(Minghui.org) Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Minghui website has published many instances of people in China glad to hear the phrases “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and being willing to withdraw from the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) and its affiliated organizations. In some cases, some people who had refused to listen to or believe the facts about Falun Gong before, and who had refused to quit the CCP, have withdrawn from the CCP this time around. I’d like to share an instance about my father, who has been a member of the CCP for more than 50 years, and how he recently wanted to quit the CCP.

My father served as a division-level commander and also a Party secretary in the army before he retired. He watches the CCP’s news broadcasts and reads the CCP mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, every day. He would get angry if anyone criticized the CCP at home.

Brainwashing personnel in police departments, the procuratorate, the judiciary, courts and army have been the CCP’s top priorities during its campaign to defame Falun Dafa since July 1999. These people were made to watch and listen to rumors and defamation about Falun Dafa repeatedly. They passively and numbly accepted the brainwashing. 

I remember that at the beginning of the persecution, my father said things to me like, “Go ahead, jump off a building and commit suicide. Did you get your small tape recorder from Falun Dafa’s foreign forces?” (It was actually given to me by my workplace as a benefit.) He also called my brothers and sisters, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law together, and held a “family struggle session” against me. I still remember that he called practitioners’ contacting each other “connecting to conspire.” I responded, “You and your friends and relatives chatting with each other is called a gathering, so why in our case does it become conspiring?” In my heart I asked Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) to give me wisdom before that family meeting, so I answered them very wisely. My father asked a few more questions, which I answered rationally. He was speechless. The “family struggle session” ended hastily.

I have been clarifying the truth and persuading people to withdraw from the CCP since the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. I once tried to persuade my father’s former subordinate to quit the CCP. He didn’t quit and told my father about it. When my father asked me about it later, I didn’t even dare to admit it. For all these years, I haven’t dared to talk to my father about quitting the CCP. 

My father and other family members did not put more pressure on me in the early years of the persecution because I was not harassed by the neighborhood committee or subjected to any other types of persecution. My father even helped me occasionally. I once invited some practitioners to come over and share cultivation experiences. I asked my father if I could borrow the key to his other apartment. He gave it to me and let me and other practitioners use it for sharing.

I lost my well-paid job in 2006 because I refused to write a statement to renounce Falun Dafa. My family and I were intimidated and threatened by State Security agents in 2010, which caused great fear and pain to my father in particular.

I often called my parents after I went overseas again. My mother usually answered the phone and my father seldom did. When he did, we only had brief chats. I wrote letters to him three times, and the replies I received were basically him saying how powerful China is thanks to the leadership of the CCP, and so on.

In recent years, when I talked to my father over phone, I took the initiative to talk about my life overseas and my children, to reassure him, because I have not returned to China for almost 10 years, and I know that he cares about me a lot.

I called my mother 20 days ago, just to say hello as usual. I asked her to recite “Falun Dafa is good.” I then asked my mother to tell my father these words and ask him to recite them too. “I won’t tell him,” my mother replied, “I'm afraid he will scold me.” 

My father took the phone this time and his tone was calm. We chatted a bit. I reminded him to take care, because the epidemic is dire. He said, “The divine, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas bless me and God bless me.” I followed his words and said, “You ask Bodhisattvas and God for protection, but they are all divine. You joined the atheists, so how can the divine protect you? You have to withdraw from the atheists, so the divine can protect you. You don’t need to go to your workplace to withdraw, so it won't affect anything. You only need to withdraw in your heart so that God will know it. If you want to get protection from God, just use a pseudonym to quit the atheist organization.” I then said, “Isn’t there a saying in China, ‘As a thought develops in a heart, both heaven and the earth know it.’ Gods and Buddhas know everything; they just look at people’s hearts!”

My father laughed, and I went on to say, “Let me give you a good name, Fushou, which means happiness and longevity. Use this name to withdraw from the CCP.” He replied, “Good! good!” I then asked him to recite “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and I told him that if he recites these words sincerely, he would witness miracles. I gave him the example of my grandma receiving blessings by reciting these words.

My grandma is already 98 years old and her longevity has set a record in our family. She is physically strong, healthy, and thinks quickly. I said, “You know that my grandma believes these words the most. I remember that about 17 or 18 years ago (when she was nearly 80 years old), when my grandma was living with us, she once went out for a walk by herself. But she came back inside after about two minutes. We asked her what happened. It turned out that when she went down to the first floor, she missed a step and fell, so she came back. Grandma took off her socks. My younger sister and I saw that her ankle was sprained and the top of her foot was bruised. My sister and I asked, ‘Does it hurt? Are you okay?’ Grandma said, ‘It doesn’t hurt. I was only thinking about reciting those two sentences when I fell.’”

My father laughed again when he heard this. He said, “Your grandma asked me to tell your mother to recite these words too!”

Speaking of my long-lived grandma, I haven’t seen her for many years (because I practice Falun Dafa, I can’t go back to China for the time being). She has many more examples where she was rewarded with blessings because of her sincere belief that Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good. I learned about those things when I talked to my aunt, my mother’s younger sister, over the phone. My aunt and my grandma live in the same town. Sometimes my aunt visits my grandma and sometimes they also go out together. Seeing how strong and healthy my grandma is, my aunt would compliment her, “You are in such a good health!” My grandma would then tell her, “I just recite the two sentences. I fell down a few times, and just by reciting those two sentences, I remained totally fine and had no problem.”

It was a bit beyond my expectations that my father agreed to withdraw from the CCP. But after I thought about it, it seemed to be a matter of course. Over the years, although I seldom mentioned it, my father witnessed that my mother-in-law had benefited from practicing Falun Dafa, and my mother-in-law talked to him about that too. I became kinder and more filial after I began to practice Falun Dafa, which he recognizes and praises. I wrote him three letters, where I clarified the truth a lot, and I've talked about my grandma benefiting from sincerely reciting “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I think my father’s heart was indeed touched and he was influenced subtly.

Facing COVID-19, my father made the most sensible decision in his life: he quit the CCP!