(Minghui.org) I am 74 years old, and I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2006.
My wife started practicing in May 1999. Prior to that, she suffered from chronic diarrhea and eventually developed ulcerative colitis. According to her doctor, she needed an operation to remove some of her intestines. Our family could not afford the cost of the surgery.
She also had severe hyperostosis, which is thickening of the bones and hardening of the ligaments, and rheumatism. After work each day, she felt a sharp pain in her back, even when laying down. If she kneeled down, she could hardly stand again due to the pain.
And worst of all, she suffered from an unknown disease. If she was exposed to the wind, itchy bumps appeared all over her whole body, and she simultaneous would have diarrhea and vomiting. If she scratched the bumps, large areas around the bumps swelled.
Due to the intense suffering from these incurable diseases, she gradually became irritable and hot-tempered. She often quarreled with others. Amazingly, shortly after she started practicing Falun Dafa, all of her diseases completely disappeared.
When my wife first started practicing Falun Dafa she was illiterate. Not being able to read the books written by Falun Dafa’s founder, Master Li Hongzhi, was almost too much for her to bear, and she cried many times. Now, with no formal training, she can read Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa, without assistance.
One summer day in 2007, I went to visit my sister to encourage her to practice Falun Dafa with us. On the way to her home, I noticed a lot of money scattered about on the ground. The wind had blown the money out of a bus driver’s hand. Many people were grabbing the bills and keeping the money for themselves. I quickly picked up as many as I could and returned the money to the bus driver. He could not stop thanking me. I just told him that I am a Falun Dafa practitioner and would not take his money.
On another occasion, three days before the 2008 lunar new year, my wife and I were shopping at a supermarket. A middle-aged woman was looking at the same blouse my wife was interested in. They were discussing how it would fit and how it looked. The lady decided to buy one and got in line to pay for it. She completely forgot that she had left a backpack in our cart. We did not notice it either and continued shopping.
I later noticed the backpack in our cart. When I looked inside, I found that it was filled with cash. I estimated there was 200,000 to 300,000 yuan ($30,000 to $45,000). My wife said, “It must be her money. You stay here, and I will go look for her. She might commit suicide if she loses such a large sum of money before the New Year!”
My wife found the lady still standing in line waiting to check out. When my wife told her that we had found her backpack in our cart, the woman cried out. She was an accountant for a large company and was carrying the monthly salaries for all of the employees. She kept bowing in front of us.
“Since we are Falun Dafa practitioners, we will not take any reward for returning the lost money,” said my wife. “But if we were not practitioners, we might have kept the money. As you know, there is enough money in the pack for us to live on for the rest of our lives.” The pension for my wife and I was only several hundred yuan at that time, and we were chronically short of money.
Master Li taught us,
“...be considerate of others in everything they do, then that’s the demeanor of Dafa disciples.” (“Comment” from The Essentials of Diligent Progress VOL. III)
Since so many people had seen that she was carrying such a large sum of money, we found a security guard and asked him to call a taxi for her to make sure she left safely.
Similar incidents have happened to us many times. Once in 2012, a cashier mistakenly thought I had paid with a hundred yuan bill and was ready to give us change for it rather than the small bill I had given him. We explained that the money was not ours. He was so touched. On another occasion, I found 50 yuan that had been lost and returned it to its owner, an old tobacco peddler.