(Minghui.org) My life has changed significantly over the past 22 years of practicing Falun Dafa. I have found the true meaning of life. I am 71 years old. I used to be self-centered but now I think of others first.
I had been stubborn and obstinate since childhood and was well known for my bad temper. No one could approach me when I lost my temper. Since I was little, I never allowed others, including my mother and sister, to touch any of my things.
I used to take my own lunch to work, and if anyone tried to taste my meal I wouldn't touch the rest. I would rather go hungry than eat it. After I got married, my husband and I normally didn't share food. If we had to share a dish, we divided it into two halves. If he touched a part of my food with his chopsticks, I would leave the rest.
Due to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) atheistic indoctrination, traditional values were lost to me. At home my world was uncompromising. I didn't know that a woman should be gentle, virtuous, and considerate of her husband. I was just the opposite in fact. I was self-centered and only thought about myself instead of putting others first.
A couple who were my clients visited and introduced Falun Dafa to me on July 11, 1998. The man told me his story.
The man was the director of a factory. One night, the power distribution box caught fire and engulfed most of the building, but the flames didn't touch the director’s office. The fire was so fierce, so why was his office spared? It was because there was the heavenly book on his desk, Zhuan Falun.
The director's wife had a tumor in her stomach. She spent several thousand yuan on treatment but she was not cured. However, after practicing Falun Dafa, it wasn't long before all her illnesses disappeared. Her child witnessed the power of Dafa and started practicing it.
This story was so amazing that I wanted to buy Zhuan Falun. His wife said: “You don't need to buy one. I will get you a copy. If you can learn it, it means that you have a predestined relationship with the Fa.”
She gave me Zhuan Falun the next day. I started to read it right then. As I was reading I felt something like a heavy weight pressing down on my head. I asked her what was going on. She smiled and said: “You have a predestined relationship with Falun Dafa. You should learn it!” Since then, I entered Dafa cultivation with my husband.
Before practicing Falun Dafa, I had problems with my liver, kidneys, and throat. I also had rhinitis and my spine wasn't in good shape. Master began to cleanse my body when I started to read Zhuan Falun. One night, when I was half asleep, I felt this heavy weight pressing down from the top of my head until it reached the nasal cavity. It was very uncomfortable. Just when I thought I couldn't bear it anymore, I suddenly felt a cool breeze going through my nose, and I was fine afterward. A month later, my lower back and leg pains were gone.
While lying in bed one night, my veins looked as thick as my fingers. I sat up and said to my husband, “Look at my veins. They are big and white.”
“It's a good thing,” he replied. “Master is helping you!” I recovered from all of my illnesses.
Falun Dafa has given me good health. It has changed my outlook on life and improved my moral standard, turning me from someone who was stubborn and bad-tempered to a kind, tolerant, and happy person. That kind of rebirth can't be exchanged for any amount of money. It was Dafa's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that remade me.
I was overweight, and when I first tried the sitting meditation, I couldn't lift my legs up. It was so painful to try it every time, but I did not get discouraged and just kept trying. After more than a month, I was able to cross one of my legs. And two months later I was able to cross both legs, but only for about two minutes.
I increased the time by a few minutes each day and soon could hold both my legs crossed for half an hour. When my husband and children were at home, I went to the kitchen to do the exercises. I moved the table and stool to one side and saw Master’s law bodies sitting around me. Master’s law bodies either had curly hair or were like Taoist priests, and they were the size of a normal person.
After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the persecution of Falun Dafa, I was illegally detained, sentenced and tortured in the Heilongjiang Women’s Prison. My hands were cuffed to an iron ring on the bed frame, and I had to sit there from morning until 9 p.m. I had no socks or bedding in the cold winter and was only allowed to lie on the cold floor after 9 p.m. Sometimes I saw bugs crawling everywhere.
When I tried to lie down to sleep, my hands were twisted behind my back and cuffed to the iron ring. The pain was unbearable. Thus, I had to sit up all night and my hands were swollen. A prisoner who monitored the cell couldn't bear to watch, so she came into the cell and tried to help me lie down. But no matter how hard she tried, it didn't help. I had to sit up like that for eight days and nights.
On the eighth day, a miracle happened. I don't know how I laid down in the cold cell. I did not only sleep soundly, but I also felt that I was wrapped in a thick blanket and a warm light was shining above my head. When I woke up, it was still a dark, cold cell, with no blankets or warm light.
My youngest son, at the age of 40, said that he didn't want to get married. But that changed a few years ago. He was working out of town and met a widow whose son was studying at college. The two fell in love, married, and thought of starting a family.
On the tenth day of the Chinese New Year, a car stopped outside my house. My son, his wife, and child got out. They had no place to live, so they stayed at my place, while I found another place to live.
I went home during the day to cook meals. I used to make cornmeal porridge, but my daughter-in-law never came to eat it, even after calling her a few times. I later learned that she didn't like cornmeal porridge. I loved it, but she didn't like it, so I stopped making it. When cooking after that, I tried to make what she liked.
The arrival of my new daughter-in-law was really a great thing for me. My husband was tortured to death because of his belief in Falun Dafa, and both my daughter and eldest son have their own families. So I lived alone.
Now I had a new person with me. Any friction between my daughter-in-law and me was a great opportunity for me to look inward to see where I didn't do well, so the next time I would try to do better. I thanked my daughter-in-law for helping me improve my xinxing.
She urged my son to buy a house. I took out my savings and bought a house for them. My son and daughter-in-law work out of town, and they send me money at the time of the Chinese festivals. Although this was a trivial matter, I felt that my daughter-in-law who understands the truth about Dafa is also respecting ways of traditional Chinese culture.
Falun Dafa changed my life and helped me to experience the beauty and see the brightness brought about by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.