(Minghui.org) This incident happened more than seven years ago. Our Fa-study group was to meet at my mother’s house one afternoon, while my mother was visiting my younger brother. So, I got there early to do some cleaning.

I first opened the windows to air out the place, then I swept and mopped the floor. I tidied up the living room and the bathroom. It took me all morning to clean up the place. As the last thing, I took the trash out through the front entrance. Just as I stepped outside, the strong wind slammed the door behind me, and I was locked out. 

What to do? I remembered I had left all the windows facing the backyard open. I just needed to figure out a way to get into the backyard. I walked around the four walls enclosing the house, and realized my only option was to climb over the wall. 

Breaking My Foot

The brick wall was sturdy, and two meters tall. However, I found a ramp on one side that made it easier to climb over the wall. I took off my shoes, jumped to grab the top of the wall, and pulled myself up. Once I was on the top looking down into the backyard, I realized the ground was much lower inside the yard than outside—I was at least two and a half meters above the ground. I was nervous but knew I had to get back into the house soon as Fa-study was about to start. I had to jump.

I mustered the courage and took the leap. My right heel landed on a long brick that rolled off the dirt pile as soon as it came in contact with my foot. I lost my footing and scrambled to find balance. As I fell to the ground toward the right, the weight of my body crashed down on my right foot. I felt a sharp pain before it went completely numb. 

It all happened so quickly that I didn’t know what to think. “Ah! My foot!” were the first words that came out of my mouth. Then, I realized that my first thought was not right. I should have called out to Master Li (Falun Dafa's founder). I am Master’s disciple, and with Master’s protection, there’s nothing to worry about. I should be fine.

I quickly collected myself and tried to get up, but the pain was unbearable as my right foot touched the ground. I could not move it at all. It was twisted at the ankle and loosely connected to my leg only by the skin. The back of my foot was covered in blood. 

I was not scared and focused on the task on hand. I pulled myself up and centered my weight on the left foot. Little by little, I hopped to the house and managed to get in. Just as I sat down on the couch to catch my breath, it was 1:00 p.m.

Practitioners and My Sister Helped

Soon, three practitioners arrived. They had never seen me like that and asked what happened. I was in so much pain at this point that my entire body trembled uncontrollably. I said softly with my eyes closed, “Don’t ask. Just send righteous thoughts for me please.” The practitioners and I sent righteous thoughts together.

Blood kept oozing out and formed a small puddle on the floor. A practitioner brought a plastic bowl to put under my foot. It was then when I saw broken bones piercing through my ankle at three different places, and that was what caused the heavy bleeding. A broken bone the size of a cigarette butt poked out from above my ankle on the outside, another stuck out on the back of my foot. I cut open my pants and found my leg below the knee dark blue, purple, and swollen.

My older sister came at around 3 p.m. and panicked at the sight of my foot, “What on earth!” She wanted to take me to the ER immediately but I told her I was not going anywhere. I am a true practitioner of Falun Dafa, and knew it was just karma. “Don’t worry,” I assured her that Master was looking after me, and I would be fine. 

Seeing that I was so determined, my sister didn’t press the issue. She looked around for things that she could use to treat the wounds. After a while, she found an old apron and tore it into a few stripes. She turned my foot to point forward at the right angle and had me hold it in position. With other practitioners’ help, she secured a few sticks on the inside and outside of my ankle, and at the back of my foot. The broken bones were roughly stabilized with minimum bandaging, but the wounds were not disinfected, and nothing was done to stop the bleeding.

When she was done, my sister asked me what I planned to do. “I can’t go home right now.” I told her, “I can’t let my husband find out, otherwise he’d take me to the hospital.” I figured I could stay at my mother’s house for a few days and asked her to get me some food. She stuck around after the practitioners left, and set up the place so it was easier for me to get around.

The Bleeding Stopped

My younger brother and his wife came right after my sister left. After learning what happened, they invited me to stay with them for a while so they could take care of me. My brother carried me on his back to the car and we headed for his place.

The bleeding did not stop by 10 p.m., which worried my brother. He called my sister and she suggested to call my husband and take me to a hospital to at least stop the bleeding. I overheard their conversation, I asked to speak to my sister and told her to not worry, “Everything will be fine.” 

I asked them not to tell my husband, and assured them, “Don’t worry. The bleeding will stop on its own once I lose all the blood I’m supposed to. I am fine.” As soon as I said those words, the bleeding stopped. The bleeding that lasted for nine hours stopped.

Before I went to bed, my brother checked on my wounds again. He took a clean white cloth, tore it into strips to replace the stained apron, and re-bandaged my foot.

Looking Within to Find the Cause of the Accident

The excruciating pain kept me up all that night. I lay in bed and couldn’t move a bit, but my mind was racing. I did a lot of thinking about what happened. There is no coincidence in cultivation – I must have a loophole. 

I looked within and remembered something that happened not long ago. I was going through some things at my mom’s house and found mold growing on Master Li’s new scriptures that she kept in a drawer on the balcony, probably due to the high humidity outside. I had to burn the new scriptures. It was disrespectful to Master and the Fa. I asked Master to forgive me for letting him down and promised that it would not happen again.

The broken foot caused many inconveniences and challenges. My daily routine of Fa-study and truth-clarification was interrupted. I couldn’t take care of myself and needed help.

I stayed in bed the entire day the next day but on the third day, I practiced standing on one foot and moved around with the help of a pair of crutches. I developed some coordination between my arms and my left leg. I also studied the Fa and did the standing exercises with my Mother that day by resting my right leg on a small stool and standing on my left foot.

My Husband Wanted a Divorce

When my husband found out, he not only didn’t offer any support but to my dismay asked for a divorce. His reason was that I didn’t let him know right away and that I didn’t trust him. I explained myself and apologized repeatedly but to no avail. He didn’t visit me, didn’t want to see me or anybody from my family, and even hung up on me. He completely cut me out of his life. It was a worse blow to me than the injured foot. I was deeply hurt.

I stayed with my brother for a month. He and his wife took good care of me, but I couldn’t depend on others forever. I asked my brother to take me home as soon as I got better using the crutches, though climbing up and down the stairs to my 2^nd-floor apartment was still difficult. My husband didn’t talk to me—we were two strangers living under the same roof. I was still in a lot of pain, but I did my best to take care of myself.

To put an end to the awkward living situation, my husband started a conversation and brought up divorce again. This time, he was straightforward and told me that the real reason why he wanted a divorce was because of my refusing to give up on Dafa all these years.

Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution in 1999, our life was interrupted and has been pretty much on hold for the past 20 years. I was arrested, detained, sentenced, fired from my job, and constantly harassed even after I was released. My husband was implicated, and he didn’t want such a burden on our daughter. He blamed me for causing our family so much pain and suffering and gave me an ultimatum—either I give up my belief or we end our marriage.

Finding myself in a quandary, I sat down and thought long and hard. I asked myself how and with what attitude I should approach this. I looked for answers in Master’s Fa:

“You should always be benevolent and kind to others, and consider others when doing anything. Whenever you encounter a problem, you should first consider whether others can put up with this matter or if it will hurt anyone. In doing so, there will not be any problems..” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

I thought of my decision to not tell my husband when I got injured, as well as my responses to his distancing himself and wanting a divorce. I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t take care of myself. When I was at my most vulnerable and needed him the most, my husband of decades asked for a divorce. The more I thought about it, the more I resented him. I was angry and sad and felt hurt—I was on a downward spiral of emotions and couldn’t pull myself out of it.

But when I put myself in his shoes and looked at the situation from his perspective, I began to realize what he had gone through all these years and how much he had suffered because of me.

Since the persecution started in 1999, tens of millions of Dafa practitioners in China have been defamed and discriminated against. Millions have been arrested, detained, sentenced, tortured—some even to death. Countless families have been broken. 

Our family had not had one peaceful day in 20 years. My husband constantly worried about me and our family and lived in fear. He couldn’t sleep at night due to the pressure and anxiety, and it was tiring. He is an ordinary person and just wanted to live an ordinary person’s life. He didn’t want to live in fear anymore and wanted to protect himself and his daughter from harm, which is understandable. 

However, I couldn’t imagine a life without Dafa, no matter how hostile the environment or how intense the pressure. I couldn’t change his mind so I decided to respect his choice. I wanted him to be happy. When I made up my mind, my resentment for my husband was gone, and my heart was calm and compassionate. 

I didn’t blame him—it was just another tragedy caused by the evil CCP. Without holding anything back, I told my husband my thinking process and how I came to the decision to agree to the divorce. He hesitated, said a person needs to have a conscience, and apologized. He said he'd made a rash decision out of fear and that it was all his fault. He asked me to forgive him. Our marriage was saved.

Getting Rid of Human Notions

For a long time, I couldn’t move my right foot. It hurt badly if it touched the ground and I couldn’t put any weight on it. My mind was preoccupied with the injury. I had to resist my own human notions of broken bones and various comments and suggestions from ordinary people. 

Sometimes I’d think, “It is so badly injured, and the ankle is completely broken. If I don’t go to the hospital, will it ever heal on its own?” Or I’d wonder, “What if it never heals? What if it gets infected or festers? What if they have to remove my foot and I become disabled?” The more I thought about it, the more afraid I became.

Some days I told myself, “It is okay to go to a hospital. The bones just need to be reset properly and it’d heal. It’s that simple. Why do I always have to do things the hard way?” I had doubts some days: “Is it really going to heal on its own? I can’t just wait around. I need to think about this carefully.” 

Luckily, I was always able to catch myself and eliminated such thoughts and human notions. I placed complete faith in Master and the Fa when I obtained the Fa in 1993 and was privileged to have attended Master’s first and third seminars in Guiyang. I was only 32 years old at the time but had suffered from chronicle arthritis and stomach problems. I had recovered within a week of cultivating in Dafa. 

I have also heard many stories of others recovering from painful diseases and even terminal illnesses. It doesn’t matter how bad the injury, I knew I would be fine. Although it looked scary, I believed that my foot would heal on its own. It was just an illusion, and a test to see if my belief in Dafa was solid. 

I reminded myself, “Your main consciousnesses must dominate.” Whenever a negative thought emerged, I declared, “This is not me. It is a human notion, a demon. I am not scared of you and you will not scare me. I will eliminate you.” I watched my thoughts closely and slowly I had less and less negative thoughts until they completely disappeared.

I tried to measure up to the standard of the Fa and looked at the injury as a good opportunity to improve myself. I took it lightly and didn’t let it affect me. I was able to truly let go and not think about whether it would heal or not. 

My Foot Healed

I never consulted with a doctor, nor got any medical evaluation or treatment. I cleaned the wounds and changed the bandaging regularly without applying any ointment. I didn’t take any medication, vitamins, or calcium and didn’t supplement my diet with any bone broth. I kindly thanked all my well-intended friends and family but never took to heart their suggestions and advice. I hardly even talked about the injury and just let it be.

The wounds didn’t get infected, inflamed, or fester. Slowly but surely, the wounds got better and better each day and eventually healed completely. As soon as I could walk again without crutches, I joined local practitioners in clarifying the truth in person. I did run into some problems and difficulties but looking back, they were trivial—the most difficult time had already passed.

After eight months, my foot was completely healed without any medical intervention. I was able to move as if nothing had happened. Thanks to the power of Dafa and thanks to Master’s protection.

Areas of Improvement

I asked myself why it took me as long as eight months to recover and came to the conclusion that I was not diligent and had many shortcomings. For example, although I resumed doing the exercises two days after the accident, I only did the standing exercises. I didn’t meditate for quite a while. 

Some practitioners suggested that I do both, but I just couldn’t bring myself to fold my legs. I was afraid that if I stretched my right ankle to sit in the full-lotus position, I’d pull the bones apart again if they had begun to heal at all. This human notion kept me from doing all five exercises for a long time. 

We all have read on the Minghui website about a practitioner who suffered from a comminuted fracture in her hip but never stopped doing the five exercises for even a day. She quickly recovered. If I had placed my full faith in Dafa like this practitioner, I would have been able to walk again a lot sooner.

I also lacked the confidence that my foot would heal quickly. When friends and family asked about it, I always told them, “It’s better. It’s much better,” “It will be better. It will heal,” or “It will soon be fine,” but never once did I respond with, “It’s fine. I have recovered.”

It is just like I mentioned, the first word that came out of my mouth after falling on my foot was “Ah” but not “Master,” and my first thought was “My foot,” but not “I am fine.” I subconsciously believed that something was wrong and that human thought caused the injury.

When something like this happens, your very first thought distinguishes you as either divine or an ordinary person. Master said, “ We have said that good or evil comes from a person’s spontaneous thought, and the thought at that moment can bring about different consequences.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

Cultivation is a serious matter. The more effort you put into it, the more you’ll gain from it. There is no exception to this rule.