Cultivating While Helping My Mother Overcome Illness Karma

(Minghui.org) The following are my cultivation experiences while helping my mother, a fellow practitioner, get over illness karma after the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was launched in China.

Mother’s Cultivation Story

My mother is 87 years old this year. My grandmother passed away when my mother was just over a year old, and my grandfather smoked opium continuously, so the family was in great difficulty financially. They had no money to send my mother to school. She read The Classic of Girls, the traditional primary school textbook for teaching girls when she was a child, so she learned some words. Later, our sisters went to school out of town and often wrote letters home. My mother learned a lot of words from reading our letters, which laid the foundation for future Fa study.

My mother started practicing Falun Dafa at the end of 1997. She could only recognize 80 percent of the characters in Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa, so her understanding of the Fa was limited. The CCP’s persecution of Falun Dafa began after she had studied the Fa for just one year.

I lived far from my mother, and she had no group study environment at home after the persecution began. She did not understand what cultivation was all about. She occasionally read Zhuan Falun and did the exercises. She often got yelled at and humiliated by my father for practicing Falun Dafa. Therefore, my mother’s understanding of the Fa principles was very insufficient. Especially when dealing with sickness karma, she could not understand it based on the Fa. When her body appeared to be in an incorrect state, she believed she was sick and took medicine and got injections or went to the hospital for an infusion.

But my mother’s belief in Dafa was steadfast. No matter what my father and others said, she told them, “No one can stop me from practicing Falun Gong.” Because of my mother’s firm belief in Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, Master’s Law Body had been protecting and caring for her.

My mother told me she had seen the Falun spinning in front of her for over 10 years. It was black and white at first, then it changed into a color. Therefore, every time my mother went through sickness karma, it appeared very serious, but she was able to get through it with Master’s help.

Overcoming Illness Karma with My Mother

I dreamed that my mother was buried up to her neck in soil one night in May 2005. I dug her out and held her in my arms. Her body was cold, but she was still alive. Two days later, I received a phone call from home saying my mother had suffered from intestinal obstruction and was in severe pain. She had been hospitalized for a week and could not eat. She vomited everything she ate and relied on infusions to survive.

I immediately took the train back to my hometown. I arrived at the hospital after nine o’clock in the evening. The first thing I saw was my sister and mother crying. My sister did not practice. She was crying because my brother blamed her for not taking good care of our mother. My mother was crying because my father was not good to her. After I found out the reason, I laughed and tried to comfort her: “You think my father is not nice to you now. Maybe you treated him worse in your past life. So there is nothing to complain about.” I started to recite Master’s poem “An Upright Person” from Hong Yin, and my mother also recited it after me. After reciting, my mother told me, “The weight of the resentment has lifted off my heart.”

The following day, my mother could eat half a bowl of porridge. I suggested to the doctor that the amount of infusion be reduced by half, and the doctor accepted my suggestion. On the morning of the third day, my mother could drink a bowl of porridge. I asked the doctor to stop the infusion, and the doctor agreed and said to observe her for a day. She was discharged from the hospital on the morning of the fourth day. Dafa untied the knot in my mother’s heart, and Master helped my mother resolve this problem.

My mother became seriously ill again, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, and was taken to the hospital at the end of 2012. My family told me on the phone that my mother was very sick and the small hospital could no longer help her. They were planning to transfer her to a larger hospital and wanted me back to take care of her. I immediately got on the phone with my mother. I encouraged and enlightened her using the Fa principles I learned. We talked for more than 20 minutes. My mother told me that she felt delighted after talking to me. I felt that my mother was more than half recovered, and I told her I would return to see her immediately.

I had a dream that night. In the dream, I was walking with a person in a cemetery. No matter which direction we took and how we walked, we couldn’t get out of the cemetery. There was no way out. So I told that person, “We can only get out when we can transcend humanness.” After saying that, we both flew into the air and left the cemetery.

By the time I rushed back, my mother had recovered and was discharged from the hospital. My family even jokingly told me that her illness was anxiety. She had such a severe illness, but got better as soon as I arrived. She must have missed me. I smiled and felt relieved but didn’t tell them that it was the power of Dafa. I just knew in my heart Master helped her. Cultivators are different from ordinary people; our Master is taking care of us.

This happened several times at a later date. My mother recovered quickly as soon as I returned. Without knowing, my ego was a little inflated, and I thought myself capable. I even told fellow practitioners about the process of my mother overcoming her illness karma. I got complacent and forgot Master was the only one who could save people. By putting myself above Dafa, I was already in great danger without even realizing it.

My mother had been hospitalized twice beginning in February 2023. In February, I went to visit my parents. I didn’t go home the previous year because of the pandemic. Not long after I got to my parents’ home, my mother became seriously ill. My father was an ordinary person, so he invited a doctor to home to give my mother infusions and injections. Later, my mother recovered. Twenty days later, I went home.

In April, my mother went to the hospital for surgery because her lumbar vertebrae was fractured, and the pain was excruciating. After the operation, she suffered from heart failure and almost died. When I rushed to the hospital, they were resuscitating her. I begged Master in my heart to save my mother. Soon, my mother was rescued and then transferred to the cardiology intensive care unit. My mother was wearing a ventilator, and her body was covered with various instruments. She told the doctor that she did not feel good here and there, completely treated herself as an ordinary person.

Seeing this situation, I developed resentment towards my mother. I felt she had no righteous thoughts at all and even told me to listen to the doctor. Soon, I realized that my mentality was wrong and I quickly adjusted it. I could not have any demands on my mother, so I treated her as an ordinary person because she had never understood the issue of illness karma. Every time she felt uncomfortable anywhere in her body, she thought she was sick. When I realized it, I felt relieved. My mother recovered quickly. Within a few days, she was discharged. I saw that my mother had almost recovered, so I returned home.

Unexpectedly, just over 10 days after I returned home, my mother was admitted to the hospital again because of severe hip pain. After various treatments, such as acupuncture and massage, it still hurt. There was nothing the doctor could do, so he gave my mother painkiller injections. But it did not last long; the pain started again. My sister called and said, “What should we do? The hospital can’t help her, and it hurts when she goes home.” I said, “Since the hospital can’t help her, let’s go home. I’ll come back to take care of her.” So, I rushed home by car. We quickly completed the discharge procedures and went home.

After returning home, I said to my mother, “The hospital can’t cure your illness. You can only ask Master to help you.” At the same time, I told her about many fellow practitioners’ experiences in overcoming illness karma. I told her she should ask Master for help in tough situations. Later, when she encountered physical discomfort, she remembered to ask Master for help, and she recovered rather fast. This greatly encouraged my mother and strengthened her confidence and belief in Master and the Fa. In addition, we studied the Fa, did the exercises, and sent forth righteous thoughts. My mother recovered quickly. I returned home 20 days later, at the end of June.

By early July 2023, my mother’s feet and legs were swollen again, almost to her knees. My sister called me and told me my mother’s “illness” was severe, and the swelling could not be controlled even with medication. She applied aloe vera, but the skin was broken and discharged yellow water. My sister felt that my mother was dying, and she was sad and scared. I quickly called my mother and encouraged her not to be afraid, and she would be fine after the bad things were discharged; it would be no problem. My mother calmed down, the swelling began to subside, and she got better.

Removing the Resentment Towards My Father

My father had a strong personality and had never been kind to my mother, especially after my mother began to practice Dafa. When the CCP started to persecute Falun Dafa, my father was very mean to my mother and opposed her practice. For this reason, I looked down on my father. Especially when my mother was in a state of illness, my father would make far-fetched claims that my mother was sick because she practiced Falun Dafa. After hearing this, I felt even more uncomfortable and disliked him. The resentment was so strong that I didn’t even realize it.

When caring for my mother at home in June 2023, one day while studying Master’s two articles “Why Save Sentient Beings” and “How Humankind Came To Be,” my compassion suddenly arose. I felt that I shouldn’t treat my father like this. He was also Master’s relative, and he risked his life to become a human being, waiting for Master and Dafa to save him. Because Dafa practitioners did not do well, he could not see the beauty of Dafa, thereby committing a crime against Dafa. Besides, I did not know my mother and father’s predestined relationship. I shouldn’t get stuck in their grudges in this human world. Only by breaking the fetters of sentimentality could I have compassion. How could I look down on him? I should be nice to him.

I stopped my sentimentality, let go of my resentment towards my father, and wanted to be kind to him. My father also felt my kindness. He tried to give me money the day before I left them. I had never experienced this in 30 years since I started working. I knew my father took money very seriously. I was very touched. I realized cultivation meant cultivating oneself. When you see the shortcomings of others, you should turn around and check if there is anything in yourself that is not in line with the Fa, which is why you encounter such things. Our environment changes accordingly when we comply with the universe’s characteristics - Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. This is my understanding of the meaning of “the appearance stems from the mind” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X) and “How the Mind Can Lead Astray” (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun).

Reflecting on Myself in the Context of Mother’s Continuous Illness Karma

After experiencing the exhausting trips from home to the hospital again and again and the painful mental torture and fear over and over after receiving calls from home, I realized I had a big problem in my cultivation. After such endless torture, I finally felt that I couldn’t bear it anymore. I calmed down and sorted out my thoughts. I finally understood that my mother’s state was partly a reflection of my cultivation state.

When my cultivation state was good, and my firmness in Dafa was greater, her illness state quickly passed. In that state, I didn’t think about anything but one firm thought: She can pass the test! I had complete confidence in Dafa and Master and was compassionate and considerate towards my mother, a fellow practitioner. But when I was relaxed in cultivation and had no sense of responsibility for her as a fellow practitioner, I was inflating myself and thinking that I had saved my mother and was complacent about my “contributions”. I started to complain, believing my mother could not improve her xinxing, and the concept of illness was still lingering in her mind; She brought trouble to herself, and her “illness” discredited Dafa. When I held onto this mindset, my mother’s situation was terrible.

Now I understand only Master can save people. Dafa practitioners are cultivating during this process. What can we do? We have to rely on Master to eliminate our karma. If Master had not saved us, we would have self-destructed by now. How can we develop arrogance? I began to look inward sincerely and found many of my attachments: showing off, complacency, complaining, looking down on fellow practitioners, and selfishness. In the past two years, I have slacked off in cultivation, and my sense of responsibility for all sentient beings was far less than before. I made up my mind to return to my original state when I started to cultivate. I asked for Master’s help. At the same time, my mother’s condition improved quickly.

I realized that nothing a cultivator encounters among ordinary people is accidental. The old forces arrange them, but at the same time, Master arranges it also by “beating them at their own game.” I believe that no matter what excuse the old forces use to imprison Dafa practitioners, Master’s arrangement is to allow Dafa practitioners to cultivate successfully in the process of saving sentient beings. When we practice according to Dafa, we are following the path arranged by Master. When I am often confused and don’t know what to do, I wonder: “Would Master arrange it this way?” This is standing on Master’s and Dafa’s side to examine the problem. In this way, we will quickly find the direction following Master’s requirements, and negate the evil arrangements. Then we are on the path that Master has arranged for us.