(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1999. Throughout the years of my cultivation, I have truly experienced the magnificence, beauty, and joy of practicing Falun Dafa.
Before I began practicing, I suffered from many illnesses, such as stomach problems and gynecological diseases. The most serious illness I had was rheumatism. I ran a small shop. Because I had no money, I couldn’t afford coal in the cold winter and I had to burn firewood to warm my hands. My hands swelled, and later my legs swelled, and this happened repeatedly every winter. Eventually my hands became deformed. At night, even under two quilts, the cold air seemed to seep from my hands and feet, and I couldn’t sleep. It was truly unbearable. In less than a month after I started practicing Dafa, I was completely healthy and my body felt light. It was an incredibly joyful and wonderful feeling!
I remember something that occurred when I was about 10 years old. I was run over by an ox cart while I walked along a main road. I stood up and saw that I was fine—I was still alive. I didn’t think much of it and happily skipped back home. As I grew older, whenever I thought about this incident, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t injured—after I began practicing Falun Dafa, I realized Master was already protecting me.
I was 25 years old when I got married in 1979. There was barely any food and we had nothing to burn to cook food with or to heat the house. We had only one container of corn cobs, which was our food ration for the entire year. My sister-in-law’s child also lived with us—how could we survive? My family eventually sent us some grain and firewood. Everyone was poor. The production team distributed grain based on the number of people in one’s family, and many families barely had enough to eat. Fortunately, my uncle leased land, so I went there to cut grass, dried it, loaded a cart and brought it home—this finally solved our fuel problem.
Over time, conflicts arose between my mother-in-law and me. My father-in-law died when she was young, so she supported the family all by herself. She felt everyone had to obey her because she contributed the most to the family, and no one was allowed to contradict her. She had a bad temper, and whenever something displeased her, she made a huge scene and shouted at my husband: “Your father died early. I raised you. Now that you have a wife, you’ve forgotten your mother.”
My husband had to obey her and do whatever she said. If he didn’t, she tied a rope to a beam and threatened to hang herself—weeping and making a huge fuss. My husband took his anger and frustration out on me. One day, while I was sitting on the heated brick bed, the two of them dragged me down and drove me out, so I returned to my parents’ home. When I came back later to feed the pigs, the pigs were gone—they’d sold them.
One night, we heard my mother-in-law crying. When we asked why, she said she wanted to drink alcohol. My husband brought her a cup of water, which she knocked over. She grabbed the alcohol and drank it. Another night, she held a knife and tried to kill my husband; he ran outside in his shorts to hide. We later learned that she behaved so irrationally because she previously worshiped a fox, weasel, and other spirits.
To please my mother-in-law, we bought a television and moved it into her room to keep her company. My husband had to go to the city for a meeting for about seven days. Before he left he told his mother, “If she [referring to me] treats you badly, tell me when I get back.” During the days he was gone, my mother-in-law wasn’t feeling well. So I didn’t turn on the TV for her. At that time, few people had a television. When her TV was on, the neighbors came over and didn’t leave until the show ended. I was afraid that having the TV on would disturb her rest. Because of this, I got into trouble again. When my husband returned, I cooked four dishes and put them on the table. My mother-in-law called him into her room—sure enough, she was complaining again. When my husband came out, he flipped the table over. That day was the first time my younger sister visited my home. Seeing this scene, she left without eating.
One time I didn’t realize that I offended my mother-in-law again. However, soon after my husband came home at noon he picked up a knife and tried to slash me with it. I ran outside. A neighbor saw this, took the knife from his hand, and scolded him: “What are you doing? You marry a wife, but don’t stand up for her—what kind of man are you?”
My husband lowered his head and went home, and the tension finally subsided. All I could do was cry, thinking, “How can I live like this?” I thought about divorcing or committing suicide. But when I looked at my young child, I couldn’t bear to leave him so I abandoned those thoughts. I truly felt that suffering accompanied me constantly.
My mother-in-law sued me in court to divide the family property. One afternoon, my husband came home and told me that the court had summoned me. When I entered the courtroom, I saw my mother-in-law sitting there. As soon as I saw her, my lips started trembling, and I didn’t know how long it took before I could speak. I asked why I was summoned. The judge said, “Your mother-in-law wants to divide the family property.”
I was stunned and said, “If we’re dividing the family property, there’s no need to go to court. We can just do it at home.” I recalled that she previously mentioned dividing the property, but I hadn’t agreed to it. When I married, she was already 64, and now she was over 70. Even if we lived separately, we would still have to take care of her. Besides, my father-in-law was gone, and I couldn’t bear to see her live alone. Although I felt wronged and resentful, I never intended to abandon her. Yet she kept making a fuss and even took it to court this time. The judge asked me how many rooms I planned to give her. I said, “We have four rooms in total. She can live in two, and we’ll live in the other two.”
Even though we lived separately, we still had no peace. She slept soundly during the day and stayed up all night. She scolded us when we went to bed, and we couldn’t sleep. This happened every night but I still had to work in the production team all day. When our son was young, if she was in a good mood she looked after him; if she wasn’t, she yelled at him. When my son grew older, I asked him to keep her company. When she couldn’t sleep at night, she would curse people, and my son, afraid that we would hear, sang to cover it up. In fact, we heard everything. For years, her yelling was a daily occurrence.
My husband stopped blindly obeying her, and sometimes talked back to her. He was a school teacher, and when he rode his bike to work, she followed him all the way to the school. A teacher told her, “Your son didn’t come to work today.” She replied, “You’re lying to me. I saw his bicycle.” Because she often went to the school to cause trouble, my husband hid. If she found him, she would hit and verbally abused him. Even when he was teaching, she disrupted the class, saying she was going to teach the students, which caused them to burst into laughter. There was truly nothing anyone could do about her.
I later suggested to my husband that we move out. “If we don’t dare offend her, can’t we at least avoid her?” My husband disagreed. I felt the situation was hopeless, so I rented a place myself and opened a small food shop.
In 1999, I was fortunate to find Falun Dafa. Both my body and my moral character underwent earth-shaking changes—I felt light and joyful. My mother-in-law was older by then, and needed someone to look after her. My husband’s second older brother lived nearby, so my husband and I asked if he was willing to provide the care, and we would provide the money. He initially agreed. He later changed his mind and began making many demands—it was clear that he didn’t really want to help her. I didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have a house, and I didn’t have time to care for her. My husband worked, and I was the only one running the shop—I was busy from morning to night, and barely had time to eat. My mother-in-law had four children—three sons and one daughter. Years earlier, my oldest sister-in-law had mentioned caring for my mother-in-law.
Other things can wait, but caring for the elderly cannot. After discussing it, my husband and I rented a place the next day, and my husband brought my mother-in-law to live with us. Before I cultivated Dafa, this would have been absolutely impossible for me to do—I avoided her at all costs, and would have never brought her to live with us. But now it was different; both my husband and I were cultivators. Although my mother-in-law had treated me poorly in the past, I re-examined myself using the Fa’s principles (Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance) and realized I also was unkind to her. Looking at it from her perspective, her husband died when she was in her 40s, and she never remarried. She raised her children and they got married—how difficult that must have been! How much suffering has she endured, and who could truly understand it? When she was angry or aggressive toward us, she felt she was protecting herself from being taken advantage of—this is human nature.
After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I could understand her. From the perspective of the Fa, things happen for a reason. By enduring her behavior, I was repaying the karmic debts I’d accumulated over countless lifetimes, turning bad things into good ones. I should even thank her for providing such opportunities. Dafa was transforming me.
After my mother-in-law was hospitalized, her condition worsened—she couldn’t find her way home when she went out and couldn’t get up when she fell. A neighbor came to my shop one day and said, “Your mother-in-law is lying in the vegetable field.” I hurried out and brought her home. I thought this shouldn’t happen again. Since I was young, I had known that honoring and caring for the elderly is a traditional Chinese virtue. Moreover, I am a cultivator—Master asks us to strictly measure themselves with the Fa principles and to be kind to everyone, especially my own mother-in-law. So I closed my shop and bought a house—this allowed me to focus on taking care of her. When neighbors learned that I closed my shop, they said, “Your mother-in-law has four children. Why are you the only one taking care of her? Don’t you feel resentful or wronged? You are really amazing!”
At first, I couldn’t sleep at night, because my mother-in-law kept falling out of bed. As soon as I put her back in the bed, before I could even leave, she fell again. To avoid affecting my husband’s work, I cared for her alone, day and night. For more than eight months, I didn’t have a single night of sound sleep. But whenever I reminded myself that I am a cultivator and this was helping me eliminate karma—a good thing—I no longer felt that it was bitter. When she was clear-minded, my mother-in-law said, “You’re the only one of the three daughters-in-law who takes care of me.” She felt sorry for me.
One day my husband asked me, “When my mom passes away, the minimum funeral expenses will be 10,000 yuan. What if the others don’t help?” I replied, “For so many years they haven’t given her much money, and we handled it. Just think of it as though you were her only child—then you’ll feel at peace.” My mother-in-law passed away peacefully at the age of 89. The karmic debts between us from many lifetimes were finally resolved under the compassionate light of Dafa.
Twenty years have passed. I am grateful to compassionate and great Master for transforming me, a once-lost child, allowing me to end the boundless suffering of reincarnation and find the way home. I will move forward diligently, do the three things well, fulfill my mission, and honor my sacred vow! Thank you, Master!