(Clearwisdom.net) I am a 76-year-old practitioner. Prior to my cultivation, I was plagued by more than 10 illnesses, including severe vertigo, arthritis, and eurodermatitis. Ever since I began to cultivate in Falun Dafa on June 18, 1996, I've never taken a single pill or checked into a hospital. During the past 14 years, I have held firm to my belief and experienced numerous miracles from Dafa.
1. Solid Fa-study and Cultivating Myself Helps Change My Family Members
My family constitutes my main cultivation environment. I married my husband not long after the Cultural Revolution began. He was labeled "an enemy of the people" and sent to the countryside for "transformation," which caused me intense mental stress. I had to take care of our children by myself, in addition to being busy at work and participating in mandatory political activities. Sometimes I had to attend political parades at night. I blamed my husband for everything I had to go through and only saw his shortcomings. Many years later, I still couldn't stop complaining about him, which became a huge cultivation test for me. Once when I was memorizing Master's poem from Essentials for Further Advancement quoted below, I suddenly realized that I lacked compassion and failed to put myself in other people's shoes.
Master said:
"A wicked person is born of jealousy.
Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself.
A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion.
With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.
An enlightened person has no attachments at all.
He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions."("Realms" in Essentials For Further Advancement)
I recited the above over and over again. Then, every time I had conflicts with my husband, I was able to calm down and be much nicer to him.
However, it was difficult to completely weed out my attachments. One day my husband pointed his finger and cursed at me. Initially I tried to defend myself, but soon I realized that it was a good opportunity to get rid of my attachment of fearing other people's criticism. I calmed down immediately. There was another person present, but I didn't feel like I was losing face. This really manifested Dafa's power, as I couldn't be so tolerant in the past. My husband started another fight in the afternoon. Again, I kept my cool. After going through xinxing tests the whole day, I felt very light.
As I gradually improved my xinxing, my husband became more receptive of my cultivation and Dafa. I had no doubt that he had a predestined relationship with Dafa and deeply believed that he would enter the door of cultivation once the time was right. His biggest hurdle was the atheism instilled into him by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He agreed that Dafa could help keep people fit and improve morality, but he had a hard time understanding the rise of cultivators to higher realms. Since he enjoyed reading the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, I decided to use the content of that book to overcome his belief in atheism.
I said, "The worst trick the evil CCP uses in its efforts to rule and persecute its own people is to remove the essence of people's minds--their respect for Heaven and Earth and the belief that good and evil will be rewarded accordingly. When people no longer believe in gods, they commit all kinds of wrongdoings without any restriction. Weren't all of your sufferings during the Cultural Revolution a result of this warped atheistic theory? You hate the CCP, but why do you still side with its evil theory?" It was like a light bulb suddenly went on, and he said, "Yes, yes! You're so right." After he had a better understanding of the CCP's evil nature, he often repeated what I had said in conversations with his friends.
I also read articles published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website to my husband that I felt fit his understanding. That way he became closer and closer to Dafa. Last year, on May 10, he said to me, "I'm having really bad back pain and can't get up. What should I do?" I replied calmly, "How about practicing the Falun Gong exercises? There is no better way." He came to me in a little while and said seriously, "Please teach me how to do the exercises today."
He experienced really good effects after doing the exercises. His pain was reduced by half on the first day. He was completely fine by the third day. From then on, he has kept up with the exercises almost every day. He also shared this amazing turn of events with his friends, a few of whom also began to do the exercises. He still can't yet calm down to read Dafa books in earnest, but there is no doubt he has changed tremendously already. He is close to 80, but he still often travels long distances alone to visit relatives and friends. He also helps me around the house.
My experience makes me understand that the key to rescuing our family members is to cultivate ourselves well. As long as we are changing for the better, they are also changing. Another thing is to identify what their major concerns are and then select appropriate truth-clarification materials for them to read. Of course, we must be patient and kind at all times.
2. Cultivating Together with New Practitioners and Improving as a Whole
There are about a dozen new practitioners in our area, which has created a new cultivation environment for me. Below I share stories of three new practitioners who have greatly inspired me.
When Practitioner A first started cultivation, she met with strong opposition from her family. However, she was not deterred and spent one whole month hand-copying Zhuan Falun. Inspired by her, I decided to memorize Zhuan Falun. She had a strong personality in the past and had stopped talking to her daughter-in-law for a long time, which jeopardized her son's marriage. After she began her cultivation, she took the initiative to talk to her daughter-in-law and offered to take care of the grandchild. Her gesture was well received, and her son's marriage was saved.
Practitioner B has really good inborn quality. On the fifth day of her cultivation, she forgot to take her pills, which she had been taking for many years. She didn't experience any discomfort, though, so she realized right away that cultivators do not need to take any medicine. From then on, she has not taken a single pill. She has been diligent in studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, and knows that cultivators need to look within. Once she bought a book on massage for better health and quickly developed sickness symptoms. After realizing her attachments were the root problem, she got rid of the book right away and her symptoms disappeared immediately. This experience rendered her even more diligent and confirmed to her the preciousness of Dafa.
Practitioner C is a young man who obtained the Fa in 2006. He quickly caught up with Fa-study, doing the exercises, truth-clarification, and sending forth righteous thoughts. His diligence in turn has inspired us veteran practitioners.
Since Master arranged for me to lead these new practitioners into the door of cultivation, I feel I have a responsibility to help them. When I noticed new practitioners were fearful of the evil environment in China, I visited and encouraged them to share experiences. Everything they told me--from the difficulty of passing a test to the joy of ascending to a higher level and the miracles manifesting in their cultivation--greatly inspired me to do even better. Of course, there were times when I had conflicts with them, which I considered great opportunities for me to look within and increase my capacity to endure.
3. Lessening the Burden of a Truth-clarification Materials Production Site
In the past, truth-clarification materials such as Minghui Weekly had to pass through many people before they reached our local practitioners. This process was not only slow but also unsafe. After I learned how to go online to download Minghui Weekly, I encouraged other practitioners to get on the Internet. For people who can't afford computers, I make MP3 copies of Minghui Weekly, so everyone can get such materials in a timely manner. By doing this, I have helped lessen the burden of our local truth-clarification materials production site.
4. Overcoming Sickness Karma with Righteous Thoughts
I never really experienced severe sickness karma in my cultivation, but as of May this year I began to feel heaviness in my legs. My knees hurt a lot, and I could barely walk. Moreover, I had a sharp stomachache. Initially I treated this as the last bit of karma I had to push out, so I went on clarifying the facts as usual. Then, on August 11, 2010, I suddenly developed a high fever, diarrhea, frequent urination, and non-stop coughing. My throat burned. I knew I had to dig out my root problem.
I realized that I had gotten sleepy during Fa-study and sending forth righteous thoughts for a long time. I wasn't very effective at clarifying the facts, either. My symptoms were not the elimination of my "last bit of karma" at all! The evil old forces were exploiting my loopholes. I had fallen into their trap. I had been illness-free for more than 10 years; how could it be possible that the karma suddenly came back to me?
Master said:
"Fa-rectification is utterly solemn. When you first took up cultivation Master at that time did for you everything that should have been done. Now it's up to you to battle through tests with righteous thoughts. Master can help you when your righteous thoughts are sufficient. But when your righteous thoughts are lacking and you can't meet the standard, if Master were to do something, things as major as I just described would be involved." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
As soon as I had a clear understanding of the Fa, I gauged the tribulation against the Fa principles. I knew that sickness karma was just an illusion. Even though I had loopholes, the old forces were not allowed to test me.
I kept saying, "I am Master's disciple and I do not acknowledge any other arrangements." With Master's care, I had almost fully recovered by the next day and attended the group Fa study.
Master said:
"Some people who used to have illness did recover as soon as they started cultivating Dafa, and they really were cured. But, in order to remove your attachments and test whether or not you have what it takes, the old forces cause you to have pain wherever the focal point of your former illness was, or have a relapse, with the symptoms even being the same, all to see whether you believe in Dafa. How are you to handle it when that happens? Human or divine--the difference lies in one thought. If what arises is a righteous thought, and you take the position that all of this is false, that it's the old forces meddling, and you remind yourself of how long you've cultivated Dafa for and that no such thing is possible, if that thought truly comes from within, instantly the problem will vanish." ("Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference")
I studied the above passage of the Fa repeatedly, and my sickness karma was further removed.
Master has been watching over us. What reason do we have not to be diligent?