(Minghui.org) Master said,
“Cherish the path that you have traveled and what you’ve done, cherish all of the time you’ve spent validating the Fa. What has passed shall never return.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
I am happy to have been lucky enough to find Falun Gong during my lifetime. In my heart I cherish the time I've spent cultivating.
I am 72 years old. Before I began practicing Falun Dafa I suffered from severe gastritis, hemicrania, and hardening of the cerebral blood vessels. I spent large amounts of money on medical treatment, however nothing helped. My cataracts were so bad I was almost blind. I became very depressed. The hemicrania was so painful that I often couldn't see clearly.
Several of my elderly female friends and I went to a park every morning before I found Falun Dafa. We watched people doing morning exercises, and they all looked so healthy that we admired them.
One morning in the summer of 1995, we were sitting in the park chatting. An elderly woman carrying a folded blanket came by. She first looked at us and then she looked around. She seemed to be looking for someone. She walked around and came back. She asked, “Do you know if anyone here practices Falun Gong?” “Falun Gong?” we asked. It was the first time we had heard of it. We said, “We don't know.” The elderly lady introduced herself. She said she lived in another city, and was visiting relatives here. She was a Falun Gong practitioner, and was trying to find the exercise site in the park, she didn't realize there was none.
The practitioner was very friendly and we felt comfortable talking with her. She asked if we would like to learn Falun Gong and said the practice was very uplifting, and many people had experienced relief from their illnesses after practicing.
We had all been on medication for a long time. The lady was introducing Falun Gong to us and it sounded very good. It was free of charge, and we decided to learn.
The lady came every morning and showed us the exercises. Three days later, she told us she had to return home. She said we shouldn't only practice the exercises, we should also study the Fa well. She gave us her contact details, an exercises audio tape, the book Zhuan Falun, and then she left.
Shortly after I began practicing all my diseases disappeared without my noticing, and my headaches also disappeared. When I walked, my body felt light. I hadn't felt so light and wonderful since I was young! There are no words to describe my happiness and gratitude to Master.
More and more people came to learn the practice. In the beginning there were only us five elderly women in our area. Later, the number of people practicing rapidly increased to over ten thousand. If anyone wanted to learn, practitioners would go and teach them. We had one simple wish, to spread this great practice so more people could benefit from practicing Falun Gong.
A woman in one county had suffered from diseases since childhood. As a result her spine was hunched over at a 90-degree angle. After she married, her husband treated her poorly and often abused her. She soon became depressed and tried to commit suicide several times. She jumped into a river and tried to hang herself, but each time she was found by people and saved.
Her husband felt bad and stopped abusing her. After she began practicing Falun Gong, her back straightened up. Many people witnessed the miraculous changes in her and started learning Falun Gong themselves.
When persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, the police detained her. Everyone in her local area knew her story - how she was once hunched over, was cured, and her family became harmonious – all thanks to Falun Gong. Since everyone knew about this miracle and had a good opinion of Falun Gong, the police had no choice but to release her.
We once went to a township Fa conference. One practitioner was almost blind before he began practicing. He walked with a walking stick, and his family took him to learn the exercises. Not long after he learned, he could see again, and could walk without his stick. The local people in his area all had a positive opinion about Falun Gong because of his amazing experience.
The township Fa conference venue was packed with people. Even the field outside was filled with people standing, and the organizers had to set up loudspeakers. In order to attend the Fa conference, many attendees left home at two or three o'clock in the early morning. Since there were no proper roads, they held torches to light their way. They came from many different areas. When one practitioner read his experience sharing paper and talked about how he had benefited physically and spiritually after learning Dafa, people repeatedly applauded. Some of them cried, people found new hope in life.
In 1997, several practitioners and I brought a video player to a village to teach people Falun Gong. At first, only a few people came to learn. One man who came was in his thirties, and his name was Li Ming. He suffered from various diseases, and had heart problems. Even when he was young he couldn't do any work, and his family was having serious financial difficulty.
It was the very difficult to teach him the exercises. We had to repeatedly show him each simple movement. However, his health improvement was huge. Very soon he could work on the farm and do household chores. He could do all work his wife asked of him. He later went to another city to work, and over 20 people learned Falun Gong from him there.
One elderly lady was in her sixties. In the beginning, we played the exercise video, studied the Fa, and then did the exercises. She attended the class every day, but she very quietly stood to one side. When other people asked her to join the practice, she didn't answer, but responded with a smile. She stood there watching quietly. She was the last one to learn the exercises.
Since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999, the practitioner who was the last one to learn the exercises became the most firm practitioner. She never gave up practicing.
The local police detained practitioners at the police station, demanding that they give their fingerprints, and threatening them. When the police went to Li Ming's home, his wife said, “Don't take him away! He had various diseases in the past, and I had to do all the farm and house work. Now he practices Falun Gong, all his diseases are cured, and he can work. Our family just started a better life. Don't you dare arrest him!” Mr. Li's wife asked police righteously, “What's wrong with practicing Falun Gong? Why do you want to arrest my husband?” The police didn't know how to answer her, so they left.
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, fellow practitioners and I have never stopped clarifying the truth and quietly working against the persecution.
The police arrested practitioners and took them to a local brainwashing center between 2001 and 2002. One morning at 4:00 a.m. I quietly left home. The street was very quiet. Using stickers I posted two envelopes on the door of each house, one envelope contained information about Falun Gong, and the other had information about “Good meets with good, evil meets with evil.” I soon came to the door of a brainwashing center, and I posted two envelopes on it as well.
The third day, a practitioner who worked in a Procuratorate told me, “The police are shocked by the materials that were distributed everywhere. They sent dozens of police officers, who are all waiting along the road." It was said that in one residential area, the police were everywhere.
We finally received Master's new article “The Knowing Heart” in October 2000. In the village we went to previously, the last practitioner who came to learn Falun Gong was the only one still practicing. I needed to pass Master's new articles to her. I didn't tell my family about my plan, and went on my way to the village.
At that time, there were very limited materials, so I asked my grandson to copy one out by hand. There was no public transportation to that village, so I had to walk. I was over 60, and had lived in the city for decades. With Master's help, as soon as His new articles were published, I would go and deliver copies to that practitioner.
This year, the practitioner fell, and dislocated her kneecap. She pressed the kneecap back with great pain and walked home. Once there, she had to lie down. She could hear the bone making a cracking sound if she moved it even a bit. Everyone thought her knee was broken and suggested she see a doctor, but she refused.
Practitioners went to visit her. Her friends suggested she drink soup made from carp so the bone would heal quicker. Her family hurried out and brought two fishes back. Her husband cooked one fish, made soup, and had her eat it. However, that night, her pain was even worse. At that moment Master's Fa appeared in her mind,
“For practitioners, we have set the strict requirement that they cannot kill lives. Whether it is of the Buddha School, the Tao School, or the Qimen School, regardless of which school or practice it is, as long as it is an upright cultivation practice, it will consider this issue very absolute and prohibit killing—this is for sure.” (Zhuan Falun)
She told her husband the next day to release the other fish, and he did. After her husband returned from the river, her pain was gone. One month later, she recovered completely.
After her husband saw the miracles of Falun Gong, he started practicing as well. He also told their relatives and friends about it, and clarified the truth about the practice. He helped them to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
Despite my age I feel like a young person. I can easily walk up 12 flights of stairs without having to rest. I clarify the truth face to face, and I've met various people, some who believe the truth, some who don't. Some people have verbally abused me. Some have called the police on me. Every time Master helped me. I must be ever more diligent, cherish this unprecedented opportunity, cultivate myself well, do what I am suppose to do, and accomplish my historic mission.