(Minghui.org) Looking back at the first half of my life, people would consider me an unfortunate person. I'm so grateful to Master Li Hongzhi (the founder) as Falun Dafa completely changed my life.
My Adopted Family
I never knew my birth parents. China was in the midst of a famine in 1961 when I was born. My adoptive parents were poor peasants, and infant formula was expensive. I survived on powdered milk thickened with flour. As a malnourished child, I was always sick.
Although my adoptive parents were very kind to me, their relatives were not. The uncles, aunts, and cousins did not consider me a member of their family. I could hear their loud whispers during family gatherings. This was the first time I experienced hatred and I developed low self-esteem. I became quiet and withdrawn. I wanted to grow up quickly and leave this family.
Disappointing Marriage
I met my husband when I was 22 years old. He is very attentive and good-tempered. At first, his parents objected to our marriage because of my poor health. We eventually married three years later.
Once again, my new family treated me like an outsider. My in-laws constantly examined me for faults. At first, I controlled my temper. A year after we married, my mother-in-law started hitting me. My anger exploded. After that, daily arguments and weekly physical fights between the two of us became routine and went on for more than ten years.
I felt helpless and my dream of having a happy family was shattered. As my heart became smaller, my temper became worse. I seethed with hatred when my in-laws were around. My foul mood took a toll on my health. I developed ulcers, and insomnia kept me up all night.
I was severely anemic when I was pregnant with my second child. The normal range of hemoglobin for women is 12.0 to 15.5 grams per deciliter. Mine was 5.5 grams per deciliter. I could not breathe when I laid down. My gums and skin were paper white. We had to borrow money for my treatments. My hair turned gray. I was only 32 years old but I looked 50.
After I was discharged from the hospital, I was so weak that I could not do any household chores. My husband worked on the farm alone. At the end of the day, he had to cook and take care of our two young children and me. He grew thin and aged quickly. Our situation tormented me and I wondered if this suffering would go on for the rest of my life!
I'm Introduced to Falun Dafa
My sister-in-law visited us in the fall of 1998. She suggested I give Falun Dafa a try.
A few months before, her husband had given me a copy of Zhuan Falun and I read it. The book talked about how to be a good person and that we should live according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I decided to practice.
That winter, my sister-in-law came to teach me the exercises. She said Master Li (the founder) was hinting for her to teach me the exercises, because, in the past few days, she would see me in her mind whenever she did the sitting meditation. I started to practice Falun Dafa.
A few days later at our family gathering, my mother-in-law made a stew with potato, noodles, tofu, and sticky rice cakes. My sister-in-law said, “Let’s eat. Falun Dafa practitioners can eat anything, no problem.”
For years I could only eat steamed buns. Anything else was too difficult for me to digest. I let go of my fear and I tried everything on the table.
That night, I slept very peacefully. My stomach did not hurt a bit. I ate a big bowl of noodles the next morning. My stomach still did not hurt. I never had stomach pain again.
I began studying the Fa and doing the exercises every day. Following the guiding principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I treated everyone kindly and searched for my own mistakes when conflicts arose. Fighting for petty gain was a thing of the past. In less than six months, I became a healthy person for the first time in my life.
My Family Benefits from Dafa
Our family moved in February 1999. I grew vegetables on a piece of leased farmland. My husband made tiles. My income from the harvest was four times as much as my husband’s. We leased more land the following year. At harvest time, we brought in crops from three o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night. I transformed from a sickly person to a strong laborer. My hot temper was gone. I was a new person.
Our vegetable farm did so well that we paid for all my medical bills. We had extra money to help our two sons get started with their own families and we also built a greenhouse on our farm.
Grudges Resolved
Master said,
“This is why I have said that all of today’s mankind has come to this point with karma rolling on top of karma; besides sickness-karma, a person has other kinds of karma as well. So people have hardships, tribulations, and tensions in their lives. How could they only pursue happiness without paying for karma? People nowadays have so much karma that they are soaked in it, and they will encounter unpleasant things at any time and in any situation. Bad things await a person the moment he steps out the door. When there are disagreements, however, people do not endure them and fail to realize that they are paying off their karma from the past. If a person is not treated well by others, he will treat others even worse, thereby producing new karma before paying for the old. This makes society’s moral values decline daily, and everyone becomes enemies among one another. Many people cannot understand this: What’s happened to people today? What’s going on with today’s society? If mankind continues like this it will be extremely dangerous!” (Sickness Karma”, Essentials for Further Advancement)
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I realized the reason others treated me badly was due to karma. I have to repay what I owe. My dislike of my in-laws lessened. I started to buy them gifts and visited them during the holidays. I began to treat them like my own parents.
At first my in-laws could not understand why I practiced Falun Dafa. They gradually become supportive after seeing the positive changes in me.
Since my mother-in-law passed away, my father-in-law eats his meals with my sister-in-law’s family and us. When it's my turn to cook for him, I make whatever he wants to eat. When he's not feeling well, I ask my husband to bring him his favorite dishes. I wouldn't have been able to so easily overlook his bad behavior if I were not a Falun Dafa practitioner. My father-in-law often says, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
I was also able to forget and forgive the hurt feelings between my adoptive family and me. My uncles, aunts, and cousins now treat me as a true member of the family.
It is impossible for me to repay what Master Li has done for me. The only thing I can do is to be a diligent practitioner and follow Master’s guidance on my path of cultivation.
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