(Minghui.org) Master said:
“But I’ll tell you, it has been really hard for you to obtain this Fa. Perhaps the hardships you endured in the first part of your life have been for the sake of obtaining this Fa. That’s the part you know about. There are still things you don’t know about; perhaps you have been suffering and undergoing hardships in your previous lives or for an even longer period of time in order to obtain this Fa. There are also people who have experienced even more intense suffering for the sake of obtaining the Fa, and this is what you don’t know about.” (“Teaching the Fa at the International Experience-Sharing Conference in Beijing” from Teaching the Fa at the Conference I)
While reading this part of the Fa, tears rolled down my face. It was as if benevolent Master Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa, was standing in front of me lecturing in person. I suddenly felt that I was surrounded by the love of my mother who passed away several decades ago. I felt like a kid who had lost my direction, but then found the path home again. I felt very excited and happy.
I had endured tremendous amounts of hardship before obtaining the Fa. After studying Master's Fa, I became clear... My suffering was so I could finally return home with Master.
I am 76 years old. When I was eight years old, my mother passed away, leaving behind six of us. My stepmother, who was a lot younger than my dad, soon came to my home. I had three younger brothers from this step-mother.
My stepmother said to me one day, “It is no use for a girl to go to school. You'd be better off working in the field.” Therefore, soon after I started primary school, I had to drop out and become a young farmer. My three sisters and I worked hard in the field. We worked diligently and carefully. We were taking on as much hardship as we could and tried to eat as little as we could, to please her.
I later got married. Because I married into a very poor family, I was leading a very thrifty life. When I had my first child, I had access to little nutrition. Because of that, after having the third child, my health went downhill. I had developed several kinds of illnesses including bronchitis, arthritis, hypoglycemia, and heart disease. I was suffering tremendously.
Right at that time, my husband had a stroke. I was already very ill, and now I had to take care of him. I was struggling with understanding why I had to suffer so much in my life.
I went all over the place begging the gods to change my fate for the better. One of my older sisters, however, treated illnesses for others, while having her celestial eye open.
When I went to see her in early 1998, she said to me, “I practice Falun Dafa now. Why don't you practice it too? This is truly a highly virtuous Dafa, which can change your fate.”
After I began to practice, all my many illnesses disappeared. Yet it didn't make sense to me that I not endure some of my illness karma. Once in a while I went through a tribulation related to illness karma. It came up suddenly and wasn't easy to pass.
In the following seven to eight years, I occasionally felt as if cold water was flowing over my back. I knew that this was Master cleansing my body the first time, and I didn't have any more painful feelings.
I soon developed cold sores in my mouth, and I had them all over my mouth. I couldn't take in food, and had to break up buns into pieces, put them in a bowl, soak them in warm water, and use chopsticks to push them right into my mouth one by one.
Saliva flowed out of my mouth at evening time. It was so smelly that I almost wanted to throw up. So I used some pieces of cloth to put under my jaw to absorb it. But sometimes, because the cloth would bulge from the saliva so much, it ended up choking me in my sleep. I would then just sit up to do the sitting meditation or recite the scriptures quietly in my heart. I didn't complain to anyone, nor did I go to see a doctor. The sores disappeared in a bit over 20 days.
When the old forces saw that I managed to pass every illness karma trial with Master's protection, they wanted to take my life. I once went to someone's home to clarify the facts, and before I started talking, I lost consciousness suddently, right in front her. She knew from before that I used to have a low sugar blood problem. This scared her. When I woke up, I told her right away, “Don't worry about me, I am fine. After I sit for a while, I'll be completely fine.” After I did the sitting meditation for an hour, I was back to normal. Seeing how fast I recovered laid a foundation for clarifying the facts to her in the future. This was also the only time that anyone else had witnessed my passing an illness karma tribulation—all the other times I was completely by myself.
I had become a practitioner, and I knew that I would be pursuing this practice for my whole life.
The persecution of Falun Dafa began under Jiang's regime on July 20, 1999, yet I didn't have any attachment to fear. Whoever came to ask me whether I still practiced, I always answered honestly and righteously.
Over time, everyone knew that I practiced Falun Dafa because I never hid the truth from anyone. No one has interfered with me.
When the persecution first started, the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee notified practitioners to go to his office to attend a meeting. The first two times I didn't comply, as a way to oppose it. The third time, I changed my mind, as I figured I should take the opportunity to clarify the facts. When he saw me walk into his office, he said, “Here you are?”
“I came here only to tell you ‘Falun Dafa is wonderful!’” I said.
He replied,“Ok, then just do it at home, don't go out to practice it.” Then he wrapped up the meeting.
I knew that he was just talking nonsense, and I continued going out with other practitioners to hand out materials, and even using chalk to write messages like “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is Good!” and “The World Needs Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” wherever we went.
All the villagers in my area know that I used to be very ill. They also know that only after practicing Falun Dafa did I become healthy. And though I am elderly, when I’ve faced injustice, I’ve neither fought with others nor had any hatred or resentment toward others. As such, many think highly of me. When I go to clarify the facts to them, it goes very well. No matter whom I’ve talked to, they were willing to withdraw their memberships from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
The Fa-rectification hasn't ended, so I still have some time to walk on my cultivation path. I will seize the time to save more sentient beings and fulfill the vows I made long ago.