Encouraging Former Practitioners to Resume Practicing

(Minghui.org) After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Dafa in 1999, I continued to practice despite pressure from my employer and my family. Although I did my best to expose the persecution, I did not understand what it meant to cultivate. I was arrested and persecuted in 2005 and gave up practicing for nearly five years.

Those five years were miserable. Deep down I couldn’t let go of Dafa. I always felt I would resume practicing one day.

It took me five years of painfully struggling with the interference from various human thoughts to return to Dafa. I am grateful for Master’s compassion and the help of my fellow practitioners. I am again on the path of assisting Master in Fa-rectification.

Having firsthand experience of falling behind, being depressed, and eventually returning to Dafa, I wondered if other practitioners who’d stopped practicing were having the same experiences. I knew Master would not give up on them, and I told myself I should extend them a helping hand.

In 2018, I met a distant aunt in my hometown. She had practiced Falun Dafa years ago but was persecuted for it. The village authorities sent people to her home to watch her and coerce her to renounce Falun Dafa. She refused to cooperate, but her son signed a statement on her behalf behind her back. Due to the intense pressure, she stopped practicing.

She later developed a serious knee condition and had difficulty getting around. She was only in her early 50s but couldn’t do even simple household chores. She sought treatment everywhere and was a financial burden on her son. When I found her, she was in pain.

I persuaded her to resume practicing Falun Dafa. She wanted to but was worried that Master would not accept her. I told her Master would be happy if she returned to Dafa and told her about the progress of Fa-rectification. I told her we need to save people by helping them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. She accepted everything I said.

She still had all her Falun Dafa books. I gave her Master’s recent lectures and taught her the exercises. She began to read the Fa and do the exercises every day. After a while, her legs got better and she was able to clean the house. Witnessing her changes and Dafa’s miracles, her husband began practicing.

Our great benevolent Master encouraged her and her husband: One day, they found a cluster of more than 30 udumbara flowers blooming on their clothesline.

I had a colleague who worked in the government. She began to practice Dafa in her early 30s. When former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Dafa in 1999, she had only been practicing for a few months. She went to Beijing alone to speak up for Dafa. When she came back, she was subjected to intense pressure from her family and workplace.

She believed in Master and the Fa, persisted in her cultivation, and refused to give in. However, isolated from fellow practitioners, she slowly let up in her cultivation and gradually felt it was enough to just be a good person.

I phoned her over the years. Whenever I offered to see her, she usually declined with a polite excuse. When we finally did get together, I mentioned cultivation, but she made a few casual remarks and glossed it over. I was under the impression that she knew Falun Dafa was good, but she didn’t want to resume practicing.

After she retired last year, we met again. She told me she’d run into another practitioner and they’d talked about cultivation. I understood Master was paving the way for her to return to Dafa.

We talked a long time the next time we met. She said she suffered a lot of hardships at home over the years, mainly because she was too attached to her family, and she was exhausted.

Even though she’d stopped practicing, Falun Dafa was rooted in her heart. “I think of Dafa and the two phrases [‘Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.’] at crucial moments. I made it through these years because of Falun Dafa and those special phrases,” she said emotionally.

She did not practice the exercises or read the Fa, but she carried a Dafa book with her. She said she wanted to come back to cultivation. I found a full set of Master’s lectures and gave them to her, and she read them eagerly.

She understood a lot of Fa principles. She began to tell people about Falun Dafa and the persecution, and helped them quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Her xinxing continued to improve. She now does the exercises every morning. Her husband began to read the Falun Dafa books.

Lao Ding (pseudonym), 89, began practicing in 1996. He was steadfast and went to Beijing to speak up for Falun Dafa. He was doing well in many respects, but he could not tolerate criticism.

Lao Ding moved away 10 years ago and no longer read the Fa with other practitioners. I visited him occasionally and learned that he only talked to one practitioner. But after they had a conflict, that practitioner stopped visiting him. Lao Ding didn’t look for other practitioners and didn’t read Minghui Weekly because he did not know how to get on the Internet. He closed himself off.

I dropped by his place one day and found him reading the Bible. He said it was a gift. He was just browsing through it and wasn’t serious. He said it would not interfere with his Fa study. I was surprised and “lectured” him, relying on the fact that we knew each other very well. He realized it was not in accordance with Practicing Only One Cultivation Way and said he would give the Bible away.

Another practitioner told me that Lao Ding no longer conducted himself according to the Fa and refused to listen if anyone criticized him. He said he had given up on Lao Ding. I was concerned.

I thought, “Lao Ding followed Master for so many years through thick and thin. Even though he has not conducted himself according to the Fa for a while, he is still a practitioner. Master treasures all life, and cherishes Dafa practitioners even more. I should help him because he is temporarily confused.”

Another practitioner and I visited Lao Ding and we read the Fa together. After we talked, he saw his shortcomings and wanted to correct himself in the Fa.

I regularly brought him Minghui Weekly, and he was able to keep up with the Fa-rectification progress. He is very healthy and looks like he’s in his 70s. He learned to look inside when conflicts arose and eliminate his attachments. He got along with his family. Due to Lao Ding’s upright behavior, one family member saw that Falun Dafa was good and began to practice.

When Master’s new article “How Humankind Came To Be” was published, I gave Lao Ding a copy. He immediately realized that the Fa rectifying the human world is drawing near. He felt a sense of urgency and started to do more to tell people about Falun Dafa and the persecution and help them quit the CCP. He said he wanted to follow Master and will cultivate diligently.