(Minghui.org) Ever since I got married I was in charge of everything at home. I made the decisions on what to eat, our children's marriages, buying a new house, how to keep in touch with family and friends, and so on.
My husband never interfered. I felt I was capable, and my husband also listened to me regarding matters in cultivation.
We started to print Falun Gong informational materials in 2016. I was afraid that my children would not understand it given the persecution, so I didn’t tell them. But they found out in 2017, and took away my printer.
I didn’t look inward, but discussed buying another printer with my husband. To my surprise, he strongly disagreed with me this time.
Every time I brought it up, he became angry and said he would throw the printer out if I bought it. The excuse was that he was afraid that our children would not visit us if they knew what I was doing. Finally, he threatened to divorce me.
We are both are in our seventies. I was very sad and cried. But I never thought I had a loophole in my cultivation.
I subsequently came down with bad sickness karma in the form of shingles, and I was in great pain. I didn’t notify my children.
One day my son came and checked my blood pressure. He was scared when he saw that my systolic blood pressure was extremely high. He tried to make me take medication, but I refused. As a result, he called my brother to come pressure me.
I didn’t back down, and consequently my son threatened to report my fellow practitioners to the police.
I was sick at heart, thinking “What went wrong? Why is my home is like this?” I realized that my cultivation had a big problem, and so I started to look inward.
Master said:
“Woman are strong and smartImpetuous, sharp-tongued, and dominating”(“Yin and Yang Reversed,” Hong Yin III)
“As a cultivator, you have to be a good person wherever you are, and you have to be considerate of others--so in the home why can't you be considerate and understanding of your own husband? Aren't we to leave the future mankind with the best things?” (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. VI)
“In other words, if you’re a woman, you must act like one, and be kind and gentle. Only then can you gain respect and love from men.” (Teaching the Fa at the Eastern U.S. Fa Conference)
When measured with Master's teaching, I was not behaving like a woman. I never knew how to talk to my husband nicely. I always gave him orders, and I treated my children the same way. They called me “Dragon Lady.”
I began cultivating and changed a lot. I became kind to my husband, and I started to care about his feelings. I made his favorite food, and washed his clothes on time. I kept our home spotlessly clean.
My husband noticed my change, and he became nice to me. One day I mentioned buying a printer, and though he didn’t agree, he did not fight it.
I smiled and said, “You are in charge. We’ll only buy it when you are okay with it. No pressure.” I kept looking inward and corrected my behavior.
About a month later, when we talked about the printer again. My husband said to me, “You are so good to me. I feel bad if I don't let you buy it. But we need to put it away after we are done printing, and not let our children see it.”
I praised him for his improvement in cultivation. He said, “Not only are you cultivating, but I am also cultivating.”
A fellow practitioner later brought a printer to us, and I discussed with my husband where was the right place for the printer. He said, “No need to hide it. Put it here. This is our home. I will take care of it when our children find out.”
Through this incident, I realized the seriousness of cultivation. Only by following Master's Fa can we create a good cultivation environment. Otherwise, we may not know if we go astray.
Category: Improving Oneself
