(Minghui.org) My husband and I were employed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (also known as the National Academy for the Natural Sciences of the People's Republic of China) in China. My husband was highly regarded by the managing director of a Swiss joint venture, who hired him under a long-term contract. Our family moved to the Swiss capital of Bern in 1990.
For me, although Switzerland looked like paradise on earth, I always felt sad and unhappy. I was quite ill at that time and suffered from heart disease, a frozen shoulder, tendonitis, cataracts, an ovarian tumor, and colitis. Whenever it was windy, I had to often use the restroom when outdoors. I had to take medication daily, and often sighed, “If only I could see the sun break through the clouds.”
My husband and I took a trip to Hong Kong in 1996, where we met a Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) practitioner who gave me the book Zhuan Falun and a video to learn the exercises. After returning home, however, I didn’t seem to have the time to read the book. Then I broke my right foot and was told to take a rest. That was when I remembered Zhuan Falun. I was shocked and deeply impressed by the Fa principles it covered. Although I had practiced Taoism for many years, some of the principles were brand new to me.
Now I was eager to read Zhuan Falun and did not want not to stop. The feeling of pressure in my heart disappeared, and my stomach did not swell anymore. My husband found Zhuan Falun very good and immediately started to practice Falun Dafa. However, I had an intense internal struggle: I had practiced Taoism for 50 years and could not decide if I should switch over to Dafa.
I was fortunate to attend the 1998 Geneva Experience Sharing Meeting (Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland) and hear Master Li Hongzhi in person. When Master stepped onto the stage, I noticed a strong incense smell and instantly realized that Master is not an ordinary person, but a great Buddha. What Master explained was not the usual lore. I listened attentively and called out in my mind, “I want to practice Falun Dafa!”
Back home, my mind was in turmoil and I could no longer sleep at night. One night I dreamed about my father. In the dream I wore two different shoes. One was an old high boot that was covered with white crystals. The other was a scarlet red ankle boot. My father in the dream told me “not to sit between two chairs.” I knew that a cultivator can only walk in one direction. I struggled painfully with myself. The crystals on the old shoe hinted at what I had harvested and sown for 50 years. This told me that my efforts during those 50 years were not in vain. The new shoe on the other foot gleamed and attracted me. I had to decide.
A Falun Dafa practice site was set up in Bern in 1998. Many practitioners from different regions of Switzerland came to congratulate us.
When sharing experiences, I spoke of my inner resistance. The coordinator quoted Master's Fa:
“We have to straighten out all of those things for you. What’s good will be kept and what’s bad disposed of, and this will make spiritual progress possible for you.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Then she said, “You did not cultivate in vain during those 50 years.” That was the moment when I recognized the value of Falun Dafa and decided to take this path of cultivation. My parents knew that I’d made the right choice and no longer sent me any messages in my dreams.
After accepting the Fa, Master cleansed my body, changing me physically and mentally. My heart disease and colitis that had tormented me for more than 10 years disappeared in 10 days, and I was no longer in pain. All my health problems were gone after practicing Dafa for 50 days, and for the first time I felt the lightness of my body. I had tears in my eyes and my heart was filled with infinite bliss.
I would have never thought that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would launch the persecution of Falun Gong six months later. It was clear to me that I had to quit the CCP, clarify the truth about Falun Gong, and talk about the benefits I derived from Dafa.
I decided to put Falun Dafa flyers with information about the persecution in people’s mailboxes in Bern. This created a lot of tests for me. Some people insulted me, while others chased me away. At first I was very sad. But when I thought of the practitioners in China who were in mortal danger, I knew that whatever I experienced was nothing. It served to rid me of my fear. I put flyers in people's mailboxes every evening. So far I’ve distributed over 50,000 flyers.
Beginning in 2002, I started to clarify the facts to people who worked at the Chinese Embassy and people who applied for visas to travel to China. My husband sometimes came along. In fact, this was a big test for us. We worked for the Chinese Academy of Sciences and enjoyed a good reputation in the local Chinese community and the Swiss Embassy. Besides, my husband was a secretary in the science community and had extensive knowledge in his field. Many of the doctoral students visited us frequently.
However, after we quit the CCP and started to talk about Dafa, the people we knew no longer understood us. They were sarcastic, no longer said hello, and no longer stopped by our home. The embassy staff mocked us. Our reputations suffered. But both of us knew that we had benefited from Dafa and would under no circumstances act against our consciences. We knew that we had to clarify the truth to whoever had been deceived by the slanderous propaganda and was on the side of the perpetrators.
The Chinese Language Epoch Times released the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in November 2002. This triggered a worldwide movement to quit the CCP and its youth organizations. My husband and I started distributing copies of the Nine Commentaries to Chinese tourists in Lucerne in 2005. We clarified the situation and convinced them to quit the CCP. Day-after-day, I ran into different groups of people. I took advantage of different opportunities to look within and kept raising my cultivation level.
One day, after I had distributed all the Dafa informational materials I had brought with me, I was happy and thought that I had helped many people quit the Party. Just then, a Chinese man, whom I guessed to be in his 50s, came over, pointed at me, and said angrily, “You stole my things.” I didn’t know what he was talking about.
I smiled and said, “Sir, I cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. There is no way I stole your things. Besides, as you can see, I have nothing in my hands.” He told me that I had given his stuff to my companion. I told him that, if he had seen that, he should ask my companion. A Chinese woman who had listened in on our conversation said to the man, “I’ve watched her for some time. If she had stolen anything, she would not be so calm. She doesn’t have a guilty conscience.” I knew this woman. I remembered that I had helped her quit the Party some time before. The man was still angry and threatened to call the tour guide.
The tour guide, whom I’d talked to a few times in the past, came over. He asked me angrily, “Did you steal his things?” I smiled and said, “I cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and would never do anything like that.” He said nothing, but I could see from his expression that he did not trust me.
I said to the tour guide, “Young man, we’ve met several times. Have you forgotten? I once found an expensive camera in a phone booth and asked you if it could belong to someone in your group. You said that you did not think so and told me to give it to the police. Did you forget that?” He looked surprised and calmed down. Then he pulled the Chinese man by his arm, and they left.
Another time, a Chinese person insulted me when I clarified the truth about Dafa and the persecution to the tourists. I remembered Master said:
“And in this sense there is more to this world than meets the eye. But, as special as the people on this earth now are, they fare poorly—and some even terribly—once they are in this illusory, mundane world and get caught in the relentless tide of worldly things. Yet they are lives of tremendous caliber. So we must save them, even if at this surface level they have gotten caught in currents of modern thought that take them away from the culture bestowed by the divine, or even been sinisterly indoctrinated by the culture and thought of a wicked communist society, and fared poorly or awfully. Dafa disciples are their sole hope of deliverance. Nobody else can save them.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.,” Team Yellow Translation)
That opened my eyes. I did not want to give up on these people and kept clarifying the truth to them. Two elderly Chinese waved me over and said, “A cow cannot play the piano. They understand nothing. We see you tirelessly talking to them and our hearts are touched. Falun Dafa is truly precious. You are China's hope – we support you, and our hearts are on your side. Please tell your people that. Many Chinese are supporting Falun Dafa practitioners and are on your side.”
I was deeply touched to hear this encouragement. In the end, they quit the Party and its youth organizations.
My husband died on March 7, 2018. My daughter and I were saddened by his unexpected death. I understood that, as a cultivator, I had to get over the pain and grief. Besides, I had to comfort my two non-cultivating daughters. When I saw their tears, I told them that, for living beings, birth, aging, illness, and dying are inevitable. Most importantly, we had to prepare for the upcoming memorial service. My daughters dealt with the situation quite well, and the memorial service went well.
At the same time they realized that, despite my apparent calm, my heart ached. Master let me feel his compassion. He used my daughter to give me clues. One of my daughters said, “Mother, when we go back, don’t stay on your own at home. Go to Lucerne where you can forget everything.” Tears came to my eyes. Yes, I would feel even lonelier if I stayed at home alone. During the day I went to the tourist sites to save people. It helped me forget the time.
But when I headed home on the bus, the closer I got, the more depressed I felt. When I opened the front door, the apartment was empty, but I still sensed my husband’s presence. I looked forward to the dawn when I could go to the tourist sites. It was a great comfort that many Chinese were waiting to be saved by Dafa at that difficult time.
The old forces tried to interfere with me when I went to the tourist sites in Lucerne to support Shen Yun with righteous thoughts. I had not let go of my feelings for my husband and thus experienced a lot of interference when studying the Fa and sending righteous thoughts. The old forces exploited my loopholes. My heart ached, especially around the end of April. But when I sent righteous thoughts and asked Master for help, I felt better.
At the beginning of May I felt especially bad. The pain was unbearable, and neither standing nor sitting gave me any relief. I became very weak, was covered in sweat, and could not talk. Several times my daughter wanted to take me to the hospital, but I refused to go. She said, “You live alone. According to your symptoms, you’ve had a heart attack. This is very dangerous.” This time I truly felt worse, and I had problems sending righteous thoughts. I kept vomiting and had to go to the toilet constantly because of diarrhea.
That is when I remembered Master's Fa:
“The old forces have been using the situation to do harm. You might be rather shocked by what I just said a moment ago. But, I said that because I’ve found that the old forces are using this situation to persecute our practitioners. When the old forces use this… As I said earlier, the wicked, low entities—and that includes low-level old forces—are truly evil. They don’t want you to succeed at cultivation, and want to persecute the life out of you.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.,” Team Yellow Translation)
“But, if you feel that you haven’t cultivated well and aren’t up to par, and can’t handle [the physical ordeal you’re facing], then you can go see a doctor, and you can do better in the future after you’ve made some progress in cultivation.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.,” Team Yellow Translation)
I realized that this was persecution by the old forces. I called my daughter and told her that I would go to the hospital and she sent for an ambulance. A doctor examined me, looked over my tests, and found nothing wrong. But he suggested that I go see a cardiologist. My daughter took me on May 13. When the doctor saw my electrocardiogram, he said out loud, “A young heart.” Other doctors and nurses came to take a look. This was unbelievable as I'm almost 80 years old. My daughter was also surprised. I told them that I practiced Falun Dafa.
When I looked inward, I realized that the false state of my heart reflected the gap in my cultivation, although the test results confirmed the power of the Fa. I should not have gone to the hospital. This is where I had not cultivated well. Given the pain in my heart, I realized that I had to make a greater effort to eliminate my feelings of qing.
Master said, “Dafa disciples can keep emotion in check by using reason; it’s not possible to be completely free of its influence, however. You can merely use reason to deal with it.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.,” Team Yellow Translation)
Master's Fa pointed out my problem and rectified me. I decided to improve in my Fa study and improve my sending of righteous thoughts. Only when I have eliminated my emotions will I gain my freedom.
After my heart exam, my blood pressure rose. I thought that this was another test and recalled what a practitioner asked Master at this year's New York Fa Conference: “Question: As soon as some practitioners encounter issues, be it a physical ordeal or some other type, other practitioners will always say, 'There must be something wrong on his part', and work hard to help him find what’s wrong on his end.”
Master said:
“Let me put it this way: if a Dafa disciple meets with some ordeal or karma shedding, there is surely a reason behind it, and he should try to find the problem on his part. And for sure, after he finds the cause and immediately does well in that regard, things will change for the better, in a positive direction, right away.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference”)
This time, I did not accept that my blood pressure was truly high. I trusted Master and the Fa and convinced my daughters that the reading was false. I believe I reacted correctly this time. Since then, my daughters have no longer bothered me —and my blood pressure is now normal. I feel light and happy. Thank you, Master, for correcting me with the Fa principles.
To close, I will share Master's encouraging words:
“Strive to spiritually perfect yourselves, do your utmost to show what you are made of as you strive to save all lives, and try to do even better!” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference,” Team Yellow Translation)