(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a new practitioner who obtained the Fa in August 2007. Many fellow practitioners encouraged me to write down my experience to document the Fa's might and Master's compassion.
Predestined to Obtain the Fa, Everything Was Carefully Planned by Master
My early life was filled with good luck. I was spoiled by the older members of my family. My teachers adored me because of my good grades. My neighbors even nicknamed me "Little Beauty" to praise my looks. When it came to taking exams, the more important the exam, the better my performance. I effortlessly got into Taipei First Girls High School, and easily transitioned to National Taiwan University and then studying abroad. I never even had to search for a job as all the employers came looking for me. My luck was so great that even if I lost my wallet, it would be picked up and returned to me. However, this life of smooth sailing took a big downturn when I turned 30.
After the 9-11 incident, the US economy went into a recession. Even though I had not yet graduated, I had already landed a high paying job with excellent benefits. My classmates were all envious of my good fortune. But after one month in my new job, while driving home from work, I was rear-ended in a car accident.
I had no visible injuries from the accident, not even bruises. However, the joints in my entire body ached. Even though X-rays revealed no problems, the pain grew to the point that even walking became difficult. My condition did not improve for nine months. I felt that Western medicine was not good enough, so I quit my job and left my husband in the United States and returned to Taiwan to seek traditional Chinese medicine. I was introduced to an excellent traditional Chinese orthopedic doctor who was able to reset my joints and relieve the pain instantly. It turned out that the car accident had dislocated my joints, but not to an extent that could be detected by X-rays. The dislocations resulted in pain, inflammation, and ligament injuries. Due to the delay in treatment, recovery was a challenge. Because my ligaments could no longer keep my joints in place, any movement could result in dislocation. I could not open doors, put on clothes, or even hold a bowl. Every two to three days, I had to find the orthopedic doctor to get my joints reset.
My health became worse. Slowly, a neurological problem that I was genetically predisposed to emerged. I got fibromyalgia syndrome, a nerve and musculo-skeletal pain disorder. I felt amplified pain at all my nerve endings. Only morphine was able to alleviate the pain. I thought that it'd be a tragic if I developed a drug addiction in addition to this constant pain, so I didn't tell my doctor to increase my prescription even when the dose was not enough to ease my pain. I kept my doses minimal and gritted through the pain. The fibromyalgia led to respiratory and endocrine disorders as well as poor control of blood glucose and body temperature. I had insomnia, easily passed out, developed a 4 cm large ovarian cyst, and even had to carry an oxygen tank with me.
Western medicine has no cure for fibromyalgia. The only treatment is pain control with morphine and painkillers. Every day, I took over a dozen pills. I saw that other patients who lived in the hospital with me also lost their appetite and experienced mood swings. I suspected that those pills would shorten my life, but I couldn't make it through the day without taking them. I was helpless and suffering.
After a year and a half of ineffective treatment in Taiwan, I decided to give up my search for a cure and return to the United States to be with my husband. Three days before returning to the US, I found an ear-acupuncture point diagram and an article by a doctor of Chinese medicine on the Internet. I had always read The Epoch Times newspaper in the US and particularly liked to read the columns written by doctors of traditional Chinese medicine. From her article, I could feel that this doctor had good medical ethics and was an upright person. I realized that she had also researched joint diseases. Since Chinese medicine has a unique medical perspective, I wanted to try one last time.
This doctor of Chinese medicine had a lot of patients, but I requested that she see me before I flew back to the United States. She was very nice and gave me 45 minutes around noon the day before my flight. She had superb skills in the detection of kidney, liver, stomach, bone, and bone marrow conditions as well as acupuncture treatment. She discovered that the blood that oozed out of me was black, indicating that my organs were no longer good and that the disease had reached my bone marrow. The doctor's face turned green and she gently asked me, "Do you have have any issues on your mind?" In the end she said, "You are about to return to the United States and no one can save you. You should save yourself. Practice Falun Gong, and all your diseases will be healed." She probably saw that I didn't seem to believe her, so she only gave me a Falun Dafa flyer and some truth-clarification materials, and then she sent me home to learn about it on the Internet. I brought those two pieces of paper back to the US with me. I did not know at that time that they would change my life.
I didn't begin learning Falun Gong immediately after I returned to the United States. I was willing to believe that Falun Gong could cure any disease, but I thought that it would be like Taijiquan and require ten to twenty years of practice for it to work. By then, I would already be 50 years old. I immediately found an acupuncturist to relieve my pain so that I could quickly return to work. However, my medical insurance did not cover acupuncture. With my husband working during the day and no one to help me take care of myself, I dislocated some joints and had to lie in bed for two weeks before the symptoms got a bit better. I realized that there was no way to live functionally and asked my mom to let me return to Taiwan for treatment. My mom told me not to come back because all their money had been used on my previous treatments. If I needed further treatment, we would have to borrow money. I cried for three days, thinking about how hard I had worked for 30 years to obtain two master's degrees, but in the end, I could not even make a living. The only thing I could do was to live in pain. I decided that I was only living for my family and needed to pull through for them despite my pain. I felt conflicted about whether or not I should give up the search for a cure despite the possibility of going into debt.
At this time, I thought about practicing Falun Gong as a last resort. I gave it a try since it was free and couldn't make me feel any worse than I already did. I downloaded the exercise videos and followed along. I looked at Falun Dafa as an ordinary qigong when I started to learn it. Since my hip socket was loose, if I spread my knees, my joints would usually dislocate. The fourth exercise required squatting down. I thought that, since I was giving Falun Gong a chance, I should do the movements correctly if I wanted it to be effective. So I spread my knees and squatted down. As a result, my joints dislocated. I had to stay in bed due to the pain and inability to get up.
This time I really got scared. I thought, "This is the end: my condition can't be cured by Western medicine, Chinese medicine, or even qigong. I will really become handicapped for the rest of my life." I thought I must have done a lot of bad deeds in a previous life or many previous lives to make me spend the rest of this life paying off my debts in a state of constant pain. My body served as a jail cell and torture instrument. After one night of misery, I suddenly thought about that doctor of Chinese medicine in Taiwan and how she strongly recommended Falun Gong. I thought I should look into it again and not give up so quickly.
The next day, I went to an introductory class held by Taiwanese practitioners and realized that new practitioners should all read Zhuan Falun. After reading Lecture Three, I took a break and felt really shocked, as if a window was opened. The next day, I looked around the Dafa website, but didn't feel like reading Zhuan Falun. When surfing the website, I read that it was recommended for new practitioners to read Zhuan Falun all at once, so I did. This time was different from before. When I read:
"Think about it, everyone: What matter is it to teach qigong toward high levels? Isn't this offering salvation to humankind? Offering salvation to humankind means that you will be truly practicing cultivation, and not just healing illness and keeping fit." (Zhuan Falun)
My heart jumped. "Save people? Did I encounter a savior? Cultivation? Did I encounter a cultivation way? Am I really this lucky?"
Then I read:
"a person's earliest life comes from the universe"
"One should return to one's original, true self; this is the real purpose of being human. Therefore, once a person wants to practice cultivation, his or her Buddha-nature is considered to have come forth." (Zhuan Falun)
I sighed. I had finally found it! Since 1997, I understood clearly that people were reborn onto this earth to enlighten to things. After many days and nights of thinking about pain and the car accident, I finally found it. Thinking back to July 1999, when I was on a plane back from Taiwan, I saw a "rainbow" around the sun, which I now realize was a Falun. When I returned to NY, I saw the flags with Falun on the streets of Flushing and a bookstore with a row of Dafa books wrapped in a ball of golden light. At that time, I thought, "Why do I keep seeing Falun Gong things today?" But I felt scared of that ball of golden light and wanted to avoid it. This avoidance lasted for 8 years.
I felt really happy when I read:
"Why do people get sick? The fundamental cause of one's being ill and all of one's misfortune is karma and the black substance's karmic field. It is something negative and bad. Those evil beings are also something negative, and they are all black. Thus, they can come because this environment suits them. This is the fundamental cause of one's being ill; it is the most principal source of illnesses." (Zhuan Falun)
My suffering was in actuality repaying karma. I felt that I must have repaid a lot of karma since I had suffered for so long both physically and mentally. I also no longer needed to worry about whether or not to look for treatments. I would just continue to suffer to repay karma. I didn't care about how much more pain I felt, I just wanted to quickly repay karma and not bring it with me in reincarnation.
When it was time to take my medication, I would instinctively want to take the pills., but I thought, "Wait. Taking medication would push the karma back into my body. This universal principle still applies to me even if I don't cultivate. Now that I know this, wouldn't I be stupid to keep taking medication?" But I thought throwing away the pills would be a waste of money. After much deliberation, I suddenly thought, "Different levels have different Fa" (Zhuan Falun). I felt that pushing karma back into my body was a more serious thing than wasting money, so I threw away the Chinese medicine. Since doctors could not cure my illnesses and the efficacy of the drugs were unknown despite the numerous side effects, I felt like I was a clinical trial. But I still kept the painkillers and left the ear-acupuncture needles in. I thought that if no one looked after me and I couldn't bear the pain anymore, I could still take my painkillers. Besides, if I removed the acupuncture needles, I wouldn't be able to find the correct points to reinsert them.
I read Zhuan Falun in one day, and was really moved. I felt as if there were a miniature me in my chest jumping and yelling, "I want to cultivate! I want to cultivate! Can anyone see this?" But I felt I was so insignificant and ordinary. No person ever came to my house to say how great my inborn quality was or how I had a pre-destiny with Buddha or would pick me as a disciple. I felt really sad that even though I was fortunate enough to encounter a savior, I could not enter the door of cultivation. Nonetheless, I felt that everything said in Zhuan Falun was real, so even if I couldn't enter the door of cultivation and no one looked after me or cleansed my body and my illness never went away, I would still use the rest of my life to honestly endure and repay my karma and live my life in accordance with the principles in Zhuan Falun.
When I woke up the next day, I had planned to carefully exercise my sore body. However, I discovered that the hand that used to be almost out of commission could now move easily and was pain free. I checked my entire body, and there was no pain anywhere. The pain associated with getting out of bed, walking and going downstairs for the past two years had disappeared as if it had been a dream. I wondered if I was really being looked after. I thought to myself, "So gods with great powers really do exist. I have really come into contact with gods; it's just that I didn't see them." The very real sense of pain I had felt from two years of illness disappeared in one night. The nauseating feeling of dislocated joints rubbing against each other disappeared without a process. If everything in human society is an illusion, then not only material wealth, but also illnesses are illusions.
Yet I still didn't dare believe that Master was looking after me and was afraid it was just my own imagination. A week later, when I was watching a video of Master lecturing in Guangzhou, I heard Master say, "If you step on two boats at the same time, you cannot attain anything" when addressing the issue of no second cultivation way. I was surprised. Was he talking about me? On the one hand, I said I believed in Dafa, but on the other hand, I did not remove my ear acupuncture needles--wasn't this stepping on two boats? On the one hand, I was secretly enjoying the benefits of Dafa, but on the other hand I was using human methods for double insurance. I wanted the benefits from both humans and gods. How unrighteous and what a lowly heart that was. Without hesitation, I pulled out the acupuncture needles right away. My heart was set and I completely believed in Dafa.
The next morning I again woke up pain free. I was still not absolutely confident I was being looked after, so I didn't dare cross my legs by myself at home. I thought that if my femur dislocated, then I wouldn't even be able to crawl. I wanted to learn the meditation at a practice site so that if I wasn't looked after by Master and something happened, there would at least be someone to help me get an ambulance. At the practice site, I started with 30-40 minutes of single lotus sitting. Nothing dislocated and I even felt more comfortable. This time, I was positive I was being looked after and that Master had accepted me.
Reflecting on my life--all that I've learned, heard, seen, and thought about were all for allowing me to be able to recognize Dafa when I saw it. To guide me to obtain the Fa, Master painstakingly arranged everything. The field created by practitioners around the world directly led me to realize my destiny with Dafa. If it weren't for reading The Epoch Times, I would not have trusted the doctor of Chinese medicine and may have given up when I first encountered setbacks. So I thank all fellow practitioners for their hard work. No matter what kind of Fa validation project you are working on--even if it is entertainment news--you have given power for a pre-destined person to obtain the Fa or be saved. This isn't lip service. This is the actual truth.
I was a person who needed to apply for disability, and I was completely cured within one night. Not only was I cured, I also became stronger than before the car accident. Before, I felt that my health, career, marriage, and family had all disappeared and that my life was over. Then I was granted a second chance. Not only did Master endure for me so that I could practice cultivation, Master also bestowed on me the sacred duty of saving sentient beings, allowing me to establish virtue that will exist with the nature of the universe. Master has given so much for me. Master's kindness is immense and can never be repaid. I can only treasure Dafa, cultivate diligently, and save sentient beings. I want to completely give my heart, assimilate to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and become a life that serves others.
Thank you, Master!
Thank you, fellow practitioners!