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| Practicing Falun Gong with Western fellow practitioners at the National Park on a weekend morning |
(Clearwisdom.net)
I suffered with leukemia for 13 years
I weighed less than 16 ounces when I was born. The doctor predicted that I could not survive and my mother was allowed to have another child (per the one child policy in China). In fact, my nose bled every day. Warm blood and the smell of the blood in my throat often awakened me. Every day I needed to bring a bag of cotton balls and Chinese herbs with me to school. There were bloodstains on my textbooks, clothes, pillows, blankets, cover sheet, and even the walls in my home. In addition, I had severe sinusitis and near-sightedness. My memory was also very poor.
When I was seven, I was hospitalized for severe bleeding. It was then that I was diagnosed with leukemia. I was hospitalized and transferred many times. My family spent so much on my medical expenses. Later a fortuneteller said that I could only live to the age of 13. Because I was extremely weak, I would faint if I stood out in the sun for even ten minutes. I felt miserable because I did not have enough blood. My whole body felt numb and I had difficulty breathing. I grew up on all kinds of medicines and steroids. When I had a cold, I could smell the strong medicine in my body. It was stinky!
By the time I was in sixth grade, I was extremely weak and could not walk or breathe. The school was very close to my home, but I was often carried home or directly to a nearby hospital. I was very pessimistic due to my condition and felt that life was meaningless.
In order to improve my health, I tried martial arts. However, the more I practiced it, the worse my condition became. Whenever I exercised or jogged, I fainted or had a seizure. Later I also practiced other kinds of Qigong and spent money to have my name changed. However, none of these things helped. My health deteriorated.
I first quit school when I was seven years old because I had to be hospitalized so frequently. I was in first grade then.
The only thing that made me forget all of my troubles was drawing. I loved to draw with colorful crayons about my hopes. For example, I loved to paint the earth covered with rainbows after the rain.
When I went back to school, I still had to go to the hospital very often and did not care to make up the classes that I missed. I had poor grades and I never cared about anyone else.
I was saved
One day at around the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1998, my mom let me listen to a set of cassette recordings. Teacher’s voice sounded very young, as if he was in his 20s. His voice was clear and penetrating. I still vividly remember that I felt very comfortable when I heard Teacher’s first sentence. His voice resonated inside me. I finished all 14 tape recordings of “Fa Lectures in Jinan City” in one week. I learned the exercises from my mother every day. In that week, I did not bleed once! I broke my left arm when I was three years old. However, when I practiced the second exercise, I could hold my arms up for half an hour. My sinusitis was also cured. For a little girl who had no hope, Teacher gave me a second life. My mother often said that I could not possibly have lived until today without Teacher and Dafa. Teacher saved my life! Since then, I have never needed to take any medications or steroids. I truly felt that my body was light and free of illness.
Falun Gong was spread through word of mouth among friends and families. I am a typical example.
After practicing Falun Gong, my view of life fundamentally changed. I gradually stopped being pessimistic. Later I became very strong when I encountered many tribulations. At the initial stage of my practice, I was in junior high school. My grades improved so much that many people thought that I copied other students’ answers. But Teacher knew and my mother knew that I did it. It was a miracle that Dafa brought to me! I scored 90s in all my classes except the political class, in which I scored in the 60s. I became happy, confident and started helping others. Following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, my life became easy and happy for the first time.
At that time, my art teacher from my elementary school, who had volunteered her time to help me in art, told me that she hoped that I could be successful in painting and that I needed a better teacher, as she could no longer teach me. Later my father found me the best painter in the city. After an interview, he accepted me as a student. Later he told me that he rarely accepted students, especially girls, and that I was an exception because he saw that I was happy, diligent, and talented and had a true passion for painting. Soon after, he set my academic goals and ultimate target for my life and had a strict plan. I followed his plan and schedule and was very confident about my steady progress. My teacher and his friends were also very happy for me, as they also cared about me.
It was truly a turning point in my life. Without Teacher and Dafa, I would have never lived to this day. Without Teacher and Dafa, I would have never lived as a normal person without illness. Without Teacher and Dafa, I would have never changed my stubborn personality. Because I started practicing Falun Gong, I came across a good teacher in my specialty. Dafa and Teacher changed my life!
Becoming strong during the 12 years of persecution
Around July 20, 1999, when the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong, the street committee members would knock at our doors every day before dinner and tell us to watch the news. We watched the fabricated programs that slandered Teacher and Dafa. Nothing in them was true. A person is free to watch or not to watch TV. It was irrational to force citizens to watch TV. Very soon, all of our Dafa books were confiscated and burned. Without the books, people blindly believed whatever was said on TV. At that time, many Chinese people were deceived by the propaganda. Later my mom went to appeal in Beijing. She was subsequently arrested, detained, and beaten. After that, we suffered constant ransacking and threats. My parents eventually divorced and our family was shattered.
These disastrous events occurred when I was only 15 years old, and I did not understand what went wrong. All the pressure from my family and society led to my mental breakdown. I suffered memory loss and could not remember what had happened. I only have some horrifying residual memory about that period of time. I only remember that I could not practice the exercises and all of my books were confiscated. At night, police came to search and forced me to go with them to where my mother was detained, to pressure my mom to give up Falun Gong. I insisted that I would still practice Falun Gong, so they took me away. I was truly frightened. My dad promised them that I would not practice. Later my dad rarely came home. In the New Year, there was only me, my younger brother, and my grandmother at home. We were monitored and followed. During the following 12 years, our family has never been together, not even on New Year’s Eve, because the police arrested practitioners around the New Year.
There was a time when I had the key to my home but I did not dare use it. Later, by breaking through an Internet blockade, I saw an overseas painting by Shen Daci. It was called “Homeless” and showed a little girl holding a key but she cannot enter her home. Could that little girl in the painting be a description about me? This persecution of one's spirit hurts more than physical pain!
I had not done any painting after the persecution started. When it occurred to me that I could pick up my paintbrush, I felt like I knew nothing about painting. Later, my painting teacher told me that I looked like a lost child and he couldn't understand why. He thought that what had happened to him during the Cultural Revolution was happening to me, a 15-16 year old girl. I understood that I was not allowed to practice Dafa or to be a good person. I had no future. I was going to overdose on medicine but my family members stopped me. I realized that committing suicide was wrong and would create a bad name for Dafa. I had to go on, regardless of how bad my life had become.
Because I had lost my memory, I was forced to stop attending junior high before graduation. My grades were bad and no high school would accept me. My father tried to help me by bribing an art high school to accept me. I did not agree with what he did for the following reasons: I did not have the required grades to attend that school; bribing was in violation of Dafa; it was not right to take up a slot belonging to someone else; borrowing money to help me would create a sizable debt for my family; and even ordinary people said that bribery would shorten one's life. At that time I could not see any future for myself and I refused to go along with my father, but he could not understand or accept my position.
This was the second time that I dropped out of school. The persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had caused me to have a nervous breakdown and a loss of memory. Hence, I could not attend school.
Returning Dafa and building up confidence
I don't remember when I returned to Dafa practice. Probably it was about a year and half after my memory gradually recovered and I felt better physically. I understood that the persecution was due to the envy of a dictator who loved to use his power to persecute citizens who had no way to defend themselves. I knew that I could choose my own path in life. My mother never gave up her Dafa practice, and I had been reading the articles she brought home, so I knew what I should choose. For a long time I did the Dafa exercises with my mother. We prepared truth clarifying materials together, went out to put up posters stating “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and distributed flyers, etc. While walking we often recited Hong Yin. My mother went to Tiananmen Square to validate the Fa several times and was able to return home safely. When I knew about her intention, I prepared banners for her. Miracles happened to me again. I could walk a long way to Taihang Mountain to paint without feeling tired. When I went out somewhere with a group of people, I usually started last, but was the first to arrive. When I rode the train from Beijing to Wuhan, it took 19 hours and from Nanjing to Beijing it took 14 hours, but I didn't feel tired.
These are the miracles from doing the Dafa exercises. I am healthier than ordinary people because of Dafa!
Later my painting teacher tried to help me and let me come to his class. I studied very hard and later was able to attend a university. I clarified the facts about Dafa from the standpoint of a bystander. My grades were very good. I followed Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance very closely and tried my best to help others. Many times the university notified me that I had moved up a level within their system, but I never attended or competed in any election. While at the university, I listened to Dafa lectures, ran for half an hour everyday, practiced brush writing till late at night, and then did the sitting exercise. I slept very little, but felt quite energetic. Many of my classmates knew about my lifestyle and were surprised. This is all true, and I know it is because of my Dafa practice.
When this article is published, everyone in the world will be able to see it. People who know me can recall what happened at the time. It is because of Dafa practice that I now have a healthy body and a sound mind. I can forgive those who wanted to report me to the CCP. If I did not practice Dafa, I probably would want to take advantage of others. It is Teacher who taught me to become nobler, more compassionate, and healthier.
After graduating from the university I returned home and found once again that my mother had been arrested by the local police without any evidence of wrongdoing. The officers said that she was someone they had been looking for for a long time. My father was contemplating sending me overseas. I did not select my preferred subject (sculpture or architecture) at the university. Instead, I selected an area that I thought could help me clarify the facts.
After I left China and arrived at a city in a foreign country, I tried to find fellow practitioners over the Internet. I did not see any Dafa practice center, so I bought a printer and used whatever opportunity I had to spread the facts about Dafa. Later, when I went to see Shen Yun, I got in touch with some fellow practitioners.
In the summer of 2010 I saw on the Minghui/Clearwisdom website that Jiang Zemin, who started the persecution, had gone to my hometown. Before he went, over 100 practitioners were arrested, sentenced, and sent to forced labor camps. Those who did not know the facts were still helping Jiang with his persecution. I did not know what happened to my mother since she was taken away from home. Fellow practitioners told me that police vehicles were parked at my home and many fellow practitioners who were there with my mother were arrested, sentenced, and sent to forced labor camps. Finally, I heard that my mother was in critical condition. She has practiced Dafa for more than ten years and her health had always been good. However, after she was taken away by communist police officers, I don't know what happened to her. With the ongoing persecution and economic pressure, I have dropped out of school again.
This is the third time that I have dropped out of school. Two out of the three times have been directly or indirectly because of the persecution.
Conclusion
The above offers a clear comparison between practicing Dafa and not practicing Dafa and how it has impacted my body and my academic achievement. I have witnessed the miracles of Dafa and am a living example of Dafa practice. Without Teacher I would not be living today. How can there be a reason for me not to practice Dafa?
I had suffered with leukemia for 13 years and recovered to good health after practicing Dafa. I had experienced great progress in academics as well. The impact of Dafa is unforgettable. Twelve years of persecution resulted in me losing my memory and having a nervous breakdown. This is also unforgettable. Countless families and children have been harmed because of this persecution. I have grown from a small girl in an ordinary family into an adult and yet the persecution is still ongoing. No more broken families, no more suffering: the persecution must stop!
From - http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/11/2/129151.html
