(Minghui.org) Both my husband and I are Falun Dafa practitioners. Looking back at our 17 years of cultivation, we are immensely grateful to Master for his guidance and protection along the way. When we do the three things wholeheartedly, we can feel Master by our side at all times. After all, Master has paved the way for us. The purer our heart is in doing the three things, the more we are shown the profoundness and solemnity of the Fa.
Of course, our cultivation is not always smooth sailing. We, especially myself, were repeatedly arrested and detained after the Chinese Communist Party launched its nationwide campaign against Falun Gong. For a period of time our daughter-in-law even refused to answer our phone calls, as she grew tired of being implicated by our arrests.
My husband and I later realized that we were partly to blame for our repeated arrests. We failed to study the Fa with a calm mind and were doing truth-clarification activities simply for the purpose of doing it. We also saw that our affection for each other was exploited by the old forces.
I spent nine months memorizing the teachings in Zhuan Falun after my latest release from detention and realized that I could have used all my time spent in detention saving more people. So now, studying the Fa wholeheartedly is our top priority every day. We spend the rest of our day doing truth-clarification projects after reading Dafa books and doing morning exercises. We've found that as long as we maintain righteous thoughts, we're often able to distribute Falun Gong literature quickly.
We also worked hard to tell our daughter-in-law why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is wrong in persecuting Falun Gong. We noticed that when all we wanted was for her to understand and identify with Dafa, she gradually changed for the better. She now offers her full support to me and my husband in our efforts to tell more people about Falun Gong.
Most of our family members, friends and colleagues have quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. In particular, my boss never reduced or suspended my salary during my imprisonment, despite pressure from the local police. I was happy to see that his support for Dafa was rewarded with multiple promotions over the years.
Below we share several more anecdotes of how my husband and I cultivate ourselves solidly and how we talk to people about Falun Gong.
One day a practitioner came from a long away to see me at home. My husband told her that I wasn't home and sent her away. I was mad at him and told him that he was worse than an ordinary person because “an ordinary person would have invited her in as a guest.” He got upset and told me that he didn't know what time I'd be home and that he wasn't my housekeeper. We had a big fight and he left the house. That afternoon, I felt so sorry for myself and couldn't calm down. I heard a voice telling me,
“... no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.”
“If you are able to succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred”
from “Further Understanding” in Essentials for Further Advancement.
I quickly sat up and looked within, and realized that it was all my fault. I never told him anything when I left the house. I also accused him of being a bad practitioner, as if I was better than him. I found my husband and apologized. He laughed as if nothing had happened.
We barely argued after that incident. Whenever a conflict rose, we were able to catch our bad thoughts and look within. We now work better as a team.
My husband once had cold sores around his waist. It itched terribly and scratching made it worse. We tried to do the three things as usual and I asked him to look within. His sores worsened and he barely had any energy to eat.
I realized that the two of us were one entity. I asked him to look within, yet I forgot about doing so myself. I found several problems within myself that time. First, I didn't negate the old forces' arrangement and believed that my husband was just eliminating his karma. Second, I was afraid that his illness would have a negative impact on Falun Dafa and wanted him to go to a hospital. Third, I felt terrible because of my sentiments for him. I began to rectify my thoughts and in a few days he was much better. Indeed,“When disciples have ample righteous thoughtsMaster has the power to turn back the tide ”from “ The Master-Disciple Bond” in Hong Yin II.
Our daughter-in-law asked us to live with her so that we could take care of our granddaughter. We agreed and as a result, we had to do all their household chores, as well as the babysitting. My husband was so busy with the chores that he had no time for anything else. I was busy helping to rescue a practitioner who'd been arrested, and was barely home. My son and daughter-in-law weren't happy with me, even though they didn't have to do any housework nor pay for the living expenses. I realized that something was wrong. I looked within and saw that I was very attached to my family and tried to please them, and wanted to use the favor I did for them to make them like Falun Gong.
I knew that the biggest favor I could ever do for my family was to let them know about Falun Gong, to lead them to be supportive from their own hearts. By spending our time helping them with household chores and babysitting, we were in fact letting them interfere with us in doing the three things. I talked with my son and his wife, “Babysitting and taking care of the house are your job. We have more important things to do.” To my surprise, my daughter-in-law agreed, “I know. I will ask my mother to take care of the child.” She now drives us around to distribute Falun Gong literature. She even offered to let us use her car whenever we needed it.
I was put in a forced labor camp in 2006. I became really ill in the forced labor camp. The camp didn't release me because of pressure from the 610 Office. My husband wrote a complaint to the Bureau of Re-education Through Labor and other government offices to demand my release. He accused the labor camp of illegal incarceration and torture of his wife, which was very compelling. A senior police officer went to our home and threatened him, trying to force him to stop sending the complaints. Undaunted, my husband said that he would continue to do so because good people like his wife were being persecuted.
The director of the forced labor camp worried that his crimes would be further exposed. He changed his tune and told my husband that I would not be mistreated in the camp. He and his captain asked me to talk to my husband and tell him to stop sending the letters of complaint. In less than two months, I was released.
A group of Domestic Security agents arrested me and another practitioner one morning in 2012 when we were on our way to distribute Falun Gong literature. While I was in the detention center, I was determined to seize every opportunity to tell the guards the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong.
A deputy director in the center actively participated in torturing practitioners. She was very vicious and all the detainees were terrified of her. She was on duty one night and I decided to clarify the truth to her. I sat down to meditate, which was not allowed in the center. She came in with a pair of handcuffs and yelled at me. I wasn't moved because I knew that I was a practitioner and no one could hurt me when my thoughts were righteous. My body was surrounded by strong energy and I felt warm, as if Teacher were there with me. The director stood still while I experienced the powerful energy, and then she quickly left. The next day she came back to apologize, saying the she shouldn't have that attitude.
From then on, no one bothered me when I did the exercises or clarified the truth in the detention center. I told the director about how Falun Gong practitioners were tortured in the forced labor camp. With tears in her eyes she told me, “Please take good care of yourself and be careful. I will ask for you to be released early.”
There were two guards in the detention center who targeted me because they had completely bought into the CCP's propaganda against Falun Gong. I didn't think these two were worth saving. They became more and more vicious towards me, which made me realize that there was something wrong with my thoughts. Teacher's words flashed into my mind,
“Compassion can harmonize Heaven and Earth, ushering in springRighteous thoughts can save the people in this world.”from “The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos” in Hong Yin II.
“I told you a long time ago that a Dafa disciple, or a cultivator, has no enemies. The only thing you have a role in is saving people, and you have nothing to do with using human means and human principles to punish or pronounce judgment on people.” from Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago.”
I decided to face these guards with compassion. I smiled each time they came to check on me and sent righteous thoughts to clear the evil beings behind them. They quickly became different people. They stopped instigating hatred among other detainees against me. They used to punish everyone and revoke their privileges whenever I did the exercises. Now when I did the exercises they just watched me and praised the movements.
Two prosecutors came to the detention center to interrogate me. I didn't answer any of their questions or sign any documents. I did everything I could to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to them. They nodded in agreement while I talked. Later, the case against me was dismissed. On the day of my release, one of the prosecutors told me, “Your case is the first Falun Gong case I've handled that was dismissed.”
One of the guards told me that she wanted to be friends with me because I was a kind person. She said, “Your Teacher is a great man. Please give me your phone number so that we can stay in touch.”
All of the detainees in the same ward with me chose to quit the CCP and its affiliates after I clarified the truth to them. They were happy for me when I was about to be released and told me that they would keep in mind the words I had told them: “Falun Dafa is good!”