Xioufen Xie (China)
My name is Xioufen Xie. I am 53 years old. I was born in a village close to Han Dan city, He Bei Province. My husband was in the army and I was a housewife. After leaving the army, my husband worked as a plumber in NO.301 hospital for 40 years and is now retired. I was from a poor family and I attended school for only 2 years in order to stay home to look after my brothers and sisters.
I had been paralyzed for a total of 16 years. I was very lucky to obtain Falun Dafa. It's Master Li Hongzhi who enabled me to stand up again and rearrange my life.
My story starts from 1979, when I had a ligation of oviduct operation in a rural hospital. I was given Spinal anesthesia. I rode a bicycle to have the operation, but after the operation, I wasn't able to walk again, and I had to stay in bed for 16 years since then. The diagnosis I was given from NO.301 hospital was: paralysis with spinal injury.
The pain that came with paralysis is beyond words I can express. I had four children at that time, and the smallest child was only 2 years old. I lost the ability to take care of myself and had to rely on my mother. My mother also had a family of 5 people, and she had endless farm work and housework. Not only did she have to look after the children, but also she had to take care of me, who was absolutely useless, so she was always exhausted. I often cried and felt as if a knife were piercing my heart.
After my brother got married, I could not stay in my mother's house anymore. Then I stayed with my husband who was in the army. He made 40 to 50 yuan each month and we had 6 people in the family. Feeding 6 mouth was a problem. My husband's work was very tiring, and after work he had to cook, wash the clothes and look after the children. He was both a father and a mother. Besides, he had to take care of me: food, drink, and every other daily needs. He had to carry me to the toilet, wash my diaper, etc. I never could help having tears in my eyes. I was afraid of wetting the bed, so I had to eat less and drink less. However, as I always stayed in bed for long, I developed more than 10 kinds of illnesses: atrophic gastritis, coronary arteriosclerotic cardiopathy, high blood pressure, esophagitis, colitis, cervical spondylopaphy and anal fissure, etc. I had to lie in bed, was unable to move my ligaments, and could not move my neck. I felt as if being in hell! There was one time when I was thirty, I reached out for the cup, which was too far for me to reach. I fell to the floor, knocked out one of my teeth and had to lie on the floor till my husband came back to put me back into bed.
Thus, I was hospitalized in quite a few big hospitals, even the famous doctors could not cure my illnesses. I struggled in pain for 16 years. I was in agony, and I wanted to die.
In April of 1996, my younger sister told me she and her husband were practicing Falun Gong, and it's a very good cultivation & mediation system. She said: "All physical illnesses will be gone if you practice Falun Gong, so will yours." I was very happy to hear that, but was wondering if it was going to work for someone like me who had never seen the Master in person. My sister told me that was not a problem, and she sent me the book "Zhuan Falun".
Since I had severe illnesses, I was afraid that I wouldn't be allowed to practice Falun Gong. So I started to exercise my legs, and tried to stand up. I tried to stand up by leaning onto the wall, reading "Zhuan FaLun" as I was exercising my legs. I started from standing for a few minutes to 10 minutes. I sometimes fell to the floor as I was reading, then I would read on my knees. Thus I kept exercising my legs for 3 months and I started to have some strength on my legs. My standing time gradually increased. I felt very happy. On July 1st, I asked my husband to wheel-chair me to the Falun Gong practice site at the 6th Construction Area. Mr. An, who was in charge of this practice site, asked me: "Do you have illnesses?" I kept replying: "No, I am fine. I don't have illnesses, I don't have illnesses." He smiled and said nothing. I felt relieved. I stayed at the west side, far away from the group to practice on my own. Slowly I started to move closer to the group. Later they invited me to practice with them. My heart was so relieved. I will remember this day forever: "I have become a Falun Dafa disciple now! I can also practice as a normal person now!"
After I started practicing Falun Gong, I stopped thinking of my illnesses. Miraculously, throughout the two month of my practice, my body was very comfortable, and all illnesses disappeared. I ate more and weighed more, and I felt more strength on both of my feet.
I had my husband wheel-chair me to the practice site for a year, and my health condition was much improved. Then I started to go to the practice site using a walking stick with my husband accompanying me there. Another 3 months had passed. It was winter time. I felt pain under my armpit. My husband said it might be prickly-heat caused by the walking stick. I said, it was winter time, how could one had prickly-heat? But I couldn't understand why.
On February 2nd, 1998, with the help of a walking stick, I went to study Falun DaFa with my husband. During the study, Mr. An suggested: "We disciples could help promote Falun Dafa at the Spring Festival." After the study, it was quite late and the weather was cold. I asked my husband to go home and cook for the children first, as I started to walk home slowly with the help of my walking stick. I hadn't walked very far when I heard a voice saying: "Put down! Put down!". I thought that somebody was calling me, so I turned around, but found no one there. I continued walking and thought nothing of it. I tried to think of ways on how we could deliver the message of Falun Dafa at the Spring Festival. Suddenly, I heard the words "Put down! Put down!" again. I realized now that the words were coming from my mouth. I could not explain the phenomenon. Something inside me was making me express these words, but what could it be, I thought? Perhaps, I had inadvertently picked up something at Mr. An's house and someone was trying to warn me. Maybe Master Li was the voice speaking inside of me? I sat down on the roadside and searched all my pockets but could find nothing. Once again, I tried to block this mysterious occurrence from my mind and started to think about spreading Dafa. "Put down! Put down!". I was getting perplexed. Could this be the interference of the demon? I began calling the name of Master Li, but things got even worse: I could not stop saying the words. As I walked back home, I covered my mouth to keep the voice down. I felt very awkward as other pedestrians kept looking at me on the way home. Then, I noticed that I was walking with the help of my walking stick. Maybe Master Li was trying to tell me to put down the walking stick! I looked at it and thought, I was half way home, what if I fell down? I continued walking and decided I would put it down when I got home.
Later that evening, I kept thinking about this. It took 45 minutes to walk from Mr. An's house to my home, Why did I keep shouting "put down!"? Eventually I reached the understanding that how could I spread Dafa with myself walking with the help of a stick?
The next morning, I started to walk around in the house, and I wobbled and staggered like a young child learning to walk. Look! Not bad. My husband saw me and said anxiously "Are you crazy? You can fell down." I said firmly: "I will get rid of the walking stick, see I am doing all right!" Then I went to practice site to practice Gong. The fellow practitioners saw me walking with a limp, they laughed with surprise and congratulated me on my standing up again! I obtained the "freedom" of walking with my feet again. I was so excited that I wanted to cry out loud:" I stood up again! Master Li saved me!"
Every time I saw master Li's photo, I wanted to cry! When I read "Zhuan Falun", I wanted to laugh. I sometimes laughed out loud. How could I not thank Master Li from my heart? I will keep cultivating firmly. No matter how many hardships are ahead of me, I will keep on. When I was practicing lotus sitting, I used 2.5 kilogram dumbbells to press my legs. I had tears in my eyes due to pain. My son anxiously told me: "Don't break your legs! It's too much pain." I said: "Not a problem!" I would talk to my stiff legs: "You have done bad deeds. I have to press you to kill karma." I worked on my legs for a month after I started practicing Falun Gong in July. In August, I could already do the lotus sitting. 1 minute, 2 minutes, my sitting time increased little by little, till I could do the sitting for 10 minutes. I was too happy to eat that day. Now I can do lotus sitting for an hour.
I started walking without a walking stick on Feb.3. In a month or so, I almost wanted to fly like a bird. Most people couldn't walk as fast as I do now. This is Falun Dafa's power on me, and it’s true and vivid!
I truly know from my heart that Falun Dafa is a Great Law, and will benefit everyone that obtains the Dafa. In order for more people to benefit from the Dafa, I went back to my mother's place, which is close to Bai Tou city of He Bei province to spread Dafa. The Villagers noticed that I walked as normal people. They asked with surprise: "In which hospital was your paralysis cured?" I said excitedly: "I was cured by practicing Falun Dafa, not by going to hospitals!" The fellow villagers said: "That's amazing! Falun Dafa is so good, please teach us to practice." I taught my brothers and sisters first and then the others. In a few days’ time, 40 to 50 people came to learn Falun Dafa, even my brother's yard could not accommodate all the people. Some folks from other villages also came to learn Falun Dafa. Really, it's just like Master Li has addressed: "The Great Law is being spreading far and wide. Those who heard about it are looking for it. Those who have obtained it are pleased with it. The practitioners are increasing daily in number and there are too many of them to be counted."
I will treasure this opportunity to cultivate Falun Dafa, make the best use of my time, strive for further advance, and cultivate solidly to achieve perfection in cultivation sooner.