(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998 in China. I have long wished to share my experiences with fellow practitioners. However, I am illiterate and can't write Chinese characters. Because of a hint from Teacher, a Minghui/Clearwisdom request to submit articles about our experiences, and encouragement from fellow practitioners, I was finally able to dictate this article to a fellow practitioner, who wrote down my thoughts.

Before I started practicing Falun Dafa, I suffered from many illnesses and had to take injections and medicines for many years. The doctors described my symptoms as "syndromes." I tried acupuncture, surgery, electrotherapy, and many different kinds of treatments, but without any improvement. I was left with no other choice but to try qigong. Although I practiced qigong for five years, there were no discernible healing effects.

In 1998, a practitioner introduced me to Falun Dafa. Three months into the practice, all my illnesses disappeared. During these three months, I experienced major illness karma twice and my son tried to take me to the hospital. I told him, "Teacher is dissolving a great amount of karma for me. I guarantee you that I will recover tomorrow. I don't need to go to a hospital." As I had predicted, I no longer had a fever by the second day when I got up. Ever since then, I have been very clear-minded. My family, relatives and friends, including my sons and daughters-in-law, witnessed the miracle of Dafa through me. They all believe that Dafa is great. Since the dissolving of illness karma for the second time, I have never suffered any illness and my entire body continues to feel very light.

I persevered in studying the Fa and practicing the exercises daily. I never felt tired, no matter how much I had to do, including household chores. My sons bought an audio player and a VCR for me. My daughters-in-law all supported me. Every morning, I took the audio player to the practice site to join group practice. In the daytime, fellow practitioners came to my home to watch the videotape of Teacher's lectures and listen to an audiotape of Teacher's lectures. I felt energetic and very happy and worry-free from deep within my heart. I truly thank Teacher for giving me a second life. Teacher taught me so many principles on how to be a good person and helped me transcend an everyday person's life.

Because I was uneducated, I felt bad that I was illiterate when I attended group Fa study. Later I understood that Dafa has supernatural powers. Before each group Fa study session, I listened to the audio-tape of Teacher's lecture and read the book at the same time to learn the characters in the book. During group Fa study, fellow practitioners taught me characters that I couldn't figure out and corrected my mistakes. I persevered! Thus, I was able to spend time studying Fa and not waste other practitioners' time during group Fa study. Now I am able to read all of Teacher's lectures and Dafa materials. In addition to that, I participate in the production of truth-clarification materials. I know it is Teacher's benevolence and the power of Dafa that changed my body and soul.

I learned to read and understand more characters, so I could read through the book, because Teacher encouraged me greatly. When I read Zhuan Falun, all the characters in the book were silver and the paper was pink. When I went to Beijing to validate Dafa, every period in Zhuan Falun became a Falun emblem. They overlapped layer by layer in different dimensions. I was able to see supernatural phenomena in very deep dimensions. I realized it was Teacher encouraging me to be even more diligent in cultivation.

After the evil began persecuting Dafa on July 20, 1999, I told my sons, "All their propaganda is fabricated. Teacher told us in the book killing is a sin and one cannot commit suicide. Our Teacher never taught us to do the things shown on TV." I ordered my sons not to watch TV again. I continued to study the Fa and practice the exercises and never stopped for a single day.

My sons were worried that I might get arrested. They suggested that I hide all my Dafa books. I thought I should protect the Dafa books, so I hid them. In the evening, I had a dream. In my dream, Teacher was giving a lecture. I raised my hand and said, "I don't have the book." Teacher replied, "How are you going to cultivate without the book?" After I woke up, I realized that Teacher was giving me a hint that I shouldn't have hidden the books. Instead, I should continue to study the Fa even more diligently.

I also remembered that Teacher asked us to read the book Essentials for Further Advancement ten times. At that time, I still had a lot of difficulty reading through the book. Therefore, I made myself read Essentials for Further Advancement twelve times. Through Fa study, I realized I should step out to validate Dafa. At that time, some of my fellow practitioners were arrested, some were sentenced to prison, and some didn't dare to continue cultivation.

In early 2000, I went to Beijing to validate Dafa with two fellow practitioners. When the train arrived at Qingdao City, the police stopped us and asked me, "Where are you from?" I thought, "If I tell him my hometown, our local police will be punished so I should not implicate them." I didn't reveal my home address. Instead, I told the police how wonderful Dafa is, how Dafa cultivation removed all my illnesses and changed my body and soul. I also told them that Dafa and Teacher were being wronged by Jiang.

The police locked us in a room with many other arrested practitioners. I took the lead to shout, "Falun Dafa is great! Restore Our Teacher's Innocent Reputation!" The police couldn't find out where I was from and had no choice but to put me on a train heading for Heilongjiang Province. I told the police, "Do not arrest Falun Gong practitioners again. We are a group of good people following the principles 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.'" The police replied, "It is an order from above. We have to follow orders. If you think Dafa is good, simply go home and practice at home." I realized that Teacher was protecting me so that I could go back home safe and sound.

As soon as I got home, a local police officer came and told me, "Someone reported you to the police, saying that it was you who instigated his family member (a fellow practitioner with whom I went to Beijing) to go to Beijing to appeal." I didn't cooperate with him and didn't say a word. Then the police wanted to detain that fellow practitioner. I resisted. I said, "Don't put her in prison. You may put me in prison instead!" My son was outraged. He said, "Her family member reported you to the police. You didn't deny it, but on the contrary, you wanted to go to prison in her place to protect her. What is wrong with you?" Later, the police could not find any excuse to arrest me and allowed me to go home.

After I got home, I thought it over. The more I thought about it, the more I felt I should validate Dafa in a noble and dignified manner. Every time the police came to harass me, I clarified the truth to them. The more I clarified the truth, the more talkative I became and the more solid and calm I felt in my heart. The police could only listen to me. They could not interrupt me. Every time they left our home, they knew that there was nothing that would change my mind. Gradually they changed their attitude and no longer came to harass me. I realized it was all because of the Fa's power. Later, whenever they met me, they kindly told me to pay attention and be careful. I simply smiled at them. I thought to myself, "Doing well in validating Dafa and in what I am supposed to do is the only and the best way to ensure my safety. Only Teacher can guarantee my utmost safety."

Later I realized that Teacher took care of me and protected me simply because I came to this world to validate Dafa and to save sentient beings. At that time, I moved into a new home, which was in another region. I noticed that there were no Dafa banners or materials in the neighborhood. I went to stores to buy chalk and started to write, "Falun Dafa is Great! Falun Dafa is the Righteous Fa!" on walls in alleys. At the beginning, I didn't know how to write these characters, so I practiced at home. Very soon, I learned to write these characters. In the evening, I went out to write the Dafa message on walls, on electric poles, wherever I could, and wherever pedestrians could see the message. Sometimes, I wrote and wrote until dawn.

Initially, I tried to conceal what I was doing from my sons, fearing that they would worry about me and not concentrate on their work. On one occasion, I went out to write Dafa messages with three boxes of chalk, three hundred stickers, and many truth-clarification materials. As I was writing, I heard police car sirens all over the neighborhood. At that time, I had used up my stickers, truth-clarification materials, and half of the chalk. Another box and a half were left. I heard footsteps behind me as I was writing and there were only two characters left to be written. I thought to myself, "No matter who you are, I must complete the phrase."

After I finished writing the last two characters, I tried my best to run away. Someone shouted from behind me, "Stop! Or I will shoot you!" I thought I must not get hurt, because there are so many things I need to accomplish. So I stopped running and remained still. The police ran toward me. As he approached me, I sent forth righteous thought to stop the evil behind him. I did not answer any of his questions and kept sending strong forth righteous thoughts. He asked, "Why did you write these words? What use can they serve? Didn't you see the TV broadcasts saying that those who practice Falun Gong committed suicide and became insane?" I replied, "All those stories are fabricated. Our Teacher taught us not to kill lives." As soon as I finished my words, I continued to send forth righteous thoughts. The officer said, "Three of us are hiding here today to arrest Falun Gong practitioners. The other two went into the other direction and I am here alone. Because you are an elderly woman, I will not arrest you. Go home as soon as possible. I guess you sons and daughters-in-law are waiting for you at home. See, you are cold." I turned around and walked away. The policeman called from behind, "Grandma, don't get lost!" I thought to myself, "I have Teacher to show me the way. I will never get lost. I will continue writing Dafa messages tonight."

By 2:00 a.m., I had used all the chalk. I went home and entered our home quietly. The next day, one of my daughters-in-law asked me, "Mom, my eldest brother told us there was a large-scale arrest last night. How come you didn't come back when it was so late last night? I was really worried about you." I said, "There won't be any problem. I have Teacher's protection. In the future, don't worry about me." We later learned the large-scale arrest was at Jiang's orders. Many fellow practitioners were arrested and sent to prison that night.

In the following evenings, I wrote "Falun Dafa is Great!" on the red scarves and red belt, which my daughter-in-law brought with her on her wedding day and hung them out. Occasionally, when I didn't know how to write a certain character in a Dafa message, my daughter-in-law would help me out. Thus, with Teacher's care and protection, I never stopped doing Dafa work, despite the fact that police were hiding everywhere to catch and arrest Dafa practitioners.

In 2002, a fellow practitioner who was just released from a detention center wanted to read truth clarification materials. I prepared some materials specifically for her area. On my way to her home, the bus had a flat tire and could not move for quite some time. I carried the material in a bag, got off the bus, and started to walk. Someone shouted at me and asked me to stop, I didn't pay much attention and continued to walk Suddenly, a car approached me and stopped right in front of me to block my way. I found out it was the director of the local police station. He asked me what I was carrying with me. As he was speaking, he grabbed the bag from me. He looked at the material inside the bag and noticed it was Dafa material, so he took me to the police station, and tried to interrogate me to find out the source of the materials and put me in detention.

As soon as I arrived at the police station, I started sending righteous thoughts. When the police asked me for the source of the material, I did not say a word. A policeman said, "Even if you just tell us one person's name, I will release you." I refused and erected my palm to send forth righteous thoughts, and started to clarify truth to him. The officer asked me, "Where were you going to take the material?" I said, "It was meant to be given to you. I want to save you. Don't believe in the rumors and slander Jiang Zemin fabricated. He wants to ruin you. Our Teacher taught us to offer salvation to you. All the propaganda on TV is lies. Don't believe it." Thus, I clarified the truth to the director, and with Teacher's help I gradually learned to clarify the truth with wisdom. He called my son to take me home.

In the summer of 2002, a local policeman came to my home with an ink box and demanded to take my fingerprint. He said, "All Falun Gong practitioners have to be fingerprinted." I knew immediately what their intention was and I firmly refused. I could not allow them any excuse to persecute me. I have to validate Dafa! My son was home at the time. He and the local policeman tried to persuade me to be fingerprinted. I said to them, "Because of the practice of Falun Gong, I'm no longer ill. Now I want to live peacefully in my old age. But you try to stop me from practicing Falun Gong and force me to be fingerprinted. I didn't violate any law, nor did I steal anything. I am a law-abiding citizen, a good citizen. It is you who wants to disturb my peaceful life. All right. I'll leave home. Let me tell you, it is you policemen that are forcing me to become homeless." With these words, I took a few clothes and went away. It was time for sending forth righteous thoughts. I sat beside a railway and sent forth righteous thoughts for a very long time.

Later I thought to myself, "If I leave home like this, my sons and daughters-in-law will worry about me and not concentrate on their work. Moreover, there are many things waiting to be accomplished in this region." So I went home. My daughter-in-law was worried about me. She was very happy to see me. She told me happily that my eldest son kept calling them, asking, "Has Mom come back home?" My son asked me over the phone, "Why did you refuse to be fingerprinted?" I explained to him the intention of the police in getting practitioners' fingerprints. My son didn't say a word after my explanation.

During the 2003 Chinese New Year, five people, including the director of the local police station and the political commissar, came to my home to harass me again. I thought to myself, "According to Teacher's teaching, these people deserve to be saved too." So I prepared truth-clarification VCDs and other materials for each of them. When they came, I told them how cultivation of Dafa had benefited me physically and mentally. At the same time, I sent forth righteous thoughts to dissolve all evil factors obstructing them from being saved. I also told them that the evil head, Jiang Zemin, was exploiting them to wage a political struggle against the Chinese people. They all felt that what I said made a lot of sense. Upon leaving, they said to me, "All right. You may practice the exercises at home." From this experience, I realized I am a Falun Dafa disciple in the period of Fa-rectification. I should valid Dafa under all circumstances.

As soon as I came to this understanding, my parents-in-law called me and invited me for a visit. I knew these people also needed to be saved, so I prepared many materials and went to my in-law's home. My husband passed away many years ago. My youngest son was not yet born when he died. My parents-in-law were surprised to see that I was in good health after so many years of hard work and bringing up three children. They asked me, "How did you manage to bring up the children on your own? How come you are so healthy?"

I told them about my experience in practicing Falun Gong and that it was Falun Gong that made me healthy again. At the beginning, as soon as I mentioned "Falun Gong," they were reluctant to listen, so I temporarily dropped the subject and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil factors, which obstructed them from learning the truth about Dafa. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts every day for a whole week. Then I grasped every opportunity to clarify the truth to them. Gradually their attitude changed. My father-in-law was suffering a major illness. I taught him to chant, "Falun Dafa is Great!" Within two days, my father-in-law was able to sit. Within one week, he was able to walk with the support of a rail. Upon seeing that, one of my sisters-in-law decided to practice Falun Gong with me.

One day one of our relatives had to go somewhere when it was dark. She was scared and remembered that I had told her to chant, "Falun Dafa is Great!" So she chanted "Falun Dafa is great" repeatedly. Gradually, she no longer felt scared. When she returned home, she told me, "Dafa is really miraculous. What you told me is indeed correct. As I chanted and chanted, I no longer felt scared."

My in-laws' neighbors all came to talk to me. They asked about what they had seen on TV about Falun Gong. I told them the facts and about how Dafa was being persecuted. It was indeed Teacher's arrangement for me make that trip to save them.

In late 2004, Teacher published the new lecture "Turning the Wheel Towards the Human World." I came to understand that we should use this material in our truth clarification efforts. We needed to persuade people to renounce the evil CCP. At that time, I still held affection for my son. I tried to persuade him to renounce the CCP daily. However, he was very stubborn and didn't want to renounce the evil party. I was worried and I thought to myself, "If I can't even succeed in persuading my family members, how can I persuade others." So I studied the Fa more diligently and watched the VCDs of the "Nine Commentaries of the Chinese Communist Party." After I watched two sessions, I realized that I should not think that way. It was caused by affection, which I needed to relinquish. I should save all sentient beings that I encounter.

I talked to everyone I ran into about renouncing the CCP and its related organizations. When I took the bus, I talked to the passengers. When I attended a wedding, I talked to other attendees. When I bought gifts, I talked to the store clerk. Whenever I met an acquaintance, I would talk about it. I also realized that I needed copies of the Nine Commentaries and other related materials to deliver to police stations. I secretly put the material at the gate of police stations and people's workplaces.

Once when I was about to put the material at the gate, the director happened to open the door and come out. He asked me, "What are you coming here for?" I replied directly, "I am coming to deliver wonderful gifts to you." He said, "Don't put it at the gate then. Come inside." I was thus able to enter the director's office to clarify the truth to him in person.

Before long, my son returned home. I had not yet thoroughly clarified the truth to him, so I told him that Jiang Zemin had exploited the Communist Party and used atheism to persecute Falun Dafa and Dafa disciples. These people are the best people in society. The Communist Party and atheism has persecuted to death so many people. My son agreed to renounce the party. I then understood that we can clarify the truth successfully only if we let go of fame. We have to be sincere in saving sentient beings, so the power of Dafa can manifest in us.

Teacher has said, "When one person obtains the Fa, the whole family will benefit."(Zhuan Falun Fajie). My family is such an example. For example, when my son and daughter-in-law had a before-marriage medical exam, the doctor found that my son's blood test showed that he was not susceptible to diseases. He appeared to be immune. The doctor said my son would not contract any infectious disease and there was no need to have the hepatitis B vaccine.

On one occasion, my son and his supervisor drove to a faraway region on a business trip. On their way, there was heavy rain and the road was slippery. Their car hit a tree and was totaled. It was very scary! However, my son and his supervisor weren't injured. They crawled out of the car and rented another truck to haul their car away. I told my son, "It was our Teacher who protected you."

Every time I stopped police from harassing me, every time I successfully clarified the truth about Dafa, and every time I persuaded people to renounce the evil party I realized that it was due to Teacher's compassion. I was successful because of my firm belief in Dafa and in Teacher. Because I firmly believe in Teacher and Dafa, I was never arrested or detained by police during all the years of the persecution.

During the past several years, I have accomplished much under Teacher's protection. There is not enough space here to describe all of it. I was previously rather ill and now I'm healthy. I was illiterate and can now read all of Teacher's lectures and all Dafa materials. Now, not only can I read, but I am also able to write articles to promote Dafa and to undertake Dafa projects. All these miracles took place because of Teacher's compassionate salvation and great care.

This is the first time I have been able to share my experiences of validating Dafa with fellow practitioners in writing. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.

Heshi.