I’m Zhang Yun, from Jiangxi Province, and now working at Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province. I had practiced Falun Gong for a period in the university. I broke away from Falun Gong soon after the government banned it, in which “a miracle of dispelling itch” intentionally made by practitioners played a very important role.
It happened in the summer of 1999 when Falun Gong hadn’t been banned officially. I was studying in Nanchang University and had just contacted with Falun Gong for a month. It was summer, and people were bathed with sweat even without moving in Nanchang, where was long known as a “stove”. That morning when I waked up I felt redness, swelling and itching on the dorsum of my left foot. I didn’t care much about it and went to class. Till I lied in bed that night redness and swelling remained as before but itch was getting worse. The symptom was that the dorsum was itchier when the hotter it got and I felt better when I put my foot into cool water. I did this many times. It was so itchy that I couldn’t sleep well the whole night. I thought it was a bad thing and it seemed that the karma came. But on second thought I became joyful for it should be a good thing to eliminate karma: the Master really came to look after me and help me eliminate karma so quickly; I must try my best to be advanced and eliminate karma; I mustn’t go to hospital.
I spent the following whole night reciting Zhuan Falun in heart and meditating, but it seemed useless and I still felt very itchy. I thought that I must be having too many sins and too much karma which one couldn’t eliminate by himself without the practitioners’ help. The next day I told it to the director surnamed Luo of the practicing spot. On hearing that, she took out the book Zhuan Falun and told me pointing at it, “In the book, the Master tells us that cultivators have no diseases for our bodies have been cleared up by him. It is not a disease but eliminating karma.” She asked me not to be discouraged. In the late afternoon she called up more than 20 cultivators to form a circle around me at the practicing spot, exerting Gong to help to treat me. Because it was raining hard that night and particularly cool, I felt it was not so itchy on my foot. When I told them, they were all thrilled with joy and said, “Falun Dafa is good”, “the Master is great” and “the Master is marvelous”.
I thanked them and returned my dormitory. Maybe it was due to the hot wheather again or the walk movement, when I was lying in bed, itch ran at me again and again. I was a bit doubtful about Falun Gong’s effect, but I dismissed my idea quickly, “Dafa was surely effective.” The Master said, “A teacher can but lead you to the door, learning is up to you.” I had just got Dafa and wasn’t advanced enough, so the Master disliked me and didn’t want to look after me. since the Master didn’t look after me, I decided to go to hospital and after I got well I would advance hard on studying the Fa and practicing Gong.
On the early next morning, I couldn’t bear the itch and hurriedly went to the university clinic covertly, afraid of being seen and laughed at by other cultivators. Seeing my foot and hearing my description, the dermatologist smiled and told me that it was nothing serious but the urine of a gecko dripping on my foot. I felt itchy for the urine of geckoes was a bit poisonous and had penetrated my skin. I would get well with some ointment.
I was a bit suspicious. Wasn’t it karma? When I returned my dormitory I rubbed the ointment on the foot and felt no itch at once, also no itch the whole night. I breathed a sigh of relief and slept very well that night.
The next day, when I went to the practicing spot to exercise, all the cultivators asked if I was better. Being ashamed to say that I got well after going to the hospital I thanked them and vaguely said I got well then. The director of the practicing spot Luo found me, saying that the four practicing spots in Qingshanhu District would have a cultivation exchange meeting together several days later and the place of the meeting was at the practicing spot of our university. She hoped that I could talk about my cultivation experience on the stage as a new cultivator at that time and especially give prominence to the miracle that Dafa helped me dispel itch.
On hearing that, I had to tell her the truth of my going to the hospital to prescribe for my illness. She was surprised to hear that but soon she calmed down. She blamed me that I should not go to the hospital and I didn’t believe the Master.
She said, “Since you don’t believe the Master, he surely won’t look after you.” She also said I got ill because I was a new cultivator and didn’t steadfastly make progress and I shouldn’t blame it on the Master and Falun Gong. She required me not to tell the truth, or I would disturb the Fa, showing unkindness and irreverence to Dafa. I had to nod in agreement. Finally, she still hoped that I could give a speech at the exchange meeting as a new cultivator. She said as a disciple of Dafa I should defense it, broadcast its benefits and have more people benefit from it.
Her request made me annoyed. If I said “Dafa helped me cure itch”, then obviously I was telling a lie; but if I didn’t do so I couldn’t broadcast Dafa well and couldn’t show the dignity of Dafa, then I would be sorry to the Master. I asked her to give me some time to consider.
After 2-day fierce mental struggle, I decided not to give a speech at the meeting. I told her my decision that as cultivator I couldn’t tell a lie. She was silent for a moment and said sometimes it didn’t matter to stretch the truth in order to broadcast Dafa well. I argued with her that it was not stretching the truth but a basic principle about true or false. She said she wouldn’t force me since I was too stubborn. But she hoped that I could keep my last promise of not telling the truth. I had to agree.
Many cultivators came to the meeting on that day. I selected a seat forward and sat down, aiming to listen to those old cultivators’ speeches carefully and to learn from them so that I could steadfastly make progress early. The speeches at the meeting were all so splendid that I sighed for being inferior and felt shameful inwardly.
At that time Luo, the director of our practicing spot, gave a conclusive speech on the stage representing the spot. Her speech was also splendid at the beginning. I thought the director was really quite advanced than us. However, in the following she gave an example of “Dafa helps a new cultivator cure itch” with a smile and said the new cultivator was me who was sitting forward. All the eyes’ focused on me like a magnesium lamp.
I was frantic with my heart beating wildly. I flushed to the ears at once. My mind was blurred and I wanted to hide myself with shame. And then I didn’t know what I heard. I managed to sit there until the meeting was over, then I hurriedly went out.
During a very long time after that, when I met those cultivators I was afraid of being asked about the story of “Dafa helps a new cultivator to cure itch”. Later, I was told that my experience was compiled in the Exchanging Materials at the Meeting in July of the practicing spot, surely without the pilot of going to the hospital to treat my illness.
