(Minghui.org) Both my parents passed away when I was little. Fortunately I had my older brother and sister to raise me.
I started on my path of cultivation in Falun Dafa soon after my sister introduced me to the practice in 1993. With the kindness and patience I’ve cultivated through studying the Fa, I've overcome many difficult tribulations on my cultivation path.
The Flames of Persecution
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by former dictator Jiang Zimen, launched a comprehensive persecution against Falun Dafa. His intent was to eradicate the practice in three months. The CCP has carried out egregious crimes against Dafa practitioners in an attempt to force them to recant their beliefs. But their efforts didn't manage to subdue practitioners’ determination to overcome the persecution and preserve their right to freely practice their beliefs.
Dafa practitioners have weathered 20 years of relentless persecution. The atrocities committed by the CCP against them rival any human rights catastrophe ever seen in history. They have employed every imaginable form of torture on Dafa practitioners in an attempt to force them to renounce their faith in the practice.
The Right to Appeal
In 2001, I went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for the right to practice Dafa. Though I had not done anything illegal, I was taken into custody and detained for two weeks. When I returned home, I found that I had been fired from my job and that my husband’s job was also at stake if I continued to practice.
The police harassed us and threatened to send me to a brainwashing center. The pressure on my husband was tremendous, and he took his anger out on me. I was covered with bruises and so beat up that even my head was bloodied.
I remembered what Master had told us and didn't say a word:
“When you have suffered all of this, you didn’t look at things the same way as he did, and your heart was calm, that is, you did not fight back when hit or talk back when cursed at. Think about it: When your heart remained calm, didn’t your character improve through cultivation? How could you cultivate if he didn’t cause you trouble and pain?” (Fa-Teaching Given at the Conference in Sydney, Translated in 2018)
When my siblings heard that I had been beaten, they came directly over to check on me. They wanted to turn my husband in to the police.
My husband yelled at my sister for introducing me to Dafa, and my brother yelled at my husband for beating me. He then yelled at me and threatened to cut ties with me if I didn't give up Dafa. “I understand how you feel,” I said. “But I am not doing anything wrong, and I will not give up the practice. Please don't worry.”
My brother got very upset. “Look what he's done to you!” he said. “And yet you defend him? I don't care if he beats you again. I don't want a sister like you!” He stormed off.
It took a long time to quiet my mind, but I knew that my husband would change his attitude and publicly support Dafa in the end.
Forbearance Changes Him
In 2002, I gave the Party Secretary at my work a CD of information that clarified the truth about Dafa. He then reported me to the police and I was arrested and sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. My husband was only allowed to bring my daughter to visit me once every three months. Being without a wife and mother was hard for both of them.
I was released in September 2004. When I returned home, three of our friends took us out to dinner to celebrate. My husband got a phone call during dinner which made him very uneasy. He told me that he had to take care of some urgent business and promised he would be back soon.
It was humiliating to be left at the dinner party like that, but I told myself I needed to get rid of my attachment to reputation. I figured that he was having an affair. Since I believed it was a predestined relationship that brought them together, one that needed to be resolved, I endured it and treated my husband with kindness.
I never asked him where he went or when he was going to end the relationship with the other woman, as I knew it would be over sooner or later.
Late one night when we were asleep, she marched into our bedroom and grabbed my husband. She told him to come and spend the night with her. He complied. I bit my tongue and didn't say a thing.
My husband looked very ashamed when he came back the next day. He was troubled by not being able to end the affair. Although I felt sad for him, I did not resent him; I became even nicer to him.
He told her that he wanted to keep our family together and that the affair had to end. She was furious and demanded money as compensation. He refused to pay her.
She barged in to our home one day and proceeded to throw everything she could get her hands on. My husband wanted to take her to the police, but I stopped him. I told him that it would only escalate things. He called her family and they came and took her away.
I cleaned up the mess as though nothing had happened. My husband was deeply touched and came shopping with me to replace the broken items.
Soon she showed up at our home again. My husband suggested that I go somewhere else to avoid trouble. I asked him to let me handle her. He reluctantly agreed.
I let her in with a warm smile and offered her watermelon slices and a cold beverage. She was sweaty and upset and looked pitiful.
I said to her, “Try not to be angry. Why don't you tell me about it? Maybe I can help you.”
She looked surprised. “You don't hate me?” she asked. “And you want to help me?”
I told her, “I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, so I don't hate or blame anybody.”
She told me that she had come to ask a favor. She needed to make a reservation for her son's graduation party. “I work at a hotel,” I said. “I will ask my boss to give you a discount.”
I talked to her as if the affair had nothing to do with me. I knew that my words and actions would let her know that Dafa is good. She was very touched.
She listened quietly to everything I told her about the practice and quitting the Communist Party. “Falun Dafa does sound great,” she said. “My health is bad and my temper even worse, so I want to practice too.”
She asked for my phone number. She wanted to stay in touch after she moved with her son to the south when he began college. I called a taxi for her and walked her out. Just like that, the situation was resolved.
Perseverance Inspires Kindness
Sometime during my two years in the forced labor camp, my name was removed from the residents roster at the local police station. When I was released, my ID card was never returned. Having been fired from work, I was not eligible for unemployment insurance or welfare. This made my husband indignant. Although I have worked since my release, I made very little money.
To improve our situation, I decided to file an appeal to the local police station and 610 Office to regain my legal status as a local resident and procure my severance package and unemployment insurance payment.
A few local practitioners and I went to the police station and regional 610 Office many times. My husband visited the Bureau of Forced Labor and asked them to show proof of my sentence. After much effort, I was re-registered into the system as a legal resident and given a new ID card. My husband was relieved.
In order to claim my severance package and unemployment payment, I had to visit my old workplace, several bureaus of higher jurisdiction, the Office of Letters and Appeals, and the 610 Office, multiple times.
Local practitioners helped me every step of the way. We told everybody we encountered about how I had lost my job because I practiced Falun Dafa.
We inspired empathy in the people we met. Those who understood my situation helped by pointing us in the right direction. After five years of running around between those organizations, the district chief finally signed the paperwork allowing me to claim what was rightfully mine.
My combined severance package and unemployment insurance payment totaled 10,000 yuan. The day I received the payment my husband told me, “You have suffered so much over the years and hardly spent any money on yourself. Why don't you treat yourself to something that you really want.”
“I don't want anything,” I told him. “If you support me in my practice of Dafa, that’s all I ask for.”
My husband’s thinking cleared up after I received the compensation money and he took the initiative to learn more about Dafa. He watched truth-clarification videos on his own and his understanding improved even more. When I explained how quitting the Party would keep him safe, he agreed to quit and asked me to register his real name. He helped arrange to get a satellite dish installed so that we could receive New Tang Dynasty (NTD) programs. Now he reads Minghui Weekly and even started to read Zhuan Falun and Master's lectures.
He is a completely different person than he used to be.
Family Gathering
When my sister heard that my husband had changed his heart and was no longer against Dafa, she was very impressed. When my brother found out that he even bought a car so we could drive to the countryside to give out truth-clarification materials he said, “Wow, really? That’s amazing.”
My husband invited my brother and sister and their families over for a nice dinner that he prepared himself.
When we were all gathered around the dinner table, he stood up and apologized to me in front of everybody. He said he regretted beating me and making life so hard on me. My brother and sister were deeply touched. We all enjoyed the meal and had a great time together.
My husband later turned on the TV to introduce the family to NTD programs. It was very harmonious and my family members finally understood what Dafa really is. They were all smiles and praised my husband for passing out truth-clarification booklets in the countryside.
The CCP started the persecution of Dafa in an attempt to break practitioners' wills and destroy their families. Yet Master and the Fa bring blessings to every practitioner's home. As a practitioner of Falun Dafa, I know my responsibilities: no matter how far we have to travel down the path of cultivation, I will closely follow Master and stay resolute in saving sentient beings.
