(Clearwisdom.net) My parents started practicing Falun Gong in 1995. My mother had all kinds of illnesses; her heart disease was so serious that she could not even listen to the crying of a child, and her sciatica was so severe that she rolled back and forth on the bed in pain. After she started to practice Falun Gong, her illnesses all disappeared and it has been 11 years since she stopped having to take medication. At that time, when I visited my mother, she handed me a copy of Zhuan Falun and asked me to read the book. She told me that Falun Gong is really good. I only scanned through part of the book and only remembered one phrase that teaches people to let go of attachments to fame, profit and qing. I thought that this was too difficult and I could not do this. I also saw that my father got up at 4:30 a.m. every day in order to practice Falun Gong and while he was sitting cross-legged in meditation, his feet turned purple. I noticed that it was very difficult. Although I admired them very much in my heart, I felt that I could not bear the pain. At that time, I had a content family life and a loving child and I was also very healthy. I felt very happy and felt that there was no reason for me to practice Falun Gong or to put up with the pain it seemed to cause.
Later I went to Japan. Because of changes in my marriage and heavy pressure in my life, I began to suffer from insomnia. At last my insomnia was so serious that I could not sleep even with sleeping pills. I felt exhausted and was thin and pale. Every day, I thought about what to do in order to have a good night's sleep. Since there was no pleasure in my life any longer, I thought about dying. I suffered this way until the fall of 2002. One day, I suddenly thought that since I was not afraid of death anymore, why should I be afraid of the small endurance required in practicing Falun Gong? I should start practicing Falun Gong! Only Falun Gong can save me. As soon as this thought appeared, right away I felt my mind calm down and become peaceful, and I felt that I could be saved. This time I read through Zhuan Falun without stopping and the more I read the book, the more I liked to read it.
On the second day, I threw away all my sleeping pills and the medicine I had brought from China. On the third day when I went to bed, I was still thinking about sleeping. At that time I had no idea how to make myself stop thinking about this issue. Before, when I could not go to sleep, I would be terribly upset and I would toss and turn in bed; it is difficult to describe how upset I was back then. After I read Zhuan Falun, even though the first two nights I was still not able to fall asleep, I was not upset. I laid in bed peacefully, thinking that I should not worry about sleep and if I could not go to sleep, I just wouldn't. This way, without realizing it, I fell asleep and had a good night's sleep. In the morning when I woke up, I suddenly realized that I could go to sleep and that my insomnia had been cured. There is no language that can describe the way I felt at that moment.
The next morning, a miracle happened. I saw that the buttons on the clothes that I had left on my dresser were spinning rapidly. I was startled and thought that I had blurred vision; I sat up to have a careful look and the buttons were really spinning. I took another careful look and the buttons were still spinning and when I took one more careful look, the buttons stopped. It was really miraculous! I understood immediately that Master was encouraging me to be diligent.
I have been cultivating Falun Dafa for nearly four years. I do not have any illnesses and I feel energetic, peaceful and happy. I thank Master from the depth of my heart, I thank Dafa for giving me everything and I am determined to do the three things well.
On my path of cultivation, I have also encountered some tribulations. My husband is from Japan; he neither cultivates nor believes in gods, and he is very stubborn. He did not interfere with me when I only read the Falun Gong teachings and did the exercises. But he did not let me go out to take part in parades and to distribute newspapers and fliers. On May 13 after I started practicing Falun Gong, when I returned from my first World Falun Dafa Day parade, he asked me where I had gone. I told him that I had taken part in the parade. He got angry and behaved as if I had done something very wrong. He pushed me out the door and said, "Go back to the parade. Get out!" I did not have time to put on my clothes. I was only wearing a sleeveless garment and no shoes. Barefoot with tears running down my face, I went to a nearby police station hoping that the police would accompany me back to my home so that I could put on some clothes and shoes and get my luggage. I had made up my mind that it would be impossible for me to give up practicing Falun Gong. When I returned home, I calmly told my husband that if he did not agree with my cultivation, I would have no other choice and that I would rather give up our marriage than my cultivation. Facing my determination he said, "OK, I will not interfere with whatever you want to do." This way, I broke through this barrier.
Looking back on my four years of cultivation, I always felt Master's continuous hints and encouragement; what reason do I have not to do well? Because I started practicing Falun Gong late, my personal cultivation and Dafa validation are simultaneous. After I started practicing Falun Gong, besides reading Zhuan Falun, I also read Master's Fa lectures and I started to understand that practitioners during the Fa-rectification period must validate Dafa. I immediately devoted myself to the Fa-rectification.
When I started distributing fliers and newspapers on the streets, it was June or July. The temperature was above 30ºC (in the nineties, Fahrenheit) and it was difficult to hide from the scorching sun. I was worried about the sun and wondered what to do to avoid being burned. Sometimes, I even thought about finding a way to validate Dafa without being exposed to the sun. At that time, I had just started practicing Falun Gong. Although I did not have a deep understanding of Dafa, I liked to read Dafa books very much and I would read them whenever I had time. I did not feel sleepy and I read the teachings wholeheartedly. Through learning the Fa, I asked myself, "Do you want the Fa, and do you want to cultivate, or do you want to avoid the sun?" I told myself, "I want the Fa and I want to cultivate." From then on, I never feared being exposed to the sun again. Now, it seems that this was a trivial issue but at the time this was a big issue for me.
I have been distributing newspapers at the entrance of the Tokyo Administration Bureau for three years and I have had many experiences. There was a Chinese girl selling telephone cards in front of the administration bureau. I started telling her about withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Youth League and the Young Pioneers, and told her about the evilness of the CCP. At the beginning, she did not want to listen and she argued in favor of the CCP. She also did not believe in withdrawing from the CCP, the Youth League or the Young Pioneers. I decided that I should continue to tell her gradually. I kept talking to her whenever I had time. I never thought about giving up on her. In that way, half a year passed. One day when I was talking to her, she told me, "I see that you are different from what the CCP has described about Falun Gong practitioners. At the beginning I thought that practitioners were bad people. Now I understand the truth that you are such good people. Please help me to withdraw from the Youth League and the Young Pioneers!" I really felt happy for her and we became good friends.
At the entrance to the administration bureau, I helped many people to withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League and the Young Pioneers. Many of them agreed to withdraw after I spoke only a few words to them. I then helped them to choose aliases (many fear being being hunted down and persecuted if they use their real names) and to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. One time I met an old couple in their 60s; they were Christians. When I talked to them about Falun Gong, they reverently talked about Christianity to me. I then talked to them about the withdrawals from the CCP because the CCP is atheist and it has committed many crimes and if one does not withdraw from it, one is then a member of it. As soon as they heard this, the old couple thought that it made sense and they then took out a pen and paper and wrote down their names solemnly. They expressed that they wanted to withdraw from the CCP. Through this experience, I realized from the depth of my heart that Master will guide the people with predestined relationships to us, but we still need to help them. We will not be able to save them if we don't talk to them.
We are practitioners of the Fa-rectification period. Saving lives is our duty and responsibility. If we do not save them they will be eliminated. As practitioners, how could we have the heart to let that happen? If we can save them with our painstaking effort, enduring cold, heat, the scorching sun, lack of sleep, and exhaustion, we are then worthy of Master's benevolence, and we are then worthy of what all living beings long for!