(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. This year I am 77 years old.
My search for the Fa was difficult. Beginning in 1976, I suffered from many health challenges, such as a herniated lumbar disc and compression fractures. I was hospitalized numerous times and had three mechanical lumbar traction operations. Each time, I had to remain motionless in bed for 21 days. My two young children were fostered at a relative's house. Despite all this, I was not cured.
Then, in 1985, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. My husband was scared to death when he heard the diagnosis. The next day he took me to Qingdao Hospital, where I stayed for six months. As my stomach got better, I began to have headaches, my vision became poor, and my memory declined. I went to the municipal hospital for a follow-up. They found I had severe brain atrophy, indicating I would soon have dementia.
I was in complete despair. I resented the fact that I’d had to suffer so much before I’d even had a chance to live. I thought, “I give up. Let me finish it all,” and wrote several copies of my will. But I could not bear to desert my two underage children, so I endured the pain.
I sought help from both Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. I tried folk remedies, massage, physiotherapy, drugs, and food supplements. Nothing worked. I still ended up in the hospital for six months every year.
I later switched to jogging, boxing, and practicing qigong. Whenever I heard of a good qigong, I rushed to learn it. I learned more than 20 different types of qigong and earned many certificates of completion, but I still was not cured.
A Buddhist wanted to take me to Wutai Mountain to convert me to Taoism in 1992. At the last moment, I suddenly didn’t want to go. In 1995, he told me that I was destined for a Buddha school and he would take me to learn Falun Dafa. But for some reason, he didn’t follow through, and I didn’t contact him either.
Fortunately, a colleague told me about a Falun Dafa seminar being offered in August 1996 and asked if I would go. This was exactly what I was looking for, so we went together. I felt good after listening to the lectures. I then borrowed the video and watched them again.
I felt that one shouldn’t keep such a good exercise to oneself and that I should let more people know about it. From then on, I enthusiastically told others about the Fa. Through studying Dafa's teachings, I found answers to all the puzzling questions in my life. My health problems all disappeared without my even noticing, and I truly experienced the beauty of being disease-free.
For the past 24 years, Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, has been protecting me. As I think about it, I am filled with gratitude and have a lot to share with fellow practitioners. I’ve realized that, whatever tribulations we encounter, as long as we have the Fa in our hearts and truly regard ourselves as cultivators, they are not difficult. Below are a few examples.
By Letting Go of the Attachment, Nothing Will Be Lost
In January 2000, I went to Beijing to petition for the right to practice Falun Dafa. I was escorted away by the police and illegally detained. The director of Public Security and the chief of the Political Security Section talked to me. The chief said: “You are a public official and a Party member. If you don’t write a guarantee statement, the next step will be to stop your pay.”
I replied, “What you say doesn’t count.” Then I quoted him something Master Li said:
“It is said in religion that with de one can become a high-ranking official or make a big fortune in the next life. With little de, one will have a hard time even begging for food because there is no de to exchange. No loss, no gain!” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
He sighed in despair and said, “It’s no use trying with her.” So the matter passed.
I was taken to a forced labor camp in 2001. Someone in the camp asked me if I still got paid. I said I didn’t know, which was true, since I had never asked. I later asked my family when they visited, and they told me that my salary was still being paid.
As far as I know, all the detainees in the forced labor camps in our area had their salaries suspended. Then I suddenly recalled my conversation with the chief of the Political Security Section. Because I was assimilating to the Fa and letting go of my attachments, Master was taking care of everything.
As Master told us,
“Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
“But true improvements come from letting go, not from gaining.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.”)
Without the Attachment, There Will Be No Tribulation
Many local practitioners and I went to Beijing to petition for Falun Dafa in July 2000. After I came back, I was taken to a brainwashing center. One day, a guard there told me to sign a document and said my case would be closed if I did. When I looked at the document, I laughed.
The document said that 17 practitioners testified that I’d asked them to go petition in Beijing. I said, “You people think too highly of me. Master Li said that real cultivation is to cultivate oneself, search inward, and not look outward. Let me ask you, if I asked you to go to Beijing to petition for Falun Dafa, would you go?” He said he wouldn’t.
“Then if they didn’t want to go, and I asked them to go, would they go?” The officer left without saying a word.
More than 100 practitioners were arrested in our region on the eve of the 2008 Olympics. Many practitioners couldn’t bear it and implicated me. Under Master’s protection and with my righteous thoughts and actions, the police did not bother me. I knew in my heart it was because I didn’t have the attachment of fear during the arrests. I knew Master had protected me.
One Thought Can Separate the Divine from the Human
Around July 20, 2000, I was transported by the police from a brainwashing center to a hotel in the countryside. Because I did not cooperate with them, the police handcuffed me to an iron chair. They cuffed my arms to the back legs of the chair and my ankles to the front legs, which made me have to bend over the armrest. Two officers stood by and watched me. I could not move from that position, and I had nothing to eat or drink for five days straight.
I tried to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa to them, but they wouldn’t listen. It was sweltering hot in the summer, and swarms of bugs were biting me. The skin on my mouth burst open layer after layer, like a flower. On the fifth day, I wanted to urinate, but they wouldn't let me, so I asked to see the director.
The director came a short while later and asked me if I would continue to practice. I said, “I will be a good person to the end!” He then gritted his teeth, pointed at me, and said menacingly, “Beat her to death!” My heart was extremely calm, and I said, “Just wait, I have something to say. I want to know how long you plan to leave me handcuffed here.” He said nothing. “My master said he only wants the kind hearts of his disciples. I am leaving my heart to Master Li. The rest is all yours to kill or cut out!”
It felt like Master was watching over me when I said this. My heart was empty, and I had let go of everything. The director walked outside, took out his phone, and called my company to ask them to come pick me up. Indeed, it all depended on one single thought. All Master wants is for his disciples to have a steadfast heart.
Saving People with Righteous Thoughts
Personnel from the 610 Office, the National Security Bureau, the police station, and my company came to my house in 2004 and again in 2005. Facing those who had persecuted me, I had no hatred and was not afraid. I regarded them as relatives coming to hear the truth and be saved.
I started to clarify the truth to them by telling them about Falun Dafa’s miraculous healing and fitness powers, that it cured all my illnesses, and that I should be grateful. I talked about the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) based on my own experience and as detailed in the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. I told them about the persecution I'd suffered, as well as instances of local persecutors receiving divine retribution for their actions. I talked for nearly two hours, while they listened attentively.
I also told them that the 610 Office was established specifically to persecute Falun Dafa: “You might not be able to choose the tasks in your job, but you can have a conscience. You can spare a person’s life by just raising the muzzle of a gun slightly when ordered to execute someone. Remember: It is a heavenly principle that good is rewarded and evil is punished. It is not that these things are not happening. It's just that the time has not arrived yet. Please remember ‘Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!’”
More than 10 years have passed, and the police have not disturbed me since. Actually, my cultivation environment is getting better and better. I persuaded two directors of the 610 Office to change their jobs. Another director’s wife had a hysterectomy. I clarified the truth to her. She then read Zhuan Falun and recovered. We later became friends. Another director withdrew from the CCP.
My Wishes Came True
I studied Master’s new article “Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World's People” over and over again when it was first published in 2004. I enlightened that the Fa-rectification has entered a new phase. I wanted more practitioners to see this article as soon as possible, so we needed to make more copies.
I visited five or six print shops. Most of them were afraid to take the job, some were rude, and some wanted to report us. Finally, I found a shop in a remote place. They said that doing the Dafa exercises was banned there and asked why we were still printing Falun Dafa materials. I told them that Dafa is a good practice that teaches people to be good and it has miraculous powers of healing and fitness. They ended up printing 40 copies for us.
I asked Master for help to get our practitioners to the farmers’ market to get the new articles. I finished distributing all the copies in two days! Through this incident, I enlightened that as long as one has the Fa in mind and maintains a righteous heart, nothing is difficult. It is just as Master said,
“You can only have such a wish and think about it like that, but it is the master who actually does these things.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun)
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