(Minghui.org) Editor's note: Over the past 15 years in which Falun Gong has been persecuted in China, practicing this peaceful mediation has meant arrest, detention, home ransacking, and/or severe torture. This article describes how a practitioner successfully traveled her path by keeping her righteous faith in spite of these kinds of obstacles, and how she gradually overcame the sometimes overwhelming fear of persecution.
I am a 60-year-old woman who has been farming the land my entire life. Throughout my cultivation, I have been learning to listen to Teacher so as to do well with what we are supposed to do as Dafa disciples.
Here I would like to share some of my experiences in hopes of helping more practitioners to find the courage to step forward and tell people the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution by the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This is our mission and we have to do it.
Cancer Cured through Practice
I was diagnosed with cancer in September 1996. By that time, it had already spread to my liver, heart, breasts, and uterus. I traveled many places to see cancer specialists, including the 301 Military Hospital in Beijing and Zhengzhou Hospital in Henan Province. None of them were able to help me. Disappointed, exhausted and in terrible pain, I often lay in bed awaiting my final destination.
When walking near the Songhua River one morning in July 1997, I saw some people doing meditation on the riverbank, with a large, eye-catching banner near them. Out of curiosity, I approached and asked one of the people if doing this practice would cure my cancer.
I was surprised by the answer, which was that this practice was not meant for healing illnesses. I felt upset and was about to leave, but just then, an elderly lady who had overheard the conversation, came over and began to chat with me. She explained to me that, although the purpose of this practice was not to cure illness, one could actually improve one's health by doing the exercises and improving xinxing, or moral character.
My family was not happy with my decision to practice Falun Gong, but they could not do anything about it, because I was very determined. I learned the exercises at the practice site and did the first four sets of exercises that night. I also bought a copy of Lecture in Sydney and started to read.
In the past, I had been so weak that I could not even open the propane tank. After doing the exercises for just three days, I became much stronger and could quickly walk up to the sixth floor without stopping. After obtaining a copy of Zhuan Falun, I cherished it very much and studied the Fa every day. All of my illnesses disappeared soon after.
Having benefited from practicing Falun Gong, I couldn’t wait to share it with other people. At least two hundred people started to practice after I recommended Falun Gong to them. I traveled to many places to introduce the practice to people and sometimes only ate snacks to save time.
Improving Xinxing
After starting to practice, I learned that it was very important to improve xinxing, so I paid close attention to it. In the beginning, my husband would often interfere with me, especially when I taught the exercises to new practitioners. He followed me to the practice site and followed me back to our neighborhood, complaining and swearing at me.
I knew I was a practitioner, so I ignored his bad behavior and still treated him well. Little by little, he saw the positive changes in me and began to practice as well. He had been diagnosed with cervical spondylosis in the past and often fainted. The illness quickly resolved itself after he started to practice Falun Gong.
An elderly lady who is also a tenant of mine, gave me lots of xinxing tests. Once she could not find the glass bottles she had collected and complained to my husband, accusing me of selling those bottles to a recycling station. I knew she was wrong, of course, but I was not disturbed, nor did I go to her to explain. The next day, she came to me to apologize, saying her grandson had hidden the bottles under her bed.
She also had a bad memory. Once she gave some old clothes to her sister-in-law and forgot about them. She then accused me of stealing them, cursing me badly. I remained very calm and said to her, “Please do not worry. Think about where they could be or ask around. I am a Falun Gong practitioner and would not do something like that. Anyone who does something wrong has to repay with de [virtue].”
During another time, the tenant’s daughter-in-law came to me and accused me of saying bad things about her. I explained to her, “As a Falun Gong practitioner, I would not do that. My Teacher said ‘as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted, but should conduct oneself with a high standard.’ (Zhuan Falun) How could I do that?” With compassion, I resolved the problem.
Even her five-year-old grandson blamed me when he could not find his toys. My tenant suspected that I had given them to my nephew. When I came to help them with moving, all the toys showed up under her bed. She was very apologetic.
As I passed those xinxing tests, both my mind and body improved dramatically. I had a sallow complexion in the past, and I was too thin. After practicing for a while, my weight became more normal and my complexion became more rosy. I was very happy with these changes.
Distributing Materials and Opposing the Persecution
When the communist party started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, I immediately went to Changchun City in Jilin Province to appeal. Local police arrested me and took me back home. When one policeman got frustrated trying to convince me to stop practicing, he enlisted the help of other people to persuade me to stop.
I shared my experiences with them and said, “Falun Gong is not an ordinary theory. Trust me and think about my experiences and those of other practitioners.” They could find nothing to say and left.
One day in 2000 we had an experience-sharing conference at a practitioner’s home. About 73 practitioners came and police arrested all of us after the conference. We recited the Fa together and shared understandings at the detention center.
After my release, I took more opportunities to tell others the facts about Falun Gong. Once when visiting a small cotton mill, I talked with the owner about Falun Gong. More and more people joined us in our conversation. It was dinner time before we finally stopped talking.
When buying watermelon on a summer day, I did not have enough change and still owed twenty cents. I went home and got the change and returned to the vendor. He was touched and said that few people were so honest these days. I explained to him that I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and I would not take advantage of other people.
People around us were surprised by my words, “Falun Gong is being persecuted. How do you dare to still state that you are a practitioner?” I talked with them about Shakyamuni, Jesus, and why Falun Gong was righteous. They were very interested. Many people sat down to listen. The discussion went on for one and a half hours.
I also had a potentially dangerous experience on a bus while traveling to another city. The bus was packed and there were no more seats left, but an elderly lady got on looking very ill. I gave her my seat and chatted with her. Upon hearing that she had many illnesses, I recommended Falun Gong to her and told her how my late-stage cancer had been cured by practicing it. She was scared and did not want to listen.
Right at that moment, a middle-aged man stood up behind me and said, “Who is speaking of Falun Gong? I am in charge of this and will arrest whoever practices it.” I turned around and said to him slowly, “Young man, do you know why the spring drought is so severe?”
“No, I don’t,” he replied.
“There are reasons behind the strange weather,” I began. I then explained that in traditional Chinese history, when someone was wrongly accused or killed, strange weather often followed to warn people of the injustice. Now, tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been severely persecuted for more than 10 years, so even Mother Nature is wanting to warn us about it through unusual weather.
He was very interested and listened attentively until it was time for me to get off. As I was stepping off the bus, he said to the other passengers, “It seems Falun Gong is good. There are so many people on the bus, yet no one except her offered a seat to an ill person.” He then waved to me through the window as the bus left.
I went to Beijing in November 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong. Police arrested me and beat me, forcing me to tell them my name and address. They then sent me to my city’s liaison office in Beijing, where I went on a hunger strike for 8 days to appeal. I also helped more than 30 practitioners to escape from the detention center before officials released me.
Overcoming the Attachment of Fear
The arrest and detention in Beijing triggered my attachment of fear. Afterward, every time I went out to distribute informational materials or when police cars drove by, I became paralyzed with fear. I even asked my husband to dig a deep pit in the ground and bury our Falun Gong books in it, so that the police could not find them. After my thinking became more rational, I realized that this was not good, and asked my husband to take the books out of the pit. But in my mind, I was still very afraid.
Under the influence of fear, I became less diligent and moved to another town, where I started a business of growing tree seedlings to pursue a better income.
But things did not go as I expected. When the seedlings were ready for harvest in 2010, a flood came. The rising waters not only ruined the seedlings, but also surrounded my home, and a floating log almost hit a window. I was scared and called out loudly, “Teacher, please help me! Falun Dafa is good!”
My granddaughter heard me and joined me in asking for help. Miraculously, the water flow immediately changed direction and headed away from my home, saving it. When a carpenter measured the water line afterward, he said it had reached 7.3 feet!
My neighbor’s house was also in danger at that time. Her husband had suffered a stroke, and her granddaughter could not take care of both of them. Because I had told her the facts of Falun Gong, when she heard me asking Teacher for help, she also called aloud, “Falun Dafa is good. Teacher, please help us, too!” Then she fainted.
Upon regaining consciousness, she found all three of them standing on window sills holding onto the frames. Two thirds of their doors were covered with mud, but all three of them were safe. The neighbor was very thankful and said to me, “If you had not called aloud for help, I would not have remembered to do it!”
Through this incident, I realized that my life was given to me by Teacher, and that I need to use all my time to save sentient beings.
With my business ruined, my husband and I moved to another city in September 2010. Because my fear was still strong, the police came for my registration. One day after group Fa-study, local practitioners talked about going to the countryside the next day to distribute truth-clarification materials. My fear surfaced again, but I knew that it was something I had to overcome. So, I told them I wanted to go, too.
The next day, I only took 10 pamphlets while other practitioners each carried a whole bag. When we arrived, I was still too scared and did not dare to place the pamphlets in the house assigned to me. I only distributed two out of the 10 copies I took.
We went out again the following week. After I put a pamphlet on the front gate of one house, I heard someone say, “Go and make the phone call right now.” After I finished another few houses and walked back again, that person was still talking in the yard, “Have you made the phone call?” I was even more scared, although that conversation had nothing to do with me.
On the way to the next village, I reminded myself that I was doing the most righteous thing. It was the vicious elements who should be frightened, not me. As I was riding through the village, I saw a group of people threshing rice, and I was nervous again. When I got off my bike, however, the handle caught my coat and pamphlets fell on the ground. Everybody saw them. Surprisingly, my mind became quite calm then. I finished distributing materials in that village and five people quit the communist party or its uaffiliated organizations when I told them the facts of Falun Gong.
Fundamentally Letting Go of Fear and Fulfilling Vows
It took some time before the attachment of fear was completely removed.
One day the coordinator asked me, “Can you help with truth-clarification materials?” I thought she meant I was to help someone else and so I agreed. After she sent the necessary implements to my home the next day, I realized I had to work on my own. I could not sleep well that night. Realizing that this was something Teacher wanted me to do, I determined to work on it. I learned all the necessary techniques within one day and have been making materials ever since.
On another day in spring 2011, the coordinator organized a local experience sharing conference to be held at my home without notifying me in advance. My fear arose again, but at that time I also regained some righteous thoughts: “Having a Fa-conference is what Teacher wants to happen, and I should fully support it.” The conference was held safely.
As the practitioners left, one of them suggested to me that one of my neighbors might suspect we were Falun Gong practitioners. This neighbor visited me later that evening and asked me if those who were there earlier had been practitioners. I did not answer directly and said that anyone was welcome to visit me. She then asked me outright if I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and I denied it. I regretted it later and submitted a Solemn Declaration to Minghui. Realizing that my denial was caused by fear, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it.
Since then I have spent some time clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to this neighbor. After reading materials and watching DVDs, she now understands the situation and told me, “This world would be much better if all people were like you.” She has been impressed by my attempts to always be well-mannered in my daily life.
Despite my attachment of fear, I continued to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to people every day. But I was still afraid when it was time to go back home. Home was my permanent place, and if police followed me home, where else could I go?
I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate these notions and asked Teacher for help. The fear became much weaker than it was before. I was also able to do the Three Things much better than before. I became unafraid of buying supplies for truth-clarification material productions for other practitioners or going out to clarify the truth. Though fear would still surface from time to time, I was able treat it with righteous thoughts and make it disappear.
In late 2011, I had an NTDTV satellite dish installed in my home. Afraid that others might hear it, I kept the volume turned down very low. My granddaughter could not understand that and said, “What are you so scared of? Maybe we should not have installed it in the first place.”
Because of my fear, my neighbors also came to visit hoping to see if the dish worked well. I did not want them to know it was NTDTV, and told them that it wasn't receiving any signal.
Eventually, I improved myself enough to let go of the fear and follow Teacher’s words instead. This way, I was able to oppose the old forces’ arrangements and do better. Now, more than 10 of my relatives and friends have installed the NTDTV dishes. More and more people have learned the truth about Falun Gong this way.
Cultivating Speech
During one discussion in the summer of 2012, some practitioners from other areas talked about going out to clarify the truth with practitioner A. I commented that working with A was not safe. Because of these careless words, I ran into problems when distributing Shen Yun DVDs the next day.
Seeing a car about to pull away, I went up and gave a DVD to the driver, a young man. I told him, “This reflects the 5,000-year divine culture. You will love it.” He took a look at the box and the DVD for a moment, and then said, “I guess you have a DVD burner and a color printer. So you made plenty of them and came out to distribute. How about this? You get in the car, and we'll go to your home.”
I was not disturbed and said calmly, “No, you will not do that.”
“What do you mean?” He asked as he began to take his ID from his pocket.
“I saw you were a good person and wanted to introduce something good. I hoped you and your family would be blessed,” I replied.
He looked at the DVD again, closed it, and gave it back to me, “All right, then. I will not arrest you today. But please do not come out [to do this] again.”
I said, “Thank you. Good luck with everything,” and then I left.
When thinking this over, I realized that I'd had some negative thoughts about practitioner A. Because I did not cultivate my speech well, the old forces took advantage of that, and I had this dangerous experience.
When I shared my understanding with another practitioner, she directly pointed out my problem, “She [Practitioner A] did very well. She told the facts about Falun Gong to every family in the building. Some of them did not want to listen and drove her out. She was not upset and brought them some good food when she visited them again. In the end, everyone in the building quit the communist party and its affiliated organizations. It required much compassion, and she did very well.” I did not respond, but decided to correct this shortcoming of looking down on other people.
These are my experiences in overcoming the attachment of fear. I hope more practitioners, especially those who have not yet stepped forward, will do better to clarify the truth. As long as we do well in Fa-study, and have belief in Teacher and the Fa, everything will be fine. We have to do this because this is our vow.
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Category: Improving Oneself
