(Minghui.org) There were drastic and very welcome changes in my home after my mother started to practice Falun Dafa. This is what happened.
My mother married into my father’s family as a stepmother to two girls, one six years old, the other just turned two.
At that time, Father’s family was very poor, so many people didn’t think my mother would be able to put up with the hardships.
But my mother always had a kind and patient disposition, and she treated her step-daughters as her own, even after I was born.
I never had new clothes when I was young. I wore hand-me-downs from my two elder sisters.
Mother also made sure we all shared and shared alike. Sometimes when there was not enough food to go around, Mother always let us eat our fill before she would clean up the crumbs.
Father was a mean man. Instead of being grateful for a wife who took care of his house and his children, he would often lose his temper with her. Sometimes he would go so far as to hit her.
It was worse when Father had a few drinks. He would smash plates and bowls and even the television.
My sisters and I were very afraid of him.
As was the custom, my two sisters left home, first one, then the other, when they started high school. Then there was just mother and me to bear the brunt of Father's temper.
One time, my father picked a fight with Mother over something trivial and kicked us out of the house. It was raining, so Mother and I took shelter under a shed.
I asked her, "How long do we have to take his abuse?"
Mother hugged me tight and we both cried.
After that day, I hated my father. I held a huge grudge against him. I secretly vowed that I would study hard so one day I could find a good job and take my mother with me and leave the horrible place we called home!
I knew mother must have suffered more bitterly than me and my sisters. I remembered she had wanted to leave Father before, but my sisters and I had hung onto her clothes and begged her not to go. So she had stayed and endured, year after year.
When my eldest sister came home after college and realized Father had continued to abuse her, she tried to persuade Mother to divorce him.
Mother cried and said, "If I divorced your father and left, what would you three do?"
My sister promptly responded, "We will leave with you, of course!”
Mother sighed, "Then you wouldn't have a father. If I stayed, at least you have both parents. If I leave, it will break up the family!”
My sister wept and couldn’t say another word, but I remember to this day her heartbroken cry of "Mother!"
Mother is such a good person. Everybody says “One good turn deserves another.” I couldn’t understand why mother’s life was so bitter.
She was often in tears. She had gradually changed from an optimistic, cheerful person who loved to laugh into one who was sullen and withdrawn and barely spoke. She was only 30 years old then, but her hair had already turned white!
In 1997, I went away to high school. I was physically free, but I didn't feel free in my heart. True, I had finally left home, but Mother was still in that hell-hole with nobody there to protect and comfort her.
My mind replayed images of father yelling at and hitting her, of pots and pans flying and landing on her. But when I called home, Mother always said everything was fine and for me not to worry. How could I not worry?!
I remember one weekend when I went home with the usual trepidation, in a hurry to see her but dreading the encounter with Father.
I opened the front door and walked in. Mother was glad to see me. I felt a certain tranquility in her and in the house. I looked around. There didn’t seem to be any sign of violence I normally could detect in the past.
From then on, every time I went home, I noticed changes in her. Her love of laughter returned. Her smiles again came from the heart. She seemed to have lots of energy and not to be burdened with trouble anymore.
I finally asked, "Is Father still hitting you?"
Mother answered with a smile, "Well, your father has changed. His temper has improved a lot. He’s practicing Falun Dafa. He told me Falun Dafa is great. He told me I should practice, too."
I was stunned. How could person who screamed and hit at a moment’s notice change so drastically?
But Mother’s changes were real. Her smiles were not feigned.
Under father’s influence and persuasion, Mother had started to Falun Dafa practice.
I was amazed when I saw her reading a book at home. Mother went to only two years of elementary school and was absolutely not interested in any book reading.
I asked her with great curiosity, "What is this book you’re reading?"
Mother told me to take a look at it myself. The cover read Zhuan Falun.
I vaguely remembered when I visited my grandmother during the summer holidays, she had talked to me about the same book. She told me the book was about cultivation and asked me to take it home to Father to read.
At the time, I was deeply influenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s teaching of atheism. I refused. I told her Father would not be interested.
Now, it seemed Father had gotten the book after all. It seemed he and Falun Dafa must really have some kind of predestined relationship.
When I saw mother holding Zhuan Falun to read with such piety, I thought to myself, “This book must really be wonderful. It can turn a person's mind and heart around! Father reads the book and his bad temper is gone and he doesn’t fight with or hurt Mother anymore. Mother reads the book because Father changed, and now she is optimistic and in a good mood every day.”
I could finally put my heart at ease. I began to appreciate what the warmth of a real home should feel like. Dark clouds were gone. Scuffles were history, replaced by laughter and joy.
One time after dinner, we went out for a walk together. Mother and Father held my hands. I was so happy I could have cried. It was a scene that had appeared only in my dreams! Now the dreams had become reality!
It was not until after I became a Falun Dafa practitioner much later and began to read Zhuan Falun over and again, that I finally understood what Master means by “...as a practitioner one should not fight back when being punched or insulted.” (Zhuan Falun) That’s why Father was able to change. As Dafa practitioners, we have to think of others first.
Zhuan Falun teaches us how to be good people! Father and Mother read the book and changed so much for the better. They were now able to give me a truly warm and happy home!
After July 20, 1999, drastic changes enveloped us. Jiang Zemin and his villainous group, out of jealousy, launched the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa.
Mother was puzzled: “What’s the matter with the government? Why is it banning such a good practice?”
Without group Fa study and a place to gather to do the exercises, Father stepped away to join other groups and ended up turning his back on Dafa.
There was a void in Mother's heart, and she didn’t know what to do.
In 2001, the world was stunned with the repeated broadcast of the "Tiananmen Square self-immolation" and other vicious lies fabricated by the CCP. The devastation was deeply felt throughout the nation.
My sisters and I worried about Mother. We were afraid she would join those self-immolators, so we watched her every movement like hawks.
As I write about this, I’m still shocked by how incredibly sinister the CCP is, that it is capable of such a despicable thing to fool its own and the world’s people and frame Falun Dafa! So many people believed its lies and were badly poisoned. How can a government use such evil tactics to agitate decent people to hate and turn them on other decent people?!
My sisters and I tried to persuade Mother, “Stay home to practice if you must, but please don’t go to Beijing to petition or burn yourself up in Tiananmen Square!”
Mother said to us, “True practitioners would never do that. Master forbids us to kill. How could He have encouraged people to kill themselves?”
It took us a long time and vigilant observation to convince ourselves Mother was normal and rational in every way before we could put our hearts at ease.
This is how sinister the CCP is. In order to discredit and get rid of a group of good people, it poisoned everyone in the entire country. Most people are like us, guileless and gullible, trusting our government explicitly. It is truly alarming and distressing.
Despite the loss of group study and exercise environment, Mother did not give up Falun Dafa. She wanted us to remember that Falun Dafa teaches people to be good.
Mother lives her life in accordance with the principles of Falun Dafa: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She has a magnanimous heart and does everything for others.
My eldest sister’s mother-in-law does not want the trouble of taking care of her grandchild. My second sister’s father-in-law has a bad temper and is incapable of watching over his grandchildren. So Mother assumes all childcare responsibilities.
Ten years slipped by. Mother brought her grandchildren up without any complaint but with infinite patience, tolerance, and understanding.
She watches the grandchildren, does the laundry, cooks every meal, and attends to every household chore big and small. My father, my sisters, my brother, my husband, and I are able to work at our different jobs without a worry, all because of Mother, who is healthy, hardworking, and competent.
When my sisters and their husbands praise and thank Mother, she always says it’s because she is a Falun Dafa practitioner and because Master has given her good health.
I often think about how, before practicing Falun Dafa, she was often grumpy and dissatisfied. But now she rarely complains. Occasionally, when she has a disagreement with Father or any of us children, she will always look inward and try to figure out where she may have done wrong.
More importantly, when I see and hear other people hustling about to buy medicine for their parent or taking them to the hospital, and talking care of their sick parents, I always feel extremely blessed, because for more than a dozen years since she started practicing Falun Dafa, Mother has not been to the hospital or needed any medication.
If other practitioners had said they didn't need medicine because they weren't sick, I would not have believed them. After witnessing what happened to my mother, I had to admit that Falun Dafa was truly amazing!
Mother told us, “Falun Dafa is the Buddha Fa, the Buddha Law. If you believe Falun Dafa is good and support my practice, you will benefit and come away with great blessings.”
I didn’t pay much attention to what she said, but things did happen that let me witness how amazing Falun Dafa really is.
One time my sister was driving us somewhere. At a sharp turn, she lost control of the car. It was practically on one wheel with the other three up in the air. But the car didn’t turn over. It righted itself. Mother, who was sitting in the passenger seat, at once put her palms together in front of her chest, asking Master to keep us safe and thanking Master for saving us.
After I recovered from the shock, I asked my sister what had happened.
She said, "When I was turning the corner, all of a sudden, my mind just went blank.”
Mother said, “The car was going so fast. It’s a miracle it didn’t rollover. It was Master who protected us!”
Another time, my daughter was playing on the bed and accidentally hit her head on the windowsill. It grazed her eyebrow, and she cried out in pain.
Mother quickly said, "Falun Dafa is good! Master, please save this child!"
She asked my daughter to say "Falun Dafa is good! Master, please save me!" My daughter said the words while still crying, but then she stopped and said she didn’t hurt anymore.
We took her to the hospital where she needed four stitches. She didn’t cry, and her gaping wound healed practically overnight.
Mother told me to thank Master! I sincerely thanked Master with my whole heart!
There are many more stories I can tell. I just want to give thanks over and over again. I want to give thanks to Dafa! I want to give thanks to Master! I want to give thanks to Master for giving us Dafa so that we can learn to be good people and become better people, and continue to elevate!
Falun Dafa is benevolent to all sentient beings. If we truly believe that “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” we’ll all be forever basking in Dafa’s magnificent light!