A Lesson Learned From My Life and Death Test

(Minghui.org) My family was watching a program on New Tang Dynasty TV on the evening of the Lantern Festival (Feb 27, 2021), when I began to feel unwell. I first felt pain in my eyes and went to the kitchen to flush them with water. On my way back to the living room, my legs began to weaken and my consciousness was fading. After I struggled to sit on the couch, I felt blood starting to build up in my brain and lost control of my left arm and left leg.

I was terrified and struggled to maintain some consciousness. Seeing my pale face, my wife and elder sister (both Falun Dafa practitioners) immediately sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate evil factors interfering with me. Afterwards, my wife and son carried me to bed.

Lying in the bed, I couldn’t breathe because something was blocking my throat. In what felt like a dream, I saw two figures drag me out of the bed and walk forward. There appeared a big hole on the ground, and the door to it closed instantly. I was curious and asked where it was. “It’s hell,” someone answered.

I suddenly remembered that Master Li, the founder of Falun Dafa, had already scooped all practitioners out of hell and cleansed us. Mixed emotions filled my heart, including the fear of death, regret for not being diligent in my cultivation, and appreciation for Master Li’s salvation.

I regained consciousness at around midnight, and I slowly sat up to meditate on the bed. I could hardly move my arms and hands, but I managed to maintain the poses to meditate. I knew that Master was with me and I was not going to die.

I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996 when I went back to live at home after I graduated from college and before I started my new job.

I grew up with my grandmother who was a cigarette smoker. I followed in her footsteps and became a smoker, but I quit after I obtained the Fa.

After I started to work at my company, my manager told me to buy a pack of cigarettes to pass out to my colleagues when he introduced me to them. I did and passed out half a pack of cigarettes.

I found the half pack of cigarettes in my desk drawer many months later on a day I was upset about my work and life. After some struggles, my demonic side won and I lit one cigarette. After the half pack was used up, I bought more. The addiction returned. I subsequently tried to quit smoking numerous times but failed every time; I was able to stop anywhere from a few days to nearly a year. I was full of regret.

One night in 2002, many policemen broke into my house and arrested my wife for practicing Falun Dafa. My mother was terrified and became ill. As a result, she wasn’t able to take care of herself after 2007. Both of my parents passed away in 2020.

The Communist Party’s zero-out campaign, a concerted effort to force every practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce Falun Gong, also put a lot of pressure on me. I began to suspect that my life might be ending soon like my mother and father.

Then the scene on the night of the Lantern Festival happened.

The following morning, I got up to practice the standing Falun Dafa exercises but couldn’t move my left arm and left leg. My wife and my elder sister helped me to look within for any fundamental attachments and pointed out my addiction to cigarettes. My sister also reminded me of the principle of “no second cultivation way” because I had often believed in prophets and omens.

Why couldn’t I quit smoking? Looking within, I noticed that I didn’t believe in the Fa and Master one hundred percent. Secondly, I regarded smoking as an enjoyable thing and didn’t want to give it up.

As for prophets and omens, I am a practitioner and can only follow Master’s arrangements. How can I be controlled by these old forces?! If my mind is full of those messages, there will be no space for Master and Dafa. If that’s the case, how can Master help me? I knew that Master didn’t give up on me because I still had a certain degree of faith in Dafa. Master stopped the old forces’ arrangements and saved my life.

In the face of death, I realized that smoking, lust, and emotions were nothing desirable. My only regret was that I had not been diligent in cultivation for the past 25 years.

I have since recovered. My left side can move and do things as I want; I’m just a little weak and clumsy. I am not worried about it at all because I know I am walking the path arranged by Master.

Fellow practitioners, please learn from my lesson that there is no excuse for any attachment. You must get rid of them quickly because they will lead you astray in the face of life and death tests.