(Minghui.org) I am a 56-year-old Chinese woman living in a village in Liaoning Province, China. I first heard about a self-cultivation practice called Falun Dafa in 1998.
At that time I watched the videos of “Lectures in Jinan” by Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa. I learned that Dafa requires us to be good. Dafa can also teach people how to cultivate themselves to a high level of spiritual understanding. I then firmly believed that I had to cultivate successfully and return to my original, true home with Master Li’s help. I am so delighted that I have now been practicing Falun Dafa for 22 years!
I most assuredly have been bathing in the light of Buddha’s boundless grace. Master Li purified me so that my serious vertigo, acute mastitis, and gynecological problems all vanished.
In 1999, the Chinese Communism Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Dafa and spread propaganda about Master Li. I went out in the community and clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to people I met. Because I did that, I was illegally arrested. I was detained for 40 months in a forced labor camp. In the fall of 2006, I was released.
I should have been released in May of 2006, at the end of three years. But I was held for four more months, until September, because I passed along Falun Dafa articles to other practitioners, shouted “Falun Dafa is good,” refused to wear a labor camp uniform, and refused to work. Other practitioners encouraged my husband while I was detained. He continued to work on our farm and also took responsibility for running his parents’ and brother’s farm.
My husband planted our grain and corn on my in-law’s farmland. After the harvest, my husband and son went to work outside of the village.
One day, my neighbor came over and told me, “Hurry up! Your in-laws sold all your harvest.” I couldn’t believe it!
As it turned out, my neighbor was right. I saw a truck loaded with corn. I saw my in-laws counting the money they’d been paid. I asked them, “We took over the running of your farm. That is our harvest. How can you sell all of this?” My mother-in-law replied, “Yes, it’s true we did not want to farm this past season, but we should get a part of your earnings.”
I was not angry and realized I must follow the principles of a Falun Dafa practitioner. I cultivated my xinxing and spent the rest of the afternoon helping my mother-in-law with her chores.
When my husband heard about what had happened with the harvest, he rushed home and argued with his parents. But they firmly said their farm was not our business. My husband said, “What about our seeds and fertilizing costs? You should pay me back.” His parents emphatically told him that they intended to keep the money. My husband was super mad at them and ran into the kitchen with threats to burn down the house.
I told him, “I do not argue with them anymore. You are their son. You are still young. They are very old. You can still work and earn money. They can’t work anymore. They will feel more secure if they have some money.” He was angry and shouted at me for not being mad at them, too. Indeed, if I was not a Dafa practitioner, I might have reacted like my husband did.
In the autumn of 2009, I was helping him load produce from a donkey cart into a truck when I fell out of the back of the truck. I had severe abdominal pain and nearly stopped breathing. I could not move. My husband cursed me and complained that I was useless. He ignored me and left by himself to take the donkey cart back to the farm. I said, “I am really willing to help you, but I truly cannot. I am injured.” He was then quiet.
I asked Master to help me, and finally I could stand. It was very hard to get home. When I saw my neighbor, she was in a rush and asked me to watch her mother. Her mother was dying and she had to find someone to take her to the hospital.
So I took care of my neighbor’s mother while she went to get help. Later, when I did get home, my father-in-law shouted, “Where have you been? Your mother needed help! She had to carry the logs by herself. You are a Falun Dafa practitioner! I will report you and tell the police to arrest you. You will be sentenced to another few years.....” I was not angry and I remembered Master’s Fa:
“Maybe later on you’ll be slapped in the face a couple of times in front of the very person you least want to lose face around, and that’s to humiliate you, to see how you handle it, and to see whether you can endure it. “(Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
I did not say anything. I believed that this situation was arranged to help me get rid of the attachment to saving face.
My husband started to yell at his dad: “She fell off the truck. Did you know she was injured?” His dad thought he was making excuses to try to protect me, so they began to argue. My neighbor said, “I really didn’t know your wife was injured. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered her.”
Several people who witnessed the situation said that I handled it quite well and that Falun Dafa must truly be good! Actually, I did not think it was a big deal that I was able to endure this humiliation. Dafa saved me and Master protected me from serious injury.
Before I became a cultivator, I did not have a good relationship with my in-laws even though I was honest and kind. After practicing Falun Dafa, I understood the karmic principles. I improved my character and treated my in-laws well. I have taken on the care of my mother-in-law since the death of my father-in-law. She is 86 now and unable to care for herself. People who know me recognize that I have changed for the better since I began practicing Falun Dafa.
During the Fa-rectification period, I have cooperated with other practitioners to be one body no matter how busy or tired I am. I have followed Master’s arrangements for me to assist in the Fa-rectification and do the three things well. I still have improvements to make in myself to meet Master’s requirements, but I will continue to cultivate diligently.
