(Clearwisdom.net) A Falun Gong practitioner once traveled to Northeastern China to spread the truth of Falun Gong. She had with her six months of wages she had saved for printing the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. This practitioner told me an amazing story about an elderly woman who attained Falun Gong. The following is a brief summary of her story.
This elderly woman lived a life of sorrow. Since the first day of her marriage her husband had berated and abused her. She had grown up without ever knowing the love of a mother or father. In fact, she almost did not survive childhood. Since her husband was abusive, she decided to give all her love to their child. The child was very sweet and considerate, but died as a teenager. She was devastated and heartbroken, and her husband made life even worse for her. Her husband physically abused her to keep himself from remembering the child. He accused her of being a bad mother who had failed to take good care of their child. Once when she was ill and bed-ridden, she begged her husband to buy some food for her, but he refused. She thought of committing suicide many times to end this misery.
One day she came across Falun Gong. She took up the practice and completely changed her attitude towards life. Gradually she also changed the way she perceived her husband. She lived by Falun Gong's teaching and constantly strove to improve her xinxing. She let go of notions and attachments and after some time could ignore her husband's physical and verbal abuse. She stopped reproaching her husband for physically and verbally abusing her. Instead, she became considerate and affectionate towards her husband. Her forgiveness and affection finally changed her husband's thinking and attitude. He stopped abusing her physically and verbally. Sometimes he was even affectionate. Now she is an optimistic woman who smiles all the time and has a happy family life. She experienced something she thought impossible.
Due to many years of hard work and depression, she suffered severe illnesses and experienced difficulty walking. She used to be short of breath walking just half a mile and had to lay or sit down most of time. Since she started to practice Falun Gong, she has a new lease on life and has no problems walking, no matter the distance.
Once, to escape the Chinese police, I took refuge in her home. On the day we parted, she walked with me for miles. She did not show any sign of weariness. Instead, she was very cheerful. I could hardly believe that this was the person who was so severely ill in the past. She also is very quick in distributing truth clarification flyers. Watching her walk in front of me, I could not tell that she was an elderly woman. She had the agility and speed of a much younger woman.
She earns only 150 yuan a month but still manages to save some money to produce Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. Lack of money has never stopped her from doing what needs to be done. Northeastern China is famous for sauerkraut. Sauerkraut, usually eaten as a side dish, has almost become her daily staple. She prepares the sauerkraut herself and eats it as the main dish.
When fellow practitioners take refuge from the police in her home, she gives them the best food she has at home. She looks after these fellow practitioners as though they were her own family. She makes them feel at home. She does not waste any time. She takes those practitioners with her to villages when she clarifies the truth about Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party's brutal persecution of Falun Gong. When I took refuge in her home, we lived in harmony and felt happy and free of any worries. Only the Fa has the power to forge such a pure, kind, and noble life.
This practitioner is a very ordinary woman close to 60 years old. She was illiterate. She could not even read the signs on public restrooms or at the bus stop. Since she started to read the Falun Gong books, she has learned to read many Chinese characters. In fact, she can read Zhuan Falun. She said that in the past she dared not dream of being able to read. She is very serious about reading Falun Gong books. She reads slowly, but she reads each word carefully. She can even tell when a fellow practitioner reads any word incorrectly and has memorized the first lecture in Zhuan Falun.
Once she went home with a fellow practitioner whom she refers to as her "son from out of town." They brought some truth-clarification materials with them. When they arrived at the train station, security was searching everyone's luggage. To protect her "son," she carried the bag with the Falun Gong truth-clarification materials. Her "son" walked up to the inspection station first. The security told him to put everything on the table. After he passed the inspection, he was very worried for her. The elderly woman was a bit nervous, but she remembered that she was a Falun Gong practitioner and she could prevail with righteous thoughts. She thought, "No one must check my bag." She walked right past the inspection table and no one asked to check her bag. After she passed, security started checking the bags of the people behind her. Her fellow practitioner was terrified and had broken out in a cold sweat.
The elderly woman understood that Falun Gong practitioners have supernormal capabilities if their righteous thoughts are strong. As long as one remains calm, one will be able to use these abilities. She told me a story she had witnessed.
One day when visiting a fellow practitioner, a group of police showed up. When the police walked through the door, a practitioner said, "Freeze!" All the officers froze like statues and could not move. After a while, the practitioner decided that she shouldn't leave the police standing there like statues so she told them, "All of you leave now." It was as though these policemen had just awakened from sleep. They asked each other why they had come. None of them could remember why they had come. Finally, they left, looking confused and dumb.
It is amazing that the elderly woman is also an excellent mountain climber. Once a fellow practitioner and she went to hang Falun Gong banners. They wanted to hang one banner on the mountain. It was winter in Northeastern China, with a temperature below 40° degrees. The mountain was covered with ice, making the trails very slippery. One can imagine the danger of climbing a mountain covered with ice. But they thought of nothing but hanging the banner at a high and a highly visible location. They defied danger, climbed the icy mountain, and hung the banner on top of the mountain successfully. It was not until they had descended from the mountain that they realized they had climbed a steep cliff. They smiled at the unfurled banner on the top of the mountain. The banner with the message, "Falun Gong Is Good," stayed on top of the mountain for a few days. No one dared to go up to the mountain to remove it.