(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1996, and I’m now 60 years old. For more than ten years, practitioners came to my place to read the Fa every day, except Chinese New Year’s Eve. My neighbors know that practitioners are good people, so they all quietly protect us. I’d like to share the following story of treating neighbors kindly even though they were unfriendly.
My family lives on the sixth floor. My neighbors on the third floor are an old couple, and they’re both 81 years old. The man was a soldier when he was young. After leaving the army, he became an atheist and believed that gun power gave people political authority. His wife was the director of the local Women’s Federation. As a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), she is very familiar with the Party’s lies and the methods it uses to persecute people. As the director, she deceived pregnant women into having abortions. Afterwards some of these women became sick, and died. The CCP did not care about nor take responsibility for these wrongdoings.
Because they knew CCP very well, the old couple refused to get vaccinated during the COVID pandemic and warned me not to listen to the CCP’s lies. They said the regime would not help people if the vaccine went wrong. Because they were always in positions of authority they felt they were superior, so they didn’t get along with the other neighbors.
My family hosted group Fa study at a set time every day, and around four to eight practitioners came to our home. The old couple didn’t understand why people came every day, and often blocked practitioners in the stairway, asking them questions and cursing at them. They especially cursed one practitioner who was humble and timid. Practitioners collectively sent righteous thoughts toward the couple to remove interference from other dimensions. We knew we should follow what Master taught, about being kind to others even if they aren’t good to us.
Although they were verbally abused by the couple, practitioners had compassion for them and did not argue. Through everyone’s kindly telling them the facts about Falun Dafa, the couple gradually stopped cursing. The practitioners’ peaceful demeanor and kindness finally eliminated their anger and bad words. The lady renounced the CCP and said she knew that Master moved abroad to spread Dafa to the whole world. After we gave her a calendar which had information about Falun Dafa, she asked for one every year.
The old couple recently had some serious illnesses. The man had a stroke. Last year he developed blood clots in his legs and one leg was amputated. Then the other leg was amputated. Their son lives in this community, and their daughter lives nearby. They both work. The son took his father to his home to take care of him. The old lady had diabetes for many years. She also had cataracts, and eventually became blind, but continued to live alone. The daughter was very busy but brought her food in the morning and evening. Whenever the daughter was late, the woman was anxious, thinking that the old man was seriously ill and would have to go back to the hospital. She climbed the stairs to my place on the sixth floor by holding onto the handrail, and asked me to call her children.
One day, after she waited for her daughter to bring food for a very long time, the old lady came upstairs and knocked on my door, and asked me to call her daughter. It turned out that her daughter had gone to the city that day, and she was stuck in traffic. The old lady told her daughter that she was not hungry but wanted to drink hot water so she could take her medicine.
The heat in her place stopped working, so she was very cold, and the water was icy cold. I told her, “Tell your daughter not to worry about delivering food and water today. Don’t I have food and water? You can eat at my place or take it to your apartment.” I wrapped up four vegetarian buns and two bottles of hot water, and helped her get back to her apartment. I told her not to hesitate to come to me when she was hungry or thirsty. After that, the old lady became a frequent visitor. Sometimes, she was lonely and just wanted to talk. I suggested she say, “Falun Dafa is good; Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
At first, I was concerned when she visited frequently because she never took a bath. She smelled so bad that the smell lingered for a long time. She wore a cotton top that looked as shiny as a leather coat because it hadn’t been washed for a long time.
My husband told me to stop helping her. I said, “She’s more than 20 years older than us. We don’t know what we’ll be like when we’re her age. We should be kind to her. I know that nothing practitioners encounter is accidental. This is an opportunity for me to cultivate myself and eliminate my fear of filth, or of being bothered. I should treat the old lady well. In many cultivation stories, the gods who come to the world to save people appear sloppy and dirty, such as the old woman in the story: ‘Red Eyed Stone Lion’ and the old beggar woman Wang Baochuan in the story: ‘Cold Kiln.’ I’ll remind myself that the old neighbor was arranged by Master to give me a chance to improve my cultivation.”
One time, the old lady knocked on my door and said that she was fine but wanted to say thanks and good-bye. Her son had ordered a new bed for her and would soon bring her to his place. She continued, “I’m sorry I kept troubling you. Our families, including our son’s family of three and our daughter’s family of three, a total of eight people, want to thank you. Do you know that you’ve done me a great favor? The water and food you gave me that day saved my life. Your telling me to come to you when I’m thirsty and hungry touched my whole family!”
I replied that she thought too much of it, and I just merely did what I should do as a neighbor. She explained, “Listen to me, I didn’t want to live that day because I felt that my life was a miserable failure. None of my old neighbors talked to me or even said hello to me. The neighbor who lives across from me refused to open the door when I knocked. However, I still have good hearing and I could hear someone moving around in their apartment. I had no choice but to climb up to the sixth floor and find you. I knew that you were a Dafa practitioner so you wouldn’t refuse to open the door or help me. You didn’t let me down. I used to be mean to you and scolded you, but you didn’t bear grudges and continued to treat me so well.”
I said, “I practice Falun Dafa, and listen to Master, so I’m not polluted by society. I live according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and treat others kindly. This is what a cultivator should do.” She asked, “Is your Master still in the U.S.? There are so many practitioners. If someone sees your Master, please send my greetings to him.”
Master, please be assured that I will do well and follow Dafa’s requirements. I should think of others first whenever I encounter issues, and treat people with compassion. I hope people know that they can count on practitioners when they are in difficulty or feel hopeless, and realize that Falun Dafa is their future. I should use my words and deeds to demonstrate the wonders of Dafa to the world and live up to the title, Falun Dafa practitioner.