(Minghui.org) I consider myself very lucky to have become a practitioner of Falun Dafa despite starting later in life. While Dafa spread around the world, even with the ongoing persecution in China for more than two decades, I mostly played a supportive role to my practitioner wife. I believe Dafa is good and stood up for my wife, protected other practitioners, and helped with their truth-clarification efforts.
I’ve endured a lot of pain and hardship as a family member of a Dafa practitioner during the Communist regime’s violent repression, but Master Li has always been by my side watching over me.
When I fell ill two years ago, it is Master who gave me a new lease on life and arranged for the final push I needed to become a true practitioner. I’m forever grateful for Dafa and Master’s compassionate salvation.
Before taking up Dafa cultivation in 1996, my wife suffered from a heart problem, insufficient blood flow to the brain, and inflammation of the pancreas. Within a week of doing the Dafa exercises, she received Dafa’s miraculous healing powers. Her health improved, her energy level went up, and she had a rosy complexion. The dark spots on her face faded and her skin was fair and delicate.
I was delighted to see how quickly her overall health and appearance improved. It was truly amazing. No longer having to worry about her health, I was relieved and happy. I became my wife’s biggest supporter.
My wife and I used to both have strong personalities and were very competitive. When we got into an argument, neither gave in to the other person. She, however, completely changed and she no longer engaged in arguments or fights with me.
I came home after work one day, and she was nowhere to be found. I was upset. But as soon as I walked into the kitchen, I saw dinner was already made and sitting on the table. For some reason, that angered me even more. I flew into a rage and picked up the dishes one by one and threw them out the door. The ceramic dishes broke apart and food particles were everywhere. My son quickly went to my wife’s Fa study group and brought her home.
My wife wasn’t upset at all when she saw the mess I made. She took a popsicle out of the freezer, handed it to me with a smile and told me to cool off. She then started cleaning the mess. My anger was gone instantly.
Seeing I was still sulking, my wife took out her copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Dafa, and read a passage from the book,
“Perhaps as soon as you step in the door, your spouse will throw a fit right in your face. If you endure it, your effort of practicing qigong today will not be in vain. Some people also know that in qigong practice one should value de. Therefore, this person usually gets along very well with his spouse. He thinks, “Usually, if I say ‘one,’ she doesn’t say ‘two.’ Today she’s walking all over me.” He cannot control his temper and will start a fight. With this, today’s practice ends up in vain. Because karma was there, she was helping him remove it. But he did not accept it and started a fight with her. The karma thus could not be eliminated.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
When she was done, our son laughed, “Isn’t Master talking about you two in this passage? It turned out that Dad is helping Mom eliminate karma.” We all laughed. I helped my wife pick up the shards, thinking, “It’s so true. Master Li is spot on. I didn’t even know why I was so angry. I’m going to have to watch myself from now on.” Since then, I started being mindful and tried not to lose my temper.
I remember an incident from years ago. When our son was still a toddler, my wife was feeding him in the kitchen. Right next to her was the stove on which she had rice porridge cooking in a pressure cooker. All of a sudden, “Bang!” The lid of the pressure cooker came off, the hot porridge splashed everywhere, and the kitchen filled with hot steam. My wife quickly grabbed the child and ran to a different room. After carefully examining him, she was amazed to find that he was not burnt at all. When she checked the kitchen, she saw rice plastered everywhere, except for the spot where they were sitting. She told me about the incident, and I was so grateful my wife and son didn’t get hurt. I thanked Master, over and over again, for protecting them.
There are many other stories—some so incredible that even if I told people they wouldn’t have believed me, but they really happened.
Out of jealousy, Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution against Falun Dafa in July 1999. Police from our city ransacked practitioners’ homes and arrested them. They were forced to turn in their Dafa books and sign guarantee agreements to renounce their faith. My wife was also targeted by the authorities.
My wife sat me down one day and told me, “You have two choices. You can either choose me and my faith in Falun Dafa, or you can choose evil and help them persecute me. If you turn in my Dafa books to the police, it’s over between you and me. If I can’t study the Fa, I’m done.”
Without hesitation, I chose to support my wife, knowing full well that a difficult path was in front of me.
Soon afterward, officers from our district police station and officials from the Residential Community Committee and the Sub-district Administrative Agency came knocking. They threatened my wife and tried to coerce her into signing the agreement to renounce her faith. When they ransacked our home, I moved and protected her Dafa books. Despite the unbearable mental pressure, I firmly stood by my wife and Dafa.
When my wife was arrested, I didn’t give in to the demands of the police. When they questioned why I didn’t stop her from practicing Falun Dafa. I retorted, “Why would I? Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) teaches people to be good and does wonders for one’s health. After my wife took up the practice, she recovered from all her illnesses. Why would I keep her from practicing? Why wouldn’t any man want his wife to be healthy so she could take care of him and the family?” The police officers fell silent.
When hundreds and thousands of practitioners traveled each day to Beijing to petition the central government, the local police worried my wife would too. They assigned Residential Community Committee officials to monitor my wife around the clock and report to the police if her routine was even slightly off. My wife came home late one time and, sure enough, the police summoned her and questioned where she had gone and why she was home late that day.
After I found out, I went to the Residential Community Committee and warned them, “If my wife ever loses her job because of your monitoring and harassing her, I can assure you that I will not let any of you get away with it so easily!” They were all quiet as I turned around and left.
When I was walking down the street one time, I saw an Urban Management agent holding onto an elderly woman and wouldn’t let go of her. He told her, “I’ve called the police. You can’t leave.” I recognized the woman as a Falun Dafa practitioner, so I stopped and told the agent, “You’re just a civil agent, not even a real cop. What do you care what she does?” The agent ignored me and asked the woman, “Where do you live?” I asked him, “Why do you ask her where she lives? Is it even in your job description?”
Flustered, he turned his attention to me, “Who are you? What do you do?” I brushed him off, “None of your business what I do.” Deflated, he let go of the woman, and the situation was resolved.
I never compromised nor complied with the police or Residential Community Committee officials’ demands. I always told them Falun Dafa is good, and that practitioners are good people who contribute positively to society.
Ever since the CCP banned Falun Dafa and launched the persecution, the practitioners could no longer gather and do the exercises in public. To counteract the repression and expose the CCP’s lies, the practitioners peacefully clarify the truth about Dafa through mail, fliers, and posters. My wife caught on and set up a truth-clarification material production site at our home.
I started helping her deliver the materials. When the persecution was at peak intensity, I regularly traveled more than 10 miles each way to deliver them. I packed them on the front and back of my electric scooter.
I suffered a slipped disc for a while and had severe pain that ran from my lower back down to my leg. It got so bad at one point that the doctor suggested I stay in bed. But I continued to deliver the materials, even though sometimes I had to ride my scooter in a kneeling position. It’s amazing how I was able to make those trips and arrive home safe and sound each time.
There was a time when I made two deliveries a day. I recited the auspicious phrase, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” It’s been more than 20 years, and I never faced any danger or had an accident. I know Master has always been by my side, and I’m convinced of the miraculous power of Dafa.
I somehow also became an expert on printer repair. When our printers or other practitioners’ printers had issues, I always helped fix them. I have only gone to elementary school and was never trained as a technician, yet Master gave me wisdom.
As soon as I heard the noise a printer made, I knew what the problem was. When practitioners’ printers had issues, they asked me to go over and “listen” to their machines to diagnose the problem. I usually could tell them with confidence, “Something is wrong with the print heads,” or “The motor is busted.” My diagnosis was usually confirmed when we took the printer apart.
I also talked to people occasionally and told them about Dafa’s goodness. On one vacation, I pointed to my wife and told everybody in our tour group, “Look how healthy my wife is. She’s been practicing Falun Dafa for more than 20 years now and hasn’t had to take any pills since. Can you tell she’s almost 70 years old? Look how good she looks!” People were amazed.
When I was hospitalized, I recited “Falun Dafa is good” out loud in the ward. Another patient heard me and whispered, “Shush. Stop shouting. Careful or they’ll take your organs too!” It goes to show that more people than we realize are aware that the CCP is harvesting organs from Falun Dafa practitioners.
I had an incredible experience more than 20 years ago. While at work, my arm went numb for a brief moment. I didn’t pay much attention to it as it quickly went back to normal, and I was able to continue with work. There was no side effect nor did it happen again, and the incident was soon forgotten.
Fast forward several years, and my doctor prescribed an NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) scan of my brain. When the results came back, he asked me, “I see that you’ve had a brain infarction (a type of stroke that occurs when brain tissue dies due to a lack of blood flow) before. How did you recover from that? Anyway, you can’t go home now. You need to be hospitalized and receive treatment right away.”
It then occurred to me that the numbness in my arm was something far more serious than I had thought. I wanted to go home, but the doctor insisted that I needed to be observed given my history. I told him, “Stroke or not, I feel completely fine. I don’t need to stay.” I am so grateful for Master’s protection.
My health was declining rapidly last year when another incident happened. I was out on the balcony standing on a surface three feet above the ground fixing something. I became lightheaded and fell head first. I knew that instance, “It’s over. This fall is fatal.” But to my surprise, I was completely fine. My wife heard the noise as I knocked over the drying rack, and she came running. She was scared to death seeing me on the floor and touched me to make sure I was okay. I told her, “I’m okay. I didn’t get hurt.” The drying rack fell apart but I was okay. I know that I was protected by Dafa.
I collapsed in June 2022 and was rushed to the hospital. According to the doctors, 90% of my brain arteries were blocked due to plaque buildup. The scan also showed a bulge in the wall of one of the arteries. Surgery was not recommended due to the high risk. Conservative treatment was my only option.
Bulging in a brain artery is a ticking bomb that could explode anytime—the chance of surviving is only 3%. It is different from a tumor which could be surgically removed, but not a bulge. It’s like a rubber tire—if the wall is thinned at a spot and starts bulging then its chance of rupture is much higher. Many things could cause the bulge to burst, such as fear, anxiety, shock, excessive stress, and so on. The patient may just be talking with someone and all of a sudden the artery bursts, and he drops dead.
The fear of dying and not knowing when it would happen drove me to the verge of a mental breakdown. I really couldn’t control myself sometimes, and my irritability worsened. Everybody knows that depression can make a person suicidal. Having been there, I truly understand how it can take one to the depths of despair. The indescribable mental anguish makes you wish you’d rather die.
As if that’s not bad enough, I was simultaneously diagnosed with depression and mania with extreme mood swings. It explained why I was confused a lot of times and easily irritated. I chalked it up to being under tremendous mental pressure for prolonged periods because of the CCP’s ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa. I had lived with constant fear and anxiety for the past two decades.
I was not scared when facing the police, but I was worried about my wife’s safety. It had become a habit that, whenever I stepped into our apartment compound, the first thing I checked was if there were any police vehicles. If there was one, I would pay close attention to see where it was headed. I was paranoid about being followed or monitored by plainclothes police officers.
Whenever someone knocked on the door, my heart started pounding with fear. When practitioners came over to drop something off or pick something up, I got extremely anxious. I worried not only about my wife’s safety but all the practitioners around us. I never outwardly expressed any of this—nobody had a clue what I was going through, and neither could anyone share my burden. I had no way of channeling it but to suffer privately.
When hospitalized, my wife reminded me to recite the auspicious phrase, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” It worked—Master was taking care of me. Of all the patients in the three wards, I recovered the quickest, even though I was in far worse condition when I first arrived. In just a few days, I started to feel much better. The doctor was surprised, “Wow. Your complexion is much healthier now. Looks much better!” I knew it was a blessing from Dafa.
After I was discharged from the hospital, my wife and her practitioner friends all encouraged me to study the Fa, do the exercises, and truly cultivate. I decided it was time to give it a try. I took some time to comprehensively study the Fa and all of Master’s recent articles. Gradually, I started to hold myself to the standards of the Fa and do what Master asked.
I still had manic episodes from time to time when I became highly irritable and threw fits. But as I cultivated my speech, I became better at controlling myself and no longer cursed. My mood swings lessened as well.
There are still things I need to work on. When I study the Fa, negative thoughts such as “The police are coming,” or “The police are going to ransack our home,” still pop up. It may seem like I’m reading, but my heart is not calm. I can’t focus and, oftentimes, I’m only going through the motions. I may be reading the words and turning the pages, but my mind is counting the pages and looking forward to the end of Fa study. I really need to focus and know what I’m reading in order to enlighten to the higher meaning of the Fa.
When I went back for a check-up earlier this year, I decided to only get a coronary angiography CTA to see if the bulging had widened. I made up my mind that if it had indeed become worse and the doctors insisted on surgery, I would go through with it. Given the slim chance of surviving, I made a few arrangements for a worst-case scenario and left all important documents, passwords, and a picture of myself in the drawer.
However, I had been cultivating for more than a year. So I reminded myself to not be scared and that Master was watching over me. I recited, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” as often as I could. After the check-up, I turned on my cell phone with trembling hands to see if my results were in. When I saw the image of my heart, the artery seemed different. The doctor left a question mark right next to where the bulge used to be.
I could not believe my eyes and was overcome with emotion—Master must have been watching over me. Why do I think that? I had a mentality shift sometime last year and, suddenly, Fa study was no longer a chore. I became much more willing to study the Fa even when I only had a little bit of free time. It became my top priority, and I began to feel more like a true Dafa practitioner.
I picked up my results that afternoon and went to the doctor’s office. When he saw me, the doctor said cheerfully, “You’re fine now!” He told me that not only was the bulge gone, but the vascular ultrasound, Doppler screening of blood flow, my protein count, and all other tests came back normal. Besides a slightly high blood sugar level, my numbers were looking pretty good.
I couldn’t hold back my tears. My sincere thanks to Master. It is he who has been watching over and protecting me all these years. I will forever be grateful to Master.
I was married to a Dafa practitioner and played the role of a supportive husband for more than 20 years despite the persecution. I’ve done many things to help my wife and other practitioners, but did not have the courage to become a practitioner myself. My recent diagnoses, however, were truly a blessing in disguise—they gave me the final nudge I needed to become a Dafa practitioner.
I’m beginning to grasp just how incredible and powerful Dafa is. In cultivating solidly, I experienced great changes, physically and mentally. Although I still have many shortcomings and attachments that I need to work on, I’m confident that I will practice cultivation steadfastly and return to my true home with Master.