(Minghui.org) My wife has been practicing Falun Gong for over a decade. I know that Falun Dafa is good. I have been supportive of her all these years when she was persecuted and illegally detained for clarifying the truth. I often tell colleagues and friends that Dafa practitioners are good people. We must treat them kindly. When Dafa disciples come to my house, I try to make things as easy and convenient for them as possible. Yet, I never thought about joining the practice, until one day last September.
It was last July or August when, for no apparent reason, I couldn’t eat all of a sudden. My stomach felt bloated. I suffered from constipation, general weakness, and rapid weight loss. Nothing I tried would effect any cure. One September day, after about eight days without a bowel movement, when my stomach was in such wrenching pain, I had to check myself into the hospital. After a thorough investigation, the doctors concluded that I not only had colon cancer but also that the cancerous cells had already spread to the liver and the lymph nodes. Immediate surgery was indicated.
After surgery, the doctor told my family that I needed to undergo at least six rounds of chemotherapy.
I was in the class of people known as the “three withouts”: without medical insurance, without social security, and without any source of income.
My surgery had already exhausted my family’s entire savings. The recommended chemotherapy would cost another 20,000 yuan RMB. That amount didn’t even take into consideration necessary expenses for drugs and nutritional needs.
The most depressing was the doctor’s devastating pronouncement: “Life expectancy after chemotherapy is two years at most.”
My family and I sank instantly into a quagmire of grief and despair… How could we handle this? What could we do?
In the two days after the surgery, my wife’s practitioner friends came one after another to my bedside. They talked to me about Falun Dafa. They told me real life stories about how Falun Gong practitioners recovered from terminal illness and got a second chance in life. They, and my wife, encouraged me to give Falun Dafa a try, saying, “Only Dafa can save you now. Only Dafa’s Master can save you now.”
I started to give what they said some serious consideration. I knew that chemotherapy was out of the question, notwithstanding my physical condition or my family’s financial state. Yet, I couldn't just wait to die!
I recalled how one time after my blood pressure rose to above 220 yet I suffered no ill consequences; how another time I experienced a stroke, after which my mouth drooped, my eyes slanted, and I couldn’t walk – yet I recovered after a mere three days!
All of a sudden, I understood: it was Dafa’s Master who saved me!
I was able to reverse my physical affliction those two times, all because I had believed in Dafa’s Master and continued to say, “Falun Dafa Hao, Zhen-Shan-Ren Hao” [“Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”]
Now, for the third time, I was faced with another life and death impasse, with no escape route, no way to retreat. What would the outcome be this time? Would I come out unscathed as before? What should I do? How should I go forward?
I came to the conclusion that everything pointed me to the same direction: I should walk the path of a Falun Dafa cultivator!
I told my wife: “I want to practice Falun Gong!”
Then, I told my doctors decisively, “I will not undergo chemotherapy. I will not take any more drugs. I want to be discharged and sent home.” The attending physician reminded me of the serious consequences of refusing chemotherapy, but I informed him firmly, “I will take full responsibility for any outcome and all consequences!”
That was how I renewed my life as a Falun Gong practitioner.
Right away, I began systematically reading Falun Dafa’s books and writings. Ten days later, I began learning and doing the exercises.
Studying the Fa allowed me to gain more and more understanding about Falun Gong. Doing the exercises helped me to experience one miracle of Dafa after another.
The first time I did the exercises, I slept through the night. It was a good sleep, the likes of which I hadn’t enjoyed for as long as I could remember. The second day that I did the exercises, I felt excruciating pain in my ankles. It was as if the soles of my feet had an opening from where cold air escaped with a “swishing” sound. The third day my knees suddenly swelled up to the size of rice bowls. Then the swelling moved to the calves and both my feet broke out in heavy sweat.
Then my voice box, which couldn’t make any audible sound after the surgery, suddenly produced loud and clear speech. I felt Law Wheels spinning inside my abdominal area. I passed gas continuously. My body started to warm up. My feet gained strength and I could walk with light steps. Within a month, my body weight rose from 60 kilos to 80 kilos.
Because I had read Dafa’s books and writings, I understood that all those things were good things. No matter the manifestation, it was Master cleansing my body. I firmly trusted in Master and in Dafa. I bore all the pain. I overcame all the trials and tribulations, one by one.
I know Falun Dafa cultivation is serious. As a practitioner, elevating xinxing is most important. Merely doing the exercises is not true cultivation and won’t achieve curing sicknesses but could instead lead to problems sooner or later and negatively impact Dafa. Therefore, every time I study the Fa, I make sure to incorporate what I learned to problems that I encounter, so as to think and act within the Fa's requirements and expectations.
After surgery, I had to have a stoma bag installed to help with body waste elimination. The bag became constantly filled up with sickness energy. It was so ballooned as to be near bursting. It was getting rather inconvenient.
I firmly believed that Master had already cleansed my whole body. So, about a month after surgery, I went to one hospital after another to have the stoma bag removed. They all rejected my request, saying, “That would be impossible because you couldn’t have recovered from colon cancer surgery that soon. If we open you up, we’ll find cancerous cells. We can’t take that kind of responsibility.” They stood their ground despite my repeated guarantee that I would take full responsibility for any and all consequences.
There was no way I could have done anything myself and so I had no choice but to continue carrying the stoma bag around.
After two months, I had a thought. I asked Master to please help me. I went around to the hospitals again for an operation to remove the stoma bag. One of the doctors finally agreed. The pre-surgery checkups took a week. Every test indicated that everything was normal. The doctor performed the surgery at long last.
For a person almost 60 years old, a patient with cancerous cells already spread from the colon to the liver and lymphatic nodes, not quite three months after a first surgery that required a stomach incision almost a foot long, to undergo a second surgery, and three days after that having the catheter removed, four days after that having the stoma bag removed, and five days after that leaving the hospital – the doctors were incredulous. They could only repeat over and over, “So soon! The recovery is too soon!”
I had meant to clarify the truth to my surgeon but just couldn’t find the right moment, so never did. I realize it’s because my cultivation was not quite up to par at that time.
I knew it was Dafa that has given me a second chance at life. Master has borne for me a lot and bestowed on me a lot, so much so there is no way I could ever repay Him. Whenever I think about this, my tears stream down uncontrollably.
I made a solemn promise that I will follow Master’s every word, practice diligently, do the three things with due diligence, and use my personal experience to save more people.
I immediately made up a list of people to clarifying the truth to, drew up a plan of action, discussed the decision with my wife, and started to put my plan into action. “Coincidentally,” over the following days, I kept running into people on my list. My wife told me it was Master’s arrangement. The knowledge that I finally have Master to guide and watch over me made me feel warm and happy.
I am eternally grateful to Master for granting me salvation!