Obsession With a Smart Phone App Leads to a Painful Lesson

(Minghui.org) I was shocked when I heard that Dongmei was in the ICU due to a brain hemorrhage.

We both practice Falun Dafa, and I knew her for years. Dongmei suffered from several incurable health problems, but after she began practicing Falun Dafa, they all disappeared. She was able to do the housework and help in the fields during the busy farming season. She also took care of her mother-in-law who was in her 90s. Her husband and her son were happy and content.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Dafa in July 1999, Dongmei was harassed, interrogated, and detained for upholding her faith. She always faced the authorities fearlessly, and never wavered in her belief.

When I heard she was in ICU, my first thought was that the old forces were persecuting her by exploiting loopholes in her cultivation. What kind of loopholes, I didn’t know, but I recently sensed something unusual about her.

I live near Dongmei. After I was illegally detained for refusing to renounce Falun Dafa, she often came to share her experiences with me. But her visits became less frequent and the intervals between them grew longer. After I watched the movie Once We Were Divine, I was so moved that I asked her to watch it with me. But she didn’t respond until the beginning of the new year.

I was puzzled by her response—it was completely different from what I expected. When I asked her about the delay, she said she was busy with household chores. I knew it was an excuse, but I didn’t press her. Nonetheless, I began to worry about her.

When I heard she was discharged from the hospital six weeks later, I visited her. Her son had to help her sit, wipe her hands and face with a towel, and feed her breakfast. He said she was transferred from the city hospital to the provincial hospital and had to have emergency treatment for more than 40 days. She unable to take care of herself.

She looked pale, couldn’t speak clearly, and seemed depressed. Her son was cold and rude to me. Although he witnessed how Dongmei regained her health by practicing Falun Dafa, he was opposed to her practicing after the persecution began in1999. I understood his fear of the CCP and was careful about what I said.

Hooked on a Phone App

When her son stepped out, Dongmei briefly told me what happened. She said, “I was wrong. For over a year, I was hooked on the Kwai App on my smartphone. I became obsessed with online shopping, constantly searching for cheaper items. I didn’t study the Fa, do the exercises, or send forth righteous thoughts.

“One day while I was cutting cabbages, I dropped one and bent down to pick it up. I lost feeling in the left side of my body and I collapsed. Fortunately, my husband came home and called the ambulance. I was rushed to the hospital just in time. Twenty-five days later I was transferred to the provincial hospital for two weeks. I know that my condition reflects my cultivation, but I don’t know what to do.”

I asked, “Didn’t you get any enlightenment from Master during this time?” She said, “How could I not! Whenever I looked at my phone for a long time, my heart beat so fast that it felt as if it was going to jump out of my chest. I realized that I was wrong and put the phone down. After a while, the symptoms lessened. But then the voice of the Kwai anchor would echo in my mind, and I’d think about the ads for cheaper products. I couldn’t resist picking up my phone again. I felt like a drug addict.”

Before I could share with her my understanding based on the Fa, her husband came back. Although he, like her son, didn’t support her practicing Falun Dafa due to the fear of the CCP, he still respects me and often said I was a good person. Because he was understanding of Falun Dafa, I decided to share my experience as a story.

“One day while I was in detention, I suddenly suffered a severe heart attack along with multiple complications, leading to shock. I was taken to the hospital and was in the ICU for six days. Despite their efforts, there was no improvement, and the doctors issued two critical condition notices to my family.

“Seeing that my life was in grave danger, the detention center, eager to avoid being held responsible, hastily arranged for my release on bail while I was still in the hospital. They quickly handed me, critically ill as I was, over to my family.

“As a Falun Dafa practitioner, however, I believed that I wasn’t truly sick. Back home, I studied the Fa and did the exercises diligently. Without any medical intervention, the symptoms lessened day by day and disappeared in ten days.”

Before I could finish, her son impatiently interrupted me. I suggested that her current environment at home might not be conductive to her recovery and proposed that she consider staying with her mother, who had also practiced Falun Dafa before 1999. Her mother, though in her 90s, was healthy and willing to care for her daughter. Surrounded by fellow practitioners, Dongmei’s righteous thoughts might be strengthened, helping her through this difficult time.

The Situation Changes

Dongmei agreed and went to stay with her mother. However, things didn’t go as expected. Every time I visited her, either her son or her brother was around. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her alone until the fourth visit, thanks to Master’s help and her mother’s cooperation. We read Master’s recent articles. Dongmei realized the seriousness of cultivation and saw her cultivation issues. She realized the old forces exploited her loopholes to persecute her.

I shared my personal insights: “The torment was arranged by the old forces that exploit loopholes to attack the physical bodies of practitioners. We must deny their arrangements and see through the illusions. How? Master told us that we can break through it by studying the Fa, looking inward, digging out deeply buried attachments, and eliminating them. When we improve ourselves, we can turn bad things into good ones, break the old forces’ arrangements, and confirm the miraculous and supernatural nature of Dafa.

“Anything that we experience in cultivation is good, regardless of whether it appears to be good or bad. For example, if we are led astray by our obsession and, say, are addicted to a smart phone app, we should take it as a wake-up call and stop the behavior completely. Once we do, we can return to the right path. When your physical self is not doing well, it can be an opportunity to let go the habit of constantly looking after your family and everything else all the time and instead spend more time studying the Fa, doing the exercises, sending righteous thoughts, and saving more people.”

I encouraged Dongmei not to give up. I told her that I wanted her to write down what she experienced and submit it to Minghui to remind more fellow practitioners to avoid similar mistakes. She agreed.

In conclusion, I would like to share Master’s teaching from A Wake-Up Call:

“You have made it through scores of difficulties on your journey, and shouldn’t be tripping and falling at the end. Even though from time to time there are people doing foolish things, the title of “Dafa Disciple” is something even divinities admire and wish they could have.”