(Minghui.org) I am a female Falun Dafa practitioner from a rural area in northeast China. I thank Master Li for changing my life and guiding me on the path of cultivation. I also thank the practitioners who have supported me in my cultivation.
I Saw Hope after I Began to Cultivate
I only attended school on and off for two years. At the age of 10, I had to take care of my younger brother and cook for my entire family. My mother and sister worked in the fields of a production team. During lunch breaks, I would go with my mother to gather pigweed and cook pig feed in the afternoon. Despite my age, I was busy all the time.
During the Cultural Revolution, the production team destroyed my mother’s dowry, a set of mirrors depicting “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea.” They said they were “superstitious.” They confiscated our sheep, claiming that we were “engaging in a side business.” We later heard that the sheep were secretly divided among the leaders of the production team. My mother was so angry that she suffered a mental breakdown. My sister often had to take her to seek treatment. So, at the age of 13, I had to do the work of an adult in the fields. Due to overwork as I was still growing, my finger joints became deformed and I cannot straighten them to this day.
At the age of 22, I married a man my uncle introduced me to, saying that he was clever. Only after we married did I realize he was addicted to gambling, and indeed he was clever at it—so much so that he would ignore everything else when he was gambling. When our house was being built, he was nowhere to be found. I had to transport the tiles for the eaves of the house and two kangs (traditional Chinese beds) by bicycle, making two trips until I couldn’t pedal anymore. Fortunately, a neighbor was passing by and helped me.
On the first day of the 1999 Chinese New Year, my neighbor played the video lectures of Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, for us. My little son pulled me over to watch, and I was transfixed. I thought to myself, “People need divine guidance.” So I started my cultivation journey. I could hardly read, but after I started to read Zhuan Falun, Master gave me wisdom, and soon I could recognize all the characters in the book.
One morning after I returned home from the Falun Dafa exercise site, my husband told me that he had dreamed of a pen and a notebook stuck on the door of our house. He asked if it was a sign that he should cultivate, too. After he began to practice Falun Dafa, he stopped gambling. We went out to promote Dafa together and worked together. Finally, my life became hopeful.
However, on July 20, 1999, six months after I started to cultivate, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated the persecution of Falun Dafa. The local authorities demanded we hand in our Dafa books, but I didn’t turn in a single one. As I read at home, I could truly feel the profound principles of the Fa, that my energy was growing in an upward spiral outside of my body. I thought to myself, “I am determined to walk this path. No matter what happens, I will never give up Dafa cultivation.”
My husband, other practitioners, and I began validating the Fa in different ways. There were no truth-clarification materials available then, so one of us rode a motorcycle around the surrounding areas, leaving “Falun Dafa Is Good” messages along the entire main street. We had bought colored paper and glue and written those words on the paper that was posted.
A practitioner from another area went down that street when he came to see us. He told us that he heard Falun Dafa music playing the length of the street. The police station told the chief in their canteen to go get rid of those messages. My husband saw him and asked him to come see us.
We explained the truth of Falun Dafa and offered him something to eat. We told him that he should not do things that damage Dafa because it was not good for him. He understood and said, “I once passed out while playing the flute in the funeral band. That was retribution, right? I will not do this job of taking down Falun Dafa posters anymore, no matter how much they pay me.”
Rescuing My Husband from the Labor Camp
My husband and other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa and were arrested in October 2000. When I heard about it, I knew that the authorities would search our home, so I quickly hid all of our Dafa books. I only copied down the sentence “Zhen-Shan-Ren is the Sole Criterion to Discern Good and Bad People” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun) on a piece of paper and put it in a drawer.
When they came to search the house, they found only that piece of paper. They picked it up and read it out loud, saying it was evidence. I spoke up confidently about the goodness of Falun Dafa. They said they learned from what I told them and left without searching further.
I went to the labor camp where my husband was being held to demand his release. The police said that he would not be released unless he agreed to stop practicing Falun Dafa. Although I didn’t get him out that day, I was happy that he had not renounced Dafa.
When it was time to plant, my brother-in-law and several relatives went with me to ask for my husband’s release again. I told the head of the labor camp that I needed my husband to help sow the fields. The head looked at my relatives and said, “You can help her. Those who practice Falun Dafa are good people.” In fact, some police officers knew that Dafa practitioners were good and were just passively enforcing the CCP’s persecution policies.
I kept going back and forth between the labor camp and my hometown, until the labor camp eventually agreed to release my husband, pending a signature from the local police station. I went to the police station several times to get the signature, but they kept postponing it, using a number of excuses.
I knew that they wanted to extort money from me. My eldest sister-in-law complained that I was stingy for not giving them a “gift,” saying, “How can you get anything done these days without offering a gift?” I knew clearly that under no circumstances should I give them any money. If the police succeeded in extorting money from me, they would extort money from other practitioners as well, bringing more tribulations to themselves. I kept going to them and telling them the truth about Falun Dafa, and they finally signed the release form.
Throughout the process of rescuing my husband, I was not afraid and clarified the truth wherever I went. Surprisingly, no one ever asked me if I practiced Falun Dafa, nor did anyone give me trouble for speaking the truth about Dafa. I also retrieved my husband’s confiscated motorcycle. My understanding is that, as practitioners, why should we, who are righteous, fear something that is unrighteous? I have been steadily walking on the path of Fa-rectification cultivation.
After more than six months, my husband was released from the labor camp. Although he returned home, the police kept harassing us. While we were asleep, several officers climbed over our courtyard wall and entered our house in the middle of the night. I demanded to know what they intended to do. They said they were there to see if we had gone to Beijing. This is the bandit-like behavior of the so-called “people’s police” under the rule of the CCP!
Constant harassment left my husband in fear, unable to break free from the trauma of the persecution he endured in the labor camp. Slowly, he distanced himself from Dafa and eventually returned to his old gambling habit. After gambling away all our family property, he passed away. Falun Dafa had made my husband a better person, but the CCP pulled him back, leading to his demise. If the CCP isn’t an evil Party, what is it? It is inevitable that heaven will destroy it.
Clarifying the Truth and Saving People While Doing Business
After paying off my husband’s gambling debts in 2009, our family was left with nothing. I left the countryside on my own and went to the small town where I now live. I rented a rundown house and bought a small cart to make a living selling goods. I was almost 50, with no education, no startup capital, and no man to help. I also had to support a son in college. One can only imagine how difficult it was. However, Master looks after true practitioners. I earned a living by selling whatever I could. I brought soybeans and sunflower seeds from my hometown to sell. While the other vendors around me had time on their hands, I was really busy. People around me were curious and came to see what I was selling so quickly. It took six years, but I put my son through college and bought an apartment. During that time, my health kept improving. Looking back, I couldn’t have done any of that without Master’s compassion. It was a true miracle.
After I moved here, I quickly connected with local practitioners and joined their efforts to help Master save people. To distribute truth-clarification materials, I usually chose high-rise apartment buildings, leaving low rise buildings and houses for older practitioners. In one high-rise building with an elevator, I went all the way up to the top floor but found that the entrance door to the floor was locked. I silently asked Master for help to open those doors. As I walked down from the top floor, I was astonished to find that all the entrance doors were open. As I left materials at every single apartment, tears welled up in gratitude to Master.
While I was distributing materials one night, someone started to follow me. Just as I turned into the alley that led to my place, the person following me was out of sight, and my door automatically opened. If I had had to pull out my key to open the door, the person following me might have caught me. Master protected me once again.
When doing business, I took the opportunity to clarify the truth in person. A distant niece from my hometown had complications from breast cancer and uterine cancer. When I saw her, she was emaciated. I told her about Dafa and shared my personal experiences as examples. Seeing my how my health had improved, she sincerely believed in Dafa and recited “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” every day. When I saw her a month later, she had recovered from her cancer and gained weight, and her face was glowing.
A man in his 60s who lived in my neighborhood suffered from many ailments and had spent over 200,000 yuan on treatment but saw no improvement. I told him about Dafa and gave him an amulet. He also sincerely recited “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” His health soon began to improve. He found me at the market and asked me to help him quit the CCP and the Youth League he’d joined while in the army. Now, he is glowing with health and feels light and free of illness.
A woman nearly 90 stopped taking medication after hearing the truth about Dafa from me. She even started telling her family the truth, and now she is very energetic and walks around the market by herself.
A couple of retired teachers came to buy things from my stall. When I told them about Dafa, the man said, “The CCP pays my salary.” I gave him two books to read: the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and The Ultimate Goal of Communism. When he came back to my stall, he said, “I read those books. It turns out the CCP has no redeeming qualities!” He quit the CCP and gave the books to his wife. After reading them, she changed as well. Now, both of them are glowing with health.
When people understand the truth, Master bestows great blessings upon them. Falun Dafa truly is the Buddha Fa that saves people. Those who still don’t understand the truth need to hurry up and learn it. Especially today, it may be your only hope for salvation!
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
