Cultivating and Maturing While Experiencing Tribulations

(Minghui.org) I am 69 years old and semi-literate. My sister visited me in 2004 and taught me the Falun Dafa exercises. I strongly felt the Falun spinning. Another sister gave me a collection of experience sharing articles. I asked a friend whose family member is a practitioner to buy a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, for me.

I eventually became a cultivator of Falun Dafa. All I knew to do was to endure hardships, exercise forbearance, and make sacrifices. But others treated me badly, which was painful. It wasn’t until 2015, that I met several local veteran practitioners, and went out with them frequently to clarify the truth.

What I liked most was discussing xinxing issues with them. I talked about the conflicts I encountered and the pain in my heart and asked them to find the reasons for me. My fellow practitioners always emphasized the need to study the Fa more and look inward unconditionally. They also analyzed my specific problems and helped me learn how to understand my issues from the perspective of the Fa. Gradually, I was able to understand my xinxing problems based on the Fa, and my conflicts were alleviated or resolved. The atmosphere in my family has improved.

Some illness karma appeared from time to time. I used the magic weapon of looking inward, and I discussed them with fellow practitioners. All the time, I was able to pass the tribulation, and my xinxing also improved. For example in 2021, my right thigh suddenly became red and swollen. It then extended from the knee to the instep and toes, and purple patches developed. It was as painful as burning, especially when I went to bed at night. Moaning and yelling, I suffered for half a month.

At first, I could still go out to clarify the truth. Later, I couldn’t even get out of bed. But I firmly believed in Dafa and Master, and had no fear in my heart. I continued to study the Fa no matter how painful it was. Having no strength, I leaned against the wall to do the exercises. Being unable to cross both legs when doing the meditation, I just meditated with one leg bent. My son and grandson insisted on taking me to the hospital for treatment; I refused. I knew it was to eliminate my karma.

I looked within while my illness karma was being eliminated. After repeated searches, I finally found my attachments to resentment, a fighting mentality, and so on. For example, I asked myself: Why did my son scold me for no reason? Why did he always quarrel with me? Sometimes he even called my name when he was asleep and said “Get up and fight with me!” I realized it was to get rid of my combativeness. However, I did not get it, and we yelled at each other back and forth. I thought I was protecting Master.

Why did my sisters say bad things to me and my son’s ex in-laws always created trouble for me? It was all to help me get rid of my resentment and other attachments. I always thought that my son’s ex-in-law was harming him, causing his divorce and financial difficulties. I resented my ex-daughter-in-law and her mother, and I held resentments towards my sisters. It was almost deeply rooted. When I found these attachments, the pain had greatly disappeared, and I was able to walk the next day. My son witnessed this miraculous scene.

As I learned how to cultivate myself, I realized that a cultivator needs to have righteous thoughts.

Facing Persecution

A fellow practitioner and I were arrested by domestic security officers as we walked on the street one morning in April 2022. They interrogated us and searched our homes. All my Dafa books were seized. I was released on bail.

It was the first time I'd ever been arrested and had my home ransacked. The day after my release, a police station chief called my son and told him to bring me to the police station. The chief was nice at first. She chatted with us and offered us tea. Then she got tough when I refused to sign their documents. She threatened to detain my grandson at the station.

A week later, they called and told me to appear in court. I was scared, but was determined to not say anything to the court. It was a cold and rainy day. Three generations of our family waited at the courthouse for a few hours before they called my son. They said they would not hear our session due to another engagement, so we went home.

Not long after, around June, the community office called my son and told him to take me there. When we got there, people tried to make me accept their demands. One was a woman who was said to be from the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee. The others were all men, including Gao from the domestic security; Wan, the community director; and others. They ordered me to sign their documents. If I didn't, they would take me to court.

Some of them asked me how I started practicing Falun Dafa. I said I started practicing because I had been ill and had no money for treatment. Now, I recovered from all my illnesses. The woman snapped, “You didn’t gete healthy by practicing Falun Gong [also known as Falun Dafa], you got healthy by practicing qigong.” Several others also echoed the same and shouted, “Qigong, qigong, never say Falun Gong again.” Gao cursed Master, and I told him to stop, lest he be punished.

A group of people came to my home the next day. I refused to open the door. I was sad about their trying to force me to sign their documents and their badmouthing Master. I told them they were like bandits, and I refused to let them in. They left.

Wan and a woman came three days later. I did not open the door, but my son did. I asked them why they came to persecute me again. Wan said they did not persecute me. I said, “You tried to force me to say that I got better by practicing qigong rather than Falun Gong, and you threatened to take me to court. Undoubtedly, it was persecution.” I was undaunted.

One Saturday night, my son told me they'd called to tell me to go to the police station. I got nervous fearful and said I wouldn’t go. My son suggested that I go. I said, “This time they might put me in jail.”

My son was also scared. He called his classmates at the police department to check on my situation. A classmate replied the next morning and said they had designated me a "minor leader" and come up with dozens of charges against me and might sentence me to prison. I was petrified. Then I thought of the worst case scenario, which was nothing more than being detained. So I planned to go to the police station alone to face him.

I thought about what some fellow practitioners said, that we should clarify the truth about the law to the police. I promptly found a fellow practitioner and asked her to find some legal information for me. She studied the articles of the Criminal Law and cited all the articles that the police had violated in handling my case. I copied them.

I was prepared to go to jail when I went to the police station. I wore thicker clothes and brought the necessary toilet paper. I thought the worst scenario would be just going to jail. I was not afraid of anything.

I went to the police station alone the first thing the next morning. On the way there I was still thinking about what to say first and how to say it. As soon as I arrived, I naturally took out the copied legal articles and started reading them aloud in the lobby. The chief came out and said, “How dare you come to the police station to spout things like this.”

After reading the legal articles I copied, he asked, “Is the pamphlet [we confiscated] yours? Are the Falun Gong materials and paper bills yours?” I said, “Those are my private property. It is illegal for you to search my house. You took my things without a search warrant or following any legal procedure.” The chief said, “You signed it anyway.” I said, “So what? I don’t acknowledge it; you didn’t show it to me or read it to me. I have declared to the whole world that my signature on it is invalid!”

The other officers in the hall all listened quietly. The chief finally ordered them to take me away. They took me to an interrogation room and ordered me to sit on an iron chair. I refused and sat side by side with them. I refused to respond or answer when my name was called or when they asked me a question, nor did I sign anything.

The chief had no choice but to let me go. I saw my son arriving when I entered the hall. It turned out that the chief had called and asked him to come get me. My son said, “The chief has been so kind to us, why are you making a fuss here!” When I left, I told the police officer in the lobby, “Tell your chief that I won’t sue him if he doesn’t send me to prison. I will have to sue him if he does.”

The chief came to my home with another policeman to ask me to sign their paper. He said that if I signed it, everything would be fine. I refused. He said he’d sign it himself if I didn’t. They asked me to take a look at it. I said it had nothing to do with me, and they left. On the fourth day, they came again and asked my son to find someone to sign it as a guarantor. My son found an irrelevant person to sign it. The matter was settled.

The persecution centered on the signature issue for over a year. In fact, I don’t know exactly what the signature was for. But I knew that whatever they wanted me to sign must be bad, so I did my best to resist. Although I did not find out why they kept asking me to sign, I felt that I had a certain amount of righteous thoughts, and my righteous thoughts were constantly increasing.

When our “release on bail” was approaching one year, we thought that the police were also framing another practitioner. I accompanied this practitioner and sent the relevant legal documents to the Domestic Security Division. This caused a big turnaround. The next day, the six practitioners who were “released on bail” exactly a year ago were all notified of their termination of “release on bail.”

During this process, I felt the power of righteous thoughts. After the “release on bail” was lifted, they still attached a six-month surveillance requirement. But I was no longer the same person I was a year ago. I totally denied and did not acknowledge their things, and I felt their things had nothing to do with me.

They did not have to look for me afterward. Instead, I went to the police station many times to ask for the Dafa books they'd confiscated from my home and to clarify the truth to them.

Although some principles of the Fa are still unclear to me, I do feel I have become much more mature in my cultivation after over a year of harassment by the evil. I went from compromising with the evil and acknowledging the arrangements of the old forces, to completely denying their persecution; from being simply afraid to taking the initiative to go to their door to clarify the truth; from treating the persecution with human attachments to resisting the persecution with righteous thoughts. I feel that I am really on the path of helping Master rectify the Fa!