(Minghui.org) I first encountered Falun Dafa several months before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute it on July 20, 1999. My mother and younger sister had started to practice and would do the Dafa exercises diligently every night. While searching for something to occupy my time, I found a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa. The teachings soon sparked my interest.
Missed Opportunity
One day, I decided to learn how to do the meditation exercise. I sat in the double-lotus position and actually managed to meditate for almost 30 minutes with my mind completely quiet. Soon after, I experienced a strong sensation of floating in mid-air, but each time I opened my eyes, I found myself still sitting on the bed.
I described my experience to my mother, and she encouraged me to start practicing, but I was not ready yet. Two months later, I had a strange dream—a tall man dressed in a suit and tie led me to a mountain peak to meditate. Upon waking up, I realized that Master was encouraging me to cultivate, but I thought I would wait for a “better time” to begin practicing since the CCP had just begun persecuting Falun Dafa.
Cultivating Despite the Persecution
I witnessed many Falun Dafa practitioners in our village stop practicing under pressure from the Party and village officials. Only a handful, including my mother and sister, steadfastly refused to renounce the practice and became targets of the village officials. Afraid of the CCP's implication policy and repercussions, my father tried to make them give up their faith and even resorted to beating them.
A month after I got married in 1999, I brought a copy of Zhuan Falun to my new home. The persecution had not changed my impression that Dafa was good and even bolstered my determination to begin to practice.
My mother-in-law developed a negative impression of Dafa due to the Party's false propaganda about it. When she learned that I had started practicing, she told me to return the book to wherever I got it.
“This practice teaches us how to be good people,” I told her. “Those murders and suicides on television are all false. Practitioners are not allowed to kill. The Party tortures practitioners in forced labor camps. We should speak out against that, instead of just going along.” After she heard that, my mother-in-law dropped her demand.
To improve my relationship with my mother-in-law and to convince her of the goodness of Dafa, I diligently applied the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in my actions and words.
According to our village custom, the mother-in-law has to present a 100-yuan bill to her new daughter-in-law. When my mother-in-law gave me the money, I returned it and said, “Falun Dafa teaches us to be considerate of others. Because your husband has passed away, it is not easy for you to make money. I want you to keep it.” My consideration moved her, our relationship improved, and we now are like mother and daughter.
Bribery Out of the Question
My mother went to talk to people about Dafa and the persecution at a different village in the winter of 2005. She was arrested and detained in the county police department.
The sense of fear stirred up by the CCP persecution of Dafa exacerbated my father's worry for my mother’s safety. He was always angry and vented his frustration on my sister and me. He once injured my sister's knee with a brick and beat me until I was covered in bruises. However, our determination to cultivate in Dafa remained firm.
Someone suggested that we bribe the officials in order to secure my mother’s release. I knew from Master's teachings that we should always do things honestly and aboveboard, so bribery was out of the question.
I decided to visit the police department to get a better understanding of the situation. The officer I talked to was rude and spoke to me roughly. I sent forth righteous thought to disintegrate the evil factors controlling him, and his attitude changed immediately. He talked to me more courteously.
Over time, I became familiar with the guards at the detention center where my mother was held. They eventually admitted, “We have no choice but to follow orders from above. The Party is always this unreasonable.” I continued to talk about Dafa whenever I went there.
At one point, the Party officials attempted to send my mother to a forced labor camp, but the labor camp declined to accept her.
While trying to secure my mother's release, officials at the detention center demanded we pay for her meals. A kindhearted guard secretly told me to not give in to their demand, because my mother would be released if I paid them or not. True to his words, my mother was released soon after without us paying the extortion.
Displaying the Goodness of Dafa
My husband was hit by a van while riding his motorbike home in 2007. The impact of the collision threw my husband more than 10 meters. Panicked, the driver of the van called the traffic police before leaving the scene.
At the accident site, I was horrified to see my husband covered in blood and told him to silently recite, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
At the hospital, I asked the doctors to do only the most basic scans necessary to determine my husband's injuries so the driver who was obligated to pay my husband’s medical fees wouldn't owe more than necessary.
The doctors said that my husband suffered only superficial injuries from the glass shards embedded in his face. His foot was not injured even though his shoe was damaged.
My husband woke up the next day with no recollection of the accident except that I had advised him to recite, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
Over the next few days, relatives and friends who visited my husband at the hospital tried to convince us to exaggerate the seriousness of his injury to get more compensation from the driver. I firmly refused to. My husband recovered quickly and was released in eight days.
The driver and the owner of the van visited my husband on the last day of his hospitalization. Fearful that we would demand more money, they showered compliments on our family. I reassured them that my husband was fine and that we would not ask for more.
Out of the four car accidents that occurred that month in our village, the damage from my husband’s accident was the most severe, but he escaped with the lightest injuries. People in our village began to say, “Those who practice Falun Dafa are really blessed!”
