(Minghui.org) I was fortunate to become a Falun Dafa practitioner in October 1996. Under Master's guidance, I have been practicing relatively steadily. Looking back on these years of cultivating Dafa, I thank Master for the precious eternal opportunity to become a Dafa disciple, the envy of all other beings. Master also gave me the great opportunity to validate Dafa with my mind and body, using my words and deeds.
"Do you really have no complaints?"
My mother-in-law’s family is big. She has 7 children, and with the grandchildren, there are more than 20 in the family. Every Saturday we all have dinner at her home, and cooking has been a big problem.
Every Saturday I bought food and went to my mother-in-law’s home in the early afternoon to help my eldest sister-in-law cook. My husband didn’t get there until it was almost time to eat. Most of the others were like my husband. Even if they came early, they chatted, but didn’t help in the kitchen. Some took a polite look into the kitchen and said we were working hard. Some just turned a blind eye as if they deserved to be served. Every Saturday was the same.
My eldest sister-in-law had worked as a chef in a restaurant before. She cooked and I helped her. We cooperated well. After most of the dishes were prepared, we told the others to start, while we continued to cook. By the time we finished cooking and cleaning the pans, the others were nearly finished, and the men sat drinking. We got the leftovers. We both came early to cook but ate last. In the winter, the food was cold by the time we ate. Afterwards, we washed all the dishes. Some of the others washed some fruit to share with everyone, and some played with the kids. Most played Mahjong or cards during holiday weekends.
This happened every week, year in and year out. My sister-in-law was not happy, and was even angry with her mother and wanted her to cancel the Saturday get togethers. My mother-in-law was getting old and was glad to see her children and grandchildren every week, so she didn’t cancel them.
My sister-in-law often complained to me. I tried to make her feel better. I said, "I work willingly to please my mother-in-law, and she is your own mother who raised you, so you shouldn’t feel upset working for her. Moreover, according to Falun Dafa, the people serve give you De (virtue), which is the most precious thing. Every good thing in this world comes from De. So you haven’t lost anything. On the contrary, you've probably gotten a great deal. Besides, anger is bad for your health. You should not feel upset about it, and you wouldn’t be tired if you were happy about your work." She laughed at what I said.
Finally one day, my younger sister-in-law asked, “Sister-in-law, do you really have no complaints about coming early to cook every Saturday and being the last one to eat? I see you're in a good mood every day--do you really have no complaints and are OK with it?” I said I was. "Why?" she asked, puzzled. I said, “I am not only a daughter-in-law in this family, I am also a Dafa disciple. My teacher asks me to think of others first and behave as a Dafa practitioner." My younger sister-in-law understood and came to help cook on Saturdays, too. I found that she was actually very capable and worked fast.
"Have you calculated how much interest was lost?"
One day before the New Year holiday a few years ago, my mother-in-law was worried and said, “Alas! It is the New Year, but how will we manage the holiday?” She sighed.
One of my husband’s brothers and his two sisters had done business together before, but had had a disagreement and had been trying to avoid each other ever since. The year before, the eldest sister was cooking the family dinner during the New Year holiday, so the younger sister took a vacation out of town.
My husband’s father had been persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution. My husband always helped his mother support the family before, and so he came forward to try to resolve the issue, but everyone refused to take a step back.
I asked my mother-in-law about the disagreement, and she told me that one of them had asked for 300,000 yuan from the other, but the other only agreed to give 200,000 yuan. It became a deadlock. I thought, “It was probably not a coincidence that I heard this. I am a Dafa disciple, what should I do?” I thought of my savings of over 100,000 yuan from managing a small grocery store. I immediately said to her: “Mom, do not worry, I have a way to solve it. I'll take my 100,000 yuan, and let my brother-in-law think that his sister agreed to give him 300,000 yuan, while my sister-in-law thinks her brother agreed to 200,000 yuan. We won't say anything to either of them. It will resolve the issue and we will have a good New Year holiday. My mother-in-law was surprised and happy, and asked me “Are you sure?”
When I went home and told my husband, he was surprised, too. He didn’t expect me to be so generous and spend so much money to help his family. My husband told his sister the truth. She was touched and said, “I really appreciate my sister-in-law's sincerity in helping solve the problem. I will consider the 100,000 yuan borrowed money. I will return the money to her next year if I earn enough." My husband told me what she said when he came home. I didn’t take it seriously.
The next year, my sister-in-law kept her word and gave me back the 100,000 yuan with one year of interest. My husband said to me, “You had saved the money in long term CDs with high interest. In order to help them, you took it out before it expired, so you should calculate how much we lost in interest.” I laughed. I was willing to to give up 100,000 yuan, why would I care about the interest? The family problem was solved, and the money had been returned. My husband, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner, felt the method to solve the problem was great, so he was very happy.
"Our family is so united, thanks to you!"
There are so many in my in-law’s family. Their temperaments were all different, so it was not easy for everyone to get along.
A younger sister-in-law was not easy to get along with. She was sometimes rude and loved to make trouble. My eldest sister-in-law once told me that the younger sister-in-law was upset with her. When I asked why, she said she did not know. I advised her to approach the younger sister-in-law to talk about it. She felt that she was older and the younger sister-in-law should talk to her first. I said, “You are the older one. If you talk to her first, you show her your grace, and she will feel sorry. Moreover, your mother doesn’t want to see any fighting among family members, so for your mother, you could talk to her first without losing anything, right?" The eldest sister-in-law thought it made sense, so she talked to the younger sister-in-law, and they made up.
The younger sister-in-law sometimes said bad things about me, too. I took it as an opportunity for me to improve my xinxing, so I smiled and let it go. Once, at a New Year's dinner in a restaurant, the younger sister-in-law was finally touched by me and raised her glass to thank all the family members for tolerating her for so many years without picking on her. The younger sister-in-law changed a lot after that.
Once, my husband went on a business trip for awhile. While he was away, one of his younger brothers came to tell me that the eldest sister sold one of the mother-in-law’s houses and kept the 60,000 yuan for herself. He wanted us to talk to his mother to make her share the money with everyone. I remembered that Master said that practitioners should care less for fame and self interest, so I decided not to get involved. I said to my younger brother-in-law, “It is not easy for your sister to take care of your mother. The apartment wasn't worth much. If everyone shares it, we wouldn’t even get 10,000 yuan. We won’t be rich with the money and won’t be poor without it. If you want to share it, it will only make your siblings fight more. You have to think over what to do. Anyway, I do not want it.” The younger brother-in-law knew that the house had been built by my husband. He said, “Sister-in-law, if you do not want the money, we will all bear with it.” Another domestic dispute was resolved.
When my husband came home and heard about it, he sincerely said, “Our big family is so united, thanks to your being a Dafa disciple!
"I am responsible to myself."
My mother-in-law was hospitalized in March 2003 because of aggravated diabetes. When I went to the hospital to take care of her, I didn’t forget my mission to clarify the truth. Wherever I went, I brought the truth. At that time, CCTV was broadcasting lies about Falun Gong on a daily basis. Many people were deceived, and they showed hostility toward Falun Gong, and contempt for Falun Gong practitioners.
One night, I went to the hospital to take care of my mother-in-law. She shared a room with two other patients. By the door, a woman in her 40s looked at me when I passed her to clean the bedpan. She could not help but ask, “Are you the patient's daughter? How old are you? I see how easily you get around.” I said that I was the daughter-in-law and that I was 54 years old. Her eyes opened wide, and she said, “You are seven or eight years older than me. How do you keep so healthy?” I told her I was practicing Falun Gong and that I used to have nephritis, rheumatoid arthritis, cervical bone hyperplasia, rhinitis, and gynecological diseases. "Oh, no, I saw CCTV's broadcast about Falun Gong......" The woman looked puzzled. I said, “I am a living example to prove that Falun Gong is good!
The husband of the middle bed's patient was a middle-aged man. He said, “We have a neighbor on the third floor. His family practices Falun Gong. They went to Beijing to get enlightenment. They neglected their home and child. As a result, they were arrested and imprisoned for a long time and only recently released. I said, “You are wrong. I've been to Beijing, but not for enlightenment. We want to tell the government how we benefitted from Falun Dafa. We believed the government would correct the wrong decision to persecute Dafa once they knew the truth. Practitioners have benefitted from such a good physical and mental cultivation, so why should it be persecuted? It is wrong to say that Falun Gong practitioners neglect their children and home. Aren't I here taking care of my mother-in-law? The police arrested Falun Gong practitioners and imprisoned, detained, sentenced them so they couldn’t go home. It is the Communist Party who doesn’t allow practitioners to take care of their homes and their children. They don’t allow practitioners to work like everyone else. Moreover, they spread misinformation about Falun Gong practitioners.”
The man asked, “Did you see the television broadcast that showed practitioners self-immolating and killing their own family the other day? Those people were possessed by the devil.” I said, “Those were not Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong prohibits killing, and suicide is also a big sin. I don’t even buy live fish, shrimp, or crabs.” My mother-in-law told him, “That is true. She hasn’t bought any living thing. If others bought it, she didn’t prepare it or cook it, nor did she eat it if others cooked it.” I said, “The self-immolation was a fraud orchestrated by the government. It was to stir up hatred against Falun Gong to give them an excuse to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Here we are in the hospital, where there is some medical knowledge. Would the child be able to speak and sing only a few days after a tracheotomy? If a person self-immolated and was burned, why not his hair? Wang Jindong’s meditation posture was not part of the Falun Gong exercises at all.” After they heard what I said, they thought it made sense.
The lady in the middle bed kept saying, “I understand. I finally know what Falun Gong is. I like to listen to you. It makes me feel optimistic. I came to try to cure the stroke that made my mouth crooked and affected my eye, but the doctors insisted on sending me to the diabetes ward. Why?”
The next day when the doctor came to check the patients, the lady in the middle bed insisted on being discharged. The doctor said the tests hadn’t been completed and there was no diagnosis yet, that it was dangerous to go home, and she would have to sign to be responsible for the discharge decision. The lady in the middle bed said loudly, “I'll sign, I am responsible for myself.” The doctor left, and the lady whispered to me, “I am going to practice Falun Gong when I go home. I will go to my third floor neighbor to learn the exercises.” We smiled at each other. Only I knew the real reason she had been sent to this ward.
