Cultivating Myself While Caring for My Infected Mother

(Minghui.org) One Sunday morning this September, I found my mother laying on the floor. She had fallen out of bed and had laid there for over an hour. I helped get her back into bed. It then occurred to me that she had not been quite right for the past few days, coughing more than normal. I gave her the new COVID Rapid Antigen Test. The result was positive. I immediately called an ambulance to take her to the National Cheng Kung University Hospital.

Some of her more obvious symptoms were lethargy, coughing, slightly raised temperature, and loss of appetite. Mother is 90 years old and has not been vaccinated against the virus. After doing some examinations, blood tests, a chest x-ray, and an electrocardiogram (ECG), the doctor suggested that she stay at the hospital for further monitoring. The whole time I was in panic mode with bad thoughts filling my head. I couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that troubles were ahead.

However, I also remembered what Master said:

“When you are overcoming a real hardship or tribulation, you try it. When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible. If you can actually do it, you will indeed find, “After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!”” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

I quickly calmed down and urged my mother to say, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good!” and ask Master to help and maintain her righteous thoughts.

While waiting at the hospital, I called a friend who is a caregiver and asked her to help find someone to take care of my mother. She said it was nearly impossible to find anyone to care for COVID patients, even if you offered them 5,000 yuan a day. No one wanted to risk their own health even for that kind of money.

My mother was placed in isolation in a four-meter square room on the eighth floor of the hospital. She could not leave the room and could not look after herself. I stayed with her and I was also quarantined.

The nurse gave me some instructions on how to care for my mother. Before she left she warned me that almost all the people who care for COVID patients are eventually infected. I immediately denied this in my mind, thinking, “If I believe you, I’d be going along with the old forces’ arrangement. I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I will not be infected because practitioners are filled with righteous energy which can destroy the virus.”

Master said,

“True Dafa disciples have higher energy and are able to destroy karma and germs; they are emissaries of salvation in these latter days, and bring their wisdom to bear upon saving people as they share truthful information related to our practice.” (“Stay Rational”)

After the nurse left I asked Master to protect my mother and I played for my mother the recordings of Master’s lectures and the Dafa music, “Pudu” and “Jishi.” We finished listening to all nine lectures during our stay.

My mother recovered rather quickly. All the examination results were normal before she was discharged. During our 4-day stay, I did my best to care for her – I washed her, changed her diapers, and fed her. The entire time, my frame of mind was to maintain my xinxing and conduct myself as a cultivator while doing my best to fulfill my duty and responsibility as a daughter.

Thanks to Master and Falun Dafa’s great power , my mother was soon back home, and everything quickly returned to normal.

After leaving the hospital, because I was in close contact to a COVID patient, as per government regulations I had to show a negative test result within the last two days if I planned to go out for things like shopping etc. The test result was negative. Actually, the result of the mandatory PCR test I did before I was allowed to stay at the hospital was also negative. The fact that I have never been vaccinated against this virus and have not been infected now or before is proof that we cultivators indeed have very powerful righteous energy on our bodies.

Through this event, I discovered I had selfishness in me. I love my mother and always take good care of her but deep down inside I had many grudges – against my family, and against my mother for being self-absorbed and self-indulgent when she was young and neglecting her children. By searching within, I enlightened that to avoid selfishness, I really needed to put more effort into cultivating my forbearance.

Enduring hardships and tribulations are a good thing from a cultivator’s perspective. I am in fact ignoring that Fa principles by resenting my mother. I turned my thinking around and my attitude toward my mother is very different now. I appreciate her more for bringing me to this world, facilitating the process for me to obtain this precious Dafa and cultivate.