(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in May 1997 and now I am 80 years old. Before the practice, I suffered from many ailments such as rheumatic heart disease, coronary heart disease, neurasthenia, and kidney diseases. No improvement came of long-term medications and treatments. In 1997, I suddenly suffered serious coughing that would not stop. I went to see a doctor and was told that I had lung cancer. I became emaciated. I couldn't walk normally and lost my sense of taste. I was hospitalized, but the doctor couldn't do anything to help and had to discharge me.

The president of the hospital told my daughter that I only had a matter of days to live. When I got home, my neighbor told me someone gave her some books and she couldn't read them. I borrowed the books (Zhuan Falun, Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa and some of Teacher's other writings from her.

I started reading the books on my bed. The more I read, the more energetic I became. I finished Zhuan Falun in two days. My neighbor told me she also had an exercise diagram. I borrowed that as well and asked my wife to learn the exercises with me. I read the instructions under the diagram and she followed them. After two times, we remembered most of them. This is how I first began studying the Fa and practicing the exercises. After the practice, we both felt very relaxed. My wife had suffered from liver cancer, but she quickly recovered. We both enlightened that Falun Dafa is not an ordinary technique, but a high-level cultivation practice.

Soon, we were going out on the street to tell elderly people who were sick to practice Falun Dafa with us. We got over a dozen people to join us on the first day. We taught them the exercises. Two weeks later, we invited some assistants from other regions to come and show us Master's video lectures and exercises. We also got everyone a copy of Zhuan Falun . Then, we established our group Fa study and practice site. We studied the Fa for two hours daily at 2 p.m., and practiced the exercises daily at 3 a.m. Everyone's illnesses disappeared quickly. Many of our elderly practitioners were then able to help with household chores, which they would never have dreamed of before. We all felt the joy of not having any illnesses. In 1999, we had over 200 practitioners in our town alone, in a county with a population of only 1,000.

After the evil Chinese Communist Party started cracking down on Falun Dafa, we started practicing the exercises, studying the Fa and sharing at our homes instead of doing it outside. We collaborate with each other in distributing truth-clarification materials, hanging banners and convincing people to quit the CCP. We all follow Master's teachings closely and try to do the three things well. In 2008, I established a truth-clarification material production site at my home. We have stumbled, gotten up, and moved forward amidst the evil's persecution.

My wife and I started to burn truth-clarification disks from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 17, 2012. After we ate lunch, I started to feel dizzy, weak, and coughed a lot. I went to bed to rest and it got worse. I experienced high fever, repeated coughing, and I vomited white foam. My breath was short and rapid. I felt tired and I couldn't close my mouth to keep breathing. I couldn't move, and coughed up a lot of phlegm. My mouth was very dry and I had to drink a lot of water. I needed my wife's help to do anything. I couldn't walk or talk. I had to use hand gestures to communicate. I didn't eat anything for three days and stopping going to the toilet for eight days. But my logical thinking and senses were clear. I knew it was the evil interfering with me.

I quietly tried to look inward. I thought to myself that I must have loopholes that the evil was taking advantage of. I forced myself not to acknowledge or cooperate with it. As I kept looking inward, I told Master that I wouldn't acknowledge the evil's interference and asked Master to strengthen me to dismantle it.

Three weeks passed. My face looked pale and disfigured. Because I didn't study the Fa, practice the exercise, or eat anything, I was emaciated. Some practitioners from our practice site came to see me. They brought me a DVD player and played Master's lectures for me. They helped by sending forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference. They also studied the Fa and shared with me. But they thought what happened to me was too sudden. Because I couldn't move, eat or sleep, some practitioners seemed to lose hope and confidence in me.

It was the Qingming Festival and our children came home from out of town to visit. Seeing me in this condition, they didn't want to leave, and were ready to prepare for my death. I insisted that they leave. My oldest son left, but my third daughter didn't want to go. She cried and wanted to stay so she could take care of me for a few more days. I told her that I was fine and didn't need to be taken care of. I said I wouldn't die.

I calmly recited Master's poem “Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” (Hong Yin Vol. II) :

“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship Having forged an adamantine will Free of attachment to living or dying He walks the path of Fa-rectification confident and poised”

In the poem “The Master-Disciple Bond” (Hong Yin Vol. II) , Master wrote:

“When disciples have ample righteous thoughts Master has the power to turn back the tide”

In “Dafa Disciples’ Righteous Thoughts are Powerful” (Essentials for Further Advancement II) , Master said:

“No matter what the situation, do not cooperate with the evil’s demands, orders, or what it instigates.”

As I recited the Fa, I became more energetic. I began to understand why Master talked about “not cooperating” with the evil. I thought to myself: Have I cooperated with the evil? Have I walked my Fa-rectification path in a confident and poised manner? Actually, I had unwittingly cooperated with the evil, because truly “not cooperating” is disintegrating it.

In “Drive Out Interference” (Essentials for Further Advancement II) , Master said

“The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts.”

I thought to myself: “I must negate the evil's arrangement and follow what Master wants with confidence and poise. I must start now.” I began to study the Fa and asked my wife to help me sit up. When we studied the Fa together, she read the Fa out loud, while I read the Fa silently. We studied the Fa every day. After three days, I could read the Fa out loud, and hold the book in my hand. When it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, I asked my wife to help me sit up.

I began to eat at meal times. When I had been very sick, I could only eat a little banana and a few spoonfuls of egg soup. Now, I needed to have determination. I must force myself to eat, even though it was hard to taste. I ate fruits and lotus roots even though they tasted bitter, spicy and pungent. My stomach couldn't even handle rice porridge. I told the molecules in my body, “You are also a part of my body. You must cooperate with me in validating the Fa. By eating, you are disintegrating the evil's persecution. And you will have a good future. Even though it is hard to eat, you must eat. You have to sustain my body and other sentient being in it.” Gradually, I could eat more and the food tasted better.

For the Qingming Festival, many people came home from out of town to sweep the graves of their ancestors. There were not enough truth-clarification materials such as brochures and Shen Yun disks to meet the demand for these people. My wife rushed to make truth-clarification materials and didn't sleep for three days. Meanwhile, she spent a lot of time taking care of me. I felt extremely guilty that I was a burden to her and couldn't help. I said to myself, “The evil persecutes me right when it is most critical to save more people. It wants to destroy sentient beings. When we save them, the evil meddles with us. If I just lay in bed, it means I acknowledge the evil's persecution. If I do nothing but interfere with my wife, won't the evil achieve its goal in ruining me and other sentient beings? I am a Dafa disciple and the things I do are to validate Dafa. I must not show my weakness when faced with the evil.” I sternly warned the evil, “Even if I have loopholes, I am still a cultivator. I will let go of my attachments using the power of the Fa. My Master will take care of me. No evil being is worthy of interfering with me. Otherwise, I will disintegrate you. I want to be a disciple with dignity, not a demon trying to sabotage the Fa. You must leave me alone now, otherwise I will eliminate you.”

I remembered what Master said in Zhuan Falun :

“I say that they are not formidable and are nothing before a true practitioner. Though you may find one that has practiced cultivation for nearly one thousand years, a tiny finger will be more than enough to crush it.”

I told Master, “Master, I was wrong. I didn't listen to your words. I have fallen, but I will pick myself up and do what it is right from now on.”

I wanted badly to get up on my own, so I asked my wife to prop me up. I tried to stand up but my legs were too feeble to support my weight, let alone walk. I asked my wife to hold my arm again, thinking that no matter how hard it is, I must walk. After I took a few steps, I started to cough and got so tired. I told my wife that it was time to save more beings, and that she must not let me interfere. She had to supply materials to save sentient beings. I asked her to allow me to help burn the disks, so that she could concentrate on making the pamphlets and weekly magazines. Initially, she did not agree. But then I told her that burning more disks is a serious matter and I must do it. I laid down on my bed, and with the help of my desk, I started to make Shen Yun and other disks. I made about 17 VCDs and 9 DVD in one hour. I could burn about 300 VCDs in one night. Although my pace was quite slow, we were able to meet the needs of the practitioners who used them to save more sentient beings.

When it was time for practitioners to practice the exercises globally, I asked my wife to lift me up so that I could sit on my bed to do the practice. I found that I couldn't do it because the bed seemed very shaky. I thought that the cushion must have some problem so I changed it for another cushion, but it got worse. I enlightened that Master didn't want me to sit on my bed to practice the exercises, and that I must stand up. So I asked my wife to hold my arms so that I could stand up. My legs were too weak to support the weight of my upper body, so I leaned my knees against the edge of the mattress to help me stand.

When I practiced the first set of exercises, the stretching movement made me so tired that I needed to take deep breaths. Sweat poured out all over my body. My feet were pulled downward by a force and shook. I stopped and sat to rest for a while. It took me 30 minutes to finally finish the first exercise. The second set was so difficult that I skipped it. When I practiced the third set, I was so tired that I could hardly breathe. When I did the fourth set, I felt okay when I squatted down to make the circle, but when I came up, I felt as if I ran out of breath. My sweat was like rain. I only meditated for about 30 minutes. This was the first night I tried to do the practice since the interference began. One day later, I told myself that I didn't finish all the exercises the first night, although I had made some progress. Tonight, I would finish every set.

In Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York, Master said:

“If a cultivator can truly let go of [the fear of] death, then that death will forever be far removed from you.”

In “Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions” (Hong Yin Vol. II) , Master said:

“A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship Having forged an adamantine will”

I told myself: “I won't give up on doing the practice just because it is hard to do. If I'm not even afraid of dying, why should I be afraid of anything?” When it was time to practice the exercises, I slowly got up by myself. I didn't need the help of my wife, nor did I lean against the edge of the mattress. I stood up normally. I asked Master to reinforce me and swore to Him that I would finish practicing all of the exercises no matter what. Although I was exhausted and sweat covered every inch of my flesh, I managed to finish almost all the exercises except the fourth set, which I only practiced one out of the three times. The third night, when I did the practice, sweat soaked my body again. But this time I finished all of the exercises without stopping in the middle.

I continued practicing the exercise every night. From sitting 30 minutes in meditation, I finally managed to sit for an hour. I tried to walk around the house without the help of my wife and do things on my own. Seven days later, I was able to make truth clarification materials without anyone's help. Two weeks later, I could go downstairs and walk a few blocks and climbed to the fourth floor. I was recovering very quickly.

Why did this happen to me?

Through Fa study and looking within, I came to understand why I was persecuted by the evil in the form of sickness karma. Some of the reasons were that I only pursued quantity in my Fa study as opposed to studying it with a calm and sacred heart. I had too many ordinary people's notions and attachments such as showing off, complacency, jealousy, fighting and lust. I was often interfered with by the “no second cultivation way.” Additionally, when the Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai incident came out, I developed the attachment of dependence on others, thinking that the red beast (Chinese Communist Party) was killing itself. I went online every day trying to search for articles to share with other practitioners. I completely lost the state of a genuine cultivator, and interfered with other practitioners. Because of this, I had delayed saving more sentient beings. This was a serious problem, and a huge loophole!

In fact, whatever happens on this earth is arranged by Master, who creates opportunities for us to upgrade our xinxing, save more sentient beings, and build up our mighty virtue. How can we depend on ordinary people to do anything? After I dug out my attachments, I felt so sad for my lack of diligence that tears washed my face. I found that I still have so many attachments even after over a dozen years of cultivation in Dafa. Nevertheless, I was determined to get rid of them.

In fact, as soon as the sickness demon interfered with me, I should have negated it and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate it. I should have studied the Fa instead of falling into my bed. When I went to my bed, it meant that I wanted to cooperate with the evil. When the evil made me feel tired, I didn't want to move and forgot about doing the “three things.” When the evil made me unable to talk, I used hand gestures. When the evil made me unable to taste, I stopped eating. If I don't practice the exercises or study the Fa, I am just an ordinary person. Can an ordinary person live if he stops eating? What I did was actually cooperating with the evil. That's why I was persecuted. I invited it and wasted a month of time. If it weren't for Master's compassion and care, I would have fallen into the evil's trap. How dangerous!

The reason I am writing this sharing is to tell practitioners who suffer from sickness karma that they shouldn't passively cooperate with the evil. A human or god, it is determined by one thought. If we truly stand firmly by the Fa and eliminate the evil's interference with our righteous thoughts and actions, it becomes nothing. The more righteous our thoughts, the quicker we can eliminate it. I have let Master down. But I promise Master that from now on, I am determined to get rid of my human attachments and walk well on my cultivation path. I will always look inward and strive to become a selfless person who always puts others' interests first. I will cherish the last leg of our journey, study the Fa and do the “three things” well, fulfill my historic vow and return home with Master.

I didn't have a lot of schooling and this is my first sharing ever submitted. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.