(Minghui.org) My mother began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996 when I was two years old. For many years, my father was an alcoholic. Whenever he got drunk, he would beat my mother, and sometimes me as well. I was very afraid of him. Back then, our understanding of the teachings was limited, and we did not know how to overcome this bad situation.
My mother was illegally sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp in 2001, for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa. My paternal grandmother, who was also a Dafa practitioner, took care of me. Out of fear of persecution, many of our relatives were strongly against my grandmother practicing Dafa. She stopped practicing due to this pressure. I myself became very rebellious during that time.
After my mother returned home, I resumed practicing Dafa. My grandmother also returned to Dafa practice, after Master gave her a hint in a dream (in the dream, she was lost and could not find her home). Every morning, I did the exercises with her, and every evening, we would read Dafa books.
One day at school, I suddenly felt a warm current descend from the top of my head and wash all over my body. I was very excited and when I got home, I told my mother and grandmother: “Master purified my body.”
One night, I dreamed that I was in an orchard where the trees were full of basketball-sized sweet melons. I knew Master was encouraging me. My mother came to understand that certain family hardship and tribulation were forced upon us by the old forces.
Master said:
“Whenever a tribulation comes, you do not see it with the side of your original nature but view it completely with your human side. Evil demons then capitalize on this point and inflict endless interference and damage, leaving students in long-term tribulations. ” (“Expounding on the Fa,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
“When a tribulation arrives, if you, a disciple, can truly maintain an unshakable calm or be determined to meet different requirements at different levels, this should be sufficient for you to pass the test. If it continues endlessly and if there do not exist other problems in your xinxing or conduct, it must be that the evil demons are capitalizing on the weak spots caused by your lack of control. After all, a cultivator is not an ordinary human. So why doesn’t the side of you that is your original nature rectify the Fa?” (“Expounding on the Fa,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
So my mother started to send righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil that was behind my father's behavior. Soon, he stopped drinking as much. We witnessed what Master had told us: “If thoughts are righteous, evil will collapse” (“What’s to Fear?” Hong Ying, Vol. II)
We also realized that our assumption that whenever my father got drunk he would become violent, was incorrect. We decided to thoroughly deny the old force's arrangement. My mother and I no longer felt disgusted when my father was drunk. We treated him nicely and tried to talk to him. Gradually my father became non-violent on the rare occasions that he became drunk.
Over time, our family became harmonious. Although my father is not a Dafa practitioner yet, he knows Falun Dafa is good and supports us. He even tried the sitting meditation and could sit for thirty minutes in the full lotus position!
Dafa Gives Me Wisdom
I was not a top student. In the first year of my high school, I did not qualify to enter the honors class. In order to improve our test scores, the teacher added an extra hour to our already mandatory daily two-hour evening study session. I talked with my mother, and both of us agreed that Fa study is more important than staying an additional hour in school. Once we study the Fa well, everything will go smoothly. So my mother spoke with my teacher and requested that I not attend the extra evening sessions in school. This way, I had time to read Dafa books in the evening. That year, my scores improved, even without extra study and I was able to enter the honors class the next year. I knew it was Dafa that gave me the wisdom to do well in my studies!
My time in high school was marked by a very busy schedule. I usually arrived home from school around 11 p.m., however, no matter how late I returned, I would read Dafa books for at least half an hour per day. While most of my classmates were under tremendous pressure due to the sheer number of tests and amount of homework they received during high school, I was quite relaxed.
In particular, composition class used to be hard for me. I never wrote very well until one time during my senior year when I wrote an article entitled “Shen Yun, Traditional Chinese Culture” for a test. My aim was to promote the restoration of the reputation of traditional Chinese culture. As I wrote, many Dafa-related thoughts came naturally to me, so I just kept writing them down. My teacher loved the article, so much so that she gave it to my class to read and analyze.
Later, I told my mother about my experience. We understood that when our thoughts are on Dafa, Dafa will in turn give us wisdom. From then on, for every composition I tried to write something I had come to understand from Dafa. The teacher would often share my articles with the class and composition became my strongest subject.
Cultivation is not always easy. When my writings were praised I would feel good about myself. My mother would remind me that my success was given by Master.
Master said:
“Even though you are a Dafa disciple, your work in society isn't cultivation, but your cultivation will be reflected in your work in society.” (“Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”)
Study was my work. Sometimes when I did not do well, my mother did not blame me, instead, she helped me look for my shortcomings based on Dafa.
Sometimes, my mother's cultivation state would reflect on me. It is just like Master said:
“Sometimes, when kids on the mountain behave poorly, I know that their parents haven’t cultivated well.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
When she put down her human notions, my cultivation state would improve. During my high school years, there were two memorable incidents.
One summer, I became very attached to playing basketball. I often played for about five hours, which interfered with my Fa study. The old forces used it as an excuse to attack me. One day I twisted my ankle badly. I could see that a bone was dislocated. It hurt so bad that I could barely walk. Miraculously, the pain would stop whenever I did the exercises. Once, when I was sending righteous thoughts, my third eye saw a small snake twisted around my injured ankle. I continued to read the Fa, did the exercises, and sent righteous thoughts. As a result, I recovered within a week.
On another occasion, I crossed a road on my bike at night and saw a car approaching. It looked quite far away, so I assumed that I had enough time to make it across. Just when I reached the middle of the road, I realized the car was coming toward me at a very high speed. The instant the car was about to hit me, I felt myself go into another dimension. I passed the car in time by an inch. I knew it was Master who had protected me!
Finding My Path Again
After entering college, I seemed to have jumped into the big dye vat of ordinary human society. Without other practitioners around me, I read Dafa books less and less. I didn't do the three things Master asked us to do. I began to get attached to surfing the internet, listening to popular music, watching movies, and dating. My test scores worsened.
In my heart, I knew I was a Dafa practitioner. Sometimes I wanted to read Dafa books, but the accumulated thought karma tried to prevent me. Several times I was in trouble. Each time this happened, Master would tell my mother via dreams, and she would call and talk to me. Things got better for a while after that.
I stumbled through four years of college, but after graduation, I had a difficult time finding a good job. Looking back at my cultivation, I really regret that I did so poorly and wasted so much time!
My parents encouraged me to try to go to graduate school. I wanted to use this chance to correct the mistakes I made at college. With renewed motivation, I spent three months learning materials which usually took others half a year to learn.
My acceptance results for graduate school arrived, but I was not accepted to the school I wanted. It was quite depressing. I looked inward, and realized that although I often said I would follow Master's arrangement, I was still depressed by not being accepted to my preferred school. Couldn’t I cultivate while going to a different school? I discovered I was looking for the prestige that comes with attending a well-known school. “This is not how a practitioner should think,” I told myself. “I will follow Master's arrangement!”
I settled on the idea of attending another, lesser known, graduate school. A few hours later I received a call from the school I initially wanted to attend, informing me of my acceptance! People around me all felt that it was unbelievable since my scores from my undergraduate years were not particularly strong. I knew it was the power of Dafa!
Thinking back, although I had practiced Dafa during my childhood, I was simply following instructions from grown-ups. My cultivation was based on adult practitioners' guidance and supervision, so I never truly cultivated independently during that time. As a result, I did not truly understand Dafa. Thus, for some time, whenever I faced tribulations, I was lost and didn't respond appropriately.
I decided that I would cultivate with the guidance of Dafa, and not rely on other practitioners. I haven't done well the three things Master asked us to do. I haven't clarified the truth to people around me, including my friends. I have a lot of human attachments including fame, gain, and lust. Sometimes I still think like an ordinary person. However, I know that I will firmly follow Dafa, no matter what.
I have a few words for other young practitioners: “We should no longer treat ourselves as young practitioners. Master has said that many people in our age group have not been saved. This means that young practitioners have not done well enough. I hope those who like myself, almost wandered off Dafa's path, think carefully about our purpose for coming to earth. I hope we all cultivate diligently, since we do not have much time left!”
