My Family Changed When I Let Go of Sentimentality

(Minghui.org) In 1996, I’d been seeking help with my illnesses but couldn’t find a cure. I began to practice Falun Dafa but I just did the exercises and didn’t study the teachings to upgrade my xinxing. I read Zhuan Falun once and wasn’t properly cultivating but my health still improved a lot.

My wife and son also learned Falun Dafa. My wife takes things seriously so she started reading Zhuan Falun. Because of my poor enlightenment quality and busy work life, I only did the exercises and rarely studied the Fa. Over the past 25 years, I’ve finally matured from someone who just did the exercises to a cultivator under the protection and guidance of Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa.

I’d like to share a recent experience. I am the only college graduate from my side of the family and my wife also had an advanced degree. We helped our parents and families on both sides a lot financially and took good care of them. The families respected us and Falun Dafa.

When the Chinese people started quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) en masse, I drove hundreds of miles back to my hometown and told my whole family about it. All of them quit the CCP and its youth organizations.

My wife passed away suddenly at the beginning of 2020. Her death left the family with negative thoughts about Dafa and our practice. They were afraid the same thing might happen to my son and me. They used various ways to persuade us to give up our beliefs, and warned us to seek early treatment when feeling “sick.” 

My second brother used to be a soldier and is now a government official. He spoke very harshly to me sometimes and often lectured me over the phone. He wanted to talk about my practice and what happened to my wife so we agreed to meet.

A few days later, he came to my home in the evening. We had a long conversation and he’d obviously been doing his research. He talked a lot about his knowledge of Buddhism and Taoism.

I held my righteous thoughts, remained peaceful and calm. I explained what Falun Dafa is and that a Dafa practitioner conducts himself according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, with the aim of becoming an extraordinarily good person. I also contributed my views on things where his understanding was vague.

He was surprised to find I knew so much. He had read a lot before he came so that he could give me a lecture. He asked me if I’d read the things that he had read. I said, “I read some before I practiced Dafa but just like you, I didn’t understand them. But if I read them now I would feel like a college student reading kids’ books, because what I cultivate in is the law of the universe.”

We chatted for a long time. He seemed to understand me a lot better. But he still wondered why practitioners don’t need medicine or to go to the hospital. I said, “Since you have read Shakyamuni’s things, you should understand the karma that he talked about.” He hadn’t understood about karma so I recommended he read Zhuan Falun when he had time.

Finally, he said, “You don’t seem to be a person who would take a wrong turn, and I am relieved. From now on, we won’t poke our noses into your business, and you shouldn’t tell us about it either. Let’s live our own lives.” 

I laughed, and said, “I still have to say what I should say. It is your choice whether to listen or not.” I gave him a USB drive with Dafa information on it before he left. He accepted it, which he had never done before.

One month later, my eldest brother called and invited me to go for the memorial service as it was the third anniversary of our father’s death.

After the ceremony, the custom was to kowtow to our father. I said, “I will bow instead.” My brother said, “Then lets all bow to the old man together!”

It was almost noon so we decided to have a meal together. My second brother took me aside and said, “Now I know, you would have been a monk in a temple if it was before.”

I realized he had watched the videos on the USB drive. I said, “In fact, Dafa practitioners are cultivators. It’s just that we are lucky to cultivate in the Dafa of the universe, and we can cultivate without becoming a monk.” 

He said, “I understand, you are not ordinary people. Your Dafa Master taught you about the issue of illnesses. Your wife did not cultivate well enough and died early.” 

I told him my own understanding of the principle of: “The master takes you through the entrance, and cultivation is up to you, yourself.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)

He nodded and agreed.

At the meal, my second brother said, “Let me say something first. We used to misunderstand our youngest brother because of what happened to his wife. Now, I understand that he is not an ordinary person. Our ancestors have accumulated virtue to have him born in our family. What he said to us was for our own good, but we didn’t understand it. From now on, I will translate for you if you don’t understand him.”

I almost cried after I heard what my second brother said. I used to tell my family members about Falun Gong and the persecution with the tone that I was doing it for their own good. The result was not positive. My second brother changed so much when I got rid of my emotions towards him and treated him as another being to be saved. Just as Master said:

“The greatest manifestation of shan is compassion, and it is an expression of tremendous energy. It can disintegrate all that is not right.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference” from Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)

My experience is a reminder to us cultivators: to clarify the truth requires compassion, wisdom, righteous thoughts and letting go of emotional attachments.