(Minghui.org) When I was 19, I pointed to the cloud-covered sky and said to my elder sister: “My heart is like this sky, filled with clouds, and there is no sunshine.” Today, I am 73 years old, my heart is filled with sunshine, and I am bathed in the Buddha light that is asking people to follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Falun Dafa has been instrumental in my becoming healthy, both physically and mentally. My morality has been purified day after day. I understand the true meaning of life, which is to return to one’s original and true self. As a Dafa practitioner, I feel a sense of belonging, and life is good.
I had been sick since I was a child. At the age of 34, I started to suffer from severe headaches. Once I came down with a headache, I would vomit and have diarrhea and feel weak all over. I couldn’t hold a glass of water, and my foot joints became deformed. I also suffered from hyperplasia, cholecystitis, cervical hyperplasia, Meniere’s disease, and more. In my 30’s, I was tortured by illnesses and felt no vitality. I struggled through life, and my family also suffered. An acquaintance of my husband asked me: “You don’t look that old, but you need your husband to carry you and lead you along. What serious illness do you have?”
After I began to practice Falun Dafa in March 1998, I realized what it was like to be free from illness. Master liberated me from the torment of illness.
Master said:
“After a period of cultivation practice, our Falun Dafa practitioners look quite different in appearance. Their skin becomes delicate and reddish-white. For the elderly, wrinkles become fewer or even extremely few, which is a common phenomenon. I am not talking here about something inconceivable, as many of our veteran practitioners sitting here know this situation. In addition, elderly women will regain their menstrual period since a cultivation practice of mind and body requires menses to cultivate the body.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
Now colleagues, neighbors, and people that I clarify the truth to tell me: “You have a rosy face!” I ran into a neighbor a few days ago, and she said, “You are really getting younger and younger, and your face is rosy.”
When I had just moved into my home a few years ago, I came to her door to clarify the truth to her, and only then did I know that she was a Christian. She said: “I have no objection to your practicing Falun Dafa. You do your practice, and I do mine.” Nine years have passed since I moved into the same building with her. Realizing that I am in better health, I could sense her admiration for Dafa from the way she looked at me.
There is a local Christian who is very kind and not paranoid. She said: “I saw that your Falun Dafa practitioners have rosy faces, are in good health, display a good attitude, and are kind to others. So, I know Falun Dafa is good.”
A few years ago, my husband and I went back to our hometown. We accompanied my sister-in-law’s family who had arrived from another location to visit a scenic spot and climb to the top of a mountain. My sister-in-law’s son-in-law gave me a thumbs up and said: “We young people couldn’t keep up with you even as we gasped for breath and tried to walk faster.”
A few days ago, we ran into a former neighbor. She said, “Oh, you two are in such good health, and your faces are rosy. My husband now lives in a nursing home.” I said, “You know that I practice Falun Dafa. In our practice: ‘with one person practicing, the whole family benefits.’ (Teachings at the Conference in Australia).”
My husband has witnessed this. In the terrifying environment where the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa), he never said a word against my practice, and he silently supported me in doing what a Dafa practitioner should do. He has also been protected by Dafa. Therefore, he is close to 80 years old and has been in good health.
Many of my family members were persecuted during prior political movements launched by the CCP. During the Cultural Revolution, my father was beaten to death with wooden sticks and poles by the mobs provoked by the depraved CCP. I was discriminated against, and humiliated because of that, and I didn’t have the opportunity to go to school or find a job.
My elder sister works out of town, and her husband is a party official. Every time she saw me, she would “educate” me with CCP theory. I was annoyed and told her: “We are on different paths.” Later, I stopped calling her elder sister. No matter what the occasion would be when we met, I would call her surname plus “a certain official”, which was embarrassing for her.
I did not like a cousin of mine who deserted his first wife. During a family council meeting after my father was rehabilitated, my cousin requested to include his remarried wife. I immediately expressed my objection: “If she joins, I will leave.” He was very embarrassed, and I had ignored them since then.
I thought of many things I did wrong in the past, which not only created karma but also formed bad karmic relationships with others. By studying the Fa, I understood that my behavior in the past was selfish. I vented my anger and experienced momentary satisfaction, but hurt others. I realized that I should let go of my sentimentality, step out of selfishness, face things with compassion, resolve all the bad karmic relationships I have created, tell them the truth about Dafa, awaken their conscience, and help them understand justice.
After I enlightened to these things, I decided I should correct my mistakes. I bought gifts and went back to my hometown to visit those people. When I treated others with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the power was really great. They were moved, especially my cousin’s wife. She realized that I was only a few years younger than her, but looked much younger and energetic. She said that I was very pleasant and kind, and she was very envious of me.
I told her: “This is because I practice Falun Dafa—you can learn it too.” She immediately said: “Can I learn it?” I said: “Yes. Next time I come, I will bring you Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa.” She told me that after she received Zhuan Falun, she learned words she didn’t know by using the Dictionary for Primary School Students, and her husband also taught her to recognize words, she studied slowly but seriously. Unfortunately, her husband (my cousin) got scared by the persecution and stopped her from learning more.
My elder sister was brainwashed by the CCP’s propaganda and misunderstood Falun Dafa at first. When I went to her home, she appeared unhappy. When I clarified the truth to her, she turned away from me. Later, she saw that I had resolved all of the bad karmic relationships from my past. She finally told me: “Your bad temper is gone, and you gained good health. This practice is really good.”
I brought her some truth-clarification materials and she accepted them. She shared her thoughts with me after reading them. I asked her to pass them on to her children and hang them on the neighbor’s door after reading them so that more people could learn the truth, and she did. In particular, she read the book, Recalling Master’s Grace and said to me: “You should distribute this book to more people, it is very touching.” Her son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and son-in-law all signed the 2015 lawsuit against Jiang (the former CCP head who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong). Now her family is doing really well.
I was the youngest daughter in my family. My father worked out of town, and my four elder sisters attended schools out of town and worked at other places. My mother took care of me, she didn’t want me to do anything, and she gave me everything I asked for. My father once said to me: “Your mother spoiled you, you will suffer in the future.” I didn’t understand what he meant, and why he wouldn’t want his daughter to live a blessed life.
When I got married, all I thought about was that my husband should treat me as well as my mother did, but things didn’t happen as I had expected. What was even more annoying was that when I was angry, my husband had no idea where my anger came from, and he often got confused. He prepared the meal and asked me to eat, I was cool at the first moment and I scolded him. When I was in a good mood, he would jokingly call me “always right.” Our marriage was rocky for many years, and the two of us really suffered a lot.
After practicing Dafa, I kept reminding myself: He is the first person I face every day, he is the one I am in contact with the most every day, the home is where I don’t hide true thoughts and acts, thus most of my attachments are reflected in the trivial matters of the family. I must cultivate myself well starting from treating people around me well.
Even though I understood this principle of the Fa, it was not so easy to truly follow it. Figuratively speaking, one-meter-deep ice is not frozen in one day. I could not figure out some attachments, and some had become habits, and words of blame and complaint would slip out of my mouth accidentally. In the process of cultivating myself, I experienced much heart-wrenching pain and inner struggle. But as long as I truly cultivate, benevolent Master will help me get rid of the bad things in me.
Gradually, I changed my attitude, and I would apologize to my husband if I did something wrong. Every morning, he woke up later than I did. I would prepare him warm water for washing and breakfast, and I did it every day, just like my mother did for me when I was a child. In the recent one or two years, his teeth started getting loose, and considering his needs became my first choice when buying food, and I tried to eat the leftover dishes. If I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I was moved when I read in the book “Recalling Master’s Grace” that Master ate leftover noodles and soup that were left by practitioners.
The year before last, my niece gave me a goose-down quilt. I told my husband: “This is for you.” Two years later, I suddenly realized that I had been just fine with the cold weather. I used to use an electric mat to warm my feet every night when I went to bed in winter, but I haven’t used it for the past two years. I didn’t feel cold even in freezing temperatures while doing the exercises.
One day, a thought entered my mind: selflessness—goose-down quilt. I suddenly understood that merciful Master saw that I considered others first in this matter, and took away my fear of the cold. This made me understand and experience that a small change in my mind is an improvement in my xinxing, and at the same time, the body is transformed into a divine one. The wonder of cultivation lies in every little thing.
While studying the Fa, I often thought: “Master, I wish I could have cultivated in Falun Dafa sooner. After studying Master’s lectures in various places, I really began to change my human notions and realize that marriage is arranged by Gods, and women are supposed to be gentle and virtuous. I learned to put myself in others’ shoes, think about others, and I gradually corrected my behavior. Inspired by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, by changing myself, I made my family life more harmonious.
I would really like more people who don’t understand Falun Dafa to find a chance to read the main book of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun. It is a book that has changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people, which is what we have been waiting millions of years for, and is the source of true happiness in life.