(Minghui.org) Greetings, revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
People nowadays may think that it’s silly to be a good person, but that’s not actually true. After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I changed from being a selfish, narrow-minded and resentful person, to a kind person who is open-minded, cares about others, and does not focus on personal gains and losses. As a result, both my health and my family relationships have improved. This was the mighty power of Master and Dafa. Falun Dafa showed me how to be a truly good person.
I was born in the 1960s. Influenced by my parents, I developed a strong-willed personality. I wanted to do everything better than others, whether it was at school, at work, or even when I looked for a husband. But things did not go as I wished. I did not get an ideal husband. He had a bad temper. If I said something he did not like, he flew into a rage, sometimes threw things, and cursed me. My temper became bad too. I never cursed before I got married. But, if he swore at me once, I swore at him twice. If he hit me once, I had to hit him a few more times to feel balanced.
I sometimes hit him hard, which made him angry, and he then hit me even more. Sometimes I ran out of the house in pain, yet he never looked for me. I was disappointed and sad. I felt angry and resentful.
When my husband had a severe cold and fever, and was shivering even though he was covered with a quilt. Instead of taking pity on him, I took the opportunity to retaliate by hitting him with a broom to vent my dissatisfaction. Whenever we quarreled I refused to cook for him. I made noodles for myself after he left for work. I looked down on him and felt wronged by him and his family.
Six months after we married, I had a major surgery. My husband claimed that my illness came from my family. When I got home after the surgery, my father-in-law and brother-in-law would not talk to me. This made me very angry, and I told my husband that his family was cold-blooded. His brother’s wife was selfish and took advantage of me, which caused me to have insomnia. When I complained about it to my husband, he did not sympathize with me.
I saw nothing good about my husband. When I met with my former classmates they all praised their husbands. I felt ashamed of my situation.
I had suffered from severe rheumatism since living in a dormitory in high school. I tried various treatments for sixteen years but nothing helped. I had to use cupping therapy to get temporary relief from the pain. Because of the severe rheumatism, if I didn’t cup my chest and back for a few days, I felt like a rock pressed on my body, and I could not breathe. I sometimes also had a stiff neck. My mother used to help me with the cupping, but after I got married, I had to rely on my husband. He had no patience. Every time I begged him to help me, he got angry and cursed me, and even said he hoped I would die.
Just when I had lost all hope, my life took a turn. A colleague introduced me to the main book of Falun Dafa, Zhuan Falun. I was deeply impressed by the principles of Falun Dafa and truly wished I had heard about Dafa earlier. From the teachings (Fa) I understood the true meaning of life, the true source of human life, the karmic relationships between people, and the fundamental reasons for human beings’ illnesses and pain. These were things I had never heard of in my 30-plus years of life.
After I began practicing Dafa, merciful Master cleansed my body. My long-term rheumatism and insomnia disappeared. It was so wonderful to be free of illness!
My attitude toward my husband was also changing.
Master said:
“...as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted, but should hold oneself to a high standard.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I wanted to follow what Master asked. The first thing I wanted to do was to control my temper and not curse or swear. It was not easy for me as it had already become a habit. When my husband deliberately provoked and scolded me, I controlled myself and did not fight back. Gradually I was able to hold it in. I forced myself at first, but later I was able to do it without any anger or grievance. My husband said, “After you began practicing Falun Dafa, you don’t curse, and we don’t fight anymore.” He gradually stopped cursing at me.
My husband had a parotid gland tumor surgery in 2012. I accompanied him and took care of him in the hospital. The hospital food was not good, so I bought him food from restaurants every day. When there was no spare bed in the ward, I had to squeeze into the bed with him. In order not to hurt him, I kept my shoulders raised, which hurt my bones, but I didn’t complain.
Three years later, my husband was riding a bus which was involved in a traffic accident. He fractured three bones in his palm, and was admitted to a hospital. He underwent surgery and had steel pins inserted. A year later, he was hospitalized again to remove the steel pins. I accompanied him both times. In order to make sure he had meals he liked, I took the bus home each time to cook for him. There were no insulated lunch boxes at that time, so I put the prepared meals into a stainless steel rice bowl, wrapped it in layers of fabric to prevent it from getting cold, and then took the bus to the hospital to deliver the food.
In the past, when my husband and I had conflicts, I always focused on his faults—he didn’t help me with housework, blamed me for everything, and made me angry. I never felt that I did anything wrong. After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I let go of my resentment, and learned to look inward. I found my own faults, and changed myself. I blamed and complained less about my husband, and I cared for and comforted him more. Gradually, there were fewer family conflicts, and our family atmosphere became warm.
When I changed, my husband also changed.
In the winter of 1997, I asked my husband to invite his father to live with us for a while. My father-in-law had bad teeth and liked to eat soft food, so I made fish, tofu, and egg cakes for him, which were his favorite foods. My father-in-law was happy at our house, and my husband was very grateful to me. Not long after my father-in-law returned to his home, he was diagnosed with cancer. I wept when I heard this. My husband wanted to take some money from our account for my father-in-law’s treament. At that time, we had only about 2,000 yuan. Saying nothing, I handed the bank passbook to him without hesitation. My husband was very moved. He later took more money to buy things for my father-in-law, and I supported him. When my father-in-law told us he wanted to give his house to us, we refused.
The wife of my brother-in-law had hurt us badly in the past, and I felt I would hate her for the rest of my life. But after I began practicing Falun Dafa, I understood my karmic relationship with her, let go of my hatred toward her, and took the initiative to talk to her. When she gave birth to their second child, I gave them money. When their children encountered difficulties in transferring to another school, I helped them. They later occasionally helped us.
One year, my husband’s company couldn’t pay wages and gave us ten tons of coal as payment. My husband and I decided to give all the coal to his second sister and second brother who were having financial difficulties. When his second brother’s children needed money to go to high school, I often helped them even though I had to sacrifice buying clothes for myself. His third sister borrowed 5,000 yuan from us to renovate their home, and it took several years to pay back 3,000 yuan. Since she and her husband were not in good health, and they relied on the subsistence allowance, I suggested to my husband not to take the remaining 2,000 yuan.
In fact today, we gave her another 1000 yuan for the New Year, and also bought her more than 1,000 yuan worth of medicine.
I am sharing my stories and hope that more people will realize how wonderful Falun Dafa is, have a chance to learn Dafa, uplift their morals, and return their true home.
(Selected from submissions for World Falun Dafa Day celebration on Minghui.org)