(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997. Influenced by my surroundings, I was timid and afraid of many things since childhood, and always hoped to have a peaceful and stable life after growing up. However, things didn’t go as I desired. I faced many disappointments, and developed a strong attachment to resentment.
My father-in-law is a factory manager and my mother-in-law is retired and has a pension. Their financial condition is very good for people living in the countryside. My husband has a brother and three sisters, and he is the eldest in the family. As the eldest daughter-in-law, I rushed to do the household chores after work and never complained.
My first child was a girl. My in-laws never took care of her. My husband did it all. At one point, my father-in-law went to my workplace and suggested to my boss that I be replaced with his third daughter. He also said bad things about me, including that I was unfilial at home. My husband’s grandmother said to me sympathetically, “You have to go to work. How will you support your family if you don’t? They won’t give you money.” My husband asked me to go to work and let him take care of the child.
My mother-in-law was upset. She didn’t want me to work outside the home, but she didn’t say it. Instead, she started to find fault with me. One morning, when I was about to go to work, she approached me and grabbed my bicycle, saying, “You can’t go to work, you have no shame.” I was so angry. She then said something like, “You don’t sweep the floor, and you let a man take care of the child while you go to work.”
She started hitting me as she spoke. She called my father-in-law over, and he stopped my bicycle with a shovel. She also called my brother-in-law over, and he pressed me on the bed and beat me. My husband couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled his brother off and shouted, “What are you doing?”
Later, my mother and grandmother approached me, and they both tried to persuade my mother-in-law to lighten up on me. Finally, my grandmother left with a sigh, and my mother took me to her home. From then on, my mother-in-law and I held a grudge against each other.
After the birth of my son, my father-in-law came over and asked me to exchange the house for a piece of land, and he would build a house for us. It would have a big living room, and a small cold storage space under the south room. I could operate a convenience store on the top floor. I was very happy, so I sold the house and began to buy bricks and building materials.
My father-in-law stopped caring about building the house even before we finished buying materials and bricks. He asked the person in charge to rush us out of our old house, saying that someone was waiting for the house so that they could get married. I was angry and anxious, but I didn’t want to delay anyone’s wedding, so I borrowed money and completed the house myself.
At this time, my father-in-law said that he wanted to divide the family property, including my house. It also included a color television. My in-laws had two tractors, two motorcycles, and several other large belongings, all of which were given to my brother-in-law, leaving nothing for us. My mother-in-law stirred up trouble among my sisters-in-law, so they stopped talking to me. She ignored me when I talked to her. She also badmouthed me to others.
We were only given 1/6th of an acre of wheat-growing land in the property division. There are four people in my family, including my husband and two children. The food we grew was not enough for us to eat. The next year, my father-in-law planted mung beans on the land. My husband got so angry that he destroyed the mung bean seedlings.
My parents-in-law took their son to court and demanded 5,000 yuan in compensation. My husband became depressed, and did not know what to say. He couldn’t bear it and was close to a breakdown. At Chinese New Year, when we went to pay New Year’s greetings, my parents-in-law wouldn’t let us in. I was so angry that I thought, “I will never see you again.” We rarely interacted with each other afterwards.
I began to practice Falun Dafa in 1997. I finally understood that this was a karmic debt from a previous life, and that debts must be repaid. I knew I must improve my xinxing and treat my in-laws with kindness.
We moved to the county town after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999. My sister-in-law had not spoken to me for several years as ordered by my mother-in-law. After I started practicing Falun Dafa, I heard she had given birth to a child. I followed Master’s instructions and improved my xinxing. I bought gifts to visit her, and I also gave her money. My sister-in-law was somewhat touched.
Once, I heard that my mother-in-law was not feeling well. I visited her in the morning with some gifts, but my father-in-law returned the gifts that afternoon. I was really angry and thought that I had never seen such unreasonable elderly people. Despite my anger, I still treated them as my elders.
My daughter was getting married in 2010. My husband and I went back to my hometown to tell my in-laws that we planned to pick them up by car on the day our daughter came home to visit. After we got there, they kept complaining about their son, but didn’t talk about the actual problem. I just advised them not to be angry and told them that I would serve them in the future. After much persuasion, they finally agreed to come.
But when we went to pick them up on the day of my daughter’s visit, they hid in someone else’s house. After we found them, they said that they didn’t know about it and refused to come with us. My brother-in-law and three sisters-in-law’s families didn’t come either. Later, I heard that my father-in-law had met with his three daughters and sons-in-law and told them not to go.
My husband said with tears in his eyes when we left the restaurant, “I have never seen such an old man.” At that time, my enlightenment quality was poor. I didn’t realize that it was to improve my own xinxing. I thought that we had treated them so well, but they still rejected us.
My son got married in 2015. We invited the two elders and four siblings as usual. The old man said my husband needed to treat them to dinner to apologize first if he wanted them to come. I thought to myself: “How could this be possible? He’s such a bully.” I felt so wronged, so cowardly, and so humiliated that I sobbed.
When I calmed down and thought about it, I realized that it was my attachment to reputation that made me feel humiliated and my attachment to combativeness that made me feel angry. Feeling wronged and unbalanced, isn’t this jealousy? Should I have these attachments? Am I going home with Master? I am a cultivator on the path to the divine, and I don’t want these human attachments. I rejected the bad thoughts in my mind, and gradually my heart calmed down.
I truly tried to follow Master’s teachings of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance during the past ten years. I visited my in-laws every now and then and bought all kinds of food for them and cooked dishes for them often. My father-in-law always asked me not to buy any more food, since they hadn’t finished what I had bought last time. Sometimes I left the new dishes and took away the old ones.
I bought them expensive things during the Chinese New Year, festivals and birthdays. People say silk clothes are comfortable and good for the body, so I bought a silk top for my mother-in-law. I would buy her whatever clothes she needed whenever I saw them. At the same time, I told them the truth about Falun Dafa and asked them to recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” often so that they can live a long and healthy life.
I visited my mother-in-law every day and cooked food for her when she was in the hospital. Once, she held my hand and burst into tears. She was so moved that she didn’t know what to say. She just said, “Look at our so-and-so (referring to me).” After every visit, my father-in-law would politely see me out the door.
My father-in-law often told his fellow villagers, “My eldest daughter-in-law often comes to visit us. She is very filial.” He said to me, “My other son and daughters all have this illness or that illness. You two are the oldest but you are the only healthy ones.” He also told me to watch out for our safety. I told him, “I would not be able to do what I do without Dafa.”
My sister-in-law’s mother got sick. I bought some gifts and went to visit her. I saw that my sister-in-law’s sister seemed to have something wrong with her, so I gave her another hundred yuan and asked her to buy some supplements. The sisters-in-law were very touched. Whenever any of my three sisters-in-law’s families had problems, I would take the initiative to give them gifts, tell them the facts about Dafa, and persuade them to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations.
Now, all my husband’s family members understand the truth about Falun Dafa and respect me very much. Except for a niece’s husband whom I have never met, all the others have withdrawn from the CCP. When we get together, the whole family is harmonious and happy.
It was Master’s compassion and the power of Dafa that resolved the grudges between me and my in-laws. It enabled me, a woman with deep resentment toward my in-laws and my husband, and who was jealous and combative, to give up my human attachments and become a Dafa practitioner who truly cultivates.
I realized that all the pain and suffering were great things that could transform my karma into virtue, and elevate my level. They were paving the way for me to break away from being a human and move toward the divine. All sentient beings are here for the Fa. Master uses this method to allow us to establish a connection, so that people can hear the truth and gain salvation from Dafa.
I am grateful for the contributions of everyone in my husband’s family. I am grateful for Master’s compassion and hard work. I have not done well enough. From now on, I will work continuously to completely eliminate my attachments, do the three things well, validate the Fa, save sentient beings, and return to our heavenly home with Master.