(Minghui.org) In July 2024, I visited a practitioner who was going through a serious tribulation—her symptoms were similar to a stroke. She lay in bed, her tongue protruded from her mouth and she had difficulty speaking. Four or five practitioners were there, reading the Fa and sending righteous thoughts.
I told her about my experiences while I was persecuted in a forced labor camp. Because I went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, I lost the ability to walk and became completely dependent on fellow practitioners for help.
One practitioner who had a clear understanding of the Fa, told me, “You must take care of yourself.” I understood that I shouldn’t regard myself as a “patient.” No matter how difficult it was, I should persevere and perform tasks on my own, completely negate the false appearance of illness and refuse to acknowledge the persecution.
I also told the practitioner who was having the tribulation that I was hit by a car and couldn’t bend over, but I insisted on practicing the exercises as much as I could. After about three days, my body returned to normal. After I said this she slowly sat up.
I visited her the next day, but when I noticed little improvement I asked, “Do you feel confident that you’ll overcome this tribulation? Do you think you need to go to the hospital?” She firmly responded, “I’m fine; I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Seeing her strong righteous thoughts, I felt happy for her. Then I asked, “Have you thought about what the problem might be? Is it because you don’t pay attention to cultivating yourself in small matters, and you have too many human thoughts?”
She replied, “I hadn’t thought about it.” I was surprised by her answer, but she later said, “I was too attached to browsing on my phone, and I still had resentment.”
On the third day, I went to see her again. She wanted to practice the exercises, so I did the second exercise with her. Her legs wobbled and sweat dripped from her arms, but she persisted. I was concerned that she might not be able to continue. Master helped so much, but I knew she must endure the pain and eliminate her karma. She couldn’t finish the second set, so I offered to do the third set with her. She said that she would wait until I finished the second set before she practiced the third exercise. At that moment, I saw she had consideration for others.
We also discussed looking inward, how to cultivate, the importance of believing in Master and the Fa, maintaining righteous thoughts, and truly having consideration for others. I reminded her that cultivation requires eliminating our attachments and not merely recognizing them. I explained that when I had tribulations and felt uncomfortable, I reminded myself that the negative notions were not mine. I looked inward and tried to identify what caused my attachment and eliminate it.
Her son worked the night shift and was worried that his mother was home alone so he asked if I could stay with her. He was greatly relieved when I agreed.
On my way home, I felt uneasy because her place is far from my home and isn’t as comfortable as mine. I immediately recognized my attachment to comfort and fear of hardship.
While I looked after her, her son often asked me how his mother could recover faster. I told him, “Listen to Master. It means practitioners should firmly believe in Master, look inward, and truly cultivate ourselves. There are no shortcuts in cultivation. Only when your mother reaches Dafa’s standards will her body recover.”
The other practitioners joined us once a week to study the Fa. Afterwards, we discussed our understanding of Fa-rectification cultivation versus personal cultivation, and how to improve ourselves while doing the three things. Cultivation involves improvement in every detail—even the smallest thoughts must be aligned with the Fa. In our discussions, I mentioned that I often read articles on Minghui, to learn from fellow practitioners’ good points and identify areas where I fell short so I could quickly improve. Through our experience sharing, we all deepened our understanding of what it means to cultivate—we learned from one another and were motivated to cultivate diligently.
The third week, after the other practitioners left, I suddenly felt scared. I was alone with her. I couldn’t contact her son or the other practitioners. I was concerned about what I would do if something went wrong. I suddenly thought of Master. I reminded myself that everything is in Master’s hands so there wasn’t anyhing to be concerned about. I calmed down and saw my negative mindset. When I thought of bad things, my thoughts actually formed a substance. Master said: “...matter and mind are one thing.” (Teachings at the Conference in Australia) I quickly realized fear wasn’t part of me and I eliminated it.
The first few times we did the exercises, I didn’t correct her movements because she was recovering and the exercises were strenuous for her. But as her condition began improving I wanted to be responsible to a fellow practitioner, so I told her to stop scratching herself or adjusting her clothing when she did the exercises. I explained that we should not move around when we did the exercises, even if we felt uncomfortable.
A practitioner bought some eggplants for her. After we read the Fa that evening, I helped prepare them, and said, “We’ll have eggplant with sauce tomorrow morning.” She immediately disagreed and said the eggplants should be frozen for winter. Realizing my mistake in not considering her wishes, I quickly apologized and suggested we have pickled vegetables instead. The next morning, after we finished practicing the exercises, she smiled and said we should have the eggplants with sauce. I felt that we both improved our xinxing.
While I stayed with her I prepared meals and did simple chores. I often felt exhausted. When she asked me to help her take a bath I thought I couldn’t refuse just because I was tired. One morning, after preparing breakfast and serving her porridge, I felt as though something negative left my body, and I suddenly felt energized. While I stayed with this practitioner I eliminated my attachment to comfort and I stopped going back to sleep after I did the exercises.
After more than a month and seeing how she steadily recovered, I decided to go home. My fellow practitioner finally got through this major illness tribulation. I felt our consistently studying the Fa, diligently cultivating ourselves, and focusing on improving our character contributed to her rapid recovery. We are committed to progressing together in cultivation.
I am grateful to Master for arranging the opportunity for me to cultivate with my fellow practitioner. I will continue to improve, and be a true Dafa practitioner in the Fa-rectification period, and follow Falun Dafa’s principles so I can return home with Master.