November 13, 2003
(Clearwisdom.net) When I was working in Shanxi Province, my colleagues referred to me as a bitter Rhizoma Coptidis [Rhizoma Coptidis is a type of medicinal herb which tastes very bitter -- her colleagues used the term to describe the bitterness in her life]. I suffered from night blindness as a child. My parents preferred boys over girls, so as a girl, they never accepted me. My parents beat me and cursed me ever since I was little. Sometimes they did not even let me eat. During the winter, they made me sleep in the cold brick bed*, while in the summer I had to sleep in the heated brick bed*. I suffered very much and lived in bitterness ever since I was a little girl. Pain, hatred and tears were with me for many years. Because of the suffering in my childhood, I developed many illnesses: gastric ulcer, gallstones, kidney stones, symptoms of hemiplegia, uterine myoma, headaches, and insomnia. My limbs felt weak and the medicines I took had no effect on my illnesses. I led a life much worse than death.
I was fortunate enough to learn Falun Dafa in June of 1999. I practiced the exercises and learned the Fa with fellow practitioners. After I started to cultivate Dafa for a period of time, all my illnesses were gone and I felt energetic. It is Dafa that had given me a second life. Not too long after I started practicing, Jiang Zemin started the persecution of Falun Dafa. When I saw those empty spaces where people used to practice Falun Gong, I felt so pained in my mind that I do not know how to describe it. It felt like I had lost a part of myself.
My mother suffered from hemiplegia [a form of cerebral palsy] for over a dozen years, but I had never been concerned. Whenever I recalled the suffering that I gone through during my childhood, I felt unbalanced in my mind and I resented her. However, this past winter and summer, my relatives asked me to take care of my mother. I knew that I was a Dafa practitioner and that Master Li said that Dafa practitioners should treat everybody with kindness. So I then slept in the same bed with my mother at night to take care of her and to collect her urine with a bedpan. I needed to do that at least 2-3 times per night, sometimes even 5-6 times per night. I also needed to adjust her body, moving her to different positions; sometimes she woke me up within 10-20 minutes from the previous adjustment. I also had to get up at about 6 in the morning. My mother weighed about 150-160 Jin. I needed to dress her and carry her to a wheel chair. After I made up her bed I needed to push her into the living room, and then move her to the sofa. After that I went to cook, and after I finished cooking, I gave her breakfast. After having breakfast, I would clean the bathroom, wash the floor, and wash her diapers, the bed cover, blanket cover, towels and clothes. I took care of her patiently. I also taught her to say "Falun Dafa is good," and helped her listen to Master Li's nine-day lecture audio tapes once. Her mind was at ease. My mother had been given notice by the hospital twice of the critical nature of her illness. Yet now her health has improved a great deal. During the period when I was taking care of her, my mother waited for me to get home before she went to sleep, and I did not complain about taking care of her. My relatives also changed their view about me. It is Dafa that benevolently dissolved the bitter relationship between me and my mother.
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Note: In some parts of China, people build their beds with bricks and the bed may be heated by burning straw in the cavity under the bed.Category: Improving Oneself
