(Minghui.org) Helen, a marketing manager for a multinational company in Toronto, had known about Falun Dafa for years, but she did not actually connect with it on a personal level until about a year ago.
“That was when I was diagnosed with cancer, which hit me like a thunderbolt. I remember the date well, December 28, 2020, three days after Christmas,” she recalled. Like most professional women, Helen paid attention to eating healthy and keeping fit with activities such as Yoga and Zumba. She never expected to get sick.
The doctor explained her condition, her options, and the complications. Facing this difficult situation, she knew it was time to check out Falun Dafa.
Falun Dafa was not foreign to Helen, as her mother had practiced it for over 20 years. Although her mother had benefitted mentally and physically, the persecution in China had really inconvenienced her and her family.
“Almost every time I went back to Shanghai to visit my mother, I could see stuff missing in the apartment because the police had been by to harass or arrest her not long before,” explained Helen. So, although her mother had recommended Dafa to her a few times, Helen never agreed to practice it. “As an ordinary person, I just wanted a peaceful life, so I couldn’t understand why Mother would put so much effort into something that caused her so much trouble [with the government] and why she would always tell others about the practice.”
That meant that Helen had never read Zhuan Falun, the main teachings of Falun Dafa, as her mother suggested. “But I did believe in reincarnation and that good deeds are rewarded. And in my heart, I fully supported Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that mother practiced,” she added. “But I really didn’t think about what would happen to me after this lifetime.”
So she lived her ordinary life, pursuing a successful career and enjoying a happy family. “Later on, Mother came to Canada and we spent lots of time together. But I still did not expect that my path would one day lead to Falun Dafa,” she said.
The cancer diagnosis changed everything. It made Helen reflect on the meaning and purpose of life and her priorities.
In January, one of her mother’s friends, who is also a practitioner, called her. She told Helen about her father, who’d had late-stage liver cancer but had extended his life by over 10 years by practicing Falun Dafa. “It sounded like a miracle to me and made me think: ‘What if I practiced Falun Dafa?’” she recalled.
That evening, Helen took out the copy of Zhuan Falun that her mother had given her and began to read. It explained a lot and was truly interesting. But then she wondered, “Am I good enough to be a practitioner?”
In Zhuan Falun, Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa, says,
“But there’s a stipulation, which is that you have to be serious about this practice. It doesn’t work if you are motivated by the wrong things, like attachments, or wanting psychic powers, or healing, or are here out of intellectual curiosity.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
Thinking that she was coming to Falun Dafa to be cured, Helen wondered if it was appropriate.
The next day, she shared her doubts with a coworker who practices Falun Dafa. Her coworker assured Helen that many people initially come to Falun Dafa for all kinds of reasons. “But as time goes on, you may find that Falun Dafa is about more than just improving physical health, that it teaches one to be a better person, and many improper thoughts just fade away,” she explained.
She told Helen that not only did she herself benefit mentally and physically from Falun Dafa, her family was blessed, too. With this encouragement, Helen began to read Zhuan Falun again.
In the following few days, several practitioners visited Helen to tell her their personal stories and help her get acquainted with the practice. “I started to practice Falun Dafa on January 26, 2021, and it was like a new beginning for me,” she said.
In the mornings, she often read the teachings with a group online and went to a practitioner’s home in the afternoons to do the exercises with another group. “After being treated three times between January and March, I recovered quickly and did not have side effects like other patients,” Helen said. “I know Falun Dafa helped me and I am very thankful.”
By July 2021, Helen had regained her health and often attended group practice in a nearby park. “I also hand out flyers to passersby and hope that they can come to know Falun Dafa like me and become happy and healthy,” she added.
One Saturday morning, Helen had some errands to run and missed the group exercise practice. She decided to make up for it by going to the park herself with a small Falun Dafa poster.
After she finished the first exercise, she opened her eyes to see three people standing in front of her.
“Do you mind if we join you?” one of them asked.
“Not at all, please,” Helen replied, happy to be able to help the grandmother, mother, and child learn about Dafa.
When she traveled on business to Europe in August and September, she talked with her European coworkers about Falun Dafa and how innocent practitioners in China are being persecuted for their faith. When a coworker said in admiration that she was “a messenger,” Helen thought to herself, “Maybe spreading information on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is my mission.”
Looking back on her past, Helen feels that she used to be lost in the maze of life. But thanks to her illness, she had the opportunity to learn Dafa and to discover what is most precious in life. “From despair to being born again, I am grateful to Master Li for everything,” she said.