(Minghui.org) I am 85 years old. I was close to death before I began to cultivate Falun Dafa. I was riddled with illnesses. I felt weak and listless. My chest felt tight. I had to rest two to three times to cook a meal.
My first daughter-in-law started to practice Falun Dafa before I did. She said in 1997, “Mother, why don’t you try to do the exercises?” I did not take it seriously. A few months later, she said, “Mother, I have brought you the Dafa book. Please read it and then think about this cultivation practice."
I sat down and opened Zhuan Falun one morning after my children had gone to work. The golden light dazzled my eyes. I was stunned and began to cry. I held the book to my chest and cried inside, thinking, “Master, it is such a wonderful book. I would have read it before if I had known. It is a sacred book.” I asked Master for help because I was illiterate. “I will follow you all my life.”
I had only ever attended night school for a few days and knew just a few words; I could not even write my name correctly. At first, I could read only a few words in the book but I learned more as I read. Slowly, I could read almost all of Zhuan Falun. I knew it was Master who taught me. I could read the book at group study, albeit a bit slower. Now I can read every Dafa book.
Cleansing My Body
Master cleansed my body just as I began to cultivate. I defecated black stuff for four days straight, and my belly was flat from then on. I recovered from all my illnesses and no longer had the pain that had bothered me for half of my life. I thank Master and cannot describe my gratitude in mere words.
This year my back suddenly started to ache. It was the first time in all these years. Three months ago, I bent down and tried to get up when suddenly my back hurt. I had to stay bent over and lean against the wall to move little by little. I called my daughter-in-law and told her that I could not go to her home as I had promised, but I did not tell her why, lest she worry.
I could not straighten my back to study the Fa. I lay down for a short while after studying for a while. At first I could not finish one lecture a day, but gradually I could, and then I read two lectures a day. I only meditated since I could not do the standing exercises at all. I thought, “I am a cultivator; Master is taking care of me, I have nothing to fear—it will pass.”
My second son lives close by and visits me often. When he saw me bent over, he asked what was wrong. I said my back hurt. He asked me to let him stay and take care of me for a few days. I said there was no need. “How can you cook for yourself?” he asked. I said, “No problem. I can do it.” He could not convince me to let him stay and left. He brought stuff over to me every few days.
A Cultivator Is Not an Ordinary Person
I haven’t regarded myself as an ordinary person since I began to cultivate. I live by myself in spite of my age, so as not to cause my children any trouble. My son’s devotion reminded me of an example.
A veteran practitioner who learned Dafa before 1999 and whom we knew well was very diligent. But one day she appeared listless, and I asked her what had happened. She said she’d gotten some illness. I encouraged her and told her to be steadfast in believing in Master and Dafa and to be more diligent in studying the Fa. But recently I heard she’d had an operation, and I saw her children pushing her in a wheelchair. I told her she was a practitioner and should not treat herself as an ordinary person and be taken care of by her children. She said she could not take care of herself. Then she became bedridden. After a while she passed away.
Every day I say to Master, “I believe in you.”
I cooked the simplest meals. I heated up a small pot of water and poured cornmeal in it. I had only cornmeal to eat for two months. I moved bit by bit to the kitchen to cook every day while my back grew stronger.
One day my son saw me cooking. He said, “Are you ok now?” I said I was. He said, “Your Master is truly powerful.”
I called my first daughter-in-law and told her I could go to her home now. I told her my experience. I studied the Fa and did the exercises with fellow practitioners at her home. I had not done the standing exercises for two months, and I could not stop trembling when I held the Law Weel for the second exercise. Fellow practitioners asked me if I needed to rest, but I persisted. It was fine when I did that exercise the next day.
Breakthrough
I had a breakthrough at my daughter-in-law’s home. Fellow practitioners pointed out an error in my hand signs at the beginning of the meditation. They taught me for a day and a half until I could do them correctly.
Sharing with fellow practitioners, I enlightened that I had not been paying attention to small problems such as a back or leg ache since they did not affect my clarifying the truth about Dafa. I could still go out to put up posters for a couple of hours and come back without having any back or leg ache. So I neglected the problem and did not pay attention to improving my xinxing, let alone correcting my exercise movements. I’d altered the movements without realizing it. It was very dangerous. Thanks to Master for enlightening me about the correct movements.
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Category: Journeys of Cultivation