(Clearwisdom.net) By the time I was 43 years old I was suffering many ailments and was in very bad health. Doctors could not diagnose my illnesses. I tried Eastern and Western medicine, but nothing ended or eased my suffering. I faced daily many tribulations, and not a single day passed without some kind of problem.
One day, I met a fortuneteller who insisted on telling my fortune. I was rather uneasy about having my fortune told but agreed reluctantly in the end. The fortuneteller read the lines in my face and told me about my previous life. I was quite impressed. Then he said me, "You will not live beyond your 50th birthday."
I actually had come to the conclusion that I wouldn't live to a ripe old age anyway, given my dismal health. Therefore, this prediction did not worry me. He continued, "I think that is about it." But then he asked me to take a stick (a wooden stick, generally with numbers printed on it, so the fortune teller can find in a book the exact fortune or misfortune). Since I held the attitude that I would not live too long anyway, I slowly counted from one and pulled out a stick with an unlucky number. The result was unexpected. This stick represented a very good fortune. The fortuneteller happily told me that the tribulation of a short life, which he had just foretold, had been cancelled out.
It was 1998 when my fortune was told. I had been troubled because of my bad health and did not expect any good news. After being told of good fortune, I pulled myself together. I was not afraid of dying around the age of 50, but did not really want to suffer for the rest of my life. I decided to learn a qigong, even though I did not expect much from it. I just wanted to be responsible for myself for the following six to seven years. I could say with a good conscience that I tried to improve my situation. That is when a friend introduced Falun Dafa to me. It has been eight years since I started to cultivate in Falun Dafa and I have been firm in my belief since the first day I began the practice .
Teacher said,
"Yet some people have limited time left in their lives. Their years for living are numbered and may not be enough for cultivation. Our Falun Dafa can solve this problem and shorten the course of practice.''
"Those elderly people with good inborn quality will have sufficient time for practice. There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice. If your mind goes wrong a little bit, your life will be in danger because your lifetime should have long been over." (Zhuan Falun)
I kept reminding myself that this definitely was related to my situation! Other people do not know how long they will live, but my lifespan had been foretold! If I do not treat myself as cultivator and focus on cultivation, my life will be in danger at any given moment.
I experienced my life and death tribulation at the age of 49. I believe this tribulation was the one foretold by the fortuneteller. He had told me that I would not live past 50. If I did not cultivate, that day would have been my appointed time, the day when I was going to leave this world. It was Dafa and Teacher that resolved this enormous tribulation and changed my original fate.
That night I suddenly felt an unknown fear while dreaming. I saw a huge dark shadow swallowing me. I immediately knew that I was in a very dangerous situation. My second thought was that, no matter what happened, I would not give up Dafa. I felt as if my body was frozen. The black creature had taken me into his body and his body's density was greater than mine. At that time every cell in my body felt severe pain. I felt as if I was suffocating. I was separated from everything, I could not speak or breathe, but my mind was still clear. Unfortunately, my mind was as weak as a dying candle and getting weaker.
I wanted to send forth righteous thought, but all I could think of was one word--Fa. I became one of many shadows but not very clear. Actually I did not have the strength or time to think what was behind the word "Fa." I realized that I would not be able to hold on much longer. The candle of my life was getting weaker and it seemed that it was close to the end. At that time I no longer could escape from the black shadow by myself, but I suddenly knew that Teacher could save me. Therefore, I gathered my last strength and struggled to send out one thought: "Teacher, save me." After that, my body gradually relaxed more and more and I no longer felt pain or fear. Everything went back to normal.
The next morning I accompanied my husband on his walk but still felt very weak. It was as if I had just recovered from a serious illness. Later I learned that my daughter had instinctively known that something had happened and sent forth righteous thoughts from school during the time I was walking with my husband.
From this experience I learned that, although Teacher eliminated a lot of our karma and we have had many cultivation experiences over the past few years, when we face a life and death tribulation, it is quite difficult to pass. Besides having our body frozen in the twinkling of an eye, everything is separated from us. One becomes extremely fragile and insignificant, and fear and helplessness envelopes us. Life or death can come within a single thought. There is no time to think it over. It happens as quickly as the extinguishing of a candle light.
People do not want to talk about death, and it is normal to be scared of death. However, if I had been scared at that time and had thought that I could no longer hold on, my life would have ended. The reason why I passed this tribulation was because I constantly reminded myself to cultivate firmly and to treasure this hard-to-obtain opportunity.
Those practitioners who have lost their lives may not have grasped their original planned final moment well and did not have a strong righteous mind. Therefore, their lives were taken. If we cultivate every single thought and keep a righteous mind, we will find that some will do well and some may not do well. We have to find every loophole due to our shortcomings and determine to do better next time. Because Teacher and the Fa are present, we can do well in every tribulation.
I felt so clearly this life and death experience that I decided to share it with practitioners who may have to face a similar situation in the future. Not everyone will face the tribulation of death and not everyone will experience it the same way. For those practitioners who cultivate well, the tribulation will be over in the twinkling of an eye and they may not even realize that it happened.
This is my personal experience. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Written on March 30, 2006
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