(Minghui.org) Greetings, revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I began practicing Falun Gong in 1996, and I am currently 74 years old. Before practicing, I lived in pain, and suffered from many diseases, including problems with my digestive, respiratory, and urinary systems. However, Falun Gong changed my life, and I have witnessed the miracles of Dafa. I felt light-hearted and energetic after I began practicing, and my diseases were cured. Moreover, I could feel the rotation of the Falun in my lower abdomen when I began practicing, which greatly boosted my confidence. For over a dozen years, I have always followed Master’s requirements and have been determined in my cultivation.
Being Persistent in Doing the Three Things When Having Tribulations
Since I came to the United States, I have experienced several tests of severe sickness karma. The most severe was in 2001, with symptoms of hematuria, kidney stones, bladder and lung cancer, and high blood pressure, which lasted for half a year. My son had asked me to go to the hospital many times. I didn't want to fight with him so I went to the hospital, but in my heart I was very determined about practicing cultivation. I thus decided to keep convincing my family, and at the same time I went to the hospital as an opportunity to clarify the truth to the doctors. I told them that Falun Dafa is a cultivation way which has deep roots in traditional Chinese culture, has created many miracles in the field of human science, and has cured many practitioners. Moreover, Falun Dafa emphasizes living a moral life. I persisted in practicing Falun Gong even though I was in the hospital, and with righteous thoughts, persuaded the doctors not to treat me as a normal patient. Surprisingly, my kidney stones and bladder cancer disappeared in only three months, and all the other symptoms disappeared one by one. I witnessed again the magnificent and extraordinary effects of Dafa. Righteous thoughts and righteous deeds helped me to pass the test of illness karma.
In later years, I had high blood pressure twice. Once my systolic blood pressure was as high as 180. Before cultivating, I used to have low blood pressure, so this high blood pressure was clearly interference. I did not acknowledge it. In less than a week, it returned to normal. Another time I had high blood pressure and it was as high as 190, and lasted for one month. During both of these high blood pressure incidents, I maintained strong righteous thoughts to completely negate the interference. I kept doing the three things, every day studied the Fa, did the exercises, and clarified the truth. After that, my high blood pressure never occurred again.
However, I was again attacked by illness karma last year. I had bloody stools for several months, which made me pale, with palpitations, and shortness of breath. My son maintained that I was suffering from anemia, and insisted that I go to the hospital. He made appointments for me to see the doctor, but I canceled them. Despite this, my son was unwilling to give up, and made appointments for me again and again. At last, I had no choice but to go to the hospital. After many physical examinations, I was diagnosed with hemorrhagic anemia. I also had a tumor in my stomach, and the doctor wanted me to have surgery. I thought that even though the exam result was this way, I could choose my treatment methods, and no one could force me to accept any treatment except Dafa. I refused the surgery, persisted in cultivating, and did the three things well. I said to my son, “All my diseases were cured after practicing Dafa, and I believe it will happen this time too.” Due to my strong resistance, I didn’t have the surgery. Although my son respected my choice, he bought me a lot of medicine, which I didn't take. I was determined in my mind to just do the three things well. I kept doing what I needed to do, as if nothing had happened. I studied the Fa, did the exercises, sent forth righteous thoughts during the day, and called China to persuade people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliates (“three withdrawals”) at night. A month later, my son took me to have a re-examination in the hospital. The doctor told me excitedly, “The tumor is gone.”
During this time period no matter what happened, I persisted in studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and calling people in China to clarify the truth. I called people in China to persuade them to do the “three withdrawals” from 2:00 a.m. To 7:00 a.m., even though I had a hard time waking up. To make sure I could get up on time, I set an alarm in the beginning, but I later became used to getting up after midnight, and I woke up on time. My family disagreed with my behavior, and regarded the period of my calling people in China as the prime time for sleep. Amidst the interruptions from my family and the tribulations, I became determined to persist until the end of Fa rectification, because Master told us to save more people.
I Further Realized the Effects of Sending Forth Righteous Thoughts
This had been a tough tribulation, and it lasted a long time. I often felt cold, and many times I also developed a fever. For several years I had always felt colder than others did. I realized that it was because my body was not clean in other dimensions. There were too many evil things there. At the human surface dimension, it manifested as sickness karma. The root was actually from the other dimensions. I could not see anything with my third eye, so I felt a little confused. I shared with other practitioners as I wanted to hear their experiences. With their help, I realized that I needed to pay more attention to sending forth righteous thoughts. We also added contents from Master’s recent lectures to intensify the strength of my righteous thoughts. One fellow practitioner saw Master smiling in his picture and told me the good news. Later, some local practitioners also sent righteous thoughts for me. I also felt Master’s help and could feel the Falun rotating. I was deeply encouraged. I could tell that Master was there beside me. Since 2001, Master has frequently used various ways to remind me to do things that I should do. Many times, Master rang the phone to remind me to do the exercises, to study the Fa, to send forth righteous thoughts, or to make the quitting the CCP phone calls. Master also used my family members to remind me. One day, I overslept and missed the time, and then I heard the phone ring. Master used this way to remind me, to help me directly and indirectly, and to encourage me. In one special case, I had an artificial flower made of cloth, and to my surprise, it suddenly blossomed three petals.
With the help of fellow practitioners, I learned more about sending forth righteous thoughts. Previously, I thought that the evils in other dimensions were always like ghosts and demons. Actually they were not. Sometimes when I wore eye covers and sent righteous thoughts for a longer time, I did see things I couldn’t imagine. I saw things like cartoons, and things like mesh with something like a bird’s nest on them. I saw trunk branches with big black holes and also things like bugs. There were living creatures but I could not name them. Also there were things like strange human figures. I would say “eliminate, eliminate, eliminate.” I also sent out Falun to help, as Faluns can rotate across heaven and earth. Very soon, all the evil disappeared. When fellow practitioners sent righteous thoughts for me, they also saw some bad things, but the evil still existed after fellow practitioners helped. The evil was eliminated in one layer but there were many segments in my dimensional field. Afterwards, whenever I felt cold or had a fever, I sent forth righteous thoughts immediately to eliminate the evil. I then felt much better, warm and comfortable.
Master said,
“Actually, every Dafa disciple has abilities. It’s just that the abilities do not manifest in the surface dimension, so they think that they don’t have supernormal abilities. But regardless of whether they can manifest in the surface dimension or not, when a person’s True Thoughts come forth they are very powerful.” (“Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts are Powerful” from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Master in fact told us how to send forth righteous thoughts in 2001. He has already taught us about this Buddha law’s divine power. However, I still couldn’t do it well for a long time. Since I couldn’t see it, sometimes I didn’t fully realize its existence. Among the three things, sending forth righteous thoughts was the one I paid the least attention to. Although I had been sending forth righteous thoughts every day, I didn’t fully recognize its importance, and I sometimes just did it half-heartedly.
Looking back at this tribulation, I realized that other than eliminating my own karma, persecution from the evil was involved. I really needed to use powerful righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil in other dimensions. I think that sending forth righteous thoughts is the one thing that is the most easily overlooked among the three things. Through this tribulation, I truly learned how to send forth righteous thoughts, and witnessed its powerful effects. Master has asked us to use the Buddha law's divine power to eliminate the evil when sending righteous thoughts, but I didn't do it or the three things well for a long time. By sharing the lessons I learned, I hope it can be of some help to those fellow practitioners who are facing similar issues.
Some of My Understandings
I have overcome many tribulations, and I’ve never wavered in my determination. I treated the tribulations and interference as good things. Because Master once said,
“Whatever you experience during your cultivation--whether good or bad--is good, for it comes about only because you are cultivating.” (“To the Chicago Fa Conference”)
As practitioners, we need to keep righteous thoughts all the time. “Examine each and every deed, Accomplishing is cultivating.” (“Solid Cultivation” from Hong Yin) We need to pay attention to each little step, keep on cultivating solidly and steadfastly, keep cultivating ourselves according to the Fa, search within, eliminate human thoughts and attachments, and melt into the Fa. Cultivating ourselves well is always the most important. I have broken through multiple sickness karma tribulations, and have witnessed, “When disciples have ample righteous thoughts, Master has the power to turn back the tide” (“The Master-Disciple Bond” from Hong Yin Volume II) These are all because of Master’s compassion and the power of the Fa. Through all these experiences I realized that as long as we can study and understand the Fa well, believe in Master and the Fa, keep our righteous thoughts, and do the three things well, we can overcome any tribulation.
Thank you Master! Thank you everyone!
