Finding Joy in Hardship, Master Led Me Forward Step by Step

(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Time flies. In the blink of an eye, I’ve cultivated for 28 years. I never had the courage to write a cultivation experience sharing article. When a practitioner asked me to write one, I hesitated. I feel that I haven’t cultivate well so I’m not fit to share my experiences during such a sacred conference. There must be a reason the practitioner asked me. I thought that having cultivated for so many years, it’s time that I report my cultivation to Master and give myself a chance to look within and improve my cultivation.

So many things happened in the 28 years I’ve practiced and I don’t know where to begin writing. So, I asked another practitioner to help and I rambled on about my cultivation journey. She helped me organize my article, I took a look at it and I decided to rewrite it. I am really thankful to that practitioner for her patient help.

Master watched over me throughout my cultivation. Dafa gave me strength and resilience that enabled me to be where I am today.

The Hardship of Family Conflicts

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution brought a lot of disturbance to my work and life in China, so I had the thought of leaving the country. I met my Singaporean husband. We got married in 2003 and I immigrated to Singapore to live with my parents-in-law. My husband’s father is a Christian while everyone, except me, is a Catholic. I thought that they are all kind people so we should be able to live in harmony. However, I was wrong. The difference in our beliefs actually had a huge impact on my life.

My mother-in-law wanted me to become a Catholic. At that time, I did not have a deep understanding of the Fa principles. I only knew that Dafa was good, practicing the exercises helped me gain good health and that I experienced the miraculous powers of Dafa. However, I did not know how to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution to her. I only knew that Dafa was good but I was not clear why the CCP persecutes the practice as I never watched any of the news in China.

I persisted in studying the Fa and doing the exercises. Although everyone seemed to be respectful and we lived harmoniously, I could sense her dissatisfaction with me. I also discovered that when I did the exercises at the balcony in the morning, my mother-in-law would come to the balcony every now and then and recite her scriptures. I realized she did this intentionally so I could hear it. Because she was a senior, I gave in to her and did not argue with her. I also did not want to make things difficult for my husband. My mother-in-law has a very strong personality; she makes all the decisions in the household and everyone has to listen to, and obey her. My husband is a very filial son. He has a gentle personality and he always listens to his mother. In order to maintain the family harmony, I try my best to remain silent and comply with everything that my mother-in-law says.

I also frequently recite Master’s poem,

“To consummate yourself, reaping Buddhahood,Let joy be found in hardship.Physical pains count little as suffering,Indeed, cultivating mind is hardest.Each and every barrier must be broken through,And everywhere does evil lurk.Abundant troubles rain down together,All to see: Can you pull through?The world’s miseries endured,One departs the earth a Buddha.”(“Tempering the Will,” Hong Yin)

As I did not have a job, I had a lot of time to study the Fa and do the exercises. I also often logged onto Minghui.org to learn about the current situation in China. Seeing the serious persecutions in the Minghui reports, fear started to grow in my heart. I could not let go of it, so I continued to cultivate at home. I got pregnant and gave birth to a son, and I looked after him until he entered nursery school. As the expenses from our family of five depended on my husband’s salary, I started going out to work when my son entered school, to relieve the family burden. In this way, I could also be financially independent and immerse myself in the Singapore environment better. All this while, I cultivated alone.

My Son Begins Practicing

After my three-year-old son began attending school, he fell ill easily. As I was at work, apart from the half day’s time in the nursery, my mother-in-law took care of my son and she often brought him to church. When I was reluctant to let her do this, she yelled at my husband. For the harmony of the family, I chose to compromise. By 2010, my son began falling ill with a high fever almost every month. Each time, the western medicine doctor prescribed antibiotics for him. He vomited whenever he took antibiotics and his face was pale. I was very anxious and I thought of how I could lead him to Dafa. As my mother-in-law has a very strong personality, I needed to be careful. Every time I studied the Fa, I looked at Master’s photo and begged him to give me wisdom.

In 2012, my mother-in-law was injured when she fell and she stayed with my second sister-in-law. While she was gone I brought my son to the Minghui class to study the Fa and do the exercises. I am thankful because benevolent Master helped my son and adjusted his body. He often had a fever but as long as he studied the Fa and did the exercises, the fever went away the next day. He was also very diligent in his cultivation. Every night, he studied the Fa and did the exercises. He fully recovered in about a week.

Cultivating Amid Tribulations

My mother-in-law came home after she recovered. She lost her calm when she discovered that I brought my son to practice Falun Dafa every Sunday. She frequently murmured in front of the altar and recited her scriptures in her room.

When I looked at the issue from her perspective, my arrival altered her life because I took her precious son. Because she often quarreled with her husband when they were young, she gave all her love to her children—but my husband was the only one who was willing to live with her. She took meticulous care of him, waking up early in the morning to warm chicken broth for him to drink and she often came to our room at night to cover him with his blanket to make sure that he didn’t catch a cold. When he asked her to stop she told him angrily, “I am doing this for your own good.” My husband remained silent and I was speechless. Sometimes when I did not maintain my xinxing, I would also lose my temper with my husband, “Why don’t we just get a divorce? That way, you can live with your mother. You are not suitable for a marriage.”

My mother-in-law still wanted to bring my child to the church but I stopped giving in. I also started clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa to her, because I read so many articles about this on Minghui.org. I told her how my son’s health improved after he started practicing. Sometimes, his fever subsided on the following day after he studied the Fa with his legs in the full lotus position. I also became very healthy because I practice Falun Dafa. I knew what I said did not reach her heart as she only believed in her faith and felt everything else was bad. No matter what, I did not let her bring my son to her church. I finally understood that my cultivation state triggered the elements behind this, and caused this interference. I still respected her and we treated each other with mutual respect. On Sundays, I still brought my son to the Minghui class and she had no choice—she could only frown when she looked at me.

One day, my son and I came back from the Minghui class and brought back a few small lotus flowers. She totally lost control and said some really nasty things to me. I also lost control. Initially, I talked to her in a calm tone, “This is defaming the Buddha Fa and you are creating karma, which is bad for you. You believe in your God and he also teaches you to be a good person. Since I married into this family, I’ve complied to you in every way, giving in to you and letting you make the decisions in the house. Now, you even want to control my thinking. I can listen to you in everything except you cannot control my mind.” The more I spoke, the angrier I became. After I finished speaking, I started crying out loud and my husband could only stand by my side helplessly, trying to comfort me.

This was the only time when I got into a quarrel with my mother-in-law and I reflected on myself afterward. I understood that I did not maintain my xinxing when this was a chance for me to improve. I apologized to her. She no longer suggested bringing my son to her church—instead she watched my husband closely. Whenever he did not work on Sunday, she urged him to go to her church.

Cherish the Opportunity to Help Master Save Sentient BeingsI was already 36 years old when I began working in Singapore. Although I used to work as an accountant in China, my English is not proficient so I need to spend some time studying for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) International Professional Qualification Certificate, or the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) professional accounting qualification. Because I urgently needed to make money I felt doing this was not practical.

My first job was as an accounting assistant at a company that represents Carlsberg Beer from Denmark, as my basic English was sufficient for this job. One year later, as the company moved to a relatively far industrial area that requires me to spend a lot of time traveling to and fro, I quit the job as I needed to look after my son who was still very young. I found a position in another food company but hesitated for a long time at the entrance because the environment inside looked so greasy and dirty.

I used to work in fancy offices in China but now I would be reduced to working in this kind of environment. However, since I was already here, it did not hurt to take a look! The boss asked me to start work the next day. When I walked out of that shabby office, I realized that the workers in the kitchen were all from China and everything suddenly became perfectly clear: Isn’t this arranged by Master for me to to come to such a good place to clarify the truth? I’ve been cultivating alone at home for so many years and I never went out to clarify the truth. Now that this chance is right before me and I can also earn money to support my family at the same time. Isn’t that wonderful?

When I started to work at this food company I was the only employee in the office, so I had to take charge of everything from ordering materials, factory production, daily shipments and deliveries to customers, customer orders, scheduling employee work and breaks to the monthly billing and issuing of checks for payments.

Every afternoon, I took my lunch to the shop and I ate with the Chinese workers. They were all young chaps and I asked if they knew about Falun Dafa. Their first reaction was that Falun Dafa was banned in China and it even teaches people to do self-immolation. They had all been deceived by the Party’s propaganda. When I told them I practice Falun Dafa and their eyes widened and they looked at me in disbelief. I then shared with them how I started practicing Falun Dafa and how the Party persecuted the practice, the truth about the self-immolation hoax, and how Falun Dafa is practiced around world. I offered to help them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.

It was hard for them to understand the truth all at once. Initially, they did not really believe me. So, whenever I had the chance I chatted with them. I expressed concern about their living and social issues and we discussed the differences in education, healthcare, pensions and employment in China with those in Singapore. China is already so strong and powerful but why are rich people still choosing to migrate to other countries, and the common people, who attempt to cross the border illegally, want to leave China too? Why does China block the internet? Why can quitting the CCP bring peace and safety to a person? Since they had a chance to come overseas, they should think for themselves and understand the truth.

I talked to them every day whenever I had the chance and I also gave them truth-clarifying videos to watch. Most of them quit the CCP and when some of them finished their contract and returned to China, some new China workers would be employed. Whoever came, I clarified the truth to them.

One interesting thing is about a man who came from a rural area in China. I talked to him for more than a year but he was still reluctant to quit. He still thought that the CCP’s corruption is normal and we commoners should just live our own lives. He took leave and went home. After he returned, he asked me to help him quit the CCP. I asked him why and he told me that some houses in his village were forcibly demolished by the local government to make way for road construction and the residents did not receive fair compensation. When they appealed to the higher authorities, they were met with violent threats. One villager even climbed a tree with a loudspeaker and shouted, “Down with the CCP!” He thus realized that simply living his own life well was not enough because under the rule of the evil regime, disaster could strike at any time.

My all-encompassing and demanding job made me extremely busy and I also needed to do some housework when I returned home. Therefore, I could only go out on my rest days occasionally to clarify the truth and do the exercises at a tourist site. When I did the exercises at the tourist site, I heard some tourists shout ‘Falun Dafa is good!’ while some whispered, “Look, Falun Dafa.” The practitioners clarified the truth to them.

One day, when I was about to head home, a Chinese man asked me, “Lady, how much do they pay you to do this?” He pointed at the Fa-promoting T-shirt that I was wearing. I told him, “Nobody gives us money. All of us are making use of our rest time to come out and tell you all the truth about the persecution in China. We hope that you will not be deceived by the lies in China’s news reports. Since you can afford to come overseas on tour, all the more you should learn more about the things that you can’t see in China or are different from China.”

I opened the Youtube app on my mobile phone to show him some truth-clarifying clips and told him, “The CCP is blocking the internet so that you do not see the true world outside of China.”As the time available was relatively short, I did not clarify the truth well but he still agreed to quit the CCP. He gave me a thumbs up when he was boarding his vehicle.

I was diligent and responsible in my work and the company’s performance thrived, leading to an increasing workload. While my salary increased, my responsibilities also grew. I became more and more tired such that my whole mind was about work arrangements when I was studying the Fa and I gradually had difficulty doing the exercises. I often felt powerless and I even dreamed about work. In the recent few years, the company also replaced some of its Chinese workers with Myanmar workers instead. As I could not calm myself down for Fa study and could not catch up with the exercises, I felt very tired and no longer felt happy even if I looked at my salary. I was very worried that I would be lost in this mortal world.

After struggling for about a year, I decided to quit the job last year and gave up the good salary. After that, my heart relaxed and there was a strange sense of excitement. When a practitioner learned that I quit my job, he invited me to help out with the Nine Day Falun Dafa Class and I agreed without hesitation. The first time we taught the new practitioners how to do the exercises, I could feel a strong surge of energy when I was standing on the small square table. By the third day, I could feel the Law Wheel turning behind my back. A strong surge of warm current went through my body from head to toe. The Buddha’s grace is boundless. I knew this was Master’s encouragement! During this period of time, the practitioners also reintroduced the waist drum team. Although I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to learn it well, I still joined the team with the encouragement from fellow practitioners.

Conclusion

Stumbling and struggling every step of the way, facing numerous conflicts and challenges at home and at work, whenever I feel like I cannot go on anymore, I recall what Master said, “When it’s difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it’s impossible to do, you can do it.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun).

Kindly correct me if there is anything in my sharing that is not in accordance with the Fa.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

(Presented at the 2025 Singapore Fa Conference)