(Minghui.org) I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996. In August 2010, I came to live in the U.S. In terms of assisting Master in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings, I have been fulfilling my promise. I am now 53 years old and in good health.
This year, however, I encountered persecution in the form of sudden illness karma that brought me to the brink of death. Here is my account of this interference in my cultivation.
I left New York and traveled to Texas to help promote Shen Yun in mid-December 2019. My main task was to deliver brochures to local companies. A week later, I developed large blisters on my buttocks and thighs, but I didn’t stop what I was doing because of that.
Three weeks later, I finished my work in one city and the coordinator reassigned me to another. By then, I noticed my blisters were bleeding quite profusely. During the next three weeks, the bleeding continued.
After the coordinator arranged for me and three other practitioners to help promote Shen Yun in three more cities, I took a break. Because I’d lost so much blood, someone suggested I follow a diet regimen to help with the problem.
At the end of February, I came back to New York to prepare for my citizenship exam. At that time, I began to feel very weak and couldn’t eat much.
Four days after returning to New York, I suddenly lost consciousness and fell down. My wife and another practitioner called an ambulance to take me to the hospital. After being treated in the ICU for four days, I finally awoke. The doctor diagnosed me with diabetes, and I was transferred to a regular ward a week later.
In the mirror, I saw that both my hair and beard had turned gray. I was so emaciated that I could hardly recognize myself. Two weeks later, before I was discharged from the hospital, the doctor warned me to take both insulin injections and other medications.
After I returned home, I didn’t follow what the doctor prescribed. Two days later, I had a relapse. I was very weak and always thirsty. About every other hour, I felt starved, but all I could eat was just a little bit of congee. In addition, I noticed that I had lost my sense of taste. When I was sending forth righteous thoughts, I couldn’t hold up my palm. Because I had trouble standing up, I couldn’t do the exercises, either. This really worried my practitioner wife.
Two weeks later, I lost consciousness again and was admitted to the hospital. I was in the ICU for two days. During that time, I kept asking the doctor to let me go home. When I was finally discharged from the hospital a week later, the doctor warned me again to take insulin.
Back home, I did not follow the doctor’s orders. I seemed to feel a little bit better than the time before. I knew it was Master Li who had suffered for me. Because I had a little strength, I started doing the exercises, but I couldn’t continue due to my weakness. I felt karma pressing down on me like a mountain. Though I considered myself someone with strong willpower, I still couldn’t manage it.
All I could do most days was to lie in bed. My wife and the landlord, who is also a practitioner, tried everything they could to get me to eat a bit more. Occasionally I got out of bed and walked around in the room, though I felt very weak. I went out with my wife to run some errands, but in only a short time, I was totally exhausted and had to lie down.
Shortly after, my vision was affected and I could barely see. Even so, I wasn’t moved by this illusion, but rather kept reminding myself that I didn’t have any illnesses. Soon enough, I’d get better. Both my feet and legs started to swell. Wherever I had a scratch, it started to ooze. Despite that, I kept telling myself that this was karma and not an illness.
Because of my extremely poor vision, I couldn’t read any Dafa books, so I listened to Master’s lecture recordings. Occasionally my wife would read the books to me. In the midst of this tribulation, I kept looking inward to find the loopholes the evil was taking advantage of. As a result, I managed to locate many attachments. The main ones were competitiveness and a show-off mentality. I tried very hard to eliminate them. However, my situation didn’t change very much.
In late July, for the third time, I lost consciousness and was again taken to the hospital. After I regained consciousness, the doctor told me through a translator, “You can’t afford to pass out again. If you do, you will die! You are very sick!”
After returning home, because I was so weak, this time I followed the doctor’s instructions and took the insulin injections. That way I gained a bit of strength to do the exercises.
Every day I kept reminding myself that I didn’t have any illness, that this condition was caused by my karma. Since I had passed out three times, I wasn’t afraid of death. I set my mind right with the understanding that the purpose of my doing the exercises was to validate Dafa rather than any pursuit.
On day one, since I was very weak, I rested after finishing each exercise. That’s how I finished all five exercises—one at a time. I felt a lot better by day three. I did the exercises early in the morning. After I finished all five exercises, I either took a break or had a nap, so that, in one day, I did all five exercises three times. After that, when I measured my blood sugar, it was even lower than what is considered normal.
After five months of this tribulation, I was able to finally do the exercises, which really pleased me. I began to really enjoy doing them! In the past, especially when holding the wheel in the second exercise, it was a bit difficult for me to even stand for half an hour. Now, because of this interference, I made up my mind to do the exercises. The more I did them, the better I felt, and the more I wanted to do. One week later, my blood sugar dropped to normal. My skin tone went from dark brown to rosy and the texture of my skin went from rough to smooth and soft.
Only a week before, I'd been emaciated! At that time I never would have thought it possible to return to health so quickly. All these changes happened within just a week after I got out of the hospital. More changes began to appear every day.
It’s truly amazing just how extraordinary Dafa is! Three more days passed, and I went with my wife to do construction work. Because I was now working, I could only do the exercises twice a day. Three weeks later, I extended the time for holding the wheel to an hour and a half. After two days, I extended it to two hours.
Because I had to study the Fa teachings and take care of other things, I adjusted the holding the wheel to two hours a day. At that time, I went to help my son move. I am in my 50s, whereas he is only almost 30, yet I handled more work than he did. My vision also returned to normal.
A month later, I connected with my relatives back home through a video call. When they saw me fully recovered, they were so excited that they cried. A month ago, they wept to see me emaciated. Now they became teary again out of happiness.
My sister said, “Our relatives on Mom’s side—Mom, two uncles, and an aunt—all had diabetes, the same as our youngest aunt. Both Mom and our youngest auntie died of diabetes.” I asked, “Didn’t Mom die of a brain tumor?” She replied, “Not really. Our uncle is a physician. He said hereditary diabetes can’t be cured. He also has diabetes and has been on insulin. That’s why our eldest sister didn’t believe that you would recover.” But I was fully recovered. The family now agrees that Falun Dafa is indeed extraordinary!
I knew it was Master who suffered for me, otherwise, I wouldn’t have survived. All Master looked at was my steadfast faith in cultivation.
Every time Master helped me remove a big chunk of karma, I could feel it. Especially the third time after I returned home from the hospital, I could feel that Master had removed most of my karma, with only a little bit left. That’s how I could get over this tribulation. I truly appreciated Master’s saving grace!
In this tribulation, I kept asking myself and looking inward to eliminate my attachments and rectify myself. This tribulation tested my faith in Master and Dafa. I had slacked off in doing the exercises before this sickness karma appeared. Now I’ve realized how important the exercises are. Thus, I hope practitioners who suffer from physical tribulations do the exercises more to change their physical bodies to a higher energy level. Regardless of how difficult a tribulation appears to be, we should keep our faith in Master and Dafa.