(Clearwisdom.net)
Suffering from an "Illness of Affluence"
I experienced pain around my lower back four times in 2003, with the pain becoming more severe each time. I had a CT scan done and the doctor explained the reason for my pain—I had a herniated lumbar disc. In China, we call it suffering from an “illness of affluence.” In my case, it was a poor person suffering from an illness of affluence. I was told to recuperate at home, to not even mop the floor or do the laundry. I would need to take painkillers and get massages. On returning home, my husband and I were very disheartened.
My mother practices Falun Dafa. When she learned of my illness, she gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun and said, "It's a slow season, so you'll have time to read the book. It will be good for you. Don't have any thought about having your illnesses healed as your reason to practice Falun Gong, just simply read it." So my husband read the book to me while I laid in bed.
In the spring of 2004, sometimes I would help my husband hold the supplies we were selling since they were too heavy for him to hold by himself. When he asked me if I was in pain, I answered, “No.” After some time of not experiencing anymore pain, he said, "Teacher is taking care of us now, so we don't need to worry anymore. Let's cultivate Dafa.”
We earnestly read Zhuan Falun and felt very good. However, we thought the requirements for being a practitioner were too high to reach. At home, we asked my mother and other practitioners, "Who can be that good?" Mother said, "You can start to be good people from now on."
From then on, my husband and I did business honestly. If someone overpaid for something, we'd return the extra cash. In April, we bought supplies that filled up five trucks. The other three buyers, who were tall and strong, had to load supplies on only three trucks. They were completely wiped out by the time they were done loading everything into their trucks. Compared to the other men, my husband is thin and short, and his legs had been broken before. However, he loaded all five trucks without feeling tired at all. In the past, he would have been tired after loading the supplies on only one truck.
When we got back home that night, my husband said, "I have to do a good job in cultivation since it was so miraculous." Since then, my husband has also stopped smoking and gambling.
Studying the Fa and Joining in Fa-Rectification
A practitioner who knew we were cultivating Falun Dafa invited us to her home in 2005. After dinner, my husband and I went to see her. At her home, we heard a child three or four years old reciting over a dozen poems from Hong Yin II.
On our way home, we both realized, "We are not as good as that child." Therefore, we went to see my mother and asked for a copy of Hong Yin. We began to memorize the poems no matter where we were—in the car or at home. When Teacher saw that we were diligent, fellow practitioners often shared their experiences with and gave us truth clarification materials. When my husband read the Minghui Weekly and learned about the persecution and the difficulties Teacher experienced when spreading the Fa, he choked up with tears. We then began to tell people the truth and distribute truth-clarification materials. We went to sleep after sending righteous thoughts at midnight and got up the next morning at 4:50 a.m. Even though we didn't take an afternoon nap, we didn't feel sleepy and were always in good spirits.
We also began to memorize the Fa. After that, we experienced many miraculous things. Once when I was lying down and half-asleep (but my mind was still alert), I felt very comfortable and as though I was floating outside my physical body. I silently recited, "Falun Dafa is good!" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!" Then, my main consciousness came back. I could see lights in a lot of places, there was a ring of white light over my husband's head, and I saw the blanket was three dimensional. There are too many of these types of occurrences for me to write down.
Following Teacher to Walk on the Path of Fa-rectification
Being new practitioners, my husband and I felt we hadn't done enough for Dafa, and we needed to do more to catch up with veteran practitioners. At the time, we didn't have any informational materials. After we shared our thoughts with my mother, we bought over a dozen colored papers to make truth clarification banners. I had never written with a brush before and wasn't sure if I could do it. Both my mother and husband encouraged me to try it and sent forth righteous thoughts for me. I also asked Teacher for help. As it turned out, the Chinese characters I wrote looked quite good. Teacher was encouraging me and showing that Dafa was supernormal. My husband and I posted the banners on electric poles in five villages. We returned home before dawn.
My husband and I returned to our hometown at the end of November 2006. Since we had the thought of making materials, Teacher arranged for us to meet practitioners from our hometown. After discussing it with them, it was decided that my husband and I would be responsible for printing the materials. One day we went to buy some meat located in a “cold room.” When I went to pay for the meat, I slipped on some ice and fell. I instinctively put out my hands to try to stop the fall. As a result, one of my hands and wrist instantly swelled. The bystanders said, "Hurry up and go to the hospital. Don't end up with a permanent injury." My husband and I both said, “It's all right.” Teacher said,
"We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences." (Zhuan Falun)
I didn't take it seriously and continued to do what I needed to—I sent righteous thoughts, did the exercises, and made truth-clarification materials. A day or two later, my husband said, "Your wrist might be broken, otherwise the swelling would've gone down." His words didn't move me. When I was doing the fifth meditation exercise, I felt Falun spinning around my injured wrist and I was very comfortable. My wrist gradually returned to normal.
Once, we still had materials at home, so my husband became worried. He said, "Let's go out to post them tonight." Teacher saw our hearts, because as we posted the flyers on the electric posts, they were shining. My husband was very excited and said, "Look, all the materials are shining!"
Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, every practitioner from our village was monitored. One day, my husband saw a banner that slandered Dafa in another village about 20 kilometers from ours. We discussed this with the coordinator and concluded that we needed to get rid of the banner so that it wouldn't poison people's minds. Since other practitioners were being monitored, I told my husband, "Let's go! We can do it without being noticed." We brought scissors and took our motorbike. Since it was the Olympic period, there were more police out. We passed the county proper and saw a lot of police. On a very short section of the road, we saw three or four officers. There was no sign of rain that night, but as we were about to arrive at our destination, my husband and I said it would be ideal if it rained. Before we entered the village, it started to rain. We successfully cut the banner down and returned home safely. During the Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese Communist Party tried to force practitioners to sign a guarantee statement promising not to practice Falun Gong anymore. My husband and I, as well as other steadfast practitioners, refused to cooperate with them. The six practitioners from our village who refused to sign the statement were taken to a detention center. Later, they were sentenced to one and a half years, two years, or five years of imprisonment.
Our local coordinator became destitute to avoid further arrests after being released from jail. The police came to my home four times to pressure me into giving up my practice. The third time they came to my home, eight or nine people came to try to intimidate me. At the time, I was very calm and was not scared or intimidated at all. I told them about the beauty of Dafa and why I started practicing. I also told them that Dafa helps people to become a better person. They left and returned again at around 10 p.m. This time, they tried to force my husband to sign the guarantee statement. He was taken away when he refused to sign it. He was only released after the Paralympics.
Teacher gives us encouragement in different ways. We had udumbara flowers twice at our home. There were 16 udumbara flowers on the window of my mother-in-law's home in August 2007 and another time, we saw 31 udumbara flowers on the car that my husband was driving.
Please feel free to point out anything I have not done well.
