Fa was all encompassing. That wonderful feeling could not be described with words.

Master gave us Dafa and patiently taught us the key to studying the Fa. Learning Dafa must be done personally and put into practice in our daily lives. Only then can we experience the miraculous nature of it. This can never be done using a low level Fa or low level Taoist means, nor can it be achieved through being fastidious about the phrasing, diction or the choice of words when reading the Fa.

After the meeting, Master took a group photo with the people who attended the meeting and even gave everyone a present, which was Master’s portrait with the words written personally by Master at the bottom.

“He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions.” (“Realms,” Essentials For Further Advancement)

Before leaving, a practitioner from the U.S. held Master’s hand and invited Master to go to the United States. Master paused for a while and said, “You will know in the future.”

At the end of the meeting, a Beijing veteran practitioner recited a poem (“Vastness,” Hong Yin) which Master had newly published:

“Infinitely distant is Heaven’s vault,
But with just one thought ’tis right before the eye;
Immeasurably huge is the Cosmos,
Falun turns between Heaven and Earth.”
(“Vastness,”Hong Yin)

In the blink of an eye more than 20 years have passed, but the scene of that blissful period when I first met Master is still fresh in my mind. Over these more than 20 years, I have passed through all kinds of difficulties.

I hope that we fellow practitioners can all cultivate like when we first commenced Falun Dafa and walk well and righteously the remaining path of cultivation.