(Minghui.org) I was born in 1956, the only daughter in my family. There was a famine in China that lasted three years when I was very little. We were very fortunate because my parents were both medical doctors. My three siblings and I survived the famine, but hunger and hard work took a severe toll on my father. He had to retire before he was 40 due to illness.
The Cultural Revolution
In 1966 when I was 11 years old, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the Cultural Revolution. My mother was a doctor in a middle school in town and a member of the CCP. She was therefore labeled as "Capitalist" and faced constant public criticism and humiliation. One day she refused to take the abuse any longer and left us.
After that, my father was taken away from us. It happened very early morning in the middle of winter. It was gray and snowing outside. My nine-year-old brother, my grandmother, and I were dozing when someone pounded on the door. My father, who was resting in another room, woke up. My grandmother whispered that it must be the Red Guards coming for my mother. Outraged, my father left with a Red Guard leader to demand justice. Never did we expect that he would never return. We heard that he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and passed away a few months later.
When I was older, my second older brother told me he, too, was a victim of the Cultural Revolution. When the Red Guards could not locate my mother, they took their frustration out on him. They ordered him to kneel in the center of a track and had all the faculty and students run around him. The Red Guards also ordered them to insult him. My second older brother lived at school while the rest of us lived with my mother in a rural area. My brother trembles with anger even to this day when he talks about those days.
A difficult childhood
There were four children in our family. The oldest son was 15 and the youngest was 10. My mother had to provide for four children and the parents on both sides with her minimal salary. It was hard to imagine the difficulty she faced.
One expects an innocent, happy childhood, but mine was filled with hardship, fear, hatred, and confusion. The CCP created numerous tragedies like ours, while some families had it worse.
My mother said that I had frail health since I was a child, and I suffered from mitral stenosis and anemia. I grew up in a single-parent family to start with, and the Cultural Revolution forced everyone to fight for survival. I became increasingly standoffish, stubborn, and feisty. I would stop at nothing to fight for my self-interests and protect myself. I developed a myriad of illnesses by the time I reached 40. I had superficial gastritis, duodenal ulcer, chronic cholecystitis, and intractable neurasthenia. Moreover, I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis in 1994. Meanwhile, my marriage had deteriorated. When I was feeling hopeless, I was fortunate to find Falun Gong in 1996.
Encountering Falun Gong
In September 1996 I visited a colleague at work who was living downstairs and she told me about Falun Gong. She said that it had miraculous healing power and it nurtured one's morality. I didn't believe qigong could treat any illnesses, because I had tried just about everything.
Before I started practicing Falun Gong, I took medicine as though it was food. I took both Western and Chinese medicine every day, yet they didn't improve my health. I had a sickly complexion, had lost my taste for food, and I had difficulty sleeping at night. The illnesses made me ill-tempered, and I fought with my husband constantly. I also frequently disciplined my child, and there was no peace at home. Eventually my husband and my child decided they had had enough, and my husband wanted to divorce me. I felt as though my life was over, and I was on the brink of collapse. I was diagnosed with hysteria and had to take sick leave. I was unable to get out of bed, and even when I managed to get out of bed, I was unable to do any housework. I could not bend over to sweep the floor and could not squat to do the laundry. Cool water gave me severe joint pain. I stayed in bed for 20 months and was in tears every day. I tremble to think of the depths of despair I sunk to in those days.
I would try just about anything to treat my illnesses, including many schools of qigong. I practiced them day and night, but nothing helped, and I got even worse. I was diagnosed with chronic cholecystitis on top of all my other health problems. I was so mad that I gave up on qigong altogether. That is why I did not believe it when my colleague told me that Falun Gong was capable of treating illness. Yet she said it helped cultivate one's morality and disposition. I wanted to get rid of my bad temper, so I brought a copy of Zhuan Falun home.
"I have finally found you"
I was lying in bed when I studied Zhuan Falun (Falun Gong's main study text) for the first time, because I didn't know it was disrespectful. Halfway through the book, I sat up in bed and held the book in my arms. I felt as though I had been homeless for a long time and had finally found my mother. I began to cry while I shouted in my heart, “I have finally found you! Why didn't I find this book sooner?” Tears come to my eyes today when I recall that day. That was when I began my journey back to my true, innocent self.
Illnesses disappear
The first day I started practicing Falun Gong, I had difficulty bending over or squatting. It got easier the next day, and I was able to move with ease in just a few days. All my illnesses disappeared in less than three months.
We lived on the top floor of a building in the winter of 1996. The pipes were often frozen. We had to add hot water to the tap water when we washed vegetables. One day I said, “It is too much trouble to get hot water from downstairs. I will just wash these vegetables with cold water.” My husband was astonished, because I had been unable to use cold water for two years. He exclaimed, “You're washing vegetables with cold water? Even I cannot stand it. Aren't your hands freezing with pain?” I showed him my hands to assure him they were perfectly fine. When I was ill, my hands would swell when they touched cold water. My husband was impressed. “Falun Gong is indeed remarkable,” he commented.
A new life
I have been full of energy and walk briskly since I began practicing Falun Gong, and I was able to take care of all the housework. I have been diligent at work, but I never felt tired after a long day at work. Now that I am healthy and in a very agreeable frame of mind. I smile all the time and am able to enjoy life again. I have been completely transformed.
I have completely changed the way I see the world because of Falun Gong, and I know how I should conduct myself. Both my morality and my temper keep improving. The transformation of my health and temper also made an impact on my family life. My mother-in-law and my husband were happy again. My child was able to grow up in a happy family, and my entire family was happy. I bask in the glory of Falun Gong every day. I felt my life was filled with meaning and vigor and I was overjoyed.
Everyone that knew me commented that I had changed. I looked younger and more energetic, and my complexion and skin improved and looked better. I was over 40, but I was often mistaken for a woman in her 20s. I knew it was all because I practiced Falun Gong. It gave me a second lease on life, and I would like to thank Teacher and Falun Gong.
Challenges
I bought a scooter in March 2004, and I rode it to take a driving test the next day. I was new to driving a scooter and was not familiar with the road conditions, so I accidentally hit a utility pole. I was thrown off, hit a rock, and needed five stitches in my head. The doctor urged me to get a CT scan and an X-ray, but I decided I would be okay because Teacher watches over me.
The doctor worried that I might have a concussion and asked my husband to keep an eye on me. He also prescribed a lot of medicine. My husband knew I had been perfectly fine for the many years that I had practiced Falun Gong, so he put the medicine away and didn't ask me to take any. However, he asked my mother-in-law to help him watch over me. That night I had to stay in bed because my legs were injured, but I was able to get up the next day and do the Falun Gong exercises.
My mother-in-law was very worried about me. She kept urging me to have a medical examination. My left wrist really hurt, but I was very calm. To pacify her, I agreed to get an X-ray seven days later. The doctor asked, “Did you have any fixation plates?” “No,” I replied. “Did you take any medicine?” “No.” The doctor was astonished. “You didn't have any fixation plate or take any medicine, yet your bones have healed so well. Did you know that you had a comminuted fracture?” There is a Chinese saying, “It takes 100 days to heal a fracture.” Yet I started cooking 12 days after the accident. Isn't it a miracle?
After that my mother-in-law was very impressed with Falun Gong, and she kept praising it. I later gave her two Falun Gong amulets and taught her to repeat, “Falun Gong is good.” She remembered them and often said those words. She also gave one of the amulets to her younger brother because he was ill.
My mother-in-law
On January 3, 2006, my mother-in-law rode a bicycle to a market when she slipped and fell. It had snowed a few days before and the ground had turned into slippery ice. She got up and saw nothing wrong, so she got back on the bicycle and left for the market. That night she decided to take a stroll after dinner. She took another fall when she reached the entrance to an alley. The back of her head hit the ground hard, and she was frightened. She remembered overhearing a hotel manager not yet 40 who fell downstairs and passed away shortly after.
She became increasingly frightened, and she lay on the ground for a short while. She felt she could move, so she decided to give it a try. When she got up, she found nothing on the back of her head and moved her limbs and felt nothing wrong. She was ecstatic. When I came home the next day, she told me excitedly the miracles she had experienced, and asked if it was Falun Gong that saved her. I replied excitedly, “Indeed, the founder of Falun Gong has saved your life.” She now believes in Falun Gong even more.
My mother-in-law told me another story. Her younger brother (my uncle) wears the Falun Gong amulet all day long. One day he was going to a market five miles away on his bicycle. The road was narrow, and a car coming in the opposite direction knocked him off his bicycle into sewage on the side of the road. My uncle was almost 70, but he did not even have a scratch. When he got his bicycle upright, he got on it and hurried to the market as though nothing had happened.
I had once introduced Falun Gong to my uncle when he underwent a physical exam in the hospital in 2005, but he was afraid to even listen because of the CCP. He approached me after this accident and asked to learn the Falun Gong exercises. He also taught his younger brother to practice Falun Gong. My mother-in-law told me two months later, “Your uncle is now free of stomach problems after having practiced Falun Gong for only two months. He has gained weight, and his complexion has also improved.”
Since Jiang Zemin and the CCP began to suppress Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, I have faced brainwashing, arrests, and incarceration as have countless other practitioners, but I remain steadfast in my faith in Teacher and Falun Gong. Since I started practicing, my sisters-in-law and uncles have studied Zhuan Falun and started practicing. I believe that more and more people will start practicing Falun Gong in the future.
