(Minghui.org)
1. Growing Up With Falun DafaI was born in a small town in the south in 1995. Not long after I was born, my father started to cultivate Dafa. My mother later also joined cultivating Dafa after seeing that Falun Dafa completely changed my father's temper.
My sister and I grew up under the guidance of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Our life was solid. My sister and I went to watch the DVD of Master teaching the Fa in a neighboring county with my father, and we did the exercises in the park with fellow practitioners. I remember there were over 10 practitioners in the park. My sister and I were the youngest there and could sit longer than others while doing the sitting meditation.
One day my cousin and I were playing on the sports equipment. I fell from a high bar with my back down. I felt a force lifting me and correcting my body position. When I realized what happened, I had already landed firmly on the ground. At that moment, I knew Master protected me.
In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started its persecution of Falun Dafa. I was four years old, and my sister was six years old. We didn't know what was happening. I remember that one day a few people in police uniforms came to my home and talked to my father. My father frowned the whole time. Finally, my father compromised with the police. In the later years, our family gradually walked away from Falun Dafa.
I thank compassionate Master who did not give up on disappointing disciples like us! One day in my first year of high school, an email titled “Spreading the truth: Calling for justice” appeared on our family's computer. That email detailed various flaws in the fake CCP report of self-immolation in Tiananmen Square. The email also explained how to download software to break through China's Internet blockade. My sister first found the email. She downloaded the Freegate software and visited the Minghui website. Eleven years later, we finally got back to the path of cultivation!
When I opened Zhuan Falun for the first time in 11 years, I saw that Master in the picture was still so compassionate and majestic. I burst into tears instantly.
What was more amazing, and just as other fellow practitioners have said, the lotus flower on the back page of Zhuan Falun had blossomed! Now I finally understood how much merciful Master has done for us.
I studied Zhuan Falun eagerly, and I felt that any temptation or threat in the world could never stop me from following Master.
Right after this, the symptoms of pneumothorax that I had since 4th grade disappeared, and they never returned. Master purified my body! Soon after, my mother started to study the Fa and do the exercises with my sister and me. We bought a printer, established a family truth materials production center, and we started our journey of clarifying the truth.
My sister and I attended the same high school. My sister's school performance was excellent. Almost all her 3 years of high school tuition was waived. My sister barely did homework at home. She spent most of her time studying the Fa, making truth clarification materials, and clarifying the truth. We know that these are Master's blessings and wisdom given by Dafa, which provided my sister with opportunities to clarify the truth at school.
At the beginning, my sister clarified the truth to one or to a few classmates after class time or after school was over. A portion of her classmates understood the truth and made the “three withdrawals” (withdrawing from the CCP, Young Pioneers, or Youth League). A portion of students who did not understand the truth reported her to the principle. Therefore, my sister wrote a letter to the principal, took the initiative to meet with the principal, and clarified the truth to the principal. Three vice-principals also listened my sister's truth clarification. Some of them said they received letters in the mail from Falun Dafa practitioners in earlier years.
When I started to clarify the truth, I had a loophole that I was not aware of. I clarified the truth with heavy sentimentality. I thought of saving my three best friends first. When I set up the time and clarified the truth to them, they did not believe it and thought the evil party was right. Later I realized that my mind was not pure, and what I said was not strong enough to save people. Master said: “If you want to cultivate, you have to set aside human emotion.” (“The Sixth Talk” in Zhuan Falun)
That was a big lesson for me. Those classmates still do not understand the truth today. I realized that “sentimentality” is deceptive.
In my second year of high school, I chose to major in science instead of social science, since the social science major includes history and politics courses that are filled with too much toxic CCP culture. Of course, science majors are also brainwashed and intoxicated by the CCP, only a little less, relatively speaking.
The religion policies in the politics course had content that slandered Falun Dafa, and this was a required course. The evil party's intention is very obvious, which is to drag all students into the abyss of committing crimes against Dafa.
When I was in my first year of high school, I had a painful experience of not standing up to defend Falun Dafa when the politics course teacher slandered Dafa in the class. Therefore, in the second year of high school I was well prepared and determined to validate Dafa in the politics class. On the afternoon when the class was to give the evil CCP's religion policies section, I brought my notebook computer to class. I kept sending out righteous thoughts during the class and asked Master to reinforce me. At the moment the teacher started to copy the CCP's speech defaming Falun Dafa, I said loudly: “Falun Dafa is good.” I got up and walked to the podium, played the truth video, and exposed the CCP's “self-immolation” hoax. This time I did not repeat the previous regret of not being able to stand up for Dafa in the class.
Another small episode worth mentioning is that I did not read the politics and history textbooks, and I did not bring these books home during the semester. I only brought the books home one day before the exam and just briefly went over the books. I fully understood the evil party's intentions behind the exam questions; so I only answered the questions that did not defame Dafa. Surprisingly, my politics grade was B, and my grades for geography and history were A's. My classmates barely got an A, most of them got B or C. They worked hard by taking mock exams and reading the newspaper. I did not do any homework and got better grades. This again proves that knowing the truth and abandoning the evil CCP will not lead to any loss, and instead one will be protected by Gods and Buddhas!
In the third high of school year, classmates were busy with heavy school work. I did less truth clarification and persuading others to make the “three withdrawals”. I was gradually slacking off.
One day in a class meeting, the class teacher gave us a red “Commitment Card” that implicitly attacked Falun Dafa. I sat in the first row. I tore the card in front of the teacher, hoping he saw it and would talk to me about it. I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the truth to him.
The next day in the early morning study class, the teacher came to the class. I greeted him and told him that I tore up the card and the reason why. He did not respond to the Falun Dafa topic. Instead he said a bunch of things like, “A wise man submits to circumstances”; “A great man knows when to yield and when not to.”
Later, I spoke to some classmates and asked what they planned to do with the “Commitment card”. Students who knew the truth threw away the card; one classmate who was clear about the CCP's evil nature proposed on the internet that classmates throw away the card.
But there were still a large number of classmates who signed the card. I felt pessimistic about myself, realizing that I was always waiting for the so-called safe opportunity to clarify the truth. I did not create opportunities using righteous thoughts or use this incident to further clarify the truth to classmates and turn a bad thing into a good one. The deep down cause was that I did not let go of myself, and I feared being hurt.
Master said, “Whatever is not brought to completion amounts to a failure.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference”) I know I cannot make up for opportunities that have already passed. Soon I'll attend a college in another city. I should be aware of my past failure and resolve to do better, and walk the future cultivation path well.
Before 1999, I was too young to write. However, one day I wrote a word on a paper. One stroke after another stroke, I neatly created a word. My father at my side was astonished and asked me: “Who taught you this word?” I said: “I created it.” My father could not believe it and told me the word is “Hong”, which is part of Master's name ...
Our Dafa practitioners have great predestined relationships with Master, had a contract with Master, and came to help Master rectify the Fa!
Our precious fellow practitioners, let's encourage each other, fulfill our historic vows and return home with Master!