I Finally Became a Falun Dafa Practitioner in My Old Age

(Minghui.org) I am 87 years old and I was lucky to begin practicing Falun Dafa in late 2023. My eyesight was so bad in the past that I had to wear glasses to read. My hearing was also not good. People had to shout for me to hear them. I also drank alcohol three to four times a day and watched television half the night every night. But after practicing Falun Dafa, Master helped me cleanse my body and eliminate my addictions to smoking, alcohol, television, and my mobile phone. My hearing and eyesight also improved. I study and cultivate in the Fa every day, immersing myself in the vast benevolence of Dafa.

Doing All I Can to Support My Family in Their Cultivation

Three of my children practice Falun Dafa. Before I was a practitioner, I did all I could to support them in their cultivation. After the persecution began in 1999, my daughters were persecuted, arrested, detained, sent to labor camps, and sentenced to prison many times by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

My daughter’s son was still very young when she was arrested and detained. The police brought him to his paternal grandma’s house but nobody there cared for him, so they pushed him out into the street and he became homeless. When I heard about that, I quickly went to fetch him. My wife and I started fostering and looking after him, dropping him off and picking him up from school and watching him do his homework. I withstood pressure from all directions and took him to different government departments to request the release of my daughter. We also went to detention centers and labor camps to give my daughter clothing and money, and I helped keep the Dafa books, materials, and printing equipment from my daughter’s house safe. My daughter was persecuted until she could not take care of herself, and I brought her home to recuperate, then helped her find a job with benefits so that she could regain her health and have a good cultivation environment.

Because of the persecution, my daughter lost her job, and she was forced to divorce her husband. She then stayed in a simple house and led a simple life. She was busy producing materials to save people, and her finances were tight. I thus often bought her vegetables, food, and heating materials. I helped her do repairs on her house and look after her son. Her house was only about 30 square meters (323 square feet) and it was very crowded with furniture, daily necessities, consumables, and machines. To help her produce materials more easily, I gave her money to help buy a house of 80 square meters (861 square feet) so that she could have a better place to produce truth-clarification materials to save people more efficiently.

A police officer once told me that my daughter had been arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials. I rushed to the police department to ask for her release. However, they threatened me and forced me to go to her house so they could search it, to see if there were any Falun Gong materials. When we reached her door, I said that I had no keys and insisted on not letting them enter by force. They were not able to enter the house to ransack the place. The police officers agreed to release her and I took a cab to the detention center to pick her up. I saw that my other daughter was also being detained at this place and my blood pressure immediately shot up. I did not know that both of my daughters had been detained, so I only managed to save one. My youngest daughter was later released after being illegally detained for over ten days. In my heart, I knew that Falun Dafa was good and that the CCP was persecuting good people.

My grandson transferred to my area when he was in his second year of elementary school. I looked after him every day, dropping him off and picking him up from school, and monitoring his studies. When he graduated from elementary school, the secondary school where he went was about a mile and a half away, and he had to cross a bridge to get there. I was worried about his safety, so I continued to drop him off and pick him up from school. I once had a car accident on the way to his school and ended up with three broken ribs.

Protected by Dafa Due to My Kind Actions

My grandson made us proud and was admitted to a university. I bought him daily necessities and accompanied him to the university by train. I paid for his books and accommodations and asked the school administrators to apply for a tuition loan for him. Almost all the other students were being dropped off by their parents--I was the only grandfather. Teachers and parents said that, at my age, someone should be taking care of me, but I accompanied my grandson to school.

At that time, although I had yet to study the Fa, I had already been blessed with good returns for protecting the Dafa materials and supporting my family members’ cultivation. I was in good health and woke up at 4 a.m. every day to farm the land, then return home at around 7 a.m. to make breakfast. After breakfast, I would ride a bicycle to the county town to open my store, then have a simple lunch, and return home in the evening. Although my house was over two miles away, and I had to cross the railroad tracks, a large bridge, and two big uphill slopes, I never took a cab. Rain or snow, I rode my bicycle there alone. Few people my age are still alive, let alone run a shop on their own. I replenish the goods and manage the store by myself. Although it is a bit tiring, business at the store is good, so I am very happy.

My wife had a stroke in 2005, and the injections and medications did not have much effect. She knew that Falun Dafa has miraculous healing powers, so she started to practice Falun Dafa with our children. Before long, she regained her health.

Fortunate to Begin Cultivation

My daughter was released from jail in 2022. She was physically weak. The yard in front of her house was full of wild grass, while her roof and walls kept peeling off. I thus asked her to come and stay with us. However, the police department, detention center, and Political and Legal Affairs Committee members harassed us from time to time, doing such things as tracking us down to "have a conversation," trying to force my daughter and wife to give up their cultivation, and taking photos of them against their will. Every time they came, it took my wife and me a few days to recover from the chaos that they created. Whenever we heard a knock on the door, we were so scared that our hearts beat faster. We were worried that they would take our daughter away. This continuous harassment caused my wife to pass away.

My wife’s demise was a great blow to me. It felt as though the sky was collapsing. For over 70 years we had gone through hardships and braved all sorts of storms together. When she was suddenly gone, I almost didn’t want to continue living. One day, my daughter said, “Why don’t you learn Dafa with me?” She then started to read Zhuan Falun to me. I listened to her read and felt that it was good, so I took the book and started reading it myself.

Zhuan Falun is really a book of treasures, and I could not stop reading it. I read it while wearing my reading classes after getting home from my store. During the day I could read with my reading glasses on, but at night I would not be able to see the words clearly. Because I was anxious to study the Fa, I closed the store in the afternoon so I could go home and spend the afternoon reading the book. I finally finished reading it and my heart brightened up. I decided to cultivate until the end.

In the past, I would turn up the volume on the television when I got home every day. If not, I couldn't hear it. I would then heat up some wine to drink, and had some with every meal. I had to drink alcohol every day and would smoke a cigarette when I had nothing to do during normal times. After studying the Fa, I got rid of my addictions to smoking and alcohol, which had lasted more than a decade. I also eliminated other bad habits, such as watching television for most of the night and shopping on my mobile phone.

When Master started helping me to cleanse my body, I kept going to the toilet. My children who do not cultivate asked me to take medications, but I told them that I was not sick, which they didn’t believe. I told them that I was learning Falun Gong and that I really had no illness. They then said that I was already so old that it would be useless to start to cultivate. They watched me and didn’t let me study the Fa or do the exercises.

But I insisted on studying the Fa. Seeing that they could not force me to do what they wanted, they tried to coax me to agree to taking medication and would not let me study the Fa. They created a fuss until late at night. This went on for over ten days. Seeing that I was determined to learn Dafa, they stopped trying to control me. I knew that Master had helped me to disintegrate the evil elements that were stopping me from cultivating.

After studying the Fa, my body and mind changed. Master encouraged me and opened my celestial eye. I am now able to see solemn and sacred images, such as Master’s Law body and the spinning Falun. My eyesight and hearing have both recovered. I study the Fa and am immersed in Dafa’s boundless grace every day.

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate salvation!