What have I learned

By Xing Dongbin

　 This happened in 1989.At that time, because my health was very bad and my whole body felt very unwell, which affected my work, study, even the favorite sports very seriously, and I often admired rose-cheek people full of vitality.

In order to make all the things well, I began running, playing balls and looking for more perfect way to exercise. On an occasional chance, I entered my name without the least hesitation on reading an ad. on teaching Qigong by correspondence in the newspaper. After receiving the teaching material, I read it slowly and start practicing the 100-day basic training according to it, which gave me so many fine and unforgettable memories during that period. A kind of comfortableness being unable to express by any words spread the all over, It’s as if I had been soaked in warm water all day, but it’s not only a simply warmth. My heart was full of calm happiness that was not same as the one people usually feel. When I came back home, I seldom watched TV. It's not I forced myself to do so, which was very natural.

Later I had to break off the practice since I left for other place to continue my study and my course was very tense. How time flies! When I began the practice again three years later, I found it’s hard for me to maintain the state as before. After thinking over it ,I found one of the reasons was that I knew more about the common customs than before, which made me unable to deal with many things calmly. Before that time, I had known only little about the society, which hardly affected my thoughts, so my internal-environment had been very pure. But three years later, I always worried about my work, my life, the keen competition and some other problems I didn’t know how to deal with, all these made me can’t set the mind at rest and for which, I discontinued the practice.

Although stopping practice, Qigong had taken root in my heart. It’s an important part of the splendid Traditional Chinese Cultural heritage, which makes us healthy not only in our body, but what the most important is, in our minds. Furthermore, beyond ourselves and trend to the public and become a pure person that serves all people whole-heartedly and with lofty sentiment. Where can the corruption be if everyone is desireless and selfless? and if we can do like this, the prospects of humanity will be boundless .

On May . 1998,I spent a memorable period for I saw the elegant demeanor of our respectable teacher-- Dr. Xiong and listened his lessons. I decided to cultivate my heart firstly and put the earnest teaching given by my teacher in mind constantly on returning home. At that time, I realized that knowing about common customs was not a bad thing but the best way to cultivate oneself. It means a new progress will be made if one can walk out of the common customs.

In the two recent years, rashing about for life became very hard for me . “It’s even harder than going up to the sky ” to cultivate a selfless , desireless, calm and peaceful heart which doesn’t seek fame and wealth. It’s very difficult to cultivate a heart owing to confess all the karmas since one’s life beginning and never to commit them again; it’s very difficult to cultivate a heart that can tolerate all things like the sea can contain all rivers.

“The way ahead is long; I see no ending, yet high and low I’ll search with my will unbending.”

Different people have different method to get rid of the desires. In order to treat every people kindly, one ancient Chinese high-rank officer thought out a method, who used the red bean to stand for kind idea and the black, the evil, and put a red one to a bag when kind idea appeared, put a black one when the evil idea appeared, and at the first day ,when it got dark , he counted the beans in the bag and found the black ones were more than the red. But gradually, the red ones became more and more and at last, there were all the red in the bag. This story told us that all desires can be get rid of if we try our best to do that, Meanwhile, It mentioned that different person can use different method. We’re certain we can arrive the same destination from different way if introspect ourselves every minute.