(Minghui.org) I'm a 71-year-old retiree. Due to my family background, I have suffered miserably under the communist regime since childhood. While I struggled with a terminal disease 23 years ago, I was extremely fortunate to start practicing Falun Dafa. Soon I recovered from all my illnesses, and I continued to improve my character. I am deeply grateful to Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Dafa) for his boundless compassion and my newfound happiness.
I live by the Shahe River in Henan Province. My grandfather used to work as a boat tracker in the early years of his life. Later he and his family saved up enough to buy a cargo ship, hoping to improve their life.
Unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power, and the boat became the source of our misery. My grandfather was labeled a “capitalist,” and we all became his “bastards.”
Misery
When I was old enough for marriage, prospects all rejected me due to my “undesirable family background.” A few years later, I met someone who was willing to marry me. Afterward, he was very happy with his choice, as I was hardworking and a thrifty housekeeper. I later changed jobs and lived quite happily.
But my happiness didn't last long. My husband heard some gossip because he had married a wife from a capitalist family. He would have to suffer the consequences. When his children grew up, they wouldn’t even be allowed to join the army.
The rumors agitated my husband, and he started disliking me. Then he began to hit and abuse me daily. I was often covered in bruises. He once broke my clavicle over something trivial. All I could do was to feel miserable and sad for myself. As time went by, I resented him more and more.
Even though he mistreated me, I took comfort in the fact that he didn't divorce me, thinking, “For the sake of my children, I will pull through.”
Struggling at the Verge of Death
Unfortunately, my life turned for the worse in 1988. I started feeling dizzy but didn't think much of it. It got worse and worse, and one day I fainted. My colleagues took me to a hospital for an exam, but doctors could not diagnose my problem.
My husband took me to two larger hospitals in Beijing, where I was diagnosed with “cerebral vascular malformation accompanied by irregular bleeding,” a rare and incurable disease. Doctors had seen only three such cases in their hospital, including mine, and the other two patients had both died.
I thought in anguish, “I won't live much longer, and my two sons are still young. Who will take care of them? But what can I do when the best hospitals can’t cure me? I might as well go home and wait for death.”
At home, my condition worsened further. I also developed emphysema, heart disease, epilepsy, and bronchitis. None of them promised a full recovery.
Seeing my condition, my husband showed me the kindness he originally had when we got married. He stopped hitting me and took me to the local hospital for treatment. I went home when I felt a bit better but would quickly be re-admitted. I spent at least 300 days a year in the hospital.
We later heard that a field army hospital had imported a gamma knife and that the brain surgeon there was a renowned expert. But the surgery didn’t improve my condition, and I also developed side effects: nausea, vomiting, edema in the whole body, and unbearable headaches that made me scream. Experts could not do anything and persuaded me to go home.
I went back to the local hospital for injections and intravenous drips to reduce the pain, but nothing helped. I screamed day and night. The local hospital urged my husband to transfer me to a larger one.
My husband took me back to the army hospital and begged them to accept me for treatment. They tried everything, but nothing worked and my condition worsened.
My huge medical expenses burdened my workplace and emptied our family savings. My husband and I decided to go home.
Just as we were about to leave, one doctor said he would attend an international conference in Guangzhou and would take my case there for consultation with renowned foreign experts.
With this last hope, we decided to wait. The doctor came back two weeks later and told us that experts had a special discussion about my case but still could not find a cure because there was no way they could separate the brain and intracranial effusions. With my last hope shattered, I went home in October 1996 to wait for death.
Given a New Life
That year, some people in my city started practicing Falun Dafa. Two days after I arrived home, a young colleague came to see me and told me about the healing power of Falun Dafa and his own experience.
He had had a craniotomy in Beijing a year earlier for a brain tumor. The postoperative chemotherapy made him extremely weak. He had lost most of his hair, was very thin, and had a yellowish complexion. Additionally, he was short of breath when he walked.
However, after he started practicing Falun Dafa, his hair grew back, and he regained his weight. He looked so healthy and strong.
I was moved by his story. I didn't think much about my own condition, but in my heart I felt that something I had longed for since a long time ago had come to me at last.
That evening, I asked my son to take me to the nearby Dafa study group. I was extremely weak, and my face was terribly swollen. I could not walk, and my head felt dizzy. The study group was held in an open space in the courtyard of a workplace.
I sat down on the side and listened to what they were reading. Even though I couldn't hear very clearly, I felt very comfortable sitting there. After I got home, I slept very well. When I woke up in the morning, I was starving and had a nice breakfast. After years of torment by illnesses, I felt like a new person and could stand up and walk!
In the evening, I went to the study group again. My son took me there with his bicycle, but at the end I was able to walk on my own. I didn’t have any headaches or dizziness. I wasn’t even short of breath. I was ecstatic and couldn’t describe my gratitude to Master.
On the third morning, I went to the practice site to learn the Dafa exercises. When I came back, I saw my son's bicycle outside the building. Thinking our neighborhood was unsafe, I put the bike on my shoulder and carried it up to the fifth floor. My son and one of his friends heard the noise and came out. He asked me in surprise, “Mom, how did you carry it up?!”
His friend looked at me with his eyes wide open. He saw how my son had to carry me upstairs only a few days earlier. Even then, I had to stop for rest on every floor.
Only then did I realize what I had just done. I was cured! I burst into tears, knelt down, and said, “Master, you have saved me from misery and given me a new life. I will cultivate well in Dafa.”
When I told other practitioners what had happened, they clapped and felt happy for me. Once again, we witnessed the wonder of Falun Dafa. My story spread quickly.
There was a high-ranking official in our area who was very kind and poised. When his subordinates told him about the healing power of Falun Dafa, he thought it was good and visited over a dozen practitioners in person, including me. He later started practicing Falun Dafa as well.
After the persecution started, he pushed forward against enormous pressure with firm faith in Master and Dafa. He told people about Dafa and the persecution, and he later filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin for directing the persecution of Dafa.
Cultivating Solidly
Master has encouraged me from the very beginning. One day, while I was studying the Fa at home, I saw a person in his 40s above my head. He was very kind and looked at me with a smile for a long time before he disappeared. I was surprised and asked another practitioner what was happening. “It must be Master,” she said and showed me the photo of Master in a Dafa book. I said excitedly, “I've seen Master! I'm now a Dafa disciple. I’m the happiest person in the world!”
Fellow practitioners said that I had good affinity with Dafa and good inborn quality. They encouraged me to be diligent in cultivation.
I had very limited education, so reading Dafa books was a bit hard for me. But I was not afraid of the difficulties and learned the Chinese characters one by one. When I came across new words, I asked others or looked them up in the dictionary. I read the book Zhuan Falun whenever I had time.
A few months later, I was able to read Zhuan Falun, Zhuan Falun Volume II, Essentials for Further Advancement, and Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa. Dafa is truly beyond common science and can truly open one's wisdom.
Benefits from Practicing Dafa
Through studying Dafa, I came to understand the true meaning of life, why people experience sickness and suffering, and much more that I didn't understand in the past.
All the resentment I had harbored against those who had harmed me disappeared without a trace because I know that all my sufferings were due to my own karma from previous lives. Those who had harmed me were helping me eliminate my karma and giving me virtue. They helped pave the path for my cultivation today.
I no longer complained or held on to any self-pity. I am happy and proud to be a disciple of Master and able to cultivate in Dafa, an opportunity that comes only once in millions of years. I know my true home is in the heavens, and I will return home through solid cultivation.
I was full of energy and had a smile on my face every day. In order to tell more people about Dafa, I visited all my friends and relatives. I also went to townships and the countryside with other practitioners. I felt happy when people learned Dafa, when I elevated in cultivation, when I passed a xinxing test, and when I heard people praising Dafa and Dafa practitioners.
All my family members witnessed my change from a dying person to a healthy, open-minded, and kindhearted one. They all support my cultivation, especially my husband.
When I was sick, he spent everything we had on my treatment and experienced extreme hardship. My speedy recovery brought him enormous happiness, and he is grateful to Dafa and Master as well.
To make time for me to study the Fa, he helps with the house chores every day. Even when Dafa is being persecuted by the Communist Party, he does not hesitate to step forward to defend Dafa.
My colleagues also believe in the goodness of Dafa, having witnessed my miraculous recovery. The person in charge of the welfare of retired cadres in my workplace once said to me, “Now that you've become healthy through practicing Falun Dafa, we can save enough money to buy an apartment every year. You have benefited from Falun Dafa, and so have we. Keep practicing it.”
The period between November 1996 and July 1999 before the persecution started was the happiest time in my life. I was immersed in Master's boundless compassion, the lightheartedness of letting go of human attachments, the wonders of looking within for shortcomings to improve myself, and the joy of Dafa spreading far and wide.
Nothing Can Shake My Faith
After eagerly waiting through the long night, I finally saw the sunrise through a sea of clouds. After many reincarnations, I have woken up from a long dream. I can see a golden ray deep in the cosmos, so wonderful and brilliant. That is the home I left so long ago, the place where my life was born. Now that I have established the sacred affinity, I will follow Master closely, assimilate to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and return to my long-awaited home.
In the past twenty years of persecution, I have been illegally detained, taken to labor camps, and imprisoned multiple times. I was once put in shackles that weighed nearly 20 kilograms. I was monitored 24/7 at work, and my wages were withheld. However, nothing could shake my faith in Master and Dafa. I have never slacked off in cultivation. Instead, I was tempered and became stronger, just like a diamond. I've become even more clearheaded and rational, and my xinxing keeps improving.
With Master's protection, Dafa’s guidance, and fellow practitioners’ help, every obstacle and tribulation on my sacred path provides me with steps to clime higher. I will not let Master down and will continue to do the three things well to fulfill my pledge and return home with Master.
