Do Well on the Path that Returns Home

Obtaining the Fa and recovering from the side effects of a stroke

My wife and I obtained the Fa before July 20, 1999. My wife became a practitioner a year before me. Before then, we both practiced another type of qigong, but suddenly my wife had a stroke. She was in the hospital for a month. The medical bills were over 4000 yuan, but she still had severe side effects. The left side of her body became completely numb, with no sensation. She needed personal day to day assistance. I had to take care of both my home and the orchard, which was a really big burden. I was physically and mentally tired and exhausted.

One day my sister-in-law came from the city to see my wife. She was a Falun Gong practitioner. She advised us not to practice the qigong that we had practiced and suggested that we practice Falun Gong. She gave many examples of how Falun Gong can help people to improve their health and gave us the book Zhuan Falun. From that day on, my wife started to read the book every day. Three days later, she began to regain feeling in her hands and feet. On the 10th day, she was able to get out of bed and walk slowly. Less than one month later, she could completely take care of herself. Practitioners from a neighbouring village were invited to teach her the five exercises.

The miraculous effect of Falun Gong on my wife moved me deeply. I had supported her practice, but I thought I had no need to practice it since I was very healthy. Because my wife didn't have much education, she often asked me about the unfamiliar words in the book or asked me to explain the meaning of different sentences in the book. As time passed, I also started my cultivation of Falun Gong.

My wife was the first person to practice Falun Gong in our village. Her recovery story encouraged many people, and many of them started to practice Falun Gong. We set up a practice site at my home. Naturally, I became the one in charge of the practice site. By word of mouth, many people came to learn Falun Gong. In less than a year, we had four practice sites in our village with more than 100 practitioners. We studied the Fa and practiced the exercises every day. We regularly held activities to spread the Fa and share our experiences.

Persevering in our cultivation despite the persecution

The CCP (Chinese communist party) started a large scale persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. In order to restore Falun Gong's good reputation, we appealed to higher authorities and participated in activities to clarify the truth (about Falun Gong and its illegal persecution), such as distributing fliers and posting messages. We prepared informational materials during the daytime and distributed them till midnight. We distributed materials in more than ten villages nearby several times. Every family was covered. We prepared many small flags with the words "Falun Gong Is Good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Is Good." Each flag had a string with a cobblestone attached at the end. We threw them into the branches of the trees alongside the road. Overnight, colourful flags floated from the trees along the road stretching for several miles, which was a really wonderful sight.

Recalling the past ten years of my experience, I have tumbled, gone astray, learned lessons, gained much, and gotten rid of many attachments. For example, after studying Master's article, "A Person in Charge is Also a Cultivator " (Essentials For Further Advancement), I got rid of one of my attachments: "Since I have done so much Dafa work as the person in charge, Master cannot leave me behind." My wife and I are almost 70 years old. In order to have more time to do the three things (study the Fa [the teachings of Falun Dafa], send forth righteous thoughts and clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and about the persecution to the world's people) well and help people quit the CCP and its associated organizations, we gave up our orchard, which can produce 20,000 yuan in fruit each year, to others. Our children are all in the city and have good living conditions. They have always asked us to stay with them. However, we decided to stay in the countryside. We study and practice Falun Gong in our simple country house and do what we should do.