(Minghui.org) I once read a story that in ancient times, a low-level official noticed that an elderly man had moved to his town and was treating people’s illnesses for free. Whatever the ailment, the patient would recover after taking the old man’s pills. Everyone was given the same pill.
The official realized the man was no ordinary person. He went to him and asked to be his disciple, but the old man turned him down. The man opened his door to patients in the morning, and the official dropped by every afternoon to clean the place. After he finished cleaning up, the old man would disappear. The official hid and secretly observed the old man. One day he saw that the old man jump into a gourd hanging on his wall. The gourd was the size of a shoe.
The official quietly served the old man, never missing a day. At last, one day, the old man asked him, “Are you willing to follow me with your whole heart and be my disciple?” The official replied earnestly, “Yes.” The old man said, “In that case, you must have complete trust in me. I am returning to my world. Follow me.” With that, he jumped into the gourd. The official took a leap and followed the old man into the gourd. He discovered it was a huge and beautiful place inside.
I have a science degree, so I thought this was a fable. I grew up in communist China and did not know anything about cultivation. But after practicing Dafa, I’ve realized this was a true story in that it depicts how a cultivator must have 100 percent faith in one’s Master. When we believe with our whole heart, our spiritual realm will reach the purity and high-level required. Consequently, Master will change our physical body.
I’d like to share several examples.
The First Amazing Incident
In 1998, I heard a practitioner in China share his experience and was deeply moved. Several practitioners from northeast China were involved in a car accident while delivering informational materials on Falun Dafa. Everyone was fine except for Lin. One of his feet was twisted backward, and the wound on his thigh was so deep the bone was exposed. Several other bones were broken, too. He could not move, and his condition was precarious. However, his mind was clear. Due to his faith in Dafa and Master Li (Dafa’s founder), he decided not to go to the hospital.
The other practitioners found an old rattan chair nearby. They put Lin in it and carried him to a practitioner’s home in the neighborhood. Local practitioners took turns reading the Fa teachings with him and assisted him to do the exercises while he was bedridden. A few days later, Lin’s twisted foot returned to its normal position. A few weeks later, practitioners encouraged him to get out of bed and do the exercises. After struggling to get up, he did the exercises half leaning against the bed. As he was doing them, popping sounds came from his body, and everyone nearby could hear it. After he did the exercises, Lin could move parts of his body that he couldn’t move previously. His bones had been adjusted. This story was a great help to me in something I went through afterward.
The Second Amazing Incident
In 2004, David (a practitioner) was shot in the foot in South Africa by hired gunmen during a Chinese official’s state visit. Before returning to Australia, I heard another practitioner say David did not want to return home because he did not want his parents to know he’d been shot. They would be worried if they heard that. My husband and I picked David up at the airport and took him back to our place. My husband is a registered nurse and was able to take care of him.
David’s wound was as big as a fist and the bone was exposed. My husband used only distilled water to clean the wound and changed the bandage frequently. David only felt a little pain and could sit up in bed to do the exercises. My husband said the pain should have been unbearable. This was already a miracle. We knew Master helped him. We believed David would recover rapidly with Master’s help.
David read the teachings and listened to the taped lectures nonstop. He also shared his understandings with practitioners. Two days later, David told me his sister heard of his injury and was planning to come to Sydney from Hong Kong. David said, “I’ve always listened to my sister. If she wants me to go to the hospital, I have no choice but to go.” I was very worried to hear that. His sister had not yet arrived and he was already planning to give up.
I knew David truly believed in Master, but I did not know how to help him. I suggested that he let go of his emotions toward his sister and regain his faith in Dafa. I read the Fa, hoping to gain wisdom so that I could help David be firm in front of his sister. The next day, David’s sister arrived with a wheelchair and took him to the hospital.
At the hospital, the doctor suggested amputating David’s feet to save his life. David turned down the suggestion.
A few days later, the doctor was still worried about his exposed wound and urged him to cooperate and agree to an operation to clean the wound. However, while changing David’s bandage the past few days, my husband observed that there were no signs of decay or infection in the wound or the surrounding areas. This was without the use of antibiotics and painkillers. Again, it was a miracle.
When his sister was not in the hospital, David spoke to me on the phone several times a day. He’d heard about practitioner Lin from northeast China and how he recovered, but David found it hard to defy his sister’s wishes. On top of that, the doctors kept pressuring him to cooperate and agree to operations they thought were necessary.
On the third day, David called me to say the doctors had suggested making a metal plate similar to the structure of the foot and bone and implanting it in his heel. That way, he could walk with the help of crutches. However, he could not move the injured foot. In fact, it would be a fake foot. I felt from David’s words he was finding it hard to continue fighting with his sister and turn down the doctor’s good intentions.
We talked for a long time that night. In the end, I told David he should have the will to stand his ground and have faith that Master and Dafa could help him recover completely. His sister and the doctors might think their suggestions were for his own good but only Master would be truly good to him. Besides, he should be responsible for his own recovery.
David’s sister phoned me first thing the next morning. She said to me angrily, “Why are you stopping him from having surgery? He’s not your brother. It’s easy for you to tell him not to have the operation, it doesn’t affect you. The doctors have already found the best way to treat him, we arranged everything.” I did not get upset. I thought she was a wonderful sister. Who would not want to have such a protective sister?
I replied calmly, “Of course, I know you are doing this for his benefit. But the metal piece the doctors want to implant will not allow him to move his foot, and it will only partially resolve his injury. I hope he can recover 100 percent.” His sister said, “Can you guarantee that?” I said, “I cannot, but David can. If he believes in our Master 100 percent, his wound will heal completely.” I was able to say this confidently because of the ancient tale I related at the beginning of this article, what happened to Lin, and my faith in Falun Dafa.
I felt as if I was speaking to my own sister. She said, “All right,” in a calm voice and hung up. A moment later, David called us, and my husband went to the hospital to take him back to his home.
His sister had taken two months leave from work to take care of him in Sydney. When she saw how quickly his wounds were recovering and the daily help from other practitioners, she was glad and was reassured. She stayed in Sydney for three weeks and then returned to Hong Kong.
It goes without saying that, in less than two months, David’s wounds healed, and he did not even need crutches to walk!
I understood that a practitioner should use his own understanding of the teachings of Dafa and true faith to face any difficulties. I was glad that, although David’s sister did not practice Falun Dafa, she understood what it meant to practitioners to have complete faith in Master.
The Third Incident
One day, Ben, a new practitioner, phoned to tell me he’d been hit by a car while riding his bicycle. The accident happened near where he lived. He fell and hurt his arm but it seemed that he did not fracture any bones. He was also able to move. He asked me, “Should I go to the hospital?”
I knew he and his wife were applying for asylum. I briefly shared with them some cultivation experiences. I think they knew Dafa was good and taught one to be a better person, but cultivation was still a new thing to them. I asked him, “Do you want to go to the hospital?” He replied that his wife was extremely worried and was afraid it would affect his ability to work. He had a family to take care of. I asked if he could endure the pain. He said his arm hurt a lot.
I did not think I would be able to help Ben understand the power of Dafa in such a short period of time. I went to his place at once and took him to the hospital.
Master said:
“We will not be healing you though, but rather, cleansing your body. We avoid using the word “healing” and simply refer to it as “cleansing.” This is something we do for whoever is sincere about our practice. It’s not done for those who come just for healing. People with serious medical conditions are not allowed to enroll in our classes, because their minds are going to be occupied with thoughts of getting healed; they won’t be able to let it go, understandably, since their condition is serious and causing them pain. That makes it very hard to engage in spiritual practice. And so we have always maintained a strict policy that the seriously ill may not take our classes. Our classes are about spiritual practice, which is something far from their minds. They might be able to find others who will heal them, but that’s not our approach. That said, there are many people with normal ailments who are sincere about learning our practice, and we can cleanse their bodies.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I understood that the severity of the illness depends on the individual’s level of tolerance. A practitioner decides whether he or she should seek medical treatment based on his or her faith in Dafa.
The Fourth Amazing Incident
One time, my husband and I went on a holiday. It rained hard, and we were trapped in a village in a valley. All the roads were blocked by flood waters, and water got into the new tent we were using for the first time. This was in spite of the waterproof treatment. For two days, we were wet and freezing.
My husband developed pneumonia symptoms when we returned home. I thought my husband was halfhearted about cultivating, so I asked if he wanted to see a doctor. “Do you want to go to the hospital or listen to Master’s lectures?” He replied, “I want to listen to the Fa.” He laid down but could not breathe or stand up. He read the Fa and did the exercises half lying in bed. He recovered in a day.
He said people with similar symptoms were put in intensive care in the hospital for a week. I asked him, “How did you decide not to go to the hospital?” He said, “Master said illness symptoms are caused by karma and it is what I need to repay. Besides, isn’t one’s destiny arranged? Doctors cannot change anything if a patient is destined to die.”
The Fifth Amazing Incident
Many years ago, I too had an experience with sickness karma. In 2005, we were holding activities to protest the former minister of foreign affairs restricting our protest outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra. I coordinated the protest and prepared a petition for people in Australia to sign.
After handing out fliers for several hours in the morning, some practitioners said white-collar workers asked for more fliers after reading them, as they wanted to pass the information on to other coworkers. It seemed that our truth-clarification activities were having positive results.
When I returned home in the afternoon, my limbs suddenly swelled up. I asked two practitioners to send righteous thoughts for me. In the past, when the evil in other dimensions tried to find ways to persecute the practitioner coordinating truth-clarification activities, it was because they felt threatened by what we were doing.
However, I thought if I had no gaps in cultivation, the evil should not be able to touch me. I reflected on what I did that day and the thoughts that passed through my mind. I recalled meeting someone who, after reading the flier, told me he often went to China. We talked a lot about the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of religious groups and Falun Dafa practitioners. But because he sounded a little too passionate, I thought he was joking and did not take it to heart.
In Western society today, it is normal for men and women to joke and flirt with one another. But this is because moral values have declined. This is not the etiquette gods left for humanity when they created humans. It is also against the universal principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I should correct my notions. A practitioner’s every thought and action should align with the principles of Dafa.
I revisited Master’s teachings. Master said:
“But however much people’s values may change, the qualities that define this universe will not, and they are the sole measure of your person. It is these—and not the values now in vogue—that must be what you live by as someone who does spiritual practice. If you would like to regain the purity you once had, and return to your true home, if you would like to develop spiritually, then you must live by the cosmic qualities of zhen, shan, ren.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
That night, the swelling in my limbs subsided.
Thank you, Master!
(Selected Submission Celebrating the 24th World Falun Dafa Day on the Minghui website)
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