(Minghui.org) I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for more than 20 years. Sadly, I wasn’t very diligent—I had many human attachments and notions that I needed to eliminate, and I stumbled and stepped away from the cultivation path. I’ve come this far only because benevolent Master didn’t give up on me. Other Falun Dafa practitioners quickly passed their tribulations, but it took me much longer to get over them.
Beginning Practice of Falun Dafa
I began practicing Falun Dafa in September 1998. At that time, I was tormented by a variety of illnesses and tremendous suffering. I had rhinitis and had to breathe with my mouth open every day. I couldn’t sleep on my back at night because I couldn’t breathe. Neurasthenia kept me up all night. I also had migraine headaches, stomachaches, back pain, and I couldn’t stand up straight. I sometimes had difficulty walking, and had to be helped by my family. I was only in my 30s, but I felt continuously depressed.
Once when I was getting ready to visit a hospital for treatment, my mother said, “You always go to the hospital, but your illnesses never get better. Please try practicing Falun Dafa with me.” I immediately agreed. After I studied the Fa and did the exercises I recovered from all my illnesses.
My family was very happy for me. They witnessed how miraculous and extraordinary Falun Dafa is, and my husband and daughter began practicing. My husband gave up smoking, and his chronic upset stomach and inability to eat raw or cold food disappeared. My daughter’s frequent high fevers and tonsillitis also disappeared. Master completely transformed my family’s outlook on life.
Prior to cultivation, I had a huge fight with my husband’s family because my daughter was beaten by her cousin. Because she was beaten every day when she came home from school, she was afraid to go to school. I wanted to reason things out with them, but my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law attacked me.
My father-in-law favors boys over girls. My husband has two brothers, and one of them had a son. The family doted on him, and the child hit his father and scolded his mother. He also often beat the other village children.
He grabbed a bamboo stick and stabbed my daughter’s cheek. She bled profusely, but my father-in-law told her it didn’t hurt. My father-in-law slapped my face, and I became deaf in one ear. My husband’s older brother and younger sister grabbed my hair and threw me to the ground, then beat and kicked me. From then on, we had a grudge and didn’t speak to each other for five years. Because I was narrow-minded and couldn’t let go of the grievances I suffered, I always wanted to take revenge on them and vent my anger.
After I began practicing Dafa I understood the karmic relationships between people. One has to pay for the karma they created, lifetime after lifetime. Reading the Dafa teachings helped eliminate all my thoughts about revenge. It was as if my soul was redeemed, and I gradually got rid of my bad thoughts. I decided to get along with my in-laws and told them I could only do this because I practiced Falun Dafa. They respected Dafa and I later helped them renounce their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Validating Dafa
After former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution against Dafa I was persecuted and our home was repeatedly ransacked. Because my husband was concerned that it would impact our family, especially our daughter, he stopped practicing. He urged me to stop practicing. I told him, “Master healed me without seeking a penny. I will not renounce Falun Dafa.” He knew the facts about the persecution and no longer said anything.
I was in great pain seeing that Master and Falun Dafa were being slandered, and people believed the CCP lies. I began to clarify the facts to everyone I knew. I told them that what was shown on TV was lies, and about how I became a good person through practicing Dafa, and resolved my family tribulations. I also pointed out the health benefits I received. The people I talked to gradually understood the truth.
I bought some red paper slips and wrote on them the phrases “Falun Dafa is good!” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” with a marker. My mother and I put them up. I also wrote “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are the universe’s principles” on notes, and my mother put them up at the entrance of the village school where my sister lived. My mother said that it shone with a golden light, and I was very encouraged to hear this.
My mother held no fear. She is in her 70s and walked so fast that even young people couldn’t keep up with her. One night, my mother posted notes reading, “Falun Dafa is good!” in several neighborhoods around the big market. She put up 70-80 copies without feeling tired. I understood that Master was empowering her.
When my mother went to the market to talk to people, she always helped a few people quit the CCP organizations. She had only a very limited education. Thus, she brought a paper and pen and asked people to write down their names. Most people used their real names to quit the CCP.
My mother experienced great eliminations of karma three times. She never took her suffering as an illness, as she understood that Master was eliminating karma for her. She quickly passed the tribulation the first two times, but when her heart was affected it lasted seven days. When my sister saw how much pain she was in, she wanted to take her to a hospital.
My mother shook her head and said, “No, don’t be scared. Master is helping me eliminate karma.” I helped her by sending forth righteous thoughts, and read the Fa to her. Her pain finally stopped on the seventh day. After that, she was like a completely changed person. The age spots on her face gradually faded, her grey hair turned black, and she resumed having her period. Her body transformed into that of a young person. She was so happy that she couldn’t express it in words. She thanked Master every day, and our friends and family witnessed how miraculous Falun Dafa is.
Setting Up a Materials Production Site
We went to the village to talk to people, but we had a shortage of informational Dafa materials. A practitioner asked me to be in charge of making them, but I refused. I said I had only attended school up to grade four and didn’t know any English. I thought that I wasn’t smart enough to handle the task.
But she encouraged me by saying that as long as I had the heart for saving people, Master would help me. I realized that I shouldn’t be blocked by regular people’s notions. So without discussing it with my husband, I brought a printer home. This really annoyed him. He refused to listen to anything I said, and had a huge fight with me.
I calmed down and patiently talked to him about the urgency of saving sentient beings. In the end, he stopped saying anything. So, empowered by Master, and with the help of my daughter, I learned to print materials, make DVDs, print truth-clarification sticky notes, copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, the Minghui Journals and the Minghui Weekly. I supplied other practitioners with Dafa informational materials. No matter how tired I was after coming home from work, I did my best to make and deliver materials to other practitioners. There was no longer an issue of shortage of materials.
My daughter always ranks among the top in school, and I never have to worry about her. If a machine broke down, she helped fix it. If I ran into big issues, I asked a fellow practitioner for help.
I later gained more experience in machine repair. My daughter often reminded me that I should cultivate my xinxing and find my own shortcomings when the machines had issues. It was true—when I looked inward, the machine would be fixed. Sometimes, when my daughter saw that I was too busy, she helped me make materials and take care of household chores.
Persecuted
With the increased workload of making materials, I sometimes couldn’t calm down when reading the Fa. Due to my strong attachment to doing things, I was persecuted. I was arrested when I talked to people about Falun Dafa. With Master’s help, my husband and another practitioner’s husband were able to move the printers.
However, my husband subsequently tried to stop me from going out to clarify the facts to people, and from handing out or making informational materials. He had a temper tantrum every time I came home late, and sometimes hit me. I understood he was afraid that I would be arrested.
My repeated arrests left a shadow on my husband’s heart, and he was unable to calm down. He also threatened me by saying that if I began making materials again, he’d divorce me. He called my sister and told her. She was so worried about my relationship with my husband, so she asked me to leave the printer at her house. So I had to go to her home whenever I needed to make materials.
I was handing out informational brochures at the market one day in July 2016, and happened to hand one to the chief of the local police station. I was arrested again. This impacted several people, including fellow practitioners, my sister, and my daughter, who had an argument with the police officers when she tried to rescue me. They were all framed, and I was illegally detained for 15 days.
This painful lesson made me look inward: What attachments got me into this tribulation? It came down to my strong attachments, such as to doing things, being unable to keep a calm mind when I studied the Fa, treating how many things I’ve done as a measure of my cultivation, as opposed to solidly cultivating my xinxing. I also couldn’t do the exercises every day.
I didn’t let go of my sentimentality towards my daughter and mother. I developed resentment to my husband and I was indignant that my husband tried to control me. I looked down on him, and was suspicious, fearful, jealous, and filled with vanity. I also had a subtle ego. I didn’t think from the other person’s perspective, and always thought that others hurt me.
I realized that I had strayed too far from Dafa. I felt that because I hadn’t done well, I caused losses to Dafa, and brought trouble and pain to other practitioners and my family. No wonder my husband behaved like he did. I always thought that he was blocking my path of saving people, and I even thought about leaving him. I hadn’t cultivated myself in the Fa, and I let down Master and Dafa.
Cultivation is serious. Only by cultivating myself well can I truly save people.
Master is Developing Every Practitioner
The police thought an elderly practitioner was the person in charge of our local area, and wanted to persecute her as a key member. They took her to the municipal detention center, and threatened to sentence her. Practitioners in the city immediately wrote a truth-clarification letter, and contacted local practitioners to coordinate with them. A practitioner talked to me, and asked me to go with her family to demand her release.
I excused myself at first, saying that I was uneducated, knew nothing about the law, and didn’t want to go. But this practitioner said, “You are the best person to handle it.” He also encouraged me and said that the other practitioners would help me by sending forth righteous thoughts. Another practitioner in the city was arrested. His wife, who was a non-practitioner, wanted to rescue him. Her determination encouraged me. I thought, “Wasn’t I even as good as a regular person?” I decided to go with the elderly practitioner’s family to demand her release.
The elderly practitioner’s husband, son, younger sister, and I went to the procuratorate, and clarified the truth to them. The person in charge of the elderly practitioner’s case refused to see us. We kept returning until she finally agreed to see us.
We gave her the materials and advised her not to persecute Falun Dafa or practitioners, and that practitioners were being framed. We asked her to uphold justice and leave herself a way out. However, she kept repeating the CCP lies.
We talked to whoever we could at court. By doing this, we eliminated our fear and selfish desire to protect ourselves. We thanked Master for his empowerment.
We talked to the elderly practitioner’s family about hiring a lawyer. However, her son said that she would be sentenced anyway, and it would cost a lot of money. I talked to my daughter, and she said she would pay for the lawyer. I also talked with the elderly practitioner’s husband and son. In the end, we agreed to hire a lawyer with a sense of justice.
It was bright, hot, and humid on the day of the trial. The practitioner’s family, I, and another practitioner went to the hotel to meet with the lawyer. I thanked him for being courageous enough and pleading not-guilty for this practitioner, despite the CCP’s pressure. We made it clear what we were trying to achieve, and agreed to a not-guilty appeal. The lawyer agreed.
The court didn’t allow her family or me to sit in the courtroom. So another practitioner and I sat in the car and sent righteous thoughts.
At lunch time, we saw that the lawyer and the practitioner’s family were smiling. He said, “I could feel the power of your sending righteous thoughts. If more people did that, it would have been even stronger.” We were so encouraged by that, and sent the message to the other practitioners. This was truly a battle between good and evil. Every practitioner was filled with righteous thoughts.
The trial continued that afternoon and didn’t concluded until 6 p.m. The defense was successful. It clarified from a legal perspective that practising Falun Dafa wasn’t against the law, and actually benefited society and humankind, but fabricating lies and persecuting practitioners was against the law. The lawyer asked to release the practitioner unconditionally without charging her. No verdict was announced during the trial. Pressured by the 610 Office, the court sentenced her to a 16-month term, which was the shortest for a wrongful conviction at the time.
I came home very late. The first thing my husband asked was, “How did the trial go?” He also told me that he sent righteous thoughts. I was tempered in this trial, which helped eliminate a lot of my attachments. I knew that Master was developing every practitioner. There are no words to express my gratitude to Master.
I still have many shortcomings. I will cultivate myself well, develop compassion, treat everyone kindly, and clarify the facts to people to save more sentient beings. I will rectify myself, and follow Master to return to my true home.
I thank compassionate Master on behalf of my family.
Heshi!
Category: Cultivation Insights
