|
Lymphatic Cancer Survivor: Falun Dafa Bestowed A New Life On Me
By Falun Dafa practitioner Xinsheng from Beijing
(Clearwisdom.net) At the end of 2002 when I was 30 years old, I suffered
from lymphatic cancer. The illness had first manifested in my stomach,
necessitating removal of two thirds of my stomach, followed by chemotherapy. By
June 2003, the cancer cells had metastasized. My doctor told me that I could
live for three months, or at most another six months. I was not a pretty picture
then - I had gone from about 140 lbs. to 110 lbs. and lost all my hair. My face
and hands had black spots. I was unable to eat or drink, except for a little
rice broth every day. I was struggling just to live. Right at this moment
between life and death, someone introduced me to Falun Dafa. A neighbor at my parents' home is a Dafa practitioner. She knew I was
suffering from this serious illness. She took pity on me for suffering at such a
young age. One day she came to my parents' home and said to my mother that she
thought she could help me. My mother then told me that practicing Dafa could
save my life. I asked, "Is it Falun Gong?" My mother said that it was.
I said, "No!" My mother then said, "She is so kind and wants to
rescue you. What do you want me to say to her?" I said, "Just tell her
that I am practicing another qigong." In fact I did not practice any qigong
then. That night, two hard, thumb-sized lumps appeared on my neck. I was scared and
cried out. My ward mate had told me there were more lymph nodes in the neck and
armpits, and one could survive for only a few days once the lymph nodes protrude
from the body. I told my mother, "I cannot live much longer since the lymph
nodes are already protruding from my body!" My mother immediately stood up
from the sofa and went out the door after she heard what I said. She brought
back a copy of the book Zhuan Falun. She told me that other
people told her that reading this book could save my life. Actually I did not believe that one book could save my life. However, I was
afraid of death, so no matter what, I felt I must grab at every straw in my
situation. With this intention I began to read Zhuan Falun. I read
through Lecture One the same day. The first thing I did the next morning was to
feel the lumps on my neck; the lumps had shrunk a lot. I was so joyful and said to myself, "Hey, it really works!" I
rushed to continue my reading. The neck lumps disappeared on the third day. Now
I somewhat believed, but still didn't understand what the Fa is. That night my mother and I went to the home of the practitioner who gave me
the book. With her counsel, I finally had a preliminary understanding about the
Fa. I still kept taking traditional Chinese medicine then. On the seventh day my
medicine bottle all of a sudden cracked of its own accord. I thought that this
meant perhaps I should stop taking the medicine, but I still took that day's
dose. Thirty minutes later I ate a little food. Suddenly I felt nauseous and
started vomiting. What I vomited was the medicine, and nothing else. This was
really inconceivable! I had taken the medicine first then eaten, but I lost no
food, merely the medicine. Then I understood Teacher was revealing to me that I
should not take the medicine again. From that time on I intensified my
understanding of the Fa and practiced with more determination. By the time I had read all of Zhuan Falun, my eating had improved. I
had difficulty before even keeping down a small amount of liquid food, but by
then I could eat whatever I wanted. It only took ten days! I felt so happy.
After only one month, I noticed new hair growth on my bald head. I also gained
some weight. My physical improvements intensified my beliefs in the Fa and added
additional understanding of the Fa. Then I truly began to cultivate. Teacher
said, "...but we do not treat illness here. We are purifying your body, and
the term is not "healing illness," either. We just call it
"purifying the body," and we clean out the bodies of true
practitioners." "The body purification will be done only for those who come to truly
learn the practice and the Fa." (Zhuan Falun 2000 translation
version) I came to understand that Teacher does not cure illness for ordinary people,
but purifies the bodies of genuine practitioners. A huge physical change
happened in me. Merciful Teacher already considered me a practitioner. But, am I
a genuine practitioner? Actually, I was still not yet clear what cultivating meant. What I did know
was that whenever I did things according to the book's requirement I would feel
physically well. Thus, at that time I passed many tests with lots of endurance
since I dared not do things in disobedience to the Fa. Every day I went to the practitioner's home to tell them what happened to me
that day and how I had thought and acted, based on the Fa. The practitioner led
me and helped me to learn more of the Fa and taught me how to deal with
everything according to the Fa. She was actually leading me to gradually enter
real cultivation. But at that time I did not realize this was genuine
cultivation. I had "cultivated" this way without clearly realizing it.
Only after my physical body had completely recovered and I became a normal
healthy person did I realize how fortunate I was to begin Dafa practice. The story I had heard is as follows: when the practitioners in the area had
been told of my bad physical condition they discussed for three days whether or
not to rescue me and why they should do so. Teacher said in the Fa, "As to seriously ill patients, we do not let them attend the classes
since they cannot give up the attachment to having illnesses cured or the idea
of being ill." (Zhuang Falun) However, Teacher also tells us there are different understandings on
different levels. From the basic point of the Fa-rectification, if my health
improved, it would verify that the Fa could save people's lives. What they were
trying to do was not just to rescue me but to verify the divine power of the Fa
with the example of me becoming healthy through Dafa practice, thereby to have
more people's lives be saved by the Fa. I encountered problems when it was my turn to validate the Fa. Because of the
bad circumstances in Mainland China and the insane persecution, in addition to
the terrible surroundings, my fear, self-centeredness, pride and all kinds of
attachments surfaced. Initially, I only dared to validate the Fa to my family
members. Since in the past I had my severe health problems people often asked
me, "How is your health now?" Truth is the first word in
the principles of "Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance." Even though
I could only understand their superficial meanings, based on my conscience as a
human being I had to tell the truth, "Learning Falun Gong saved my
life!" I stepped forward, taking my first step on the path of validating
the Fa this way, based on my conscience. At that time I did not actually realize that it was validating the Fa and
that Dafa practitioners must validate the Fa. Later on, through studying the Fa
I realized our practitioners' responsibilities during the period of Fa-rectification.
I kept upgrading myself by studying the Fa on my own as well as with the help of
other practitioners. I started to change my attitude from passivity to taking
the initiative. I was previously just an average person who was validating the
Fa. Now I know that I am a Dafa practitioner and validating the Fa and rescuing
sentient beings is my responsibility. Teacher said, "So a Dafa disciple's responsibilities aren't for the sake of personal
Consummation, but to save sentient beings while validating the Fa--that is
a Dafa disciple's historic mission." ("Touring North America to
Teach the Fa") So far, the fellow practitioners' determination of validating the Fa by
saving my life is gradually being implemented. Because of my specific circumstances I have achieved relatively good Fa-validation
results. But I did not realize that it was in fact the steady practice under the
guidance of fellow practitioners that had an improving effect on my health. I
could rescue a person only by telling facts, not because I had a powerful
ability. Due to my misunderstanding, my feeling of happiness and showing off
expanded gradually. Sometimes I even looked down on other practitioners. At this time my mother-in-law suddenly suffered a stroke that led to partial
paralysis. Seeing her suffer, I wanted her to learn Falun Dafa. I ignorantly
thought since the other practitioners were able to lead me onto the path of true
practice to become healthy, I would also be able to help my mother-in-law. In
actuality I found I had learned too little of the Fa. I could not help my
mother-in-law from the Fa at all. I realized that my practice was not solid. Most of my comprehension of the Fa
was just a feeling. What I did was to merely validate the Fa via my physical
changes. Fellow practitioners had created these advantages for me; this did not
come from my own practice efforts. The reason for the other practitioners'
ability to help me was based on solid foundation in the Fa during their personal
practice stage and their time spent spreading the Fa. They had already learned
the way to solve my problems from having thoroughly absorbed Teacher's Fa. My
amazing recovery lay in the fact that there were genuine practitioners around
the time of my struggle with life and death from my illness and I had a good
practice environment close by. Then I was just fortunate to be able to validate
the Fa through my recovery. Falun Dafa and Teacher saved my life. Teacher said, "There is a criterion, however, that the life prolonged beyond your
predestined time to live is completely reserved for your practice." (Zhuang
Falun) I must make use of my prolonged life in this present time of Fa
rectification, to fulfill the three things, which Teacher requires.
However, the only way to follow the process of Fa-rectification and do the three
things well is by learning more of the Fa and mastering more of the Fa, so that
I can have more wisdom to clarify the truth and expose the evil. With fellow
practitioners' encouragement, I later read Teacher's lectures and articles from
different periods. Again with other practitioners' assistance I was gradually
able to clarify the truth and do the three things well according to Teacher's
requirement. I am doing better and better. I understand that only when we do the three things well can we better
understand the Fa, and only when we diligently study the Fa can we truly do well
in the three things that Master requires. My life was prolonged because of Dafa.
I should have a clearer understanding of what I am living for. There is only one
answer: My life is for validating Dafa and saving more sentient beings. Please be merciful and point out any inappropriate understandings. |