My Mom's Cultivation Story

(Clearwisdom.net) My mother obtained the Fa in October 1998. That year, she was 78 years old. My mother was illiterate. After she saw Teacher's lectures on video, she told me when she got home, "This Fa is really good. This Teacher's lectures really make sense. Every sentence is admirable." I had already obtained the Fa six months prior. I felt that my mother's understanding was good, so I took her to the afternoon practice site. At the practice site, my mother could see a big Falun in the sky. During the practice, she saw herself wearing ancient clothes with Buddha beads, and other beautiful scenes.

Not long after that, my mother recovered from all of her illnesses, including heart disease, excess blood fat in her brain, low blood pressure and gastroptosis. She threw away the big bag of medicine that she had depended on all her life.

While we were bathed in the hope and happiness that Teacher and Dafa brought us, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suddenly began its suppression against Falun Gong. We lost our open cultivation environment, but our genuine Dafa practitioners' determination never wavered. I bought a walkman to enable my mother to study the Fa at home. She never stopped her Fa study. When the CCP staged the Tiananmen self-immolation incident, my mother immediately said it must be faked, as this was not what a practitioner would do. Teacher did not allow practitioners to take their own lives. A genuine practitioner would not even curse, let alone kill. During this evil persecution, our cultivation environment became extremely tense. From every level of work unit, right down to the street community committee, everyone listened to the CCP's lies. Whether a person was a practitioner or an ordinary person, everyone could feel the pressure of the CCP. In this situation, my mother told my older brother (a practitioner) and my younger brother (a non-practitioner), "No matter what they (the CCP) say, we should know the truth that Dafa is good. Isn't my life an example?"

My mother follows the Fa to do things on a daily basis. When family members stirred up some conflicts for her, she realized that it was an opportunity for her to improve her xinxing. Sometimes, the conflicts were quite painful, but she could recall Teacher's Fa,

"But, usually when a conflict comes along, if it doesn't provoke you, it doesn't count, it doesn't work, and you won't be able to improve from it." (page 131, Zhuan Falun)

My mother realized that Teacher was trying to remind her to endure, and told herself not to get angry and to endure.

Before my mother obtained the Fa, one of her ears had been deaf for over three years. One day while she was listening to the Fa lectures, my little niece said, "Grandma, put on the headphones, maybe your ear will recover." After my mother listened to the Fa for over one hour, a miracle occurred. She heard a bang in her deaf ear and it felt like some stuff was trying to come out. The next day, I took my mother to the hospital to see a doctor. The doctor found some black earwax coming out of her ear, and took out a big chunk of cerumen. Since then she has been able to hear just fine.

Later, when she told me what had happened, I said to her, "Now you know how great Teacher is! In order to improve your understanding, he used your granddaughter's mouth to remind you." In the mean time, we also realized that Teacher is taking care of every genuine Dafa practitioner all the time. At that moment, Teacher's Fa came to mind,

"Since we're guiding you down the true path, during Triple-World-Law cultivation we're always purifying, purifying, and purifying your body for you, all the way until it's completely transformed into high-energy matter." (Zhuan Falun)

My mother was very happy and said that Dafa is an all-powerful Fa. She said that everything she suffered in the past was all arranged for her to obtain the Fa. "If it were not for Dafa, I would have left this world long ago," she said. Other family members who do not practice also feel thankful to Teacher and to Dafa.

During the Fa rectification process, Teacher asks practitioners to do truth clarification and save sentient beings. My mother does her best to validate the Fa by using herself as an example. She always walks very upright, thinking: "Let people see that Dafa is good. They'll see that such an old person like me can walk so swiftly and have no illnesses after practicing Dafa." Her neighbors know that she was not healthy before she practiced Dafa, as she would go to the hospital to get an IV every day. After practicing Dafa, she recovered from all her illnesses. Now it's easy for her to walk up four flights of stairs carrying several pounds of groceries. She also told her neighbors to remember "Falun Dafa is good" so that they will have good fortune.

Whenever my mother sees someone damaging Dafa truth clarification materials, she sends forth righteous thoughts, thinking that those who destroy the truth clarification materials should receive immediate karmic retribution. This has been very effective. The people who did this began to dodge her whenever they saw her, and no longer dare to damage Dafa materials. Teacher is taking care of her all the time. When it is time to send forth righteous thoughts or to do the exercises and she forgets about it, a voice reminds her, or she feels someone pushing her. Whenever she does not watch what she says, or does something wrong, her throat becomes itchy. She will then realize that she did something wrong. Once she corrects herself, her throat is fine.

My mother also has something that she is attached to: she always feels that she is too old to practice. She is 85 years old now. One day, she went to see my older sister, who told her that when people get old they have lots of health problems, and so on. My mother said that if they wanted to, they should take some medicine then. After she came back home, she went to the bathroom and had blood in her stool that would not stop. Then she realized that what she said to her daughter before was wrong; she had allowed the evil to exploit her attachment. She thought about how Teacher had taken such painstaking efforts to help her; how could she say such a thing? "Why didn't I pay more attention? It would be better if I had realized it at once." When she told me her story, I also reminded her, "Cultivation is a very serious issue. There is no difference whether one is old or young."

After talking with each other and sharing our understandings, we realized the meaning of what Teacher said regarding every thought being from the standpoint of the Fa. We must strictly hold ourselves to a high standard and maintain our firm belief in Teacher throughout the course of cultivation.

Please kindly point out any incorrect understandings caused by my limited level of cultivation.