By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Shandong Province

(Clearwisdom.net) I am a 63-year-old woman, a Falun Dafa practitioner living in the countryside of Shandong Province. I started practicing Falun Dafa during the 1999 Chinese New Year. Before then, I was nearly blind and had many diseases. At the age of 25, I lost the sight in my right eye from an illness. At 35, my left eye started bleeding. This, together with a cataract, left me in a condition in which I could only a little light. Doctors certified me as a grade #2 disabled person. I suffered from stomach problems, rheumatoid arthritis, and gynecological disease. To remove two gynecological tumors, I went through surgery, which left me with frequent stomach pains and constipation. In 1998, I suffered from acute heart disease that caused severe shortness of breath. After spending all of my husband and children's savings, I could only lie on the bed to suffer the pain. There was nothing left for me but death.

Just three days before the 1999 Chinese New Year, I saw a doctor. The doctor said I needed to be hospitalized. Since I had no money, I could only go home. While I was feeling totally hopeless, a villager told me that, by practicing Falun Dafa, her asthma was cured. I said I wanted to learn also. I will never forget that day when I arrived at the Falun Dafa practice site guided by my husband to listen to Teacher's lectures on tape. I heard Teacher saying:

"I do not talk about healing illness here, and neither will we heal illness. As a genuine practitioner, however, you cannot practice cultivation with an ill body. I will purify your body. The body purification will be done only for those who come to truly learn the practice and the Fa." (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)

I decided in my mind that I would practice Falun Dafa without hesitation. What's amazing was that, on the very second day, Teacher started cleansing my body. All the diseased areas of my body reacted painfully. But two days later, my whole body felt comfortable. Feeling Teacher's compassion, I burst into tears. After several days of lectures, I became a healthy person. It's our Teacher who gave me a new life! I will follow our Teacher no matter what happens.

After that, I went to the practice site every day with my husband to listen to practitioners reading the Falun Dafa books. After several days, I started to feel very unhappy that I could not read the books by myself. One night I had a dream. In the dream a person showed me an eye with a white layer of something on top of the eyeball. I thought I could certainly be able to read Falun Dafa books by myself. The second day, a fellow practitioner gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun. I gratefully accepted the book with both hands and hurried home to read it.

At the beginning, I could not see the words clearly, but I still tried to read. I stood up high so I could get close to the electric bulb, and I figured out the words one by one. My thought was that nothing could stop me from practicing Falun Dafa. Gradually, the words became clearer and clearer. Sometimes, I might stand there and read for hours and forget the time. On sunny days, I would read outside in the sunshine. I couldn't hold back my tears as I read. After I finished reading Zhuan Falun for the first time, I held the book in my arm and cried loudly. I thought, "Why did I get this book so late!" The second time I read it, the words became much more visible. After reading it three times - how amazing- my vision had returned! I could go to the practice site by myself, with no need to follow my husband's steps anymore.

In July 1999, the evil persecution started. Under the intense pressure, my husband was frightened and stopped practicing. But I insisted on studying Zhuan Falun at least two chapters a day. The township police head and the village security officer came to order me to turn in my Falun Dafa books. I said, "I didn't buy one." Two days later, the village security officer came again to take my book. I said, "I have none. How can I give you anything?"

One township official came to my home and tried to force me to destroy Teacher's photo. I refused. The official said that it was an order from higher up and tried to force me to do it. I said, "There is nothing wrong with following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I won't follow their orders even if you kill me!" The official was very angry. The villagers told him, "She is blind. You can't hurt a disabled person." The official thus left. I thought," Teacher has saved my life. How could I ever do anything to let our Teacher down?"

After my husband stopped practicing Falun Dafa under the threatening environment, he suffered from serious bleeding in his brain in September 2000 and almost died. After being hospitalized twice, he survived, but he had hemiplegia (total paralysis of the arm, leg, and trunk on the same side of the body) and could barely talk. He could no longer take care of himself. In the past I had been sick, and he took care of me. Now it was the other way around. When my husband was hospitalized, I accompanied him. Though the environment in the hospital was unfavorable, I continued to do the five sets of Falun Dafa exercises at night. I did the sitting meditation on a bed. Once I was doing the Standing Stance with my arms raised, someone asked me, "What are you practicing?" I said, "Falun Gong!" The person left quietly.

Fearing for the security of the Falun Dafa books, I did not take them to the hospital. Then I thought, "How wonderful it would be if I could remember all of it." But it's harder to do then to say. I didn't start to recite Zhuan Falun until long after my husband had left the hospital. Since taking care of my husband took a lot of my time, it made it harder for me to learn to recite the book. Each day, I made sure to read one chapter of Zhuan Falun, and then I began to recite Zhuan Falun. Studying one chapter took me three hours. To prevent myself from falling asleep, I stood on the bed to read and would sit for a while when I got tired.

The first days were very hard. My method was to imagine every word first, then point at the word with my finger. Word by word, sentence by sentence, and paragraph by paragraph, I managed to recite them one by one. Sometimes, when the paragraph was too long, I couldn't remember it, and I would shed tears. But I still would recite the paragraphs through my tears. At night, I put my copy of Zhuan Falun right above my head. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I would recite the book. If I forgot one section, I would check the book and then continue reciting. As I did family chores, I still kept on reciting. In this way, it took me almost one year before I could recite the whole book of Zhuan Falun. In the process, I also became enlightened to the many concepts in the book. Just as Teacher told us:

"The Fa can break all attachments, the Fa can destroy all evil, the Fa can shatter all lies, and the Fa can strengthen righteous thoughts."

("Drive Out Interference," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

Since for decades I had been almost blind and had had various illnesses, I did not go out or know many people, and I did not like talking. But then Falun Dafa began to be persecuted! Listening to the slanderous broadcasts, my whole being cried out. I couldn't keep quiet. I bought pen and paper and wrote our phrases such as "Falun Dafa Is Good," "Truthfulness-Tolerance-Compassion Is Good," and short articles about the truth of Falun Dafa to let fellow villagers know the real situation.

In the past, I couldn't leave home by myself even in the daytime. Now I deliver Falun Dafa truth-clarification materials in the night without fear. There is always enough light on the road for me. I have clarified the truth of Falun Dafa to friends, relatives, neighbors, and in the markets. While I was taking care of my husband in the hospital, I told doctors, nurses, and patients how good Falun Dafa from my own personal experience. Since I have become a Dafa disciple, I have become an eloquent talker, and I can talk with anyone. This is really the power of Dafa.

Teacher told us that fellow practitioners should help each other. One fellow villager stopped practicing Falun Dafa under the pressure of the persecution. I talked with her and, as a result, she resumed the practice. Since she dared not to go out to clarify the truth, I took her with me. Under my influence, my husband also resumed the practice. He had lost his memory from the brain ailment. When he restarted the practice, he could not even read one whole sentence of Zhuan Falun. With my help, he now can read two to three chapters of Zhuan Falun at a time. From doing the Falun Dafa exercises, he can now speak clearly and take care of himself. He said that Teacher has saved him. Now he is using his own experience to tell people that Falun Dafa is good. We are determined to help each other to fulfill our duty in this final stage of Fa-rectification period.

March 19, 2005

Posting date: 4/4/2005
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 3/22/2005
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/20/97698.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version