(Minghui.org) During the past 20 years that I have practiced Falun Dafa, I have witnessed history every time I have validated Falun Dafa in the special environment of China. Master Li has protected and encouraged me every step of the way.
After the persecution of Falun Dafa started, I was transferred to a new department. I learned that my coworker, Ms. Zhang, was the wife of the head of the 610 office. She had been sick for a week before she came to work. She seldom spoke to me. Whenever I started a conversation, she responded in a perfunctory manner.
We worked in the service sector, where I managed clients’ accounts and she managed the cash. When she was not busy, she often looked out the window at the people passing by. That was until she once said she had something urgent to deal with and needed to leave. As there were only the two of us, she left in a rush without handing things over to me. When customers came, I only had access to the cash in her box. When she returned, she checked the receipts and found no errors. Only then did she give me a smile and say, “Thank you!” From that point on, we started having short chats.
When a customer I knew came in, she gave me money in a parcel wrapped in paper for me to deposit for her. I asked her how much she was giving me. She said, “Someone returned it to me, so I have no idea. However much you tell me it is, I’ll take it.” Then she said she had to go run some errands. I opened the paper bag and saw that there was between 30,000 to 40,000 yuan in cash, and the bills were in disarray. After I finished putting them in order and counting them, I gave Ms. Zhang a receipt. She recounted the money and exclaimed, “Right on! Well done!”
Gradually, we talked more and more. I realized that she was very talkative. She had the floor most of the time, and I just listened. However, when I tried to clarify the facts to her, she’d stop me immediately. I sometimes felt embarrassed when she did not give me a chance to talk. I then began to feel relieved when I thought everything was going in a good direction with her.
One day, she looked at me and said, “I don’t know why, but every time I work with you, I feel secure. I used to be very nervous, and I always had trouble balancing my cash. However, since you came, I’ve never been short a penny. You are so nice.” Looking at her face full of sincerity, I replied, “Honestly, I feel it is so unfair to be with you.” She asked me why. I smiled and said, “You can say whatever you want to me, but I cannot say what I want to you. See, it’s only up to you to decide what to talk about and what not to talk about.”
She seemed a bit embarrassed and said, “As long as you don’t bring up your belief, then that’s fine. You know what my husband does. So let’s try not to touch this topic.” I said, “Actually, I really want to talk to you about my belief. Buddhism believes in predestined relationships. Since we are together here, I believe we have a predestined relationship. From our being together, I have come to realize that you are someone who knows what’s good and what’s bad. Can you please try to understand why I continue to practice Falun Dafa despite such tremendous pressure? Falun Dafa is also called Falun Buddha Law. It teaches people to be good by holding themselves to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance wherever they are.”
I also told her about how I handled my relationship with my mother-in-law. Before I practiced Falun Dafa, I really resented her. While I was engaged, my mother-in-law agreed to financially support us in building our house. However, she reneged on her promise right after our house was built. She not only didn’t support us but also said hurtful things to me. Most of the money we used to build the house was covered by my parents instead. At that time, I was very sad. I felt my mother-in-law not only cheated me but also cheated my parents. I felt I'd let my parents down and was unhappily married.
Except for major holidays, I seldom visited my in-laws. When our son was born, my husband borrowed 100 yuan from her to make a cabinet. After I left the hospital, before my baby was even a month old, my mother-in-law already asked me to pay her back. When my husband argued with her, she made quite a scene. Both of my in-laws had a decent income, so I didn’t quite understand why they were so mean to me. This made me look down on them even more. When I was doing better financially, they came to see their grandson from time to time. Knowing I resented them, they usually came and left on the same day.
The resentment exhausted me, and I developed health issues. I had an accelerated heartbeat, a kidney deficiency, sciatica, and felt dizzy. I often went to a Chinese Medicine Hospital to have my pulse checked. Even though I took a lot of Chinese medications, my health deteriorated. Every day after work, I felt exhausted and almost collapsed. I would lie in bed and didn’t feel like moving. But as soon as I saw my home was a mess, I became upset. I couldn’t eat or sleep well, feeling my life was bitter and tiring.
After I began to practice Falun Dafa, its principles not only helped me understand the true meaning of life but also explained the predestined relationships between people. It was just like a master key that opened up my heart. I truly came to be illness-free for the very first time in my life.
My mother-in-law said that Falun Dafa is miraculous; it was as if I became a new person. She was used to seeing me with a somber expression all day long. She had been afraid to come to my home. She now stays over at my house often, saying she is very happy to be with me. When she bought a motorcycle and other expensive items for my brother-in-law, she didn’t hide it from me. She said we were financially better off than my brother-in-law’s family. She knew that I wouldn’t feel jealous about what she did for him and his family.
After my son got married, his family lived with us. When my mother-in-law was ill and hospitalized, I prepared meals for her and brought them to her. When she was discharged, she still couldn’t take care of herself. So I had my in-laws move in with us. Our three generations lived in a house of just over 900 square feet. Even though space was tight, the guidance of Dafa’s principles helped our big family live in harmony.
My mother-in-law recovered very quickly and told me I lived like a fairy, keeping myself occupied without feeling tired every day. She said that having a healthy body was very precious. She also took the initiative to talk to me about her interest in practicing Dafa. Both she and my father-in-law began to read Zhuan Falun. She said she always felt she was a nice person before. However, after she started learning Dafa, she realized that she was far from it. Before that, no matter what she did, she always thought about what to do for her own sake. For example, when she was buying Chinese cabbage, she pulled off the dead leaves before taking it. After she learned this was wrong, she stopped doing it.
She sometimes got up early to do the exercises with me. As a result, she went from someone who had difficulty going downstairs, to not feeling tired when walking with my father-in-law to a market that was over a mile away. She told me, “Now I finally understand why you have a strong faith in Dafa. It’s truly amazing!” Both she and my father-in-law read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. While reading it, she repeatedly said that what’s covered in it is all true. After all, they witnessed many of those things. She also brought up their personal accounts and condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the terrible things it did.
My father-in-law, who retired from a hospital, added: One thing not mentioned in the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party was how the “one-child” policy led to many deaths for newborns. There were many newborns buried in the backyard of the hospital where he worked. Some had been choked to death right after birth.
Eventually, my mother-in-law, my daughter-in-law, and I studied the Fa together every day after dinner. After Master’s new articles were published, we began to recite them. The three of us were in high spirits every day. I said in a joking way, “We are not really like in-laws, but more like sisters.” After I said this, I knew I had misspoken and quickly apologized to my mother-in-law, who said, “I’m glad you said that, because I’m still quite young.”
When the spring came, since my mother-in-law had fully recovered, she returned home. When my sister-in-law saw her, she was caught off guard, saying that her mother appeared to be 10 years younger than her actual age.
My mother-in-law’s colleague told me that when my brother-in-law bought his house, she supported him by giving him several tens of thousands of yuan. What they meant was my mother-in-law was in favor of him. Initially, I was very calm. But then it triggered the things that happened when my house was built. My attachment to self-interest, feeling it was unfair, and my feeling upset all flared up: “I treated you so well, how come you treated me like this?!” My attachment to seeking returns also popped up.
According to ordinary people’s principles, what my mother-in-law did was not right. However, as a practitioner, this gave me an opportunity to see the shortcomings in my character (xinxing). I understood that I should eliminate them, so as to rectify myself in the Fa.
When I could truly let go of my attachments, my mother-in-law offered me some money. I knew that their savings were made through living a thrifty life. To be honest, I didn’t want their money. So I told them that. The issue ended just like that!
After Ms. Zhang listened to what I had to say, she said, “This cannot be done by just anyone.”
She later confided to me, “From working with you, I understand that Falun Dafa is good. However, the CCP has money and power. Being ordinary people, we can’t fight it.” I said, “Falun Dafa is the Buddha Law, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is a heavenly principle. What’s the CCP compared to this? Nothing!” She smiled and said, “True.”
When I asked her to quit the CCP, she said she never joined the Party. I then explained she had to renounce her memberships in the Youth League and Young Pioneers. I also mentioned the stone discovered in Guizhou with the characters “The Chinese Communist Party Will Perish.”
She said her husband was a Party member, but he was a nice person. I said, “Was he a bad person before he joined the Party, then became a good person afterward? Or he was a good person before joining the Party, but became bad after becoming an official? Perhaps you feel that way because you don’t have to pay the bill when you eat out and have a chauffeur service taking you to work and bringing you home. How fantastic that is! But every time he came home drunk, didn’t you worry about his health? You often fought with him. Do you feel happy about that? Even though you didn’t have money before, you could be an honest person and live your life with ease!”
She hung out with the wives of other CCP officials. She couldn’t have been more clear about the corruption of those officials, and the scandals in their lives. When she was with them, they often talked about family affairs, how they fought with their in-laws, and that they tried to divorce their husbands due to conflicts. One time, she told me that she couldn’t stand listening to it anymore and blurted out, “Please learn from Falun Dafa practitioners, they have self-restraint and are noble people. They also can endure. My coworker doesn’t fight over self-interest. Moreover, she looks inward to examine herself. She gets along well with both her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.”
We were later transferred to a new business hall, and one of the air conditioning vents faced her. She couldn’t tolerate the cold air and asked her manager to exchange her seat with someone else. But no one wanted to trade with her. The manager was worried about my age and felt reluctant to ask me. Seeing the situation, I took the initiative to exchange seats with her. In the beginning, she was worried about me and kept asking me if I was okay. Seeing that I was fine, she felt relieved and said to me, “You are doing very well!”
She once asked me to go outside with her to get some sunlight. On our way back, I thought about the fact that she hadn’t yet renounced her memberships in the CCP’s youth organizations. I then called her over and said firmly, “Please quit your memberships in the Youth League and Young Pioneers. It’s not for anything other than for your safety when the great calamity comes.” She looked at me and said, “Sure, I’ll quit.” She then became teary-eyed. She was really saved for having learned the truth!
I feel grateful to benevolent Master Li (Dafa’s founder) for giving us opportunities time after time, as well as for making the arrangements for sentient beings to be saved.
During the time we worked together, Ms. Zhang’s husband was transferred out of the municipal 610 Office. With that, he no longer had to participate in the persecution.