(Minghui.org) I was born in a small mountain village. As the only girl in the family, I was pampered and spoiled since I was young. I was tall and blessed with good looks and a good figure, so when I grew up, I was arrogant, competitive, and contemptuous of others. After I married, my husband took care of everything. I didn’t have to worry about anything, and he was especially protective and caring.

In 1996, a sudden flood claimed my husband’s life. Left with two children, no financial support from relatives, and no income of my own, I found myself in a desperate situation. Although others introduced me to outstanding, single men, none were willing to accept my children. After more than a year of hardship and struggle with my eight-year-old son and nine-month-old daughter, I had no choice but to remarry. My new husband—who lived in a town over a hundred miles away and worked at a forestry station—was good-looking and of a similar age, but he was intellectually disabled.

After we were married, I discovered that everything he did and said was agony for me. He often failed to clean himself properly after he used the toilet, leaving his underwear stained. He frequently neglected to wash his face or hands, and he had a bad temper—he would refuse to listen to anyone and couldn’t tolerate being corrected. Given that I was exceptionally fastidious about cleanliness, impatient and quick tempered, suddenly living with someone who had these bad habits was truly unbearable. I couldn’t reason with him—life was impossible. I began to think of leaving.

But the helplessness and the lack of options made me realize that I had nowhere to go and simply had to endure it. Over the course of a few months, I fell into a deep depression and even became afflicted by a spirit possession. Eventually, it got to the point where I could no longer take care of myself. If I chose to end my life, what would become of my two children? Yet, it felt truly impossible to go on.

Just as I was in great suffering and felt I had nowhere to turn, in April 1998 a relative suggested I try Falun Dafa. As soon as I began practicing, my mental state returned to normal, and the symptoms caused by the spirit possession vanished.

The next day, I received a copy of the main book Zhuan Falun. As I read it, I was filled with an excitement beyond words and felt that this was what I had been waiting for. I also understood that the root cause of all my suffering was the karma I had accumulated over countless lifetimes. My marriage to my current husband was the means by which I was brought into contact with this Fa, and for that, I should be grateful to him. Considering that he stepped into my life during my most difficult time—and that his earnings from the simple manual labor he performs at his workplace were enough to support us—he has truly been a benefactor to me and my children. I must treat him well.

As I continued to study the Fa and do the exercises, I gradually gained a better understanding of the teachings and memorized parts of Hong Yin, Hong Yin II, and Hong Yin III. I also memorized Essentials for Further Advancement. I immersed myself in Dafa and cultivation every day. Words cannot describe how fortunate I felt to obtain Dafa.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Dafa on July 20, 1999, I headed to Beijing to speak a fair word for Dafa. It was Master and Dafa that saved me, taught me how to be a good person, and revealed truths that ordinary people could never know. I am incredibly fortunate to have encountered this Dafa—a teaching so rare that it appears only once in tens of thousands of years—and I will never allow such a wonderful Master and such a wonderful Dafa to be slandered. When we reached Shanhaiguan, I and many other practitioners from different regions were discovered and forced off the train.

In the months after I returned home, I memorized again the teachings I had memorized before, and I began transcribing Zhuan Falun for a second time. Other practitioners went to Beijing to appeal. In November, three of us planned to go to Beijing together. But the other two, concerned that I might have reservations, left a day earlier. I planned to set off on the third day with my five-year-old daughter. Just as I was about to leave, I ran into a practitioner who had just returned from Beijing. That practitioner warned me, “The situation is extremely dangerous—they might even have machine guns set up there!” Without a moment’s hesitation, I replied, “I wouldn’t so much as blink even if they have machine guns.”

I boarded a bus, setting out on my journey to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. When I reached the city, I had to wait for an overnight train to continue on. That evening, my daughter began to cry and made a fuss, insisting on going home. Looking at the sea of unfamiliar faces in the station, I started to wonder how my son was doing, how my simple-minded husband was treating him, and would there even be a home left to return to? As these thoughts flooded my mind, I felt as if a knife were twisting in my heart. I couldn’t hold back my tears, and it felt as though I could go no further.

Just then, I remembered something Master said:

“Once the illusion that you cannot let go of disappears, you will realize what you have lost.” (“Practicing Cultivation After Retirement,” Essentials For Further Advancement)

I became clear-headed at once, realizing that the old forces were trying to use my attachment to my son to stop me from validating the Fa. I would not be deceived, and my righteous thoughts emerged. Under Master’s guidance and protection, I boarded a train to Beijing in the middle of the night and managed to evade the rigorous security checks. After getting off the train, I traveled by subway—alternately leading my daughter by hand and carrying her—until I finally arrived at Tiananmen Square.

While I was speaking with fellow practitioners from another area, the police came, pushed us all into a police vehicle, and drove us to a detention center. I was subsequently handed over to the police from my area and illegally detained for 27 days. My workplace also imposed a fine of 9,000 yuan—a substantial sum at the time. As I had no money, the amount was deducted in installments—half of my husband’s monthly salary of 500 to 600 yuan—until the full sum had been collected.

My daughter started kindergarten. Due to our very tight financial situation, I got a job at a private factory. Since the work is physically demanding, by the time I finish my shift and take care of all the household chores and family matters, it is already very late. Lacking both the time and the physical energy, I was unable to participate in group Fa study. Thankfully, other practitioners brought me copies of Minghui Weekly.

I never forget to help Master save people. Whenever I encounter someone with a predestined relationship, I explain what Dafa is. Sometimes, when the factory is on break, I go out with other practitioners to distribute materials and clarify the facts about the persecution. At the end of each year, I hand out calendars that have information about Falun Dafa on them. If I have any extras, I bring them to the factory to give to my coworkers.

I silently recite the Fa while I work.

In 2016, I was traveling by train to visit my children in the city. My seat happened to be right next to the train police compartment, but I still managed to get the people sitting next to me and across from me to quit the CCP. The passengers across the aisle either leaned forward or sat back in their seats with their eyes closed. I left my own seat and crouched in the aisle so I could speak to a woman in her 40s—the only person still sitting on the aisle and watching us—and persuaded her to withdraw from the CCP. Just as I returned to my seat, a tall male police officer walked out, holding his mobile phone. He stood at the doorway and scanned the carriage with a stern expression. I immediately began sending righteous thoughts. A moment later, he turned around and walked away. I knew Master had protected me.

While waiting for a train at the city railway station on my return journey, I felt a deep sense of sorrow as I looked out at the vast sea of people. So many precious lives are being poisoned by the CCP—how truly pitiable they are! Although I couldn’t reach many people at that moment, I resolved that I certainly shouldn’t miss the opportunity to help those right beside me. I noticed over a dozen armed police officers, seemingly checking on something among the seated passengers.

They were just a few paces away—what was I to do? Should I risk it and clarify the truth to the people near me? A rock-solid righteous thought welled up from the depths of my heart: “I have Master and the Fa. There is nothing to fear.” Clarifying the truth to save people is my mission—I must save them. In just a few brief sentences, I managed to persuade the man and woman sitting on either side of me—both in their 50s—to renounce their ties to the Party.

In 2017, I went through a major sickness karma. It began with what appeared to be a cold and fever, but the condition rapidly worsened: my entire body ached, and I suffered from persistent, uncontrollable coughing that caused excruciating pain in my chest and made it difficult to breathe. Within three days, I had reached my absolute limit—to the point where I felt as though I could no longer breathe at all.

Because I worked long hours, I was rarely able to attend group Fa-study, and I seldom found time to study the Fa on my own. Consequently, both my xinxing and my level of enlightenment had begun to lag behind. My job on the factory assembly line was piece-rate based, and—much like an ordinary person—I became attached to material gain, working myself to the bone every day in hopes of earning more money. I had serious loopholes in my cultivation, yet I failed to realize it. Eventually, feeling as though I was on the verge of suffocation, a human thought surfaced: “I do not fear death, but what would become of my simple-minded husband and my two children—who have no outside support and are not yet fully independent? I cannot die.” Enduring the intense pain, I got up, put on my coat, and went to a clinic.

The doctor said, “You’ve developed pneumonia from the fever. You’ll need IV treatments for at least a week.” Although my breathing improved, I still coughed incessantly and I had chest pain. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to return to work for a while, I requested time off. Recognizing that my cultivation had fallen short, I went to a Fa-study group that evening to read the Fa with fellow practitioners. Through our discussion, my understanding deepened, and after just two days of IV treatments, I stopped going to the clinic.

I realized that I had become too deeply entangled in the pursuit of personal gain and that I needed to quickly catch up in my cultivation. I began participating in group Fa study in the evenings. During the day, I would use my motorcycle—I was the only one among us who knew how to ride one—to take practitioners to different villages to clarify the truth, distribute materials, and put up posters to save people. When the false appearance of “sickness karma” persisted, I simply let go of my attachments and devoted myself fully to my cultivation. I often recited Master’s words:

“When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)

One day, a fellow practitioner mentioned that they were memorizing Zhuan Falun and had already reached the fourth page. I had often read in Minghui Weekly how other practitioners memorized Zhuan Falun. I used to think, “Although my memory isn’t bad, I never imagined—nor did I believe it possible—to memorize such a substantial book. Besides, I have a job, so I simply don’t have the time.”

I often had dreams in which I was late for work or school or couldn’t find my motorcycle to get there. I realized that my cultivation had fallen behind. Hearing a fellow practitioner talk about memorizing the Fa awakened my righteous thoughts, and I began to memorize the Fa without a moment’s hesitation. Starting on June 1, 2017—and ensuring that my other responsibilities were not neglected—I finished memorizing Zhuan Falun once by November 21 that same year. My sickness karma vanished completely, and I was able to return to work.

Ever since I married my simple-minded husband, countless people have told me that it was a waste for me to be with him. Everyone assumed that once our children grew up, I would surely leave. No one believed I would stay with him. As the years went by, the people in our residential complex noticed that not only had I not left, I continued to treat him with great care—always keeping him clean and well-groomed. They began to praise me for being a kind-hearted, good person. Other practitioners and I would explain to them, “I practice Falun Dafa, so I won’t leave; I will continue to treat him well. Otherwise, I would have left long ago—it would have been impossible to endure. Even if I had stayed, I certainly wouldn’t have been as devoted and dutiful as I am now.” The neighbors would nod. They knew this was the truth.

Over the years, I have endured the mental anguish caused by my husband’s erratic words and behavior, not to mention a constant stream of other tribulations. My son developed depression after a failed relationship he had in college and was unable to do anything for three years. He just stayed home. My daughter went through several rebellious phases, causing me intense worry, and she even incurred some financial losses for our family.

Life is truly difficult for an ordinary person, but as a practitioner, I understand that I owe a debt to these three individuals—a debt I must repay. When it felt like I had reached my limit, I would share my struggles with fellow practitioners. I know that I carry a heavy load of karma, which is why I must endure more hardship and suffering than others. I view these arrangements as opportunities—they are there to help me in my cultivation.

I must always view everything from the perspective of a Falun Dafa practitioner and treat others with kindness. Yet, at times, feelings of annoyance or resentment surface, and there are moments when I lose my temper. Whenever this happens, I recite the Fa in my mind, and the situation eases. When I reach my absolute limit of endurance, I recite the Fa, and the difficulty quickly passes.

While I was doing the exercises one morning in 2018, my daughter called to say that she had taken out loans totaling over 100,000 yuan—in reality, it was more than 200,000, though she didn’t dare tell me the full amount—that were past due, and she was unable to repay them. It came as such a sudden and overwhelming shock that I lost control and exploded. After shouting furiously at my daughter, I collapsed onto the bed, weeping uncontrollably, on the verge of a total breakdown. I wondered, “Why are there so many massive ordeals and hardships? Why do they never end? How am I supposed to go on living? I truly cannot bear this anymore—what kind of karmic connections could possibly have led to this?”

Master said:

“Why do you encounter these problems? They are all caused by your own karma. We have already eliminated for you many, countless portions of it, leaving only that tiny bit that is divided into tribulations at different levels for improving your xinxing, tempering your mind, and removing your various attachments. These are all your own tribulations that we use to improve your xinxing, and you will be able to overcome them. As long as you improve your xinxing, you can overcome them. Unless you, yourself do not want to do so, you can make it, provided you want to overcome them.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

I said, “Master, I understand.” I slowly got out of bed, wiped away my tears, and went to prepare a meal. After seeing that my husband finished eating and I tidied up, I left for work without having eating.

At work in 2019, I was pulling a cart loaded with boards that weighed about about 500 kg (over a thousand pounds) and injured my right shoulder. In common terms, it was a sprain or strain, and, as the saying goes, “it takes a hundred days to recover from a bone or tendon injury,” meaning I would be unable to return to work for some time. I resumed studying the Fa and doing the three things with fellow practitioners.

Among the eight or nine practitioners in our Fa-study group, all but one gets a retirement pension. The one who doesn’t runs a large shop, her children are all grown and have their own families, and her siblings get along very well. My situation is different: I have no pension, my children are not yet married, and there is significant discord among my siblings. Some of them are unable—or simply unwilling—to care for our 84-year-old father, so the responsibility falls on me. Whenever my father has an issue or falls ill, he calls me. I often have to ride my motorcycle—a round trip of over 115 km (about 70 miles)—to attend to him, or stay with him when he is hospitalized. On top of that, I still have outstanding loans to pay off.

My human attachments occasionally surfaced, causing me such pain that it made me want to avoid fellow practitioners. I recognized this as a serious case of jealousy and realized that the evil forces are trying to sow discord between me and other practitioners to persecute me—but I will never fall into their trap. I am determined to seize this once-in-an-eternity opportunity, do the three thingsm and follow Master back to my true home. Because I had been working, I hadn’t distributed many truth-clarification materials over the years, and I knew I needed to do more. In the years that followed, I would take a fellow practitioner with me on my motorcycle during the day to clarify the truth, put up messages about Dafa, and distribute materials.

After Master’s article “How Humankind Came to Be” was published, we realized that it should not be distributed surreptitiously, that it had to be presented to people in person. Were we afraid, given the persecution by the communist regime? Yes, we were. But we knew that we were Falun Dafa practitioners of the Fa-rectification period—practitioners assisting Master in the Fa-rectification—and that saving people is our mission, something we must do.

We organized into pairs, with each pair assigned to cover several villages. During the day, we visited every single household, handing the article to people face-to-face, until we visited every village within a radius of over 10 kilometers (about 6 miles). Before we entered the courtyard of a home, we first sent righteous thoughts. With the exception of homes that were locked, unoccupied, or abandoned, we managed to reach almost everyone. Many people learned the truth and were saved. Some threatened to call the police. Under Master’s protection, we were always able to leave safely.

My husband retired in 2023, and I also began receiving a pension. My husband no longer wants me to work. This has given me more time to dedicate to my spiritual practice. Over the years, I have relied on the Fa as my guide to overcome numerous trials and tribulations. I strive to fill my mind with the Fa, and I often encourage fellow practitioners to memorize it as well. I have memorized articles such as “Why the Creator Seeks to Save All Life” and “Critical Times Reveal One’s Spiritual State” along with various specific passages from the lectures given in different areas.

Now that I no longer work, I have the time to focus on what is most essential: memorizing Zhuan Falun, the precious book that guides our cultivation. I don’t set a goal of memorizing the entire book—I simply memorize as much as I can, without becoming attached to the outcome. I have also begun transcribing Zhuan Falun for the third time. Following a suggestion from the Minghui editorial team, I memorized Master’s article “Towards Consummation” in five days.

Master has given us extraordinary abilities; it is simply a matter of whether my righteous thoughts and perseverance are sufficient. Whenever ordinary, worldly thoughts surface in my mind, I immediately recite the Fa—whatever passage comes to mind. We are now in the final, concluding stage of the Fa-rectification process. I must let go of all human attachments, do the three things well, have 100 per cent faith in Master and the Fa, assist Master in Fa-rectification, and follow Master to reach Consummation and return to our true home!

Please kindly point out anything that may not be in line with the Fa.

(Selected submission for the 23rd China Fa Conference on Minghui.org)