(Minghui.org) May 13 was World Falun Dafa Day, and as a cultivator I feel deeply blessed by Dafa. I really want to tell our revered Master: I would not have been able to exist as an upright person today without Master's salvation! Reflecting upon my life experiences before and after I started to practice Falun Gong, I can only express my deepest gratitude for Master's grace, time and time again, and remind myself to strictly follow the requirements of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and do better and better.
Master rearranged my life
My mother used to suffer from serious rheumatoid arthritis and had to be admitted to the hospital at least once every two or three years for treatment for her various illnesses. After she started to practice Falun Gong in 1997, she became healthy and has remained very healthy. She is nearly 70 years old now and is more energetic than most young people. We, as her children, have also benefited from Falun Dafa.
After my mother started to practice Falun Gong, she changed her attitude towards my husband and me. My one-month-old baby daughter was admitted to the hospital because she had pneumonia. Later, my mother brought me and my daughter back to the city from the countryside. Before then, I had experienced big ups and downs, going from enjoying a high profile position down to being someone who had to go to the countryside to give birth to my baby daughter. I experienced much misery then.
After I returned to my mother's home, I read Zhuan Falun and was deeply attracted by Dafa's profound truths. I suddenly understood why I had suffered so much and all my confusion was dissolved. After I finished the book I felt like a new person. My heart was filled with peace and compassion and I felt very relaxed. I knew Dafa was what I had been looking for all my life. In the evenings I began to learn the exercises. I felt Falun was spinning very fast between my arms and I was amazed by the resounding sound of the spinning Falun. I know in my heart that Dafa is real.
While I was staying at my mother's place, a cousin who was not popular with our relatives came for a visit. I treated him kindly according to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Two days later, he contacted me to transfer to a new job. It was really unexpected. I knew that it was Master who had rearranged my life. Master said, “You’re a cultivator, so the path your life takes will change after today, my Law Bodies will give you a new arrangement.” (Zhuan Falun)
Dafa disciples are different from everyday people
So, ten days after I returned to my mother's place, I was transferred to a public institution with public servant status. At the new workplace, I behaved according to the standards of a Dafa cultivator, treated people with sincerity and worked very hard. In less than half a year, I was promoted to head of the administrative section. At this job people were friendly on the surface, but sabotaged each other behind their backs. I kept good xinxing and treated every colleague with kindness, and they all felt that a cultivator was so different from others. Even today, 14 years after the persecution started, when I recently bumped into a company general manager, he still remembered me and said that I was highly esteemed at my workplace.
In 2000, our work unit allocated houses to the employees, and my colleagues all tried to have their houses redecorated for free. But we paid for everything ourselves, from the smallest nail to decoration materials. A section head suggested that I go and ask for decoration materials from so and so. I said to him that I was a Dafa practitioner and I would do things according to our Master's requirements. I could not take things for free. That section head was used to taking things for free, so, upon hearing what I said, he shouted, “No wonder the Communist Party wants to persecute Falun Gong. If everyone is so clean like you, won't you make the rest of us look bad?”
At the beginning of 2001, I went to appeal for Falun Gong and was illegally detained for three months. Due to pressure, my work unit removed me from my position. Because the leaders knew Falun Gong practitioners are good people and trustworthy, they asked me to go to an affiliated company to work as both an accountant and cashier. When it comes to dealing with money, they trust Dafa practitioners most. I heard that an enterprise boss once said: We just want to employ Falun Gong practitioners, because we'll have no worries!
Once, in an anonymous survey, I was the only one in the whole workplace who was unanimously regarded as being excellent in every aspect.
The evil CCP harmed her, but she was saved by Dafa
My husband used to drink and smoke, but he felt cigarettes tasted bad after reading only a few pages of Zhuan Falun. At first he thought he bought a fake product, but after he read Lecture Seven, he understood that Master was already taking care of him. He quit smoking straight away and began to cultivate in Dafa. Master said, “with one person practicing, the whole family benefits” (“Teaching the Fa at Australian Fa-conference”, 1999). Since we began to cultivate in Dafa, our daughter has been very healthy too. She is also very smart and attends the best high school in our city.
My aunt developed uterine cancer, and doctors advised her to have it removed. My aunt didn't want to have an operation and went on a pilgrimage. She worshiped in every temple she came across, but nothing helped. Later she heard from my mother that Falun Gong has miraculous healing power and thus she also wanted to practice, but did not know where to find a practice site. In the evening, she had a dream in which she saw a golden robed Buddha sitting cross-legged. He was high up in the sky and was drifting towards one direction. The next day, after she got up she walked towards the same direction and found a practice site. All her illnesses disappeared through practicing Falun Gong. However, during the last 14 years of persecution, she was illegally sent to a labor camp for three years and sentenced to imprisonment for another three years. She was subjected to all kinds of inhuman torture.
My sister-in-law lives in the countryside. She developed rectal cancer in 1997 and a large section of her colon was removed. She had to defecate into a bag attached to her waist. She had a waxen complexion and was emaciated. She could not sleep at night. My husband went to see her and brought Master's Fa lecture tape. He played the tape to her and she listened and then fell asleep. When she woke up the next day, she said that was the best sleep she'd had in the last couple of years. At night she felt that she wanted to defecate normally. She realized that only Falun Gong could save her. Later, she had another operation to reconnect her rectum to her anus. Since then she has been able to defecate normally again. Doctors advised her to undergo chemotherapy and said she could live up to three years at most. But she refused the treatment and firmly believes in Dafa and cultivates in Dafa diligently. Indeed, she recovered miraculously.
The CCP started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999. My aunt was deceived by the lies told by the CCP and gave up the practice. Consequently her health deteriorated and very often she could not defecate for a whole week. She spent a lot of money seeking hospital treatment, but did not get any better. This went on for nearly half a year. Her family did not have much money and they had to borrow for her treatment. In the end she was very regretful and wanted to practice Falun Gong again, but she was worried that Master might not want her back any more. I said to her, “Master is compassionate. So long as you cultivate and do things according to the standards of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Master will take care of you.” She let go of her worries and started to cultivate in Dafa again. Very soon she regained her health and was able to do house chores. Later she also opened a small shop and their life is getting better and better. Her whole family has benefited from Dafa.
Lawyers enter not guilty plea of their own accord; my husband was released unconditionally
Dafa and Master enabled our whole family to improve both physically and mentally and we have benefited a lot. However, the CCP is truly evil and thus would not allow such a good practice. It started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.
My husband was arrested and taken to a detention center for clarifying the facts to people. At the detention center, he suffered a lot and even today he still has scars from severe chilblains.
The public prosecutors charged my husband with the “crime of slander”, but they could not make a good case. The two prosecutors said, “ We'll do whatever the provincial 610 Office tells us to do.” The court opened a hearing without notifying our family members.
My husband told me later that in order to put on a false front, the court also arranged for university students, and members of the 610 Office to be present. They also appointed two lawyers and invited a TV station to film the hearing. My husband told the court why he clarified the facts to people the way he did. He said, “I have benefited a lot from practicing Falun Gong. I'm the most qualified to tell what Falun Gong is all about. But the government does not allow us to exercise our right to speak the truth, and we do not have any channels to appeal. So I can only use this way to clarify the facts to people. I would not have to clarify the facts this way if we were allowed to express our views freely in the media and if we were allowed an opportunity to speak. Furthermore, what I have done is not against the law, because the Constitution allows people to have freedom of belief and freedom of speech.”
The judge and all those present silently listened. What is most interesting is that the two lawyers the court had appointed to enter a guilty plea against my husband, turned around and entered a not guilty plea instead. When their consciences wake up, lawyers will make the righteous choice of their own accord. The court police who escorted my husband said to him quietly, “You spoke very well.” Later, the prosecutors dropped the charge and my husband was released unconditionally.
More and more people are awakening
It has been 14 years since the evil CCP started the persecution. However, Falun Gong has not been crushed; instead it has spread to over 100 countries around the world. Many people who used to be prejudiced against Falun Gong or even opposed Falun Gong have now changed their minds and are now supporting Falun Gong and standing on the side of justice, thanks to practitioners' persistent truth-clarification over the years.
Take my family for example. My elder younger sister and her husband cut off contact with my mother for nearly two years in the early years of the persecution. Now, even though my elder younger sister does not say anything, she has given us much help. My younger aunt and my youngest sister have changed even more. They not only have a very positive understanding about Dafa but also love watching Shen Yun DVDs. My mother-in-law has a big family clan, and many of the relatives used to oppose Dafa strongly, but now they have changed to support Dafa, and some of them also quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
After I lost my job, for a year, another practitioner and I took turns selling clothes outside a supermarket. There was a blind old man who came to the supermarket to buy steamed buns every day. Most people thought he was dirty and smelly and they would not help him get the steamed buns from the supermarket. So we helped get the buns for him every day, and we also took the trouble to send him to the bus stop and help him on the bus. We did this every day for a year till we stopped the business. The old man's eyes may have been blind, but not his heart. He never thanked us, but always said happily, “Thank you Teacher Li! Teacher Li is really good!” He knew that we are kind because Dafa's Master taught us to be kind. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!
Many people around us who listened to us clarifying the facts to them believed that Falun Dafa is good and quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations precisely because they saw with their own eyes Dafa practitioners doing things they themselves could not do. There were two lay Buddhists who rejected Dafa at the beginning and used offensive language. As time went on, they saw how we behaved and gradually changed their minds. Inspired by the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, they also started to offer some help to the blind old man from time to time. People's hearts are changing.
At the beginning of this year, I unexpectedly bumped into the cousin who helped me transfer my job earlier. He felt very regretful that I lost my job as a public servant and did not understand why I was prepared to let go of the “bright future” with the good job. I said to him, “People like us who have been through the Cultural Revolution are very realistic. Who would believe in anything lightly? In order to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief, the CCP has used all kinds of evil means, such as threatening and luring people with interests, implicating their family members and relatives, and even harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for profits. Falun Gong does not force anyone to practice, but why is it that there are so many people who still hold onto their belief? If Falun Gong was indeed bad as the CCP claims, then I would have long ago abandoned the belief, without anyone telling me to do so. The CCP confuses good and bad, righteous and evil in order to destroy human nature and human conscience, and to take people to a dead end.” He listened attentively and in the end he happily quit the CCP which he had been a member of for over 60 years.
Master said in “Teaching the Fa at the 2001 Canada Fa Conference”, “With their exceptional breadth of mind, Dafa disciples can endure anything.” The real victims are people who do not know the truth and are still following the CCP. It is the evil that is pushing people into the abyss of suffering. As Dafa disciples, we have the responsibility to clarify the facts to people and be worthy of Master's compassionate salvation.
Looking back at the difficult and dangerous path I have walked on in the last 14 years, when facing enormous pressure from workplace, family, neighborhood committee, when in adverse situations in which I lost social status and my source of income, a non-practitioner would not have been able to come through and surely would have suffered a mental collapse.
In the last 14 years, although we have suffered all kinds of tribulations, we have come through under Master's protection. We live and work with an optimistic state of mind. We thank our revered Master for His salvation. It is Master who has tempered us into cultivators who have noble qualities, who are kind and peaceful with breadth of mind. We will listen to Master and continue to clarify the facts well to save people.
Master's grace is infinite. No words can fully express our gratitude for Master's grace. Thank you Master!
