[Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] The Story of My Father

(Minghui.org) My father was born in the 1930s to a poor family. After he married, he and my mother had six children. My younger brother and I had very poor health. We tried many Western and Chinese medical treatments but nothing helped. After practicing Falun Dafa, both my brother and I became healthy.

In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. My brother and I were persecuted for remaining steadfast in our practice.

Here I would like to share some stories about my father, who went from initially supporting Falun Dafa, to being against it, to eventually practicing Falun Dafa.

“Your Family Has Two Falun Dafa Practitioners. That’s Incredible!”

I used to run a bookstall. Since my parents were from the countryside and had no stable income, I gave them the bookstall.

My father was interested in The Book of Changes, Fengshui, and fortune-telling. In the 1990s, when qigong became popular, there were all kinds of qigong books at my father’s bookstall. But the bestselling books were Falun Dafa books.

Through word of mouth about how wonderful Falun Dafa is, more and more people began to practice. My brother and I also began practicing and our health improved. My father was very happy and encouraged my mother to practice too.

Falun Dafa not only resolves people’s health issues, it uplifts their morals by guiding them to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in their daily lives. Dafa truly improves people’s morality. Jealous of Falun Dafa’s popularity former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched the brutal persecution of the practice.

Partially believing the CCP’s lies and partially afraid, my father tried to stop me and my brother from practicing Falun Dafa. He searched my shop and my brother’s home, tearing up every Falun Dafa book he could find. He beat me and my brother. He even cooperated with local police to monitor us.

Yet in his heart, my father knew Falun Dafa had improved my and my brother’s health. We also became compassionate people. We were nothing like what the CCP described in the media. He was confused.

One day when he was having tea with friends, one friend told him, “Your family has two Falun Dafa practitioners. That’s incredible!”

Hearing the praise, my father felt gratified.

Years later, he talked about the incident. “At the time I had read many Falun Dafa books. I thought the books were excellent. The CCP’s political movements are ridiculous!”

The Power of Compassion

Like countless Falun Dafa practitioners, my brother suffered brutal persecution because he refused to give up his practice. During his detention, police instructed prisoners to beat him causing a dent in his head. He was forced to wear thin clothes in the bitterly cold winter and sit on a concrete floor under the strong summer sun. He was deprived of sleep. As a result of being tortured in prison, my brother’s weight dropped to less than 50 kg! He regained his health by practicing Dafa after he was released. While in prison, my brother treated people around him with a practitioner’s compassion. Many prisoners were touched by his kindness.

During the first few years of my brother’s prison sentence, my father refused to visit him. He believed the CCP’s lies and even wrote letters insulting my brother, claiming he was “educating” him.

Things changed after a customer who visited my father’s bookstall said he was just released from the prison my brother was held in. “You have a good son! He is a great person!” The former prisoner told my father how my brother was tortured in prison.

My father became angry. He realized he was lied to by the CCP. He regretted that he did not visit his son sooner and did not know how he suffered in prison.

My father immediately traveled a few hundred miles to the prison where my brother was incarcerated. He asked to see him. But his request was rejected.

In the hot summer, my elderly 80-year-old parents went to the prison again, but they were not allowed to see their son.

One day, my father arrived at the prison at noon and was denied visiting my brother again. He was desperate. He saw a man being forced to sit with both legs crossed under the baking sun. The man looked very weak and could hardly sit.

My father thought: the prison guards are torturing a Dafa practitioner, how cruel! He called the prison office and complained that the guards were torturing prisoners. His complaint was ignored. Upon returning home, my father immediately wrote several letters to prison officials, complaining of the torture.

When my father received a phone call from the prison administration office, he lashed out his anger on the phone: “You devils! How did you treat my son? My son is a good person. He did not do anything wrong!” My father yelled for more than 30 minutes and listed many details of the torture my brother suffered. The officer on the other end of the phone just quietly listened.

After that, the prison administration officers softened their attitude. Finally, my parents were allowed to see my brother. After meeting my brother, my father told the prison guards: “Think about your future and leave a way out for yourself! People practice Falun Dafa all over the world. One day these injustices will be corrected!” The guards were very quiet.

Afterward, whenever my father saw Falun Dafa practitioners, he warmly greeted them and invited them to sit at his bookstall and chat with them. His change of attitude towards Dafa brought positive changes to his business. My father’s bookstall business started to pick up. One year he earned more than 80,000 yuan.

When my brother was released from prison my father said, “My son is a good person. He suffered so much. I will treat him and buy him brand-name clothes!”

A local policeman came to my father’s bookstall and said that my brother did not register at the police station. He warned my father that his son would be punished for that. My father said, “My son is a law-abiding citizen. His personal and civil rights should not be violated. You persecuted him! What you did is illegal!”

My father’s loud voice attracted two bystanders. They told the police to leave: “If you harm this elderly man, his children will not let you go!” The police left and never bothered my father again.

“My family has Dafa!” My father told other people. “My children do not have bad habits. They do not smoke or gamble. They are sensible and filial. I am blessed!”

Spreading Dafa’s Blessings

My father developed high blood pressure and was sent to the hospital. He was often dizzy. Medications did not help.

My brother suggested my father read Dafa books. After my father read Zhuan Falun and several other Dafa books, he knelt down in front of Master’s portrait and wept. He asked Master to forgive him as he tore up some Dafa books and said disrespectful words years ago.

The next day, my father’s condition improved and he no longer felt dizzy. Since then, he began to practice Falun Dafa. He was often moved to tears when reading Master’s new lectures: “What Master said is so good!”

An uncle of mine was 90 years old and had bad health. My father invited my uncle and aunt to his home and tried to tell them about Falun Dafa. In the beginning, my uncle turned his head away because he still believed the CCP’s lies about Dafa. My father then played recordings of Master’s lectures for them. After listening to the lectures for two days, my uncle and aunt understood Falun Dafa is a high-level Buddha Fa. They began to practice Falun Dafa as well.

After practicing Dafa, my father considered others even more. Once, he and my mother took a pedicab to visit me. The driver wanted to give him a senior discount but he refused. He explained, “We practice Falun Dafa. We do not get sick and have enough money for our living expenses. Pedicab drivers work hard and deserve their pay.”

After he began practicing Falun Dafa, my father stopped drawing symbols and doing fortune-telling. Several years ago, a real estate businessman had good fortune after consulting my father. He wanted to expand his business and came to see my father again to have a look at his future prospects. My father talked about his experiences after he began practicing Falun Dafa. He gave the businessman a card that had information about Falun Dafa. Instead of drawing a symbol for the man to post, he wrote “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” on a red poster and told the man to put it on his wall.

“This has real power,” my father told him. “This is the best. If you believe Falun Dafa is good, Dafa’s Master will bless you!”

My father said, “No matter how my fortune-telling works, Falun Dafa’s blessings is the best. That is the real hope for the future.”