What makes you happy? Many people believe the pursuit of wealth and fame brings success, and such is apparently the key to happiness.
But does being rich and famous really make you happy?
Having fame and fortune may seem like a sure ticket to happiness; however, in truth, there’s no guarantee these will give you the happiness you desire. Even for many millionaires, a sense of emptiness may strike them at the end of their lives when they realize all their wealth cannot be brought with them upon death.
And that sense of emptiness was what 54-year-old Li Dunrong, a lead lawyer with the Korean Legal Aid Corporation, used to contend with.
Even though Li held a stable job, which many people admire, he still felt hollow inside.
To make his life more exciting, Li started to drink and smoke heavily. And Li always pondered about the purpose of his life on Earth. “Occasionally, I would muse on the meaning of my existence in this vast universe, while entertaining the unwelcome thought of vanishing completely after death,” he said.
To fill the empty void in his life, Li began pursuing different body and mind cultivation methods from many renowned masters. He did that with great passion, and so, his colleagues gave him the nickname “Taoist lawyer.”
However, Li felt that his search for “The Way” was fruitless, and his nagging sense of emptiness aggravated.
As the proverb goes, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Finally, in 2004, while Li was working at Korean Legal Aid’s Daejeon branch, a friend told him, “I found something you might like.”
His friend told him that he met a person near the courthouse who’s practicing an ancient mind-body cultivation method known as Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, which originated in China. Days later, a colleague gave him some information about Falun Gong.
As Li read Zhuan Falun, he knew he had found The Way.
“In an instant I was so deeply captivated that I was unable to pause, even for sleep. This book held the knowledge I craved, the answers to my questions about life. The emptiness in my heart was gradually filled,” he recalled.
Needless to say, Li picked up the cultivation practice of Falun Gong.
Before practicing, Li was a heavy smoker and chronic drinker, who would smoke a whole pack of cigarettes in a day and drink excessively every day after work. Amazingly, soon after practicing, he let go of these bad habits even when a friend urged him to take a sip of beer.
“I took a small sip and immediately suffered a splitting headache. I was shocked. From then on, I stopped drinking. I could not stand even the smell of alcohol,” he said. "In contrast, my addiction to cigarettes was harder to break. Although I grew to dislike the smell of cigarettes, the habit remained hard to kick. While inhaling my first cigarette one day, I felt a sudden pang of deep regret. That led me to stop smoking from then on.”
After Li quit drinking and smoking, his memory improved.
As Li cultivated himself in accordance with Falun Gong’s principles—Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance—he became a more patient person and was able to handle the most demanding of cases at work with ease.
The practice also helped boost his mental health, reducing the fatigue and stress he used to suffer at work. And slowly, he no longer felt empty. Instead, he approaches each day with “a sense of accomplishment and joy.”
Li said life changed for the better after cultivating Falun Gong; the changes were so obvious that even his child noticed it.
“Dad is kinder and more approachable,” his child said.
Having benefited tremendously from cultivating Falun Gong, he is resolute to share this wonderful practice with others by doing the practice’s slow-moving, gentle exercises and meditation weekly at Qingxi Mountain in Seoul.
Other than that, Li always tries his best to tell his many clients about the truth behind the two-decade-long brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Though Falun Gong is currently practiced by people in over 100 countries, in China, ever since July 20, 1999, the practice has been defamed and persecuted due to former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin’s fear and jealousy of Falun Gong’s rapidly growing popularity.
To Li, Falun Gong was a light that brought him hope in the midst of darkness. Because of the cultivation practice, he has found genuine happiness and his life’s purpose. For these reasons, he’s beyond grateful.
“Cultivation has become the reason for my existence. Despite cultivating for over 14 years, I still have much room to improve. Thanks to Falun Gong, I have found my sense of purpose, inner happiness, and peace.”
