(Minghui.org) Greetings, Respected Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am an illiterate Dafa disciple from Sichuan Province, so I asked a fellow practitioner to write down what I wanted to say in this article.
I would like to give thanks to Master, and to all fellow practitioners who have been so helpful to me throughout my years of cultivation.
I am 80 years old. I entered Falun Gong practice due to my very poor health at the time. I had been suffering from emphysema, enteritis, pyelonephritis, arthritis, rhinitis, and other diseases. I had to be hospitalized about three times a year. I decided to try out Falun Gong to see if it could really cure me.
In March 1997, I was studying the Fa with a practitioner. We were watching the videotape of one of Master’s lectures. That was when I first realized that Falun Gong was a cultivation practice, and not simply a means to cure illnesses. Studying the Fa changed my view on that, and on life.
Three months after I started practicing Falun Gong, all my illnesses disappeared. I have since been very healthy. Sometimes I experience sickness karma, but I don’t take any medicine. I trust that Master is continuing to purify my body. I’m really thankful to Master for this gift!
Practicing Falun Gong and studying the Fa gave me good health and enabled me to read. At first, when I wanted to study the Fa, I would ask my practitioner husband to teach me the words. When my husband dropped out of Falun Gong practice after the persecution began, I asked fellow practitioners to teach me.
I can now read Zhuan Falun without any help, and I now know almost every word in Master’s other writings. I have also committed to memory Master’s verses in Hong Yin and Hong Yin Vol. II.
Being Steadfast—the Evil Police Could Do Nothing to Me
The evil forces had me arrested twice during my almost 20 years of the cultivation.
My first arrest was on July 23, 1999. That morning, as usual, I went to the practice site to do the exercises. The police arrested me and took me to the police station.
They forced me to write a so-called “repentance statement.” I told them I didn’t know how to write. They said they would help me write if I told them what I wanted to say in my statement.
I told them I wanted to write, “I will continue to practice Falun Gong even if I am beaten to death.”
I continued, “Falun Gong has cured me of emphysema, a disease for which there is no cure. And I had many other sicknesses that also disappeared. How can I not practice?”
Because I had no fear, they couldn’t do anything but release me. I knew that Master was protecting me.
My second arrest came about because an arrested practitioner was coerced into giving my name to the police.
The day before my arrest, for no apparent reason, I was feeling very uneasy. So I had someone remove all Dafa related materials from my house.
But my heart was still uneasy. Finally, I said to myself, “Why don’t you dissolve yourself into the Fa. Trust Dafa and Master to take care of every problem. When you are on par with Dafa, who can do anything to you?”
I started to recite verses from Hong Yin and kept repeating, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!”
At 8:00 a.m. the next morning, people from the police department, my work unit, and my husband’s work unit came to my house to conduct a raid, and they found nothing.
But they still took me to the police station. There, many people surrounded me and put me through an intensive interrogation. I remained calm and continued to send forth righteous thoughts.
They wanted me to write, “I will give up Falun Gong.” I told them, “I can’t write. I don’t know how.”
They then told me to just say the words “I will give up Falun Gong.”
I told them firmly, “I will not do that. I’m over 60 years old. I will not lie. You want me to be a liar? You want me to do my practice in stealth? Falun Dafa is a cultivation practice. I want to practice and be a good person.”
They tried to extract information from me about two other practitioners. I knew they wanted to arrest these practitioners, so I asked them in return, “Are they male or female? What do they loo like?”
They continued to ask me more questions about them. I continued to ignore them as much as I could, and continued to send forth righteous thoughts.
By 11:00 p.m. that evening, they had failed to get any useful information from me, so they had no choice but to release me.
Before they let me go, they warned me, "You haven’t said you’ll stop practicing Falun Gong, so we’ll still be coming after you.”
They did subsequently come. When they came to harass me at home, I clarified the truth to them. When they took me to the police station to interrogate me, I clarified the truth to them. Eventually, they stopped harassing me.
Party Secretary Becomes Speechless After Listening to the Truth
The police once had a Party secretary interrogate me, I said to him, “I am a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time? We cultivators are wonderful people. We look inward to check our shortcomings when we run into conflicts. We are not corrupt. We don’t gamble. We don’t smoke. We don’t drink…”
He interjected, “I'm not too bad. I also don’t drink or smoke.”
I continued, “You and I are both very well aware of what is happening now in our society. We are flooded with pornography, poison, gambling, and confrontations. Corruption is rampant and unstoppable. So, what do you find wrong with truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance? The Communist Party is making it impossible for us to live. We Dafa disciples risk our lives to go out to the streets to talk to people so they will distinguish between good and bad, benevolence and malevolence, so they will not be eliminated in the future, along with the evil Party. We do these things for your own good, and you give us trouble…”
He was speechless.
I’m not an educated person. I formulated all I said from reading Minghui Weekly and other materials. I would like to thank the Minghui website and fellow practitioners for all their great work.
Master Helped Me through Massive Sickness Karma
I was suddenly faced with a very serious sickness karma in June and July of 2001. I was vomiting blood for a month or so, and hadn’t eaten for a week or so. When I coughed, I felt knives were stabbing my lungs.
My family feared that I wouldn’t make it, but I told them not to worry. My children begged me to go to the hospital, but I refused. They then wanted to arrange for a doctor to come to my house to give me an infusion. I turned them down.
At that time, my husband was his work unit’s Party Secretary. He was afraid that I would die at home and it would adversely affect him, so he recruited the unit director and office manager to talk me into going to the hospital.
I thought to myself, “I won’t go. If I die, I die. I’m not afraid to die.” I told them I wouldn’t go.
But then I thought, “I don’t fear death, but if I died, my death would look bad for Falun Dafa.”
I said to Master, “Master, I need to get well. I don’t want to be affecting Dafa in a bad way by dying.”
In less than three days, I completely recovered.
People in my husband’s work unit, as well as our neighbors and acquaintances, were shocked and incredulous. Many marveled at Dafa’s power and accepted the truth.
Thank you, Master!
People Who Learned and Understood the Facts Helped Spread the Truth
My husband was admitted to the hospital in 2002. I stayed in the hospital to take care of him. I spent my time there clarifying the truth to whomever I came across.
One day, he was scheduled for a physical therapy session. There were close to 20 people in the room. A few days prior I had been there and talked to them about Falun Gong, so many of them had already understood and accepted the truth.
When it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, I asked the doctor if I could do a little exercise. He agreed.
I sat down, crossed my legs in the full lotus position, and began sending forth righteous thoughts.
A new patient, an elderly gentleman, piped up, “What is she doing?”
Someone answered, “She’s doing Falun Gong exercise."
The old man commented in surprise, “Falun Gong? She dares to practice Falun Gong? The government has banned it!”
A female voice immediately answered, "Why shouldn’t she practice Falun Gong? Look at our circle of people. Who looks as healthy as her? She practices Falun Gong, and her health is good! Do you realize that she's over 60 years old?
The old man didn’t speak another word.
After physical therapy, my husband said to me, “You want to go to prison and be locked up? Why would you broadcast what you do to such a large crowd?”
I told him, “As a Dafa disciple, I have to do what I do. If you’re afraid, and you don’t want me around, I will go away. I don’t want to hurt you.”
But he knew no one could, or would, take care of him the way I did. So he didn’t agree to let me go.
In my husband’s ward, I met a couple who used to be practitioners but had dropped out due to fear after the persecution began. I was able to provide them with Dafa books and other materials again. They eventually returned to Falun Gong.
I knew that Master had arranged for us to meet. Master does not want to let go of any of His disciples.
Seeing a Need and Producing Our Own Materials
When we clarify the truth we need DVDs, pamphlets, and other materials, but we were often not happy with the materials we were able to obtain. Either they were not quite suitable for our use, or not of the quality we hoped for. For example, sometimes we receive incomplete sets of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party DVDs.
In 2004, a practitioner and I had a strong desire to produce our own materials. We believed that this would be consistent with Master’s expectation of Dafa disciples.
But there was no one to teach us what to do and how to do it. It took us three years to finally connect with a practitioner with technical expertise. In 2007, we learned how to get on the Internet, and how to download, print, and make flyers, brochures, cards, and other materials.
Because of my age, my lack of education, and my non-existent technical knowledge, to even learn very basic computer operations, I can imagine how much effort and patience I must have put the technical practitioner through.
We have had our materials site operating for several years now. I want to give special thanks to the practitioner who provided us with the technical help.
We Reincarnated Life After Life Waiting for This Dafa
During so many years of clarifying the truth, I have developed a daily habit of focusing my first thought on the three things I have to do, and then about my family’s needs. Whenever I go out, I always take Falun Dafa materials with me. I talk to each person I come across about Falun Gong and the facts about the persecution.
I also do my best to persuade fellow practitioners to go out to clarify the truth. As long as it has something to do with Dafa, and I know about it, I do my best to do it, or cooperate with others to do it, and make sure everything is done in harmony.
Dafa disciples come to this world to assist Master in rectifying the Fa. Life after life we reincarnated for this one purpose. If we do not devote ourselves in this life to do the three things well, there is no real reason for living.
One day in May this year, I offered to buy a total of 20 boxes of incense to distribute among the practitioners. I was just crossing the street on a green light on my way home when I was knocked to the ground by a speeding van. Eyewitnesses said the van driver ran a red light.
I was lying on the ground, unable to move, with my 20 boxes of incense scattered all around a few feet away. The van driver hurried over to help me up. He was scared, and he kept apologizing to me.
I said to him, “Don’t worry. I’m okay, I practice Falun Gong. I won’t cause you any trouble.”
I asked the driver to take me to the bus station. On the way, I clarified the truth to him, helped him withdraw from the CCP and its affiliates, and gave him Falun Dafa materials. He gladly accepted them and thanked me over and over.
I knew the accident was meant to take my life, but Master's fashen protected me and saved me. Thank you, Master.
I have also encountered many tribulations during my practice. First, my husband passed away. Then, my daughter wouldn’t listen to my advice and sold her house, which turned into a big fiasco. Fortunately, everything is okay now.
There was a time when I tried to advise a practitioner not to smoke and ended up getting into a misunderstanding with him. Another time I was working with a practitioner who listened to some rumors and got into a bit of conflict with me.
Those were sometimes instances that caused me deep resentment, which I had to work to let go.
Master told us,
“...the entire cultivation process for a practitioner is one of constantly giving up human attachments.” (Lecture One in Zhuan Falun)
I am a Dafa disciple walking on the path of returning to my original, true self. I have to rid myself of all human notions. There is only a thin line between being a human and being a god!
I want to cultivate truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance as befitting a Dafa disciple. I will do well the three things so that the day when I set eyes on Master, I won’t be shedding tears of remorse and regret.
