(Minghui.org) On the evening of the summer solstice in June 1996, my husband and I coincidentally hit upon the notion of visiting a temporary bookstore near my home. The first item I saw upon entering was the blue-colored book Zhuan Falun displayed on a desk in the front. I flipped through it and was drawn to Master’s familiar-looking portrait and the insightful contents within. Intuition led me to purchase the book, and I perused its contents until midnight. The following day I resumed reading the book at night after work, finishing the remaining half of the book at midnight. Afterward, my heart alternated between excitement and calm. I had been waiting and searching my whole life for a true cultivation way and now my long-held wish was being fulfilled.
I re-read the book slowly after that, reflecting on how my bad thoughts and behavior ran counter to the principles of the Fa described in the book. Two weeks later, I decided to find a group practice site, and embarked on my cultivation path. My extended family was also positively influenced. Despite rampant materialism and moral decline, our family is now filled with traditional culture, and is blessed with many children and grandchildren.
When I made up my mind to look for a group practice site, my husband told me he would ask some coworkers from his factory whom he knew were Falun Gong practitioners. The next day, he reported that a new practice site was being set up at a park nearby, and he even brought home a copy of the book Falun Gong and some of Master’s other teachings. That night, I followed the illustrations in the book and began practicing the exercises. The selflessness of fellow practitioners moved my heart. They had reached out to help me, even though we were strangers. I was filled with awe and gratitude toward Master and these practitioners.
I was the youngest in my family, the “little sister,” who was cherished by my older brothers and sisters. Pampered from youth, I was selfish, jealous, arrogant, and unable to care for others. I later married the eldest son of another family. My husband had three younger brothers and three younger sisters. I became the eldest daughter-in-law of this big family overnight, with the added responsibility of caring for my father-in-law and mother-in-law. Fortunately, I came from a family that upheld traditional values. I learned to care for my husband’s brothers and sisters based on how my eldest and second sisters-in-law used to care for me. I cared for my parents-in-law based on how my sisters-in-law cared for my father and mother. Yet after learning Falun Dafa, I realized how superficial my care had been. I often acted based on selfish motives instead of considering the other party’s needs. I tried to correct myself according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
When it was time for my husband’s three sisters to marry, my mother-in-law told me of her wish to give each of her daughters a wedding quilt. However, she did not have enough money to purchase these quilts. After discussing the situation with my husband, I told my mother-in-law that my husband and I would purchase these wedding quilts and present them to each sister as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law. The quilts were sewn according to tradition – a brocade silk cover overlaid with motifs of dragons, phoenixes, children, and double happiness characters, filled with soft cotton batting and sewn with red silk thread. The beautiful quilts brought joy to each new couple as they entered their new homes. My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were overjoyed.
My father-in-law had a chronic disease and had to stay in the hospital for a long time. My husband visited the hospital to care for him every day, while I knitted sweaters, woolen trousers, sewed cotton trousers, and bought him a thin blanket for summer. My father-in-law sang my praises before the hospital staff, and even introduced Falun Dafa to his doctor. When the doctor wanted to read Dafa books, he asked my husband if I could lend him some. After my father-in-law passed away, my husband started taking care of my mother-in-law, although we did not live with her. I once saw my mother-in-law wearing clothes that her granddaughter had discarded. I realized that my mother-in-law was old and unable to buy clothes for herself, so I started buying clothes for her. From underwear to outerwear, from top to bottom, I bought clothes made from silk, cotton, wool, and linen, and even socks and shoes, so she had clothing for all seasons. I also replaced her old bedding and quilt with new ones. I purchased coats that suited my mother-in-law’s status as head of our family, for outings or family gatherings. For a period of time, my mother-in-law lived alone. When we discovered that her rice had grown moldy during the rainy season, we quietly replaced it with new rice. My husband and I shared a common understanding, “If something bad happens to mom, it must be because we didn’t take good care of her.”
My mother-in-law missed her eldest daughter, and would frequently ask me, “Have you visited my eldest daughter?” Once when I visited my eldest sister-in-law, she asked me to pass her mother a bag of dried bamboo shoots. I opened the bag and noticed that the dried bamboo shoots were moldy. My eldest sister-in-law lives a simple life, and the spoiled food had probably escaped her attention. I accepted the gift but knew I could not give the moldy bamboo shoots to my mother-in-law. So I visited a large supermarket, picked out dried bamboo shoots similar to the ones in the bag, and gave them to my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law was overjoyed to receive the gift from her eldest daughter, and I was happy to facilitate their affection for each other.
When my eldest sister-in-law suffered a fracture, I visited her and sent along my mother-in-law’s concern and well wishes. My eldest sister-in-law said, “My mother often tells me how good you are. For a mother-in-law to praise her daughter-in-law in front of her daughter, it goes without saying that this daughter-in-law is outstanding.”
After my mother-in-law passed away, my younger brother-in-law faced a housing crisis, as my mother-in-law’s house was supposed to be sold and divided equally among the siblings. As the eldest in the family, the responsibility for managing this fell on my husband and me. From a moral and righteous standpoint, we decided to give our share of the house to my younger brother-in-law. Except for two younger sisters who had extenuating circumstances, everyone else followed suit and agreed to give their share of their mother’s house to my younger brother-in-law. According to them, “Our eldest brother and sister-in-law are selfless and can be trusted to do the right thing. Their generosity allowed my younger brother-in-law to retain his home.”
My husband and I are the youngest on my parents’ side, since I have four older brothers and two older sisters. On my husband’s parents’ side, we have to make decisions and discuss plans. On my parents’ side, we have to follow the arrangements made by my elder brothers. While this sounds difficult, it is not actually hard. By following the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and eliminating my ego, I have found it easier to understand their perspectives and accept their actions. As we live in a convenient location, we’ve been asked to perform favors for my brothers and sisters on occasion. My siblings trust me and my husband implicitly, especially after my third eldest brother came to live with us.
When my third eldest brother was young, he suffered two catastrophes. One was a lasting high fever, and the other was a car accident. The cumulative brain damage caused him developmental delays, intellectual impairment, poor speech, and the inability to count. My brother became a “retarded child.” He started attending school but dropped out within days. My brother started living with us in 1991 and stayed for the next 30 years.
The Falun Dafa practice site I attended organized the viewing of Master Li’s video lectures in my home in July 1996. Because many people wanted to watch, and many had time constraints, such as work and childcare responsibilities, we organized multiple sessions daily in the afternoons and evenings, and sometimes in the mornings. Happy to see so many visitors, my third eldest brother took the initiative to stand outside so as not to disturb everyone. He did this every day for nine days. On the afternoon of the ninth day, he said to me, “I haven’t moved my bowels for three days and my stomach feels hard.” I asked him, “Does it feel uncomfortable?” He replied, “No.” On the tenth day, my brother had loose stools for three consecutive days but did not feel uncomfortable. From then on, each time we screened Master’s lecture videos at home, my third brother would defecate heavily. One day in April 1997, my third brother was happily watching a video of Master teaching the exercises when I came to a sudden realization. “Every time you watch Master’s videos, Master cleanses your body. Master is taking care of you!” My brother then told me, “I have one.” When I asked him to clarify what he meant, he replied, “I have a Falun.” He told me that when he lay in bed at night, he could feel the Falun spinning in his body.
My second sister came back from abroad in the summer of 1997. She came to my house early one morning while I was away exercising at the park. I got home an hour after her arrival and greeted my surprised sister. She instantly asked me, “How is he (my third elder brother) able to hold a conversation? We managed to chat for over an hour.” I replied, “Because I practice Falun Dafa, he is also benefited.”
One morning in the early summer of 2003, my third brother tripped and fell when he went to bathroom. A piece of metal cut his upper lip, leading to blood dripping to the ground. I pinched his wound with two fingers and said to him, “Don’t be afraid. Master is by our side.” He echoed my words, “I’m not afraid.” The bleeding stopped in seconds. My second brother was temporarily staying with us before returning abroad and happened to have some hemostatic bandages with him. He applied one to my third brother’s wound, but the cut began to bleed the moment the bandage was applied. I told my third brother, “The hemostatic bandage is useless. Let’s take it off since we can rely on Master.” When he agreed, I took off the bandage, pinched the wound closed with my fingers again and the bleeding stopped. After a while, we discovered that the torn edges of the wound had closed up. My third brother was able to drink some soup that same day and resumed regular meals by the fourth day.
My third brother would listen to Falun Dafa exercise music, watch Shen Yun shows, and liked to watch me as I practiced the exercises. He learned to sing the song “Ode to Lotus” and often listened to recordings of Master’s lectures.
One year a neighbor visited my home, saw my third brother, and said to me, “Your brother has changed. He used to be somewhat stiff, but now he seems more relaxed.” I went through my memories and had to agree. My brother’s hands used to tremble whenever he picked up his bowl. He found it hard to pick up food with chopsticks and had to put his bowl down several times during a meal. However, he could eat normally now. In the past, he could not zip the fly of his pants on his own, count, or even talk well. Yet now he could handle these basic tasks and converse freely. Due to his sincere and kind nature, Falun Dafa had opened up his wisdom. My brother had an upright sense of justice and showed care and concern for others. Once while eating at a restaurant, he picked out a number of small peanuts and put them in his bowl, telling everyone that the peanuts were moldy and should not be eaten. My brother was able to endure humiliation and insults, treated others well, and did not harbor grudges when people made mistakes. Being happy, my brother was like a trickling stream that nourished all things around him.
An energy field surrounded my third brother’s bed, which remained warm in winter and cool in summer. Despite the cold weather, he was able to wear autumn clothes and retained his thin quilt. Many miraculous events continued to occur over the next twenty years for him. While most people’s bodies tend to decline after middle age, my third elder brother experienced many extraordinary things made possible by the power of Falun Dafa. He passed away when he was 75 years old. We took him to the hospital when his health declined, and the hospital performed examinations. The results were within expectations until his CT scan was done. His doctor was extremely surprised, “There are black shadows throughout his left and right brain. How could this person still be alive?” My third brother passed away peacefully in the hospital ward. We arrived two minutes after he died, and I saw my brother’s face change from that of an old man to one who looked younger. Indeed, on the day of his funeral, he looked like a young man, with delicate skin and a calm and peaceful appearance. His body was cremated and the ashes were pure white.
I was meditating at home the morning after my third brother passed away. He came to visit in the other dimension and he appeared before me to the right, imposing in pure white Taoist robes. Behind him were two companions also dressed in pure white. To my left, I heard Master’s voice saying, “What an amazing divine.” My brother stayed for a long time before disappearing.
Falun Dafa elevated my third brother’s level, changed his body, led him on the path to enlightenment, and enabled his returned to the realm of the divine.
My third brother had always received special care and concern from the elders and those of his generation in my extended big family. When my parents passed away, my third brother’s living arrangements had been the most pressing concern for everyone. After he started living with us, my extended family noticed the improvement in his condition. They also knew I practiced Falun Dafa, and everyone began praising Dafa from the bottom of their hearts. My third brother’s life story is a shining example of the upright traditional moral values of “sincerity, kindness, tolerance, and humility” the Chinese used to hold dear.
Falun Dafa has spread throughout the world, bringing blessings and benefits to sentient beings. Since practicing Falun Dafa, my physical condition has become robust. I’ve changed from being a selfish, arrogant person, to a kind-hearted, tolerant practitioner. Despite being 72 years old, I’ve retained my graceful figure, flexible and strong physique, nimble mind, youthful looks, and black hair. My colleagues have remarked on my “rebirth,” and even middle-aged salespeople take me as their generation. My husband has also enjoyed similar benefits with his hair changing from gray to black.
Falun Dafa guides me on the path back to my true origin. Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance has created countless compassionate and selfless Dafa practitioners throughout the world and created opportunities for all sentient beings to be saved.