(Minghui.org) I’m a 72-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner from a rural area. When I first began to practice, it was not for health reasons, as I had always been in great health. I wanted to practice Dafa to become a better person.
My Great Changes
I used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, drink alcohol, and play a lot of mahjong. I had an aggressive personality and was very capable at doing farm work. My husband and the other villagers admired me for that.
I was also great at arguing and fighting. During the off-season, I became addicted to mahjong and often fought with my husband over neglected responsibilities around the house.
One rainy day, I was playing mahjong at someone’s house when my husband came and asked me to help him shovel the grass clippings into the cattle pen. It needed to be done as soon as possible so they wouldn’t get wet. But I didn’t want to go.
After asking me several times, he got angry and swept the mahjong pieces off the table. He then turned around and left. I was furious and embarrassed. I went out, picked up a shovel, and chased him. I couldn’t catch him, so I threw the shovel at him. It almost hit him, which would have been disastrous.
I was still angry after returning home. I packed up my clothes and went to my parents’ house. My husband came over several times to pick me up, but I would not go with him. In the end, he gave in to my demands. He invited those who played mahjong with me to our home and apologized to me in front of everyone.
My husband was educated and kind. He suffered from heart disease and was introduced to Falun Dafa in 1995. After practicing Dafa for a month, his heart disease was gone and he became even kinder. He hoped that I would practice along with him and be a good person according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He said that only practicing Dafa could rid me of my bad temper.
I wanted to be a good person in my heart and was lucky enough to begin practicing in 1996. I had never gone to school and was illiterate, so my husband taught me how to read the Fa. Miraculously, I was eventually able to read the Dafa books on my own. I was determined to be a good person and aimed to be tolerant when encountering conflicts.
When people farm their land, some take advantage of others by encroaching upon land at the boundary line. One of my neighbors was like that. In two years, she did this, little by little, by digging out a ditch at the boundary between our fields. But the ditch was all on my side. This would be intolerable in the eyes of our rural neighbors, because we depend on the land for our livelihood.
I tried to persuade her not to do this, but she cursed me and said that it was me who took her land. I didn’t argue. I just took out a tape measure and measured the boundary in front of her. When she saw that her land was more than a foot wider than mine, she stopped talking. If I were an ordinary person, I would have taken back my land. But I didn’t because, as a Dafa practitioner, I should hold myself to higher principles. Some people were waiting to see us argue, and they couldn’t believe it when I walked away and endured it.
In the past, I spoke in a loud voice and always argued, regardless of whether I was right or not. I realized this was a bad habit I’d developed due to the class-struggle philosophy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and I was determined to get rid of it.
I now speak in a calm tone. That calmness is not something I pretend to have. It comes naturally from my heart. Many people found it difficult to believe that I could change a habit that was developed over decades so quickly. This really showed the mighty power of Dafa!
My changes were quickly known throughout my village and the neighboring villages. They all knew that Dafa practitioners awee good people.
Not Falling Down in the Face of Big Tribulations
Beginning in July 1999, however, such a good practice has been brutally persecuted by the CCP. Many Falun Dafa practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Dafa and restore Master Li’s reputation.
My husband, son, and I went to Beijing to appeal in late 2000. We were arrested, taken back to our village, and illegally detained for several months. After that, I was given two years of forced labor. During this time, my husband was beaten to death by officers from the local police station, and our son became homeless after escaping.
When I returned home, my house was empty, and all our possessions had been taken away. They did not even leave a stool for me to sit on. I almost broke down. But with the help of practitioners and by studying the Fa and doing the exercises, I was able to get through that difficult time.
I began to collect truth-clarification materials that other practitioners had not distributed, including those that my husband had left behind. At night, I carried a large bag of materials and went out to distribute them throughout the village and neighboring villages. I always went out at dark and returned home at dawn.
I did not feel tired even though I had to walk very far. I realized that I should lead other practitioners to do the same, so I took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of becoming a coordinator and worked with fellow practitioners to set up a home-based material-production site. We distributed materials, clarified the truth, and opened up a new cultivation environment.
After years of hard work, most of the villagers and village officials understood the truth about Falun Dafa and quit the CCP and its youth organizations. When village officials saw us hanging banners, they often pretended not to see us. When there were notices from higher-level government officials, they would alert us to be careful.
Just as I was devoting myself to validating the Fa and helping Master to save people, the police destroyed a large material-production site in the city. My son, who had been homeless for many years, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years for helping to produce the materials. This news was a bolt out of the blue! I had missed my son so much. Not only could he not return home, but he would be imprisoned for 10 years. I was so worried about his safety that my heart ached.
Practitioners from the city came to comfort me and shared their understandings based on the Fa, which helped me let go of the pain and despair. From Master’s teachings, I understood the true meaning of life and the sacred mission of Dafa practitioners. My spirits rose, and I stopped obsessing about my son. My son is a fellow practitioner, and he is under Master’s care.
I organized fellow practitioners to study the Fa together. Seeing that I did not fall in the face of great difficulties, the other practitioners were encouraged. Everyone was proactive in validating the Fa, and we were able to create an even better cultivation environment.
I am so grateful to Master for his salvation and compassionate protection. Without his care, I would not have been able to get to this day.
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