(Clearwisdom.net) Over the past several years, in order to do harm to the Fa-rectification, the old forces have been manipulating the dark minions and rotten ghosts to persecute Falun Dafa practitioners. The old forces target those practitioners who are not very clear about Fa principles, who still have an attachment of having their illnesses cured, or those who are not diligent enough, and who have left the group cultivation environment. The old forces made them suffer with sicknesses. For the practitioners who are targeted, especially for the elderly practitioners, it is a test of life and death, a test of having faith in Teacher and Dafa, and a process of cultivating oneself.
At about 8:00 p.m. on May 2, 2005, I received a phone call from my younger brother. He told me that my stepmother, who is already in her seventies, had badly hurt herself after falling down around 5:00 a.m. that morning and that the situation was very serious. I thought to myself: "Having cultivated for ten years, how could she get into such a situation? I'll go to see her tomorrow." At that time my sister-in-law was staying at my home. She was not in a good state. What's more, my stepmother lives in the countryside which is several miles away (travel is not convenient in the countryside in China.). All these were factors that prevented me from going to see her immediately.
The next morning, I went to visit a fellow practitioner. Just as I reached the edge of the city, my brother called again about my stepmother, "No need to come here now. We are going to send her to the hospital." Only then did I realize the seriousness of the matter. I said, "Could you wait for me before you send her to the hospital? She will be fine." My brother said, "No, she is in a very serious condition. We must send her to the hospital now. Don't come." I then really regretted having not gone to see her the previous night. I had to return home. I realized that the old forces were not persecuting my stepmother alone, they were also persecuting the eight Dafa practitioners in my family and all the local practitioners. If anything happened to my stepmother, all the non-practitioners in our families and the local sentient beings would develop a wrong understanding towards Dafa. They might even say some bad things against Dafa. More importantly, it would bring great difficulties to our validation of Dafa, saving sentient beings and convincing people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. The evil is really vicious.
After two practitioners and I sent forth righteous thoughts at noon, a relative of mine called me. "Auntie's (my stepmother) hip is displaced and must be operated on tomorrow. We need to gather together 30,000 yuan." I said, "Don't worry. Even compression fractures don't matter, really." My brother told me the address of the hospital and then went to borrow money from our relatives. I went to the hospital in a taxi with my sister-in-law and another little practitioner who came to help. Upon entering the room, I saw that my stepmother's daughter was the only one taking care of her and I said, "Sister, even though she is not my natural mother, I'll take full responsibility for her." She replied, "Don't worry, I won't object." It was as Teacher said,
"While working, your tone of voice, your kindheartedness, and your reasoning can change a person's heart." ("Clearheadedness" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
I went to my stepmother and said to her, "Would you please think about where you may have gone wrong? The evil has taken advantage of your loopholes. You wouldn't have been persecuted if you had not had any omissions." She speculated for a while and did find some of her shortcomings. Then the nurse came. After taking her temperature, the nurse said that my stepmother had a low fever and would have her first operation on the following day. I thought to myself, "All these are illusions." After the nurse left, my sister and the little practitioner went out to buy lunch. I asked my sister-in-law to watch the door so that no one would come in. Then I shared with my stepmother for half an hour the stories of how practitioners walked through the physical tribulations with firm faith in Teacher. Then I told her of my own experience in 2001. At that time a tumor developed in my abdomen. It hurt so badly that I couldn't eat or sleep for three days, but I maintained a firm faith in Teacher and Dafa. Later on the tumor was dissolved in my blood and was discharged from my body. Then I told her that at critical moments you should call for Teacher's help. After that I sat down and sent forth righteous thoughts for 20 minutes. I said to her, "Now you should be able to sit up." She said, "Please come and help me". She was then really able to sit up. I said, "Dafa is supernatural. You should be able to stand up as well." She said, "I was carried in on a stretcher. I don't have shoes." I went out and bought her a pair of shoes. When I returned, my father (also a practitioner), brother, and my two cousins were all there. They were all very surprised. I put the shoes on my stepmother's feet and helped her stand up. And she just stood up right there! All the people present in the room were even more surprised. My stepbrother said, "Thank you, Sister!" I said, "Let's thank our Teacher and Falun Dafa."
At this time, my father suddenly realized that the X-ray film of my stepmother had been lost and couldn't be found anywhere. Those of us who practice Falun Gong all knew it must be Teacher's hint to my stepmother. Teacher was looking after her. I sent forth the thought, "Let her get out of the hospital soon." After a little while my stepmother said, "No, I won't agree to any operation. I'll go home!" During the entire process, I never said to her that she shouldn't take medicine or have an operation. So the decision came from her own heart. I had only helped her to understand the issue from the perspective of the Fa so she could establish righteous thoughts and firm faith in Teacher and Dafa. In the meantime, I helped her eliminate the evil with my righteous thoughts.
However, when she said that she wanted to go home, my brother dared not accept the responsibility of letting her go. So he called upon the other two brothers who were not present. Both of them felt wonderful when learning what had happened. They asked my stepmother, "Are you really OK?" She said firmly, "I'll bear full responsibility for any consequences." At this time her elder daughter's leg suddenly started to hurt. She kept rubbing it. I realized there must be evil factors still present. I silently recited the Fa-rectification formulas several times and her pain stopped.
I started packing her bags. Others also followed. My stepbrother carried her down from the fourth floor and let her sit in the van. On the way home, everybody was asking her how she felt. She said she didn't feel any pain at all sitting like that. She was carried to the hospital in the morning on a stretcher and yet left the hospital in the afternoon sitting in a van. All the people there felt the wonder of Dafa. Teacher said in Zhuan Falun,
"Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master."
"If you practice cultivation, they will help you all the way to the end."
As long as we understand the Fa principles and act according to Teacher's requirements, Teacher can do anything for us. I then invited my stepmother to come and stay with me. During the night when I did the standing exercises, she sat there during practice. We studied the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts together. I also asked other practitioners to come and share experiences with her. Her xinxing kept on upgrading and the evil factors that had persecuted her were disintegrated. On the follow day she was able to sit in the lotus position and meditate.
On May 7, as I needed to go to work the following day, my stepmother returned to her home. After a period of time, she didn't maintain her xinxing well, nor had I persisted in going to her home to study the Fa with them. As a result, the evil persecuted her again. My father and her granddaughter all had conflicts with her. In the end, my father was very furious and my stepmother wanted to divorce him and go to live with her own daughter. There aren't any Falun Dafa practitioners in that village. The majority of the nine sisters in the family agreed that my stepmother should go live with her daughter. I felt very regretful upon learning all this. My attachment to a comfortable life and my mentality of wanting to avoid troubles led to my neglect of requesting that my stepmother stay with me longer. That was why the evil was able to persecute her again. The evil's goal was to destroy her.
After work I travelled several miles, including walking over two mountains, to visit my family. First of all, I recited Teacher's articles, "True Cultivation" and "Realms" (Essentials for Further Advancement) to them. Then I exchanged views with them. They all realized they had acted incorrectly. However, after that, the non-practitioners in the family always criticized my stepmother and complained how she was wrong and how she was not like a practitioner at all. They said I must be responsible for her, and angrily asked me to go to their home every three days to care for her. I looked within and thought about how I should reason with the non-practitioners in the family using compassion and the guidance of Fa-principles. I also encouraged my stepmother and pointed out her shortcomings. Initially my stepmother and my 83-year-old father needed other members in the family to take care of them. Then for two months the family had to hire someone to look after them. In the end both of them were able to live independently. All these things happened because of Teacher's care. During the process, I enlightened to many Fa-principles and discarded many of my attachments. Whenever something happens, if I can eliminate my human notions, things will change greatly. My deepest feeling has been: If we act righteously, sentient beings can be saved, otherwise we will be damaging the Fa.
On December 13, 2005, I passed by my sister-in-law's home on my way to my father's house. I dropped in and discovered that she had been persecuted so badly that she was taking medicines and having injections. She was tortured so badly by everyday people's asthma symptoms and pains in her chest that she didn't have righteous thoughts left at all. As all the other members in her family are non-practitioners, I lowered my voice and exchanged views with her. However, her thoughts were all very despondent. I kept on sending righteous thoughts. I said to one of her sons who is regarded as the toughest and cares about her most, "She must come to stay with me." He didn't agree no matter what I courageously tried to say to him. I told him, "It is exactly because you didn't allow your mom to go out and maintain contact with other practitioners that she is in such a state. She can't upgrade her xinxing without sharing with other practitioners. Do you think you have done a good thing to your mom?" I tried to reason with them for more than one hour. It was like a huge battle between righteousness and evil. I asked my niece, who had once read Dafa books, to help by getting her family's wagon there so that I could take my sister-in-law away. But her son-in-law did not agree. However, I didn't give up. I thought I wouldn't give up until she left with me. In the end, my sister-in-law said, "Let me go and stay just one night with her. If it turns out to be no good, I can come back tomorrow." I was very glad upon hearing this. At last her righteous thoughts had emerged! How precious these thoughts were! As long as she had righteous thoughts, Teacher would be able to help her. Her family knew very well that she wouldn't take medicine or have injections at my home. Nonetheless, they agreed for her to go with me.
Having escaped from the evil persecution, my sister-in-law said that her chest pain was much less only a short while after we left her house. Later that night, my husband and I studied the Fa, did the exercises and sent forth righteous thoughts with her. On the following day, as both my husband and I needed to work, we asked my 83-year-old mother-in-law to come to our home. Although my mother-in-law is illiterate, she had a very clear understanding of the Fa-principles and had strong righteous thoughts. In the daytime they listened to Teacher's lectures together. My sister-in-law kept on making breakthroughs in cultivation. She also endured a lot, coughed a lot and couldn't sleep for the whole night. However, her righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger. She understood more and more Fa-principles. After one week she was able to do washing and cooking, and to go to the public bathing area on her own. When she returned home half a month later, the environment of her home had totally changed. Her son had read the book, The Real Story of Jiang Zemin. Everyone in the family supported her practice. Twenty days later she came to my home again. I shared with her, "Your sister and brother went back in tears on the day you came to my home. We should go and talk to them about quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)." Her relatives on her mother's side live quite far away and she hadn't been there to talk about the "quit the CCP movement" yet. It was now a good opportunity. We went to her mother's home and all of her relatives were very glad to see her changes. Her 80-year-old mother started to recite, "Falun Dafa is good, Zhen-Shan-Ren is good". We stayed there for two nights, and 24 people agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliated organization. They all developed a righteous understanding towards Dafa.
After we came back, my sister-in-law progressed even quicker. She went to the group Fa-study every day, studying the Fa and doing the exercises with others. Every morning she gets up at 4:00 a.m. and meditates, without missing a single day. Whenever her son's friends and relatives come to visit her, she clarifies the truth to them until they understand. She also goes to visit her neighbors and clarifies the truth to them. On the second day of the Chinese New Year Festival, all the family gathered in her home. She arranged a special room for Dafa practitioners so that they could watch a video together. When we had our meal together and it was her second son's turn to say some words of blessing to her, he said, "I wish that my mom can cultivate into a Buddha soon, I wish that all the practitioners can cultivate into a Buddha soon." He spoke very sincerely with a pure heart. All the people applauded. I thanked Teacher for His mercy towards the sentient beings in our family.
These two incidents enabled me to obtain a deeper understanding of Teacher's words,
"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts." ("Drive Out Interference" from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
No matter how well or how poorly a practitioner has cultivated, even if he hasn't passed the test of sickness karma and has kept on taking medicines, as long as he still wants to cultivate and still believes in Teacher, we should help him. We must study the Fa, do the exercises, send righteous thoughts together and share experiences properly. In the past, whenever I met such practitioners, I just talked to him/her for several hours. It did have some effect at the moment, but several days later his/her status would turn bad again. What's key is to study the Fa more. In the past, I always said that because such practitioners didn't believe in Teacher and didn't pass the test of life and death, no one could help them as it was up to them. Now I no longer think that way. They were just restrained by the evil factors and their own notions. Dafa's power is boundless. As long as we study the Fa with them, they will definitely change. Doing the exercises and sending righteous thoughts together with them are also necessary. Then we can help them start clarifying the truth.
As long as Fa-rectification hasn't finished, everyone has a chance. After studying the Fa a lot, understanding the Fa-principles and letting go of the attachment of curing illnesses, sickness karma will not be an issue. To help one practitioner is to save the sentient beings of an entire cosmos. Now, I more completely understand the importance of uplifting all practitioners, of group Fa study and improving the cultivation environment. I hope that practitioners can go and look for those practitioners who haven't been able to keep up with the Fa-rectification and help them to catch up. This is what we need to do and the process is one of self-cultivation as well.
