(Minghui.org) Born in a small poor mountain village in Shandong, I turned 70 years old this year, despite having gone through all sorts of hardships.
I was fortunate to have found Falun Dafa in January 1999. Within half a month, the chronic illnesses that tormented me, such as high blood pressure, neurosis, functional uterine hemorrhage, and rheumatism, disappeared.
I have four sisters and I am the youngest. My family was very poor. As my grandmother constantly berated my mother for not having a son. In a fit of rage, my mother tried to get rid of me by throwing me into a grave mound behind a big stone wall when I was 11 months old. My second sister, who was 10 years older, searched for and found me, after which she took care of me.
At the age of 10, I fell into a well but was rescued by a neighbor. I went out with my sister to beg for food and work in the fields. When an older lady beggar came to our place and my sister was not home, my mother gave me to her. However, my sister found me and mother promised not to harm me in any way in the future.
During the famine in 1959, many people in my village died of hunger. My family followed my uncle to the northeast and built our home in a small mountain village in Jilin. We went into the mountains to dig for wild vegetables and peel off the skin of trees to eat and satisfy our hunger.
My sisters and I got married, and when my parents grew old, my second sister took care of mother, while I looked after our father. My second sister’s husband often beat and yelled at her. My mother could no longer watch this, so she committed suicide at the age of 66 and then Father passed away. My husband drank, womanized, and beat me. I decided to commit suicide but did not succeed.
Cultivating Dafa Gave Me a New Lease on Life
My daughter brought me a book in 1999 and said, “Take a look at this book. It is about practicing Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong). My mother-in-law practiced the exercises and she recovered from all her illnesses.”
I took the book, randomly flipped the pages, and saw the word “Cultivate” which surprised me. I thought to myself, “Wow, what book is this, just by seeing that word made me curious. What does it mean to cultivate? I need to take a good look at this book.”
I finished reading Zhuan Falun in one go, without eating or drinking. I suddenly understood that all the suffering I had experienced, and not having died, was for me to learn Falun Dafa and cultivate in the future.
My physical and mental health improved, and my illnesses disappeared. I learned that the source of all my sufferings in life was due to karma that I had accumulated through my many past lifetimes. Master had started to take care of me a long time ago, or else I would have been long dead. This resolved the loss that I felt in living in this world, and the grudges that I bore due to the human attachments of the heart.
Understanding the true purpose of living in this world and getting to feel what it feels like to have a body without any illness, I kept going on my cultivation path.
I clarified the facts about Dafa to the people in my village. More than 10 people also stepped into Dafa, and the truth of Dafa spread in our small mountain village.
Clarifying the Truth in the Labor Camp
Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader, launched the persecution of Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999. After that, we clarified the truth locally and distributed fliers. I was arrested in November 2005 and illegally detained for 15 months. In the detention center, I was tortured with electric batons, beaten, and had my head thrown against the wall by pulling my hair.
After I was released I was transferred to a brainwashing class. I was the last one to be “transformed." The village women’s leader came to the class and claimed that my husband was seriously ill. Being worried, I signed a guarantee statement, promising to give up my faith. After I returned home, I repented and told Master that I had made a mistake by letting my sentiment towards my husband guide me.
I was again arrested by the domestic security branch on April 17, 2009, and illegally detained for another 15 months in a detention center. During this period, I did what a practitioner should do during the Fa-rectification period. I used the compassion and benevolence that I had learned from cultivating in Dafa and clarified the truth about it.
Zhang, a drug addict, refused to listen to anyone talk about Dafa. Once, I helped her bandage her injured leg and said, “You are so pretty, why get into drugs? See what it got you into?” She was touched and listened to me clarify the truth to her. In the end she quit the Party and asked that I use her real name.
Another drug addict in her 20s asked me to help her when she took a bath. Another practitioner said that I was degrading myself by doing that for her. Dafa practitioners should have dignity and not let others use them. I said that I did not think much about it, but treated her with kindness. When I was about to be released, I told her, “I am being released. You must look after yourself.” She cried and said, “Sister, I can’t bear for you to leave. Please help me quit the CCP using my real name. My name is Dong XX.”
After returning home, a few policemen came to my house every day to play mahjong from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thus, I could only do the exercises and study the Fa at night. I sent righteous thoughts and they left after a month.
Three policemen knocked on my door on August 6, 2018. I calmly let them enter. One asked if I still practiced Falun Dafa, I said, “You really understood me well. Of course I am still practicing. Why should I stop practicing such a good practice? If I did not practice this exercise, I would have left this world long ago. I had so many illnesses and yet I recovered.”
Another asked for my daughter's address and I ignored him and continued to tell them that good will be rewarded with good, while doing evil will be met with retribution. I told them about people who were rewarded when they understood the truth about Dafa. I told them that persecuting good would bring harm and even affect their families.
One elderly policeman was shocked after listening to me. He said, “Sister, if the practice is so good, just practice at home – we are leaving.” They left so fast that I did not have time to ask them to quit the CCP.
Falun Dafa has changed a miserable life into one of goodness and gave me a new lease on life.