(Minghui.org) I am a 90-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner.
Stepping Forward Amid the Persecution
When I was almost 70 in 1997, I was fortunate to read Zhuan Falun. I couldn’t help shouting, “This is a heavenly book! I must learn it!” As soon as I began to practice Falun Dafa, I felt the Falun spinning all over my body. In a dream, I saw Master wave his giant arm and clean up the obstacles on my cultivation path.
My wife also began to practice Dafa then. She witnessed the power of Dafa. For instance, she saw every word in the Dafa books shine like gold. Because she practiced Dafa, my wife recovered from her heart disease and high blood pressure.
I’d joined the army and participated in the Korean War. During the past few decades of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule, I have repeatedly witnessed the CCP’s cruel campaigns of persecution. Those horrible campaigns cast a shadow in my heart, and I was petrified during each one.
The CCP and its former leader Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999. At that time, the fabricated lies blanketed the entire country. My company knew that I practiced Dafa and asked me, someone in his 70s, to make a public statement at a Party meeting.
Having lived through every single CCP campaign that persecuted our own people, I knew the persecution of Falun Dafa would be rampant, and I felt a great deal of pressure internally. But, as someone who had benefited from Dafa, I knew many regular people were deceived by the fabricated propaganda, so I had to step forward and defend it.
At the Party meeting, I held a copy of Zhuan Falun in my hand and said, “This book has been published by the China Radio and Television Press. You can take Zhuan Falun home and read it. What’s in the book is all about teaching people to be good, how to not fight back when being hit and not to curse back when being cursed. You know, after I began to practice, I regained my health and no longer need injections or medications. What’s wrong with that?”
Sure enough, a few of them decided to take Zhuan Falun home to read. A coworker asked me to teach him the exercises. Coworkers who read Zhuan Falun told me, “There is nothing bad in that book.”
In the midst of the movement to “Quit the CCP,” I tried to awaken their conscience, and all of them decided to renounce their memberships in the CCP.
Eliminating Fear and Being Steadfast Despite Tribulations
My daughter is a steadfast practitioner. Because she distributed truth-clarification materials, she was taken to a forced labor camp in 2001. My wife and I went to the camp to see her, as was our right. But labor camp officials said we were not allowed to because we were practitioners—even though we were her parents, especially since my daughter refused to be “transformed.”
Right then, I felt fear, so I held my anger and didn’t dare to speak out. Since my wife was worried that our daughter would be tortured, she couldn’t help but sob at the entrance to the forced labor camp and shout for our daughter.
In September 2003, people from our local 610 Office opened a brainwashing center in the police school in the suburbs to persecute practitioners. My daughter refused to go, so several unidentified individuals broke into our home and carried her, resisting all the way, to the brainwashing center and tortured her. This petrified me. Based on my previous experiences, I knew how cruel the CCP could be, but I couldn’t do anything about it. My wife accused them of going too far.
Later, my daughter managed to escape from the brainwashing center with righteous thoughts. She returned home after moving from place to place for half a month. Although I was still scared, I studied the Fa and did the exercises more, and my righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger and my fear subsided. Later, when the police ordered me to sign the paperwork to guarantee that my daughter would not go to Beijing to appeal to the government, I said, “When a person reaches 18, they are independent. I can’t sign any guarantee statement on her behalf!”
In 2005, because my daughter had a few truth-clarification amulets in her backpack, she was arrested and taken to a forced labor camp. When I went there to visit her, the guards asked me to help them “transform” her. This time, I let go of my fear. I said to the police officer, “People have their own aspirations. She was fine doing her work. But you persecuted her and brought her here. She did nothing wrong.”
My wife and I went to Shenzhen City to visit our son in 2009. On the train, we ran into eight university students and had a good chat with them. They felt close to us and took good care of us. My wife and I took this opportunity to clarify the facts to them and help them quit the CCP. All of them quit the CCP and its youth organizations with their real names.
My daughter was arrested again in March 2015. At her trial on August 6, the courtroom was packed with people from the 610 Office, who were involved in the persecution of Falun Dafa, plainclothes officers from the Domestic Security Division, police officers in uniform, and the court police officers. A large van with police officers dressed in black was stationed at the entrance to the courthouse.
Facing this terrifying situation, I remembered what Master said:
“Should you have fear,it will seize upon youIf thoughts are righteous,evil will collapseThe cultivator’s mindis loaded with FaSend righteous thoughts,and rotten demons explodeGods walk the earth,validating the Fa”(“What’s to Fear?” Hong Yin II)
I said to the presiding judge in a calm and composed manner, “Falun Dafa is wonderful! Falun Dafa’s master is wonderful! Jiang Zemin is evil, since he persecutes Falun Dafa.”
In the second half of 2015, I not only mailed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin to the Supreme Procuratorate and the Supreme Court, but I also did the same on behalf of my daughter who was still detained. Soon, officers from the police station came to me to check me out. One asked if I was the one who’d written it. I told him, “Yes, it was me. I also signed it.” When they couldn’t find any evidence to charge me, they left. I often showed the return receipt the post office gave me when I mailed the complaint by courier to people I knew, as well as to the village chief and villagers in my hometown.
I went to the provincial women’s prison to visit my daughter in 2016. The guards said that, since she wasn’t “transformed,” they wouldn’t allow me to see her. I said to them, “Ask that person who won’t allow me to see her to come see me.” One guard challenged me, saying, “What if he doesn’t want to?” I didn’t back down and said loudly, “If he doesn’t come see me, I’ll go to find him.” Then they let me see my daughter. When the guard asked me why I practiced Falun Dafa, too, I replied, “Practicing restored my health and improved my morals. Plus, they don’t charge a penny to learn it.”
Beginning in the second half of 2018, by making use of taking public transit, my daughter and I clarified the facts to passengers. Because I have a healthy body from practicing Dafa, I have a glowing complexion, so I use myself to validate Dafa. I said, that despite my age, I was in good health and hadn’t taken any medications for the past 20 years. I also spoke about my constitutional right to sue Jiang Zemin, who persecuted Falun Dafa, with the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and the Supreme Court in accordance with the law. I also asked the passengers to remember and often recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Then my daughter helped them quit the CCP.
Sometimes we clarified the facts separately to different people, and everyone on the bus listened to us. Sometimes passengers who already had been told the facts helped us awaken people’s consciences, which happened quite often. Of course, we also ran into people who interfered and tried to frame us. We then sent forth righteous thoughts to dismantle the interference.
After 8 p.m., on February 12, 2019, I suddenly appeared to have a stroke: I began to vomit, my blood pressure went up to 190, my mouth was crooked, my left eyelid drooped, I felt dizzy, and the left side of my body was unresponsive. I quickly and repeatedly recited, “Falun Dafa is wonderful, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful! Greetings, Master.” The dizziness later went away, and I sat up and began to study the Fa with my daughter. She read one sentence, then I read the next. It took us over three hours to finish reading lecture one in Zhuan Falun. Then I realized my mouth was back to normal, as was everything else. Dafa is truly miraculous. I was very excited and knew it was Master who saved me.
After that, I began to look inward and found my loopholes: During the Chinese New Year, I’d slacked off in studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and sending forth righteous thoughts. I also began to watch TV like an ordinary person. I corrected myself, studied the Fa, did the exercises, and sent forth righteous thoughts every day. Consequently, the other illness karma illusions disappeared shortly after. Later, I used this experience to clarify the truth and validate Dafa to whomever I ran into.
In early 2020, with the outbreak of the CCP virus (aka coronavirus), a stay-at-home order was implemented countrywide. Nobody was allowed to go outside of our residential area. I also couldn’t go outside to awake people’s consciences, and I was very worried. One day, I saw a broadcast on NTD television: “If one recites ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful, Falun Dafa is wonderful!’ one can ensure one’s safety.” I called my relatives and said to them, “Please remember ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful! Falun Dafa is wonderful!’ and you can ensure your safety.” After I said it a few times, I asked my daughter to explain it all in detail. Thus, during the pandemic, I reached every single one of my relatives to clarify the facts.
In addition, when I ran into people I knew, from security guards and people in the community management to officers with the local police station, I told them, “If you can remember “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is wonderful, Falun Dafa is wonderful!” you can ensure your safety.” Many of them would quickly reply, “Sure!” Some also said, “Thank you!”
Saving Sentient Beings in the Countryside
Since the pandemic had not subsided, a message was published on the Minghui website to remind practitioners in China to save sentient beings. Thus, I decided to go to my hometown to clarify the facts and save sentient beings. I also planned to stay for a longer period of time to save more people.
This year, after the dragon boat festival, my son took my daughter and me to our hometown in the countryside. The house in my hometown was built by my nephew (my oldest brother’s son) and second brother. Since my second brother didn’t have a son, I gave my son to him and he became his stepson. But my second brother has never sponsored his stepson, so he said to leave a room on the second floor for the stepson.
Later my nephew built a new house. Without my consent, he sold the first house. When I asked him about it, his wife said that, if I wanted the house, I could buy it back. I didn’t feel upset, but rather remembered what Master said,
“Those who are attached to money seek wealth and feign their cultivation. Undermining the practice and the Fa, they waste their lifetimes instead of cultivating Buddhahood.” (“Cultivators’ Avoidances,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I spent about 50,000 yuan to buy the house back.
On August 14, 2020, when my daughter was out clarifying the facts, she ran into a plainclothes officer, who arrested her. She shouted, “Master, please help me!” Then she kept saying, “Falun Dafa is wonderful! Falun Dafa is wonderful! Bad people are arresting good people!” After she was taken to the police station, she refused to give her name but kept trying to awaken their consciences. After a while, the officers’ attitude changed for the better.
Just then, someone from our village entered the police station on business. When he saw my daughter, he greeted her, so the officers then knew where my daughter lived. Three officers drove her back to the village. As soon as they got out of the car, they ran into the village head. An officer asked him, “Did she ever talk to you about Falun Dafa?” The village head said, “Yes, a little bit.”
I was at our front door and shouted, “What are you doing here? What are your names? Show me your IDs. You are making an illegal arrest.” One officer said, “How is this illegal? We have video evidence.” I challenged him, “If it’s not an illegal arrest, why is she still in handcuffs? Don’t take my daughter away!” My daughter also tried her best to resist and said, “You are kidnapping me! Falun Dafa is wonderful!” In the end, it took all three of them to drag her back to the police vehicle.
At the police station, the three of them had my daughter sit in an office by herself while they went into another office. A few minutes later, the station’s senior went in and asked them, “Haven’t you release her yet?”
They took my daughter to an empty room and said, “We’ll let you go, but you must not say you were at our police station. We’ll return your cell phone and purse. But we’ll give these bills with Falun Gong messages on them to the bank.” My daughter said, “Please don’t. I am giving them to you to spend. It’s only about 200 yuan.” As she left the station, she said to them, “Please treat practitioners well and you will benefit. Only by knowing that Dafa is good can you have a future.”
Through this experience, my daughter and I came to understand what Master said:
“...When disciples have ample righteous thoughtsMaster has the power to turn back the tide”(“The Master-Disciple Bond,” Hong Yin II)”
At such a critical moment, we must keep strong righteous thoughts and ask for Master’s help. Master can then take charge of us and dismantle the persecution.
I’d like to mention an elderly man that I clarified the facts to long ago and helped quit the CCP. I also got him a copy of Zhuan Falun and gave it to him on his 90th birthday this January 5. He took the book from me with both hands and said, “Thank you! Please show me how to do the exercises when you have time.”
When I celebrated my 90th birthday in the village, I spent over 13,000 yuan to hold a 20-table banquet. I invited every villager, plus my relatives and friends. I didn’t accept any gifts and even donated several thousand yuan to the village to help build roads. Everyone complimented me and said I was a good person.
I did these good things not just for my own good reputation but because I’d learned from Master’s teachings:
“You are cultivators, whose conduct is [supposed to be] pure and righteous. There are so many people who think you're great just by having seen how you act. If we don't pay attention to our own behavior in our daily lives, everyday people will see our actions and, since they can't get to know you at a deep level such as by studying the Fa, they will just look at how you act. And it's possible that one sentence or one action of yours will make them unsavable or create a bad impression of Dafa. We need to think about these things.” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)
Therefore, I regard validating the beauty of Dafa in everything I do as my obligation and sacred mission.
Although I’m 90 years old, I can do all five exercises at once and sit in the lotus position for more than 100 minutes. When I read Dafa books, the line I am on is magnified and very clear, so I didn’t need reading glasses. I know that, for me to have met the most wonderful Master who imparted Dafa to me and to have read the heavenly books, I’m extremely fortunate.
I’ve also managed to let go of all my fear. Master said,
“My roots are planted in this universe, and so someone would have to be able to harm me in order to harm you, which means that they would have to have the power to harm this universe.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)
I only have to believe in Master and Dafa and leave everything to Master.
From now on, I’ll strive forward vigorously, let go of all my attachments, assist Master in rectifying the Fa, and save more sentient beings. I will walk my cultivation path with Master’s benevolent protection. I’ll be more steadfast and diligent so that this path will become wider and wider!
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Category: Journeys of Cultivation